Indigginest peoples day

 

Happy Indigeonous Peoples Day a day late and Colombus day a day eartly.  We hat a Ponca Indian mentor son who was 15.  One day he heard that I had been hand-digging a trench for a water line, and my back was killing me. “I’ll help!”  and he did handsomely, helping me finish a forty foot trench 2 feet deep.  Where did he learn to dig?  Well, before his mom got on drugs and his dad died, his grandfather used to get him to help digging and said, “Hayna, we are the indigginest people.”  Ahem.  Indian joke.

            Colombus was a great navigator and adventurer, but a horrible governor.  His colony of Hispanola didn’t grow or produce much for 40 years after his discovery.  It wasn’t entirely his fault.  Europeans carried Euro-Asian diseases that the native Americans hadn’t seen.  One of the reasons we know the Vikings had little luck establishing a post in N. America is that the Indians didn’t get sick.  Little contact.  Secondly, Colombus left governors over the colony who lorded it over the natives, making them slaves.  But their constant dying from diseases made the Spanish think them weaklings and Africans were imported.  The Spanish were a proud people who had just defeated the Muslims in Spain and didn’t want to get their hands dirty.  That was for the servants to do.  Thirdly, the central planning of the Spanish government dictated how many ships brought supplies and took back trading goods each year.  Thus there was no room for the beef cattle that flourished in Mexico, only hides. This led to a surplus of cattle that were just left to wander off and populate Tejas. 

            But the natives routinely enslaved others and had since time memorial.  Sometimes authors say that they treated slaves better, like family, but that seems to be only true of very nomadic tribes like those of the plains.  The Aztecs warred constantly in order to have human sacrifices.  One such “fest” had 20,000 killed in one day.  The Spanish didn’t respect the natives, but what else is new?  This history of the world if full of slavery and disrespect and conquest.  African Bantus genocided most of Africa 2000 years ago.  They had agriculture and the hunter-gatherers couldn’t compete.  Yet remants of these people live in small enclaves in Africa today—pygmys, Nilo-Saharans, bushmen, Madagascarans, Watusis, etc.  Thus modern anthropologists list 6 to 16 separate races in Africa who differ from Bantus more than Caucasians and Mongoloids do. And Bantus loved slavery, as did Chinese, S. Asians, Polynesians and native Americans.  

            The Spanish system of plantations (Haciendas) and absentee landlords, was also nothing new, but it was so inefficient that free and individual farmers and traders of British extraction beat the competition.  Christianity transformed displaced people, gave them hope and education, spawned science and engineering, and instilled a sense of fairness everywhere it went.  Sometimes it was a slow transition, but it has been the driving force of change throughout history.  Those of us who once dug ditches have come a long ways. "Don't call me no victim," Hayna used to laugh.  Now if you can say that given his tragic childhood, you are making it.   

Things we must change that will take time

 

The news this week is that Hunter Biden is likely to be charged. Yet for only gun violations and taxes.  So is this a whitewash, something he can plea bargain and the real issues of influence peddling will not be addressed?  The influence selling is so blatant in both videos and published emails that even a casual observer finds good grounds for suspicion. The reason people are suspicious is the recent history of one-sided prosecutions (Trump’s aides and JA 6 trespassers but not protestors of supreme court justices or the FBI crossfire hurricane gang that Congress referred for prosecution). Whatever the outcome it will take years for the FBI and DOJ to convince Americans that they do things fairly. 

            It will also take years to show the world that we are not cowards running from Afghanistan or Iraq or Libya.  The EU has been all a-buzz about how unreliable USA has become. Our former territory Phillippines and Solomon Islands have shunned us and made overtures to China.  It will take years to overcome inflation and stagnation due to $31T debt and only $20T of GDP.  It will take years to reorganize the bureaucracy.  Bias against conservatives, modernization of tech, and changing bureaucratic arrogance culture will all take time.

            For these reasons, I believe it would be better to nominate a fresh face than Donald Trump in 2024.  Trump can only serve one term. I liked Trump and consider him one of our top Presidents. He got a raw deal with Dem cheating in the election of 2020, but nowadays he spends most of his rallies lamenting how the election was stolen. That sadly reminds me of Stacey Abrams and Thomas Dewey. Trump was like a second Reagan with a businessman’s doggedness to accomplish things but we have others who will accomplish like Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, and other R’s with biz/organizational background.  They can fight back against the D’s/media as well.

            They could assemble Trump’s old economic team who seem eage to join the battle.  Get someone level-headed about justice like Matt Whittaker who served under Trump as AG.  Promote Generals who want to fight rather than teach wokeism. And let Heritage Foundation refer SCOTUS nominees like Trump did.

            Every Prez has some rough areas.  Reagan was too  remote on many issues. But Trump had them too.  He picked a lot of people who were disloyal and self-centered.  He never filled all his 4000 positions because he had no prior experience with government, no replacement team when he assumed office.  We don’t need more Christopher Wrays and Mad Dog Mattises and that Knothead from Alabama who couldn’t handle the AG job or Omarosa. 

            So while we love the job Trump did overall, we’re just hoping he retires at age 79, advises a new President who might get vindication of the election of 2020 on his behalf that inspires the public to accept.  That person might also be a communicator like Reagan, almost unassailable in graciousness and not have a 41% approval rating. 

            I guess I’m hoping Trump doesn’t run but still has influence.

Democrats explain how bad Republican initiatives on the economy are.

 

Dems critique of Republican economic proposals. 

Well for one thing, R’s don’t have punishments for oil company price gouging.  Has anyone explained how the oil industry works to D’s? Maybe we should try.  Producers, like farmers, produce a certain amount of petroleum and gas. That plus speculators set the market rates.  If God by the weather provides less raw farm commodities or govt by edict reduces drilling, we have less production.  It’s not the farmer’s fault there’s a food shortage or the oil producer’s fault oil is scarce.  Then the crude is refined by refiners who add about 25 cents per gallon to take raw crude to gasoline and diesel. They have little control over what they buy the crude for.  Gas stations sell gasoline for 0-5 cents profit and make their real money when you buy a Slurpie or coffee, which has 200% to 800% markup.  You want chips with that drink?

            Second D bitch (I’m talking gripe, not Pelosi) is that R’s want to defund the police.  Don’t scratch your head, here’s their logic. The IRS is the tax police and R’s want to limit auditing, therefore R’s want to defund the police.

            Third hair-on-fire proposal of R’s is to deregulate and lower taxes on the middle class, which helps small businesses enormously. Trickle Down Economics! the D's say. Here's an example on how the two sides differ. A Dem proposal before Congress right now is to make all businesses report the carbon footprint of those who use their products.  Thus farmers would have to report on the packing house that they sold the steer to, the processor who cut the steak and the consumer who ate it (stop farting!).  Farmers have almost no way to report such things and it would be an onerous bookkeeping requirement. Really what D’s hate about deregulation is that regulation is how govt controls people’s behavior.  Taxes too. Where oh where did the founding fathers come up with this idea that people should live the kind of life they want to live free of government controls?

            Meanwhile the R’s say that inflation is too much money chasing too few goods.  If the govt circulates 40% more money and things produced hardly change, expect 40% inflation over several years.  D’s counter, “You started it! Trump deficit spent $2T in 2020!"  True.  But that was to keep businesses solvent, people paid for lost wages during a pandemic we’ve not seen for 100 years—a national emergency. It had overwhelming bipartisan support. So having survived and swelled the money supply, it was time to step on the brakes in 2021, rather than add another $4T like Biden did. Put it this way.  I drive fast.  But when a corner comes up, I slow down.  Only a fool speeds up by double.

Single Af-Am women are most motivated to vote pro-abortion

 

Biggest supporters of unlimited abortion are low income, single, Af-Am women.  They see it as their “out” for broken relationships. This is the group Democrats often take for granted but it is who D's mean when they say that abortion rights will be big in the midterms. 

    Studies of lower class women in European sectors (no race involved) show that the prime differences that keep these communities poor is low married rate and sporadic income.  Women will often take a stop-gap job to support a family at low income whereas men, with much pride and effort invested in a career, are loathe to take a minor or different job to simply support a family. They stay unemployed longer. Men grow up knowing they must work, whereas women see a career as something to choose.  (Maybe they will work, but maybe they will be a housewife or live on welfare.)  Men have no choice and their life is aimed at work.  Until they believe they have arrived as productive members , they are forever Peter Pans--boys.  Once they become warriors of some skill they are then valued members of a team. But golly, the world is a big place and they need a partner!  Only then is marriage something they desire.  Women, don’t see their entire identity tied up in career, so they will often take a small or temporary job, but men hold off until they get meaningful career work. 

    Women truly want love and a relationship. They want to be beautiful in someone's eyes. Throw in a great (but safe) adventure, and there's a wonderful life. 

            Many impoverished males are out of work a lot.  Those who are consistent providers are fought over by the women. Women poach on other women. Single motherhood and abortion abounds. This affects Af-Ams more than other minorities in USA, but is true of all poor people. Yet among Af-Am Christian women, abortion is unpopular as is sexual immorality. In middle class Af-Ams, fidelity is common and abortions are not.

            There is a lesson for Republicans in this.  Sunday mornings are the most segregated time in America.  Encourage your church to team in ministry with black churches as well as other minority congregations. Jobs, jobs, jobs is the theme for improving the poor side of town. (Trump's roaring economy won more male Af-Am voters.) Invite black middle class friends to enjoy things together. . Of course these things won’t come about in time for the midterm elections. But it will get us back to our Republican roots as a party with a plan of freedom, faith, family and free enterprise that extends to all Americans.The Grand Old Party of America’s Grand Old Ideas.  

What's happening with European conservatives winning?

 

Liz Truss replaced Johnson in UK and Giorgio Meloni elected in Italy. Both are conservatives stressing family, faith, and free enterprise—the Reagan and Trump Republican values.  This came just a week after the Sweden Democrats, another conservative party, suddenly became the 2^nd largest party in Sweden and a year after Marine Le Pen, a conservative won 41% against Macron.  It’s a strong conservative trend sweeping Europe.  So why are Truss’s fellow British Tories wringing their hands and all over Europe they denounce faith-family-freedom parties as the latest Nazis? 

            Consider Brits first.  London dominates the UK with wages in the metro about $50,000 a year while $30,000 is common elsewhere.  Big international banks do this.  The Reaganomics method of getting USA out of stagflation was to lower regulations and taxes together with Fed tight money.  Tight money makes the dollar strong compared with other currencies, lowering costs of imports, reducing inflation.  De-regulation stimulates business, reducing their burden of compliance costs.  Tax cuts put money in pockets of consumers and businesses.  All 3 boost the supply side (production) of goods and services. Meanwhile tight money (high interest rates), while it fights business borrowing, tames inflation by reducing demand and overindulgence. But bankers hate tight money.  High interst makes them pay depositors more. A strong currency makes it more expensive for foreigners to borrow and harder for them to pay back as their own currency declines in value. The more the govt lowers taxes, the more people have to spend which makes the central bank (Bank of England, BOE) tighten.  What bankers love is for people to keep paying them back and lots of easy money to loan out.  Plus, as corporate lap dogs of the popular culture, they have bought into wokeism, climate change, etc. So when a conservative shows up spouting faith and family and freedom, it sounds like a moral threat. Thus half the Tories distrust Truss.

            The faith part of the equation is tiny in Britain where only 4% of the public goes to church even minimally.  But Italy has 40+% rate, like USA, the most Christian country in Europe. Italy has tons of debt, 150% of GDP, and the other EU countries are choking at her desire to cut taxes.  Italy, as part of EU is like a state in USA. A common euro is their currency. But what if a state cuts all its taxes and deficit spends? This inflates the euro. Worse,it draws businesses and more so with promise of de-regulation. [understand how regulated Europe is.  If you are a hog farmer and want to switch to cattle, you can’t simply do this as in USA. A county planning board will consider your application and maybe ten years later grant you a permit to change your farming.] Horrors! What would happen if French and Spanish companies fled to Italy.  To keep the euro where the EU wants it, a country that has run up debt (Italy) has tax policy somewhat dictated to keep that country from deficit spending (euro stable, they say). No consideration of how much lower taxes will spur the economy is accounted for. Nor is de-regulation. Meloni sees it more like good policy of TX and FL draw people away from CA and NY.  And faith!? Most of Europe is areligious, see themselves as citizens of the world (albeit with unique cultures), want lax borders, and have bought into the pop culture and wokeism.  Hence Meloni is a religious fanatic, a possible fascist and threat to the rest!

            Bottom line: people (voters) want jobs and a good economy.  But the bankers and neighbors want control.    

Progressives will lose because they don't understand humans

 

If you read liberals—Week, Moveon.org, Huffpost, or Euros like The Economist, it becomes clear what motivates activist progressives.  They are utopians who want a world sans prejudice, and morality as well.  But the big dream plans don’t take place spontaneously.  Plans require guidance/control by the state.  Evolution to the dark side--Power Hunger, Socialism, Authoritarianism--happens.  Dictated policies lead to dictators, the pitfall of European kings and Marxist/facists.  So after 1763, British American colonists grew wary of directives from government.  They wrote a constitution that espoused Liberty, limited federal govt, and low taxation.

            These last two years under Biden have been eye-opening for average guys with other interests than politics.  Parents who went to school board meetings with suspicions were labeled “domestic terrorists” by the Justice Dept., a frightening development.  Biden called anyone who voted for Trump a “semi-facist” after first alleging them to be “white supremacists” ( in league with KKK?!) That stunned a lot of people, to be deemed criminals as it were by none other than the President.  It’s one thing to be labeled a “chump” or “deplorable” or a phrase that meant “bitter clinger”.  We are used to name-calling in politics that invokes stupidity.  But to tag as an enemy of the state is quite another matter.  And most of the President’s supporters are cheering this. Just fans or are they aching for civil war? I should hope the prior!

            How does this happen?  To be a lib, you only have to think yourself smarter than most people.  You envision your own opinion that of a superior elite which aspires to rule. The elites of Europe, the aristocrats, panicked in the 1800s worrying that a French Revolution would spread and behead.  So they came up with reasoning called nobilese oblige “obligation of the nobles”.  Don’t kill me, I’m a good aristocrat who, albeit rich, understands your plight.  Behead that other evil exploitive guy!  We call this a limousine liberal in USA.  Note the aristocracy doesn’t want to step down.  They just want to convince you they care. Of course, America has wealthy, a few of whom make money by getting in cahoots with government money. Plus, as F. Scot Fitzgerald noted, “The rich are different than us.”  They love loose morals that would get an ordinary middle class person in lifelong troubles.  Drink and get addicted?  The rich just check themselves into a plush rehab center. Have an affair? Abortion. The poor man with addiction is likely to die in a gutter. She lives with the consequences of child-bearing. Thus elites desire not just central planning, but also moral relativism and big government to befriend for profit.

            There is a problem with this game.  No utopia works.  Utopias may beguile some, but reality always bites.  If I had a million dollars for every time socialism worked, I’d still be dead broke.  That, according to the Father of Modern Psychology, John Locke (Two Treatises on Government, 1677), is because every person is motivated by concerns for self, not the Grand Soviet 5-year Plan or any other govt scheme. There are a some crooked middle class businessmen, the successful ones create a product the public wants to buy. Many are even part-motivated by a mission for God.  This presents a mountainous problem for central planners.  Farmers, dreamers, the churches follow another voice. When elites erupt into visceral hatred, watch out! “You will buy an electric vehicle, no? What do you mean there is no place to recharge it and you worry about cost and range? We will restrict fuel so that you will be forced to buy an EV.  You will be forced to get vaccinated and wear a mask.  You must talk in a woke manner or be penalized.  You must not question what your children are taught in school.”

            Elites don’t plan perfectly. Suppress fossil fuels? 90% of manufactured goods depend on fossil fuels at this time.  Paint, make-up plastics, synthetic fabrics, chemical feedstocks, smelting and coke—all come from fossil fuels.  Quarantining the healthy public rather than the sick has never stopped contagion.  Light-weight masks and vaccines are not 100% effective and cause other problems sometimes. Educating without parental support is foolhardy.  Tax more and people tend to do tax avoidance that leads to less revenue collection. Restrict lives and people will act in secret. Statism never works positively.

            The notion that each person should be able to live as they see fit (Liberty), is destroyed under statism.  Take away the most deeply held convictions of people by trying to suppress their religion won’t work either. The Soviet experiment lasted 3 generations and when the iron curtain fell, the West discovered to its amazement that 1/3 of Russians were secret Christians. (They forgot to suppress the elderly grandmothers who shared their faith with children)

            I sense that the midterms are going to go badly for the progressives.  Polls don’t show it but I think all the threats have shut people’s mouths.  But they are sharpening their pencils to vote. Maybe I’m wrong.  We’ll see.

Complete Grace

 Before there were long Christmas seasons, people used the season of Advent to consider what God was going to spring on us in Christmas. The next few days I will post some of these thoughts from several hundred years ago.

 Grace, God’s undeserved kindness of salvation, is something every Christian loves dearly.  Think of the characters of the Bible—Mary and Joseph, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Ruth, David, Daniel, Peter, John, Paul. All received the grace of God.  But some Christians struggle with their own end of the deal.  Faith and Trust are the same words in Greek and Hebrew.  What if I’m not too trusting? Deep down they hope God is not just some kind of made-up figure that naïve people believe in. Maybe He exists and maybe he is Lord of all, but does he care about me?  Why am I the only one of my age who isn’t married yet?  How come I got laid off?  Why did my health go bad? Why did my kids abandon the faith? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil.4:13) but sometimes I wonder what He can do with me.  Perhaps many regular church attenders have doubts like this too.

            You’re not alone in agonizing with God.  David in the Psalms wrote about it, “How long, Lord, how long? I am worn out from my groaning.  All night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.”Psalm 6:3,6 Habakkuk said it too, “How long, Lord must I call for help, but you do not listen?...Why do you make me look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” Habbakuk 1:2,3.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve (hell).  Grace is getting what you don’t deserve, including God’s salvation.  But what we really struggle with is God’s Love. Does He consider me? “But Zion [Israel] said, “God has forgotten me.” Can a woman forget her nursing child that she have no compassion on the firstborn son of her womb?  Even these may forget but I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Is. 49:14-16. (Have Jesus show you His hands some day in heaven.) “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.”Jer.1:5.  Yet how can He love someone as messed up as me? Simple answer: Because He is God.  We must get away from thinking any of this is our own doing.  It’s not about you; it’s about Him.  Should He suddenly appear to Saul of Tarsus amidst seething hate, intent on killing Christians, He can and did.  “Love that found me, wondrous thought!  Found me when I sought Him not,”

God loves you from before time began. He sent His only Son to die for you and pay for your sins.  He gives you faith to believe as a free gift.  His Spirit indwells you, quite stunningly in a relationship with Himself.  He adopts you as His own child, seals you with His Spirit, and will take you home.  This is what Christians in one way or another believe and it gives one a peace that passes all understanding.  But does God really say this? In Ephesians 2:8,9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” The Greek word that refers to all the previous nouns—the grace, the saving, the faith. Everything was a gift from God. It doesn’t go away. “ In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” Eph. 1:13. God has done it all.

Yeah, but what if I screw it up? Consult the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).

What’s this like? Martin Luther had a story.  Imagine you are a child and you pushed your brother down the stairs and he broke his neck.  You are mortified over this.  What will your father say?  Will he say, ‘Get out of my life.  I never want to see you again—you killed my son!’? Apprehensively you go in to see your father and just as you open your mouth to try to explain, in bounds your brother.  He’s perfectly okay!  And he takes over pleading for you with Dad. You had nothing to do with your salvation! So encourage your fellow Christians by asking them, “When you came to faith, who gave it to you, and the faith to believe?” It’s God, is it not! Luther concluded, “If you believe it, you’ve got it.”

   This is enormously assuring.  Don’t worry about what you have done. You did nothing! Don’t worry about the sincerity of some prayer done long ago when you first believed. Or how well you understood.  He’s been there beside you from before you were a twinkle in your dad’s eye or when your mom started her hope chest at age 5. Faced with COVID or some other terminal thing, talk it over with Him, “Lord, my life is in your hands.  If I have done enough, beam me up!  If I have work to do, let’s get cracking!” This is called Complete Grace.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s Grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.—Luther