The new year is off to a bizarre start. My last post featured Paul Erlich’s debunked “Population Bomb” theory as an example of a phony crisis. The book was published decades ago, so I was going back in history to make a point. I later learned that Paul Erhlich appeared on 60 Minutes simultaneously with my post. Here he is on the nation’s best known News Show, again spouting that the sky is falling. Too many people doom us at a time of Global Warming.

Winner of multiple Emmys and writer’s guild awards, Scot Peely, conducted the interview. The 60 Minute anchor intently listened while Erhlich told us we faced extinction. Peely, as an example of species extinction, cuts to an interview with a Native American lamenting salmon extinction. Charged with grilling Salmon for our non-meat eaters on Christmas Day, I found no lack of Salmon choices. Just the opposite, plenty of steaks and fillets. Somehow this had something to do with our causing biodiversity loss, dooming us.

Species are always going extinct. Sometimes humans are responsible. If early North American inhabitants hadn’t hunted horses to extinction, they might not have had to wait for Spaniards to reintroduce them. 

The interview highlighted every point I attempted to make in my last post. Propagandists posing as journalists with awards attesting to their abilities continue disproven narratives.

 Wikipedia devotes a whole section to the bet, but this supposed great journalist couldn’t find it? Scott Pelly should have made more effort to provide Erhlichs’s challenging back history. No mention of his humiliating wager loss to Julian Simon.

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My last post noted leaders on both the left and the right tell whoppers, but only the right punishes. The left not only stands fast behind their lies but actively works to suppress embarrassing facts. What accounts for this disparity? The answer may reside in society’s historical makeup. 

My series on “The Long Journey To More” stated there were only three ways to gain”More,” take it from somebody else, trade, or innovate. Before the 15th century, the first two were prevalent. Innovation was a slow and uneven process. The wheeled axle took many thousands of years to develop. The idea only made it to the new world after Columbus.

As people became agrarian and settled out of necessity, humankind across the world formed stratified societies. The lack of materials limited the ability to read, write and use numbers to less than 10% of any population. Because they knew the literate dominated. 

The educated group was mostly hereditary and governed, ran the military, and performed religious functions. As a result, most of the good things in life accrued to them. The rest of humanity led near-subsistence lives. 

The exceptions to this elite-peasant split were artisans and traders. Reading, writing, and arithmetic likely started with these people. The necessity to record and total transactions or make measurements demanded a specific literacy.   

Change threatens the stability of privileged positions; it enhances the prospects of others. Of course, this meant tension between the relatively comfortable elite and those striving to do things better and more profitable. Accommodations between these classes were constant to reduce friction. Still, the two made up the literate one in ten.

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Few things are more upsetting than people lying to you when both know it’s a lie. Pushing falsehoods is more important than telling you the truth.

We went through this in the midterm election with Trump-backed candidates. They signed on to the “Big Steal,” the lie the former President lost unfairly. Even though there is no evidence of any cheating, that would’ve changed the outcome. Adhering to this falsehood is the litmus test for Trump’s support. With his endorsement, a primary victory is possible. It worked. Even with lesser qualifications, those toeing the Trump line made it on the ballot.

However, the people signing on to the lies to get ahead mostly lost. People rightly conclude you’re loyalties aren’t to us. Voters made their displease known by sending candidates down in flames.

As I recently pointed out, those administering the pain to these prevaricators were Republicans and like-minded independents. We know this because those turned off by the lies voted for other Republicans that avoided them. 

The punishment for the liar candidates isn’t only they lost, but most likely lost any future in public service. Republican voters meted their retribution to those lying to their faces, and they won’t forget.

The burning question is why Democrat leaders and their media allies can tell whoppers and Democratic voters not only accept them but cheer them. They put out stories, such as Trump’s Russian collusion, Afghan’s withdrawal success, and Hunter Biden’s laptop being a Russian plot. Covid-related falsehoods and ignoring the border problems. All wrong, but none punished. For instance, our Afgan withdrawal was an unmitigated disaster, leading to the Ukraine war. Yet, not one person involved has lost their job. 

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On his Saturday CNN TV show, Michael Smerconish had as a guest Victoria Cobb, the Christian organization’s President, that was refused service by a Virginia restaurant. The host acknowledged the Restaurant was wrong, but he saw no difference between its action and the marriage website designer, Lori Smith, in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis before the Supreme Court. He held that both the Restaurant and Smith broke the law. 

This conclusion is a jolt coming from a lawyer. Even more shocking, his stance mirrors Supreme court justice Sonia Sottameyer. “This would be the first time in the court’s history,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in the 303 case oral, that it may rule that “a commercial business open to the public, serving the public, that it could refuse to serve a customer based on race, sex, religion or sexual orientation.”

Our anti-discrimination laws are rooted in the refusal to serve southern blacks at lunch counters. If your menu offers items for sale, you must not discriminate. It’s a simple contract, the Restaurant proffers, and you agree to pay the asked price. We do the vast majority of transactions this way. Refuse certain groups, and you’re breaking the law.

Failing to honor the Christian group’s reservation is prohibited. The Restaurant offered its menu and accommodations to all. The group agreed to pay. Nothing in the transaction required any further meeting of the minds.

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My first thought after the election was how could so many voters chose to leave the Senate in Democratic hands and give the Republicans only a slim majority in the House. This outcome seemed to let the most inept administration since Buchanan off the hook. However, given a few weeks for reflection, my admiration for the electorate’s wisdom and precision has grown by leaps and bounds.

The expected Red Wave would’ve served as a solid rebuke of the Biden Administration and sent a message to shape up, but it never happened. Joe Biden is taking a victory lap. So how can this be a good thing?

If the Republicans swept the toss-up contests, especially in the Senate, Donald Trump would be the one crowing. The oddball candidates he backed in the primaries would be headed to D.C. The power of his endorsement led to electoral success. Those opposing him and his acolytes are doomed to failure.

Under those circumstances, Trump’s Presidential run announcement might have given pause to other contenders. Surrounded by newly elected Senators and Representatives owing their fortunes to “the Donald,” he’d appear formidable.

On the other hand, after suffering a massive rejection at the polls, Biden would be planning retirement rather than a re-election campaign. Possible younger ’24 Democratic candidates would be coming out of the woodwork.

The 2024 Presidential race pits an aging and increasingly erratic Donald Trump against a much younger Democrat. After Biden’s doddering performance, many people would favor someone in the prime of life. A big field with no clear leader may open the door for the formidable Michelle Obama. This prospect has to have more appeal than running an 82-year-old against a somewhat younger Trump or an able younger Republican.

Republicans running both houses of congress but accomplishing little in the face of Biden’s vetoes opens them up to Truman-like rants against a “do-nothing congress.”

As it turns out, Biden is unlikely to leave the “world’s biggest stage.” In his mind, the election validated his policies and those of his supporters. He still looks like he could beat the ex-president but no one else. Biden is strengthening his position by reordering the Democratic primaries by putting his strong states early. If he didn’t intend to run, why bother?

As most Republicans are pro-life, abortion wasn’t a deciding issue. With almost surgical skill, voters gave successful public servants but non-Trump acolytes solid victories. Those that carried the Trump torch, running on the same ticket, crashed and burned. One can only conclude they didn’t care for Trump’s antics and split their vote that way.

Instead of fronting a large group of loyal winners when he announced his ’24 run, Trump seemed lonely and pathetic. Rather than providing a path to victory, Trump is the kiss of death. Not the profile Republicans want to lead the part in ’24.

A Trump enemy possibly saving Trump’s pick is ironic. The Georgia Senate race illustrates how far Trump has fallen. If Herschel Walker wins, it would be because Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp put his organization behind him. The same Kemp Trump tried to destroy in the primaries. Whether Walker wins or loses, Trump is Humbled.

As I’ve pointed out previously, parties only exist to win elections. Just as sports teams only exist in pursuit of victory, they look for winners to put them on top. Nobody hires losers to head them. Trump’s overall record says loser.”

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