Biden's speech was the wrong setting, the wrong tone, the wrong props, the wrong message and a missed opportunity.

by Rod Williams, Sept. 3, 2022-  Watching Biden's speech to the nation on Thursday night, even before he opened his mouth, I thought, "this is weird."  The lighting looked like lighting for a horror movie. Who came up with this lighting, I wondered. The weird lighting was my first impression and it got worse from there.

Usually, a presidential prime-time speech to the nation is about something new and something of substance. I was expecting a new policy toward Ukraine or Taiwan or something really stupid like the imposition of wage and price controls.  Instead what we got was a campaign speech. 

The thing is, I agree with much of Biden's criticism of Trump. It is clear Trump tried to hold on to power despite losing an election.  I agree that Trumpism is a danger to our democracy.  That is why I will never vote for Trump again. Also, I am being more circumspect with my financial support for Republicans. I do not want to see Republicans elected who would support the appointment of fake electors or Republicans in Congress who would only recognize an election result if their candidate won.  

Despite my agreement with some of what Biden said, this was the wrong setting, the wrong tone, and said by the wrong person with the wrong props.  Instead of convincing Republicans that Trump is evil, I suspect the speech drove some wafering Republicans back into the Trump camp. The speech was not unifying; it was divisive. 

The use of Marines as a backdrop only reinforces the impression many Republicans have that government is an enemy of the people used to penalize legitimate opinions. Many Republicans already view the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and IRS as part of police state forces used to suppress opposition to the deep state. The use of Marines reinforces that view. The president is both the leader of our nation and the leader of a political party.  The two roles should be kept distinct and that can be difficult. Deciding not to use Marines as a backdrop should have been easy. 

With a different tone, sitting, props and lighting, the speech could have been salvaged had the President been a little more balanced.  A denunciation of political violence across the board would have provided some balance. The BLM/Antifa riots that occurred across the nation were not that long ago and Democrats excused it, encouraged it, and embraced it. To denounce the January 6th Capitol riot while not denouncing other recent politically motivated violence is hypocritical. 

One thing Biden could have done to keep this from being a purely Trump-bashing political speech was to denounce the Democrat Party policy of working to nominate the most radical election-denying Republicans. In the recent primary, Democratic campaign groups have spent more than $46 million to boost candidates who support former President Donald Trump and his claim of a stolen election. I know their reasoning is that election-denying Trumpinista Republicans will be easier to defeat than moderate mainstream Republicans.  If we end up with more Marjorie Taylor Greens in Congress as opposed to Liz Cheneys, one can thank the Democrats.  Biden should have called out those across the board who put loyalty to party or an individual above loyalty to country.

Top Stories

Breakfast Club meets Sat. Sept 3rd. To feature Hispanic conservative leaders.

 

Top Stories

Republicans Maintain 5-Point Lead in Congressional Ballot

Friday, September 02, 2022 - The 2022 midterm elections are now 67 days away, and Republicans still have a five-point lead in their bid to recapture control of Congress.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that, if the elections for Congress were held today, 47% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Republican candidate, while 42% would vote for the Democrat. Just three percent (3%) would vote for some other candidate, but another eight percent (8%) are not sure. 

Top Stories

15-year-old Zacchaeus Johnson is charged in Juvenile Court with shooting death of another young teen. Yes, it is a gun problem.

by Rod Williams, Aug. 30, 2022- Metro Nashville police report that 15-year-old Zacchaeus Johnson is charged in Juvenile Court with criminal homicide for Sunday’s 5:50 p.m. fatal shooting of another young teen, Antonio Baker Jr., 16, in a parking lot in the 500 block of South 5th Street in the James Cayce public housing development. A drug-related robbery motive is under investigation.

Baker, of Dew Street, was transported to Vanderbilt Medical Center where he died. Johnson, of Summer Place, fled the scene but was later taken into custody in Clarksville, Tennessee. The investigation continues into others who were present at the time of the shooting.

The police do not speculate as to how a 15-year-old got access to a gun. It is so common that young thugs are armed that it is not noteworthy. It is not difficult for teens to acquire guns. So far this year, 912 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville. Eighteen guns were stolen from cars and trucks last week.  Guns are sold and traded among young criminals. 

Responsible gun owners do not leave an unsecured gun in a vehicle and certainly not an unlocked vehicle. Unfortunately, there are a lot of irresponsible gun owners. Guns are expensive and why people would leave them unsecured in a vehicle, especially an unlocked vehicle I do not know. 

In my view, it is time to make it a crime to fail to properly secure a weapon. Many gun rights advocates will oppose such a suggestion.  When such is proposed, they will say that the reason weapons are left in vehicles is because there are so many places one can not take a gun, such as schools, and airports, and bars, and banks, and courts, and places of employment, that gun owners have no choice except to leave their guns in their car.  They may advocate that such restrictions be lifted and prohibited.  My view is that those are reasonable places to restrict guns or, in the case of employers it is a decision properly made by individual employers.  Also, I would doubt that many of those guns are stolen from the parking lots of airports or courthouses or some of the other locations mentioned.   Most likely they are stolen from cars in driveways or from cars parked on the street in front of the owner's home. 

Another response is that instead of restrictions on guns we should focus on arresting criminals as if insufficient policing is the problem.  One may disagree about the number of police we need and how policing should be focused but that is simply an evasion to avoid recognizing the problem of irresponsible gun owners being the suppliers of weapons to street criminals. 

Another response of opponents of any rules regulating the securing of weapons is to wax nostalgic. When they were in high school, they will tell you, they kept their hunting rifle in the locker at school or on a gun rack in their pickup truck parked at school and there was no problem. 

Opponents of rules mandating the proper securing of weapons may advocate we need to return prayer and bible reading to the classroom.  They may blame the rise in crime on the welfare state and out-of-wedlock births.  I may agree with some of their diagnosis of society's ills but that does not mean we should not deal with the real immediate problem of too many guns easily finding their way into the hands of criminals. Pining for "the good ole days" does not address a real problem we have today.  

Top Stories

Irresponsible gun owners armed up to 912 thugs in Nashville so far this year.

Metro Press Release, Nashville, August 30, 2022 - The MNPD strongly encourages Nashvillians to lock their automobile doors, secure any valuables---especially guns, and REMOVE THE KEYS.

So far this year, 912 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville. Nearly 70% of ALL guns reported stolen in 2022 (1,324) were taken from vehicles. Last week, 18 guns were stolen from cars and trucks.

Going hand in hand with vehicle burglaries is vehicle theft. A review of last week’s stolen vehicle reports in Nashville shows that 70% of the automobiles taken (50 of 71) were easy targets because the keys were left inside or made available to thieves.

Just like guns taken from vehicles, these stolen autos are also routinely involved in criminal activities, including carjackings and robberies.

Top Stories

Nashville rated as one of top 5 places to buy a home in the U.S.

 By Jon Styf | The Center Square, Aug.30, 2022 - Nashville was rated as the fifth-best real estate market in the country in a new report from WalletHub.

The finance website rated the country’s top 300 cities based upon 17 factors to gauge the current environment based upon everything from building permits to property appreciation to affordability.

Nashville’s current market was ranked fifth but its affordability was ranked 77th. Murfreesboro, meanwhile, ranked 13th overall with the 17th best market for real estate and ranking eighth for affordability.

Knoxville was 97th and Memphis was ranked 220th on the list.

Overall, the national real estate market is slowing as home sales dropped 19.3% year over year in July, according to Redfin. Meanwhile, the pace of increasing home prices has slowed to 7.7% after two years of double digit percentage increases.

"Nashville, where 32.3% of homes for sale had price drops, represents the typical metro area in July: Half the metros in this analysis had a higher share of price drops, and half had a lower share of price drops," Redfin’s report said.

Knoxville, meanwhile, saw 28.3% of its homes drop in price while Memphis had 28.0% drop its price.

Top Stories

Gov. Lee Announces School Safety Actions

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Tuesday, August 30, 2022 – Tennessee Governor Bill Lee released a video update on key actions the Lee administration has taken to enhance school safety following Executive Order 97, which directed state agencies to engage parents, increase transparency and collaborate with local law enforcement and school districts. 

“Our administration has taken meaningful steps to further strengthen school safety in Tennessee by engaging parents, evaluating security measures and strengthening partnerships with law enforcement,” said Lee. “Nothing is more important than the safety of our children, and I thank Tennesseans for doing their part as we continue our coordinated effort to protect students and teachers across the state.” 

The Lee administration has taken the following actions to further enhance school safety across Tennessee and promote engagement with parents, schools and law enforcement: 

Engaging Parents · 

• More than 10,000 Tennesseans are using the Safe TN app, a free resource to quickly and confidentially report safety concerns at a child’s school, with a record 2,000 downloads this month
• Expanded School-Based Behavioral Health Liaisons to cover all 95 counties
• Mobile crisis providers are available to families across the state and can be reached by dialing ‘988’ 

Securing Schools

• Every Tennessee school has completed a physical school security assessment – a total of 1,838 schools · More than two-thirds of school districts – 104 districts – have participated in school safety training
• Frequent, unannounced checks are being prioritized to see that school doors latch and precautions are in place
• Every school district has received an updated School Safety Plan Template 

Partnering with Law Enforcement

• State and local law enforcement have collaborated to provide proven, hands-on active shooter training courses in each Grand Division 
• Updated training has been provided to more than 600 School Resource Officers
• Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers are building stronger relationships with local school leadership 

In the coming months, additional resources will be made available to support parents, teachers, and law enforcement in improving school security practices. Future actions will include

• Tennessee parents and schools will have access to a new School Safety Resource and Engagement Guide
• School districts will receive updated building security standards 
• State and local law enforcement will be supported through improved recruitment and training efforts

Top Stories

Student loan debt relief could worsen inflation and 5 Reasons Why Student Loan Forgiveness Is a Bad Idea

by Rod Williams, August 25, 2022- It is immoral to tax poor people who never went to college to pay the debt of wealthier people who borrowed money to go to college and that is what student loan forgiveness does. The research has been done and that is a fact.  Student loan forgiveness is unfair to the parent who sacrificed to send their child to college. It is unfair to the students who worked their way through college, or the students who borrowed but repaid their student loans. 

Forgiving the debt of students who went to college for four or more years and partied and made unwise decisions about what to study is a moral hazard.  A "moral hazard' exists when an incentive increases one's exposure to risk because one does not bear the full costs of that risk. If someone chooses to take on massive amounts of debt to get a worthless or nearly worthless degree, they should pay the consequences of that decision. If not, then there is no incentive to make wiser decisions.

In my view, there needs to be massive reform of higher education.  While the student experience is a fun and enriching experience, it is not necessary to attend college on campus in a traditional setting to master the course material.  Higher education, in my view, should take advantage of technology and encourage more online learning and testing at testing sites. I am a lifelong learner and have taken many of the classes offered by Great Courses.  The world's best teachers teach many of these courses. By taking online courses such as those offered by Great Courses, along with supplemental reading, online or phone consultation, and testing one could become every bit as educated as the student who sits in a classroom. One does not have to be in a classroom to learn.  A campus experience is still desirable but should be an option instead of mandatory. A combination of online learning and campus learning should evolve as a new norm. 

The more student loans the government guarantees, the less incentive educational institutions have to hold the line on cost and the less incentive there is for education reform. Not everyone should qualify for a student loan. The qualifications for a student loan should be risk-based. Student loans should be evaluated for the risk the same way car loans or home loans are evaluated. Also, not everyone should be shamed or persuaded to attend college. Trade schools should be presented as a respectable alternative to traditional college.

In addition to the moral hazard of student loan forgiveness, the incentive it provides for increasing the cost of higher education, and the basic unfairness of it, there are other reasons.  Recently, Congress passed a bill called The Inflation Reduction Act, which may or may not reduce inflation but most likely will have minimal impact.  If it actually would reduce inflation, as some argue, then student loan forgiveness underminds any inflation reduction in the bill.  

Fox Business News reports that Larry Summers warns student loan debt relief could worsen inflation. Larry Summers is a Harvard University professor who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations Here is an excerpt from that article:

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers on Monday warned the Biden administration against "unreasonably generous" student loan relief, arguing that additional spending could exacerbate the ongoing inflation crisis. ...

"I hope the Administration does not contribute to inflation macro economically by offering unreasonably generous student loan relief or micro economically by encouraging college tuition increases," he wrote in a series of tweets.

Writing in Forbes, Zack Friedman gives 5 Reasons Why Student Loan Forgiveness Is A Bad Idea. Zack Friedman is a highly credentialed Wall Street money manager, best-selling author, and the Founder & CEO of Mentor (mentormoney.com), a leading online financial marketplace.  In the article, he concurs with and summarizes the analysis of Senator Roy Blunt who gave a speech on the Senate floor opposing President Biden's proposal for student debt forgiveness.  I am not going to give the details of each of the five reasons, but am listing them below. For details, follow this link. 

1. Student loan forgiveness disproportionately benefits wealthier Americans.

2. Biden doesn’t have the legal authority to cancel student loans

3. Biden has shown no commitment to wide-scale student loan forgiveness

4. Biden should lower inflation rather than cancel student loans, which can increase inflation

5. Student loan forgiveness won’t lower the cost of college

Top Stories

The Bastiat Society of Nashville presents "How Covid Exposed a Moral Sickness- and Almost Everyone is Infected."

Register Here

AIER’s Bastiat Society program in Nashville will host an in-person event with Ben Bayer, Fellow and Director of Content at the Ayn Rand Institute.

During the Covid pandemic, people on the political left generally favored stricter pandemic controls (lockdowns, mask and vaccine mandates, etc.) and other statist economic measures in the name of the public good and usually criticized their opponents as “selfish.” The evidence suggests their policy decisions were not driven by any corruption or conspiracy, but by the moral values they openly championed. Importantly, this doesn’t mean their policies were justified or excusable. If those policies were unjust and destructive, it’s a sign that there is something flawed about the moral values that actually motivated them: the values of selfless sacrifice that are regarded as commonplace on both the left and right. This talk will explore how the Covid pandemic put pressure on American politicians, left and right, to reveal their true core values, what it really means to act on those values, the fundamental problems with these values, and a rational alternative.

Schedule:

• 6:00 - 6:30 pm: Networking
• 6:30 - 7:15 pm: Presentation
• 7:15 - 7:30 pm: Q & A

Ticket Prices:

• $0 for Founding Members
• $10 for Annual Members
• $20 for Non-Members
• $0 for Actively enrolled university students who register with a .edu email address. Those who register with a non-.edu email address will be unregistered and asked to purchase tickets at full price.

Location: Richland Country Club, 1 Club Drive, Nashville, TN 37215

More about the speaker:

Ben Bayer is a fellow and director of content at the Ayn Rand Institute. He teaches in the Objectivist Academic Center and gives talks and interviews for ARI. He writes and edits for ARI’s online publication, New Ideal. Bayer holds a PhD in philosophy (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) and among other positions, was a visiting assistant professor at Loyola University in New Orleans for seven years. His writing focuses primarily on the application of philosophy to contemporary cultural and political controversies.

Top Stories

 

Link

Top Stories

Canceling Student Debt Would Undermine Inflation Reduction Act

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Aug 16, 2022 - The recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will reduce budget deficits by roughly $275 billion while pushing fiscal policy in the right direction to assist the Federal Reserve in its fight against inflation. However, a possible announcement from the White House to offer across-the-board student debt cancellation could undermine the bill’s disinflationary gains and deficit reduction.

Simply extending the current repayment pause through the end of the year would cost $20 billion – equivalent to the total deficit reduction from the first six years of the IRA, by our rough estimates. Canceling $10,000 per person of student debt for households making below $300,000 a year would cost roughly $230 billion. Combined, these policies would consume nearly ten years of deficit reduction from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Debt cancellation would also wipe out the disinflationary benefits of the IRA. The Congressional Budget Office, Penn Wharton Budget Model, and Moody’s Analytics all found the IRA would have virtually no effect on inflation in the near term at the macroeconomic level. Our analysis is somewhat more optimistic since the bill’s micro-economic effects and side deals related to permitting and energy explorations can put downward pressure on prices.

However, debt cancellation would boost near-term inflation far more than the IRA will lower it. We previously estimated that a one-year pause could add up to 20 basis points to the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) inflation rate. Using a similar analytical method, $10,000 of debt cancellation could add up to 15 basis points up front and create additional inflationary pressure over time.

Although there was no inflation in the month of July, inflation has surged at record levels over the past year and core inflation remains well above target.

The IRA gave Washington an opportunity to show it was finally serious about helping the Federal Reserve tackle inflation and begin to address our $24 trillion national debt.

Broad student debt cancellation – whether by extending the pause, forgiving balances, or both – would undermine the benefits of the IRA and demonstrate a lack of seriousness in addressing our nation’s economic challenges.

Rod's Comment: I opposed the Inflation Reduction Act for several reasons and doubted it would do much to reduce inflation. I had reservations about hiring 87,000 new IRS agents was one reason I opposed the IRA.  I did think, however, that the rhetoric coming from some on the right was over-the-top and histrionic. Several organizations which I think of as fiscally responsible offered luke-warm support for the IRA including The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Other ogranizations I think of as fiscally responsible opposed it but without wild histrionics. They concluded it would do little to decrease inflation and might actually be mildly inflationary. 

Another reason I opposed the IRA is because the supposed additional revenue was on the back end and the increased spending was on the front end.  I had no confidence that a Democratic Party government would continue responsible spending.  Well, it has not. It now appears the Democratic Party is still committed to increased unpaid for government spending.  Since the spending included in the IRA is front-loaded, if student loan forgiveness passes or even is again deferred, the effect of the Inflation Reduction Act will be more inflation; not less. For more analysis of the IRA follow this link, this link and this link.  

Top Stories

The Inflation Reduction Act won’t bring 87,000 new IRS agents with guns to your front door despite the memes you saw on Facebook and what right-wing radio pundits told you.

By Laura Saunders, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 19, 2022 - ...Some of the funding’s opponents have said the 87,000 hires will be armed. According to an IRS spokesman, the only agency staffers allowed to carry guns are 2,100 special agents in the criminal investigation division, and they make up less than 3% of the total current IRS workforce of about 80,000.

According to Natasha Sarin, a Treasury official overseeing the IRS, about 1,000 of the hires will be special agents, with many replacing departing agents. In the late 1990s, the agency had 3,500 special agents. (To read more of what is really in the Inflation Reduction Act as regards new funding for the IRA, follow this link:What $80 Billion More for the IRS Means for Your Taxes.)

Top Stories