America in Twenty Years

 

Start with this piece: In 2022, “Things Aren’t Gonna Get Done” On An Absolutely Massive Scale, by Michael Snyder

Are we about to witness one of the greatest self-inflicted economic wounds in history?  Vaccine mandate deadlines are starting to arrive, and large numbers of very qualified people are losing their jobs as a result.

This, while we are already suffering from a massive labor shortage.  Businesses all over America are desperate for workers (and anyone driving down any main-street or involved in any business knows this).  But the workers should be out there:

The number of Americans that are currently working is still about five million less than the peak that was hit just before the pandemic arrived.

Five million gone, in less than two years.  And it isn’t like you could just pull someone off of the street to fly the airplane that no longer has a pilot due to jab status.

In New York, 26,000 municipal workers have said no to the jab, 26 fire companies shut down, trash is piling up in Brooklyn.  Supermarkets are planning for continuing product shortages by expanding storage space and curbing discounts. 

Then there is this Tucker Carlson opening monologue: An America in Decline: Supply chain disruptions.  Some short-hand notes from his comments:

Hospitals are asking patients to check closets for used metal crutches and other equipment to donate or return to the hospital – because they can’t get any.

Shortages of Thanksgiving turkeys, pet food, diapers, frozen food, bottles for wine, single serve packages of ketchup, bread, potato chips, toilet paper, paper for books, computer chips for cars, lumber.

Container ships stuck outside of port, lack of truckers, cost of shipping containers up 330%, trucking costs up 23% - not including fuel.  Gas prices up from about $2.00 to $3.30 per gallon in one year – in a country with more energy than it can consume. 

Adhesive, appliances, copper, drywall, electrical equipment, fabricated metals, furniture, HVAC equipment, lumber, PVC, steel – all “delayed,” meaning not enough available.

Meat, poultry, fish, eggs – more than 10% higher than last year.

Labor participation rate way down; walkouts due to jab mandates.  “You can’t run a company without these people – they are the ones who know how to do things.”  Cancelled flights continuing. 

“Here we are at the end of October.  Think ahead a little bit.  What’s this going to look like in six weeks when the entire United States decides to get on an airplane to visit families for the holidays?”

I will address Carlson’s closing point, as I don’t think he is thinking broadly enough – and neither is Snyder; the issue isn’t a Christmas issue or a 2022 issue…but before coming to this, to address why we are where we are – the most immediate or proximate cause.

It seems to me the simplest answer is the best answer: starting in March 2020, supply was drastically constrained while demand was drastically goosed.  There was a time last year that something over 40 million Americans had filed first-time unemployment.  Tens of millions of formerly productive workers, sent home to not produce anything.

But, not to worry: they were handed a few thousand dollars – while the Fed added $4 trillion to its balance sheet, the federal government added uncountable trillions in spending, and multi-billionaires saw net worth skyrocket.

So, supply was constrained – tens of millions of workers no longer producing; demand was goosed – uncountable trillions in new spending and bank assets.  To think this would have no impact on longer-term supply chains and prices was folly.

And now, on top of this: no jab, no job.  And it looks like millions will take (or have already taken) the no job option. 

But this is more than a Christmas problem or a 2022 problem.  I am wondering what America will look like in twenty or thirty years – assuming no life-ending man-made catastrophe like nuclear war, mass injections, etc.

Blasphemy in the Name of Science

 

Blasphemy: impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things;

Theology. the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.

irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.: He uttered blasphemies against life itself.

I have come across the entity BioLogos before, but never really spent time on the site or looked into the background.  That is until one of my regular commenters, A Texas Libertarian (ATL), sent me an email….

What I knew of them: Christians who are comfortable with evolution.  From their “What We Believe” page:

We believe that God created the universe, the earth, and all life over billions of years.

We believe that the diversity and interrelation of all life on earth are best explained by the God-ordained process of evolution with common descent.

Now, this isn’t the part that I find blasphemous, or, if you prefer, it isn’t the blasphemy on which I intend to focus.  Yes, I believe the Bible – all of it – is inerrant and God’s word.  Does this mean that He intended for everything in the Bible to be understood in a historical and scientific manner, through the lens of the Enlightenment?  Hard to imagine, given the initial, pre-Enlightenment audience.  In any case, this understanding of creation isn’t really the point.

So, back to BioLogos and the blasphemy in the name of science.  ATL sent a couple of examples from the site:

Is the COVID-19 Vaccine a Miracle?, by Jim Stump (Vice President at BioLogos):

Miracles in the Bible were rare or extraordinary events, to be sure. But more than that, they were “signs and wonders” that pointed to the reality of the Kingdom of God.

So is the COVID vaccine a rare or extraordinary event that points to the reality of the Kingdom of God?

Yes, he says, the jab is a rare, extraordinary event to have been developed so quickly.  So, check “yes” for the first necessity for a miracle.  But does it also point to the reality of the Kingdom of God?  “I say yes!” says Mr. Stump.

And when we take the vaccine, we too are pointing to the Kingdom of God by protecting the most vulnerable in our communities.

Wow!  He doesn’t say how one person taking the jab protects others (nor has this been demonstrated by science or in the real world), but let’s read on.  Among other characteristics of the Kingdom of God, he offers that one such characteristic is healing the sick.  Of course, the jab is making sick the healthy, but this small deviation apparently is of no matter to Stump.  Further, I haven’t heard anyone claim that the jab “heals” the sick.  Give them time, I guess.  Maybe Stump is also a prophet.

So Francis Collins, Kizzmekia Corbett, Tony Fauci, and many others are giving us glimpses into the Kingdom of God through their scientific work that prevents millions of people from getting sick and dying.

This is quite contrary to the reality, as even those who have been jabbed are getting sick, passing along the virus, and dying.  Perhaps Stump should pray for the miracle of healing the blind – himself.  Returning to this idea of miracles – and let’s even pretend that this jab a miracle.  Does this suggest that it is from God, a sign of His Kingdom?  Not necessarily, at least not according to Jesus:

Matthew 24: 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.

That’s not all:

2 Thessalonians 2: 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

It gets worse:

11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Which reminds me of why smart people are so stupid.

So, just because it is a miracle doesn’t mean it is from God.  And if the test, offered by Stump, that the vaccine is protecting the most vulnerable, is his way of confirming that it is from God, well, we already know that this is a lie.  Therefore, it is a miracle of the false messiahs, false prophets, the lawless one.  It isn’t from God.

But there is more.  A second post sent by ATL, Should Pro-lifers be Pro-Vaccine?  This is part six of a nine-part Christians-should-get-the-jab series.  Each of the nine is worthy of rebuke, but let’s stick to this one – plus, I haven’t even touched on the best part of this whole saga, and I don’t want this post to run too long.

Curtis Chang tackles this question.  He is a theologian on the faculty of the Duke Divinity School and a Senior Fellow at Fuller Theological Seminary.  Chang offers that, yes, a pro-lifer should be pro vaccine, even if the following is true:

Judgment and Hope

 

But first, judgment…

Jeremiah 23: 1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.

We have seen plenty of that lately….

Jeremiah was active as a prophet for almost forty years, spanning the reign of five kings of Judah and up to and after the fall of Jerusalem. 

[Jeremiah’s] prophecies, among the most stark and pessimistic in all of biblical literature, were aimed as a rebuke to Jews who had surrendered to idolatry and depravity. … Much of the Book of Jeremiah is a lengthy tirade against the people for their faithlessness and ominous warnings of the destruction to come if they do not mend their ways.

I read Biblical prophecies, especially those regarding rebuke and judgement, as equally valid for all generations as it was for the generation to which or for whom it was delivered.  If God, speaking through His prophet, was against something in the sixth century before Christ, it seems reasonable to conclude He is against the same things today.

Jeremiah 22: 3 Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

God isn’t really asking much here – it certainly isn’t the Golden Rule.  It can be summarized as the bare minimum of morality – enforce the non-aggression principle.

4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

Loving one’s enemy is hard, but all God is asking of Judah is to not violate even one’s neighbor.

5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.

It is clear that Judah did not hear these words.  It has been true for some time, that we in the West have not heard these either.

Jeremiah 22: 21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.

Has there been any civilization more blessed with prosperity than the West – and especially the United States?  But the West has turned its back on the source of that prosperity.  God is dead, as Nietzsche’s madman famously proclaimed, and not in triumph:

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. All of us are his murderers.

The murderer of all murderers, the madman would go on to say.

Returning to Jeremiah, and his prophecy against Judah:

Jeremiah 23: 10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.

11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord.

They also killed God, even to bring their wickedness into His house.  The rot can be seen from the prophets and the priests; thereafter, what can be expected of the flock in their care?

There comes a point – as it came for Judah and as appears to be the case for the West – where God basically no longer cares:

Compelled Speech

The west is turning more soviet every day, it seems.  This post is based on a recent Jordan Peterson video: A Call to Rebellion for Ontario Legal Professionals.

Professional licensing organizations are sold to the public as entities designed to ensure high-quality standards.  They are nothing of the sort.  They are gatekeepers, agents that work to limit supply such that they can secure higher prices for the services of their members. 

In other words, the mission is primarily economic.  Well…welcome to the next chapter, courtesy of The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC):

All lawyers and paralegals play a vital role in Accelerating Culture Shift, one of 5 strategies adopted by the Law Society to address the barriers faced by racialized licensees.

I thought lawyers played a vital role in drawing contracts, defending clients, and ensuring justice (and on the last two, my experience suggests otherwise).

As part of this strategy you are required to create and abide by an individual Statement of Principles that acknowledges your obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion generally, and in your behaviour towards colleagues, employees, clients and the public.

Anyone who works via the good graces of a professional licensing organization should read this statement carefully; consider the implications.

The LSUC will make it easy for a lawyer to comply:

The Law Society has developed resources to help in creating your personal Statement of Principles.

We have provided templates of two sample statements. To satisfy the requirement you may adopt and abide by either statement.

Your principles.  For anyone who holds principles, these are rather personal and deeply held.  But this licensing body will offer you samples from which you can choose.  The templates can be found here; they offer just what you would expect.

OK, so this is enough of the type of society that is being created for us; what about the society they work to destroy?

University that forbids sex outside heterosexual marriage takes fight for law school to top court in Ontario

A private Christian university that forbids sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage will be in Ontario’s top court this week, seeking a green light for its proposed law school after the province’s law society denied it accreditation.

Trinity Western University is a Christian University based in British Columbia.  From the university:

“The LSUC refused to accredit TWU because of those religious beliefs, and not because TWU’s students would not meet appropriate standards of learning, professional competence and professional conduct.”

The accrediting body with which they are fighting is the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) – yes, you got it right; the same body that wants to “play a vital role in Accelerating Culture Shift” by requiring their members to make a statement of principles – and they will offer their members the principles.

They seem to be working that “cultural shift” from both ends.

Conclusion

So…in order to practice law in Ontario, one must hold a license from the LSUC – there is no choice.  While the penalties have not been specified, it is safe to assume that refusal to sign a satisfactory statement of principles could lead to losing one’s law license.

But a single law school – one of dozens if not hundreds in Canada – places requirements and expectations on their students; if the student does not wish to abide by this conduct, they are free to attend one of dozens or hundreds of other schools.

This is your culture shift: they do not respect western civilization; they choose to destroy it.  It is Gramsci, pure and simple.

Want a Smoke?

Sarcasm:

What is essential to sarcasm is that it is overt irony intentionally used by the speaker as a form of verbal aggression.

-        John Haiman

The essence of sarcasm is the intention of giving pain by (ironical or other) bitter words.

-        Henry Watson Fowler

Belomorkanal

The White Sea–Baltic Canal, often abbreviated to White Sea Canal (Belomorkanal) is a ship canal in Russia opened on 2 August 1933. It connects the White Sea, in the Arctic Ocean, with Lake Onega, which is further connected to the Baltic Sea.

From Mikhail Morukov (PDF):

The notion of a canal that would connect the Baltic and White Seas through the eastern territories of Karelia dates back to Peter the Great, who three hundred years ago made the first transfer of sea crafts from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea.

The equipment required to build the canal was too expensive – this could not be accommodated within the budget; no currency was to be allotted for the purchase of equipment from abroad.  There was a solution:

It is worthy of note that at the first discussion of the canal project, Stalin had concluded that the canal should be built by the OGPU – that is, by prison labor.

And the cost objectives were to be met, or else:

A letter from Stalin to Molotov dated September 7, 1930, stated that, “I heard Rykov and Kviring want to halt the progress of the Northern canal despite the decision of the Politburo. Therefore it is necessary to attack and punish them. It is also necessary to reduce the finance plan to a minimum.”

From Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago:

The engineers say” We will make the structure of concrete.”  The Chekists reply: “There is not enough time.”  The engineers say: “We need large quantities of iron.”  The Chekists reply: “Replace it with wood!”  The engineers say: “We need tractors, cranes, construction machinery!”  The Chekists reply: “There will be none of that, not one kopeck of foreign exchange: do it all by hand.”

Estimates of the number of deaths realized during construction range from 12,000 to 24,000; I have even seen an estimate as high as 240,000 – but this seems quite the outlier.

Continuing with Solzhenitsyn:

We were in such a rush that we brought in people from Tashkent for this northern project, hydrotechnologists and irrigation experts (arrested, as it happened, at the most opportune time).  With them a Special (once again, special, a favorite word!) Design Bureau was set up on Furkasovsky Lane…

The construction of the canal by Gulag labor was deemed a success.  Returning to Morukov:

Large infrastructure projects scheduled for construction by civilian ministries were turned over to the Gulag. By the mid-1930s, the Gulag was the Soviet Union’s largest construction organization.

So, what about the smoke?  And the sarcasm?

Belomorkanal is a cigarette brand originally made by the Uritsky Tobacco Factory in Leningrad, Soviet Union, since 1932. The brand was introduced to commemorate the construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal, also known as the Belomorkanal.

The brand became popular in most of the Soviet Bloc countries due to their low price. They are famed as one of the strongest cigarettes available in Eastern Europe (if not the strongest in the world).

Epilogue

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, The Gulag Archipelago has been officially published and since 2009, it has been included in the high school curriculum in Russia as mandatory reading.

United States Immigration History

We are told…

Except for Native Americans, we are all immigrants or children of immigrants.

True enough – true as well for the “Native Americans.”  By the way, open borders didn’t work out so well for this group.

The entire history of the United States, until recently, is one of open borders and open immigration.

We are also told.  I would like to examine the validity of this statement. 

Before beginning, I offer a very interesting time-lapse map, depicting immigration into the United States; each dot represents 10,000 people.  Visualizing this history will tell you much about what it meant to be a country of immigrants; more specifically…immigrants…from where?  When?  What changed?  Why?  The map raises important questions.

To be more complete, I should include social / welfare legislation in this post as I believe it to be an important part of the story.  But I am already at 2900 words, and I think most readers understand that this grew significantly during the twentieth century and especially during the time of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression and more so during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s.  Further, the differences in open and available land should be considered.

Unless otherwise noted, sources are identified at the end of this post.

Colonial Era to 1790

The period from 1607 – 1775 marks the longest sustained period of meaningful immigration in North American history.  Not counting slaves (who clearly did not come by choice), virtually all of the immigrants were of northern European and Protestant origin.  Large numbers came as indentured servants (perhaps half or more), with passage paid in exchange for a fixed term of indenture to the sponsor; not all indentured servants came voluntarily.

By 1790, it is estimated that there were 950,000 immigrants, of which 360,000 were from Africa.  Of the 590,000 remainder, 425,000 were from Britain and almost 110,000 were from Germany or the Netherlands.  The origins of most of the rest are unknown, but presumed to be from Northern Europe.

The population by 1790 is estimated to be 3.9 million, of which 757,000 were from Africa.  Of the remaining 3.15 million, almost 2.6 million were of British descent.  About 370,000 were of German and Dutch descent; most of the rest are of unknown origin, presumed to be from northern Europe.

Great Britain exported its convicts to America – about 50,000 up to the end of the Revolution (Australia got them thereafter).

1790 to 1849

From the beginning of the Revolutionary War until about 1830, there was little immigration.  There was a meaningful emigration from the US to Canada; about 75,000 British loyalists, but also some German farmers.  The year 1815 might mark the low point in terms of the percentage of the population that was foreign born – perhaps 1%.  Even by 1830, this percentage was estimated at only 2%.

Immigration in some quantity resumed beginning around 1830.  The list of countries is similar: Britain, Ireland, Germany, and other parts of Central Europe as well as Scandinavia.  The numbers from 1831 – 1840 are about 207,000 Irish, about 152,000 Germans, 76,000 British, and 46,000 French.

From 1841 – 1850, there were about 1,713,000 immigrants, including at least 781,000 Irish, 435,000 Germans, 267,000 British, and 77,000 French.  By 1850, the population was about 90% native born; the percentage of the population that was Catholic doubled in this period – from 5% to 10%.

The Mexican-American War and subsequent treaty brought about 70,000 formerly Mexican residents into New Mexico and California; the California Gold Rush brought immigrants from Latin America, China, Australia, and Europe.

There was a rise of anti-Catholicism in the later part of this period – against German and Irish Catholic immigrants.  Thus was born the Native American Party (“Native American” having a meaning different than what we ascribe to it today), renamed the American Party – but commonly known as the Know Nothing Party – as its members would claim to “know nothing” when asked about their affiliation.

Immigration during the first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times greater than a decade earlier. Most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic peasants or laborers from Ireland and Germany who crowded into the tenements of large cities. Crime and welfare costs soared. Cincinnati's crime rate, for example, tripled between 1846 and 1853 and its murder rate increased sevenfold. Boston's expenditures for poor relief rose threefold during the same period.

    — James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 131.

The party gained significant results:

Pigs at the Trough

I was thinking about writing a post containing the list of CEOs of major US corporations who have come out against Trump’s decision regarding the Paris Climate Accord.  I am overwhelmed.  I would make my life easier by writing a list of those who haven’t.

I cannot let it go unsaid regarding one of these: Elon Musk.  It is really hilarious to consider that he has no company without the government’s involvement in the climate.

None of these CEOs is a climate expert; all of them publicly complain about regulation.  You would think that this combination of characteristics would lead to either at best cheering the elimination of the horrendous regulatory burdens imposed by yet another international scheme or at worst shutting up on a topic that they really don’t know much about.

But, of course, we know better.

Big business loves regulation, and the more complex the better.  Complex regulation kills off the little guy, the start-up.  Complex regulatory requirements drive up the cost of the product, which drives up revenue and margins.

Big business loves government-created markets which force consumers to buy products (that only big business can produce) that they would otherwise not want to buy.

Big business loves government programs, as big business does not then have to market and sell to millions of individual consumers but instead to a handful of bureaucrats.

Big business is four-square against killing this deal.  I can offer words of hope to these CEOs: don’t worry, it isn’t over yet; Trump is looking to a repeal and replace strategy.  You can get an ever better deal if you focus on this.

Albeit, your respite will, eventually, prove temporary.  The economy cannot sustain continued decrease of the productive (those who provide market-demanded goods) in support of the increase in the unproductive (those whose primary service is supported, directly or indirectly, by the government).

As this day approaches, who will win?   Who will have priority?  Grandma and grandpa?  The military-industrial complex?  Solar panels and windmills?

As to Elon Musk: one day Tesla will crash and burn.  The best outcome for the company will be to have its assets acquired by a major automaker, one who can afford to invest in a money losing technology that may, someday, pay a benefit.  The worst outcome for the company will be that no one cares, as several major automakers are developing high-performance electric vehicles that will out-compete Tesla.

I hope I live to see this day.  It will be almost as entertaining as the Trump presidency.

Almost.