Who is afraid of ghosts? The President of the United States is. He gave a lengthy presentation
on the so-called ghost guns and said he would direct the Alcohol Tax and Firearms Division to
immediately issue new orders to essentially shut down their manufacture. Like, who cares?
Our country is being ravaged by crime and instead of putting bad guys in jail and keeping them
there, he is fooling with self-made guns. The bad guys do not build guns from kits, they steal
them or buy them from others who stole them. The liberal politics of letting bad guys and gals
out of jail encourages crime. What on earth are they thinking?
It is the same with letting people cross our Southern Border unchecked. It’s another stupid
encouragement of crime. America is the golden land for criminals. Rich targets and if you get
caught, so what, you’re out in a few hours. You go to jail in some countries and maybe you get
out alive but with a new sexual attitude. In other countries, you may lose a hand or are stoned to
death. Rape? Don’t even think about it.
De-fund the police and get rid of the requirements for bail. I wonder what the proponents of
these ideas were thinking these ideas will promote. A reduction in crime, I think not. A few
more bad guys on the street but more likely a lot more on the street. But we must reduce the
bail requirements because more black people get arrested than other races and they do not
have the money to pay bail so they have to stay in jail. Race does not matter but doing a crime
does. Yes, most criminals have less money and that is why they try to take from people who
have earned it.
Take Los Vegas with a D- for a crime which means 87% of the cities in the United States are safer,
with one crime occurring every 4 minutes. Where does it happen? Not Summerlin but just north
and west of the city? Which areas do you think they would put the most police? But if you have
to employ fewer police, you have got to remove them from somewhere and if most are already
north and west, that’s where you reduce forces. Of course, this results in longer response times
and maybe no response at the time needed.
Even if you do not live in these areas, you do not want less police where the crime is. In
Mesquite we are lucky as the crime rate is very low here but as someone once said “it comes to
small towns last, but it stills comes.” Crime is devasting our cities, yet people let criminals out
so they can work their bad magic on the rest of us.
The world is falling apart around us and our President is fooling with ghosts. He needs to step
up and step out or, get out. Inflation is killing us, 20 dollars gets you just enough gas to go 100
miles or 20 cents a mile, yet if we had $60,000 or so, we could get an electric car and use more
power and the rate goes up. What a mess? Maybe the elections of 2022 will help but the real question becomes can we survive until 2024?
Most of the modern machines that help us to be productive only work if you have low-cost, reliable energy that can reach billions of people in thousands of places. In reality, fossil fuels are the only way to get that energy where it is needed. You can not just carry a windmill in a 5-gallon gas can.
The only thing that’s even on the same playing field is Nuclear energy but it has been so demonized and attacked by the same people against fossil fuels that it is obvious that this cannot be built without strong support. Plus, if we had more nuclear energy plants, we would not have to buy oil from the bad guys. The discussion should be about solutions, not what we should not do.
The Green groups are saying climate change is the current largest threat to our planet. But the reduction and elimination of the use of fossil fuels is the biggest threat to our planet. We rely on low-cost energy for the world to be livable.
The current problems we are seeing as fertilizer and fuel prices are skyrocketing. These things cause the cost to produce food to rise and rise a lot. The eight billion people depend on low-cost food production to feed their families. Low-cost fossil fuel makes this happen. When the agriculture
industry cannot afford fuel to farm, people starve. Or you must buy oil from the bad guys and is that not the direction the Greens are pushing for. They are only interested in suppressing America’s energy resources. Is this the way you want America to go?
Mike Young has been writing opinion articles for most of his life, having been published in multiple periodicals. He is the author of numerous articles and a book on Public Speaking. A member of President Bush’s task force on infrastructure protection for water and power systems, he is presently on the Board of Trustees for Overton Power District #5 as the Secretary/Treasurer. He currently resides in Mesquite, NV.
Yes, It Is Possible To Fix This. But Don’t Hold Your Breath.
On the morning of September 2, 1715, Philippe d’Orleans prepared for an impossible task. King Louis XIV had just died the day before after a painful struggle with gangrene, leaving his five-year old great grandson to inherit the throne. Philippe had been appointed regent the week prior, meaning that he would rule France until the boy king came of age and could take the throne.
But Philippe knew the situation in France was grim.
Louis XIV’s lavish spending and penchant for endless warfare had left the kingdom completely bankrupt; the French national debt was so large that its interest payments alone exceeded the government’s annual tax revenue.
Taxes were already high, stifling economic development. Inflation was rising. Food was in short supply. Corruption was rampant. Social divisions were raging.
Most of all, people were angry. The King that had ruled over them for seven decades had ruined their lives, and there was hardly a single household in France that hadn’t lost a loved one to one of Louis XIV’s wars.
They hated him for it. Most French peasants celebrated his death, and some spat at his coffin as the funeral procession passed.
Philippe wasted no time, and he began making widespread reforms immediately.
He started with dramatic cuts in government spending, including pruning the new King’s personal budget to almost nothing. He vastly reduced the size of the French army, and he scaled back public welfare.
He also eliminated many taxes, cut the ones that remained, and greatly simplified the process of paying them.
Philippe fired thousands of government bureaucrats who were getting rich by clogging up the system, and he took steps to stamp out corruption.
He sought peace with France’s former adversaries, traded with everyone, and established new relations with rising powers (like the Russian Empire).
He reversed Louis XIV’s policies of censorship, and he advocated for national unity and tolerance.
It wasn’t just empty words; Philippe released prisoners from the Bastille who had been arrested of political crimes. And he even set a personal example by graciously smiling when he was occasionally lampooned in the press– something that would have been unthinkable only a few years before.
Philippe’s reforms were far from perfect, and there were a number of terrible ideas (like the ill-fated Mississippi Company bubble of 1720).
But overall the reforms worked. And he didn’t even need to do anything complicated. Rather, his primary strategy was to remove as much government as possible, avoid conflict, and let freedom prevail.
Sadly, though, the prosperity didn’t last. Philippe died in 1723, just a few months after the boy king was crowned Louis XV.
At first the new ministers kept up Philippe’s policies. But in time, France returned to the old ways of corruption, intolerance, persecution, and war… all of which ultimately resulted in a bloody revolution in 1789.
Philippe’s story does show, however, that it’s possible to fix even the worst economic and public finance disasters, as long as the government gets out of the way and stops making the problem worse.
It would be nice to see that approach today in the West, and especially the US. But leadership can’t seem to stop making things worse.
First off, they’re addicted to deficits; even though the US national debt rocketed past $30 TRILLION this year, the government still hasn’t found the motivation to balance the budget and live within its means.
The White House’s most recent budget proposal for next year shows a deficit of “only” $1.8 trillion. And they’re actually bragging about this like it’s a major accomplishment.
And it was only a few months ago that the most senior officials in the federal government, including the Speaker of the House and the President himself, insisted that their multi-trillion dollar ‘Build Back Better’ bill would “cost nothing”.
They even went on TV multiple times to make this ridiculous assertion, almost as if they wanted to leave no doubt of their economic illiteracy.
They clearly have zero understanding of the problems; they blame inflation, for example on “corporate greed”, and have decided to ‘fix’ inflation by having powerful government agencies harass the private sector.
They actually believe they’re fixing high oil prices by depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as if dipping into your emergency savings is a credible alternative to new production.
And they see every problem as an opportunity to create more regulations.
So, contrary to Philippe d’Orleans, they clearly have no intention of getting out of the way. Quite the opposite– they’re taking a bad situation and making it much worse. And it’s time to get rational about this.
For starters, inflation will likely continue to rise.
After all, we cannot expect them to fix a problem that (a) they do not understand, and (b) they keep making worse.
And most likely it’s only a matter of time before inflation, along with global supply chain madness, pushes much of the world into recession.
They’re not going to be able to fix that either. They don’t have the tools.
They’re already $30 trillion in debt with a $1.8 trillion deficit in their supposedly ‘scaled-back’ budget. Fighting a recession would mean the government dumps trillions more into the economy– money they clearly don’t have.
The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, has few options. Interest rates are already near zero, so they don’t have much room to fight a recession by cutting rates. Besides, any interest rate cut would only risk making inflation worse.
It’s not a great situation. But it is fixable; Philippe d’Orleans showed what could happen if you get out of the way and let freedom prevail. It’s not rocket science:
Stop creating disincentives to work, produce, and trade. Stop creating fanatical regulations. Stop dismantling capitalism in the name of social justice. Stop fomenting conflict. Stop trying to invent new taxes.
Just stop. And let people live their lives.
But it’s doubtful they’ll ever take this approach. And that’s why it’s so critical to have a Plan B.
To your freedom,
The Democrats have no plan except for more government. And more government!
Wow Mike. You are in great form today. Just a few comments.
First, Earth only has a finite amount of fossil fuels. What happens in a million years? Of course you Trumpers could care less about the future of the planet. You are just a selfish old guy who hates poor people. After all, they are only poor because they are lazy.
As for guns, Israel has the right laws. I just spent three days in Israel and the only people who can have a gun are active military. In addition, Israel provides free education and spends money on their public schools. As a result, there are few if any private schools.
Open borders? What happened to our Border Patrol or Coast Guard? Have they all resigned or refused to do their jobs? Please provide proof that our borders are open. Crickets.
You’re right our borders are closed except for one just south of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and the People’s Republic of California. Since you have been a world traveler, you might want to take a trip to look at Texas borders for your proof. If you cannot make it, just type in “illegal border crossing” in your search bar since you will not see it on CNN of MSNBC.
Just like your typical rants Mike, just complain, complain, complain. But, I notice you never complain about trump or his gang of rich white guys never paying taxes to support our country, you never complain about sedition of Jared Kushner getting $2 billion from the Saudi’s who masterminded 911 or even your failure to keep Mesquite residents informed on OPD financial dealings. It’s sad that in you old age you have nothing to offer but complaints, complaints, complaints. You’re a sad old guy.