Quote of the week
“While it might not be popular to say in the wake of the recent social disorder, the true plight of black people has little or nothing to do with the police or what has been called ‘systemic racism.’ Instead, we need to look at the responsibilities of those running our big cities.” — Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University.
NOTE: Any Soap Box material written by Buddy may be copied and forwarded to family and friends. Material from other sources is usually copyrighted but likely can be shared so long as it is not changed or abridged and the publisher is properly credited, including the link to their site.
Buddy’s Soap Box
A patriotic Texas howdy from Buddy
The recently reported 4.2% increase in the consumer price index is the highest in 40 years. If this trend continues, a 20% increase in consumer prices is possible for 2021.
Inflation acts as an additional tax, and here’s how it works in the simplest terms possible, terms that all but a woke economist can understand.
If you print too much money, it is worthless. We’ve been printing too much. It started under Obama with his quantitative easing (just a fancy word for printing fake billions), was continued under Trump, and now has gone steroid under Jimmy Carter Biden.
Mind you, no one really printed these billions and trillions. We live in the digital age and all these smoke and mirror dollars are flat out digital. Someone at the Fed keyboards in as many zeros after a one as required, and the federal government has all the money it needs to solve every wish and ill abroad in the land. Problem is, as socialists and communists and morons never understand, fake dollars breed inflation, the more dollars the greater and quicker coming is inflation. Notice gasoline prices are rising? Notice the price of everything is going up?
Now, back to that simple illustration of inflation that all but woke economists can understand.
Imagine an economy distilled to a simple double element—product (10 hamburgers) and earnings ($10). All other things being equal, in such an economy, hamburgers are $1 ea. Now introduce inflation with no corresponding increase in the number of hamburgers grilled. Government puts 10 more dollars into the economy ($20 total). But no more hamburgers, just the original 10. Now a hamburger is $2 (100% inflation). Jump to $100 keyed into the economy and a hamburger is now ten times more expensive, $100 (1,000% inflation).
Sound outlandish? In Germany following World War I, that country tried to print its way out of poverty with the result that citizens ended up needing a wheelbarrow full of bank notes in order to buy a loaf of bread. Things got so bad that the people of Germany ended up picking Hitler as the man best suited to return them to prosperity. We all know how that turned out, and it began with woke fascism and the brutal suppression of free thought and speech.
Do we really want to go that route with Biden and his woke Democrats and their Antifa/Black Lives Matter acolytes?
Other Items in the News
The Texas Public Policy Foundation (Soap Box, and honest citizens everywhere) resoundingly rejects the “For the People Act” (H.R. 1), as “Unconstitutional legislation that would dangerously distort our system of ensuring free and fair elections. The proposal would unconstitutionally federalize the election process in states, create illegal mandates related to the maintenance of voter rolls, hamstring a state’s ability to verify voter identity, and overturn the states’ 10th Amendment power to decide on eligibility and receipt deadlines for mail-in ballots.
“Americans should be aware of this dangerous and irresponsible policy some members of Congress wish to impose upon the people,” said TPPF Executive Director Kevin Roberts. “It removes all accountability from our elected representatives in favor of unelected bureaucrats and muzzles free speech by limiting peaceful assembly, restricting contributions, and prohibiting anonymous political memberships. It is an all-out attack on democracy, federalism, and nearly every cornerstone of American liberty.”
Wrong again. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), according to the New York Times, is wrong yet again in its claim that the risk of contracting Covid outdoors is in the 10% range, when in fact the risk is actually nil. So, here we have a newspaper which is usually wrong in its reporting telling us that the CDC isn’t doing much better than the paper. Add CNN and we have the Three Stooges.
A recent survey found that more people who have been inoculated against Covid nonetheless remain more afraid to go out and mix with the public than those who have decided not to take the shots. Soap Box supports individual rights, including the right to be fearful. Just glad we are not.
Insurrection, an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government. That’s the Merriam-Webster definition. What happened at the Capitol was no insurrection. No one entering the Capitol was armed (an insurrection requires armed force). One person was arrested for having a loaded pistol on Capitol grounds. No shots were fired, except the one that killed a young woman and former service member. Thousands of Trump supporters were there that day to hear President Donald Trump express the same concern they had. Only a tiny fraction entered the Capitol. Some few broke in. Most came through wide open doors with police all but ushering them in. Buddy might have wandered in under those conditions. But Buddy would not have had anything to do with breaking and entering. Buddy is hard-nosed on vandalism and old-fashioned about the proper response, to boot. Buddy believes that, under such circumstances, any mob, be it Antifa, BLM or Trump supporters at the Capitol, should be warned to keep their distance, and at last be warned that they will be shot if police are attacked or windows broken. And no tears need be shed for those who value their lives less than they do their impulse to vandalize, burn, and loot. Had these steps been followed, there would have been respectful order and proper protest at the Capitol and elsewhere no vandalism, looting, and burning that destroyed property to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. But in the upside-down woke world, the criminal is the good guy and the police officer the bad.
Who is better at creating gasoline shortages in the good old U.S.A., Russian government hackers or our own stutter and stumble Biden? The answer remains to be seen, but given the Big Guy’s advice to those with no gas in their cars — that they switch to electric cars, or just bicycle or walk to work, well, that suggests Biden will ultimately close more gas stations than even the most ambitious Russian hacker.
Do we want rules in voting that make it impossible to detect fraud? That’s what the Democrats want. And more than 100 corporations paid for a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal supporting the Democrat move. Why are Delta Airlines and Coca Cola, among others, endorsing voter fraud? And why are they suggesting that anyone who supports voter I.D. is somehow racist? Soap Box buys neither their agenda nor, from now forward, their products!
Working-Class Voters Continue Their Trump-Like Shift to Conservatives as British Labour Party Gets Pummeled, reports AMAC (The Association of Mature American Citizens). Voters in the U.K. went to the polls on May 6th, and from Scotland to London to coal-mining country, they dealt a serious blow to the left-wing Labour party, as working-class voters continued their exodus to the Conservative party that began with Brexit and presaged Trump’s success in the United States.
Jeff Bezos, taking time off from deciding which books we can read, bought a boat too big for his bathtub. Talk about a boy toy! The thing is longer than three football fields and, at a cost of $400 million, looks more like a mini-cruise ship than a yacht. Now that he’s got a super-yacht, will he sail beyond the three-mile limit with a boat load of babes and politicians and make both whoopie and our next batch of laws and regulations? If so, you can be sure that the woke media will eagerly cover for him.
This week’s Aesop’s Fable: The Ass and his Purchaser
A man who wanted to buy an ass went to market, and, coming across a likely-looking beast, arranged with the owner that he should be allowed to take him home on trial to see what he was like. When he reached home, he put him into his stable along with the other asses. The newcomer took a look round, and immediately went and chose a place next to the laziest and greediest beast in the stable. When the master saw this, he put a halter on him at once, and led him off and handed him over to his owner again. The latter was a good deal surprised to see him back so soon, and said, “Why, do you mean to say you have tested him already?” “I don’t want to put him through any more tests,” replied the other. “I could see what sort of beast he is from the companion he chose for himself.”
Moral of the story: “A man is known by the company he keeps.”
Highly Recommended
The following are excellent resources for those of us (way more than 75 million strong) who want full and honest news reporting. We’ll be adding to this list as we go along. Those who prefer filtered news—only the news deemed safe for them to know—can stay with the legacy media, such as it is.
Here’s a great way to join thousands—and eventually millions—of others who are letting their government representatives know their thoughts on pending legislation. Heritage Action for America from the Heritage Foundation makes doing so super EASY! They do the research. They inform you. Then in almost the blink of an eye, you contact your federal or state representatives regarding pending legislation expressing your support or opposition.
Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) AARP is a shill for big government, AMAC isn’t.
Fox News and One America News (OAN) Cable channel
The Epoch Times print newspaper and web site/email updates
Dennis Prager This man will help you find the mainstream conservative hiding inside you.
President Donald Trump’s Great America PAC is now up and running. Give to this PAC or to individual candidates you know to be truly conservative. Money given to the Republican Party is money down a RINO hole. https://texasscorecard.com/state/legislative-priorities-tracker/
Texas Score Card https://texasscorecard.com/state/legislative-priorities-tracker/
Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute.
Project Veritas, Fun and informative hidden camera videos exposing the secret agendas of the left in their own words.
Columns worth reading
Each week under this heading, I’ll include columns or intros to columns you can read in full elsewhere on the internet. Each of these columns pretty much express our Soap Box views, else we’d not be sharing them with you.
Some people do nothing. Some act on their convictions. One way we can act is by contributing to organizations that deliver honest news and good arguments far better and beyond what we as individuals have the opportunity to do. Two such organizations are cited here, one relatively new to the cause of freedom, the other a longtime soldier in the trenches. Look them over and if you are pleased with what you find, consider contributing to the cause.
Story #1: Michael Quinn Sullivan, writing for The Texas Score Card, talks about how citizens, in this case Texas voters, have less influence with the officials they elect, both Democrat and Republican, than do lobbyists and other lobbyist-in-their-pocket politicians. This happens because too few of us vote and of those who do cast a vote, it is often a poorly informed vote. In these failings of citizenship, we make it easy for a politician to promise one thing and yet deliver something far different—not our will and wish but rather that of the lobbyist who delivers more dollars to the politician than we do. An ameliorative response can only come at the grass roots level. THE SOLUTION? At the community or county level, have a clearing house for information about all politicians, incumbent and seeking office, dog catcher to president, all managed not by a political party, none of which can be trusted, but by local conservatives (the progressives can do the same). Voters, those wishing to be informed voters, could then go to a web site, see which candidates are recommended and why, along with the opportunity to delve more deeply into the positions and legislative record of each candidate.
Story #2: In a story that broke just last Friday,Zachary Stieber, writing for The Epoch Times, updates us on a voting fraud story ignored by every other news outlet, even Fox News.Be sure to read Dominion, Maricopa County Rebuff Arizona Senate’s Attempt to Get Election Machine Passwords. Soap Box finds the circumstances surrounding this effort to uncover voter fraud curious indeed. The Democrat machine in Maricopa county contends that absolutely no voter fraud occurred, that Biden won, and that the election in that county was a sterling example of how an honest election is run. OK, if that’s all true, the best way to prove it (and make the other side a fool) is to support a complete audit, an audit the vast majority of Arizonians want. If the Democrats are correct, an audit would prove them right AND that same audit would prove the skeptics wrong. So why, pray tell, are the Democrats fighting tooth and nail at every step to prevent an audit? And why have all the elite powers helped the Dems by ignoring a story that might open the door to the possibility that Donald J. Trump won the presidential election? Well, we think Soap Box just gave you the answer to that question.
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Story #1: Not Enough Fear
by Michael Quinn Sullivan, The Texas Score Card
Fear is powerful. Improperly applied, fear can cause us to make irrational choices without thinking. Properly applied, as defined in Proverbs 9:10, “fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”
A healthy fear is critical to success in all facets of life. Of course, it is very easy to fear the wrong things and that can lead to some very poor outcomes.
We need look no further than politics. I have come to believe that many of the foolish decisions in American government arise from the simple fact too many politicians have too little fear of the voters and taxpayers.
Looking specifically at the Texas Legislature, the politicians very clearly fear the lobbyists, bureaucrats, and even their colleagues more than they fear their voters and taxpayers at home.
Were this not so, for example, they would have rushed to end the corporate welfare programs opposed by both parties and an overwhelming majority of citizens. Instead, Republican and Democrat lawmakers have yet again fallen over each other in finding new ways to siphon cash from the taxpayers’ wallets into the pockets of corporate cronies.
And yet… those politicians, those lobbyists, those corporate cronies, they are all just taking advantage of the sycophantic culture we have allowed to fester. If politicians feared the voters more than the lobbyists and their corrupt colleagues, corporate welfare simply wouldn’t exist in Texas.
As citizens, we have failed to inspire sufficient fear in our elected servants. We fawn over “our party’s” politicians like royalty. We’ve allowed them to think they, rather than the citizens, are masters of this republic.
Too many citizens fail to even participate in elections. And even fewer bother to take the steps necessary to hold politicians truly accountable for their actions and inactions. The downward spiral of cause and effect blur, with the result being lawmakers who don’t sufficiently fear the citizenry.
It’s up to us, as citizens, to inspire in our elected servants greater fear than the lobby and the bureaucracy. Rather than accept table scraps, we as citizens must unwaveringly demand that politicians seek our approval and our approval alone.
Story #2: Dominion, Maricopa County Rebuff Arizona Senate’s Attempt to Get Election Machine Passwords
Auditors found an entire database from a machine deleted, raising concerns
By Zachary Stieber May 14, 2021, The Epoch Times
Dominion Voting Systems and Maricopa County officials are refusing to hand over passwords for election machines to auditors in Arizona.
Dominion said in a statement to news outlets on Thursday that it would comply with the audit, but Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired by the Arizona Senate to conduct it along with three other companies, is not accredited by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
“Releasing Dominion’s intellectual property to an unaccredited, biased, and plainly unreliable actor such as Cyber Ninjas would be reckless, causing irreparable damage to the commercial interests of the company and the election security interests of the country,” Dominion said. “No company should be compelled to participate in such an irresponsible act.”
Cyber Ninjas did not respond to a request for comment.
Maricopa County officials previously said that they did not have passwords to access administrative functions on Dominion Voting Systems machines that were used to scan ballots during the election, according to the Senate’s audit liaison, former Republican Secretary of State Ken Bennett
.
“They’ve told us that they don’t have that second password, or that they’ve given us all the passwords they have,” Bennett told One America News at the site of the audit in Phoenix last week.
The county is also withholding routers from auditors, claiming security concerns.
Both routers or router images and access to election machines were part of the materials the state Senate subpoenaed late last year. A judge in February ruled that the subpoenas were valid and should be obeyed.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, recently threatened to subpoena county officials if they didn’t stop their noncompliance with the subpoenas, but backed off the threat in a letter on May 12.
Instead, she asked Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers, also a Republican, to cooperate voluntarily by attending an upcoming meeting at the state Capitol to go over the audit issues.
Fann said auditors have found discrepancies in the ballot count, including one batch that was supposed to be 200 but only numbered 165. She also said the audit teams found an entire database directory from an election machine had been deleted, and that the main database for the election management system software was not located anywhere on the machine, suggesting that the main database for all data related to the 2020 election had been removed.
Sellers on Thursday indicated he would not attend the meeting and disputed the allegations.
Deleting files off the server “would be a crime—and it is not true,” he said.
“After reviewing the letter with County election and IT experts, I can say that the allegations are false and ill-informed. Moreover, the claim that our employees deleted election files and destroyed evidence is outrageous, completely baseless, and beneath the dignity of the Arizona Senate,” he added, calling for an immediate retraction of statements senators and their liaison team made on social media and to the press.
The Board of Supervisors, which held a closed-door emergency meeting on Friday, plans on holding a public meeting on Monday to address the matter.
Fann, an Arizona Senate Republican Caucus spokeswoman, and the liaison team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Auditors Pack Up as Senate Signs Lease to Extend Audit
Auditors, meanwhile, began packing up on Thursday evening because the audit will take a break due to scheduling conflicts.
The audit has been taking place at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the state fairgrounds in Phoenix. High school graduations are scheduled to take place at the building beginning May 15.
Hand counting stopped at 7 p.m. on Thursday and workers began collapsing tables and preparing to move ballots to another location.
About 500,000 of the nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County in the 2020 election have been counted in the audit, according to Bennett.
The Arizona Senate signed an extension to their original agreement that allows auditors to store materials in the Wesley Bolin Building, which is also on the state fairgrounds, from May 12 to May 23.
The approximately 19,000-square foot building has a large open floor plan and two large roll-up doors, according to the Arizona State Fair website.
“Due to temperatures during the summer months, this building is not recommended for use between May through September,” the site states.
Bennett told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that the materials will be secure and that the site at which they’ll be stored can be tracked online via 24-hour streaming, just like the audit itself.
“There’s no deadline for the audit,” Bennett said. “The goal is not speed; the goal is accuracy and completeness.”
The audit teams can resume occupancy of the coliseum on May 23 and use it until June 30, according to a copy of the extended agreement obtained by The Epoch Times.
The original scope of work document from Cyber Ninjas said reviewing voter registration and votes case would take approximately 20 days and that work would be conducted remotely. The vote counting phase would take about 20 more days, it said, while the electronic voting system phase would take some 35 days.
But all three of those phases could be carried out simultaneously, according to the firm. An additional week was said to be required after completing everything else to finalize reporting.
The audit started on April 23. Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber