Jim Bohn

H.R.350 would empower Homeland Security and Justice with new authority to monitor domestic terrorism with heavy emphasis on “white supremacists” a.k.a. “Trump Supporters”.

Just what we need, more authority and power to federal law enforcement to surveil Americans and monitor their speech on the road to censorship. Law enforcement is already supposed to be tracking domestic terrorists of all shades. Why do we need this bill? Sen. Josh Hawley described this bill, “It’s like the disinformation board on steroids. Another way to look at is the Patriot Act for American citizens”. Hawley could have said, just equally correctly, it’s an Anti-America Act for true Patriots. All Democrats voted for the bill. All Republicans voted against the bill except one; you guessed it, Adam Kinzinger. I’m surprised Liz Cheney didn’t follow suit. It passed the House May 18th, 2022.

In my mind this is just code word for cracking down on free speech and political speech; particularly anybody who speaks out against the government, against this illegal immigration invasion, against Biden’s policies, their overreach and failures or claims the 2020 election was rigged and/or stolen. It is just a smoke screen to go after conservative activist in the guise of domestic terrorists. When you listen to the Democrats who support this bill they strongly imply a relationship between the recent Buffalo massacre and the January 6th so-called “insurrection” (again, Trump supporters).

This bill must not pass the Senate! Any Congressman who voted for it will definitely get a big fat negative on the first amendment category of the personal opportunity section of the GOUSA rating system.

Hard to tell if the management of Disney Corp. is more dopey or goofy but they certainly are woke and fast going broke.  A new poll finds that only 33 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the entertainment giant.

We blogged in April about the precipitous decline in Disney’s stock price after management of the entertainment giant, long known for wholesome family entertainment, decided that it was a good idea for schools to provide instruction in adult topics to kindergarteners. 

Or to put it another way, while Disney movies may contain warnings like Parental Guidance (PG), Disney has no tolerance for parental guidance, that is parental involvement, when it comes to classroom instruction.

This, of course, is just the latest in the company’s campaign of woke activism.  But now it has caught up with them.  The favorability ratings of Disney have collapsed.  A new NBC Poll shows that only 33 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Disney Corp while 30 percent have an unfavorable view of the company.  That’s a +3 percent favorability rating.

Contrast that with Disney’s ratings just last year.  A poll last year found that Disney was viewed favorably by 77 percent of American adults versus just 21 percent with an unfavorable view of the company.  That’s a +56 percent favorability rating.

The 44 percent decline in the company’s favorability is huge.  However, the real story is even worse.   

None of these polls break out Disney’s ratings among parents versus non-parents.  Parents and their kids tend to be major consumers of Disney’s products.  Parents tend to be more conservative on most issues than non-parents.  As a result, it is reasonable to assume that Disney’s approval ratings among parents are even worse than the dismal 33 percent in the NBC poll. 

Woke activism is destroying Disney’s reputation among its core customer base. 

Another measure of how badly Disney’s wore management has tarnished the company’s reputation is to compare Disney’s +3 favorability rating with other industries and companies.

According to Gallup, Disney Corp is less popular than banks (+14 favorability) or electric and gas utilities (+6) and only slightly more popular than airlines (+1) or attorneys (-4).  As for the latter, when your management takes your company’s image from that of an American cultural icon to that of Dewey Cheatem and Howe Attorneys at Law, you have a very big problem.   

By going woke, Disney management has changed the company’s image from as pure and good as Snow White to a company as creepy and conniving as the Evil Queen.  Walt Disney would have been horrified at what his company has become.  One wonders if the current management even cares. 

The GOUSA Personal Opportunity Message by Jim Avallon

On May 6^th I read in the Epoch Times that “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on May 5 that it will restrict the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to adults who can’t receive mRNA vaccines, because of the risk of potentially life-threatening side effects with the J&J shot.”  FDA Restricts J&J’s COVID-19 Vaccine Over Risk of Blood Clots (theepochtimes.com). It seems the J&J shot can cause blood clots soon after the inoculation. 

What!  Now they tell us.  Isn’t this the same FDA that drilled into us that these so-called vaccines were safe and effective?  Isn’t this the same FDA that wanted people to lose their jobs, their likelihoods, if they didn’t get the experimental jab; that wanted people to be restricted from restaurants, sports events etc. if one didn’t get the never-before-used technology jab?  All the while ignoring the chorus of doctors, physicians and ordinary informed people who were saying that these vaccines were rushed to market and were not proven safe AND ignoring the 1947 Nuremburg Code The Nuremberg Code (cirp.org) which lays down certain basic principles for human experimentation to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts; emphasizing the voluntary consent of the human subject.  These COVID collaborators should be brought to justice as in 1947.

NOW I read in an April 26, 2022 JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) infectious disease investigation report that “….the unadjusted incidence rate of confirmed GBS (Guillain-Barre Syndrome) in the 1 to 21 days after receiving the Ad.26.COV2.S (Janssen) vaccine was 32.4 per 100 000 person-years, which was significantly higher than the background rate of GBS.   Incidence of Guillain-Barré Syndrome After COVID-19 Vaccination in the Vaccine Safety Datalink | Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network. From personal experience , in the 1990’s my father had GBS and 90% of his body was paralyzed for two to three weeks.   He could have died but even after recovery he never really felt his feet again.  It was not pretty. 

Stay tuned, it ain’t over yet and it will not be exclusively the J&J inoculation (there is a reason Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland have restricted the Moderna inoculation for potential side effects)  Iceland Joins Nordic Peers in Halting Moderna (MRNA) Covid Vaccinations – Bloomberg). 

All I can say is that we need the 1^st amendment category of GOUSA’s Personal Opportunity rating more than ever.  It doesn’t specifically say “Medical Freedom” but it should.  Religious Freedom and privacy are close enough.

It’s hard to find a major newspaper more in the tank for the Democratic Party than the Boston Globe but even they acknowledge less than half of Massachusetts voters approve of Joe Biden.

Here’s the Globe’s headline: “In 2020, Biden was a political juggernaut in Massachusetts. A new poll shows voters have soured on him. A lot.”

The article acknowledges that Biden’s approval is tanking even in Massachusetts.  From the article:   

“In March 2020, President Biden swept through Massachusetts’ Democratic primary with a come-from-behind Super Tuesday victory. He later topped Donald Trump by 33 ½ percentage points here, his second-largest margin of victory in November. Few places lean more Democratic than Massachusetts, according to political forecasters.  But even in this deep blue stronghold, Biden has fallen hard.  Just 46 percent of registered Massachusetts voters say they approve of the job Biden is doing as president, with about the same proportion giving him a thumbs down, according to a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll.”

Biden’s approval among Massachusetts Democrats is only 75 percent. 

You’d have to search pretty hard to find a news outlet that more closely hews to the Democratic line than the Boston Globe.  The Los Angeles Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune come to mind.  But the list is pretty short.

If even the Boston Globe acknowledges that voters dislike the job that Biden is doing, he must be doing a very, very bad job. 

Of course, rather than fix things in the country, Democrats look to fix the results of elections. 

From the comments is a post that typifies Massachusetts Democrat thinking: 

SAD04 (5/01/22 – 3:27PM) “I don’t think the polls capture what has happened. Democratic voters want Trump indicted. They want democracy restored. They want DC statehood. They want more legislation–which Manchin and Sinema have blocked. Voting rights guaranteed. They don’t want to live under the threat of a GOP return.”

So according to this line of thinking the “restoration of democracy” means one party control (i.e., no “threat of GOP return”).  That’s the authoritarian mindset that pervades the modern Democratic Party.  It is the same mindset that gave rise to the Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board or pushes for more censorship in social media.       

If Democrats and Joe Biden did what the voters want, their approval level would rise, plain and simple.  The reason that the public is dissatisfied with their performance is that they are not doing what is in the public interest. 

GOUSA champions opportunity for all Americans.  The factors that we use to rate politicians have broad, majority support among the American people.  We are working hard to advance our American opportunity agenda.

If you haven’t yet, please stop by our Donations page and chip in a bit to help our efforts.  Your help is much appreciated.

GOUSA stands for free market capitalism. But capitalism is not just a driver of economic opportunity. It is an important driver of national opportunity and security too.

At the outset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict one would have thought that Russia would simply roll over Ukraine.  The Biden Administration predicted that Kyiv would fall in three days. 

That didn’t happen.  Why?  There are several reasons but one of them is the poor quality of Russian military hardware.    

Russia has a huge arsenal of weapons.  Russia has the largest fleet of tanks and armored vehicles in the world.  Russia’s air force has 3,800 planes, second only to the USAF.  

Moreover, a major focus of the Putin regime has been to modernize the Russian military.  Russia spends about 5 percent of its GDP on the military compared to about 3 percent in the U.S.

So why isn’t Russia kicking ass in the Ukraine?  A major factor is that Russian military hardware sucks.

As explained in the video below the Russian military-industrial complex consists of companies that are state-run or owned by Putin cronies.  Such firms have little incentive to innovate and there are few controls on production quality.

For instance, in the West there are at least three American companies that compete to produce fighter jets (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman) plus several in Western Europe.  In Russia, there is only one, United Aircraft Group, which is part of RosTec, a state-owned firm.   In Russia there is no competition among aircraft manufacturers, little incentive for innovation or quality control, or need to keep costs down.

Corruption is a big factor too.  The higher the price of Russia arms, the more cash available to Putin’s cronies. How much of Russia’s defense budget gets diverted into the pockets of Putin’s allies is anyone’s guess.

As a result, Russian troops are supplied with guns that jam, missiles that don’t fire properly, and tanks that break down.  That reduces the combat effectiveness and morale of Russian units in the field.   

And it’s not just military hardware.  Companies that supply food, clothing and other materials for Russian soldiers are also either state owned or controlled Putin’s cronies.  That’s one of the reasons for the widespread reports of logistics failures such as the delivery of spoiled food to frontline troops.

This is not to excuse the existence of the revolving door between Washington politicians and bureaucrats and America defense firms.  However, the Russians have taken the revolving door to another level. 

The failures of the Russian military in the Ukraine war provides the world with a clear example of how capitalism enhances national strength. 

[Skip to 1:55 to avoid the message from the sponsor.] 

Like the Evil Queen in Snow White, Disney stock has fallen off a cliff as parents boycott the entertainment giant.   Good.

The chart below shows the change in the price of Disney stock versus the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  Over the past year the value of Disney stock has fallen by more than a third while the market as a whole is down just a little bit.

The decline has been particularly rapid since Disney came out for the sexualization of young children by opposing HB 1557. 

HB 1557 was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on March 28.  Between May 28 to April 22 the market value of Disney Corp has fallen by $34 billion.     

HB 1557 has been labeled by opponents as the “don’t say gay bill”.  That is a gross mischaracterization of HB 1557.  HB 1557 merely states the following:

“Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,”

Disney’s action sparked a boycott by parents concerned that the company has “surrendered to the woke mob” and the revocation of Disney’s special development privileges in Florida.     

From our vantage point, rather than “surrendering to the woke mob”, it looks to us that Disney is leading the work mob. 

And we applaud Governor DeSantis for abolishing the special treatment of a politically-connected corporation.  Disney had been getting special through the Reedy Creek Improvement District since 1967.  Ending corporate welfare is always a good thing woke or not.       

Disney may not have unveiled their new Sodom and Gomorrah attraction quite yet (OK, that’s satire from the Babylon Bee) but it is no longer the provider of wholesome family entertainment that it was under founder Walt Disney.

Walt Disney himself once said “our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.”  It is a shame that modern Disney no longer wants children to be children. 

Your Monday Morning Personal Opportunity Update from Jim Avallon

Last week a Federal judge in Florida ordered the end of the federal mask mandate for airline, train and bus passengers; Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden.  Hans von Spakovsky, Manager, Election Law Reform Initiative and Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation explains in Heritage’s The Daily Signal interesting details of this order  https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/04/21/biden-administration-should-lose-its-mask-mandate-appeal/.   On a side note, Hans was on a well-attended GOUSA Zoom event last year discussing primarily the disastrous HR1 bill.

Particularly surprising in Hans’s article is that the CDC relied on a 1944 Public Health Service Act to justify its Feb. 3rd, 2021 sweeping authority to require masks on all public transportation, in airports and train stations.  This 1944 Act gives the CDC authority to require “inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, destruction of animals or articles found to be so infected or contaminated as to be sources of dangerous infection to human beings, and other measures as in the (CDC’s) judgement may be necessary.”  The CDC argued that the mask mandate falls with “sanitation” or “other measures” of the statute.  However, the Federal judge determined that “sanitation” means “active cleaning” and is limited to cleaning “property”.  Wearing a mask means nothing.

In addition to violating the 1944 Public Health Service Act, the Federal judge also found that the CDC violated the Administrative Procedure Act requiring the public to be given the opportunity to review and comment on a proposed regulation.  The CDC completely ignored this.

Hans explains more of the details of the above violations in the attached article (including more violations of the Administrative Service Act) but isn’t it nice to know that all this time that we were suffering under these mask mandates these very mandates were ILLEGAL.  AND, by the way, doesn’t this ruling call into question all the mask mandates in other public places or places frequented by the public.   The last I heard from friends and acquaintances was that every time they questioned or challenged a mask mandate in a Post Office, Registry or even at a Mall, the defending reference was always the almighty, and as it appears now, above-the -law, CDC.   

I know the unconstitutionality of the mask mandates is a problematic discussion, especially if one is not a lawyer and especially when it comes to areas directly under Federal jurisdiction.  However, it seems that the strongest argument against would fall under one’s personal freedom and religious assembly and privacy rights.   That is why the 1^st amendment rating under GOUSA Personal Opportunity rating’s category is so important when considering political candidates.

Land of the free? Not so much when it comes to economic policy. The most recent issue of the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom provides hard evidence of how the Biden Administration has moved America towards a more socialistic economy. 

The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom is a widely recognized measure of where national economies fall on a scale between free market capitalism and authoritarian socialism.  In Biden’s first year, economic freedom in the United States hit an all-time low. 

Heritage Foundation has compiled the index since 1995.  Heritage considers twelve different aspects of national economies in coming up with an overall index.  Countries are ranked from most free (#1 Singapore) to least free (#177 North Korea).

In the 2022 issue of the index, the United States freedom score and ranking are at an all-time low.  The United States is now ranked as the 25^th freest economy in the world.  According to Heritage, the U.S. economy is now less market-oriented than that of Germany, Canada or the United Kingdom as well as many smaller advanced and developing countries.      

In 2012, America was ranked as the 10^th freest economy in the world.

America’s ranking has fallen dramatically over the last decade due to the growth of government spending, increased business and labor regulation, and the growth of trade protectionism.  The authors write:

Driven lower by a sharp decrease in its fiscal health score, the U.S. has recorded a 3.0-point overall loss of economic freedom since 2017 and has fallen from the upper half to the lower half of the “Mostly Free” category. Business freedom and rule of law are strong, but the economy is being crushed by reckless government overspending.

America’s movement away from free market capitalism means less economic opportunities for all Americans.  Kevin Roberts, the CEO of the Heritage Foundation, lays out a disturbing picture of what the decline of economic freedom means for the future of the United States:  

Especially for Americans like me who have benefitted from the legacy of a society justly called the “land of the free,” this year’s Index of Economic Freedom paints a disturbing picture. The startling decline of America’s economic freedom is serious cause for alarm. Policymakers in Washington, DC, and around the globe must understand that simply spending their way back to prosperity always has failed and will continue to fail.

GOUSA believes that free market capitalism, not socialism, is the path to greater opportunity and prosperity.  Our unique rating system identifies those politicians that believe in and are advancing free market economic policies and those who are pushing socialism. 

To learn more about our economic opportunity rating system and see the economic opportunity ratings for individual politicians, visit our OppScore rating pages here, here and here.  

Each individual American state established much of their COVID policy and we are better for it.

I’m part of an e-mail report “COFFEE&COVID” by Jeff Childers and last week Jeff referenced an article in the New York Times by Li Yuan, 4-13-22 : ”China’s ‘Zero-Covid’ Mess Proves Autocracy Hurts Everyone”.  China’s ‘Zero Covid’ Mess Proves Autocracy Hurts Everyone – The New York Times (nytimes.com) The article begins by describing China’s great sparrow extermination of 1958, after Chairman Mao blamed wild sparrows for his failing agricultural policy, declared the hapless birds to be pests, and called for up to 2 billion birds to be killed nationwide. The near extinction of Chinese sparrows predictably led to insect infestations, which ruined crops and contributed to the Great Famine that starved tens of millions of Chinese to death in the next three years. That’s how central planning “works.”

Although I’m by no means a great fan of our COVID policy in the U.S., it sure could have been worse if it was completely centrally planned from Washington, resulting in something on the order of Chairman Mao’s sparrow extermination results……………….or for that matter China’s present day COVID policy and the ~25million inhabitants of Shanghai locked in apartments (now in its 3^rd week) with people screaming out of their windows (some say jumping out of their windows) struggling to get food.  Newly infected people are being moved to crowded and dirty quarantine centers, animals put down, people denied medical services while drones circle the city monitoring.  I could go on. https://youtu.be/6byyZA4MPyU, https://youtu.be/KNseignRiC8 

This is why the GOUSA 10^th amendment rating’s category under Personal Opportunity is so critical because it essentially rates a politician’s affinity for central planning.  Thank God we have governors like DeSantis and Abbott who can counter or try to counter the failed central policies of the Swamp!   

GOUSA’s Economic Opportunity Tuesday Update

Inflation is overwhelming wage increases among low-income Americans.  The inflationary policies from the Biden Administration’s spending binge and the endless money printing by the Federal Reserve is increasing income inequality in America.

That is, while Biden and the Federal Reserve claim to be concerned with income inequality, their policies are having the exact opposite effect—making poor Americans poorer. 

Professor Scott Galloway from New York University explains.

The charts in the WaPo story and the video use the official rate of inflation which excludes a lot of things that Americans buy. Measured properly, the inflation rate is much higher and real wage gains lower than that reported by the government.

GO-USA stands for economic policies that benefit all Americans. 

America needs policies that promote lasting prosperity.  That means reducing regulation and making the tax code more equitable so that businesses and entrepreneurs can thrive. 

Instead, the Biden Administration and the Federal Reserve are pushing deficit spending and money creation.   

The only way we can address this and fix the problem is to elect better leaders in government – and throw out our failed, corrupt legislators – the reason why we created the OppScore at GOUSA.   Please support our mission so we can continue to serve you, by donating today.

GOUSA Personal Opportunity Monday Message by Jim Avallon

Dr. Christiane Northrup from Falmouth, ME is a leading authority on women’s health and wellness.  In the past few pandemic years she has been a strong, outspoken advocate for health and treatment opportunities and against the COVID inoculations including the way COVID has been managed. 

Last Saturday she spoke at the New Hampshire Freedom March & Rally in front of the New Hampshire State House in Concord.  It was pouring rain while she was speaking but she got her points across. 

One of her more interesting comments was that she knows three doctors in Maine who are losing their licenses in that state for prescribing Ivermectin yet across the border in NH you can get it over the counter. https://www.bitchute.com/video/hOJP0Q1048L9  Well in New Hampshire not yet, but almost.  

Recently passed in the NH House is House Bill 1022 which authorizes licensed pharmacists following a “standing order” from a physician or advanced practice registered nurse to dispense ivermectin to persons in NH without a prior prescription and it is going before the NH Senate this Wednesday.  NH HB1022 | 2022 | Regular Session | LegiScan

There are more legalistic words to this bill, but it will basically allow people to get Ivermectin over the counter as Northrup said……while it is made criminal just across the border in Maine.  

It sounds like the politicians in Maine need a good dose of the GOUSA rating system, particularly in the Personal Opportunity section of the 1^st Amendment and privacy.

The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Joe Biden’s approval ratings continue to tank among the Millennials and Generation Z.  But will the GOP be able to capitalize on young voter dissatisfaction?

We’ve been blogging about the golden — or shall we say GRAND — opportunity that Republicans have to appeal to young voters given the myriad of failures of the Biden Administration. See our blog here and here.

Now yet another poll shows that young Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Joe Biden. The latest is from Quinnipiac.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,462 adults from March 24-28, 2022.

According to the survey, only 27 percent of Americans aged 18-34 approve of the way Joe Biden is handing his job.  This compares to 36 percent for all Americans.

Biden’s overall 36 percent is dismal.  However, for several decades, Democrats have depended on the votes of young voters to offset the Republican edge among voters age 45 and over.  That edge has gone away. 

In the 2020 election, Biden received 60 percent among young voters.  Based on the results of the Quinnipiac survey, half of the young people that voted for Biden in 2020 do not approve of his performance in office. 

Nor do young voters view Biden as a strong leader when it comes to his handling of the crisis in Ukraine.  When asked whether Biden has demonstrated strong leadership in his dealings with other NATO nations in the response to the invasion, only 34 percent of young people view Biden as a strong leader.  

The collapse in youth support for Biden provides the GOP with a golden opportunity to make deep inroads with rising generations

In 1980 and 1984, Ronald Reagan won the hearts and minds of millions of young Americans.  But since that time, young voters have increasingly favored Democrats. 

Republicans should take a page from the Reagan playbook.  Young voters then were attracted to his message of economic opportunity, growth, optimism and a strong America.  We believe that young people would be attracted to the same message today. 

GOUSA’s message today echoes that of Ronald Reagan.  We believe that young people are looking for a future of opportunity and freedom.  And we are developing policies that will move America in that direction.   

Biden’s incoherence on Ukraine is creating the most dangerous situation since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Just last week the war in Ukraine looked like it was nearing a conclusion.  Reports suggested that Russian leaders were looking to change their objectives from conquering the entire country to merely asserting independence of portions inhabited by Russian-speaking people. 

Ukraine was looking for a settlement as well.

Then along came Joe Biden.

Instead of looking to end the conflict, Biden escalated pushing for regime change in Russia.  

At minimum Biden handed Putin a propaganda victory allowing him to claim that any anti-regime activities are the result of plots by Washington or London.

At worst, Biden set the stage for World War III.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed as White House staff quickly walked back Biden’s reckless remarks. 

This underscores the dangers that arise from a President that lacks judgment, self-control and possibly full control of his faculties.    

This is not the first time that Biden’s lack of leadership has put the world in danger.

Biden’s policies toward the Ukraine have been incoherent from the start.

Biden began with appeasement telling Putin that “minor incursions” into Ukraine were acceptable.

Next came the defeatism.  Biden fomented panic by telling the Ukrainians that Kyiv would fall “within 72 hours” of a Russian attack.  It didn’t.    

Continuing to push defeatism, Biden the offered to extract President Zelensky from Kyiv.  Zelensky’s response “I need ammo, not a ride” will no doubt go down in military history along with that of General Anthony “Nuts” McAuliffe’s response to the Germans at the siege of Bastogne. 

Now Biden has become the ultimate war hawk claiming that the United States would be ready to respond by using chemical weapons, suggesting that U.S. troops would soon be in Ukraine, and telling the world that the United States was seeking regime change in Russia.      

In each case the White House had to walk back Biden’s remarks. 

During World War II there was a poster that read “loose lips sink ships”. 

Loose lips in a conflict between two nuclear-armed superpowers is far worse. 

In the 2020, the corporate media, big tech, and the Democratic party told the American people that the adults were going to be in charge.

It’s looking more like the Keystone Cops.  

“We may be the future decision makers, but most of us aren’t leaders” writes Julie Hartman in the Wall Street Journal

College students have de minimis risk from COVID.  Yet universities have imposed irrational and draconian mask and vaccination policies on students with harsh consequences for those who do not obey, or even speak up, against administration edicts.

One Yale student likened life on campus to that of a “surveillance state.”  At the University of Chicago students were forced to sign a “Required COVID-19 Attestation” in direct contradiction to the school’s academic freedom policies. 

Hartman writes that all this insanity has infantilized her generation of college students: 

More concerning than the administration’s heavy-handedness has been the zombielike response of the student body. I ask my friends, “Why do young, fully vaccinated students continue to tolerate these irrational Covid restrictions?” While many of my peers acknowledge the excess, they shrug it off. The prevailing mood on campus is resignation, learned helplessness and reluctance to dissent.

These policies have also empowered groups of students to act as self-appointed enforcers who use COVID policies to bludgeon their fellow students.   

There is a smaller group at Harvard that apparently find pleasure in these restrictions. These students will chastise you for not wearing a mask correctly and called one of my brave peers who publicly denounced Harvard’s Covid restrictions a “eugenicist” because he supposedly showed insufficient sensitivity to immunocompromised people. They love Covid for the moral high ground it gives them to condescend to and control others.

Red Guards in training?  Don’t be so quick to dismiss.  The unfortunate truth is that events in early life, including those during the college experience, have an important role in forming our outlook and behaviors in later life. 

For many, that means sheepish, unquestioning adherence to edicts of the elites no matter how silly or irrational. 

For others, that means becoming hectoring, humorless bureaucrats, politicians and bosses. 

What does that mean for America?  As Hartman puts it: “My peers and I are often told that we are the future leaders of America. We may be the future decision makers, but most of us aren’t leaders. The inability of Harvard students to question or oppose these irrational bureaucratic excesses bodes ill for our ability to meet future challenges.”

Indeed.

The United States Senate voted 57-40 end federal mask mandates on airplanes and public transit. Eight Democrats voted with Republicans.

Mitt Romney (R-Establishment) was the only Republican to vote against the measure.

However, as reported by Roll Call (below) it may not pass the House and the White House states that it will follow The Science (which apparently says that 5 year-olds need to wear masks on the playground but it’s OK for the 79 year-old Joe Biden to stand next to the 81 year-old Nancy Pelosi for 90 minutes at the State of the Union Address) and veto the measure.

Despite the defection of eight Democrats — Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire all voted to oppose the mandate — the resolution’s future is uncertain in the House. President Joe Biden has vowed to veto if it passes there, with the White House saying “the determination of the timeline and circumstances under which masks should be required in these settings should be guided by science, not politics.”

Kelly, Bennet, Hassan and Cortez Masto are up for reelection this fall.

Rasmussen Research asked Americans about the issues that concern them the most.  The result show that GOUSA’s issue agenda reflects the concerns of two-thirds or more of the American public.

GOUSA stands for fiscal integrity.  That includes a responsible monetary policy that controls inflation.  Inflation robs small savers of the opportunity to build wealth and is a primary driver of economic inequality in America.  Deficits unfairly impose the cost of present-day government spending on young Americans.     

GOUSA stands with law enforcement and against violent criminals.  That’s a component of national opportunity.  Americans should feel safe in their communities, persons and homes.   

GOUSA actively supports election integrity.  Our CEO, John Paul Moran is leading the charge for election integrity in Massachusetts.  We are also working with national election integrity groups to prevent ballot stuffing and fraud from mail-in voting. 

GOUSA supports high education standards and quality and against indoctrination through Critical Race Theory. 

GOUSA supports border controls.  We believe that citizenship should mean something.  And we believe that the American people, not Washington elites and corporate interests, should be the ones that determine immigration policy.

Finally, we believe that Americans have the right to make their own health decisions.  We oppose mandates and the believe that workers should be able to choose whether or not to get vaccinated without the threat of firing or harassment. 

In short, our issues are the issues that are top of mind for the American public.

We invite you to join us in making America the Land of Opportunity again. 

Send us your contact information, endorse the OppScore rating system, or chip in to help our efforts on our donation page. 

We look forward to hearing from you.

The latest Economist/YouGov poll shows young people disillusioned with the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party.  But can Republicans make the sale?

The Economist/YouGov polled 1500 Americans on their views on the Biden Administration and the ideological positioning of the two major parties.

Americans overall, and young Americans in particular, are not optimistic on the outlook for the next three years under Joe Biden.  Just over a third of young Americans are optimistic about the remaining Biden presidency.   The same number of Americans aged 18 to 29 are pessimistic.

  It is important to remember that exit polls found that Biden received 60 percent of the vote among 18 to 29 year-olds ion the 2020 election.  Clearly large numbers of young voters have become disillusioned with the failures, corruption and big government policies of the Biden Administration.    

Biden does slightly better among 30 to 44 year-olds.  Still, a substantial majority of Americans under the age of 45 are either pessimistic or unsure.  The Biden Administration has not endeared itself with young people in America. 

Young Americans are more likely to see the Democratic party as too far to the left than want to see the Democratic party continue to move left.  By a 3 to 2 margin, 18 to 29 year-olds view the Democratic Party as more left wing than they are.  The margin increases to two-to-one among 30 to 44 year-olds. 

Nevertheless, the Republican party also needs to do a lot of work to appeal to young voters.  Young voters are more likely to see Republicans as too far to the right than not conservative enough.  However, older voters are more likely to view the Democratic party as too extreme.  Almost half of Americans 65 and over see the Democratic party as much father to the left than they are while less than a third find Republicans too far right. 

The fact that voters overall are marginally more likely to find the Democrats too far to the left (33 percent versus 29 percent for the Republicans) is in stark contrast to the corporate media narrative which routinely characterizes Republicans as “far right” but never, ever characterizes Democrats as “far left”).

Here at GOUSA, we are working to develop an opportunity agenda that should appeal to all Americans, both young and old.  GOUSA wants to make America the Land of Opportunity again. 

Young people, with their lives and careers ahead of them, have the most to gain from the expansion of opportunity in America.    

Florida Senator Rick Scott spoke about his Rescue America plan at CPAC.  Most of the elements of his plan are part of the GOUSA agenda.  What do you think of Senator Scott’s plan?

Senator Scott and his team have dug into the details and came up with an eleven point plan agenda for the Republican party should it take control of one or both houses of Congress in 2022. 

This seeks to avoid the problem Republicans had in 2017 when, after Donald Trump’s victory, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell had no legislative agenda in place. 

You can download a copy of Rick Scott’s plan at this link. 

Senator Scott’s plan in comprehensive.  Like the five points of opportunity framework that we use here at GOUSA, Senator Scott’s plan addresses most important aspects of American life—the economy, defense, national sovereignty, the culture, public safety, and individual freedom.

And like GOUSA’s agenda, most elements of Senator Scott’s plan are favored by the American people.

The Morning Consult and Politico asked Americans whether they favored major elements of senator Scott’s plan.  Here are the results:

Senator Scott’s plan is modeled after Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract with America.  Newt himself has endorsed Senator Scott’s Rescue Plan. 

Regardless of whether you like the plan or not or take issue with individual plan components, Senator Scott is to be congratulated for putting his ideas out there for public debate.  We need more politicians who like Senator Scott are leaders, not laggards, in addressing the challenges facing our country. 

A new poll by the Angus Reid institute, a non-profit public opinion research organization, shows that a majority of young Canadians support the right of Freedom Convoy truckers to express themselves.

Support among young Canadians is much higher than among the old. 

The survey asked Canadians whether they felt that the right to protest outweighed the economic disruptions from the protest.  Results by age and gender appear below:

The results are both surprising and encouraging. 

Surprising because young people are often viewed as more supportive of authoritarian measures than the old. 

Encouraging because, at least on this issue, a solid majority of young Canadians support freedom of expression.  In that context, the results of the Angus Reid poll are very good news indeed. 

The authoritarian crackdown of the Trudeau should be revulsive to anyone who believes in free expression and individual rights.  Trudeau is revealing himself as nothing more than a pretty, elitist dictator. 

The Trudeau regime has instigated violence against protesters, trampled innocent civilians with horses, and frozen the bank accounts of thousands of supporters of the protests.

And then there is the blatant hypocrisy of Canada’s boy Prime Minister who swooned for Black Lives Matter but uses the jack-booted power of the state to crush peaceful protests by ordinary working-class Canadians.  

Hopefully, young Canadians will lead the charge for freedom in Canada.  Unlike their elders, young Canadians appear to have their heads on straight.

GOUSA supports the rights of all individuals to peacefully express themselves.  That includes the Freedom Convoy.   

To make a financial contribution in support of the freedom Convoy, you can do so at the GiveSendGo website.   

UPDATE: Daily Mail publishes pictures of Freedom Convoy supporters trampled by RCMP horses. You won’t see this in the corporate media.

UPDATE2: Britain’s Laurence Fox calls for Canada to be expelled from the British Commonwealth for human rights abuses. Trudeau hoisted on his own petard.

Professor Stephen Kotkin makes the case that America needs an opportunity party.  We agree 100 percent. 

In the most recent episode of Uncommon Knowledge, Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution asks Princeton University History Professor Stephen Kotkin about his love for the United States.  

Kotkin offers an eloquent statement as to why he loves this country and why his love is not because he lives here but what the United States gave him and stands for.  Kotkin discusses the opportunities that the United States has given him to develop himself and succeed.

He concludes by stating “there should be a party in this country called the American Opportunity Party” so that every young person has the opportunity to develop him or herself to the fullest.

That’s exactly what we believe here at GOUSA.  We need an opportunity party.  A Grand Opportunity Party.

And here at GOUSA we are working every day to build one. 

An excerpt from the conversation with Stephen Kotkin appears below. 

You can watch the full interview on the Hoover Institution’s website.  Watch the whole thing.  Highly recommended.    

A new poll by CIVIQS provides more evidence that younger voters are turned off top Joe Biden.  Will young voters register their disapproval of the Biden Administration in November?

I blogged a few days ago about polling data that showed younger voters turned off to Joe Biden and willing to look toward the GOP on important issues including on jobs and the economy.

The openness of young people to the GOP message could make the 2022 election a watershed moment in American politics. 

During the past twenty years, majorities of younger voters have favored the Democratic Party while older voters have favored the Republican Party.  Younger voters have been critical to the success of Democrats at all levels of government. 

Now large numbers of young people have been turned off by the incompetence of the Biden Administration.

CIVIQS surveyed over 160,000 registered voters on their views of Joe Biden’s performance as president. 

Their survey shows that generational differential in approval have disappeared. 

A mere 26 percent of Americans under the age of 35 approved of Joe Biden’s handling of his job as president.  Approval among younger voters was lower than the 34 percent approval rate for Biden among all voters. 

Biden’s approval numbers are underwater is most major demographic groups.  His approval levels are equally dismal among both highly educated young people and non-college graduates and among and men as well as women. 

Most telling, only a slim majority—51 percent–young people that describe themselves as Democrats approve of the job that Biden has done as president and a mere 42 percent of young Blacks approve of Biden’s handling of his job.

Young Americans are clearly dissatisfied with the left-wing Biden agenda and are looking for a change.

But where will that change come from?

Here at GOUSA we are developing solutions that will provide greater opportunity for Americans of all ages.  We want to make America the land of opportunity again. 

The starting point is to define what opportunity looks like.  That’s why we’ve develop the OppScore rating system and are rating politicians on whether their policies, votes and stances lead to greater or fewer opportunities for Americans. 

Emerging evidence shows that mask mandate did nothing to stop the spread of COVID while permanently damaging the development of young people.  So why don’t the media care and politicians care?    

The mask mandates provide both social and medical science with an ideal worldwide experiment.  Some nations, states and cities imposed mask mandates while others did not.  This provides the intellectually curious with a controlled experiment by which to evaluate the effect of mask mandates on public health and well-being.

In his new book, Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates, Ian Miller sifts through the evidence and shows that mask mandates have failed.  You can read more of Ian’s work on his Substack. 

More evidence comes from the Brownstone Institute.  The Brownstone Institute reviewed 167 scientific studies of the effects of masking on mortality.  They concluded that: “To date, the evidence has been stable and clear that masks do not work to control the virus and they can be harmful and especially to children.”

There was plenty of evidence all along that masks impeded the development of young children.  Even CNN acknowledged that.  More on the detrimental effects of masking on childhood development is coming out every day.    

So why, in the absence of any evidence that masks reduced mortality while significantly harming young people did politicians impose the mandates and the media go along with them?

Geoff Shullenberger astutely sums up the motivations of politicians on masking:

“It is not difficult to see why mask mandates proved irresistible to politicians. Masks are the perfect form of hygiene theatre, conveying an intuitive sense of safety regardless of demonstrable efficacy at scale. They also offload responsibility for controlling the pandemic to ordinary people. The overcrowding of ICUs can be blamed on the bad behavior of “anti-maskers”, rather than on the allocation of resources by governments and hospital CEOs. When cases and deaths spike, it is the fault of the citizenry, not the leadership.”

The media also liked to single out so-called “anti-maskers” as villains in this plot.  That was all too convenient as much of the corporate media views itself as aligned with and happy to do the bidding of the political left.    

Here at GOUSA, we stand for personal freedom and opportunity.  We stood with parents against government mask mandates.  And we are working with other groups that oppose government overreach and the biosecurity state.

If you believe that our work is important, please chip in a few bucks by visiting our donate page or drop us an email so we can get acquainted.

Brendan O’Neill writes in Spiked Online on how GoFundMe’s withholding of millions of dollars raised to support the Canadian truckers epitomizes elite disdain for the working class.    

Here’s an excerpt (but read the whole thing):

“GoFundMe’s deprivation of funds to the truckers protesting against Canada’s vaccine rules is, to my mind, one of the most egregious and anti-democratic acts yet carried out by the California-based elites who oversee the World Wide Web. These truckers, such essential workers, are revolting against Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s introduction of a new rule earlier this month stipulating that truckers who cross the Canada-US border will need to be vaccinated or else go into quarantine after every trip. This is a mad demand.  It would severely undermine some truckers’ ability to earn a living.  So truckers have risen up. They drove their vast rigs across Canada in what came to be known as the Freedom Convoy before stopping in the capital Ottawa where they have been blocking roads and causing fainting fits among middle-class liberals who cannot understand why these oiks won’t just carry on dropping off sacks of kale to the local Whole Foods and stop going on about their pesky rights.

There has been an outpouring of support for the truckers.  Canadians and Americans tired of corona-authoritarianism are cheering the truckers for honking a huge collective horn at the elite consensus on Covid.  Despite the best efforts of woke politicians and columnists to depict the truckers as QAnon on wheels, as a motorized version of Mussolini’s March on Rome, many people know that in truth they are decent working people who simply object to the state making their lives that bit harder. People also know that the woke set’s attempts to delegitimize the Freedom Convoy by flagging up ‘far-right’ comments made by a tiny handful of the truckers is a tactic as old as capitalism itself.  Elite opponents of working-class organization have always used smear and innuendo to try to nullify the throng. Seeing this smear campaign for what it is, lots of folk decided to give the truckers a few bucks. But GoFundMe had other ideas.“

GOUSA stands for limiting the power of big tech monopolies and the Silicon Valley oligarchs.  We stand for opportunity for all.  We believe in free speech and free expression and oppose the oppression of the powerless by the powerful.

Unfortunately, most members of Congress and the federal bureaucracy have been captured by big tech companies through their money, connections and the prospect of lucrative revolving door employment.

GOUSA’s is evaluating whether or not members of Congress stand for or against the big tech monopolies.  Our rating system identifies those members who are pro-opportunity and pro-working class.  To learn more about our rating system go here. 

More here from Glenn Reynolds in the New York Post.

Note: Oik is British derogatory slang for a person regarded as inferior, ignorant, ill-educated, or lower-class.

Low approval for the Biden Administration and dissatisfaction with the state of the economy may finally bring young people around to the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party is dependent on young voters for electoral success.  Young people tend to vote Democratic while older voters favor the Republicans.

The age gap is so wide and persistent that had only voters over the age of 40 voted, not only would Donald Trump have been reelected in 2020, Mitt Romney and John McCain would have won in 2008 and 2016. 

And if only Americans over the age of 35 voted, Republicans would easily control both houses of Congress and a large majority of governorships.

Recent polling shows that young people have soured on the policies and performance of the Biden Administration.  I previously discussed results of the CBS poll.  Now a new poll by the Morning Consult shows equally dismal numbers for the Democrats.

The table below compares Biden’s approval in the Morning Consult poll with the share of the vote that he received in the 2020 election by age group. 

The difference between Biden’s job approval and the percentage of older Americans that voted for him in the 2020 election is less than ten points.

But among Americans below 35—Generation Z and younger Millennials—the gap between approval and vote share is a whopping 23 points.  Indeed, younger Americans now are marginally less likely to approve of Joe Biden’s performance as President than are older Americans.   

The decline in Biden’s approval ratings among younger Americans provides an excellent opportunity for Republicans bring younger voters over to their side. 

Young people now view Republicans as better able to manage the economy.  Economic issues are the top concern of young people according to the Morning Consult poll. 

Young people are open to electing more Republicans to Congress.  Democrats now only hold a slight edge among Americans between 18 and 34 though almost a quarter of the youngest voters say that they are unsure who they’ll vote for.

The failures and incompetence of the Biden Administration have created an opening for republicans to pitch their message to younger voters.  Whether Republicans will offer policies and candidates that are attractive to young voters remains to be seen.

Young voters who have their lives ahead of them, tend to place a higher value on opportunity than do older voters.  Here at GOUSA we are developing messages of hope and opportunity that should appeal to young people. 

It begins with the five points of opportunity that make up the opportunity star.  And we are rating politicians on their support for all forms of opportunity. 

Another dismal poll regarding the leadership abilities of Joe Biden.  This time from NBC News. 

NBC News polled one thousand adults on their views of Joe Biden and the state of the country.  The result show widespread dissatisfaction among Americans with the President and the state of the country. 

Some results:

• Just one in three Americans view Joe Biden as being a good or very good commander in chief while 40 percent of Americans give Biden a very poor rating. 
• Only 32 percent give Biden a good or very good rating on his ability to handle a crisis. Note that this poll was taken mid-January before the President’s disastrous press conference in which he conceded to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that it was OK if Russia made minor incursions into the Ukraine only to go into damage control mode the next day.
• Less than one in four Americans—24 percent—view Joe Biden as a unifier down from 40 percent in January 2021.  In contrast, 42 percent now view him a very divisive president.  

Americans are rightly disappointed as the corporate media portrayed Biden as a moderate not as a creature of the progressive left.  

Detailed poll results concerning the Biden Administration appear at the end of this post. 

Americans have also turned increasingly pessimistic on the direction of the country.   Seventy-two percent see the United States on the wrong track. 

The wrong track under Biden is now higher than at any time during the Trump Administration. 

Inflation is a key concern of Americans with 61 percent saying that prices are going up faster than wages, only 7 percent feel that their paychecks are staying ahead of inflation.

Here at GOUSA we advocate for real solutions to the challenges that confront America.  Our rating system rates politicians on their support for issues that majorities of Americans agree with.

Young people were pivotal to the election of Biden in the 2020 election.  Now young Americans have become so dissatisfied with the Biden Administration that his approval levels among the young is at or above that of older voters.

If only voters over the age of 40 voted in the 2020 election, Donald Trump would have won in a landslide and the Republicans would have massive majorities in the House and Senate.

Now young Americans are turning on Biden. 

A January 2022 poll by CBS News and YouGov shows the depth of the dissatisfaction of young Americans with the performance of the Biden Administration.  It’s so bad that disapproval rates among young people are at the same level as older Americans

Results appear below:

Biden’s 42 percent approval rate among Generation Z is no different that the 40-44 percent among Americans over the age of 45.

And Biden’s approval rate for his handling of the economy among Generation Z is more than 10 points lower than Americans over age 45. 

In some ways this is little surprise.  Young people who are just starting their careers are feeling the effect of slow job growth.  The U.S. economy currently has 4 million fewer jobs today than in 2019 and many of those missing jobs would have been filled by young people.

Moreover, the Biden Administration offers little reason for hope among the young.

Their paychecks are being eaten away by the inflationary policies of the Biden Administration.

And young people should be bedeviled by the fear that they are the ones that will be stuck with the bill for Biden’s massive deficits and spending programs that benefit mostly special interests.

Does this portend a permanent change in the voting preference of young people?  Perhaps.  

GOUSA supports a clean environment.  However, the green movement as it currently stands is rife with lies and elitism.  The latest comes from the EU.

The European Union is working on a new carbon tax plan.  According to reports, yachts are exempt from the tax.

How many times have you heard this one before?  Elites force the little people to sacrifice for the environment while the super rich go on with their polluting ways. 

According to EU regulations, ships that move products for the common man will have to pay the carbon tax.  Fat-cat yachters will be exempt.

Last year the EU slapped a carbon tax on jet fuel.  The tax applies to passenger and cargo aircraft.  If you guessed that the tax exempted fuel for private jets you are right. 

The yachts, luxury cars, homes, and private jets of the superrich elites produce more carbon emissions than entire countries.    

According to one study, the private jet fleet in the United States alone produces twice as much carbon emissions as the entire nation of Burundi. 

Climate czar John Kerry could not be reached for comment.  BTW, this is the same John Kerry whom as a Massachusetts politicians docked his $7 million yacht in Rhode Island to avoid Massachusetts taxes. 

Some things never change. 

One can differ on whether climate change is serious or not.

But one cannot ignore the hypocrisy of those who lecture everyday Americans on our carbon footprint while living lifestyles that would put the most self-indulgent monarchs in history to shame.   

They not only demonstrate their own lack of sincerity about the issues they claim to care about; they also expose much of the green movement as nothing more that egoistic virtue signaling.    

GOUSA stands for freedom of expression.  In his annual speech to ambassadors to the Holy See, Pope Francis specifically denounced cancel culture as a threat to our humanity.

GOUSA opposes cancel culture in its many forms.  We oppose government censorship.  That’s part of personal opportunity.  We believe in civil rights and respect for others.  That’s part of social opportunity.  And we believe in free expression on campus.  That’s part of educational opportunity.

Important news from the Vatican.  Pope Francis came out against those who seek to silence others in his annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corp.    

The full transcript of Francis’s speech is available at the Vatican website.  The section on cancel culture appears below:

“As a result, agendas are increasingly dictated by a mindset that rejects the natural foundations of humanity and the cultural roots that constitute the identity of many peoples. As I have stated on other occasions, I consider this a form of ideological colonization, one that leaves no room for freedom of expression and is now taking the form of the “cancel culture” invading many circles and public institutions. Under the guise of defending diversity, it ends up cancelling all sense of identity, with the risk of silencing positions that defend a respectful and balanced understanding of various sensibilities. A kind of dangerous “one-track thinking” [pensée unique] is taking shape, one constrained to deny history or, worse yet, to rewrite it in terms of present-day categories, whereas any historical situation must be interpreted in the light of a hermeneutics of that particular time, not that of today.“

Pope Francis also warned of the harmful effects on young people of isolation from the lockdowns and social media:

“The pandemic prevented many young people from attending school, to the detriment of their personal and social development.  Modern technology enabled many young people to take refuge in virtual realities that create strong psychological and emotional links but isolate them from others and the world around them, radically modifying social relationships.  In making this point, I in no way intend to deny the usefulness of technology and its products, which make it possible for us to connect with one another easily and quickly, but I do appeal urgently that we be watchful lest these instruments substitute for true human relationships at the interpersonal, familial, social and international levels. If we learn to isolate ourselves at an early age, it will later prove more difficult to build bridges of fraternity and peace. In a world where there is just ‘me’, it is difficult to make room for ‘us’“.

This is definitely not in line with the woke vision of big tech, corporate media and academia today.   We are glad that Francis has taken this stand and hope that others continue to stand up for freedom of expression and individuality in the face of the woke mob.

Nobel Prize winning virologist Luc Montagnier and law professor Jed Rubenfeld explain in the Wall Street Journal why vaccine mandates make no sense.  Will the Supreme Court figure this out?

“It would be irrational, legally indefensible and contrary to the public interest for government to mandate vaccines absent any evidence that the vaccines are effective in stopping the spread of the pathogen they target.  Yet that’s exactly what’s happening here.”

Very true.  Montagnier and Rubenfeld point out that there’s no evidence that vaccines do anything to stop the spread of the virus.  This is a fact acknowledged by the CDC itself:

“As CDC Director Rochelle Walensky put it last summer, the viral load in the noses and throats of vaccinated people infected with Delta is ‘indistinguishable’ from that of unvaccinated people, and ‘what [the vaccines] can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.’”

The legal basis for the mandates rests on the Court’s 1905 ruling in Jacobsen v. Massachusetts.  That case asked whether mandatory vaccinations against smallpox were unconstitutional.  Jacobsen turned on whether the vaccine would stop the spread of the disease.  The Court wrote:

“The possibility that the belief may be wrong, and that science may yet show it to be wrong, is not conclusive; for the legislature has the right to pass laws which, according to the common belief of the people, are adapted to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. In a free country, where the government is by the people, through their chosen representatives, practical legislation admits of no other standard of action, for what the people believe is for the common welfare must be accepted as tending to promote the common welfare, whether it does in fact or not.”   

By the CDC’s own admission, vaccines do nothing to prevent the spread of COVID.  Indeed, Montagnier and Rubenfeld write that there is evidence that vaccines make people more likely to contract the Omicron variant of the virus.    

“One preprint study found that after 30 days the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines no longer had any statistically significant positive effect against Omicron infection, and after 90 days, their effect went negative—i.e., vaccinated people were more susceptible to Omicron infection.  Confirming this negative efficacy finding, data from Denmark and the Canadian province of Ontario indicate that vaccinated people have higher rates of Omicron infection than unvaccinated people.“

So rather than stopping the spread as required by the reasoning of the Jacobsen court, vaccines may hasten the spread of the virus. 

There are two upsides to the Supreme Court case on vaccine mandates. 

One is that the justices may rule against the mandates.  That’s a possibility.

The other is that the case exposed the extent to which the media and government have exaggerated the risks from COVID.  That’s a certainty.

For instance, Justice Sotomayor famously stated that there were 100,000 children hospitalized for COVID.  The real number is about 3,000 and that includes kids hospitalized for other reasons that happened to have COVID.

Even the left-wing Washington Post gave the “wise Latina” four Pinocchios on that one. 

The ignorance of the liberal justices has made for excellent and well-deserved mocking material. 

Colleges and universities are supposed to be bastions of science and logic.  Simple calculations of risk show that young people have a near zero mortality risk from COVID.  Yet college students are subject to far harsher lockdown and testing requirements than even the very old.  This not only defies common sense.  It is permanently harming an entire generation.

Social scientists are well-aware of the scarring effect.  Trauma in the early stages of life have an impact on our lives many years in the future.  In a classic in the field of life course studies, sociologist Glen Elder found that men who came of age during the Great Depression were more likely to be withdrawn, cyclical and depressed many decades in the future.   

The COVID pandemic has been particularly hard on young Americans.  Like young people during the Great Depression, young people in America have been disproportionately harmed by job loss.  But young people today have the additional trauma from the hysteria that is gripping colleges and universities today.

One source of trauma is learning loss.  Two years into the pandemic, many colleges continue to conduct instruction through online learning.  Studies show that students at colleges that shifted to online learning had lower test scores than those who continued to learn on-campus. 

Another is the loss of ability to network and socialize with faculty and fellow students. 

But perhaps the most significant harm to young people is being traumatized by the constant fear mongering by college administrators.  According to a survey by BestColleges.com, 95 percent of college students say that they have experienced negative mental health symptoms as a result of COVID and 48 percent believe that mental health effects have negatively affected their education. 

Measures that have been taken by colleges are far out of line with the health risks to college students.  According to the CDC, the risk of death from COVID for Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 is 0.001 percent.  And colleges students are generally in good health so their risks are likely a small fraction of 0.001 percent. 

Yet at colleges like Boston’s Emerson, students are still confined to their rooms, at Georgetown subject to constant testing and confinement even though they don’t show symptoms and Yale University won’t allow students to eat off campus.  

The damage to the psyche and intellectual development of young people from these draconian measures are inflicting deep scars on the younger generations.  The effects have only begun to become apparent.  

Batya Ungar-Sargon is one of most innovative political thinkers in America today.  In an interview with Spiked’s Brendan O’Neill she discusses how woke politics harms working class Americans. 

GOUSA believes in greater opportunity for all Americans.  Over the last twenty years, the top 10 percent of the American public has done very well while working class Americans have been left behind.

In the interview, Unger-Sargon discusses why working class Americans are flocking to the Republican Party, how open-borders immigration hurts poor and lower-income blacks, why the media is biased against working class Americans and why she calls herself a “libertarian Marxist” (not as strange as it sounds).     

Batya Ungar-Sargon is the deputy opinion editor of Newsweek and is formerly the opinion editor of Forward, the largest Jewish news outlet in America.   

The interview is recommended listening.

You can hear the interview at the YouTube link below or at the Brendan O’Neill Show at Spiked-online.

You can also buy Batya’s recent book Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy at Encounter Books.  (Annoy big tech.  Don’t buy from Amazon.) 

Fauci tells MSNBC that the number of hospitalizations from COVID have been inflated.  Is his admission two years into the pandemic politically motivated? 

Speaking to MSNBC, Fauci admits that “if you look at the children that are hospitalized, many of them are hospitalized with COVID, as opposed to because of COVID.”

The reason is that COVID cases include anyone admitted who tests positive rather than people that are admitted because of symptoms associated with COVID. 

As Fauci explains, if you are admitted with a broken leg and you test positive upon admission, then you are counted toward the total number of hospitalizations with COVID.

Sound familiar?  Well, yes.  This is what those on the right have been saying all along.

Though Fauci makes this admission with respect to children, the math is the same with adults.  That is, hospitalization data inflates—likely wildly inflates—the number of people that are hospitalized because of COVID.

So why is Fauci attempting to change the narrative now.

Consider the following:

Inflating the numbers was politically useful at the beginning of the pandemic while Trump was in office.  It amped up the level of fear in the general public.

Big numbers for hospitalizations and deaths allowed Joe Biden and the Democrats to bludgeon Trump during the 2020 campaign. 

Inflating the numbers also increased the power of Fauci and the CDC as politicians of all stripes were willing to do give then whatever they asked for. 

Big numbers also benefitted the Democrats early in 2021 as the panic helped them ram through a $1.9 trillion spending bill that in fact had very little to do with the pandemic. 

But not big numbers are hurting the Democrats.  Big numbers suggest that Biden has failed to stem the pandemic as he had promised.

So the solution is to change the way the numbers are counted.  In this, case, to count hospitalizations and deaths the way that they should have been counted all along.

Watch for more attempts by Fauci and the Democrats to walk back the numbers.

Changing the way things are counted to fit political purposes is nothing new to politicians.  Why should the COVID numbers be any different?

You really do need a weathervane to tell which way the wind is blowing at the CDC as The Science® is changing by the minute.

Consider the ever-changing statements on vaccine mandates for airline travel as pointed out by Tyler Durden over at Zero Hedge (dates filled in):

Fauci 12/26: travel vax mandate is on the table…

Fauci 12/27: no travel vax mandate

Biden 12/28: travel vax mandate will happen when docs say

CDC Walensky 12/28 late: no travel vax mandate being discussed

Or consider the new quarantine guidance.  According to CNN:

“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday shortened the recommended times that people should isolate when they’ve tested positive for Covid-19 from 10 days to five days if they don’t have symptoms — and if they wear a mask around others for at least five more days.  The CDC also shortened the recommended time for people to quarantine if they are exposed to the virus to a similar five days if they are vaccinated. People who are fully vaccinated and boosted may not need to quarantine at all, the CDC said.”

Got that?  People who have been boosted and have tested positive for COVID don’t need to quarantine at all.

We’ve been told for the past 21 months that the reason for quarantining is that (i) to avoid spreading the virus to others and (ii) that people who have been vaccinated could carry the virus.  So if you have tested positive, shouldn’t The Science® still require you to quarantine so you don’t spread it to others?.  Apparently not now but of course, that’s subject to change.

The simplest explanation for this is that now that the laptop class in the Acela corridor is getting the omicron virus (New York City is reporting the highest incidence rates) the rules need to be changed so that they don’t inconvenience the beautiful people.

Fasten you seat belts and watch for more twirling form the CDC in the coming weeks and months.

Surging inflation is both making Americans poorer and more inequal.  Larry Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary in the Obama Administration, puts the blame squarely where it belongs: excessive government spending.

Summers is well regarded within the economics profession and has held important roles in the Clinton and Obama Administrations.  As a Democratic party insider Summers’s criticisms of the economic policies of the current administration are revealing.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Summers discusses out how the massive amount of government spending coming out of Washington is driving up prices:

“I did what I thought was a straightforward analysis of the situation. I looked at how short incomes were of trend. And I saw that they were about $25 billion or $30 billion short of trend each month. And that that number was declining. And then I saw that the proposed transfer payments and other stimulus represented close to $200 billion a month. And so I thought if you were filling a $30 billion hole with $200 billion of spending, there was likely to be some overflow and that overflow would translate into inflation.“

Summers also points out that Biden and the Democrats inflationary spending is making most Americans poorer.  He says:       

“first just on the facts, this period of high inflation has coincided with more rapid, real wage reduction than we had seen previously. So for the majority of workers it’s working out badly so far, not working out well.“

Nor does Summers let the Federal Reserve off the hook.  In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Summers points out that the Fed was wrong and continues to be wrong about the causes and persistence of inflation and is failing to take measures to contain inflation. 

Here at GOUSA, we’ve been following the inflation story closely.  We’ve blogged about how inflation is driving a rise in inequality in the United States.  We’ve also blogged about how inflation is making Americans poorer because for most of us, our pay packages are not keeping up with rising prices. 

And we will be holding our political class accountable for the economic havoc that their policies are inflicting the American people.  Our OppScore rating system penalizes politicians that support excessive and wasteful spending.  To learn more about it, visit the OppScore page on this website. 

Below is the 2004 Christmas message of Pope John Paul II, his final Christmas message. Merry Christmas to all!

“Christus natus est nobis, venite, adoremus!” Christ is born for us: come, let us adore him! On this solemn day we come to you, tender Babe of Bethlehem. By your birth you have hidden your divinity in order to share our frail human nature. In the light of faith, we acknowledge you as true God, made man out of love for us. You alone are the Redeemer of mankind!

Before the crib where you lie helpless, let there be an end to the spread of violence in its many forms, the source of untold suffering; let there be an end to the numerous situations of unrest which risk degenerating into open conflict; let there arise a firm will to seek peaceful solutions, respectful of the legitimate aspirations of individuals and peoples.

Babe of Bethlehem, Prophet of peace, encourage attempts to promote dialogue and reconciliation, sustain the efforts to build peace, which hesitantly, yet not without hope, are being made to bring about a more tranquil present and future for so many of our brothers and sisters in the world. I think of Africa, of the tragedy of Darfur in Sudan, of Côte d’Ivoire and of the Great Lakes Region. With great apprehension I follow the situation in Iraq. And how can I fail to look with anxious concern, but also invincible confidence, towards that Land of which you are a son?

Everywhere peace is needed! You, Prince of true peace, help us to understand that the only way to build peace is to flee in horror from evil, and to pursue goodness with courage and perseverance. Men and women of good will, of every people on the earth, come with trust to the crib of the Savior! “He who bestows the Kingdom of heaven does not take away human kingdoms.” Hasten to meet him; he comes to teach us the way of truth, peace and love.

While politicians in the United States and Europe continue to spread panic and pursue authoritarian mandates and lockdowns, Japanese politicians are acting like statesmen, treating their countrymen like intelligent beings rather than sheep that need to be led.

The way that American politicians speak to us belies the contempt that they have in their hearts for the people of this country.  This is evident in the manner in which the American political class addresses COVID. 

While leaders of many other nations address their countryman as intelligent individuals capable of evaluating risks and taking appropriate measures, American politicians like Joe Biden constantly talk down to American citizens. 

Contrast the rhetoric of American politicians and government officials with those in Japan. 

The Japanese government offers a balanced view of vaccine risks and completely rejects mandates and discrimination based on vaccination status.   

From the Japan Ministry of Health website:

Although we encourage all citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, it is not compulsory or mandatory. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the person to be vaccinated after the information provided. Please get vaccinated of your own decision, understanding both the effectiveness in preventing infectious diseases and the risk of side effects. No vaccination will be given without consent. Please do not force anyone in your workplace or those who around you to be vaccinated, and do not discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated.

The Prime Minister of Japan took a similar measured, adult tone in his address to the nation in which has also rejected mandatory vaccinations and urged people to avoid discrimination against the unvaccinated. 

From Prime Minister Kono’s speech:

Vaccines will never be administered without the recipient’s consent. We urge the public never to coerce vaccinations at the workplace or upon others around them, and never to treat those who have not received the vaccine in a discriminatory manner.

Contrast the measured, reasoned statements of Japanese officials with the near-hysterical rhetoric of Joe “dark winter” Biden and Anthony Fauci. 

Contrast also the rejection of mandates in Japan with the authoritarian requirements and restrictions imposed by Joe Biden, Charlie Baker and now Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.  These mandates demonstrate that politicians like Biden, Baker and Wu don’t believe that the American people are intelligent enough to make their own healthcare decisions.

Japan’s politicians and government officials offer and treat their countrymen with respect.  American politicians and government officials treat their countrymen with disdain. 

Hopefully the American people will soon tire of being talked down to and will find leaders that respect the intelligence and reason of the American public.  Until then we are lions led by donkeys.

New Wall Street Journal Poll shows that Hispanic voters are equally divided in terms of how they view the Democratic and Republican Parties.  

Hispanics are evenly divided in their support for Republicans and Democrats heading into the 2022 election.  The Wall Street Journal finds that 37 percent of Hispanic voters favor the Democrats, 37 percent favor the GOP with the rest undecided.  The split is similar to all voters (44 percent of the GOP versus 41 percent for the Democrats) though a larger percentage of Hispanics are undecided.

Hispanics are also equally divided in a hypothetical rematch between Trump and Biden.  From the WSJ:

“Hispanic voters were also evenly divided when asked about a hypothetical rematch in 2024 of the last presidential contenders, with 44% saying they would back President Biden and 43% supporting former President Donald Trump.  In 2020, Mr. Biden won 63% support among Hispanic voters, nearly 30 points more than Mr. Trump, according to AP VoteCast, a large survey of the presidential electorate.“

Nor do Hispanics care for Joe Biden as President.

“The results showed Hispanic voters differing little from the overall electorate in their political preferences.  Hispanic voters mirrored the overall voter pool, for example, when asked how Mr. Biden was handling his job.  Some 42% approved of the president’s job performance and 54% disapproved—in line with the 41% approval and 57% disapproval among the broader voting public.“

Currently, one in eight voters identify as Hispanic.

The realignment of Hispanics is logical.  The Democratic Party now exclusively focuses on issues that are of interests to elite, coastal whites.  Their agenda of CRT, big government, anti-Americanism, and authoritarian control is alien to middle- and working-class Americans.  Like other middle- and working-class Americans, Hispanic voters are interested in economic opportunity, public safety, individual freedom and education.  In short, the GOUSA Opportunity Agenda. 

Update: More here, and here. 

The Biden Administration remains curiously uncurious about the origins of the COVID virus.  That leaves it to other countries to ask the questions that the United States government should be asking.

Dr. Alina Chan, a researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, told the UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Select Committee that the Wuhan lab is the “most likely origin of COVID” and that scientists willing to speak out about the lab leak theory have been suppressed.

From Wales Online which has a video of Dr. Chan’s testimony:

Dr Chan, said: “I think the lab origin is more likely than not. Right now it’s not safe for people who know about the origin of the pandemic to come forward. But we live in an era where there is so much information being stored that it will eventually come out.

“We have heard from many top virologists that a genetically engineered origin is reasonable and that includes virologists who made modifications to the first Sars virus.

“We know this virus has a unique feature, called the furin cleavage site, and without this feature there is no way this would be causing this pandemic.

“A proposal was leaked showing that EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were developing a pipeline for inserting novel furin cleavage sites. So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I’m going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city.”

Learning the truth about the origins of COVID is important.  At minimum, if the virus were engineered in or escaped from a lab, that would provide powerful evidence in support of greater safety procedures at biolabs to minimize the likelihood of another leak. 

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that suggests that the virus had its origins in the Wuhan lab.  Were the virus had natural origins, why would China be doing everything it can to prevent outsiders from accessing records, personnel and facilities at the lab?  If someone, in this case China, is acting like they have something to hide, there’s a good chance that they really do have something to hide. 

However, in the United States, the American government and the US media are giving the question on the origins of COVID a good leaving alone.  US spy agencies quietly released a report in October that said very little about the origins of the virus.  House Democrats show no interest in investigating the origins of COVID. 

What accounts for this indifference?

– Might it be that the Biden Administration fears pointing the finger at China lest they release details of Hunter Biden’s business dealing with China and the CCP?   In the October 2020 debate, Joe Biden claimed that Hunter has never “taken a penny” from a foreign country.  Evidence obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop demonstrates that this was a lie. What evidence might China have of Biden family business dealings, corrupt or legitimate, in that nation or with other hostile powers?

– Might it be that the Democrats are concerned that the discovery of the true origins of COVID might vindicate President Trump who suggested the virus came from a lab? 

– Might it be that scientists in America are afraid to speak their minds due to concerns about being potentially cut off from research funding from China?  Or possibly, since there are indications that the NIH funded gain of function research at the Wuhan lab, that scientists are afraid of retaliation from the NIH?

Given the enormous cost and loss of life from the pandemic, it is important that we learn the origins of the COVID virus.  Unfortunately, the Democrats and the Biden Administration show no interest in allowing the intelligence community or helping U.S. scientists get to the bottom of this question.  We will have to look elsewhere to learn the origins of the COVID virus.

An investigation by the National Pulse reveals the connections between Federal Reserve Board Vice-Chair Lael Brainard and the Chinese Government.  Their investigation underscores how deeply intertwined the Washington establishment has become with the CCP.    

Earlier this year the Federal Reserve System was rocked by the sudden resignations of two regional bank presidents.  Eric Rosengren of the Boston Fed and Robert Kaplan of the Dallas Fed both resigned on September 27 following an inquiry into trading activities on their personal investment accounts.

Now an investigation by the National Pulse reveals connections between Kurt Campbell, the husband of Federal Reserve Board Vice-Chair Lael Brainard, and officials of the Chinese Communist Party.  The National Pulse writes:

“Lael Brainard – recently nominated as Joe Biden’s Federal Reserve Vice Chairman – controversially refused to label the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a currency manipulator during her stint in the Obama administration and is married to Kurt Campbell, who has deep ties to Beijing’s foreign influence operations and propaganda organs, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.“   

The National Pulse reports that Campbell was the keynote speaker at a major conference sponsored by Patrick Ho, a business partner of Hunter Biden.  Ho was described by Hunter Biden as “the f**king spy chief of China.”  Campbell also has numerous business connections with China. 

Did her husband’s China connections influence her decisions in an official capacity?  The National Pulse points out that Brainard was very soft on China in her previous role in the Obama Administration.

“As Treasury’s top diplomat from 2010 to 2013, Brainard oversaw eight reports that all cleared China of its well-documented practice of currency manipulation and failed to ever criticize the decision.”

Indeed, her dovish stance on China and its trade policies has been a key concern regarding her role in the U.S. government (see for instance, here and here). 

At minimum the National Pulse’s revelation show how deeply intertwined the Washington establishment is with Communist China.  It’s like the Opium War in reverse with China using its money and influence to corrupt American society.

Here at GOUSA we stand for economic and national opportunity for Americans.  Our economic opportunity score considers whether politicians stand for free but also fair trade.  Our national opportunity score considers whether a politician puts America first. 

Our rating system is intended to both reward those politicians who support American interests and punish those who are corrupt.  To learn more about the GOUSA rating system, go here.    

The Congressional Budget Office has run the number on the Democrats Build back better plan and the numbers are not pretty.  The CBO estimates that the plan will increase the federal deficit by $3.0 trillion over the next ten years. 

Far from costing nothing, the Democrats Build Back Better plan will saddle future taxpayers with $3.0 trillion in debt.  The GOUSA blog reported earlier on the Democrats “fuzzy math.”  Now the CBO has weighed in.

No wonder that the House Democrats took the unusual step of rushing to vote on the bill before the CBO had the opportunity to score the legislation.     

Indeed, the claim Build Back Better would “cost nothing” earned Joe Biden two Pinocchios from the Washington Post fact checker.  Should have been more.

After being told for decades by pitchmen promising something for nothing, Americans can spot a con job when they see it. 

Perhaps the fibs, untruths and outright lies that Joe Biden and the Democrats have been telling the American people about the cost of the legislation are the reason that that it polls so poorly. 

Polling by NPR/Marist shows that a mere 41 percent of respondents support the Build Back Better bill. 

Here at GOUSA, we are cutting through the flimfammery, tomfoolery and buffoonery of America’s political class with our unique OppScore rating system. 

UPDATE: Manchin kills Build Back Better (Biden’s Big Budget Buster) for 2021

New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams continues to face down threats from Black Lives Matters.  Mr. Adams exhibits a level of courage that no Democrat and few Republicans have matched.

Former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia once famously characterized his job as “the second hardest job in America.” 

Mayor Fiorello wasn’t wrong.  New York City is America’s largest and most diverse city and the financial and cultural center of the nation.

The man that will soon assume the mayorship of New York is Eric Adams.  Adams is black, a former police officer, and a believer in law and order.  Because of the last two, BLM hates him.

When Mr. Adams assumes office on January 1 of next year he will be the highest elected black official in the country. 

BLM has threatened Mayor Adams with “riots, fire and bloodshed” (BLM’s exact words) if he reinstates NYC’s plainclothes police units. 

In response, Mayor Adams has vowed that he is “not going to surrender to BLM” and their threats.

Good for Mayor Adams. 

Whatever good that the BLM movement may have done in the past, BLM is clearly lost. 

When an organization that claims to stand for black interests is threatening the highest elected black official in the country with violence and destruction, something in the movement has gone seriously awry. 

It’s time for BLM and BLM supporters to look themselves in the eye and acknowledge that they are no longer on the side of the angels. 

GOUSA rejects political violence and condemns those groups that threaten or intimidate elected officials. 

Our political credit rating system subtracts a full point from the politician’s score if he or she supports political or mob violence.  This is one way that GOUSA is working to make our political system more fair, open and honest. 

A new poll by Rasmussen Research finds that 49 percent of likely voters think that Donald Trump handled the COVID crisis better than Joe Biden has. 39 percent give Biden the edge.

Overall 55 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling of the pandemic including 44 percent who strongly disapprove. Only 43 percent of likely voters approve of Biden’s handling of the pandemic.

Looking back at 2020, the Trump Administration had many successes in dealing with the pandemic;

• The Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed allowed for the development of COVID vaccines in record time.
• The Trump Administration solved the shortage of ventilators by mobilizing manufacturers and creating arrangements that allowed hospitals to exchange ventilators ensuring efficient use of the devices in the U.S. health care system.
• The Trump Administration mobilized the medical personnel and resources of the U.S. military to provide care to citizens. This included the deployment of U.S. Navy hospital ships to New York City to provide overflow capacity to that city’s hospitals.
• The Trump Administration quickly closed off travel from China at the onset of the outbreak. Of course, these measures were quickly racialized by the mainstream media–the same media that applauded Joe Biden’s ban on travel from Africa.

So how does this compare to the Biden Administration?

• The Biden Administration instituted unconstitutional and authoritarian vaccine requirements for private citizens. These requirements have been repeatedly struck down in the courts and rejected by Congress.
• The Biden Administration cynically tried to extend the moratorium on evictions even after it was struck down by the Supreme Court.
• The Biden Administration thoroughly politicized the CDC to the extent that mask requirements for kids was not based on scientific considerations but instead on the demands of teacher’s unions.
• Covered up evidence on the laboratory origins of the COVID virus. This makes it more difficult for scientists to develop responses to the current pandemic and sets the world up for future pandemics resulting from gain-of-function research.

The difference is clear. The Trump Administration used government to solve the problem. The Biden Administration views Americans and their behavior as the problem. It’s not surprising that Americans are coming to view the Trump’s handling of the pandemic as better than Biden’s.

Good news on the medical freedom front. It may be the case that Charlie Baker’s Massachusetts in one of just a few blue states with vaccine mandates for public-sector workers.

Politico is reporting growing apprehension among blue state Democratic governors to impose vaccine mandates on public sector workers. This includes Phil Murphy, Charlie Baker’s classmate at Needham High. As a result, Massachusetts could be one of just a few jurisdictions that force state employees to submit to vaccine requirements.

Politico writes:

In recent comments, several high-profile Democrats have stated their opposition to vaccine mandates, specifically applied to private businesses. The most recent Democratic lawmaker to voice her concern was Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER. Once considered to be Biden’s vice president, Whitmer said she opposes mandates, citing the impact on the state’s workforce — as Michigan grapples with upticks in cases and residents are split on whether or not to get the vaccine.

“We’re an employer too, the state of Michigan is,” Whitmer said on Monday, according to the Daily News in Greenville. “I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees. That’s why I haven’t proposed a mandate at the state level. Some states have. We have not, we’re waiting to see what happens in court.”

Whitmer isn’t the only Democrat now sounding these notes. Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) has said he does not support requiring businesses with over 100 employees to ensure that their workforces are vaccinated from Covid-19. Sen. JON TESTER (D-Mont.) has thrown a bit of shade on it too.Gov. PHIL MURPHY (D-.N.J.), shortly before an unexpectedly close re-election win, shied away from embracing a strict vaccine mandate for teachers and other public workers. Gov. KATHY HOCHUL (D-N.Y.), who is running for election after taking over for disgraced former Gov. ANDREW CUOMO (D-N.Y.), has stated her opposition to a “broad-based mandate for all private-sector workers in New York.”

GOUSA has provided a forum for those opposed to vaccine mandates. Our November 2 Opportunity Report Show featured Karina Demurchyan from Make Americans Free Again MA. You can watch the show at this link.

With the media quick to report on dissent within the Republican party, it is easy to forget that dissatisfaction among Democrats with their party’s leadership at the national level is at least as intense.   

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are far less popular among Democratic Capitol Hill staffers than Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are among Republicans. 

The Daily Mail is reporting on the results of a confidential poll of Capitol Hill insiders conducted by Punchbowl News.    

62 percent of Democratic insiders think that Schumer and Pelosi should go regardless of the Democrats do in the 2022 midterm election and 79 percent think that they should go if the Democrats don’t do well. 

In contrast, 46 percent of Republican staffers want McCarthy and McConnell to stay regardless of the outcome in 2022 and 72 percent want them to stay even if the Republicans do poorly in the midterms. 

Survey results appear below.

The resignation of key staffers from Kamala Harris’s office is another indication that all is not peaches and cream among Democratic staffers in the executive branch either.  Staffers describe working with Ms. Harris describe her bullying as “soul destroying” and that she “fails to read briefing materials, then lashes out at others when she’s unprepared.”

The findings of the survey and the turnover in the Vice President’s office starkly contrasts with the narrative from the corporate media which generally focuses on internal machinations within the Republican party. 

Here at GOUSA, we believe that elected officials should be working to provide Americans with the opportunity to achieve a better life for ourselves, our families and our communities.  We believe that the voters are more united than divided on critical issues. 

We also believe in political change.  Politicians who aren’t serving the interests of people need to be replaced with those who will.  The evidence above suggests that change is sorely needed in both parties. 

Pictures and videos of some of the speakers at Christmas Uncanceled are up at GOUSA’s Facebook, Youtube and Twitter pages. Thanks to everyone who organized the evening and came out!

Here at GOUSA, we are eco-modernists, not eco-miserabilists.  Cheap, reliable energy creates opportunities for all Americans and the only source for that is nuclear energy.

Other nations are taking the lead in the development of nuclear energy.  We blogged before about the huge amount of new nuclear capacity that China plans to build in the next ten years.

France, already the world leader in nuclear energy, announced that it plans to develop small modular nuclear reactors. 

In the United States, nuclear power development has been blocked for fifty years for political reasons.  Opposition has been from the left.  

During that time, new reactor designs have made nuclear power even safer and cleaner. 

Republicans have consistently been supporters of nuclear energy.  Indeed, support for nuclear was a central theme of President Trump’s energy strategy. 

Finally, there are signs that Democrats may be coming around.  A recent survey (below) showed that a slight majority of Democrats now support or strongly support nuclear power.

Might a sea change in energy policy be in the offing?  We hope so.

At GOUSA, we believe in the power of technology and innovation to lift living standards not only for Americans but for all mankind.  We reject the eco-miserablism of Greta Thunberg and the left which argues that saving the planet requires consigning billions to a life of poverty and unending misery.    

If you believe as we do, please join our movement at GOUSA.  You can join our mailing list here or send us a message via “Contact Us” at go-usa.us. 

A new survey from Gallup asked Americans whether inflation is making it harder to maintain their standard of living. 45 percent said it was with 10 percent saying that inflation was creating a severe financial hardship in their household.

The impact of inflation was more severe for poorer Americans. 71 percent of Americans in households with an annual income of $40,000 or less said that inflation was making it more difficult for them to maintain their standard of living and 28 percent saying it was making it much harder. So much for the Democrats being the party of the poor.

Inflation is also a more severe hardship for households without a college degree. So much for the Democrats being the party of the working class.

More bad news. It is becoming more likely that prices are going to go up a lot in 2022. the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is now forecasting that prices in the U.S. will increase by more than 4 percent in 2022. That’s up from just over 3 percent in their September forecast.

High levels of inflation have a disproportionate impact on lower income and younger Americans. Low income and younger households spend more of their income on goods and services and therefore are more heavily impacted by rising prices at stores and supermarkets.

Of course, the corporate media, which is totally in the tank for the Biden Administration and the Democrats, is trying to spin the lie that inflation is a good thing.

Come have tons of fun and share Christmas cheer with friends at GOUSA’s special dinner event on December 4. Tickers available at our Eventbrite page.

We’ve lined up great speakers, special guests and a h-u-u-u-g-e dinner spread. Speakers include GOP Candidate for Gov. Geoff Diehl, Jacob Wells from GiveSendGo, Shane Trejo from Republicans for National Renewal, Marcy McCauley from Restore Our American Republic (ROAR), and John Paul from GOUSA. 

Bring friends and come to support the first universal, nonpartisan political credit rating system, the OppScore®, to finally hold all Members of Congress fully accountable. Great People, Food, Drinks, Dancing and Entertainment. It’s time to stand together in support of our American principles and values, and to defend and preserve our liberties and freedoms.

In any interview with CBS’s Face the Nation this Sunday, Anthony Fauci demonstrated why he should be removed from his position as the nation’s COVID czar.  

The full transcript is available here.

Fauci attacks his critics claiming that they are “really criticizing science because I represent science”.  Fauci’s statement demonstrates both an arrogance and a willful misrepresentation of what science really is.  

Science is not a person.  Nobody speaks for science.  Rather, science is a process of discovery.    

Science can tell you things about physical or natural phenomena.  Science cannot make value judgments.  Science cannot weigh one risk against another.  Science cannot tell you whether masks or vaccines should or should not be mandated.  Those are political questions. 

When Fauci claims that the science answers these questions, he is plainly misrepresenting what science is.  He’s also discrediting the credibility of science and the scientific method in the mind of the public.

Fauci also used the interview to attack the investigation into the CDC’s role in gain-of-function research and funding of the Wuhan lab.  Fauci’s claims regarding gain-of-function research and the Wuhan lab have been contradicted by documents obtained by the Intercept, Congressional investigators, and others. 

Indeed, when asked about gain-of-function research by Margaret Brennan, Fauci launched into a rant about the events on January 6.  Whatever happened at the capital on that date has no bearing on public health questions.  

In contrast, what the CDC knew about what was going on at the Wuhan lab and the origins of the COVID virus clearly does.  If the COVID virus did come from a lab, which is increasingly likely, then greater safety precautions and stringent prohibition of gain of function research are warranted.    

Rather than representing science, Fauci should be viewed as a thoroughly political animal.  That Fauci is lashing out at Senators Paul and Cruz shows that Republicans in Congress are getting closer to the truth. 

UPDATE: More today from senator Cruz. From the Daily Mail.

Referring to that interview, Cruz continued: ‘(Fauci) said, I represent science. I am science. I was laughing. It’s like Louis XIV, the sun king in France saying “I am the state.” It is this delusion of grandeur.’ 

Louis XIV ruled France between 1643 and 1715, and was given the insulting nickname because he believed the Kingdom of France revolved around him.  

Cruz also highlighted what he claims was a breach of a US law – 18USC, Code 1001 – made by Fauci when he told a Senate hearing in May that the National Institutes of Health, of which he serves as a director, did not fund ‘gain of function’ research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese lab that COVID may have leaked from. 

But in October, the National Institutes of Health admitted it had funded gain of function research, which seeks to make viruses more potent to try and find treatments for them. 

Let us give thanks for those who brought forth this great nation, who continue to secure our freedoms today, and for the opportunity to create a better tomorrow. In that spirit, we offer below President Reagan’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation from 1986.

By the President of the United States of America:

Perhaps no custom reveals our character as a Nation so clearly as our celebration of Thanksgiving Day. Rooted deeply in our Judeo-Christian heritage, the practice of offering thanksgiving underscores our unshakeable belief in God as the foundation of our Nation and our firm reliance upon Him from Whom all blessings flow. Both as individuals and as a people, we join with the Psalmist in song and praise: “Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.”

One of the most inspiring portrayals of American history is that of George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. That moving image personifies and testifies to our Founders’ dependence upon Divine Providence during the darkest hours of our Revolutionary struggle. It was then — when our mettle as a Nation was tested most severely — that the Sovereign and Judge of nations heard our plea and came to our assistance in the form of aid from France. Thereupon General Washington immediately called for a special day of thanksgiving among his troops.

Eleven years later, President Washington, at the request of the Congress, first proclaimed November 26, 1789, as Thanksgiving Day. In his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, President Washington exhorted the people of the United States to observe “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” so that they might acknowledge “with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” Washington also reminded us that “it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”

Today let us take heart from the noble example of our first President. Let us pause from our many activities to give thanks to Almighty God for our bountiful harvests and abundant freedoms. Let us call upon Him for continued guidance and assistance in all our endeavors. And let us ever be mindful of the faith and spiritual values that have made our Nation great and that alone can keep us great. With joy and gratitude in our hearts, let us sing those stirring stanzas:

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in the spirit of George Washington and the Founders, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 27, 1986, as a National Day of Thanksgiving, and I call upon every citizen of this great Nation to gather together in homes and places of worship on that day of thanks to affirm by their prayers and their gratitude the many blessings bestowed upon this land and its people.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

Ronald Reagan

A poll of 750 Massachusetts residents asked what word comes to mind to describe Joe Biden. The results may surprise you.

Massachusetts is known for being up there with California and Vermont as among the most left-leaning states in the nation. So you’d think that residents would be pretty pleased with Joe Biden. No so much.

A November 2021 poll by UMass Amherst/WCVB asked Massachusetts residents what word best described President Biden.

The top three responses: “Incompetent”, “Senile” and “Old”. The word cloud appears below.

For a Democrat, if you’ve lost Massachusetts, you’ve lost the nation.

Michael Shellenberger and Peter Boghossian have compiled a handy guide to the various sects of the woke religions. The guide appears below with more details at Michael’s Substack.

With respect to the genesis of the guide, Shellenberger writes:

We decided to publish the Woke Religion Taxonomy because it was helpful to our own understanding of Wokeism as a religion, and we felt it might help others. The Taxonomy identifies common myths and supernatural beliefs and helps explain why so many people continue to hold them, despite overwhelming evidence that they are false. We are under no illusion that the Taxonomy will reduce the power that Wokeism holds over true believers. But we also believe it will help orient those who are confused by its irrationalism, and are seeking an accessible overview. Finally, we are publishing it because we recognize that we might be wrong, either about matters of fact or classification, and hope it will encourage a healthy discussion and debate. As such, we have published it with the caveat that it is “Version 1.0” with the expectation that we will revise it in the future.

Very useful. Will certainly keep this handy.

The Pew Research Foundation asked people in 17 countries about what makes life meaningful. Relative to other countries, Americans were more likely to cite family, friends and faith and less likely to mention occupation or material well-being.

Critics of American society often claim that Americans are obsessed with wealth and material goods. That’s not true. The survey by the Pew Research Foundation found that the two areas of life were Americans were most likely to find meaning were family and friends. Indeed, Americans and Britons were more likely to cite family and friends among the top two sources of meaning in life than those in other advanced nations (below).

Material well-being and occupation ranked third and fourth–lower than in most other nations. Americans were more likely to find meaning in their faith than were people anywhere else.

Americans are also more likely to see value in life coming from many different sources. Only one in four Americans found meaning in life in only one area. Europeans and especially Asians were more likely to find meaning in only one life dimension.

At GOUSA we recognize that living a full life involves finding meaning in many different aspects of the human condition. That’s why we stand for more opportunity for all Americans to realize their potential in every dimension of their lives. Our work is not limited to one area. Rather, we stand for expanded economic, social, educational, national and personal opportunity for all.

A new Quinnipiac Poll shows how Biden has intensified the class divide. As Stephen Cortes points out, Biden’s approval on the economy among non-college educated whites is an astounding negative 54 percent.

That’s not surprising. Biden’s policies–destroying the energy industry, growing an already bloated government, coddling corporate monopolies–mainly benefit the laptop class while shafting blue collar workers.

Overall, Biden is at 34 percent. Among men on the economy, he’s at an abysmal 26 percent approval / 67 percent disapproval. That’s an eye-watering 41 point gap. Biden’s standing with independents is also terrible. Less than one in four approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, 66 percent disapprove.

Independents and Americans overall are eager to elect Republicans to stop the mess that Biden and the Democrats are making in Washington. Quinnipiac writes:

Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly back their own parties. Independents say 41 – 31 percent they would want to see Republicans win control of the U.S. House of Representatives, while 28 percent did not offer an opinion.

Americans say 46 – 40 percent they would want to see the Republican Party win control of the U.S. Senate, while 15 percent did not offer an opinion. Independents say 44 – 34 percent that they would want to see the Republican Party win control of the U.S. Senate, and 22 percent did not offer an opinion.

Among Republicans, Biden is at 4 percent approval. Quinnipiac must have dialed Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol to get the number to four percent..

Steve Rattner, who served in the Obama Administration as the head of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, tells MSNBC and the New York Times that Biden’s economic policies have made the economy worse in terms of both inflation and unemployment.

Writing in the November 16 New York Times, Rattner states quite plainly that the enormous amount of spending in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan created the inflationary pressures that are eating away at the earnings and savings of Americans today.  Rattner writes (paywall):   

The original sin was today the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March. The bill — almost completely unfunded — sought to counter the effects of the Covid pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment. That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.

Rattner also points out that real earnings of workers have fallen under Biden because inflation is outpacing wage gains.  The chart which appears at 0:11 shows that real wages have decline by 2 percent since Biden took office. 

Of course, Rattner doesn’t let the Federal Reserve’s ultra-loose monetary policies off the hook.  In the Times, he writes. 

“[S]ome responsibility for overstimulating lies with the Federal Reserve, which responded correctly to the onset of the pandemic by cutting interest rates and shoveling money into the financial system. More recently, the Fed has been too slow to curtail its program of buying debt, sending still more money to chase those few goods. And until recently, Fed officials were echoing the White House line about “transitory” inflation.”

As a prominent member of the Obama Administration, Rattner’s criticisms of Biden’s spending policies have extra weight.  Moreover, these criticisms of Biden’s policies are appearing in the New York Times and MSNBC.  That Biden is in danger of losing the Times and MSNBC Underscores how bad his economic policies are. 

Seen on the internet. Normally we offer some commentary when we post but this picture of the eyewatering gas prices in Lancaster, CA says it all about the failure of Biden’s energy policies.

New Hampshire is one of nine states with a competitive 2022 senate contest. A new poll by Morning Consult has Joe Biden’s approval rate underwater among all New Hampshire voters and cratering nationwide and in the Granite State among suburban voters.

Overall, Biden is now -2 net disapproval in New Hampshire according to the Morning Consult and +1 among New Hampshire suburban voters. That compares to +7 overall and +13 among suburban voters in the Granite State in Q1.

Biden is further underwater among suburban voters in the three other swing states with incumbent Democrats up in 2022. Biden is -14 among suburban voters in Arizona, -4 in Georgia and -14 in Nevada.

The New Hampshire 2022 Senate contest will likely pit retired Brigadier General Don Bolduc against incumbent Maggie Hassan. General Bolduc was a recent a guest on the GOUSA Opportunity Report and was a speaker at GOUSA’s 2021 OppCon.

The New Hampshire senate race will be close with Bolduc just 5 points behind Hassan in a hypothetical matchup according to the University of New Hampshire.

Tying the incumbent to Biden’s policies and championing policies that appeal to suburban voters as well as all voters in New Hampshire may be the key to flipping the New Hampshire senate seat.

The opportunity movement seeks to identify issues that most Americans agree on. The GOUSA rating system evaluates the extent to which a politician’s stances are consistent with greater freedom and opportunity. To learn more about the rating system, go here.

Polls are showing a red tidal wave forming for 2022. Meanwhile, Biden and Harris continue to tank.

Overall, the Real Clear Politics average spread in the generic congressional vote has Republicans up by 3.4 points. And this probably understates the Republican lead as more recent polls have the GOP even further ahead.

Rasmussen (2500 likely voters) has Republicans up by 13 points. Rasumssen points out: “The 13-point edge for Republicans in the latest poll is larger than Democrats enjoyed at any time during the 2018 campaign.”  

In 2018 the Democrats gained 40 seats. Republicans only need to pick up five seats to take control in 2022.

ABC News/Washington Post has Republicans up by 10 among registered voters. The GOP Lead swells to 23 points in states with competitive Senate seats.

Meanwhile, the Bad numbers for Biden and Harris keep coming in. According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll, only 41 percent approve of Biden’s performance overall. That falls to a dismal 33 percent approval in states with competitive Senate races.

The election is still almost a year away. It is important that those of us in the opportunity movement continue to work hard and not get cocky.

BLM is threatening newly-elected New York Mayor Eric Adams with ‘riots, fire and bloodshed’ if he restores anti-crime units disbanded by Mr. Adams’s predecessor.

New York is America’s largest city and preeminent business center. The mayor of New York City has a job as big as any state governor or national politician. As such, Eric Adams could be considered the highest elected black official in the United States.

To threaten the mayor of New York City with violence takes gall let alone a mayor with roots as deep in the black community as Eric Adams. Yet that is exactly what BLM has done publicly. The New York Daily News reports:

Leaders of the city’s Black Lives Matter movement on Wednesday threatened “riots” and “bloodshed” in the streets if Mayor-elect Eric Adams reverses the abolition of the NYPD’s controversial anti-crime units. “If he thinks that they’re going to go back to the old ways of policing, then we are going to take to the streets again. There will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed because we believe in defending our people,” said Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, after a heated meeting with Adams in Brooklyn Borough Hall.

Violence and intimidation are the tactics of extremists. By any measure, BLM is an extremist organization. Unfortunately, the corporate media are loathe to call out the extremism of BLM and organizations like Antifa. In this case they did. The New York Daily News (cited above) is a liberal paper. The more conservative New York Post‘s coverage of the meeting between Adams and BLM was similar.

GOUSA opposes extremism and political violence of all forms and from all quarters. In our rating system we subtract a full point if a politician supports extremist organizations or espouses hateful rhetoric. To learn more about the GOUSA rating system and the treatment of extremism go here.

How many times have we heard “if you don’t like it here, go somewhere else”?  That presents a problem for colleges and university faculty as higher ed in America is uniformly woke.  A group of academics has a promising solution—start a new college. 

The University of Austin (UATX) is a new university.  UATX is dedicated to free inquiry, free speech and innovation in instruction and curriculum.  At the same time, UATX plans to keep education affordable by keeping administrative and overhead costs down. 

The founders of UATX are established academic and public policy leaders including historian Niall Ferguson, author Bari Weiss, former AEI president Arthur Brooks and economists Larry Summers, Glenn Loury and Tyler Cowen. 

Universities were once places of discovery and excitement.  As Niall Ferguson writes, UATX seeks to restore the campus environment to that he experienced in his student days. 

“Those of us who were fortunate to be undergraduates in the 1980s remember the exhilarating combination of intellectual freedom and ambition to which all this gave rise. Yet, in the past decade, exhilaration has been replaced by suffocation, to the point that I feel genuinely sorry for today’s undergraduates.”

Ferguson is right. I too was an undergraduate in the 1980s. The freedom and excitement of undergraduate and graduate college life that I experienced is rare today.

  Study after study have show that cancel culture and conformity have taken over academic life in the United States and other Western countries. 

Universities are not just failing to live up to their ideals regarding academic freedom.  They are also failing to provide value to students.  The cost of attending the typical college has almost tripled since 1980 while earnings of college graduates have remained flat. 

UATX promises to provide a home for scholars and students disaffected by the current college climate.  It also provides an alternative business model for students and parents fed up with funding bloated university bureaucracies with the tuition and tax dollars.    

The non-partisan Tax Foundation ran the numbers on the economic effects of Biden’s Build Back Better plan and found that the Democrat’s proposal would be a major drag on the economy. 

The Tax Foundation estimates that Biden’s spending plans would reduce long-run GDP levels by 0.38 percent, reduce real wages by 0.27 percent, and cost 107,000 jobs. 

One feature of the Biden plan that has not been widely discussed is the effect on marginal tax rates.  According to the Tax Foundation, if enacted, the top tax rate in the United States would be the highest in the world at 57.4 percent from the current 42.9 percent.  See the table at the end from the Tax Foundation for details. 

At 42.9 percent, the top tax rate in the United States is already slightly higher than the 42.6 percent average rate in advanced economies.  Biden’s plan would result in a huge increase in top rates. 

High tax rates have at least three very bad effects on the economy: 

First, high tax rates discourage investment and work.  Indeed, the Tax Foundation estimates that the Biden plan would reduce the overall capital stock of the U.S. economy by 0.79 percent.  Less investment harms the competitiveness of U.S. companies relative to foreign companies.

Second, high tax rates create an incentive for the most entrepreneurial and innovative Americans to relocate abroad.  At a tax rate of 57.9 percent, countries like the United Kingdom (top tax rate of 45 percent) or New Zealand (top rate of 33 percent) look pretty good.  Or for great weather, perhaps Columbia (top rate of 33 percent) or Israel (top rate of 50 percent).

Third, high tax rates provide an incentive for wealthy to shift income to tax-advantaged sources and to seek out tax shelters.  Investments motivated by tax considerations harm economic growth by channeling capital into less useful or productive investments. 

It isn’t just the Tax Foundation’s analysis that shows that Biden’s plans would harm the economy.  The University of Pennsylvania recently reviewed Build Back Better and found that the plan would increase the federal deficit by almost $3 trillion over the next ten years.

Far from “costing nothing” as Biden claims, Build Back Better really amounts to a Big Budget Buster that will result in lower growth and fewer opportunities for Americans.   

Writing in The Austrian Jeff Deist lays out a compelling case why this is a great time for those of us who cherish freedom and opportunity. The best part appears below:

“Covid policies ruined cities, at least for awhile, and the Great Unraveling will reduce the political and economic power of those cities.

So a once-in-a-generation opportunity is before us. The federal government is far and away the biggest, most powerful institution in America, but as previous speakers mentioned, faith in institutions is crumbling. And it should crumble. Washington, DC, has been the centerpiece around which we have organized society for a hundred years now, and that’s a profoundly evil reality. So we should cheer when Americans lose faith in it due to Trump or covid or Afghanistan or public opinion polls which show a deeply divided and skeptical country. There is a growing sense that DC is over, it’s done, and it’s time to turn our backs on it. We are losing our state religion.

Contra our political elites, covid and the disastrous reaction by governments may end up reducing their power and standing in society.“

The full publication is available on the site of the Mises Institute .

Down, down, down. There’s only one direction that Biden’s approval is going and that’s down.

Actually, it could be worse. Only 28 percent of Americans approve of the job that Kamala Harris is doing, 51 percent disapprove.

Among the other findings from USA Today:

• Nearly half of those surveyed, 46%, say Biden has done a worse job as president than they expected, including 16% of those who voted for him. Independents, by 7-1 (44%-6%), say he’s done worse, not better, than they expected.
• Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64%, say they don’t want Biden to run for a second term in 2024. That includes 28% of Democrats. Opposition to Trump running for another term in 2024 is nearly as high, at 58%. That includes 24% of Republicans.
• 64 percent don’t want Biden to run for a second term. Among Biden voters, 39 percent don’t want him to run again

If the election were held today, Republicans congressional candidates would trounce the Democrats. The generic ballot is +8 Republican.

GO-USA is using its OppScore system to evaluate House and Senate candidates in close races. Watch this site for data on which one of these candidates stands for opportunity and which ones don’t.

Biden says Democrat spending will “cost nothing”. CNBC says otherwise.

CNBC’s Yian Mui reports that the most recent Biden spending plan would increase the deficit by $2.6 trillion over the next ten years. This is hardly paid for.

Democrat fuzzy math concerns both spending and taxes. First, rather than involving $1.8 billion in spending, the plan would cost $4.1 trillion.

Moreover the plan violates Biden’s campaign promise to not tax those making less than $400,000.

GOUSA believes in environmentally-friendly, safe, and economically-sensible solutions to America’s energy needs. Although nuclear power development is stalled in the United States, China is planning a massive expansion of its nuclear power capacity.

According to Bloomberg, China has 46 nuclear reactors under construction or in the planning stages. There are only two reactors under constructions in the United States.

By 2035 China plans to add 150 new reactors with 147 gigawatts of generation capacity.

As a comparison, the combined capacity of America’s 55 existing nuclear plants (93 reactors) is 95 gigawatts. The two reactors under construction will add less than 3 gigawatts of capacity.

America’s failure to develop nuclear power will be a drag on the well-being of the American people and the competitiveness of American industry. Households and industry need access to reliable sources of energy. Nuclear power is the only existing source of reliable baseload power for America’s homes, offices and factories.

Nuclear power development is also a national security issue. China’s building program will make that country the world leader in this vital technology.

Support for environmentally safe energy solutions is one of the subcomponents of the components of GOUSA’s National Opportunity assessment of politicians. To learn more about the GOUSA rating system, visit out 5 Points of Opportunity page here.

Police officers have had a difficult few years.  Woke politicians have disparaged and sought to defund police departments.  Attacks on police officers have skyrocketed. 

GOUSA supports the police, fire and first responders.  Most Americans agree.  On November 2, with few exceptions, voters elected pro-police mayors and supported pro-police ballot referenda.  Here’s a quick roundup:

Minneapolis voters rejected a plan to abolish the police department 56 to 44. 

New York City elected Eric Adams as mayor.  Adams is a former police captain and opponent of defunding the police.  While his win was expected (New York is heavily Democratic), Adams used his victory speech to eviscerate the policies of Bill DeBlasio, his left-wing, defund the police predecessor.    

Buffalo rejected Democratic Socialist India Walton by 20 points in favor of write-in candidate Byron Brown.  Walton wanted to defund the police. Buffalo police endorsed Byron Brown. 

Seattle likely elected a pro-police mayor as Bruce Harrell was ahead by 30 percentage points early this morning.  His opponent wanted to slash the police department budget by 50 percent.

Another Seattle surprise. Republican Ann Davison leads police abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy in Seattle city attorney race (that’s the headline). This is a stunning rebuke to the defund the police crowd in one of the most left wing cities in the U.S.

The sole exception among major city races is Boston where Michelle Wu, a defund the police advocate, won by 30 points. You have to wonder what’s up with Boston voters. 

Support for the police is one component of the National Opportunity section of the GOUSA rating system.  To see more about our rating system, go here. 

Whatever happened to Build Back Better? It’s really more like Biden’s Baleful Boondoggles or Biden’s Big-time Blunders. The country does not like what it’s getting from the Biden Presidency.

A new poll from NBC news finds that more than two out of three adults think the United States is headed in the wrong direction.

At no point during the Trump Presidency was the wrong track percentage higher than 71.

Only 42 percent approve of the job that Biden is doing and 40 percent approve of his handling of the economy.

The U.S. economy now looks a lot like it did in the carter era: inflation, supply shortages, slow growth and declining real wages.

The problem is that the Biden Administration and the Democrats are making fundamental changes to the economy that Americans don’t want.

Americans still believe in freedom and the free market economy. A majority of Americans want government to do less, not more in the economy.

The Democrats want socialism: a welfare state, political control of industry, favors for corporate monopolies (especially those that are woke). GOUSA rejects that.

Social justice warriors in the modern West are no different that the Bolsheviks of the old Soviet Union says Russian Leader Vladimir Putin.  He should know.

The comparison is apt.  Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin laid bare the parallels between the old oppression of the Soviet past and the now oppression of the woke progressives in the modern West.

He calls out the erasure of the great works in art and literature: 

“Looking at what is happening in a number of Western countries, we are amazed to see the domestic practices, which we, fortunately, have left, I hope, in the distant past. The fight for equality and against discrimination has turned into aggressive dogmatism bordering on absurdity, when the works of the great authors of the past – such as Shakespeare – are no longer taught at schools or universities, because their ideas are believed to be backward. The classics are declared backward and ignorant of the importance of gender or race. In Hollywood memos are distributed about proper storytelling and how many characters of what colour or gender should be in a movie. This is even worse than the agitprop department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”

Citing Martin Luther King, Putin call out the obsession among the left in dividing people on racial lines:

” Countering acts of racism is a necessary and noble cause, but the new ‘cancel culture’ has turned it into ‘reverse discrimination’ that is, reverse racism. The obsessive emphasis on race is further dividing people, when the real fighters for civil rights dreamed precisely about erasing differences and refusing to divide people by skin colour.”

Putin also cites the parallels between modern progressive ideologies on sexuality and gender and those of the old Soviet Union:

“Zealots of these new approaches even go so far as to want to abolish these concepts altogether. Anyone who dares mention that men and women actually exist, which is a biological fact, risk being ostracised. “Parent number one” and “parent number two,” “’birthing parent” instead of “mother,” and “human milk” replacing “breastmilk” because it might upset the people who are unsure about their own gender. I repeat, this is nothing new; in the 1920s, the so-called Soviet Kulturtraegers also invented some newspeak believing they were creating a new consciousness and changing values that way. And, as I have already said, they made such a mess it still makes one shudder at times. Not to mention some truly monstrous things when children are taught from an early age that a boy can easily become a girl and vice versa. That is, the teachers actually impose on them a choice we all supposedly have. They do so while shutting the parents out of the process and forcing the child to make decisions that can upend their entire life.”

It has often been said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  Putin’s discussion of the parallels between the old Soviet Union and modern Western progressive ideologies is a good one.  One question remains.  Is it that modern progressives have failed to learn from the old Soviet Union or it the case that they are using the old Soviet Union as a “how to” manual?

In contrast to the progressive left, most Americans want funding for police to increase or stay the same, not decline.  Americans of all racial, age and income groups reject defunding.  Concerns regarding violent crime are on the rise.

A September 2021 poll by the Pew Research Center shows solid support for more funding for the police.  Overall, 47 percent of Americans support a lot or a little increase in funding for police versus only 15 percent that want funding for police reduced.

Only 23 percent of blacks support less funding for police versus 38 percent that want funding increased and 38 percent that want funding to stay the same.  Whites and Hispanics are equally supportive of more funding for police with both groups supporting more funding over less by a three to one margin.

Six in ten Americans view violent crime as a very big problem, up from five in ten in 2019.  No surprise given the surge in murder and mayhem especially in big cities in which funding for the police has been cut. 

Interestingly, the group least supportive of the police are white Democrats (below). 

The results of the Pew Poll show that support for defunding is largely an elite left-wing white phenomena.  The mayhem and misery created by the defund the police movement is on display in large cities like Baltimore, Portland, New York and Chicago—all of which are governed by hard-left progressive mayors affiliated with the Democratic Party.    

GOUSA supports the police and the maintenance of law and order.  Support for the police and rejection of defunding is one of the issues that our rating team considers in assessing politician support for National Opportunity.  But we also recognize that personal safety and freedom from crime also determines the degree to which Americans are able to realize opportunities in the other four areas as well.

To learn more about our rating system go here.  And to make a contribution to support our work go here. 

Good news! The Biden Administration’s play to spy on your bank account is (probably) due to opposition by Republicans and West Virginia Joe Manchin (Opp Score +3.75/5.0).

Details at this link .

Here’s what Senator Manchin had to say:

“I said, ‘Mr. President, I don’t know what happened. This cannot happen. This is screwed up,’” the Democratic senator told listeners “I said, do you understand how messed up that is, to think that Uncle Sam is going to be watching… and what it does for bankers and this and that?”

Messed up indeed.

By big majorities Americans disapprove of Biden’s economic policies. The only conceivable reason the Democrats are pursuing them is to reward politically useful special interests.

Hugh majorities of Americans view the country on the wrong track under the Democrats. According to Real Clear Politics, 61 percent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track versus 33 percent on the right track. That a spread of negative 28 percent. In contrast, for much of the Trump presidency, the spread was less than 20 percent.

Biden’s job approval stands at negative 10 percent overall and on the economy, a negative 11 percent. Only 42 percent approve of Biden’s handling of the economy. 53 percent disapprove. According to Rasmussen, only 62 percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s handling of the economy.

Most ominously, only 43 percent describe Biden as mentally sharp. 56 think he’s not too well.

83 percent of Americans are concerned about inflation with 57 percent being very concerned. They should be. With the Federal Reserve money printing in overdrive, inflation is the logical result. As Milton Friedman put it “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomena”. This fundamental law of economics is no different in the United States in 2021 as it was in the 1970s.

So with Biden and Democrat economic policies polling terribly, why are the Democrats continuing to push for more spending and money creation? The answer is that they are betting that rewarding key special interests will keep them in power in 2022.

To start with, consider the little noticed plan to hand out taxpayer cash to journalists. Yes really. That may keep the mainstream media in the Democrats satchel but it will also destroy the last shreds of credibility of the press. As the Wall Street Journal put it: “A federal subsidy would do more harm than good. Subsidies from Washington conflict with the democratic mission … which requires an independent press. Local papers in the mold of left-leaning National Public Radio stations wouldn’t serve a politically diverse public. Most Americans already mistrust the press, and making journalists more dependent on government will compound the suspicion of bias. ”

The Democrats spending plans are full of racial and gender preferences and special deals for the Democrat’s union supporters; tax breaks for elite private universities; tons of spending on green new deal boondoggles.

All of this special interest spending is sure to further divide American society.

The only possible reason that the Democrats are pursuing these plans is that they view American democracy as so broken that the public at large doesn’t matter, only those with money and political influence do. Let’s hope they aren’t right.

Banking and industry groups are pushing back against the third most Orwellian policy of the Biden Administration (vaccine mandates and reeducation camps being the first two but with the Biden Administration it is hard to keep count).

As noted before, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Democrats behind the requirement that banks turn over detailed customer data on all accounts with more than $10,000 (formerly $600) are simply lying to the public when they claim that this is to target billionaires. Rather it is for the construction of a vast surveillance network to target ordinary Americans.

The letter states: “This week the Department of Treasury and congressional supporters finally acknowledged the program was far too expansive but, according to media reports, made only cosmetic changes by increasing the de minimis threshold to $10,000 and excluding wages and government benefits from that calculation. As we have stated in several previous letters, these changes fail to address the reality that any program based on gross annual inflows and outflows will impact Americans from all income levels. Even with the proposed exclusions of certain types of income, a large number of common and totally innocent transactions by individuals and small businesses will be captured by this new regime.”

There is along history of the use of the IRS by the government to harass and intimidate political opponents. Inevitably, this information will be used to target those who oppose the ruling clique.

GO-USA stands for individual freedom and opportunity, not government intimidation and bullying. Americans need to push back against the enlistment of banks as part of the surveillance state. We are glad that at least instance the private sector is doing so.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting evidence that Facebook discriminates against conservative news sites. Their study is based on analysis of Facebook data as well as documents and interviews of Facebook insiders.

Link to the story here (paywall).

The article mentioned an internal Facebook study of the extent to which conservative sites have been suppressed:

“The study, dubbed a “political ideology analysis,” suggested the company had been suppressing the traffic of major far-right publishers, even though that wasn’t its intent, according to the documents. “Very conservative” sites, it found, would benefit the most if the tools were removed, with Breitbart’s traffic increasing an estimated 20%, Washington Times’ 18%, Western Journal’s 16% and Epoch Times’ by 11%, according to the documents.”

Interestingly, it is conservative publishers that generate the highest level of engagement among Facebook users.

“Right-wing sites are consistently among the best-performing publishers on the platform in terms of engagement, according to data from research firm NewsWhip. That is one reason Facebook also is criticized by people on the left, who say Facebook’s algorithms reward far-right content.”

Read the whole thing!

Is this piece by Vanity fair the first crack in the mainstream media wall of silence on the lab leak theory for the origin of COVID: In Major Shift, NIH Admits Funding Risky Virus Research in Wuhan

More and more evidence is coming out that (i) the NIH funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab; (ii) that Dr. Fauci lied about gain-of-function research to Congress; and (iii) the Wuhan lab is the source of COVID-19.

To be fair, despite an almost universal blackout in the U.S. media about the lab leak, foreign journalists are doing excellent work in this area. See for instance the work of Sharrri Markson of Australia’s SkyNews.

Glenn Greenwald, who is located in Brazil, is also one of many other foreign journalists doing excellent work in this area.

UPDATE: Lots more here!

54 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy according to a CNBC poll and 47 percent think there will be a recession next year.

And this is a poll from CNBC a subsidiary of NBC, an unrepentant Biden cheerleader.

The numbers are dismal throughout: “Recession worries come with increasingly negative views about the current and future state of the economy: 46% say the economy will get worse in the year ahead, the most in the 13-year history of the poll and 79% judge the economy as just fair or poor, the most since 2014.”

Only 41 percent approve of Biden’s handling of the presidency overall. 52 percent disapprove.

The numbers are even worse when it comes to the $3.5 trillion the Democrats want to spend on handouts to favored interests and woke programs. 71 percent of Americans disapprove if it increases their taxes (which of course it will).

A massive amount of new “Let’s Go Brandon” videos are coming out.

Here are some from the Let’s Go Brandon Dance Challenge.

Here’s one for Simpsons fans.

You got to love the prank announcements. “Could Brandon Lesko come to the service desk? I’m looking for a Lesko, Brandon.”

Even Hitler says Let’s Go Brandon.

Very funny and FUN!

Democrat Terry McAuliffe walked out of a TV interview with WJLA reporter Nick Minock. Video below. McAuliffe is running against Glenn Youngkin for Virginia Governor.

It’s never good when a politician walks out of an interview. This is especially true for a Democrats as they usually get softball questions from the media.

McAuliffe walked out when the conversation turned to critical race theory.

GOUSA has rated both Youngkin and McAuliffe using our opportunity-based Political Credit Rating System. Youngkin received a strong pro-opportunity score of 4.2/5.0. McAuliffe received a poor score of -1.6/5.0 (anti-opportunity).

Our press release noted the basis for the ratings:

“Youngkin received a high score on his support for protecting our 2nd Amendment gun rights, despite deceptive ads from Democrat-linked organizations attacking him on the issue. McAuliffe scored terribly on the subject with his far-Left, anti-2A gun control agenda. Youngkin also scored highly on all five Points of Opportunity – Personal, Economic, Social, Educational, and National Opportunity – while McAuliffe’s score is underwater on all points except for Social Opportunity (Youngkin bests him 60% to 20% on the topic). With such a clear difference between the candidates, the choice for Virginia voters should be clear.”

UPDATE: The two most recent polls now have Youngkin and McAuliffe tied at 46 percent each.

UPDATE2: Now McAuliffe is claiming that he didn’t walk off despite video evidence to the contrary. The local TV news station states otherwise.

Encouraging news: A recent poll by the Morning Consult finds that only 8 percent of Gen Z has a positive opinion of cancel culture while 55 percent opposes it.

Gen Z is more likely to have a negative view of cancel culture than Millennials. 36 percent of Millennials opposed cancel culture while 19 percent favored it.

While a plurality of both generations oppose cancelation, a lot of work needs to be done. Significant numbers in both generations are either neutral or don’t have an opinion on cancel culture.

Same for critical race theory. While Gen Z and Millennials are split on CRT, a majority of each generation have either no opinion or neutral feelings toward s critical race theory.

Gen X and Boomers are overwhelming opposed to both cancel culture and critical race theory.

At GO-USA we oppose critical race theory, cancel culture and other divisive ideologies.

We are working to develop a young leaders who value individualism and freedom.

We are spreading the message of opportunity and liberty through social media and other means.

And we support those speak out. Like Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones, we believe that silencing others does not disprove the veracity of their claims but instead the pettiness and insecurity of the silencer.

Freedom is contagious. Let’s Go Brandon by Loza Alexander is #1 on the iTunes hip hop chart and #2 overall.

“Let’s Go Brandon” started when NBC reporter tried to cover up for a crowd chanting “F*** Joe Biden” at a NASCAR race.

We say “Let’s Go Brandon!”

Enjoy!

Lots of new information is coming out about how big tech and big media interfered with the 2020 election.  There’s too much to post here so we’ll just give you a sampling.

Mollie Hemingway’s new book Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections came out this past week.*  See Mollie discuss her book here. 

Kylee Zempel has a great piece in the Federalist on the investigation into how Zuckerberg corrupted elections in Wisconsin including emails obtained by groups fighting public corruption.  Gives you a great insight into how Zuckerbucks were used to steal the 2020 election.  Big Tech election interference was one of the topics covered at August’s OppCon.

More here on Zuckerberg from the Daily Mail.  Sad, isn’t it, that to get news about the U.S. you have to go to foreign publicans?

Finally, don’t miss Miranda Devine’s Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide which is due out in November.*  My copy is on pre-order.   

As Thomas Jefferson wrote: “a well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny”. Keep tyrants at bay. Stay informed.

* Annoy your big tech overlords.  Don’t buy from Amazon.com. 

What do German election results have to do with GOUSA?  A lot really. In September, young Germans voted overwhelmingly for change by rejecting the two establishment parties.  Are young Americans also ready to change politics in the United States?  At GOUSA we hope so.

Unlike the United States, Germany has several major political parties though two, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Socialists (SPD), have run the country since WWII.  In the September national election young Germans rejected both parties.  Instead, the top voter getters among young people were the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) and the progressive Greens each with 23 percent of the youth vote.  That may not sound like a lot by US standards.  But consider that the CDU and SPD combined gathered just 25 percent of the vote among voters between the ages of 18 and 22.

The concerns that led young people to reject the CDU and SPD sound a lot like the concerns of young people in the United States. 

Young Germans voted for change because they were sick of the government’s COVID restrictions. Reuters reports:   

“Many young voters saw the FDP as a defender of their liberties and freedoms during the pandemic, Schnetzer said, when the government closed schools and universities, restaurants and fitness studios while keeping factories open to safeguard the economy.  School closures amounted to around 30 weeks since March last year compared to just 11 in France, U.N. data shows. The FDP was against blanket closures and wanted to give schools more power to decide if and when to close.”

The other is that the establishment parties were out of touch with issues of interest to young voters including the soaring costs of Germany’s equivalent to the U.S. social security system.  From the Wall Street Journal:

The CDU is like the George W. Bush wing of the Republican Party in the U.S. and the SPD like the old-time labor Democrats.  Both are in sharp decline in the United States especially among young people.  Like young Germans, young Americans are looking for new solutions.    

Will young Americans find a pro-opportunity, pro-freedom message like that of the FDP as appealing as young Germans do? We think so.  We at GOUSA are working hard bring the message of opportunity to young Americans and develop a generation of pro-opportunity leaders.     

The IRS now wants to monitor every check written and deposit made on your bank account.  A new IRS rule would require banks to turn over transaction information on every account with a balance of $600 or more.  This is a terrible invasion of American’s privacy and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is lying about the proposal.

On Tuesday October 12, Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee that the collection of bank account information was to address tax fraud by billionaires.  This claim is ludicrous on its face.  Billionaires don’t have bank accounts with $600 or write small-dollar checks.  Rather, the purpose is to harass and intimidate small business and ordinary American taxpayers.

Big Brother of Orwell’s 1984 has become Big Janet of 2021. 

The real goal is control.

Wyoming Senator Cindy Lummis put it best when she said that monitoring the bank accounts of every American is evidence of the distrust of Treasury Secretary Yellen and the Biden Administration for the American people:  “Do you distrust the American people so much that you need to know when they bought a couch? Or a cow?”

Of course, it is only a matter of time before the Biden Administration uses this information to squelch dissent by their opponents.

One need only recall the harassment of Tea Party groups by the IRS during the Obama Administration. 

Or the use of the IRS by Richard Nixon against his political enemies. 

Or the many other episodes in which the IRS has been used to harass those who oppose the powerful. 

GO-USA believes in the right to personal privacy including financial privacy and opposes the unconstitutional exercise of the powers of the federal government including the use of government to harass political opponents. 

More here!

Even the New York Times reports that Americans think this power grab sucks. Article e here!