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)We have often talked about which major American city will go bankrupt next. Our top candidates always include New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. The politicians running these cities have pumped up taxes so high while somehow at the same time lowering the quality of life that residents and businesses are fleeing those places for safer, lower taxation states and cities.
As a result of this massive out migration from these crime riddled, homeless overrun cities, the tax base continues to shrink as residents and businesses get out. This reduces the cities’ tax revenue streams which results in the cutting of government services which reduces the quality of life which drives out more residents and businesses and the financial death spiral is in place.
One city that we have sometimes talked about being on the road to bankruptcy is Portland, Oregon. Portland politicians have been some of the loudest people who wanted to implement the inane, failed, and idiotic “defund the police” concept which has increased crime and homelessness in the city. As a result, residents and businesses are now fleeing Portland, putting the city in contention for being the next major city to go bankrupt, as the numbers show:
Portland ranked sixth among all American cities in population loss between 2021 and 2022.
At one time one of the fastest growing US cities, Portland has lost a whopping 20,000 residents in the past few years.
Not surprisingly, the city’s homicide rate almost tripled between 2019 and 2022.
The city’s 101 homicides in 2022 was the highest number of murders in the city’s entire history.
The number of shootings in the city tripled in recent years to over 1,300 in 2022.
Property crime went up 20% in just one year, with 6,500 burglaries between November, 2021 and November, 2022.
So crime and violence go up and businesses and residents leave the city which reduces the tax base which reduces police, fire, and EMT resources which lowers the quality of life while encouraging more crime and Portland may actually have a better shot at bankruptcy than we give it credit for. The numbers do not lie.
2)The next discussion involves only one number: $10,000,000. That is the number that Congress is looking at, a number that may be the amount of money that was mysteriously deposited in Joe Biden’s shell company, CelticCapri Corp. This number may involve bribery and blackmail activities involving foreign entities (in this case, probably someone from Ukraine) that could also be compromising the country’ security.
The reason for the suspicions on the part of Congress is that:
Joe Biden’s family had income of $400,000 in the tax year 2016, which was also the last year he was Vice President.
But only one year after he left office in 2017 his family income zoomed to $11 million.
And by the way, that money could not have all come from the sale of his book, which was released about then, since the gross revenue from the book sales was less than $7 million and he would have only received a fraction of that $7 million, probably less than $1 million.
Senator Ted Cruz summed the situation quite nicely: “You’re looking at a tax return that has $10 million in cash that came from a mysterious source.” The numbers do not lie.
Unfortunately, these are not the only suspicious numbers and exchanges of money involving the entire Biden crime family that are coming to light in Congressional hearings. There whistleblowers are explaining how Biden manipulated his government position to protect and enrich himself and his family
3)Unfortunately, this next discussion point returns to one that we have had way too many times over the years. One of the very, very basic premises and functions of any government entity is to protect the lives and property of the citizens that it serves. No matter how well a government entity does in other areas, if it cannot provide this basic protection service it is a complete failure.
The city of Chicago and the state of Illinois have some of the toughest gun control laws in the country. And yet, the city politicians continue to fail everyday to protect the lives and property of the city’s residents, as the latest numbers prove:
Despite having a new mayor, 32 people were shot in the city during the weekend prior to the July 4th holiday.
Of the 32 who were shot, 3 of them died from their wounds.
Just a few more numbers to add to the annual count of a city that sees hundreds killed and thousands wounded every year.
The numbers are disgusting for a political class in the city, county, and state that cannot or will not find a way to curb the violence and these horrific numbers.
4)The Supreme Court recently ruled that affirmative action policies in college admissions are illegal and need to be discontinued. If you listen to Democrats, liberals, and the mainstream media you would think that the nation is abhorred at the ruling and that it is wholly unfair to minorities.
However, these elites are not the rest of the country which, according to an ABC poll, a card carrying member of the mainstream media, they could not be any more wrong:
The ABC poll found that the majority of Americans support the Court’s wise decision.
52% said they supported the decision.
Just over 30% of those surveyed disapproved and another 16% did not have an opinion.
75% of Republicans surveyed said they support the decision, 58% of independent voters support the decision and over 25% of Democrats approved the decision.
60% of white respondents, 58% of Asian respondents, about 40% of Hispanics respondents both approved and disapproved of the decisions, and about 25% of Black respondents approved the decision.
A great example where liberal and Democratic politicians are so out of tune with the majority of the country. Affirmative action programs are racist in that they discriminate against Asian and white students, no other way to say it.
It is a shame that these same politicians do not devote the same energy and outrage against the inner city schools that utterly fail to educate Black and Hispanic students. Doing a better job of education in these neighborhoods would create a totally fair and merit based system for college acceptance, a freedom approach that involves non-politician meddling. Fix the problem, more and better inner city education, and the fake need for affirmative action programs becomes moot.
So the numbers never lie: Chicago is still violent, Americans still support freedom and the absence of government imposed quota systems, Joe Biden is still rich and corrupt, and Portland continues to still contend in the race for city bankruptcy.
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