On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political class tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.
Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. We look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us.
1)Biden’s economic policies have pretty much been a disaster from Day One. The prices of everything are much higher than two short years ago with inflation at one point in Biden’’s term hitting 40 year highs. Gas prices are still almost 100% higher than they were at the end of the Trump era. Americans have struggled economically because of his economic ignorance.
And now we learn that mortgage rates are also going through the roof:
The average long term mortgage rate in the country has risen to its highest level in more than 20 years.
The average hit 7.09%, up from 6.96% last week and up from 5.13% a year ago.
In other words, from a mortgage perspective, things are getting worse under Biden, not better.
You have to go back to April, 2002 to get a mortgage this high, 7.13%.
Two years ago, as a remnant of the Trump administration, the average rate was 2.86%.
Thus, mortgage costs are now almost 2.5 times more expensive than when Biden came into office.
Not surprising, home sales are down 23% in the first six months of this year.
The numbers do not lie, Biden’s economic policies are causing havoc on the housing market and related industries. And he created this havoc in just over two years, amazing incompetence.
2)As everyone knows by now, there have been devastating and fatal wildfires on the Hawaiian Island of Maui this past week. Fatalities are likely to be well over the current death toll of 110. Such a sad, sad story.
But one number stands out in this disaster. A very, very basic function of any government is to protect the lives and property of the citizens it serves. But the Honolulu Star-Adveriser newspaper reported that when emergency services asked for water to be released to stop the wildfires early in their life, that request was delayed for many hours. That request was delayed by Deputy Director M. Kaleo Manuel of the Hawaii Commission on Water Management:
The fire was contained at 9:00 am that fateful morning.
But to be prepared, a request was made to take stream water and move it into storage in case the fire kicked up again.
Manuel did not release the water until 6:00 pm.
By then the fire started raging again and firefighters had no water available to put them down.
Thus, the ineptness of a government official has likely killed well over 110 people. Totally unprepared and incapable of doing the right thing at the right time and as a result, the numbers are horrific.
3)We have often discussed the reality that the San Francisco city politicians have allowed a once great city to digress into a cesspool of crime, violence, drug addiction, homelessness, and unhealthy quality of life given the public use of drug needles, and public defecation and urination. As a result, stores have closed, businesses have moved out of the city, and the downtown area has become a ghost town.
But an entrepreneur has come up with a unique way to make a profit off of the situation:
This person is advertising that for $30, he will take people on “Doom Loop Walking Tour” to show those interested how far the city has deteriorated.
His claim: “You’ve read the headlines. You’ve seen the Tweets, now get close and personal to the Doom and Squalor of downtown San Francisco. How can a city with a $14.6 billion annual budget be a model of urban decay? How can it spend $776.8 million per year on police and have no rule of law to show for it?”
$14.6 billion budget and the city clowns at town hall now reside over the death bones of a great city? Amazing.
4)In our opinion, the Biden administration has been a total failure regarding the war in Ukraine after the Russians invaded. Biden hasn't met with, or contacted the Russian leader Putin, to try and put pressure on him to negotiate an end to the warfare. Biden’s Secretary of State waited over a year to meet with the Russian foreign minister. Complete failures from a diplomatic perspective.
As a result of this diplomatic failure:
Sources estimate that the Russians have had almost 300,000 casualties in the war with possibly 120,000 of them being fatalities.
Ukraine has experienced almost 70,000 military killed and over 100,000 wounded.
And with no end in sight and no sign that Biden has the interest, ability, or courage to step up and stop the carnage, the deaths and wounded numbers will continue to climb to disgustingly high waar-realted numbers.
5)Above we expressed amazement at how quickly Biden has screwed up the economy. He has continued his ineptness from a voter perspective also:
A recent opinion poll shows that only 46% of Hispanic voters would back Biden in the 2024 Presidential campaign.
This is down from 63% in 2020.
Thus, in just over two and a half years Biden has lost about 27% worth of support from this major demographic segment.
His incompetence boggles the mind.
6)Apparently, 20 sitting members of Congress are over 80 years old. Now, I am not saying that being old should prevent someone from serving in Congress although the odds that someone that old still has full use of their faculties do go down by that age segment.
The bigger problem I have with these 80 years old is that most, if not all of them, have been serving in Congress since the 1990s or earlier. Thus, the old saying applies: if you are not part of the solution then you must be part of the problem. Being around for 30-40 years makes you part of the problem since obviously these folks have not succeeded in addressing the many issues facing the country today.
7)And last, but not least, a “By the Numbers” post is not complete unless we check in with the city of Chicago and see what the death and wounded toll was over a recent weekend: 23 citizens shot with 3 Chicago residents dying from their gunshot wounds. Thus, even with a new mayor, the local political class continues to fail to protect the lives of its citizens. As of mid-August, 372 city residents had been killed by gun fire. The numbers do not lie.
As you can see, the numbers are not good: violent crime is up, inflation is up, mortgage rates are up, war fatalities are up, and political incompetence is up.
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