Just gonna stand there and watch me burn?
Well, that's alright, because I like the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry?
Well, that's alright, because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie
-Rihanna
Well, we wish we had been wrong. But we were six for six in our predictions on the lies Biden would recite in his State of the Union
No, Joe didn’t inherit an economy “in ruins.” The economy grew by almost 11% in the six months BEFORE Biden took office.
No, Joe hasn’t allowed more oil and gas development. New drilling permits have fallen to their lowest level in 50 years.
No, the border isn’t under control. An all-time high, two million illegals last year entered – that we even know about.
No, Joe hasn’t “lowered gas prices.” They were $2.59 when he entered the office and now are $3.49 a gallon.
No, we are not making progress on the deficit. By the end of this year, Biden will have added well more than $5 trillion of deficit spending.
No, Joe, inflation isn’t under control. The CPI was 1.4% in January 2021 and 6.5% in 2023. Inflation has run ahead of wages every month. (See chart.)
As regular readers of the HOTLINE know, we’ve been worried about the upward trend in credit card debt taken on by consumers. The American spending spree continues unabated, but more and more of it is being financed with plastic as credit card balances have surged to nearly $1 trillion.
Over the past two years, the delinquency rates have been rising, as the below charts from the Wall Street Journal show. Capital One and American Express report that they are putting billions of dollars into reserves to cover delinquencies and defaults. For consumers, credit card debt is the worst way to borrow, because late fees can reach 20% interest rates.
Most of us would hope that medical schools are completely focused on turning out the best doctors.
But the American Association of Medical Colleges is pushing schools to jump through 89(!) different hoops to ensure they comply with its Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) standards and even climate change policies.
What this has to do with curing cancer or heart disease, or knee surgery is a mystery to us.
Sadly, two-thirds of all medical schools have caved into these demands.
Here’s just a small sample of the jibberish requirements under these new policies:
Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Communication
Climate Data Collection and Reporting
Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Faculty Recruitment
Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Faculty Scholarship, Promotion, and Development
Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Staff Recruitment and Development Students (STUDENTS)
Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Student Development
There are 83 more of these moronic standards, and sadly two-thirds of the medical schools have surrendered – in order to appease the left.
Make no mistake about it. This is all a disguised version of the 1970s-style racial preferences in hiring and school admissions (since ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court).
Question: when you or a family member has heart or knee surgery: do you want the most skilled surgeon available (be it a man, woman, black, brown, gay, or whatever) or someone who was chosen based on their skin color, gender, or, perhaps their LGBTQ status in order to fill a quota?
The diversity, inclusion, and equity agenda is not just a silly virtue signal. Now it is becoming a danger to your health.
We've discussed for months the “good Joe Manchin and the bad Joe Manchin” political pendulum that forever swings back and forth.
Now that his approval rating is in the sewer in West Virginia because he provided the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Acceleration Act, Joe is taking a hard line on capping spending. He’s advocated a very good idea in his latest opinion article:
Here are the facts: Our national debt was $14.1 trillion in February 2011. In the decade since, we have added nearly another $20 trillion to that total with bipartisan enthusiasm. That’s over $94,000 for every American...
Capping the annual growth of discretionary spending at 1 percent for the next 10 years would save more than $1 trillion...
As governor of West Virginia, I held weekly budget meetings to ensure our government was living within its means, just like every family around every kitchen table across America. With our debt now standing at $31.4 trillion, we as elected leaders must have the courage to work together and act. Because, make no mistake, the American people will bear the ultimate consequences of our inaction if we allow politics to rule the day.
Republicans in the Senate would be wise to embrace the idea and call it a “bipartisan budget reform.”
5) Do Maskers Cover Up Because They Think They Are Ugly?
Is mask-wearing related to attractiveness?
The latest science out of South Korea, via a peer-reviewed study in Frontiers in Psychology suggests there might be a relationship:
Overall, we provide a novel finding that self-perceived attractiveness has significant effects on mask-wearing intention via mask attractiveness belief in the post-pandemic of COVID-19. Our findings suggest that mask-wearing can shift from being a self-protection measure during the COVID-19 pandemic to a self-presentation tactic in the post-pandemic era.
