WALGREENS WAS TRYING TO PUSH THEM ON ME THE OTHER DAY, BUT I ALREADY HAVE LIKE 6: White House makes more home COVID-19 test kits available at no cost. “The government pays for them!” they told me, though I think actually the government makes insurance pay for them, which is not the same at all.
Archive for 2022
May 18, 2022
SO MUCH EASIER TO SPEND: Other People’s Money. In his excellent essay on James Buchanan’s lessons on government profligacy, Donald Boudreaux shreds the standard rationale from Keynesian economists for running up the budget deficit — that it’s nothing to worry about because we’re just borrowing the money from ourselves.
The Keynesian argument regarding debt that “we owe to ourselves” is that the losses to the citizen-taxpayers who must pay the bondholders are offset by the gains received by the bondholding citizens. Voila! Debt creates no net burden on future generations! But this argument, whatever its other flaws, ignores the fact that debt financing nevertheless allows some people (namely, today’s citizen-taxpayers) to spend money belonging to other people (namely, tomorrow’s citizen-taxpayers). And thus debt financing encourages excessive government spending.
But no matter. Widespread acceptance of this Keynesian argument conveyed the false impression that debt financing imposes no burden on future generations. Thus today’s citizen-taxpayers are relieved of qualms they once suffered about government spending borrowed funds. The resulting explosion of government’s net indebtedness, both in Canada and in the US, was no surprise to Buchanan, but it was a source of great worry. That worry now seems justified.
Read the whole thing: the Fraser Institute’s Do Budget Deficits Matter?
BRAVE SIR CHARLES RAN AWAY: Tucker Carlson: ‘Coward’ Chuck Schumer Refuses to Defend His Letter Blasting Fox News ‘Conspiracy Theories.’
Certainly, Fox News is among the leading critics of the Biden administration’s failure and refusal to slow the record pace of illegal immigration. And Tucker Carlson has dealt with that failure on numerous occasions.
Carlson told his audience Tuesday night that he invited Schumer to come on his show to discuss Schumer’s complaint that Fox News is responsible for the rhetoric that inspires mass murder.
“We wanted to hear more from Chuck Schumer about this. We invited him on the show tonight, as we always do, but because he is a coward, this is the only media appearance probably in history he’s turned down,” Carlson said.
Hours before Carlson’s show aired, Schumer tweeted: “.@TuckerCarlson invited me on his show tonight to debate the letter I sent to @FoxNews. I’m declining. Tucker Carlson needs to stop promoting the racist, dangerous ‘Replacement Theory’.”
Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night noted that Americans are suddenly hearing a lot about the “great replacement theory” — which actually figures in Democrat politics, he noted, as Democrats seek to cement their political power by flooding the country with illegal immigrants who are presumed to be future Democrat voters.
Carlson played video snippets of various Democrats, including Joe Biden in 2015, touting — actually celebrating — a white minority USA.
“So you can play clips of them saying it, and you’re the deranged conspiracy nut!” Carlson said.
Well yes, when the left aims to cancel you: The Left blames Tucker Carlson for Buffalo shooting as a censorship excuse:
After an 18-year-old alleged gunman stormed a Buffalo grocery store and killed 10 people, it took the national media apparatus about two minutes to point the finger at conservative media, specifically Fox News and Tucker Carlson. The alleged shooter left an online manifesto with eerie echos of the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand and the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, spouting off about the “Great Replacement” theory (the antisemitic theory of world-controlling Jews purposely transporting large amounts of immigrants into the United States to change the racial makeup of the country).
But journalists on Twitter and national news outlets took it a step further, pointing the finger squarely at Fox News and Tucker Carlson with the sole purpose of conflating the antisemitic theory peddled online with the very real concerns of an open immigration policy that right now is causing a historic influx of migrants across the southern border, as well as human trafficking and narcotics. These concerns are shared within border communities, which themselves have seen a political demographic shift since the 2020 election, with Hispanics in these family communities turning against traditional Democratic policies.
Journalists know exactly what they are doing in conflating these two ideas, as do Democratic politicians. Putting a target on Fox News and Carlson is simply the latest subtle push at censorship. In recent weeks, corporate media have been caterwauling at the idea of looser content moderation politics on social media, and you can bet that Elon Musk and his pending deal with Twitter will be tied to the Buffalo shooting next.
Earlier: The Left Created the ‘Great Replacement Theory:’ Great Replacement Theory is fueled by woke progressives gloating about America becoming non-white.
Related: Ben Shapiro on The Media’s Big Lie About the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ and Conservatism.
DOG BITES MAN: ‘Squad’ Members Introduce Anti-Semitic Resolution.
UNSURPRISING: Ruminating on our ruminations causes more depression.
IT’S A REAL MYSTERY: Say, where have all the public-school students gone? “Over one million students have evaporated from public school rolls over the last two years, the New York Times reported late yesterday. ‘No overriding explanation has emerged yet for the widespread drop-off,’ writes reporter Shawn Hubler.”
Plus: “To be fair to Hubler, she offers at least two obvious explanations, but seems more concerned about the impact on public schools from them rather than the students.”
TEXAS KID LIVING HIS BEST LIFE POSSIBLE: Texas toddler orders 31 McDonald’s cheeseburgers with mom’s phone.
Parents be warned: If your toddler gets ahold of your phone, he or she could be entertaining themselves with pictures or music, but they could also be arranging a fast food banquet.
A Texas two-year-old was doing the latter, local CBS8 reported, when he ordered 31 McDonald’s cheeseburgers to be delivered via DoorDash.
“My son was playing with my phone. I thought he was taking pictures, but when I looked back on my thing it was ordered at the time he was playing with my phone,” the boy’s mother, Kelsey Burkhalter Golden, told the local CBS affiliate.
Absolute hoss — this is a kid with a bright future.
IT’S SO CRAZY, IT JUST MIGHT WORK: Mike Lee Introduces Bill That Could Solve the Baby Formula Shortage. “The FORMULA Act would suspend, for six months, the current tariffs on safe, imported baby formula from countries including Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. It would also temporarily remove the regulations that outright prohibit the importation of baby formula from many countries.”
TENNESSEE: The America We Need. “Our family had to move from the place our great grandparents planted us because of some very bad ideas touted by some very powerful people. Simply put, we chose Tennessee because we love the dominant ideas here.”
MADE IN THE USA: American Made Buffalo Leather Work Gloves. #CommissionEarned
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: NYT: Say, where have all the public-school students gone?
All is proceeding as I have foreseen.
OLD AND BUSTED: In The Future, Everyone Will Be Famous For 15 Minutes.
The New Hotness? In The Future, Everyone Will Be Winston Smith For 15 Minutes: Biden Administration Considers Shutting Down Disinformation Board amid Blistering Criticism: Report.
“Nina Jankowicz has been subjected to unjustified and vile personal attacks and physical threats,” a DHS spokesperson told the [Washington] Post in a statement. “In congressional hearings and in media interviews, the Secretary has repeatedly defended her as eminently qualified and underscored the importance of the Department’s disinformation work, and he will continue to do so.”
And speaking of Orwellian, look who the Post assigned the story to: Taylor Lorenz blames ‘coordinated right-wing attacks’ after Biden’s Ministry of Truth reportedly hits the pause button. “The vast right-wing conspiracy is back, baby!”
Related: Biden’s new ‘misinformation czar’ is a Hunter laptop denier.
WELL, I DON’T KNOW WHO’S DOING THE COORDINATING, BUT I’D LIKE TO BUY THEM A DRINK: Taylor Lorenz blames ‘coordinated right-wing attacks’ after Biden’s Ministry of Truth reportedly hits the pause button.
A Ministry of Truth is evil and unAmerican, and only a tool like Lorenz would support it.
BY DESIGN: Green Delusions Bring Chaos And Death.
THAT ’70S SHOW: This ETF Says Inflation Is Just Getting Started. “Instead of slowing down, being transitory or tapering off, the move higher in inflation may just be getting started. At least that’s what the action in the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) ETF could be telling us. It looks to be on the verge of a long-term breakout.”
THE FDA STRIKES AGAIN: A Formula for Shortages. The FDA has made critical mistakes in regulating the manufacturing of infant formula that it should ameliorate as quickly as possible.
VICTORIA TAFT: Durham Trial: You Can’t Unsee All the Potential Conflicts of Interest in the ‘Russia Collusion’ Case in D.C. “It feels like all of the people connected with the Russian Collusion hoax are old buddies, and a striking number of those are connected to the Michael Sussmann trial. Small world. Things are so incestuous in the swamp that you wonder why these elites consider themselves better than the hill people who live not too far away.”
INDOCTRINATION AND LOYALTY OATHS ARE ALL THE RAGE: University will not let students graduate without passing a DEI course.
CHRISTOPHER RUFO: “Banging Beyond Binaries.” The School District of Philadelphia encouraged teachers to attend a conference on “kink,” “BDSM,” “trans sex,” and “masturbation sleeves.”