This will be the last HOTLINE you will receive with my name in the subject line for a while. I am taking a short leave of absence from Unleash Prosperity and Unleash Prosperity Now to focus on other endeavors including the promotion of a new book I've written with Dr. Arthur Laffer (stay tuned for more on this very soon).
You will receive the HOTLINE every day with almost as much wit and wisdom as ever until I'm back later this year thanks to our crack editorial team of John Fund, Phil Kerpen, Tim Doescher, and our many razor sharp fellows and contributors.
Until I'm back in your email inboxes, watch for me all over cable TV and on my X account @StephenMoore.
1) Did Blue States "Steal the Count?"
With both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump hovering around 270 electoral votes, it's quite possible that the November presidential election could be decided by three electoral votes or less.
As regular readers of these pages will recall, we were among the first to cry foul in reporting that the 2020 Census robbed red states of between two and four electoral seats thanks to overcounts in blue states like New York and Rhode Island. The 2020 Census counts were during the midst of Covid lockdowns and among other things, didn't properly account for blue city residents who moved out of New York and other large cities.
The Census Bureau itself later admitted in what they called a "Post-Enumeration Survey Estimation Report" that there were unusually large counting errors:
Do you notice that almost all the overcounts were in blue states and almost all the undercounts were in red states?
According to a Heritage Foundation analysis, the result of these errors was to short red states three seats (two in Florida and one in Texas) and give them undeservedly to Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Colorado instead.
In a close election, a swing of three House districts and three electoral college votes could determine control of the House and/or the White House.
Whether the 2020 Census was accurate or not, a lot has changed in just a few years since then.
The National Populist Newsletter posted a map to Substack recently that vividly illustrates the wide variation in population growth between the states and DC from the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) to July 2023:
It's almost identical to the map we showed yesterday–except the shrinking states are the ones the unions claim are the best places to work. Isn't that interesting?
On a percentage growth basis, Idaho led the nation with an increase of 6.83%. Six other states gained between 4.0% and 5.0% (in order), South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Montana, Utah, and Delaware. Each of these states, except for Delaware voted red in the 2020 election.
The largest percentage loss was in New York, at minus 3.12%. Five states and DC exceeded losses of 1.0%, (in order), Illinois, Louisiana, the District of Columbia, California, Hawaii, and West Virginia (yes California lost a larger percentage than West Virginia). Each of these states and DC, except for Louisiana and West Virginia voted blue in the 2020 election.
The fastest growing states in actual numbers were Texas (1.358 million) and Florida (1.073 million), Each of these two states gained more population than the other 48 states and DC, which together gained 1.020 million. The two states accounted for 71% of the US population growth.
3) Is There Any Car Company Left That Hasn't Cut EV Production?
Another car company bites the dust:
Volvo was the first car manufacturer to pledge to sell only electric vehicles by 2030. Now it has joined a dozen other firms in scaling back its EV ambitions.
Volvo chief commercial officer Bjorn Annwall admits: "Fully electric cars also need to be profitable" and it's all "about adjusting to reality."
Many other firms are also adjusting. Ford and General Motors have scaled back EV production, and Volkswagen, which may shut some of its factories in response to the EV slump, is joining the group.
As we've said before, we have nothing against electric cars. But we strongly oppose government force-feeding them to consumers.
Plug-in electric vehicles still account for less than 10% of new vehicle sales and most projections are being lowered.
But these are the mandate schedules for the ten "California states" and the whole country under the Biden-Harris EPA mandates:
How can it be described as anything other than a bloodbath if it is allowed to happen?
4) Believe It Or Not, Some Voters Are Already Casting Ballots
Call us old-fashioned, but why can't we go back to election DAY??? At this point, we'd even settle for election month.
The first ballots of the 2024 election are already going out. North Carolina begins mailing absentee ballots today. Pennsylvania will begin in-person early voting in just ten days.
COVID was exploited by governors and bureaucrats who issued new rules that meant more than 100 million Americans - 69% of those voting – cast ballots early in-person or by mail in 2020.
Data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission show almost 15 million mail ballots effectively disappeared after election officials gave them to the U.S. Postal Service to deliver to voters. Remember: we've had several presidential elections of late, decided by fewer than 100,000 votes.
To put that 15 million figure in perspective, consider this: Joe Biden carried Arizona by 10,457 votes, yet in Phoenix's Maricopa County alone, some 110,092 ballots to outdated or wrong addresses. Biden carried Nevada by 33,596 votes; Las Vegas' Clark County sent 93,279 ballots that election officials say are "unaccounted" for.
An additional 1.1 million ballots were sent to the wrong addresses in 2020 – the U.S. Postal Service said they were "undeliverable." This year, those states with automatic voter registration or which automatically mail absentee ballots will make that problem worse. Some voters registered more than once will get more than one ballot. People living in a household with deceased registrants or someone who has moved away will often get a ballot.
Sloppy U.S. voting rules make it important there be as many election observers on the ground this November as possible, and that pressure is applied on officials to enforce mail-in ballot safeguards. And maybe we should have Canada send election observers south to teach us how they make it both easy to vote and hard to cheat.
5) Old Joe Admits “Inflation Reduction Act” Was Really a Green New Deal Scam
Really? We should have called it what it was. We should have called it the "double the size of the IRS and raid Medicare to send all the money to wind and solar and electric vehicle cronies act"? It might have been hard to get Joe Manchin on board with that.
