Return to “Normal”

 

Return to “Normal”

 Do you think that we have had enough experimentation with Sanders/AOC/Biden style socialism?  It has effectively ruined the relatively stable country that President Trump left us, destroying the integrity of our borders, our energy independence, our economy, our law and order, our social and societal stability, our effectiveness to handle the Covid epidemic and our overall reputation in the world.  Do you think that we may be able to return to some semblance of a more rational governance in the future?  Without monarchic dicta and accusations, doxing and cancel culture?

 We seem poised for a “red tsunami”, or a republican sweep in the 2022 mid-term elections.  This will likely be true, if unscrupulous socialist operatives like AOC and Stacey Abrams don’t illegally interfere with state and local election laws and practices, as they did in the past.

 There will be some tendency from the right, I’m sure, to redress some of the abhorrent wrongs perpetrated by the socialists on President Trump, but republicans, for the most part are fair and honest people, and don’t view their politics in a religious fervor as many on the left do.

So, we hope a return to a reasonable and rational country, not one where aberrations and distortions are flaunted as the norm, and highlighted as part of “normal” life.

 The march toward unbridled socialism may be curtailed in 2022, but we will still have the most ineffective and inept president and vice president in recent history for another two years, with the rest of the world continuing to laugh at us.

 Will Trump return in 2024 at age 78?  He acts and carries himself as if he were 50, so age is probably not an issue.  How about Governor DeSantis of Florida, or Governor Abbott of Texas, or Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina?  There are indubitably, many other republican possibilities.

 Whatever happens, hopefully by 2024 we will be The United States of America again, and not some mewling socialist experiment destroying our heritage and traditions.

 Happy New Year, 2022, and good riddance, 2021!

 Ray Gruszecki

December 31, 2021

Executive Orders and the “Ministry of Truth”

 

Executive Orders and the “Ministry of Truth”

 Remember the pile of executive orders Joe Biden signed the first days that he was in office?  These executive orders vindictively reversed nearly every positive feature of government that former President Trump’s administration had instituted for the country.

 Gone, in several swipes of the pen, and without the weight of actual law by the legislature, was our southern border, our energy independence, our gender identity, our foreign integrity, our law and order, and our economic stability.

 Biden, however, did not reverse the vaccines that Trump had organized.  Biden claimed the vaccines as his own, and tried to administer them like a petty dictator.

 And now, as many people are beginning to realize the extent of the socialist dystopia foisted on the country by Biden and his handlers, who are these perpetrators of the dystopia blaming?  Why. Trump, of course, or the stores being robbed, or the police that they defunded, or anyone else other than themselves, who perpetrated these societal predations on the country.

 And it would be only human to have sympathy for poor old, bumbling Joe Biden, were it not for the same abiding arrogance that he has displayed for all of the nearly 50 years of his public life.  Perhaps his handlers build him up and tell him what a great job he is doing in spite of the dystopia that the country actually experiences from his administration’s actions.

 Stealing from Orwell’s Newspeak and his Ministry of Truth, Biden, Psaki, Klain, Blinken, Kerry et al, will stand in front of the cameras and lie  “down is up”, “left is right”, “the economy is great”, “there is no border crisis”, ”spending another $3 trillion is good for inflation”, and on and on. “Listen to us, we know what’s best for you, don’t believe your own eyes”.

 Perhaps some of the liberals/socialists that “elected” Biden in the mail order election still are gullible enough to support this chicanery.  Many Americans are more honest than that, and are preparing to vote these leftist fools out of office.

 Ray Gruaszecki

December 15, 2021

Electric vs Internal Combustion Vehicles

 

Electric vs Internal Combustion Vehicles

 For those with the interest and time, these are references to studies and articles on the efficacy and economics of electric versus internal combustion vehicles.  Unfortunately, this topic, like many others, has been impacted and influenced by politics.  I’ve tried here to stay with the science and economics, but some contemporary politics colors some of these references.

  

Arthur D. Little 2015 Comprehensive Study

https://www.adlittle.de/sites/default/files/viewpoints/ADL_BEVs_vs_ICEVs_FINAL_November_292016.pdf

 

Scholarly Article – Overall Efficiecies (pdf)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344860096_Comparison_of_the_Overall_Energy_Efficiency_for_Internal_Combustion_Engine_Vehicles_and_Electric_Vehicles

 

Another Study

https://governorswindenergycoalition.org/study-compares-electric-vehicle-charge-costs-vs-gas-and-results-were-surprising/

 

Are EV’s really greener? - Batteries vs Internal Combustion

https://medium.com/batterybits/are-electric-vehicles-really-greener-than-internal-combustion-engine-vehicles-71b35396a4df

 

Where will the power come from?

https://www.eon.com/en/new-energy/electricity-for-electric-cars.html

 

How green?

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/electric-cars-are-still-coal-powered/

 

Optimistic article with generalities, no data

https://ivypanda.com/essays/electric-vs-internal-combustion-engine-vehicles/

 

English View – With Pictures of How they work

http://www.suntecautoglass.com/blog/2018/07/03/electric-vs-combustion-engine-what-are-the-differences.html

 

A Glowing Report for EV’s

https://content.sierraclub.org/evguide/myths-vs-reality

 

Aussie / Bloomberg Positive view

https://www.energycouncil.com.au/analysis/evs-are-they-really-more-efficient/

 

Battery Manufacture

https://www.businessinsider.com/building-electric-cars-how-much-pollution-versus-gas-powered-vehicles-2019-11?op=1

 

 Ray Gruszecki

December 14, 2021

Inflation and Trillions

 

Inflation and Trillions

 The Marxist-democrats running this government posture that “there is nothing to see here”, when inflation is mentioned.  “Don’t believe your eyes and pocket books, just listen to us”.

 Well, they can scarcely maintain the charade in the face of actual results as discussed in real news articles like the following.  Inflation is the highest its been in forty years.

 The Marxist-democrats have passed $6 trillion worth of “Covid relief” and “Infrastructure” legislature, and they want to pass another $3 trillion, or so, in social spending.  Mavens of the new Biden economics claim that all of this can be done without increasing the deficit or triggering a destructive inflation.  Mavens of these new economics like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich write scholarly sounding articles supporting this obvious lie.

 I’m not an economist, and the economics I studied in university were from a text by Paul Samuelson, who was pretty much a non-free market Keynesian, who was teaching across the river at MIT at the time.  Since then, I’ve become familiar with Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayak and Ludwig von Mises, all mostly free market economists.

 But forgetting the theoretical underpinnings, any person with some degree of common sense, has to acknowledge that printing and pumping and borrowing $6 trillion, or $9 trillion, has to result in the kind of inflation that we are experiencing.  Let’s remember a trillion is a thousand billion.  It is a one, with 12 zeros after it.  Even $1 trillion is a massive amount of money.

 

 This is from the “Daily Caller”, with the annoying pop-ups removed. 

 “Daily Caller News Foundation logo

HARRY WILMERDING

December 10, 2021

 The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.9% in November, bringing the key inflation indicator’s year-over-year increase to 6.8%, the highest figure in four decades.

 The CPI’s increase is the largest increase in four decades, up from October’s 6.2% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released Friday morning. Experts surveyed by CNBC projected inflation would increase 0.7% in November, translating to a 6.7% gain on a year-over-year basis.

 “These are frighteningly high inflation numbers, the likes of which we haven’t seen for decades,” Allen Sinai, chief global economist and strategist at Decision Economics, Inc., told The Wall Street Journal.

 The core price index, which measures inflation of goods less food and energy, jumped 0.5%  in November, a decrease from October’s 0.6% increase, according to BLS. (RELATED: REPORT: Online Inflation Soars Heading Into Busy Holiday Season)

 Price increases in gasoline, shelter, food, used cars and trucks and new vehicles were among the largest contributors to the index’s jump in November, BLS said.

 Food prices increased 6.1% on a year-over-year basis, and energy prices soared 33.3% over the last year and 3.5% in November.

 Meanwhile, the labor market continues struggle to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the emerging Omicron variant has brought new concerns.

 “We have tremendous spending by consumers. A lot of people are getting hired. Demand is huge. Monetary policy remains very easy and fiscal stimulus has no precedent in history,” Sinai said.

 The U.S. economy added just 210,000 jobs in November, far below experts’ projections of around 573,000, but unemployment slipped to 4.2% from October’s 4.6% figure.

 The number of Americans who filed new unemployment claims totaled 184,000 in the week ending on Dec. 4 as employers fight to retain workers entering a busy holiday season.

 “Looking past the noise, we think claims will eventually hover more consistently around pre-pandemic levels of 220k, assuming the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has only a moderate negative impact on the economy,” Nancy Vander Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

 Soaring inflation and falling unemployment have triggered Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to pivot away from pandemic era stimulus programs. Powell signaled that the central bank would wind down its bond-purchasing stimulus, which will lead to earlier-than-expected interest rate hikes.

 The central bank is scheduled to meet Dec. 14-15, when a more detailed schedule is slated to be announced.”

 https://dailycaller.com/2021/12/10/inflation-consumer-price-index-joe-biden-jerome-powell-bureau-labor-statistics/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2680&pnespid=vaJ7GCFYKaIC2qHDtjDvA5SW4Rb.TJYpK.e10eYz.0Rmy3O3aV5mTeBwZZR0QOANQ4xd81N4

 Ray Gruszecki

December 10, 2021

Why is Everything So Bad?

 

Why is Everything So Bad?

 Why, why, why, one might ask?  Why does the current Biden administration seem to be destroying all trappings of our heritage, economics and most foundations of our society?  It is inconceivable that this is happening by accident, so this destruction of Americanism must be by purposeful actions by the inner circle that runs Biden, and tells him what to say and do.

 If tearing down our society is a purposeful action by Biden’s handlers, it has roots in Karl Marx’ revolutionary philosophy of the nineteenth century.

 Marx, in the “Manifesto,” said that communism represents “the most radical rupture in traditional relations.” It seeks to “abolish the present state of things.” In a remarkable statement, he said that communists “openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”  Marx closed the “Manifesto” with, “Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.”

 In a letter to a friend, Marx called for the “ruthless criticism of all that exists.”   Marx was particularly fond of a line from Mephistopheles in Goethe’s “Faust”: “Everything that exists deserves to perish.”

 It seems that Biden and his administration, with the help of avowed Marxist groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa, have adopted the ”tear-down” principles in Marx’ Communist Manifesto. 

 Other manifestations of a Marxist destruction of our society are many.  Among them are defunding police to increase lawlessness, using race in place of class to foment riots and revolution, teaching and indoctrination of Marxist theory and racial bigotry such as Critical Race Theory and 1619 Project in our schools, opening our southern border and destroying the integrity of our country, political correctness, cancellation, doxing, and others forms of controls limiting freedoms, movement toward a one party state by packing SCOTUS and the congress, rigging national elections by unconstitutionally changing state voting laws.

 It seems that the mistakes that these would-be Marxists are making is that they are affecting our pocket books through inflation, our children through restrictive schools, and even our puppies with inhumane testing.

 We can still vote these Marxist operatives out of our legislatures in 2022, and out of our executive in 2024, - (that is if we still have a reasonably honest electoral system left by then).

 Ray Gruszecki

December 9, 2021

China and the Covid Pandemic

 

China and the Covid Pandemic

 Current thinking, not colored by Biden/Fauci politics, is that the Covid-19 Corona virus escaped from a Wuhan, China laboratory that was conducting “gain of function” experimentation to weaponize the virus. 

 The communist party of China brutally suppressed the spread of the virus within China by literally exterminating some of its population, while allowing the virus to escape China via travelers to foreign countries, primarily, Italy at first.

 I’ve been tracking U.S. and world statistics on the Covid-19 pandemic as reported by World-o-meter, and the New York Times.  I also check the CIA World Fact Book, occasionally, to see how countries are doing economically.

 Several points are apparent. 

 Current Covid cases shown by World-o-meter are - world, 268 million; U.S., 50 million: China, less than 100 thousand

 Current deaths shown are – world, 5.3 million, U.S., 812 thousand, China, less than 10 thousand.

 Obviously, the China numbers are bogus, as is the news, or lack thereof, from China.

 Now the economics:

 China’s real GDP has grown by over 6% for the last three years available in the CIA World Factbook.  U.S. and EU real GDP have grown just over 2% in the same time frame.  China’s economic gain on the rest of the world during the Covid pandemic, has been spectacular.

 And the CCP of China smugly sits there, expanding militarily, persecuting its minorities and eying Taiwan with a goal of absorbing it.

 One has to ask, was the release on the world of the Covid virus planned by the CCP?  They certainly gained strategically on the rest of the world as a result of the pandemic, and they have not been taken to task by the UN, or any other world body.  And now, with a weak, bumbling excuse for a U.S. president, (and his rock and roll secretary of state), China’s path to World hegemony seems even easier.

 Ray Gruszecki

December 8, 2021

Covid in the U.S.

 

Covid in the U.S.

 I’ve been keeping statistics on Covid cases and deaths since Covid began in early 2020, for the U.S., the world, and for the U.S. states where my extended family lives.  The data sources show data for all world countries, which I observe, but do not specifically track,

 Several things are apparent from these statistics,

 1.)   The U.S. has significantly more cases and deaths from Covid than any other country.

 The U.S has 49.9 million cases, and 808.2 thousand deaths.

Second is India with 34.6 million cases and Brazil with 615.5 thousand deaths.

 2.)   There have been more cases and deaths from Covid in the U.S. in 2021 under Biden with three vaccines available, than in 2020 under Trump, while procedures and vaccines were being developed. 

2021 - (Biden, with 3 vaccines) – 29.4 million case, 454.6 thousand deaths.

2020 – (Trump, with no vaccines) – 20.5 million cases, 354.4 thousand deaths.

 Many people give Joe Biden credit for his handling of Covid, which obviously is based on Biden’s and the left-wing media’s lies. The general public must be unaware of the above numbers.

 Why is the U.S. death rate from Covid so high in comparison to other countries?  A quick survey blames Trump (what else?), and our fragmented federalist system.  Could Biden and Harris saying during the presidential campaign that they would not take the “Trump vaccine”, have anything to do with it?

 I could not really find a balanced analysis of why U.S. Covid deaths are so high, particularly in 2021 with three vaccines.  Most media attempts at explanation contain apologia for Joe Biden’s efforts.  In spite of its politics, this Washington Post article is a pretty thorough review of U.S. Covid deaths compared to the rest of the world.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/12/health-202-here-how-us-compares-other-countries-coronavirus-pandemic/

 Ray Gruszecki

December 4, 2021