We have all seen many cringe worthy moments with Joe Biden over the last three years.

Does he know where he is?

Does he know where he is going?

What did he just say?

This is a man who will turn 82 years old just after the 2024 election.

It is frightening to think of what another four years could be like with that much more mileage on good old Joe.

We have seen the spectacle of 90 year old Senator Diane Feinstein of California where she was told by another senator to just say "aye".

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-dianne-feinstein-told-just-say-aye-awkward-senate-committee-moment-rcna96697

We have recently seen Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell freeze up twice in front of the cameras seemingly unable to speak.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/08/30/mitch-mcconnell-freezes-again/70719637007/

83-year old Nancy Pelosi recently announced that she is going to see another Congressional term next year.

Kudos to Utah Senator Mitt Romney who recently announced he would not run for re-election year year.

The major reason was the fact that the would be in his mid-80's. by the end of the next term and and says it is time for a new generation of leaders.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/13/politics/mitt-romney-not-running-reelection/index.html

If you read between the lines you can see that Romney is also suggesting that Biden and Trump step aside.

Donald Trump will be 78 years old in November, 2024. The is the same age Biden was on Inauguration Day in 2020.

Are we really going to see a Presidential election in 2024 that pits an 82 year old and a 78 year old for President of the United States?

The Vegas oddsmakers say yes right now.

However, BeeLine has put the odds of both Trump and Biden being on the general election ballot in 2024 as less than 1%.

This is the prediction I made on January 16, 2023 in these pages.

I don't like making political predictions because it is too easy to be wrong. I prefer analysis based on data.

However, if I were to place odds on Biden 2.0 vs. Trump 2.0 right now, I would suggest there is only a 1% chance that both Biden and Trump will be the candidates on the final ballot in 2024.

We will find out once again whether I should stay out of the prediction business.

We also have the interesting chart on the aging of our politicians that follows below.

This shows the percentage of those in Congress who were 70 years of age or older in all years dating back to 1800.

It shows that the percent who were 70 or older jumped from 8% in 2002 to 23% in 2022.

Credit: https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-oldest-history-gerontocracy-lawmakers-2022-9

Many say the answer to aging politicians is term limits.

I disagree.

I believe it would make much more sense to implement age limits for all federal elected offices through a constitutional amendment.

I wrote about this in 2018 well before we knew we knew we might be facing the prospects of an 80+ year old President.

My proposal is simple.

An age limit of 65 years of age for a member of the House of Representatives.

An age limit of 70 years for the U,S. Senate.

An age limit fo 75 years for the Presidency.

These are calculated using the minimum age for each office as established in the U,S. Constitution plus 40 years.

If this had been adopted in 2018, when I proposed it. we would not be looking at Biden vs. Trump in 2024. They would both be ineligible.

Feinstein and McConnell would not now be in the U.S. Senate.

Take a look at what I wrote in 2018 for more depth and context on why I think age limits deserve consideration.

Age Limits Rather Than Term Limits?

(originally published May 20, 2018)

We hear a lot about the need for term limits for our elected representatives.

In fact, President Trump recently reiterated his support for Congressional term limits.

I have mixed feelings about term limits. I like the fact that it forces new blood and new ideas into our political system but I also see value in having those with institutional experience in charge to provide the necessary leadership and perspective to the legislative process.

We have had legislative term limits in Ohio since 1992 (limit of no more than four 2-year terms in the House and two 4-year terms in the Senate) but I have seen little evidence that it has had much effect on the political class. It seems to have mainly created a lot of political gamesmanship. A House member is term-limited and then moves to the Senate. A Senator becomes a County Commissioner and then comes back and runs again for the Senate.

As I wrote in "It's All In The Name", the largest asset a politician has is their name identification. The substantial "asset value" that a politician has in his or her name is also the reason why so many politicians have a hard time stepping away. They know they have an "asset" and they want to use it. It really becomes a question of "use it or lose it."

The Toledo Blade did a story in 2015 on why "Term limits do little to oust Ohio lawmakers"  where it reported on the political games being played because of those term limits.

It's been two decades since Ohio voters amended their constitution to cap the number of consecutive years a state lawmaker can hold his office.

But today, five state representatives and a senator who were here in the General Assembly when the term-limits clock first started ticking are still here, their service uninterrupted as they've jumped from one chamber to the other and back again.

Two will have 30 or more years under their belts by the end of the current session.

Term limits were very popular in the 1990's. 14 of the 15 states that now have term limits on the books enacted that provision during that decade. Nebraska was the last to enact term limits in 2000.

After thinking about all of this I believe that it might make more sense to consider age limits or a mandatory retirement age rather than Congressional term limits.

I know that it would spark cries of ageism and all the rest but it would prevent some of the problems with term limits while also providing the opportunity to infuse new blood into Congress from time to time.

It seems that I am not the only one thinking about this. Consider this question that was put to Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on the CNN Town Hall this week that was hosted by Chris Cuomo.

CUOMO: "I have something for you along these lines. You gave as you good segue there. I want to bring in Mary Pat, retired, lives in Maryland. Mary Pat, what is your question? A beautiful scarf you have on."MARY PAT: "Leader Pelosi, quorum.us says more than half the senators running for re-election this year are over 65 years old. If they win, their term of service will be six years. Their constituents are about 20 years younger. Isn't it time for some members to return to private service and to encourage younger folks run for office so --"[ applause ]

I am certainly not suggesting that there is a certain age at which someone is not fit to serve. For example, consider this story and video of 83-year old Senator Chuck Grassley pounding out 19 push ups to best a teenage student at an Iowa school meeting. No one should say that Grassley is not fit to serve.

It just seems logical that at some point the decisions affecting the nation and its future should be turned over to the next generation. Does it make sense for an 80-year old to be voting on legislation that will affect the lives of those much younger who will have to live under those laws for a much longer time than that Senator?

It should also be remembered that the U.S. Constitution already has an established minimum age criteria for the U.S. House (25 years), Senate (30 years) and President (35 years). Our Founders saw the wisdom of that minimum age to insure that there would be a basic level of maturity and life experience in our elected leaders. Perhaps there should also be a maximum as well?

It is also not uncommon to see required retirement ages in the corporate world for CEO's and Board members. It seems to be understood that at some point there comes a time when you should step aside for the good of the organization to let a new generations of leaders have their opportunity.

My suggestion would be to cap the maximum age at which a federal elected official could be sworn into office at 40 years from the minimum age to serve that is currently established in the U.S. Constitution. Thus, a House member could not be more than 65 years of age or a Senator older than 70 when beginning a new term of service. I would add an age 75 limit to the President in addition to the term limit already in place. This effectively would mean that there would be no House members older than 67, Senate members older than 76 or a President who was 79 or older based on the required retirement age limit.

What effect would this have if it was in place right now?

President Trump would still be eligible to run for re-election in 2020 as he would  be under the age 75 age limit on Inauguration Day January 20, 2021. (Trump will not be age 75 until June 14, 2021)

Interestingly, not one of the 45 Presidents we have had would have been precluded from serving if this provision had been in place from the beginning of the nation's founding.

However, this provision would prevent Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden from running for President in 2020 if it were in effect. It would also mean that Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren could run in 2020 but each would be precluded from running for re-election in 2024 as they would be beyond the age limit on Inauguration Day 2025. If you are a Democrat can you honestly say that it is a bad idea to have these people step aside and allow for some fresh faces in the party?

The biggest effect would be on the U.S. Senate.

There are currently 7 Senators that are at least 80 years of age. (Shelby-AL, McCain-AZ, Feinstein-CA, Grassley-IA, Roberts-KA, Inhofe-OK, Hatch-UT.

There are an additional 18 Senators that are at least 70 years of age.

The average age of a Senator right now is 61 and the U.S Representative average is 57. These are both about the oldest averages in our nation's history. By comparison, as recently as 1981, the average Senator's age was 53 and the average Representative was 49. On average, both are now 8 years older than they were 35 years ago.

Quorum recently did a study for the 115th Congress and found that in 44 of U.S House districts the age of the Representative was at least double the median age of those they represented. In 38 of the 44 districts the Representative won re-election with at least 60% of the vote. Name ID is everything and the reality is that most of these politicians are not leaving the pay, privileges and perks of Congress voluntarily. It is almost as if they have a lifetime taxpayer-paid annuity.

There are merits to term limits but they also have inherent limitations.

Perhaps it is time to start thinking about retirement age limits instead?

I recently came across some interesting global data on intentional homicides published by the United Nations.

When you see the data you wonder why any woman would want to become a transgender male.

Here are the numbers for the United States for 2021 (the most recent year reported),

Males are almost four times more likely to be murdered as females in the United States.

Here are the numbers for Mexico.

There are many more homicides in Mexico than the United States despite the fact that the population of Mexico is only about 38% that of the U.S.

Males are almost 8 times more likely to be murdered in Mexico as are females.

You see similar ratios in various South American, Central American and Caribbean countries.

The data also shows that the perpetrators of these intentional homicides (as measured by those arrested or convicted in intentional homicide cases) is even more skewed towards males.

For example, in Honduras 97% of those arrested and/or convicted of intentional homicides (in 2016 the latest year data is available) were males.

In Guatemala, the number is 96%.

Where do you think most of the illegal immigrants flooding across the southern border are coming from?  

Do you think most are males or females?

If you doubt there is an open border policy just look a the data from the U.S. Customs and Border Border Patrol on Southwest Land Border Encounters.

The number of illegal aliens crossing the border has been consistently averaging around 200,000 per month the last three years.

It was below 50,000 per month the last year of the Trump administration.

Source: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters

Where are the largest numbers of illegals coming from according to the CBP?

Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

In July alone, 54,000 illegals came in from Mexico, 26.000 from Honduras and 22,000 from Guatemala.

Look again at the numbers on intentional homicides above and ask whether the Biden border policy is in the best interests of Americans.

CBP data also shows that the overwhelming number of illegals entering the country are single adults or minors. These singles are  almost exclusively males.

Source: https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1696930758009516218

What more evidence is needed to know that the open border policy of the Biden administration is misguided and dangerous?

In addition, why would you want to be a male when you look at these statistics?

We live in a world today in which there is no middle ground.

It seems everything has become black or white.

There is no nuance.

You are either totally pro-life with no exceptions or pro-choice up to the minute of birth.

You have to believe that Covid is nothing more than a cold or it is so dangerous you need six vaccine shots and be wearing an N-95 mask wherever you go.

You need to be for abolishing the IRS or be in favor of hiring 97,000 new IRS employees.

The same seems to also be true as people in the Republicans party state their preferences between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

This is particularly the case if you spend any time on social media platforms.

If you favor Trump, DeSantis is the worst candidate of all time. He is boring, inauthentic, lacks charisma and does not make connections with voters.

It is Trump or bust with them.

Trump is the biggest loser around if you favor DeSantis, Haley or another GOP candidate the next time around.

For example, this guy was probably the biggest cheerleader in the country for Trump on Twitter in the 2016 election and in his four years in office. He now has decided that Trump is a loser and does nothing but screw things up. He now loves DeSantis.

Am I the only persons in America who likes both Trump and DeSantis?

I can get behind any of the other Republican candidates as well.

As I have said before, there has never been a President in my lifetime who governed more consistently in comparison to what he said he would do when he was a candidate than Donald Trump.

There was no bait and switch.

Yes, I wish Trump toned down his personality and was not as bellicose and bombastic. It wouldn't hurt if he was a little less authentic.

However, I have watched Trump closely over the years and what he says is largely an act to give himself some strategic or negotiating advantage.

The stuff he say may be over the top but what he actually does when it counts is not.

He doesn't make crazy decisions. He makes practical ones that are well grounded in reality.

Look at his Supreme Court picks. His dealings with North Korea. The negotiations on NAFTA. The deal he worked out with Mexico on the border. When it came down to doing a deal he was practical and reasonable.

Despite all the predictions that Trump was going to be a disaster as President, none of it proved true. The economy flourished, energy supplies were abundant, ISIS was destroyed and he made significant inroads in brokering peace in the Middle East and with North Korea.

It is hard to see how Trump would not have been easily re-elected if if was not for Covid.

If I have anything to fault Trump about during his time as President it would be his handling of Covid. His instincts were clearly correct that locking down the country over Covid was insane. However, he deferred to Fauci and the so-called experts. He took the mainstream position to avoid controversy and he made the wrong call.

One of the things I like about DeSantis is that he did not fall into that trap. He initially followed the consensus but soon analyzed the data and listened to other experts who disagreed with Fauci. As a result, Florida came through Covid better than almost any other state. He opened the economy and schools faster than most everyone else and Florida benefited as a result.

DeSantis has also been ahead of the game on challenging much of the liberal woke agenda. I don't know of another governor who has pushed back harder.

The 20-point win that DeSantis produced in Florida, which used to be considered a swing state, is a strong endorsement of the job he has done in Florida.

Many make the argument that Trump can't win because he is not popular with suburban women.

Trump is weak with this demographic and it is concerning.

DeSantis may be a more attractive candidate for this group.

However, it is also clear that Trump has a unique ability to connect and bring out the vote of disaffected voters who don't normally see the need to vote. Many of these voters are traditional working class Democrats.

That is why you see general election poll results that do not show much difference in how Trump or DeSantis perform against Biden.

This is the most recent CNN poll.

This is a poll from Echelon Insights.

From Morning Consult.

A poll from Premise Data that shows Trump running much stronger against Biden than DeSantis would.

As I said, I like both Trump and DeSantis.

I saw what Trump did as President. I have seen what DeSantis did as the Governor in Florida.

I am confident that both would steer the nation in the right direction.

Most importantly, it would be far removed with what we have seen with Joe Biden.

However, as I have written before, I favor DeSantis right now because I don't think Biden will be the Democrat candidate a year from now.

Trump will do better against Biden than any other Democrat candidate for the simple reason that voters can easily compare their lives under Trump to what they have experienced with Biden.

Trump will not have that advantage against a younger potential Democrat candidate that does not have a clear record for comparison and which voters do not have established views about.

Trump has a high level of unfavorability with many voters. However, Joe Biden unfavorables are much higher now than when he ran in 2020. 

Trump beat Hillary in 2016 because of her unfavorable rating with many voters. Trump also had a negative approval rating in that election but he was a more attractive option than Hillary in the end.

DeSantis and the other GOP challengers trail Trump badly right now in primary polls but it is a long road to the nomination. A lot can happen between now and the first votes. That is true for both Trump and Biden.

At this time in the primary process for the Democrats in 2008 no one thought Barack Obama would beat Hillary and no one in 2016 was putting money on Joe Biden.

I am content to sit back and watch this play out with the voters confident that the best candidate to take back the country from the Democrats will be identified.

I like both Trump and DeSantis and Haley, Scott, Ramaswamy and the rest.

Even if I am the only person in America who will say it.

Wouldn't we all like to know that our future lives would be cloudless?

Every day of our lives would be sun-filled.

We would have no cloudy days.

No rain would ever fall on anyone' parade.

We would have no cares and no problems to deal with.

It would be an ideal life in every way.

With respect to our weather and climate if there were no cloudy and rainy days it is easy to see it would be a lot warmer.

I play a lot of golf in many types of weather during the year.

One thing that is very clear is that there is a big difference in temperatures when the sun is out compared to when it is behind some cloud cover.

In the summer, of the sun slips behind a cloud it makes it feel 5-10 degrees cooler immediately.

In the spring and fall, a cool day can become very comfortable when the sun is unhindered by any clouds.

However, if the sun disappears in cloud, cover you better be prepared to put that jacket on as the chill is immediate.

Would it surprise you to know that all of the famous climate models that are being used to predict rising future temperatures assume that there will be no clouds in the future?

In other words, despite the fact that clouds have been a mainstay in our weather and climate since the beginning of time on earth, the models that are being used assume the future will be cloudless.

Is it any wonder you could show a global temperature increase of a couple degrees in a climate model if you assumed a cloudless future compared to a world in which clouds cover a portion of the earth every day?

For example, here is the first image of earth taken last year (May, 2022) by the  Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T) (later renamed GOES18) weather satellite after it first became operational. This satellite is positioned 22,236 miles above earth to monitor weather patterns, storms, fog and wildfires in the Western Hemisphere.

Do you see any clouds?

Dr. John Clauser who won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics has recently  questioned climate research quality and contends that U.S. climate policies are misguided because they are based on a flawed underlying assumption---a cloudless future.

Mr. Clauser said he believes he has identified a significant oversight in prevailing climate models.

"I believe I have the missing piece of the puzzle that has been left out in virtually all of these computer programs," he stated. "And that is the effect of clouds."

While many theories of anthropogenic climate change focus primarily on the impact of human-produced CO2, Mr. Clauser argues that these models overlook the significance of cloud dynamics.

He referenced the 2003 National Academy report, which, he said, "totally admitted" its lack of understanding about clouds, and made "a whole series of mistaken statements regarding the effects of clouds."

Drawing attention to Al Gore's film, "The Inconvenient Truth," Mr. Clauser noted, "[Mr. Gore] insists on talking about a cloud-free earth ... That's a totally artificial Earth." According to Mr. Clauser, this cloudless portrayal of the earth reflects the approach taken by many in the climate science community.

"That's a totally artificial Earth. It is a totally artificial case for using a model, and this is pretty much what the IPCC and others use—a cloud free earth."

Mr. Clauser pointed out that satellite images consistently show wide variances in cloud cover, which can span anywhere from five to 95 percent of the Earth's surface.

"The cloud cover fraction fluctuates quite dramatically on daily weekly timescales. We call this weather. You can't have weather without clouds.

This is not a small error.

These models are the basis by which it is claimed that climate change is an existential threat to humanity.

It is the argument for why all fossil fuels should be banned.

Joe Biden says that not even nuclear war is a greater threat to human existence than what those climate models show.

Source: https://twitter.com/business/status/1700926785611772341

Trillions of dollars of spending are being proposed to combat a problem that may only exist in the imagination of the climate modelers who have chosen to not consider the effects of cloud cover on the earth and its temperature.

Clauser sees it as a colossal misuse of resources and waste of time and money.

Mr. Clauser criticized U.S. government efforts to reduce CO2 and methane as a colossal misuse of resources better allocated for humanitarian endeavors. Such initiatives, he argues, "should be stopped immediately."

"[It's] a total waste of money and time and effort. It is strangling industry," he said.

But Mr. Clauser is not holding his breath.

"My suspicion is what I am saying here will be totally ignored because people don't like being told that they've made big mistakes of this magnitude," he said.

Another Nobel laureate and 1,600 other science professionals have recently signed a declaration with Clauser declaring that there is no "climate emergency" and that climate change science is not conclusive.

So much for the "consensus of scientists" narrative.

So much for Joe Biden calling those who disagree with the climate change narrative as "lying dog faced pony soldiers".

A couple Nobel laureates and 1,600 scientists are "lying dog-faced pony soldiers"?

Could it possibly be the reverse?

Does anyone believe that Biden has the slightest idea about how the models being used to support the climate change narrative have been developed?

In addition, there is no one on earth that can find the John Wayne movie that Biden refers to when he used the "lying dog faced pony solders" line.

This report contains research of those who have attempted to confirm Biden's explanation. They could not.

The president has used the alleged movie line "lying dog-faced pony soldier" multiple times in the past to indicate that someone is lying through their teeth or the person is dishonest. However, the quote has baffled many social media users as it doesn’t exist.

A cloudless future?

That is not going to occur. You can count on that.

However, Joe Biden's mind (and future in politics) gets cloudier with every passing day.

A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.

Most Regretted College Majors

Is this a possible reason the media leans so far left?

They are angry about their career and the freedom they had in this country to make their own choice?

If you doubt this observation consider the political contributions of those working in newspapers and print media. They are almost exclusively donors to liberal candidates and tilted to the most extreme left-wing ideological views.

Political contributions based on liberal/conservative ideology of candidates Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/charts-show-the-political-bias-of-each-profession-2014-11

You Cannot Blame Elon Musk for Inflation

I don't think this ends well.

Link to video

Crude Oil Supplies Getting Very Tight

Elon Musk might want to rethink his Tesla price cuts considering what we are seeing with crude oil inventories.

The United States is facing its lowest crude oil inventories in 38 years.

 

Tight supplies usually mean higher prices are on the horizon.

Joe Biden spect most of the last two years raiding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to put more crude oil supply inventories in the market.

The SPR is at the lowest levels of supply since 1982.

Source: https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1700187620326719563

You may remember that Donald Trump wanted to fill the SPR to the brim during the early days of Covid when oil prices had collapsed. Trump proposed buying oil when prices were around $20/barrel but his plan was blocked by the Democrats in Congress who would not fund the proposal.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/26/us-suspends-plans-to-buy-oil-after-funding-is-left-out-of-2-trillion-stimulus-package.html

Now with oil prices around $90/barrel Joe Biden is running out of options to keep a lid on oil and gasoline prices.

Source:https://oilprice.com

Biden's only hope now to lower the price may be a recession that would curb the demand for oil.

Bidenomics at work!

I Graduated From Harvard With a 3.8 GPA

Congratulations for being smack dab in the middle of your class.

Tattoo Predictor

This is about what I expected.

However, 46% of those in the 30-49 age group having a tattoo is a little higher than I would have guessed.

OnlyFans

OnlyFans is a website that represents the seamier side of social media.

It is a platform that allows "creators" to post content that subscribers pay to view. Musicians and physical fitness experts use it but it has become most popular with models and adult entertainers who are using it in a manner in which The New York Times has called "the paywall of porn".

What caught my eye recently had nothing to do with the content. I was much more interested to see the financial side of this business.

If anyone has any doubt whether sex sells take a look at this summary of the financial results of Fenix International Ltd. which operates OnlyFans.

3.2 million creators (+47% in last year).

239 million subscribers paying for the content (+27% in last year).

Fenix and OnlyFans are owned by Leonid Radvinsky.

That $338 million dividend paid in 2022 would have given him $1.3 million for every working day  during the year.

Not bad work if you can find it.

Source: https://people.com/leonid-radvinsky-onlyfans-owner-paid-himself-over-one-million-a-day-2022-7853230#:~:text=The%20owner%20of%20OnlyFans%20took,.%2C%20and%20obtained%20by%20PEOPLE.

It was recently revealed that while he was Vice President, Joe Biden used aliases to communicate via email with various people in and out of government. This appears to include his son Hunter.

Source: https://nypost.com/2023/08/28/national-archives-admits-it-has-5400-biden-pseudonym-emails/

The National Archives and Records Administration has admitted that it is in possession of nearly 5,400 emails, electronic records and documents that potentially show President Biden using a pseudonym during his vice presidency, it was revealed on Monday. 

NARA confirmed the existence of the trove in response to a June 2022 Freedom of Information Act request by the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a nonprofit constitutional legal group.

The request sought emails pertaining to the accounts of Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters and JRB Ware — pseudonyms the 80-year-old president was known to use in the White House during his time as President Barack Obama’s vice president. 

Why does someone do this?

The intent is clearly to not be transparent in whatever they are doing. It is done in an attempt to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act laws involving the dealings of government officials.

How much attention did the mainstream tv outlets give to this story when it came out?

Source: https://twitter.com/Travis_in_Flint/status/1696353761315217633

Nothing to see here.

We also know that Hunter Biden paid $300/month for a private global cell phone that Joe Biden could use when he was VP to communicate with.

Did Joe not get a cell phone from the U.S. government?

If Joe needed a personal cell phone could he not pay for it himself?

PETER SCHWEIZER: It's interesting, what is the line of communications between Hunter Biden and his business partners and Joe Biden when he's vice president of the United States? It's not the government phone, it's not Joe Biden's personal phone. We know from the laptop that Hunter Biden's business paid for a private phone line that Joe Biden used while he was vice president. It was from AT&T, it was $300 a month, it was a global phone where you could access somebody anywhere around the world. 

Nothing to see here.

We also know that Hunter Biden and associates used a complicated web of 20 companies surrounding his business interests.

Source: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/bidens-used-web-of-shell-companies-to-conceal-foreign-cash-bank-records-obtained-by-house-gop-reveal/

Defenders of Biden state that this is not unusual and point to the number of companies that the Trump family manages.

However, sixteen of the companies were limited liability companies that just so happened to have been been formed during Joe Biden's vice presidency.

We know about the Trump family's varied business interests in hotels, casinos, resorts, golf courses and the like.

What exactly is the Biden family business?

What did they ever do that was not centered on politics?

What exactly were they selling for the millions that were taken in?

The Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received more than $10 million from foreign nationals’ and their related companies, the records show. These payments occurred both while Biden was in office as vice president and after his time in office ended.

If Hunter Biden was such an outstanding intellect, attorney and business adviser why was it only that "his business" took off when his father became VP?

Nothing to see here.

Finally, we have the recent disclosure from House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer and other members of the committee that six banks have submitted 170+ Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to the Treasury Department in recent years involving bank transactions by the Biden family.

What is a Suspicious Activity Report?

Financial institutions are required to file a suspicious activity report to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) no later than 30 calendar days from when it detects a suspicious transaction that could have links to money laundering or terrorism financing.

First originated as a “criminal referral form,” suspicious activity reports were established through the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act. In 1996, according to FinCEN, the form became the standard way to report suspicious activity in the financial system.

The rules around the reports were later amended under the U.S. Patriot Act. Today, banks and credit unions routinely submit SARs.

Industries that deal in large sums of money are required to file SARs to the government when they detect a transaction with possible links to money laundering, counterfeiting, fraud or illicit finance — this includes banks, casinos, loan companies and depository firms.

For example, in the case of Hunter and Jim Biden it appears that SAR's were filed by various banks when million dollar deposits from foreign entities suddenly were wired into bank accounts that had previously had almost no activity.

The money was often wired out to another bank account (or multiple accounts) within a day or two to other bank accounts. 

Apparently the money went through a number of accounts before finally being deposited into the personal bank accounts of Hunter Biden, Jim Biden or other Biden family members according to some members of the House Oversight Committee.

I have not heard yet that any money ended up in Joe Biden's bank account but what possible reason would there be for this type of money to end of in the bank account of his granddaughter which it supposedly did according to some reports?

Have you heard anything about this on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or MSNBC?

Nothing to see here.

At this point there is a lot of smoke circulating around the Biden family business.

The mainstream media sees the smoke but has decided that there is nothing to see here.

Perhaps there is nothing to see.

However, when there is this much smoke circulating my instincts tell me that there is a fire burning somewhere.

Will anyone take the time to see whether there really is nothing to see here?

Tucker Carlson gave a speech in Budapest, Hungary recently in which he explained to the Hungarians what was happening in the United States.

He talked a lot about how modern life and nature explained why there had become such a large political divide between the liberal Democrats who populate urban areas and the conservative Republicans who lived in small towns and rural areas.

It is an interesting insight.

"Who votes for the people who run the United States right now? People who are working for big banks, living in crowded conditions, very often alone, in big soulless cities, having their food delivered by immigrants, and spending their time glued to a screen. What does that sound like to you? It sounds like prison, actually."

"Who are the people who oppose this? Where do they live and how do they live? Well, they are poorer generally on paper. But are their lives worse if you live in a place where you can see the sky? Where you can make your own food? If you can go outside and identify three species of trees or hear birds, or experience silence, the rarest commodity in the modern world. Those are the people who are not with the program. People who have a daily experience of nature. And those people are much more likely to acknowledge a power beyond themselves and their government. And there's a reason for that because they can see it. When you're living crowded as you would on an industrial farm as a cow, you are not liberated. You are enslaved. Your reference points are gone. You can't see the stars. You cannot see God's creation. All around you you see drywall and screens. And your ability to think clearly goes away."

This is a video of the full speech. 

If you have the time it offers some very interesting perspectives on what Tucker sees is happening in the United States.

Tucker's insights on the urban/rural divide conforms with an observation I have made previously in BeeLine.

We live in a modern world in which all of us are increasingly dependent on all manner of things and other people in order to survive.

We are dependent on electricity.

We are dependent on food being in the grocery store.

We are dependent on gasoline being at your local gas station.

We have become dependent on the internet and our cell phones.

Many are dependent on government benefits like food stamps, housing subsidies, student loans, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The list in endless.

However, the fact is that those in urban areas are much more dependent than anyone else.

A mass disruption in any one of the items I listed above would mean that many would not survive.

As Tucker points out it is akin to being in prison or enslaved.

I believe it is a big reason we see the political leanings we do between urban and rural areas in this country.

People in these urban areas know they are vulnerable. They seek security and look to government to provide for them them because of that insecurity.

The result is a lot of people vote in the way they do because of that dependency. 

Of course, they vote Democrat.

The Democrats tell them they will take care of every problem in their lives.

Of course, history shows us that the problems don't go away. The only thing that occurs is that dependency  increases.

Contrast that with the story I heard about Susan Butcher when I was in Alaska recently.

Susan Butcher was raised in Massachusetts but moved to Alaska when she was 20 years old to raise sled dogs with the goal of competing in the Iditarod sled dog race.

Butcher went on the win the 1,000+ mile Iditarod race four times. 

No man has won it more times than Butcher did.

In her early 20's Butcher moved to a remote part of Alaska in the Wrangell mountains to a cabin with no running water and no electricity.

There was no grocery store, no heat and nothing to get around the harsh climate and terrain except with her dogs.

Every day for three years she needed to chop wood, hunt and bring water to her cabin in order to live.

Survival was a 24/7 objective every day.

She said doing all the things she needed to do to survive consumed all of her waking hours.

As Butcher put it, "When there is so much to do each day in order to survive, there is not much time to contemplate your belly button."

When you are on your own and you are in charge of your destiny and survival there isn't a lot of time to think about what is "owed" to you, what you "deserve" and who has "wronged" you. 

I would say Butcher's experience is the polar opposite of dependency.

All of this came home the other day when I happened to hear the following song on the radio.

I like country music but it is not something I listen to every day. I am more likely to be listening to news or sports talk.

The theme in the song is consistent with everything I have written about above. You could say it struck a chord with me considering what I heard from Tucker and what I learned about Susan Butcher when I was in Alaska.

I have to admit I never heard the song before and was surprised to learn that it actually was recorded in 1981 by Hank Williams, Jr.

You would think it was written today.

The Lord does work in interesting ways in that I went from Susan Butcher to Tucker to Hank Williams, Jr. in a matter of days for the inspiration to pen this blog post.

The song is titled "A Country Boy Can Survive".

Here are the lyrics.

The preacher man says it's the end of time

And the Mississippi River, she's a-goin' dry

The interest is up and the stock market's down

And you only get mugged if you go downtown

I live back in the woods you see

My woman and the kids and the dogs and me

I got a shotgun, a rifle and a four-wheel drive

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

I can plow a field all day long

I can catch catfish from dusk 'til dawn (Yeah)

We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too

Ain't too many things these old boys can't do

We grow good-ole tomatoes and homemade wine

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

Because you can't starve us out and you can't make us run

'Cause we're them old boys raised on shotguns

We say grace, and we say ma'am

If you ain't into that, we don't give a damn

We came from the West Virginia coal mines

And the Rocky Mountains, and the western skies

And we can skin a buck, we can run a trot line

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

I had a good friend in New York City

He never called me by my name, just Hillbilly

My grandpa taught me how to live off the land

And his taught him to be a businessman

He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights

And I'd send him some homemade wine

But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife

For 43 dollars, my friend lost his life

I'd love to spit some Beech-Nut in that dude's eyes

And shoot him with my old .45

'Cause a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

'Cause you can't starve us out and you can't make us run

'Cause we're them old boys raised on shotguns

We say grace, and we say ma'am

If you ain't into that, we don't give a damn

We're from North California and South Alabam'

And little towns all around this land

And we can skin a buck, and run a trotline

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

A country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

Source: Musixmatch 

Here is Hank Williams, Jr. performing the song in 1981.

The real question is does the country have any chance of surviving if the country boy does not survive?

Credit: https://twitter.com/Barchart/status/1695666793379958985

The monthly cost of a house has to come down or rents have to increase. Equilibrium is the natural state.

The biggest problem in housing is that the costs of ownership are outstripping the ability of most households to pay.

The median sales price of a house was 150% of real median household income in 1984.

It is now over 550% of income.

Credit: https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1696174044171862399

Values can only be supported if there are people who have the money and income to pay the price of a home or afford the monthly payment.

You get some perspective on how far we have gotten off of a sustainable path with housing costs by considering that we need incomes to spike by 69% or home prices to fall by 41% to bring us back to pre-pandemic affordability.

We could also get there if mortgage rates fell to sub-3% levels again.

What is most troubling is that the affordability index adjustments that are necessary in the United States to get back to pre-Covid levels are even greater than in other major countries right now.

I was surprised to see that the United States is the country that has seen its housing market get the most out of whack since 2019. 

However, it is true that the United States had much more affordable housing than almost all other developed countries prior to 2020. Note above that the U.S. was rated 14 on the affordability index pre-Covid while Canada was rated 25, Australia 32 and Korea and New Zealand were 35.

The U.S. is still more affordable than all of these other countries today but the gap has narrowed.

It could be that the U.S. is not going to return to anything that resembles where it was pre-Covid. Housing costs may have been permanently altered at a higher level relative to household incomes.

The one thing that is sustaining housing prices despite the large increase in mortgage interest rates right now is the fact that there are so few houses on the market.

There are fewer houses listed for sale in the United States than at any time in the last 20 years with the exception of April, 2020 when Covid brought the housing market to a halt.

New listings fell 31% compared to a year earlier.

Source: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-tracker-june-2023/

Few homeowners are willing to sell and give up a low interest rate mortgage to move up to a house which would carry a higher interest rate and monthly mortgage costs.

Almost 2/3 of homeowners have a mortgage rate below 4%. 91% have a rate below 6%.

Mortgage rates are now higher than they have been at any time in the last 20 years.

Not many homeowners are willing to trade a 4% mortgage rate for a 7%.

The residential real estate market is hovering on the brink of locking up.

Supply is shrinking because existing homeowners don't want to sell because of the low rates they enjoy right now.

Demand is under stress because the high rates are putting more and more houses outside the reach of new entrants into the market.

For now, the limited supply of houses is sustaining the value of homes as demand is still exceeding demand.

What happens if both supply and demand erode even more?

Due to the low unemployment rate and the fact that most homeowners have mortgage rates below 4%, serious delinquencies are very low right now.

What if more people start to be laid off?

Who knows where the housing market goes from here?

Are we going to have to get used to paying substantially more for housing than we have been accustomed to?

Are we going to see rental rates increase substantially in the near future to better match the increase in monthly homeowner costs?

Or will we see monthly home ownership costs start to fall?

This can only occur if mortgage rates and/or home values decline.

All of these scenarios are possible to bring about better equilibrium between home costs and rental rates.

The one thing that most certainly will not occur is a 69% increase in household incomes in the near term.

That you can count on. Everything else is a possibility.

How many of these natural disasters have you heard about?

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

Hindenberg Disaster in 1937.

MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas in 1980.

Eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980

Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in Kansas City in 1981.

Los Angeles Northridge Earthquake in 1994

The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003

Hurricane Sandy in 2012

Oklahoma tornado outbreak of 2013 centered in Moore, OK

Northern California wildfires in 2017.

Hurricane Ian which hit Florida's gulf coast in 2022.

Do you know how many died in these disasters?

200-300 estimate   Chicago Fire

238        RMS Titanic (U.S. citizens)

36          Hindernberg  

85          MGM Grand Fire

57          Mt, St. Helens

114        Hyatt Regency

57          Northridge Earthquake

100        Station nightclub fire

158        Hurricane Sandy

30          Oklahoma tornados

44          Northern California wildfires

161        Hurricane Ian

In the recent Lahaina fire in Maui, Hawaii 115 people have thus far been officially pronounced dead from the flames,

Over two weeks after the fire more than 1,100 were still reported missing and unaccounted for in addition to the 115 official casualties.

Late last week the missing person list was revised down to 388 without any real change in the death count. This was reported as due to people on the list being found and duplicates on the list.

However, we are now three weeks out from the fires.

What are the chances that those remaining 388 missing souls will be found alive?

If they are not, we are looking at over 500 deaths from this fire.

Even if half are found alive, the death toll from the Maui fires will be greater than any of the high profile natural disasters on the list above.

You may recall that Joe Biden said he had "no comment" when asked about the Maui fire when he was asked about it when vacationing at a Delaware beach several days after the blaze.

Source:https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-14-1222/politics-vacationing-biden-says-he-has-no-comment-nearly-100-dead-devastating

No comment?

Of course, Biden made it worse when he visited Maui to show his "empathy"and ended up comparing their losses to the fact that he almost lost his beloved 1967 Corvette due to a small kitchen fire at his home years ago.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-blasted-comparing-kitchen-fire-home-devastating-maui-blaze-absolutely-disgusting

The Maui fire death toll could end up easily being one of the top 10 natural disasters in the last 100 years.

I can recall the media attention for many of the disasters that I listed above.

However, it does not seem to me that the Maui fire is getting anywhere near the same attention in the news that some of these other disasters did.

This is where the Google Trends feature comes in handy, at least involving major news events since 2004.

For example, compare the mentions involving Hurricane Ian last year to the Maui fire.

The Maui fire is barely is a blip on the radar. compared to the hurricane coverage.

Or compare Hurricane Sandy to the Maui fire.

Yes, there is more news to play out on the Maui fire as the full death counts becomes known.

However, why is the media attention so muted compared to these other disasters?

Is it because Maui is so far away?

Could it be because the media is trying to cover for Biden's out of touch responses to the tragedy?

Is it because FEMA is actively trying to suppress news about the Maui fires?

Like so many things today, there are more questions than answers.

The fire in Maui was an immense tragedy.

I hope and pray that its victims will not soon be forgotten because of politics.

Many students around the Untied States are beginning their life in college at this time.

25 years ago this week Mrs. BeeLine and I dropped off our first child at college.

It is not easy for any parent to do.

When we on the way to Miami University in Oxford, Oho to get our daughter situated in her dorm room I gave her some advice in the form of "Ten Lessons on College Life."

I happened to come across it this week in my files.

The advice seems to have stood the test of time even a quarter of century later.

What has not stood the test of time very well is the cost of a college education. I told my daughter that every hour she was in class was costing us about $40.

That cost is approaching $140 per hour of class time now at the same school today.

In that so much of college costs are.now financed by student loans, that carry interest on top of that loan cost, it is more important than ever that students make the most of their college experience.

Here is the advice I gave to my children. 

I am sharing it on BeeLine in the hope that it might help a student you know start their college experience (and their life) in the best possible way.

Feel free to modify it as makes sense for a college student you would like to help get established on the right path.

Ten Lessons on College Life

(originally written on August 21, 1998)

1

College is a fantastic opportunity and experience.  There is much to do and much to learn both in and out of the classroom.  Have fun but remember that you are there for an education first and foremost.  Make sure that this is always your first priority. We are making a major investment in you.  We expect a return on our investment.  Good jobs and good graduate schools will only go to the top students at Miami.  

2

Always go to class.  The easiest way to get in trouble with your grades is to skip class.  Every class hour is costing us close to $40.  The easiest way to succeed is to go to every class, listen intently and take copious notes.  Professors almost never test on things that they haven’t gone over in class.  These are the things that they deem most important.  Take good notes and study them thoroughly before every test.  This is the single easiest way to be on the right track in college from the start.

3

Be disciplined with your time.  Have a purpose in everything you do.  Don’t waste time doing unproductive things.   There is time to do a lot of things if you manage your time and priortize.  Remember, even if you spend 8 hours a day with class and studying you still have 16 hours for other things. You should also remember that there is almost nothing that happens after midnight that is productive or will result in a positive outcome for you.  Stay on top of your studies everyday as in most courses you will have only 2 or 3 exams the entire semester.  You will not be able to read all the material and learn it the night before. 

4

Try to have a smile on your face all the time.  People like positive people who have good senses of humor.   Be friendly to everyone and work at complimenting others as much as possible.  When speaking to others, use their name often in conversing with them as people like to hear their name coming from your lips because it makes them feel as if they are valued and important you.  These are keys to winning friends and influencing people, especially members of the opposite sex. 

5

Be a leader.  Take the initiative in everything you do.  Be the first one to volunteer an answer in class.  Be the first person in your corridor who knows everybody.  Be known as someone who is a mover and a shaker who can be counted on and wants to be involved in making things better for everyone

6

Work on developing a network of friends, colleagues and teachers who like and respect you.  The friendships and connections you make in college will serve you well and can form the basis for success and happiness over your entire lifetime.  You will never have a better opportunity for developing the roots of this network system because the seeds of this experience will be sown far and wide from Miami.  Take  full advantage of the opportunity while it exists.

7

Take advantage of all the opportunities that exist to explore new things at college.  Don’t be afraid to take different courses, attend off-beat lectures or try something different.  College is a chance to explore so that you can better discover who you are and what you really like.  Heretofore, your range of experience has been limited to a small universe largely controlled by us.  Now is the time to decide for yourself want you like and want you want to be.

8

Do not get involved with drugs or with people who use them.  Not only are they illegal and could end up tainting your life forever, they almost always result in a diminished capacity to do things you need to do to be successful.  Drugs are used by losers.  Steer clear of anything to do with them!

9

Do not abuse alcohol.  There will be many opportunities to partake in alcohol in college but beware of its effects on you and others. It can be very dangerous if not used responsibly.  Steer clear and get away from any boy who has had too much to drink.  Your safety could be jeopardized. If you must imbide, do so responsibly as it can seriously impair your judgment and cause you much personal harm as well.

10

Beginning college represents the one time in life where you have total control of your life.  You have complete control to shape your life.  You have no constraints.  Your friends, your career, your interests, your entire life is in your hands to shape it in any way you choose.  You will never again have such freedom because as you move forward in life the choices you make begin to narrow your flexibility and your ability to totally control your own destiny.  Accordingly, make wise choices and don’t just go with the  flow.   Do things you enjoy.   Having so many options can be scary but as long as you follow the advice we have given you we are certain that any path you take will be secure, happy and successful.  Remember that we are here to help you if you need guidance along the way. First and foremost, we love you and always will. That’s one thing you can always count on.  Best of luck as you begin your own life!

If you doubt that we live in a world unlike anything we have seen before in the United States consider this headline.

Prosecutors want Trump on trial fast because they fear he might be reelected and thwart their cases?

Step back for a moment and consider the import of this.

The basic principle underlying our legal system is that guilt or innocence is determined by a jury of your peers.

What better jury pool is there than a vote of the people of the United States?

If Donald Trump is truly guilty of the crimes that he has been charged with why would prosecutors not trust the ultimate jury?

If he is guilty as charged why would there even be a question about the possibility he could be reelected?

Doesn't this say a lot about what these prosecutions are all about?

Are these criminal or political prosecutions?

I don't say this as a Trump apologist.

I am not in favor of Trump being the Republican nominee in 2024.

I believe the Republicans would be better served with a younger candidate and someone who doesn't carry all the baggage Trump does.

This is especially true if Joe Biden is not on the ballot in November, 2024 which I believe is more likely than not. In that case, we are likely to see a much younger Democrat candidate than Trump.

As I see it right now, even if Trump wins the general election, I believe he will have an enormously difficult job in governing.

How is he going to serve the American people if he has to deal with all of these distractions?

Who is going to be willing to serve in his cabinet and in his administration?

Even with Trump's force of personality, we saw the last time how hard it is to change things in D.C, considering how strongly entrenched the bureaucracy and establishment is.

All that being said, it is hard to argue with the the impact and success that Trump had as President.

There was no President in my lifetime who was as consistent in following through with his campaign promises when he became President as Trump.

There was no bait and switch.

Trump governed exactly as he said he would.

He also did all these things as he was constantly under attack with the fake Russian collusion story and with Republicans in Congress who were not exactly jumping up and down to support him.

He said he would destroy ISIS.

He did.

He said he would stem the flood of illegal immigrants into the country.

He did.

He said he would take the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord.

He did.

He said he would push the other NATO countries pay their fair share in defense expenditures.

He did.

He said he would make the United States energy independent.

He did.

H said we would renegotiate NAFTA.

He did.

He said he would implement a tariff on goods from China.

He did.

He said he would revive the U.S. economy.

He did.

He said he would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

He did.

For good measure he negotiated peace accords between several Middle Eastern countries and Israel and opened up a dialogue with North Korea.

However, there was one promise that he did fail to deliver on.

He said he was going to appoint a special prosecutor to look into potential crimes by Hillary Clinton.

He said he was going to "lock her up".

He did not.

Trump thought he was being the bigger man. He saw it as a gesture of unity and healing not to put Hillary under an investigative microscope after he won.

Unfortunately, Trump has come to learn that the other side does not play by the same rules.

The latest ad that the Never Back Down PAC (that supports Ron DeSantis) has produced chronicles the history of Trump and Hillary on this issue..

I am sure that Trump would like to forget that he ever said to forget about looking into Hillary's crimes.

(Click here if the video does not play with your browser.)

The first consequential event on whether Donald Trump will be the GOP 2024 nominee for President occurs tonight with the initial debate among the major Republican contenders.

Trump will not be there.

His 50 point lead in the latest polls suggests to him and his advisers that there is nothing to gain by appearing at the event.

He has chosen to do a counter-event on X (Twitter) with Tucker Carlson.

I understand the political calculus that Trump is relying on in skipping the debate.

 However, I don't think it will serve him well in the long run.

I will be watching the debate on the Fox News Channel.  I have no interest in seeing Trump. I will learn nothing from watching him again.

I believe I will learn much more about whether any of Trump's challengers are worthy of the challenge to be faced in 2024 by watching the debate.

My belief is that Trump will regret his decision to not participate in the debates.

I predict that at some point we will see him on the stage.

Trump's personality makes it hard to stay away.

In addition, if you are ultimately going to run against someone who will try to avoid debating at all costs (Biden), how do you maintain the high moral ground if you are unwilling to get in the arena as well?

We are at the beginning of some very interesting months.

The headline above provides a hint at just how interesting it may get.

Are we ready for a couple of trials going on at the same time that people are voting on Super Tuesday?

Who knows where this goes?

We will find out together.

While I was in Alaska recently I made it a point to visit a portion of the TransAlaska oil pipeline.

These are pictures I took of a portion of the pipeline I visited just north of Fairbanks.

The pipeline runs 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope to Valdez on Prince William Sound.

It crosses three mountain ranges and over 800 rivers and streams.

The pipeline is a true engineering marvel that I found to be in remarkably great shape considering it is almost 50 years old.

The portion I visited was elevated due to the permafrost layer in the ground in that area but many portions the pipeline are underground.

Source: https://anupma-prakash.github.io/treasure-hunt-alaska/ch5/info_pipeline.html

The pipeline was constructed in the mid-1970's but not until surviving numerous protests and legal challenges from environmental groups.

A major argument of the groups was that the pipeline would disrupt traditional migration patterns of the Caribou population in the state.

Contrary to concerns, the Central Arctic Caribou herd which inhabits the area nearest to the pipeline,  grew from less than 5,000 in the mid-1970's to over 67,000  by 2008.

Some have argued that the Caribou liked the warmth of the pipeline in the winter and it has contributed to more reproduction. However, this is an unproven theory.

Whatever the reason, the doomsayers were wrong as they so often are.

We saw a number of Caribou while in Alaska. This is one we saw while in central Alaska.

The total population of Caribou in the state is now estimated to be 750,000-900,000.

That is greater than the human population in Alaska.

What is troubling about the pipeline right now is that it is only being used to about 25% of capacity.

It is designed to be capable of transporting over 2 million barrels of oil per day.

The pipeline actually transported 2.1 million barrels of oil per day in 1988.

It recently has been utilized for less than 500,000 barrels per day.

The fact that we have the resources and infrastructure in the United States to do so much more in regards to energy production but have a political class who consciously ignore it is unprecedented in human history.

Sitting adjacent to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska are the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) oil reserves that the U.S. Geologic Survey has estimated contains between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of oil.

The TransAlaska pipeline could also be easily utilized to transport this oil to market.

The oil development area at ANWR is miniscule in relationship to the total area of ANWR.

We are talking about a footprint of 2,000 acres compared to a total area the size of the state of South Carolina.

Yet the Democrats and the environmental extremists want to block all oil projects here and everywhere else in the United States.

The coastal plain area along the Beaufort Sea is one of the most inhospitable and uninhabitable places on earth for human beings.

It is 250  miles north of the Arctic Circle. There is practically no daylight during the winter months. The HIGH temperature during the winter is usually between -2 and -10 degrees. Over 85% of the days of the year are overcast.

Source: https://mustreadalaska.com/blm-to-offer-entire-coastal-plain-of-anwr-for-energy-leases/

The Trump administration put oil leases in ANWR up for sale in the waning days of his Presidency. but Biden has worked to shut that effort down. In addition, what oil company wants to risk billions of dollars of investment in those oil fields when Biden has threatened oil executives with prosecution for drilling for oil?

Remember when Biden said this when he was running for President?

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7837265/We-jail-Biden-wants-prosecute-fossil-fuel-executives-environment-damage.html

It should come as no surprise that crude oil and gasoline prices have risen substantially during the Biden administration while falling while Trump was President.

U.S. Regular All Formulations Gas Price Source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGW

Biden's answer to creating more oil supply is to attempt to get Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to pump more and to raid our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to attempt to rein in gasoline prices.

Over 275 million barrels of oil have been taken out of the SPR in the last two years.

At current consumption rates, the SPR only holds a 20-day cover if there was a real supply disruption. The SPR has not such sparse reserves since 1983.

With the ability to pump an additional 1.5 million barrels of oil per day through the TransAlaska Pipeline none of this would have been necessary. 

Twice the amount of oil taken out of the SPR in two years could have been produced in the United States in just one year from Alaska alone.

It is just one more thing that makes no sense whatsoever.

Add to the list is how we have now learned that the man in charge of water management in Maui refused to release water to firefighters to fight the blaze for five hours.

Fire is overwhelming the village of Lahaina, people are dying, and this man did not immediately approve water to fight the inferno?

During a debate last year on water management the same official argued that water usage should be allocated based on "equity". He argued that it should not be something we share or use but something that should be "revered" and which "equity" should be considered when it is allocated for use.

Link: https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1692991470121197916

I wish I was making this up.

Yes, the environment needs to be protected and valued.

Yes, we need to be prudent about our use of the resources that God has provided us.

However, those resources were provided to us on this planet to allow humans to survive, prosper and multiply.

To see the wonderful resources that are accessible and readily available to better mankind and the United States of America sitting there in Alaska underutilized is beyond disappointing and disheartening. 

When the environment and climate becomes a "religion" and a "god" upon which we worship to the exclusion of mankind and God, the creator of all things, we are in deep, deep trouble.

Friends, this is where we are.

At times like these it is more important than ever to trust the Word.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

                                                                                       -Genesis 1;26-28, ESV 

This week marks the third anniversary of Joe Biden's disastrous debacle that surrounded his withdrawal and abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

Do you remember the headlines?

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/16/taliban-takes-afghanistan-kabul-airport-last-stand-u-s/8147419002/

Source: https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/chaos-desperation-at-kabul-airport-as-biden-defends-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/08/27/us-service-members-killed-kabul-airport-names/

The meme below takes us back to that same week in history to remind us of how things were on other fronts three years ago.

What happened, indeed.

This isn't half of it.

This was also all before we ended up with mandates for a vaccine that did not work as advertised, collusion between government and media companies to censor and silence free speech that did not conform to an approved narrative and a fully weaponized Department of Justice was turned lose on political opponents that prompted Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) to make this remark this week.

Of course,  this weaponization has just not been deployed against Trump.

It has also included parents who spoke at School Board meetings who opposed school shutdowns, doctors who advocated alternative Covid treatments and grandmothers who walked into the Capital on January 6 after being waved through the doors by the Capital Hill police.

Seeing where we were three years ago and where we are today you would think that the people running all of this would be feeling some heat.

You would think that even a few true believers in Biden's own party might be having some doubts about Biden's proficiency and performance. 

You would be wrong.

Believe it or not, Joe Biden actually has a higher approval rating with Democrats right now i than Barack Obama did at the same time in his Presidency.

The most recent Gallup poll shows that Joe Biden has an 86% approval rating with Democrats.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

Barack Obama only had a 77% approval rating with Democrats at the same time in his first term.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

That is a little sobering to consider, isn't it?

Democrats are clearly very pleased with Joe Biden. 

They apparently were not as enthralled with Obama's attempts at sweet talking or trying to pretend he was playing to the middle.

Democrats appear to be more than pleased with Biden's "ram it down their throats" style of politics and don't see the need to make any apologies for it.

Give us what we want with executive orders.

The hell with compromise with Republicans in Congress.

Let's threaten to prosecute everybody that does not agree with us.

Make no mistake. Not every voter is buying what they are seeing. Joe Biden has problems when he gets beyond the party faithful.

Joe Biden is sitting at a 40% overall approval rating in the latest Gallup poll with all adults.

This is due to a 38% rating from Independents and and a meager 2% from Republicans.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

However, this overall approval rating only trails Obama by 2 points at the same time in the first term of each in the Gallup poll.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

In the Rasmussen Presidential daily tracking poll, Obama had a 43% approval rating on August 17, 2011 (just slightly less than three years into his first term).

Biden is at 45% approval at the same point in his Presidency in the Rasmussen poll today.

Trump was at 46% approval at the same time.

Source: https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/biden_administration/prez_track_aug17

Yes, it is hard to believe that Joe Biden has a higher approval right now than Barack Obama did considering what has been unleashed in the last three years.

Obama recovered in the polls to win another term. History has been kind to him. Will that always be true?

History is not always kind.

When all of this plays out it is not going to be kind to someone.

History is either not going to be kind to the United States of America due to leaders with records like Joe Biden being left in office.

Or history is not going to be kind to those who have seen all that this man has done in his three years in office and yet still blindly approve of what he is doing.

Perhaps both.

We are living in a very dangerous and consequential time in history.

And history is not always kind.

I recently returned from a trip that saw me spend almost two weeks in Alaska.

The trip included visits to both Glacier Bay National Park and the College Fjord glaciers.

Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park The face of that glacier is over 300 feet high

Harvard Glacier, College Fjord, Alaska

Of course, you can't look at any of these glaciers without a National Park Ranger or someone else remarking that the glaciers are receding because of "human-induced climate change".

There is an argument to be made that the climate may have warmed over the last 30 years but where is the evidence that it is "human-induced"?

For example, this is an image taken from the brochure that the National Park Service provides to visitors to Glacier Bay National Park.

This was in my hand as I was listening to the park ranger tell me that the glaciers were receding due to "human-induced" climate change.

The brochure shows the recent history (the last several hundred years) of the glaciers in the park.

Source: Glacier Bay Visitor Brochure National Park Service

Notice that glacier size increased dramatically in the 70 years between 1680 and 1750 during what is often referred to as the "Little Ice Age" period.

The next 130 years (1750-1880) saw the glacier receding at an enormous pace.

Of course, this is a period when there was almost no fossil fuel activity caused by man.

There has been additional glacial recession in the succeeding 145 years until today but it is minimal in comparison to what has been seen previously,

For example, this is a graphic shot from the same Glacier Bay National Park brochure referenced above which shows the positions of individual glaciers at various points of time.

I have added the red highlights to the image so as to make what occurred with the glacier to be more readable.

Much of what is now called Glacier Bay today would not exist without the decline and melting of the glacier formation that took place in the 19 years between 1860-1879.

The main glacier receded 25 miles in just 19 years---more than 1 mile per year---when humans and fossil fuels could not possibly have been responsible in the slightest for the warming of the climate.

Any decline in the glaciers today is measured in feet per year and we are told it is "human-induced"?

Can you imagine the hue and cry if we were seeing this type of decline in these glaciers today and what it would be attributed to?

It is actually quite remarkable how pervasive the climate change propaganda narrative is used day in and day out without any regard to the facts.

And with almost no challenge based on real facts.

Instead, we hear about models.projections and forecasts. 

There is almost no one that ever looks at the historical record or actual facts.

The narrative is everything and it is clearly being used in support of a political agenda.

For example, consider this suburban Philadelphia weather forecast for August 9-18 that I saw recently.

74 degrees in August is VERY HOT?

Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1689228195243962369

Notice the use of the cactus to symbolize those extreme temps in suburban Philly. Nice touch!

Of course, with the tragic wildfire in Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii last week we see once again that the opinion makers cannot miss the opportunity to let a crisis go to waste.

You can count on the The New York Times in times like this.

Has climate change turned lush Hawaii into a tinderbox of late?

That statement is not be supported by actual data that is collected and reported by the U.S. Drought Monitor time series.

It actually shows that Hawaii has recently been in one the the best periods it has been regrarding drought  conditions in the summer period looking back to the year 2000.

Source: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DmData/TimeSeries.aspx

The data does show that Maui was drier than many other areas of Hawaii recently.

However, there were no parts of Maui that were considered high risk drought areas (drought levels 3 or 4) the week of August 8.in 2023

Compare that to last year when almost 30% of Maui was in drought levels 3 or 4 at the same time.

This is all due to recent climate developments?

How about the summer of 2000 on Maui when the entire island was in drought conditions and two-thirds of it were levels 3 or 4?

I was in Lahaina, Maui last exactly seven years ago this week.

I took this photo of the giant banyan tree that graced the seaside park near the center of town at that time.

Banyan Tree, Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, August, 2016

The tree is still standing after last week's inferno although it was charred and traumatized by the flames.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maui-wildfires-lahaina-banyan-tree-standing-hawaii/

Arborists expressed hope that it will generate new growth and produce buds on its branches according to a CBS News Report.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CBS News the tree is "still breathing" and is absorbing water and producing sap, just not as much as it usually does. 

"It's like a burn victim itself," Green said. "Traumatized, much like the town." 

Yes, trees need water to survive. A big tree like that also needs sunlight.

However, what they need most is carbon dioxide.

That is the same thing that the climate change crazies want to massively reduce from our environment.

However, trees, vegetation and crops do not grow without CO2. 

For example, this little graphic shows the effect CO2 has on the growth of rice.

Credit: https://twitter.com/_ClimateCraze/status/1691076561611419648

This is the reason that many greenhouses that grow plants and vegetables pump carbon dioxide into the enclosure to accelerate growth.

How much of the earth's atmosphere is currently composed of carbon dioxide?

.04%.

Source: https://www.worldatlas.com/environment/how-much-carbon-dioxide-is-in-the-atmosphere.html

What is the latest scheme that Joe Biden and his climate alarmists want to do to stop climate change?

They are in the process of spending $3.7 billion of your tax dollars in a plan to vacuum carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and then store it.

Source:https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-37-billion-kick-start-americas-carbon-dioxide

Why?

I guess when crops start failing and trees begin to die they can then turn on the spigot and save us all.

Would it not be ironic if that banyan tree in Maui survived the fire but dies in the end due to a lack of CO2?

Undoubtedly, that would also be blamed on "human-induced climate change".

That is also what the Democrat Governor of Hawaii has placed the blame for the Maui fire on.

How could it be anything else?

Never mind that the local fire department left a small brush fire caused by a downed electrical wire claiming that it was 100% contained. It wasn't. 

Winds came off of the Maui mountains and whipped the smoldering embers into the inferno it became. Most citizens did not even receive a warning to evacuate from the the spread of the fire from government authorities. As a result, many were trapped to face the fire with no place to go.

Was it climate change or a government that failed the people?

Believe me when I tell you that we are living in a world day in which facts, reason, logic and any understanding of meteorological or human history mean nothing compared to the importance of the current political agenda.

Look no further than those glaciers I recently saw and the tragedy in Lahaina.

I recently came across some interesting data on the dating preferences of females regarding male height.

This data was collected from preferences expressed on the online dating site Bumble as to the height of men women were willing to consider meeting.

We have heard the old adage that women prefer a man who is tall, dark and handsome.

The Bumble data suggests that the first attribute is true,

Credit: https://twitter.com/TheRabbitHole84/status/1684629709001490432

Almost 90% of women are willing to consider a guy who is 6'6" tall.

However, only 60% are willing to consider a 6 footer.

Losing one inch to 5'11' cuts the number of women who are interested down to 30%.

Only 15% of women are interested in men who are 5'8'' or 5'9".

The problem is that this is right at the average height level of American men.

In fact, women on Bumble are four times more likely to consider meeting a 7 footer as a guy who is 5'7".

Let's put that in perspective.

There are an estimated to be only 2,800 people on our planet of 7.5 billion people who are 7 feet in height or taller.

There are a couple of billion that measure between 5'6' and 5'10".

Here is the breakdown of heights of males in the United States per the latest CDC data.

Only about 15% of American men in the age 20-59 age group are 6 feet or taller.

It is lower in older ages.

Source:  https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03-046-508.pdf

Might there be as small disconnect between expectations and reality here?

Here is the data for females age 20 and over.

The 50th percentile is right around 5'4"' for those in the 20-59 age group.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03-046-508.pdf

Things that may cause you to scratch your head or at least say hmmmmm.

LBGTQ+

Is there something in our food, the water or the environment?

Or are we seeing the greatest example of social contagion in the history of the world?

Logic 101

I do not expect this point being brought up for discussion in a Logic 101 course at an Ivy League college.

Credit: https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1679980778292215811

Weighty Thoughts

I recently came across the CDC report on Anthropometric Reference Data for Adults and Children in the Untied States.

Simply stated, it is reference data on the height and weight for Americans sorted by age, gender and race.

This is the weight data at the 50th percentile for women ages 40-59 by race.

Black women are over 60 pounds heavier than Asian women in that age group.

Asians are also 35 pounds lighter than Whites.

These are the statistics for men so there is no suggestion that there is any bias in my reporting of the data.

What I also found interesting are the differences in weights between men and women at the median for those in the 40-59 age groups .

White males  +35.4 lbs

Black males   +10.6 lbs

Hispanic males. +28.1 lbs

Asian males.  +35.1 lbs

Height and body type clearly affect weight. This is why men are generally much heavier than women.

However, what explains why Black females are such an outlier in the data?

Feel free to weigh in.

Not So Souper News

What did happen?

Is it just a coincidence that in August 1971 Richard Nixon announced that the dollar would no longer be linked to gold?

Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/gold-standard-dollar-dominance-bretton-woods-51628890861

Student Loans

Student loans will start accruing interest again in September and payments are required to start in October.

There has been a pause on interest and payment for 3-1/2 years.

The Jain Family Institute did a longitudinal study on the extent to which student borrowers made progress in paying off their loans that were outstanding in 2009 up through 2022.

There are some pretty stark differences in who made efforts to pay the loans off compared to who did not.

Credit: The New York Times

Which groups do the Democrats absolutely need to carry in order to win in 2024?

Women, Blacks and young college-educated voters.

Any questions as to what is driving Biden's executive orders on student debt forgiveness?

Human beings are incredibly creative.

One of the great benefits of social media sites such as Twitter X is it allows humans to showcase their creativity and unique perspectives to a wide audience.

It often provides some humor or insight that we would not have gotten without the reach of this tool.

Here are a few tweets that I came across this year that measured up based on those standards.

Don't I wish that I had the smarts, wit or insight to think to put some of these together.

Roseanne Barr and Madonna.

You have to love Elon. A genius with a keen sense of humor.

Elon again. Right on point.

The five levels of wealth

What will we tell our children about the climate crisis?

It's science, Dr. Fauci.

 

Joe Biden says we will power the United States with 100% clean energy in 2035.

What would Walt Disney say?

One Stop Shopping.

Give me credit for one.

We hear a lot about how executive compensation for CEO's is out of control and unwarranted.

It is argued that it is inequitable that so few individuals can earn so much.

30 CEO's of the 500 companies that are in the S&P 500 index on the New York Stock Exchange made at least $30 million last year. 

This was reported in an article in The Wall Street Journal in July.

Hers is an excerpt from the compensation list down to and just beyond the $30 million income level.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-ceos-who-pull-in-more-than-100-million-a-year-8409afe0

Notice that the CEO's of Cisco Systems ($53 billion in revenues, 79,500 employees), T-Mobile ($80 billion in revenues, 75,000 employees) and General Motors ($157 billion in revenues, 155,000 employees) did not break the $30 million level.

By contrast, here is the list of NBA players who made at least $30 million this past season.

It numbers 39.

I am not sure how many on this list could manage a $50+ billion or 75,000+ employees.

I do know that they are among the world's greatest athletes.

NBA players have to possess elite quickness,  agility, jumping ability and eye to hand coordination for starters.

It does not hurt to be 6'6" or taller and have a wing span that is even longer.

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/salaries/_/year/2023/seasontype/4

Yes, more NBA players made at least $30 million in compensation in the last year than did the CEO's of the largest public companies in the United States.

Next season the number of players making at least $30 million is expected to increase to  44 based on contracts already in effect.

What is also worth noting is that almost every player on this list is African-American or an immigrant from another country.

I believe Gordon Hayward is the only White American-born player on this list that is making at least $30 million.

What does all of this tell us?

Could it be there is no better place in the world for economic opportunity than in the United States of America for minorities, immigrants or natural born citizens?

Could it be that the natural forces of supply and demand bring about the best allocation of resources and results?

Could it be that there are fewer 6'6'' and taller men who can jump through the roof and hit shots from 30 feet than Harvard MBA's suited to run a large company?

Could it be that there is not as much economic injustice in the United States as is stated when you see data like this?

It seems that I am seeing a lot of charts trending down recently.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The amount of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of the United States.

I thought the SPR was established in case of a major supply disruption due to war or natural disaster.

I am guess rising gasoline prices and inflation were viewed as a natural disaster for Biden.

In the meantime the price of oil has increased for five straight weeks and is close to $80/barrel. 

It was $67/barrel a month ago.

Another natural disaster?

Time to start raiding the SPR again?

Federal Government Receipts

Federal government tax receipts were down a massive 7.3% in June on a trailing twelve-month basis compared to the comparable prior period.

With inflation up substantially during that period compared to the prior period, you would expect that alone would have pushed government tax receipts higher.

Credit: https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1680600268054966272

Inflation seems to only be affecting federal government expenditures that have increased by 9% over the last year.

Poppy Growing in Afghanistan

I always wondered why the United States could not rein in the opium production in Afghanistan when our military was controlling the country and we were funding almost all of its government bureaucracy and infrastructure.

It seems that the Taliban have figured out a way to do it.

Credit: https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1679682782459744259

You Need to Learn to Code

Existing Homes for Sale in the United States

Credit: https://twitter.com/DisruptionHedge/status/1682369474580697088

Covid Vaccinations

Those willing to be vaccinated against Covid has dropped to almost zero.

In fact, the CDC stopped reporting vaccination data in mid-May.

The last update looked like this for all doses administered.

Source:https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccine-delivery-coverage

The trend line for the bivalent booster looked like this when the chart was discontinued.

You are not considered fully vaccinated by the CDC unless you have this dose.

Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccine-delivery-coverage

When the reporting ceased a mere 17% of Americans had submitted to the bivalent booster dose in the nine months it had been offered.

It seems that at some point people make up their own mind on what is, or is not, beneficial to them rather than being told by the government what is.

The Federal Reserve

The Fed is losing billions of dollars on payments to commercial banks on reverse repos and other payments as interest rates rise.

Of course, they can just print more.

I think it is time to stop.

In more ways than one.

A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.

Carbon Emissions Per Capita

Carbon emissions per capita in the United States is now lower than it was before World War II.

Keep in mind that prior to World War II not even 50% of U.S. households even owned an automobile.

As late as 1970 nearly two-thirds of households only had one vehicle.

Today there are more vehicles in the United States than the number of households.

Credit: https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter8/urban-transport-challenges/household-vehicles-united-states/

There are over twice as many vehicles per capita as there were before World War II but carbon emissions per capita is lower than it was at that time?

Despite this, we are told it is necessary to ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles to limit carbon emissions?

And the liberals want to now ban gas stoves and gas water heaters.

Seeing this you should understand why the progressives are not intent on merely limiting carbon emissions.

Their view is that we just can't focus on total carbon emissions. We have to reduce the population as well.

Population control is almost as important to their long-term agenda.

Working From Home

Working from home became a popular alternative for many businesses during the Covid pandemic.

Since social distancing restrictions declined many employers have been struggling to get their employees back in the office.

There are many who argue that those who work at home are more productive than those who go into the office.

However, the recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Annual American Time Use Study for 2022 disputes that notion.

In 2022, 34% of Americans reported doing some or all of their work at home and 69% reported doing some or all of their work at their workplace.

The average number of hours worked per day for those working from home---5.4 hours.

The average number of hours worker per day working at their workplace---7.9 hours.

A direct excerpt from the report.

Source: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/atus.pdf

Source: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106200.pdf

California Nightmare

The Mamas and Papas recorded the song California Dreamin in 1965.

The song's lyrics began like this.

All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)

And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)

I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)

On a winter's day (on a winter's day)

I'd be safe and warm (I'd be safe and warm)

If I was in L.A. (if I was in L.A.)

California dreamin' (California dreamin')

On such a winter's day

It did use to be a dream to be in L.A. or California.

It has become a nightmare.

Look no further than the latest state revenue figures for personal and corporation tax collections.

Personal income tax collections are down 34% in fiscal 2023 thru June compared to the same period last year.

Corporation tax collections are down 37%.

Have that many high income earners have left the state?

Are we seeing the effects of an economic slowdown in the state?

Did stock compensation not pan out over the last year?

Whatever the cause, this looks to be a nightmare for California.

While personal and corporation taxes are down, total disbursements by the state increased by 16% between the two fiscal periods.

What happens if we see a real recession in the next 12 months?

No California Dreamin is in the forecast.

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

The big news on the movie front is the fantastic box office numbers the Barbie movie has brought in the first week it was out.

Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has already grossed $500 million in less than seven days in theaters around the world.

It has grossed more than $200 million in the United States.

It just goes to show the consumer power of little girls (or that of little girls that grow up to be big girls).

All I can say is that I hope Ryan Gosling negotiated a nice percentage of the gross in his contract to be willing to put on that wardrobe.

I ran across another interesting factoid on the power of little girls recently in seeing the lifetime franchise revenue that Hello Kitty has produced.

My young daughters loved Hello Kitty back in the day.

My granddaughters do as well today.

However, I was astounded when I saw this comparison of what Hello Kitty has brought in versus the combined lifetime franchise revenues of James Bond, Spider-Man and Marvel Cinematic U.

Source: https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1648786249233334273

   

Thank heaven for little girls, indeed!