Monthly Archives: March 2023

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Daily Broadside | The Regulators Are Running (and Ruining) Your Life

As if doing away with incandescent bulbs back in the early aughts wasn’t enough, now our government minders are going after gas stoves and washing machines.

Biden’s Energy Department last month proposed new efficiency standards for washing machines that would require new appliances to use considerably less water, all in an effort to “confront the global climate crisis.” Those mandates would force manufacturers to reduce cleaning performance to ensure their machines comply, leading industry giants such as Whirlpool said in public comments on the rule. They’ll also make the appliances more expensive and laundry day a headache—each cycle will take longer, the detergent will cost more, and in the end, the clothes will be less clean, the manufacturers say.

The article goes on.

The proposed washing machine rule marks the latest example of the administration turning to consumer regulations to advance its climate change goals. Last month, the Energy Department published an analysis of its proposed cooking appliance efficiency regulations, which it found would effectively ban half of all gas stoves on the U.S. market from being sold. The department has also proposed new efficiency standards for refrigerators, which could come into effect in 2027. “Collectively these energy efficiency actions … support President Biden’s ambitious clean energy agenda to combat the climate crisis,” the Energy Department said in February.

Notice who is proposing these regulations — “Biden’s Energy Department.” The Energy Department, like all federal agencies, was created by an act of Congress in the form of “The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977.” This “department” of the federal government is made up of unelected bureaucrats who use their delegated power to interfere with and to impose their vision of appropriate energy consumption and conservation, even if it is based on something as provably false as so-called “climate change.”

Hence rules about what light bulbs are allowed.

Do you really think the founders had in mind that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT would be involved in making rules about the minutia of everyday life? Do we think this is a good use of our taxpayer dollars — to fund a government organization that has no basis in the U.S. Constitution yet carries the gravitas of a law-making body?

The representatives and senators who created such agencies delegated their power to them which is unconstitutional. Only Congress has the legal authority to make law — but they created a legal method by which they outsourced such rule-making to unelected partisans who increasingly exert more control over our lives and choices.

Instead of letting the market economy do its work, the federal government is picking winners and losers.

The attack on the incandescent bulb is just one item in a laundry list of government regulations and mandates attempting to promote conservation. Energy efficiency standards already exist for vehicles, appliances, and buildings, and recently introduced legislation calls on the Secretary of Energy to identify additional appliances and equipment that “have significant national energy savings potential” to be included for future performance standard mandates.

All of these mandates have unintended consequences that their advocates fail to foresee, including increased energy use. If consumers want a product, the market is capable of providing it.

When the government picks winners and losers, it reduces the incentive for companies to innovate and increases the incentive for companies to lobby the government for special handouts and protections. When the government creates specific mandates and regulations, it purposely narrows the path businesses can take. These policies distort normal market forces and encourage government dependence.

It’s not hard to surmise what motivates these regulatory decisions. In this case, it’s worshiping a false god called “Climate.” Or as Buck Throckmorton calls it, “The Sustainable Organic Church of the Carbon Apocalypse.”

That clause in our Declaration of Independence — “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government” — has never looked more appealing since it was first written.

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Daily Broadside | Are We On the Brink of a Financial Meltdown?

Hey, who changed the clocks?

I’m no financial wizard, so I’m not one to opine as an expert on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on Friday.

California regulators on Friday abruptly shuttered Silicon Valley Bank, closing a 40-year-old financial institution that catered to the tech industry and that was the 16th largest U.S. bank before its sudden collapse. The company’s stock tumbled 60% on Thursday and had plunged another 70% on Friday before trading of its shares was halted. 

The nosedive reflected fears of a bank run, concerns that materialized as depositors — mostly technology company workers and venture capital-backed companies — rushed to withdraw money this week as anxiety over the bank’s balance sheet spread. 

SVB hemorrhaging was stopped only to be followed by the seizure of Signature Bank in New York yesterday.

The New York Department of Financial Services announced Sunday that it has taken possession of Signature Bank and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as the bank’s receiver. The move comes two days after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed as depositors rushed to withdraw funds.

At more than $110 billion in assets, Signature Bank is the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history, the Associated Press reported.

The bank is FDIC-insured and had assets of around $110.36 billion, with total deposits of about $88.59 billion as of Dec. 31, 2022, DFS said in a statement. Both figures were roughly half of what SVB had at the end of 2022, according to the FDIC.

What’s going on? Billionaire investor Bill Ackman:

“SVB’s senior management made a basic mistake. They invested short-term deposits in longer-term, fixed-rate assets. Thereafter short-term rates went up and a bank run ensued. Senior management screwed up and they should lose their jobs,” Ackman wrote.

Of course, the bank blamed other factors, but they can’t escape their own culpability.

SVB, which noted that it would take a $1.8 billion loss on the bond sales, said it needed to take the steps because of higher interest rates and “elevated cash burn levels” by customers. The company also pointed to “pressured public and private markets.”

The bank’s heavy exposure to the tech sector played a part in its downfall, noted Chenxi Wang, founder and general partner of Rain Capital, in an email. Some of its tech company clients were burning through cash faster than expected in early 2023, Silicon Valley Bank said in its March 8 investor letter. That resulted in lower deposits than forecast, according to the bank.

Silicon Valley Bank’s problems were exacerbated by rapidly rising interest rates over the last year, which reduced the value of its bond holdings. 

“The bank also made balance sheet management errors by putting too much money into long-term bonds, which became a problem when interest rates surged,” Wang said. That “caused non-trivial panic.”

The Wall Street Journal’s explanation of what happened:

SVB Financial is the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, which counts many startups and venture-capital firms as clients. During the pandemic, those clients generated a ton of cash that led to a surge in deposits. SVB ended the first quarter of 2020 with just over $60 billion in total deposits. That skyrocketed to just shy of $200 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

[…]

SVB Financial bought tens of billions of dollars of seemingly safe assets, primarily longer-term U.S. Treasurys and government-backed mortgage securities. SVB’s securities portfolio rose from about $27 billion in the first quarter of 2020 to around $128 billion by the end of 2021.

[…]

These securities are at virtually no risk of defaulting. But they pay fixed interest rates for many years. That isn’t necessarily a problem, unless the bank suddenly needs to sell the securities. Because market interest rates have moved so much higher, those securities are suddenly worth less on the open market than they are valued at on the bank’s books. As a result, they could only be sold at a loss.

SVB’s unrealized losses on its securities portfolio at the end of 2022—or the gap between the cost of the investments and their fair value—jumped to more than $17 billion.

SVB locked up their cash in long-term fixed rate bonds and securities. The only way to get that money back is to sell the bonds. The risk is that bonds have an inverse relationship to interest rates. When interest rates go up — say, when the Fed is fighting inflation by raising the rate you pay to borrow money — the price of bonds goes down because they’re not as attractive to investors as new bonds that have higher rates of return on them.

The only way to sell older bonds with lower interest rates is to lower the price of the bonds, which means the original bondholder loses money. And you can’t meet your financial obligations to your customers if you’re losing money on the investment you made using their money.

Fortunately (I think) the Fed is guaranteeing all deposits (paywall).

U.S. regulators took control of a second bank Sunday and announced emergency measures to ease fears depositors might pull their money from smaller lenders after the swift collapse late last week of Silicon Valley Bank.

The measures, which include guaranteeing all deposits of SVB, were designed to shore up wavering confidence in the banking system. They were jointly announced Sunday night by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Let’s remember why the Fed has raised interest rates — because our ruling elite voted to dump trillions of dollars into the economy, driving inflation and a recession. If you give government too much power, they ruin everything they touch.

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Daily Broadside | Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right, Here I Am

It’s Friday and the close of another week of nonsense inflicted on us by the clowns running the show in the three-ring circus called Washington. Lest we forget, there are many types of clowns in politics, all of which were foreshadowed by medieval court jesters. There are the kind, kid-friendly Bozos and Ronald McDonalds, but also the sadistic and evil Pennywises and Twistys. The problem is that one kind is intentionally destroying the country while the other kind is incompetent or unwilling to prevent it.

I often think about where we’re headed as a nation. As a Christian, I have watched the coarsening of our culture and the increasing public hostility toward historic, traditional Judeo-Christian society over the last couple of decades. At the core, the cultural war on our national values is a war on Christianity which is being replaced by a secular humanism whose religion is practiced in the Church of the Perpetually Aggrieved.

This isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that Christians have been scapegoated as the source of ills in society. It happened in the first century, and I thought it might be interesting to read an account of what happened to our brothers and sisters two millennia ago.

From Tacitus in his Annales regarding the Neronian Persecution in A.D. 64. in the wake of the great fire in Rome:

But all the endeavours of men, all the emperor’s largesse and the propitiations of the gods, did not suffice to allay the scandal or banish the belief that the fire had been ordered. And so, to get rid of this rumour, Nero set up as the culprits and punished with the utmost refinement of cruelty a class hated for their abominations, who are commonly called Christians. Christus, from whom their name is derived, was executed at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. Checked for the moment, this pernicious superstition again broke out, not only in Judaea, the source of the evil, but even in Rome, that receptacle for everything that is sordid and degrading from every quarter of the globe, which there finds a following. Accordingly, arrest was first made of those who confessed [sc. to being Christians]; then, on their evidence, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as because of hatred of the human race. Besides being put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clad in the hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed. Nero had thrown open his grounds for the display, and was putting on a show in the circus, where he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or drove about in his chariot. All this gave rise to a feeling of pity, even towards men whose guilt merited the most exemplary punishment; for it was felt that they were being destroyed not for the public good but to gratify the cruelty of an individual.

— Documents of the Christian Church, 2nd Edition, by Henry Bettenson, Oxford, 1963, pp. 1-2.

Why do I share this? I hope to prompt those who believe in Christ to be prepared for what is likely to happen to them as our society drifts further into a lawless — or at least a constitutional-less — future. Be prepared to be persecuted, to be an “object of amusement” being destroyed “not for the public good but to gratify the cruelty of an individual” — or a political party.

We already see evidence of Christians being targeted.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and 19 GOP state attorneys general are demanding answers from the FBI and Justice Department and threatening legal action after a leaked internal FBI memo revealed that the agency had efforts underway to identify and treat Catholics as “potential terrorists.”  …

The memorandum deploys “alarmingly detailed theological distinctions to distinguish between the Catholics whom the FBI deems acceptable, and those it does not,” the AGs write. 

“Among those beliefs which distinguish the bad Catholics from the good ones are a preference for ‘the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings,’ and adherence to traditional Catholic teachings on sex and marriage (which the memorandum glibly describes as ‘anti-LGBTQ.’” …

The AGs state that after defining which Catholics are the dangerous ones, the memo proposes dealing with the bad Catholics through “the development of sources with access,” including in “places of worship.”

But not only are the FBI and DOJ thinking about infiltrating and spying on the Catholic church, but they deliberately targeted a pro-life father and husband who shoved an abortion center worker to the ground who was hostile toward his 12-year-old son. The father, Mark Houck, had previously been cleared of any wrong doing by the local authorities.

The Department of Justice charged Houck with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Those charges stemmed from a 2021 incident when an abortion clinic volunteer repeatedly harassed Mark’s son and Mark, acting on his fatherly instincts, pushed the volunteer. Local authorities ultimately dismissed the matter—until the Biden DOJ re-upped it in response to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Early in the morning of Sept. 23, 2022, the Houck family was startled awake by banging on the front door and the doorbell ringing. Answering the door, Mark came face-to-face with about 15 FBI agents on his property.

This isn’t a case of mistaken identity. This was a deliberate show of force intended to intimidate and send a message to anyone thinking about protesting at an abortion clinic.

We will decide when you are done.

You can expect more of these kinds of incidents now that that boundary has been breached. Christians will ultimately become fair game for the clowns in charge, especially when they resist the regime’s dictates as a matter of conscience — like refusing to get the Chinese Lung Pox jab.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | Another Example of How Our Rulers Hate Us

It’s no secret that the junta currently in power has basically erased our southern border. In fact, a U.S. judge just blocked Brandon and his minions from continuing his “catch and release” formula of enforcement.

U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell in Pensacola blocked the administration from continuing to implement a 2021 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo that had authorized “alternatives to detention” to ease overcrowding in detention facilities. These alternatives included ankle bracelets, phone monitoring or check-ins by immigration officers. Republican critics have called the policy “catch and release.”

Wetherell, appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump, said federal immigration authorities lack the power to implement those alternatives on a widespread basis under existing law. The judge agreed with the argument made by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who challenged the policy.

“Defendants have effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country,” Wetherell wrote, referring to non-U.S. citizens who cross the border illegally.

It’s nice that someone other than I finally said it, although it’s not going to make much of a difference. The Democrats and their cabal hate America, hate Americans, and are only in it for the power to destroy what was once the most powerful nation in history, all in the name of “equity.”

Until we get there, we’ll just have to put up with the disdain our sovereignty, our culture and our national symbols are shown by the hordes of foreigners flooding the fruited plain.

Two suspected illegal immigrants shot and killed a bald eagle with the intention of cooking it for dinner, and the town’s sheriff whose department arrested them says federal authorities, who could keep them behind bars, won’t return his calls.

I’m sorry, did I say the disdain of foreigners? I meant the disdain of our ruling class.

The incident has left Stanton County, Neb., residents “disturbed” and “offended,” county sheriff Mike Unger told the Washington Free Beacon. And as of right now, the two suspects are allowed to roam the country freely. The two men were charged with misdemeanors, and Nebraska law dictates the pair can’t be held in jail before their March 28 trial.

“The country.”

Right. We have two foreign nationals who have no permanent address, apparently no money, who don’t speak English and who brought a gun with them (later identified as an air rifle) to use in hunting dinner for themselves like the peasants in the third-world hellhole they come from, driving around “the country.”

“Freely.”

The murder of the once-endangered bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, occurred on Feb. 28 after Stanton County police officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle outside of the Wood Duck State Wildlife Management. Officers at the scene discovered two Honduran nationals carrying the dead bird. They spoke no English and carried no form of identification other than documents from the Honduran consulate, Unger said.

Another report said they “cut off the bird’s feet, intending to ‘make the talons into ornaments.'” But don’t you be “disturbed” or “offended” just because two foreign men who are here illegally are riding around the country shooting the national symbol of American might and power for dinner and for making dope jewelry.

Killing a bald eagle is a violation of the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a federal law that carries a punishment of up to one year in prison. Federal authorities must bring those charges—in this case the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But Unger says he’s reached out repeatedly to the agency and has gotten only silence. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not respond to a request for comment …

There is precedent for federal charges to be brought against bald eagle murderers. In June, a 79-year-old Tuscarawas County, Ohio, man pleaded guilty to killing a bald eagle while hunting groundhogs on his property. The man was forced to pay a $10,000 fine to the court and another $10,000 in restitution to the Fish and Wildlife Service. He was also barred from hunting for five years.

And in 2017 the feds brought charges against a 62-year-old Virginia man for shooting and killing a bald eagle. The man also ran over the bird with his all-terrain vehicle and said he was “upset it had been hunting and taking fish from a pond located on his property.”  The man was sentenced to a month of house arrest and 100 hours of community service along with fines totaling $2,000.

It’s okay for a foreigner to violate our sovereignty and even kill a member of our national bird, but don’t try it if you’re an American citizen!

This illegitimate administration allows progressive anarchists to burn down our cities, pull down our statues and incite racial animosity while allowing millions of foreigners to simply walk into our country and do whatever the hell they want.

This kind of deliberate sabotage of American culture and history is irreversible.

You may think I’m trafficking in hyperbole when I say, as I did yesterday, that we’re no longer about to drive off a cliff, but that we have in fact driven off of it and are hurtling in freefall toward the canyon floor. It’s now just a matter of time and how hard the impact will be—and whether anyone who remembers how it used to be survives.

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Daily Broadside | The Armed Insurrection Lie and the Evil Liars Who Sold It

“It almost seems like the narrative was created in advance.” — Julie Kelly

Everyone knows that the Democrats, legacy media and NeverTrumpers (surely, I repeat myself) have crafted a scripted narrative about what happened on January 6, 2021, calling it an “armed insurrection,” a “violent insurrection,” an event worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11, and because we almost lost our precious democracy (*spit*).

No doubt there was violence, but there were less than a handful of protesters charged with carrying a handgun during the breach — hardly what you’d call an armed mob. And three of them weren’t even at the “insurrection” but arrested later. I understand the energy of the crowd, but there is no way it can be characterized as an insurrection, either armed or violent, when it was not a coordinated attack nor when the only people who died on that day were members of the crowd, at least one (and probably two) of whom were murdered by Capitol Hill Police.

I watched Tucker last night for the second part of his report on the January 6 “riot” as he reveals the pertinent video footage from nearly 44,000 hours of video that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave him access to. Carlson is demonstrating once again that Democrats and their lap dogs in the media are lying to us.

[On Monday] Carlson exposed falsehoods that bolster key animating aspects of January 6 including the movements of Jacob Chansley; the activity of still-uncharged agitator Ray Epps; the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick; alleged “reconnaissance tours” conducted by House Republicans the day before; the “escape” of Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.); and the overall deceptiveness of the January 6 Select Committee. “Taken as a whole, the video record does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection,” Carlson explained. “In fact, it demolishes that claim. And that’s exactly why the Democratic Party and its allies in the media prevented you from seeing it.”

Julie Kelly of American Greatness has been doing a yeoman’s job of actual journalism about the January 6 events and particularly about the persecution of what amounts to political prisoners who still languish in Gestapo Garland’s Archipelago.

American Greatness first reported Chansley’s peaceful interaction with Capitol Police officers in May 2021. Chansely spent more than 300 days in solitary confinement conditions under court-ordered pretrial detention before finally accepting an offer to plead guilty to the nonviolent offense of obstruction of an official proceeding. In announcing his sentence in November 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth described Chansley, a Navy veteran with no criminal record and a history of mental disorders, as the “epitome” of January 6 and insisted his conduct was “horrific.” (Chansley was not charged with a violent crime.) He is currently serving a 41 month prison term.

There was also the lie of CHP officer Brian Sicknick who, it was first claimed, was killed when a fire extinguisher thrown by rioters hit him in the head. We’ve known that wasn’t true, but the video shown by Carlson proves it.

American Greatness has also covered the lies about what happened to Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, first raising doubts about the account of his death as early as February 2021. The media, Justice Department, leading Democrats, and the January 6 select committee claim Sicknick died as a result of scuffles with protesters that afternoon. But Carslon played a never-before-seen video of Sicknick walking around the inside of the building after the alleged attack where he appears to be healthy. A man from New Jersey, Julian Khater, pleaded guilty to spraying Sicknick with pepper spray after spending 18 months in the D.C. Gulag. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

Matt Vespa at Town Hall adds:

The shoddy nature of these narratives constructed to score political points against Republicans and give the DOJ cause to ruin the lives of people with whom the current administration disagrees was exposed as soon as Officer Brian Sicknick’s death was ruled to be natural causes. This came months after the media smeared the protestors for killing this man. It was the first domino to fall and a major clue that everything that had been reported by liberal outlets about January 6 was wrong. Months later, that suspicion has been confirmed.

If these lies and propaganda efforts were conducted in some communist nation like Russia or Venezuela, we’d shake our heads and think “how terrible.” This kind of cheap political hit job is now being done here in our country, formerly known as the United States of America. I’m not sure what we are now, but we’re approximating a third-world dictatorship where truth is suppressed and political enemies are destroyed with propaganda and kangaroo courts.

The worst of it is that none of these Marxist liars, including Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer and turncoats Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, will ever be punished for their subversion. It’s a Uniparty, with the exception of a few. Even Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, calls January 6 a violent insurrection (linked above).

We’re not about to go over a cliff. The cliff is behind us and we’re dropping into the abyss. Unless something radical happens, I am not optimistic about our near future.

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Daily Broadside | Chicagoans Kick Lightfoot to the Curb

One of the things you’ll come to realize if you pay attention to politics long enough is that progressives — overwhelmingly Democrats — ruin everything they touch. Everything.

Public grade schools and high schools? Check.

Universities and colleges? Check.

Music and visual arts? Check.

Religion? Check.

Race relations? Check.

Sports? Check.

The Miss America pageant? Check.

The Boy Scouts? Check.

The military? Check.

Late night comedy? Check.

Classic books? Check.

Marriage and family? Check.

Free speech? Check.

Light bulbs? Check.

This is especially true of cities that haven’t elected a Republican or a conservative (there is often a difference) in years. Think of Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. All basket cases resembling third-world hellholes with homelessness, violence, urban decay and vacant city centers.

Enter Lori Lightfoot, the FIRST BLACK FEMALE LESBIAN mayor of Chicago, and now the FIRST BLACK FEMALE LESBIAN MAYOR of Chicago to lose reelection. According to the Daily Mail,

Following her concession speech, a reporter asked her if she was treated unfairly because of her race and gender, with Lightfoot answering: ‘I’m a black woman in America. Of course.’ 

The race card. And the misogyny card. And probably the unapproved sexuality card, too. If that’s all true, then how did she get elected four years ago? Did Chicago replace all its voters?

I’m sure it had nothing to do with the increase in violent crime by 52 percent over the course of her tenure.

Under Lightfoot, Chicago has seen soaring crime rates, which became a theme of her opponents’ criticism. In 2021, homicides in Chicago rose to their highest numbers in 25 years, outpacing other crime-ridden cities like New York City and Los Angeles. 

Throughout her tenure, the mayor has been blasted for her poor relationship with law enforcement, as the city’s police department lost a significant number of officers in recent years amid the rise in crime.

Vacancies in the city are up to 30 percent as businesses flee the crime, along with other disastrous metrics.

Ultimately, there was a 59 percent increase in murder citywide when comparing the 9th week of 2023 to the same time-period four years ago, which is right when Lightfoot was heading to a runoff with Toni Preckwinkle.

The four-year change also shows a 27 percent increase in robbery, 31 percent increase in theft and a massive 270 percent increase in the number of motor vehicle thefts.

In addition to rising crime – Lightfoot has overseen vacancy rates of nearly 30 percent after flagship stores on the Magnificent Mile bailed.

Huge brands like Macy’s, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap, Uniqlo and Timberland have all fled large premises since Covid shutdowns and ensuing riots. 

Some of the stores were also victims to the series of mass looting incidents that plauged major cities in 2021 and 2022.  

Many were driven away by soaring crime and violence, with the vacancy rate on the once tony shopping strip rising 10-fold since 2016, when it sat at just 3.6 percent, to the current 30.1 percent vacancy rate. 

The Magnificent Mile’s vacancy rate was under five percent just six years ago, according to NBC Chicago. 

So, ackshully, furreal!, Lightfoot getting the boot wasn’t due to any of these metrics but the fact that there are tens of thousands of racists and misogynists and homophobes in the city.

This really is MAGA country.

Leftists ruin everything they touch, then blame everyone but themselves when they suffer for it.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | To Blog or Not to Blog. That is the Question

It’s March 2023 and I’m starting the last month of my initial investment in this blog. If I keep going, I will have to renew a plan with my hosting company in the next 30 days.

When I started this blog on April Fool’s Day 2020, I wrote:

I’m launching daveolsson.com today without much fanfare but with a specific end in mind: becoming part of our national conversation about culture and politics. …

  1. I have a point of view that I think is under-represented in the national conversation. As a politically conservative evangelical Christian, not only is my point of view unappreciated by the culture at large, but the loudest voices seem to be openly hostile to such a viewpoint.
  2. I believe that whether or not my voice is “winning” in the marketplace of ideas, more citizens like me need to speak up. I’m nobody special; just a guy with a love of God and country who has a keyboard and an Internet connection. But there’s a lot of us out here and we need to be heard.

Over the years I’ve learned to be candid about what I think. Some people like it, some people don’t. For me, it’s too much work to make sure everybody’s happy. What you read here is one guy’s take on our shared American life as one nation, under God.

Here are some quick random notes about my experience off the top of my head:

  • I feel like after three years, I’m (finally) finding my voice, and my rhythm, as a blogger.
  • My audience size has remained modest (eh … relatively small). That’s okay because I knew it would take a while to build a following. Thanks to all of you for being a part of getting this project stood up — you’re like founding members or something!
  • When a reader provides feedback on the blog, either in the comments or offline, it is very encouraging because, on balance, it’s been a solitary effort without many cues to guide me. Is it making a difference? Is it having an impact on how people think?
  • I originally thought I’d do more long-form essay writing, but I’ve found that’s not practical since I can only blog in my discretionary time (which is limited). I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon.

Essentially, the blog is my running commentary on faith, culture and politics, using reports from a variety of sources as my slush pile. There is so much outlandish thinking and behavior in our country that I never seem to be at a loss for something to respond to.

One of the things I’d like to increase is the connection between what I’m reading and what the Bible has to say about it. Sometimes it’s obvious, but other times it’s more subtle. Eventually I’d like to start more often than not with a biblical theme and show how we ignore or honor it in our culture.

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All that to say that I’m thinking seriously about extending the life of this blog and would love to hear from you, my readers and subscribers. Tell me what you value about it and where you think I can do better.

While I never expect to make a living doing this, I’m considering adding a donation link (some blogs call it a “tip jar”) to help keep the lights on by covering the minimal costs of running my daily rag. Even a $10 donation per year from a reader or $2 per month would be a vote of confidence in the value of my work. Super affordable! Put a few of those donations together and suddenly it feels like a group effort.

Let me know if you’d entertain such an opportunity.

I’m proud of having done this for three years, making my best effort to write five days a week. I’ll be making a decision soon on whether to keep going.