Why Are Things Unaffordable?
Posted By: DVC, 11/9/2025 1:12:06 PM
With the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York, much conversation has been made of his appeal to “affordability.” As I’ve written previously, this is a noble conversation, but one that has been dishonestly framed (by Democrats and media) to date. [snip] First let’s look at the role that government has already played and its effect on affordability. What areas in the economy have seen the greatest increase in costs for the consumer? Education, housing, healthcare, and food. ronically, these are all areas of the economy that the government has interjected itself in the form of subsidies, regulations, government-backed loans, and transfer payments.
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We all remember mid-2020 through all of 2021 when every news channel, it seemed, had a running scoreboard with the daily infections and daily deaths allegedly caused by COVID-19, remaining pinned as a sidebar even when the stories being covered were wholly independent from the ‘pandemic’. [snip]
That publication went as far as quoting an In-Q-Tel employee, Luciana Borio, saying that the “CDC normally ‘gets the ball rolling’ with diagnostics because it has the expertise and the biosafety laboratories to handle dangerous novel level pathogens. In-Q-Tel was the “first government-sponsored venture capital firm” chartered by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Why Are Things Unaffordable?
18 replies
With the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York, much conversation has been made of his appeal to “affordability.”
As I’ve written previously, this is a noble conversation, but one that has been dishonestly framed (by Democrats and media) to date. [snip]
First let’s look at the role that government has already played and its effect on affordability. What areas in the economy have seen the greatest increase in costs for the consumer? Education, housing, healthcare, and food. ronically, these are all areas of the economy that the government has interjected itself in the form of subsidies, regulations, government-backed loans, and transfer payments.
A North Dakota judge has ordered Greenpeace to pay damages of $345 million, reducing an earlier jury award after it found the environmental group and related entities liable for defamation and other claims in connection with protests of an oil pipeline nearly a decade ago.
The new amount is roughly half the $667 million that a jury previously awarded to the pipeline company that brought the claims, Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access.
Greenpeace had asked State District Judge James Gion to rule in its favor on various claims before recalculating the damages. In granting some requests, the judge cited no evidence to review or duplicative damages
There have been countless examples of liberalism being a mental disorder. Here is another one: Two researchers from Western Michigan University have written a paper [snip] The paper argues that intentionally spreading alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat, could be not only morally defensible, but perhaps even necessary, in order to reduce animal suffering and combat climate change. Here are the authors, Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth, in their own words: Because promoting tickborne AGS prevents something bad from happening, doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, and promotes virtuous action or character, it follows that promoting tickborne AGS is strongly pro tanto (‘to that extent’) morally obligatory.
Walmart announced that it will eliminate synthetic dyes, along with 30 other ingredients, from its store-branded products by 2027.
In a press release on Wednesday, the company explained that the synthetic dyes would be removed from Great Value, Marketside, Freshness Guaranteed, and bettergoods products.
The synthetic dyes being removed are FD&C Blue 1, FD&C Blue 2, FD&C Green 3, FD&C Red 3, FD&C Red 4, FD&C Red 40, FD&C Yellow 5, FD&C Yellow 6, FD&C Citrus Red, FD&C Orange B, and Canthaxanthin.
Other ingredients to be removed from Walmart store-branded products included Titanium Dioxide, Azodicarbonamide, Dicotyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate (DSS), Sucrose Polyester, Toluene, Anisole, Lye, Butylparaben, and Calcium Bromate, among others.
On September 14 in The Media, Charlie Kirk and guns, I engaged in a bit of informed speculation about the reported Mauser 98 rifle alleged to have been used in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I also suggested that if the assassin had never fired the rifle, if it was not properly zeroed for him, it’s likely hitting Kirk in the neck was an indication that he nearly missed. This assumes the killer was aiming for a chest or head shot.
Now we know the rifle was a Mauser 98, apparently “sporterized” by adding a modern polymer stock and what appears to be a relatively low-powered, inexpensive scope.
In his latest book, Lions & Scavengers, Ben Shapiro’s general thesis is that the people of the world can be placed into one of two groups: Lions and Scavengers. Conveying this theory using shorthand, Lions align with the typical American Thinker reader; they revel in the spirit of productivity, of creation, of success, of responsibility, of moral duty. Lions have merciful hearts. They have a healthy respect for tradition but are also great innovators. Scavengers, by contrast, are too angry and envious to be innovative. They are eternally revolting against nature, against authority, against the norms that make healthy civilizations function.
Her bravery has inspired the world. But in her hometown, her actions have met a muted response. To find out the truth, I visited the exact place in Dundee where the now-famous video of the Scottish lassie defending herself and her sister was taken. What I saw left me deeply shaken.
Dundee, a port city north of Edinburgh in Scotland, has been in slow-motion decline since the late 19th century. The intricately carved sandstone facades of its historic buildings are the only reminder of its glory days, when it was the world’s centre of jute fabric production.
A Degree of Perceived Nuisance
8 replies
Britain is being roiled by protests against its government’s feckless immigration policies. Enormous numbers of “asylum seekers” have been welcomed into that country, fed and housed. A disproportionate number of those migrants are single men, and many native Britons understandably see their presence as an invasion that is being abetted by their own government. The commission of many sex crimes by these migrants has been the chief source of unrest.
In a reversal of one of the most prominent biomedical investment trends of the past five years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on August 5 a coordinated wind-down of its mRNA vaccine development efforts under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). To be clear, it is not a ban on mRNA, but the changes carry significant repercussions for mRNA vaccine research.
The decision affects 22 federal vaccine projects and nearly $500 million in research and development contracts. It follows what HHS described as a “comprehensive review” of data from mRNA-related initiatives launched during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
One of the places I visited during a trip to the Balkans in June was a large nuclear bunker complex on the outskirts of Tiranë, the capital of Albania. It’s a massive underground structure—five stories, 106 rooms, and a two-story-high assembly hall, all covering 32,000 square feet—and was built in the 1970s during the height of the Cold War to shelter Albania’s Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha and his inner circle. Dug by hand, the bunker claimed the lives of many laborers.
One could see it as the culmination of the many smaller domed concrete bunkers scattered across Albania’s landscape, cities, and beaches.
A computer is only as good as the data you put into it. That warning from the early days of computing -- garbage in, garbage out -- has never been more relevant than in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
AI now drives everything from search engines to image generators, yet instead of providing objective, data-backed insights, it too often parrots progressive narratives, twisting facts to match feelings.
Case in point: despite U.S. Census Bureau data indicating that over 75% of Americans identify as white, AI-generated images of “typical Americans” often show mostly non-white groups. This isn’t intelligence. It’s indoctrination, built into algorithms by ideologues in Silicon Valley.
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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has elected Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City as its new president, signaling conservative continuity with a pastoral approach. However, Coakley criticizes Trump-era mass deportations, urging humane immigration policies and pathways to citizenship. With millions of Catholic immigrants potentially in the crosshairs and the Church’s teachings on human dignity clashing with hardline policies, Coakley’s past statements are already drawing scrutiny – and offering clues about what’s ahead.
Kamala Harris is back once again with an extremely interesting new angle on her 2024 election failure.
Her memoir "107 Days" was released a couple of months ago, and she is about to wrap up her book tour (one that Democrats aren't too wild about, by the way) with a final stop on November 20. Not too terribly long ago, Harris told Stephen Colbert she was stepping away from politics because the "system is broken" — only to tease a 2028 run at the end of October.
Federal agents in Chicago are facing a nightmare most of us can’t imagine: a violent street gang has literally issued a “shoot-on-sight” order against them. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Latin Kings have targeted immigration enforcement officers working in the city, leading the agency to warn its teams to use “extreme caution.”
Shots were fired. Agents’ vehicles were rammed. Bricks and paint cans were thrown at Border Patrol trucks in the Little Village neighborhood during ongoing immigration operations. This isn’t happening in some failed foreign state. It’s happening on American streets.
How Climate Change Can Lead to Earthquakes
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Climate change does its damage in a lot of ways—birthing hurricanes, heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires. Now add to that list earthquakes, continental rifting—or breakup—and magma production. That’s the conclusion of a new paper in Scientific Reports, which adds to a growing agreement among scientists that the Earth’s atmospheric processes can affect its geological processes in surprising ways.
“Ultimately, plate tectonic forces play the dominant role in driving continental rifting,” says geologist James Muirhead, senior lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and lead author of the paper. “However, our study shows that climate plays a key role in modulating the rate
Jack Schlossberg rips ‘dangerous’
cousin RFK Jr. as JFK grandson launches
campaign for Congress 15 replies
cousin RFK Jr. as JFK grandson launches
campaign for Congress 15 replies
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, kicked off the first day of his campaign for the House of Representatives Wednesday by ranting against his “rabid dog” cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “RFK Jr. is a dangerous person who is making life and death decisions as secretary of Health and Human Services,” Schlossberg, 32, told MSNBC in an interview. “And you don’t have to take my word for it. Now we have an actual record to go on. He has cut a quarter of the people who work in his agency. He fired all the vaccine experts on
A British businessman who threatened to “gang-rape” and set fire to a flight attendant has had his jail sentence tripled after an appeals court ruled it was far too lenient.
Salman Iftikhar, 37, was traveling first class from London Heathrow to Lahore with his three children and one of his wives in February 2023 when he turned violent midair.
After downing champagne and helping himself to ice from the on-board bar, crew members told him to return to his seat.
When told to stop, the defendant became irate, and started to film cabin crew with his phone, telling them, ‘Do not tell me what to do, you b—h,’” a court heard.
Tracking China in the Americas: Hongqi
Bridge Is Falling Down — and Everything
Else Is Too 15 replies
Bridge Is Falling Down — and Everything
Else Is Too 15 replies
Welcome to the fourth installment of my "Tracking China in the Americas" series, in which I cover some underreported stories on China's footprint in the Western Hemisphere. I actually had something different planned for this week — a deep dive into how China is reaching out to young people in the Western Hemisphere — but when I saw this bridge fall, I knew I had to switch gears. Anything to point out what China does wrong should spread far and wide. So, check back in next week for the young people stuff. Let's get to the Hongqi Bridge.
You may have seen it on social media, but a portion
VIDEO: James Carville Wants to Run a ‘Convicted
Pedophile’ Against a Republican Candidate 14 replies
Pedophile’ Against a Republican Candidate 14 replies
Democrat strategist James Carville is apparently not above running a criminal in a political campaign just to see if that person could win against a Republican candidate.
Carville made his statement during a recent podcast episode of Politics War Room when he responded to a statement about Virginia.
“By the way, if we won the attorney general’s race, I’m personally going to find a convicted pedophile and run him in a race just to see if he could beat a Republican. I’m not sure. I’m not going to say they’re convicted, a convicted pedophile. And by the way, the guy that was running against him ran a pretty good campaign,” Carville said:
Barack Obama accused of destroying national
landmark to build brutalist monument —
to himself 13 replies
landmark to build brutalist monument —
to himself 13 replies
What kind of US president demolishes a cherished piece of American history in order to build a shrine to himself? That’s what many Chicagoans are asking — and they aren’t talking about President Trump’s East Wing demolition to make way for a White House ballroom. Locals are still trying to make sense of the $850 million Obama Presidential Center, dubbed “The Obamalisk,” which broke ground in Chicago’s historic Jackson Park in 2021 and will be finished next Spring. “Obama, of all people, should not be building a palace for himself, a fortress in the middle of a public park. It’s just contrary to what I thought he believed in,”
A key Atlantic current could be pushed to the brink of collapse within decades, supposedly ushering in a new ice age and dramatically raising sea levels, climate scientists have claimed in a controversial new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
The apocalyptic predictions came as a result of a collaboration between researchers at the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) and the University of California, San Diego — weeks after one-time climate alarmist Bill Gates publicly downplayed the impact of temperature fluctuations on the planet.
Crumbling Consensus On Climate? Americans
Vote ‘No Confidence’ In Latest U.N.
Talks: I&I/TIPP Poll 13 replies
Vote ‘No Confidence’ In Latest U.N.
Talks: I&I/TIPP Poll 13 replies
Voters have little confidence that anything significant will emerge from this month’s global climate talks that begin in Brazil this week, but they are also split on what the best course forward would be, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
The latest I&I/TIPP Poll, taken from Oct. 28 to Oct. 31, asked 1,418 adults the following question: “How confident are you that the upcoming United Nations climate talks (COP30) in Brazil, with a goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance, will succeed in curbing global warming?”
Overall, just 34% said they were either “very confident” (11%) or “somewhat confident” (23%),
So a Chinese fraudster connected to Communist intelligence services wandered in from Canada and bought a trailer park next door to a stealth bomber base in Missouri.
This is not the opening line of a surreal joke.
Whiteman Air Force Base is home to our tiny fleet of B-2 bombers, and yet an RV park just a mile away "is one of several properties near U.S. military interests acquired by a web of shell companies, which are ultimately owned by a couple who live in Canada and belong to organizations controlled by disgraced Chinese tycoon and self-described former CCP intelligence 'affiliate,' Miles Guo," according to a bombshell Daily Caller report.
Comments:
Other People's Money......destroying the markets for many things. And the prices go up massively, where there are no actual free market choices.....just OPM, so who cares what it costs?