Smart Talk #2

We’re starting to hear more informed conversation, growing louder, about the potential for perhaps serious inflation.  Commentators John Cochrane and Kevin Hassett have some thoughts on what they feel is about to become a ‘burning issue.’   “Is persistent inflation around the corner?” they ask. “Shortages of everything from lumber to semiconductors have raised input prices for businesses, while the percentage of small businesses are reporting that they cannot find qualified workers is now at a record high.  The ingredients are in the pot, and the fire is on.”   They fear that the Fed “will delay interest-rate hikes until inflation substantially and persistently exceeds its target, just as it delayed responses in the 1970’s.”  Our ever-rising national debt is also a factor in the inflation scenario.  It is reported to be at 100% of GDP currently and growing, growing with each stroke of Mr. Biden’s billions-of-dollars pen.  The article writers state that ‘stopping inflation now will mean a sharp reduction and reform of entitlement spending programs, a far-reaching pro-growth tax reform, and no more bailouts and stimulus checks.”  The chances for any of that happening, with this administration, are slim to none.  So, when it comes to pending inflation increases and the chances of arresting it in time, as the writers here have sagely stated, the ingredients necessary for perhaps rapid upward growth in inflation are about upon us, and “the fire is on.”

Next, an intelligent look at the obsession with, not equal opportunity, but equal outcomes (i.e., ‘equity’) by Adrian Norman, a Black American writer, political commentator and author.  Wrote Mr. Norman: “Countless universities and corporations now have some sort of diversity and inclusion director, which is just a fancy title for an overpaid activist who helps shape outcomes, based on the idea that when equality doesn’t exist, some sort of systemic injustice is to blame.” What a refreshing take he provides on the diversity reality.  Diversity of opportunity is fine and proper, but not when it attempts to dictate or maneuver equality of outcomes, which can never be achieved across-the-board without rigging the entire achievement system.  Wrote Norman, in part: “The inconvenient truth for the equality and equity cult is that individuals make different decisions, and you can’t control what they do. Without external intervention into our personal lives, individuals making individual choices will always end up being unequal.  Which is exactly why ‘equal’ is unfair.”  And here is Mr. Norman’s bold, predictive truth about attempting to manipulate outcomes for mandated ‘fairness’: “If we continue to redress our nation’s problems by normalizing and institutionalizing all of society’s members having the exact same outcomes, the light at the end of the tunnel will be the speeding train of communism slamming into us.”  What a courageous, truthful breath of fresh air on this contentious current topic, the impact of which is already attempting to spread throughout our society.

And speaking of refreshing, in the Southlake School District in Texas, two candidates who opposed the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in their schools, recently won election to the District Board with almost 70% of the vote. As you likely know by now, CRT is a “theoretical framework which views society as dominated by white supremacy and categorizes people as ‘privileged’ or ‘oppressed’ based on their skin color.”  The ideas, then, it certainly seems is to encourage ‘victimhood’ among non-whites and, conversely, to impose guilt and shame on whites. It’s definitely a good thing to encourage racial acceptance and harmony.  But it’s another thing again to adopt ‘equity,’ seeking identical outcomes regardless of goal (which is impossible), and to blame the white race for all of mankind’s faults and misdeeds.  This is exactly the opposite from the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who sought judgment according to character and not skin color!  Said Hannah Smith, a lawyer, former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, and one of the two newly elected school board members: “The voters have come together in record-breaking numbers to restore unity.  By a landslide vote, they don’t want racially divisive critical race theory taught to their children or forced on their teachers.” And that last point is important and generally not thought of: forcing CRT on teachers.  Once curriculum decisions are made by school districts, whether they agree with the new or revised subject-matter direction or not, teachers must accept and adapt or risk losing their positions.

In his recent State of the Union address which writer Charles Hurt referred to as having “bombed worse than the Academy Awards,” Mr. Biden posed a question and provided his own answer to it. Proclaimed the president: The most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today? ..…White supremacy’s terrorism.”  Continuing to hand-deliver Progressive-Marxist spin to the worshipping national media who stand ready and willing to run, make that sprint, with it around the country and world.  Such an assumption, made no doubt by his staff, is pure embarrassing, dangerous, and false foolishness.  Or more to the point, pure Bravo Sierra, if you will.

For starters, there is no established, factual truth to the white supremacy myth. That’s simply made up to satisfy the need for a scapegoat, since Democrats can’t tell the truth, and name themselves as the greatest current threat to our traditional free, secure, and reasonably fiscally-solvent America. Mob violence is seemingly accepted by Democrat mayors who can’t or won’t do anything to effectively stop it. That’s the chief threat to our homeland!  Secondly, threats posed by the mass of migrants storming across our border every day, allowing into our country all manner of criminals, drug smugglers, and potential terrorists (since not all migrants speak Spanish!!).  And now that the Middle East is in turmoil again, thanks to the exhibited pro-Iran and pro-Palestinian signals and language from Mr. Biden’s administration, we can look again to terrorist (or worse) threats from that area of the world as well.  Domestic turmoil along with, now, international unrest and developing threats.  And this administration is worried about so-called and non-factual white supremacy?  False flag, deflecting attention from the real threats to our nation.  Concluded Mr. Hurt about the bogus Biden white supremacy charge: “Maybe that’s why Mr. Biden wants to pull troops out of Afghanistan.  He wants to redeploy them here at home for his newest global war on terror.”

Concluding this edition of Smart Talk, as we all know, small businesses, the leisure services industry in particular, are having treat difficulty getting enough people of fill their jobs and work.  The key reason: Government unemployment largesse that is effectively paying people to stay home.  John Motta, chairman of the Coalition of Franchisee Associations is reported to have said about our current workplace employment crisis: “The massive increase in unemployment benefits and other government benefits are paying people substantially more money for not working.  This is welfare reform in reverse. We estimate that there will be about 5-million fewer working Americans through October because of the disastrous $1.9-trillion spending bill.”

Well, the Governor of Montana has come up with a solution for his own state. Gov. Greg Gianforte has announced that Montana will be opting out of the federal pandemic unemployment benefits program and replacing it with a return-to-work incentive.  He’s offering a $1,200 “bonus” to those unemployed people “who rejoin the labor force and accept and maintain steady employment for at least one month.”  Said the Governor: “Incentives matter and the vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good.  We need to incentivize Montanans to reenter the workforce.  Our return-to-work bonus and the return to pre-pandemic unemployment programs will help get more Montanans back to work.”  Creative, innovative thinking to attempt to solve this very serious worker problem.  With or without incentives, it appears that a few additional states are also ending that additional virus-driven federal package of unemployment payments, to try to kick-start their own movement of employees back to work.

ADDENDUM:  Regarding inflation, the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, which measures both a variety of consumer goods, energy, and housing, jumped 4.2% in April (vs. April 2020) which is the biggest 12-month rise since the summer of 2008.  (Source: nypost.com, Will Feuer, 5-12-21).

(Inflation possibilities quotes via nationalreview.com, John H. Cochrane & Kevin A. Hassett, 4-26-21; “Equal is unfair” quotes via theepochtimes.com, Adrian Norman, 4-30-21; Southlake rejection of CRT quote via dailymail.com, Keith Griffith, 5-3-21; White supremacy threat quotes via breitbart.com, Charles Hurt, 4-30-21; Montana return to work solution via breitbart.com, Penny Starr, 5-5-21).