We were riding in my car and happened to pass by a F*&K BIDEN sign.
My passenger muttered, “fucking Trumper.”
I chuckled then asked, “What makes you think that household is a Trump household?”
My Passenger replied, “That Fuck Biden sign.”
I pointed out that simply not liking Biden doesn’t mean someone is automatically pro-Trump. It could just as easily be a commentary on the job Biden has done in the past 18 months.
“Nah, Biden is so much better than Trump”, my passenger said.
I posited this, “If you remove emotion about Trump from the equation entirely and evaluate only Biden’s performance. Are you better off now, 18 months after Biden took office than you were prior to Biden taking office?”
That got my passenger thinking, but they didn’t reply.
I continued, “For example, The day Biden took office, one of my small 401Ks was worth 17K, almost double what the original investment was. Today that 401K is worth 12K. So in 18 months The Biden Administration policies have disrupted the economy sufficiently that I’ve lost almost all the gains. Even during COVID at the tail end of 2019 and through 2020 that 401K investment continued to gain in value.”
My passenger retorted, ” Well COVID hurt the entire country.”
I replied, “To be sure, COVID did have an effect. But why has that effect catalyzed in the first 18 months of The Biden Administration? Further why has the economy faltered so dramatically? Why are we looking at a recession? Why has the supply chain not recovered? Why have base fuel prices, not just gasoline, but diesel and other petroleum goods risen so dramatically? The previous Administration had one full year of COVID as has the Current Administration.”
My passenger said, “Well Trump made a mess of the government and Biden is fixing it. That is going to take time.”
I said, “Okay, then by your logic Trump somehow screwed up the government and the economy, effectively creating a house of cards waiting to fall, that Biden needed to fix?”
“Well yeah,” my passenger said.
I offered, “There are two ways to deal with a house of cards. One is to tear it down and start over, the other way is to leave it the hell alone.”
“So you’re a Trumper?” My passenger asked.
“Nope. I’m a fucking realist! If you don’t understand something, don’t fuck with it! That’s one of the more simple rules of life. If the Biden Administration didn’t understand whatever machinations Trump may or may not have put in the government, they shouldn’t have started hacking away at them. Beyond that, I’m very concerned that our country has gotten to the point that simply being critical of Biden elicits the assumption that whoever is speaking critically of The President, must automatically be a Trumper. That kind of polarized thinking is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to civil wars, or violence in the streets.”
My passenger said, “There can’t be a civil war here.”
“Oh? Why not?” I asked making a right turn.
“The military is controlled by The President. He wouldn’t allow a civil war to happen,” came my passenger’s reply.
I replied, “That, by definition, would be a civil war. Just FYI… The US military, and I don’t have exact numbers, is probably outnumbered 30 to 1, or more by able bodied, and armed, people of the United States. Some units may stand down in the face of an illegal order to fire on the very people they exist to protect. The Biden Administration giving such an order would likely cause chaos in the ranks, resulting in more units standing down as they questioned whether they were serving The Constitution, and The Republic, or a dictatorship. The practical upshot would be that their effectiveness would be further reduced. Also consider our military is very effective in a wide variety of engagements. But our military and in fact, most militaries fall short in urban / guerrilla warfare. Vietnam and Afghanistan underscore that point nicely. Generally speaking, the people of the United States would have the home turf advantage, since it is unlikely US Military units would be locals to the areas they’d be called in to quell.”
“They’d have to follow orders,” my passenger said.
“Or what? They’d be shot by their own comrades? Imprisoned? Either way their effectiveness would be reduced, and the rage of cold, hungry, broke, homeless citizens would be further inflamed at the atrocity being committed in their name. It’s a no win scenario for The Biden Administration to call out the military.”
We passed another 4 F*&K BIDEN signs in people’s yards.
“Why are there so many Trumpers in this town,” My passenger asked again.
“Because they’re not Trumpers. They’re exercising their First Amendment Right to express themselves. There are more of those signs everyday because more people disagree with the policies of President Biden. Two of the last four signs weren’t there last Thursday.”
“They should be taken down by the police. They’re disrespectful!” My passenger asserted.
“So you’re a communist?” I asked.
“NO! How could you say that?” My passenger demanded.
“Well, you just said criticisms of The Leader were disrespectful and should be confiscated. Isn’t that one of the hallmarks of Communism or Dictatorships?” I asked.
Continuing, I said, “I’ve been thinking, I may have to get one of those signs. I’m extremely displeased with President Biden’s performance too.”
We rode on in silence.
My passenger did have the courtesy to thank me for the ride as they disembarked. I don’t think they’ll be riding with me, or speaking to me, in the future. Of course, since I’m a decent human being, if they were to ask and offered to pay for gas, I’d get them where they wanted to go.
Possibly with a F*&K Biden bumper sticker affixed to my car…
I remind you, that it is not immoral to secure your oxygen mask, before helping others with theirs.
In a disaster or industrial accident, It is not immoral to save those who have a good chance of survival by providing medical resources to them, while providing pain killers, but not wasting medical resources, to those who are suffering but who will not survive.
These are admittedly stark choices. Yet we’re all familiar with them. During the COVID pandemic doctors and nurses essentially made these decisions in hospitals nationwide.
We accepted this without question.
The talking heads on our screens went so far as to say, those who did not comply with masking, vaccines, and isolation… Should be left to die.
That these “Journalists” weren’t called out on such statements and their disappointment that millions of (R) voters didn’t die is a sign of how far “Journalism” has fallen in this country.
Why, given these harsh but acceptable realities do we refuse to accept that we cannot help every single less fortunate country?
Our farming community is warning that there will likely be more food shortages in the coming months.
Yet we continue to send grain to other countries. We continue to allow people to swarm the southern border, are we condemning these poor souls to starvation?
Inflation and high fuel prices are predicted to be with us until at least 2023. It will cost more to heat our homes in the winter. It will cost more for electricity and water, year round.
Getting to, and from work, will cost more. Bus fares, taxis, or train fares, will all go up regardless of how they’re powered.
As we’ve seen, gasoline for automobiles has skyrocketed, making commuting to work more expensive, and working from home more desirable.
Median housing prices have topped $400,000 according to Consumer Affairs. This will drag rental prices up, further pricing low middle, and low income people out of decent housing.
These folks will not be able to buy a home, and as their rent increases they’ll be pushed further under water, making it hard for them to simply hold on to what they have.
Can you really work from home if you’re sharing a one bedroom apartment with 5 other people? How’s that important teleconference going to work with people coming and going in the background?
Adding millions of immigrants with varying skills, literacy, and language abilities, to the population will only increase strain on state and federal resources. Additionally, doesn’t this fuel rental scarcity and rent increases?
Would a landlord prefer to evict people already in apartments who may occasionally have trouble paying their rent on time, for a guaranteed income paid for by Government aid to house immigrants?
There is a growing scarcity of medical professionals. More skilled doctors are retiring all the time. Some cite burnout from COVID, others cite stresses imposed on them by insurance bureaucracies and lack of qualified staff.
Will newcomers to this country soon be adding to the hoards of people already waiting for care in emergency rooms? What effect does that have on already stressed medical professionals? If the burnout among medical professionals increases won’t the quality of healthcare be diminished as a result?
Will hospitals and Emergency Rooms have to add full time translators to their staff just to communicate? What will these realities, and those I can’t imagine, do to cost of medical care?
Our government’s solution to the problem is to keep taking people in, and spread them around the country. That works in the short term. But longer term, unless the inflow is stopped, all the current solution does is create desperation, ghettos, and hopelessness.
The tragedy is that many of these people have traveled thousands of miles at great personal risk, some of them taking on incredible debt to criminal organizations, only to be put right back in conditions similar to those they left.
How disheartening must it be to go through all that hardship and suffering only to end up in a place that looks exactly like where they left, their job prospects are the same or worse, everything is more expensive, and they don’t understand the culture or the language to boot.
This is why, until recently, most first world nations had very strict immigration quotas and enforced them. It wasn’t about cruelty or malice. It was the practical realization that groups of immigrants (illegal or otherwise) need time to assimilate into a new culture. Time to find productive employment, and time to move out of assisted housing to stand on their own.
That these same first world nations so vehemently criticized our nation’s attempts at curbing illegal immigration is another matter.
Now that they are being overrun themselves it would be easy to smile and tell them, “See, we told you so…” That would be counterproductive, fair, but counterproductive.
It will be interesting to see what these countries say to our nation when they start their deportation flights. At least one, maybe two EU countries are doing exactly that. They’ve seen they can’t help, and are trying to send people back to their points of origin.
A better solution would be for the United States, and these EU nations to make it known;
“DON’T COME! Your situation will be no better here. Don’t risk your lives or the lives of your family. You’ll only be deported, and what money you spent will be wasted.”
For the US, we need to complete the border wall. There are those who’ll say people find their way around and over the wall. Yep, they do. But not hundreds or thousands in a month.
The wall won’t stop the flow entirely, but it may reduce it to a manageable level. A level that allows proper hearings, proper evaluation of asylum requests, and a way for the system to work as it’s intended. This would allow those who legitimately request asylum to be housed, fed, integrated into communities, and welcomed.
The time is coming when we’ll have to accept it’s time to put our own oxygen masks on, and leave the fate of others… In their own hands.
It’s not fair.
The antelope on the African savanna doesn’t think it’s fair the lion is eating him. That doesn’t stop the lion. The lion doesn’t think it’s fair that he’s been hungry for 5 days either.
Life rarely deals out equitable outcomes. The sooner we accept that, the sooner we’ll be able to make changes that will allow us to help those we can help.
This is why I’m in favor of immigration control. I think it’s cruel to allow people to believe in a dream of The United States, strive to get here and then destroy them with the reality that they’re no better off.
The Fucking Taliban! Is asking for aid, a.k.a. CASH to help with their recovery efforts.
I wish I was in a position to tell them two words via diplomatic channels.
“FUCK OFF!”
Clean up your own mess. That’s what a functioning government does. If you can’t take care of an earthquake, you don’t deserve to be in power.
For me, it’s that cut & dried. I’m sorry a thousand innocent people lost their lives, that’s where my largess ends.
We fought you terrorist assholes for 20 years. Biden left you 80 Billion in arms and equipment, (which is now showing up in black markets around the globe).
You assholes have more than enough assets to clean up the mess. That is, if you can take 10 minutes to write a check, or a month of black market profit and put it into your country, instead of your pockets.
Why should America or any other civilized nation prop up your failed government? It’s far simpler and cheaper to allow your people to see what kind of failures, and how corrupt you are.
Maybe someone will loan your people a bulldozer to shove all your body parts into a mass grave full of pig offal. Because when they figure out you’re stealing bread from their tables, they’re gonna rip you apart with their bare hands.
We have problems of our own. Our politicians, who may not be much better than the Taliban when it comes to corruption, will be looking to cover their own asses if shortages continue, or increase in the civilized world.
Tell you what Taliban… Call Venezuela see what they can do for you.
Until then, you Taliban jackasses better sleep alone. It will probably be the women you take to rape, that slit your throats.
She looks like she stepped off the set of John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars
Then there’s this one.
Not at all a flattering angle.
The general consensus among lots of Men seems to be; “Your Terms are acceptable”
Women, really need to realize, Men don’t need them to pleasure ourselves. We might prefer to have a woman in our beds. But if the pain in the ass level is too high, we’ll find alternatives.
One need only look at the sex toy industry, or even a single online catalog and you’ll find there are a multitude of very pleasurable substitutes that cost less than Dinner and Drinks on one date.
That title was provocative enough that I pulled up the video. She does justify her statement somewhat.
All that being said…
Nowhere in the constitution does it say, “Sure, hack up that baby growing inside you, then scoop the pieces out of your womb.”
Abortion is not birth control it’s fucking murder. I don’t give a runny shit how you try to sanitize it.
I’m in favor of abortion in the case of rape. No question about it. A man who rapes a woman doesn’t deserve to reproduce, ever! Further I’d say castrate the fucker, cut ‘em off sack and all, when he’s caught.
Don’t bother with a nice clean surgery center, a decent knife, and four stout men. (Two to hold his legs open, one to pin him down, and one to wield the knife! As you can tell, I don’t have any mercy for rape.) That alone would have a chilling effect on rapists across the country.
I’m in favor of abortions in the case of incest. Our species shouldn’t be weakening itself by narrowing genetic diversity. Just look at the Royals of Europe.
I’m in favor of abortions in the case of mother’s life versus continuing the pregnancy.
What I’m not in favor of is abortion just because the couple, (Yes, the Man and the Woman) were too stupid, or too lazy, to avail themselves of the myriad options available to prevent the pregnancy in the first place.
Abortion, generally speaking is not about women’s health it’s about covering up that the couple was irresponsible.
It’s about a woman taking the rights of a man too. There are some men, who want children, and who may only have one time in their lives when they can father them.
The implied message of Abortion is that men can always father children. Who cares if half a dozen of their potential offspring are murdered before they have a child?
That’s not always the case. Lower male fertility rate statistics show it clearly.
How many men find out too late that they’re functionally sterile because of pollution, hormones or chemicals, in the water, or other factors?
How many men look back on their girlfriends or fiancé’s who got abortions and wish they’d had the joy of holding their child in their arms?
I’ll grant you there may not be a huge preponderance. I’m willing to bet there are men jerking off into cups at fertility clinics for sperm counts, while their wife waits in the lounge, who wish they’d had a say when their ex-girlfriend took off to an abortion clinic.
My view will not be popular. Fine. It’s the way I see it. You don’t have to agree, just as I don’t have to agree that rampant abortion is just hunky dory, or empowering.
This SCOTUS ruling doesn’t ban abortion. All it does, is say that abortion is not enshrined in the Constitution. It kicks the issue back to the states for their legislatures to decide.
The SCOTUS is supposed to rule on the constitutionality of laws. That’s it, they’re not supposed to legislate from the bench. Congress makes the Laws.
And yes, theoretically this could reverse Gay marriage. It could also theoretically reverse rulings on inter-racial marriage.
I don’t think it will.
There’s a difference between marriage and abortion.
Marriage is about pursuing individual happiness, and living the life you choose to live, with the partner of your choice. Both parties enter into a marriage with open eyes and are presumably adults exercising their rights to live in freedom.
I hold that neither the State or Federal government has any say in the matter. Marriage is essentially a contract.
That laws and rulings had to be made to limit State and Federal interference in the lives of citizens regarding who they could marry, speaks volumes about the level of control the State and Federal governments unconstitutionally exercised.
Abortion fundamentally denies the right of an unborn child to life. This violates one of the first principals enumerated in The Declaration of Independence.
Looking at it this way, by extension, the unborn child could be protected by The Constitution. A case could be made, that the SCOTUS should stand to give voice to citizens who cannot yet speak for themselves.
The SCOTUS didn’t go that far. I think it would have make an interesting and compelling case…
If they had, then abortions in cases of rape, or incest would have to be denied too.
Reading through The Constitution, there are references to being “Born”. This implies a live birth, and could be construed to mean that an unborn child is not yet protected by The Constitution.
I could see this view too, and wouldn’t be surprised to find this was the reason SCOTUS enabled abortion in 1973. Using this line of reasoning, the woman’s rights would in fact supersede the rights of the unborn child.
This brings the whole issue to the question of, “When does life begin?”
For the founders, life began at birth. The squalling child drinking in those first deep breaths. They knew that a life was growing inside a pregnant woman. But for them the fruition of that growing life was birth.
Our technology has given us deeper insight.
If we could show The Founding Fathers images from inside the womb, if we could show them that still growing babies look human and react if they feel threatened or pain. I’m confident that they’d go back and revise The Constitution to include unborn children.
Some politicians say, “It’s just a clump of cells…” That is true at first. But once those clumps of cells differentiate into brain, heart, eyes, and take on a human appearance. It’s a human being in my book.
I’m confident that The Founding Fathers would be horrified by what the abortion industry has done.
I sure as hell am.
To all those politicians from other countries voicing their opinions about the SCOTUS decision…
The question is, how will we address the issues we’re complaining about?
It’s not enough to sit behind keyboards making nasty comments about liberals or Democrats.
In doing this we’re no better than the liberals or Democrats that do the same on Twitter.
It’s not enough to boycott this company, or that.
Are we brave enough, to not only boycott the company who’s offended, but to boycott their parent company? Are we strong enough to boycott the other companies who share board members with the company we’re boycotting?
It’s not enough to say the election was stolen, or Trump 2024 or DeSantis 2024.
Have we actually done the research to validate the assertion or political choice, or simply repeating what we’ve been told, casting votes for the person the Republican Party says to?
It’s not enough to watch conservative curated snippets of the Jan 6th hearing.
Watching curated snippets that cast the hearing in a negative light, is no different than those watching the hearing and swallowing the snippets the committee has curated and says is true.
I think for myself. I’ve looked at the available information and made choices. They weren’t always the correct choices, or even the best choices. But I own them. For better or worse, they’re mine.
I look at the time and effort spent endlessly commenting on Twitter, Gab, Truth Social, Facebook, News articles, American Thinker, Breitbart, and the myriad other conservative outlets, and I have to ask.
Is this all we’ve got?
An upvote? A snarky comment? A meme? An online argument? A ‘share’ with followers?
Really?
Obviously we all have computers. How about spending all that energy, time and resource to figure a way out of this mess?
If, as so many of you say, the ship is sinking, it’s no matter who’s right and who’s wrong. The water is rising, we’ll all drown. Whatever differences we had will be settled in silence.
Will we go the route of Melville:
“To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.”
Or will we put aside our differences, bridge the gap, and demonstrate what we’ve said we stand for.
Work!
Doing what needs to be done, because it needs doing.
Not for fame, not for riches, or clicks, or accolades. But because the survival of our country is in our best interest. Implicitly demonstrating that Capitalism is what ultimately drives societies forward to better futures.
So what if there will be those whose asses undeservedly get pulled from the water?
They, will stand as witnesses to the abject failure of marxism, socialism, or communism. Their survival and shame will haunt them all the days of their wretched lives. Because they will know they live by our largess, not by the sweat of their brow or the work of their own hand.
So Conservatives, and our more middle of the road friends…
Let’s get to work.
Put the phone down, push back from your keyboards, stop feeding the beast of the media, and self indulgent click bait.
Assess your skills and knowledge then direct it at the problems at hand.
How do we get this country’s supply chain moving?
Retired Truckers, Longshoremen, material handlers, shippers, planners? It’s time for you to take the stage.
How do we stop more and more people climbing onto a sinking lifeboat?
Retired diplomats, ambassadors, immigration professionals, Any thoughts?
What do we have to do to be energy independent?
Retired oil producers, roughnecks, drilling crews, coal miners, power plant workers, Nuclear engineers, This is your bailiwick.
How do we peacefully, yet undeniably make our voices heard in the halls of power?
Children of the ’50s, ’60s, 70’s 80’s. We were really good at making Washington listen. It’s time for us to decorate our walkers, dust off our signs, create easily remembered slogans, songs, and present clear and unified messages. It’s time to march once again.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
I know us old farts wanted to leave the issues to the young. We wanted to go fishing, put our feet up, watch the sunset, and pass peacefully from this mortal coil.
Unfortunately, our Nation, our Home isn’t done with us yet. “Once more into the breach dear friends…”
It sucks! But it is what it is.
Perhaps we can enjoy fishing and the sunset for a while after we help set things right.
As I was setting up the BBQ for Summer cookouts. I grabbed the Propane canister and gave it a good shake. It was about half full.
“Oh, I should go have this topped off,” I thought.
Then I thought about the gas in my car and thought, “I should probably fill the tank too.”
Then I thought about the price of gas and how much it was going to cost me. Almost $100, Damn! That’s a lot of cash. I decided to wait on both.
These thoughts inevitably led me down the road to petroleum and the economy in general.
I honestly can’t think of a single factor that has more control over our whole economy with more far reaching effect than petroleum cost.
We’ve all been feeling the pain at the gas pump. Many of us use gasoline on a daily basis. If we’re lucky we only fill up once a week or less. (I’m in the less category thank goodness.)
But it’s not just gasoline.
Jet Fuel is derived from Kerosene (petroleum). If the price of Jet fuels go up, then so do the prices of passenger tickets and air freight.
Kerosene is also used to heat homes in the North East. Even in the South when I was a boy, we had a 55 gallon drum in our backyard. Every fall, the Kerosene man filled the drum and if it was a cold winter he’d come back again in December or January. The big Kerosene heater in the hallway of the house was a center of activity on cold mornings. We’d have our coats draped over it for a few minutes to warm ‘em up before heading out for the day.
Diesel Fuel (petroleum) has seen prices skyrocketing in recent months too. We’re all familiar with Diesel. It fuels the 18 Wheelers that deliver almost all the goods we depend on to our shopping centers, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. If it costs more, then so do our goods.
That’s a simple equation to get your head around.
What’s easy to forget about Diesel is all the other things that it powers.
Most ships for example. Not just your fancy Cruise ship. But those big assed cargo carriers that deliver cars, and manufactured goods, from China and the rest of the world. Yes, even those big oil tankers are powered by Diesel.
Estelle Maersk on her maiden voyage. Credit Simon Burchett www.channelphotography.com
Then there’s the fishing fleet. You know, the fishermen that catch Salmon, Tuna, Crab, Lobster, and Shrimp. If their fuel prices go up, so does the cost of your Summer Seafood festival.
Most farms use Diesel to plow the fields, run irrigation pumps, harvest the crops, dry the grain, and ship it to factories to make bread.
Cattle Ranches, Chicken Farms, Dairy Farms, and all the rest are dependent on Diesel to run the heavy equipment like skip loaders, and backhoes. Some may use Diesel generators to run heaters in the Winter so food animals don’t freeze to death before they’re ready for market. Then they transport those animals to slaughter houses using Diesel trucks.
Even the railroads are dependent on Diesel. Most of the locomotives use big Diesel generators to power big electric motors that drive the locomotive, carrying goods all over the country.
Cranes, bulldozers, Cement Mixers, Dump Trucks, and all manner of construction equipment use Diesel fuel to level the ground for new housing developments, and raise girders for skyscrapers. Those same machines are used to make roads and maintain them. Snow plows, garbage trucks, school buses, and lots of city buses use Diesel fuel to provide necessary services.
Given that Diesel fuel prices have doubled in the past year it’s reasonable to expect for the cost of all these goods and services to go up as well. Or the services will be curtailed to maintain profitability and the ability to make payroll for the entities that provide them.
The practical upshot is that everything will become more expensive. From a box of Cheerios to that slice of ham in your lunch pail.
It’s not just fuel either. The ink in your ball point pen is oil based. Kiln drying of lumber will become more expensive, adding to the cost of lumber. Which in turn adds to the cost of construction.
Plastics of every type become more expensive from the plastic tub your cream cheese comes in, to the wrap the butcher puts over ground beef in the meat section.
Recycling plastic, (Only about 50% efficient,) while a good thing, has an interesting effect. With each recycle, the quality of the plastic goes down. This implies that there is a finite number of times a plastic wrapper or container can be recycled into useful life before it ends up in a trash dump.
Ultimately, new plastic wraps or containers will have to be made from petroleum, and the increased production costs will be seen by the consumer as higher prices.
Even fertilizer is petrochemical based. Making fertilizer more expensive will either translate into higher food prices or shortages. A lot of farms run on very tight budgets. An increase of 1% can mean that the fields in the north 40 don’t get planted.
President Biden has said,
“When it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,”
Well, he’s right about one thing. This is a transition. I don’t know if I’d call it incredible. I also found his choice of the words, “…the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels…” to be odd.
I’d characterize his statement as reckless domestic policy. However, America is not the world…
Thinking about the rising petroleum prices and our government’s hand in those price increases domestically, I have to ask.
What are they thinking?
If the idea is to force America off a petroleum based economy this isn’t the way to do it. First and foremost, the infrastructure isn’t ready for this miracle transition.
It’s almost as if the Administration is thinking about automobiles only, and neglecting to consider the overall impact of their energy policies.
I for one don’t buy into blaming Russia for our energy prices. On the first day in office President Biden took steps to thwart American energy independence and his administration hasn’t stopped since.
All the Biden Administration has succeeded in doing is kicking our economy in the balls, while it was trying to get up after the COVID lockdowns.
In a way, this could be characterized as a “Shadow” lockdown. I know I’m traveling less. I’m staying home because I don’t want to spend the cash on fuel.
All of my household errands are planned to minimize travel and maximize the return on driving. (In truth, this is not terribly different from my normal way of doing things.) What I have noticed is that I’ll put off making a trip to pick up something I need for a project until I’ve got to get several items in the same general location.
That, replicated across millions of households also has an effect on our economy. Couple this behavior with people tightening their belts, the unavailability of some products due to production or supply chain issues, and I start to wonder if people may be simply choosing not to purchase things. In effect making do with what they’ve already got or going without entirely.
That could have far reaching economic implications over time.
Just in housing, we know that recent reports state housing starts are down. But we know that more people are coming to this country who will need to be housed. The cost of my little house has jumped by almost $100,000 (According to Zillow estimates) in the past two years.
That kind of price increase will certainly exclude a number of home buyers from the market. Especially if the cost of living and interest rates continues to squeeze those buyers from both ends.
Rental costs are skyrocketing too. The rental cost of an apartment alone begs the question; How are thousands of people with limited skills streaming into this country going to afford a place to live? Even if the government, A.K.A the taxpayers subsidize these folks living arrangements?
Many of these folks are arriving with no jobs, few skills, and no transportation. While at the same time, this country is generally built around everyone having a vehicle.
When factoring the cost of used vehicles, increasing food prices, along with the gas prices to power them, how are these folks supposed to make it?
I can understand people wanting to come to this country because of the “Dream” of America. The harsh reality of what is happening due to poor government policies is another thing entirely.
It’s been said that midterm elections are a referendum on the current administration. If that is true then the upcoming midterms should be a bloodbath. The question is, will the administration get the message?
Will Washington D.C. understand that the unintended consequences of their actions have been far more devastating, and potentially longer lasting, than an actual attack on our country?
I suspect that the baby formula crisis is only the tip of the iceberg.
“Winter is coming,” as was said so often in Game of Thrones.
This upcoming winter may be long, cold, and deadly. I say that seriously.
Each year we hear of the elderly freezing to death because they can’t afford heating oil. We hear of people being found dead because they used a charcoal BBQ inside to heat their homes. What happens if food supplies run low, while simultaneously more people are forced to curtail their heating expenses? Will this become a starve or freeze situation?
Just how “green” is it having people going into forests cutting down trees to feed their fireplaces?
How will this country react if desperation reaches a level of “Survival, Cancels out concepts like Right and Wrong”?
The die may well have already been cast. Planting season is well underway. Decisions about how many fields to plant and with what crops have already been made. Cattle and poultry production schedules have been set based on current cost and anticipated cost to the ranchers.
All of these producers have to make profit to feed their families too.
Grain reserves may provide a buffer this winter. But by next spring, if nothing is done to address fuel costs, and with it supply chain issues, the following winter may be really hard.
How many Americans is this administration willing to lose in their incredible transition? How much destruction to the economy will this administration do, or idly stand by and watch before they take action?
Only time will tell.
I will not be surprised if soon the Mexican and Canadian Governments have to set up checkpoints to process a sudden influx of migrants trying to get into their countries.
The Canadians already have pretty strict immigration controls in place. The Mexico side of America isn’t too worried about people coming into Mexico. Since most people are trying to get into America they’ve left a lot of the worry to America’s Immigration and Border patrol.
I find myself sometimes wondering how Mexico will react if suddenly, the flow of immigrants reverses? What happens when / if people who’ve come to America decide that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be and head South for a better life lower fuel costs, lower cost of living, less regulations, and a warmer climate?
What would that look like? Would the Mexican army suddenly be patrolling their side of the border?
I’m not trying to be depressing, or depressed. These trains of thought sometimes start in my head and once started, have to run to their conclusion.
This one started with me shaking a propane canister on Memorial Day, in preparation to grill a couple of burgers.
This time next year, I might have lost the 10 pounds I’ve been wanting to lose and Memorial Day lunch might be a couple of wayward rabbits seasoned with rosemary or wild sage.
A lot can change in a year. I hope whatever change comes, it’s for the better.
