Stephen Green at Instapundit noted, “The U.S. population is up about 12% since 2006, but the percentage of renter occupied housing units is up 28% since 2006. It would make sense given the lack of affordability that renter occupied housing would continue to grow faster than the population does.”
Ugh... My Minneapolis... I live 40 miles from there and will not return until I drive through on my way to visiting my daughter's family in Houston.
Middle Class: As recently as 2020 I was accumulating wealth without even trying; deflation by Trump's - namely fossil fuel energy based - policies along with southern border control and strategic tariffs on China...
It should be noted that at least 15 senator's are against America First and vote with Biden every time. Remember these: Blunt (MO), Burr (NC), Capito (WV), Cassidy (LA), Collins (ME), Cornyn (TX), Ernst (IA), Graham (SC), McConnell (KY), Murkowski (AK), Portman (OH), Romney (UT), Tillis (NC), Toomey (PA) and Young (IN).
Mr. Surber wrote: "The American dream was simple and small because it involved a man, a woman and their child living in a small house that they made a home because it was theirs."
But, but -- it only allowed for two genders! Now we're blessed with 57. Try writing a popular song about that!
We are witnessing the culmination of the Battle of the Ages: Good vs.Evil.
It has been so from the beginning of time.
Without God there can be no Good; not “humanism”, or “secularism”, or anything else one might cling to will be able to fill that void, or be able to create anything truly good.
Rejecting God is a direct invitation to the devil. That is the most eternal fact ever. Only when each individual admits the error of their ways, repents and returns to embrace God and His true righteousness, can this tide be turned and then goodness and mercy shall follow.
“ I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
Deuteronomy 30:19 (read the whole chapter, really)
Just a little personal anecdote to give you a bit of hope…
I’m 70 years old and grew up in a typical middle class household. I survived my generation’s excesses and upheavals by rejecting them and by marrying a former Marine. We created a typical middle class household, attended church and struggled financially in the 90’s because I was a stay-at-home mom and we had only one income. Our daughter now has her own middle class household with four kids, a husband who owns two small businesses and their own Blue Heaven complete with large vegetable garden among the roses. They also attend church. Their friends are all doing the same thing - working, having large families and attending church. And they all live within 40 miles of Washington DC.
Just a short personal vignette. My father, the son of immigrants from eastern Europe, got a job in the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA, where his father had worked since he arrived on these shores from his native Slovakia. He worked there until retirement, as had his father before him. Back in the '60's, the plant was still booming, employing well over 20,000 in the manufacturing process and another 20,000 in administrative/research/managerial positions, IIRC. I was fortunate enough to be able to land one of the 90 day summer jobs then offered to the sons of employees, and was able to finance my college education as a result, since I banked all of my pay while living at home between semesters. One day my dad, God rest his soul, told me I should never expect to hold a job with Bethlehem Steel because, by the time I reached his age (mid-forties) there would no longer be a Bethlehem Steel Company in existence. He opined that "the union" was killing that golden goose, and management was complicit in the arrangement. He was a wise man and I'm glad I followed his advice. Bethlehem Steel's demise was emblematic of the larger changes in American society, the culmination of which is evident today.
"Like the Grinch at Christmas, Democrats soured on seeing this dream come true. They mocked it with a song called Little Boxes."
Decades later, John Cougar Mellencamp, embarrassment and disgrace of Indiana, poseur extraordinaire, and no-talent ass-clown would further mock the recovery from the 70s and Jimmy Carter, a re-emerging America, American greatness, and American exceptionalism with, Little Pink Houses, merely co-opting another's work - but that is what Democrats and their useful idiots do. "Maybe you built that, and maybe you didn't - we don't care, it's ours, now."
While I am glad to be long gone from Minnesota (thirty-three years, now), it pains me to see what its leftists have wrought on my former home state.
So, it's not enough that these white owners/custodians of virtually all of our institutions are self-loathing leftist adherents to the woke religion, their unforgivable sin is that they're white?
The existential threat to America is Biden - not because he's a doddering, incoherent, incapacitated, dementia-addled fool, but because when he finally is no longer useful to the deep state, he'll just be hot-swapped out for the next vacuous pinhead.
They are now killing us and our children with death rays…T has to…HAS TO, either be elected or installed, I ( in my limited ability to see anything) can see no other way!
With apologies, here is the last comment I will make regarding the Larry Elder-qualifying-for-the-debate situation, and thank you for bearing with my comments the last few days on this.
CitizenFreePress.com put up two highlighted articles last night about Larry Elder situation--and they confirm that Larry DID get the needed 40,000 individual donors needed by the Monday night deadline. So first-- let's truly celebrate this victory, that as Larry got the word out, people responded, and he DID GET the 40,000 donors he needed to qualify in time. YAY!!!!!!
But second, you can read in the articles the vicious details about how the RNC is outrageously preventing Larry from participating in the debate, stating that one of the polls that qualified him as having met the minimum requirement of 1% polling support-- the Rasmussen poll--doesn't count!!!! Rasmussen is one of the most respected and accurate polling groups in America. The RNC's position is blatantly absurd. So Larry Elder is suing the RNC, to halt the debate, or at least to get into the September debate. You can read about it on CFP.
I would just say that this is further exposure that the RINO-run Marxist-cooperating RNC is corrupted and against America. Each of these exposures of the evil that has been undercutting us is indeed dismaying. BUT-- realize that the moment each bit of poison is exposed, represents the first moment of their loss of power in that area. These Leftist and RINO operators are at the peak of their power when they have managed through stealth and misrepresentation to get themselves into power positions. But once they are exposed, the exposure alone cuts deeply into their ability to continue, and the remainder of their power starts to slide away now that they are out in the open. It's been said, "evil exposed is 2/3 destroyed, and the last 1/3 destroys itself". So we can celebrate the exposure.
And, bear in mind, that this is why America is undergoing such a censorship and suppression assault. It's because THE EXPOSURE ALONE goes a long ways to undercutting and destroying this evil. That's why they are SO desperate to suppress and censor information. So don't be discouraged-- cheer! And keep talking individually to leftists and Rino's to wake them up, and keep sharing widely all the information that is coming out. Exposure of all this evil is that "sunlight that disinfects"; like sunlight to the vampires that have been sucking the blood out of America.
So younger left leaning daughter paid off her college loans last year. It was a struggle but she was determined and did it. Asked her how she felt about paying off the loans of others. Silence. Hopefully this is a wake up call for her. Colleges have become evil places and they should be paying for loan bailouts. In addition, there should be some stipulation that states that if you can’t find a job in your field of study after attending (provided that you maintained a certain GPA) the college should refund your tuition.
Aug 23, 2023·edited Aug 23, 2023Liked by Don Surber
I would like to straighten out one of the biggest falsehoods in the last 100 years. The article said;
Then came the Depression. The Federal Reserve was created to avoid such a calamity but it screwed up by tightening credit when it should have increased the money supply. The government blamed Wall Street and a decade of mass poverty followed.
Here is my take:
The "Great Depression" started less than a year after Germany said they would default on their war reparations (Gee, I wonder where I have heard that before). There was no possible way Germany could pay of their loans--not then, not now, not ever and they did what any country would have done. They defaulted and WWII became a fact.
We have fought a series of battles and the BIG ONE is only a matter of time. WWI and WWII were stepping stones to financially good times. Does anyone who has a clue really think Joe Biden is the ticket to prosperity? Interestingly, this article also brought forth the seven deadly sins: Greed, lust, anger, Gluttony, pride, sloth and envy. is there anyone out there stupid enough to think we can survive this?
Things I like about reading Don’s column are that he writes well, has a good sense of humor, and he’s fundamentally a well informed generalist. Generalists know enough about a lot of disparate topics which enables them to synthesize a coherent picture out of the chaos.
We cannot have a strong republic without a strong middle class. It’s been the hallmark of this nation. Totalitarian states always look the same. 1-2% of the country owns everything and the rest own close to nothing. That’s economic feudalism. It’s not progress. It’s regressive, abusive, and does not make for a stable country. How many dictators have a happy ending? Almost none of them.
As far as the student loan racket, which is what it is, any time the government steps in and throws money on the table, the price goes sky high. Universities jack up tuition, room and board because they know students will borrow the money. Well why would they do that? Because they are as greedy as anybody else. When I go back to my alma mater, it’s packed with new buildings, luxe dorms, expensive real estate. It’s a business. The education on the other hand, not improving. It’s getting worse. Less quality for more money seems to be the national motto these days.
Commies destroyed the middle class and the professional thinking class in Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba etc. Now they want to do it here. If you have a stake in something you’ll resist abuse. If you have nothing, harder to get you motivated. Until there’s a cataclysmic revolution usually.
The people running the show are diabolical and yet functionally stupid. They are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They need to be ignored, resisted, and harshly held to account.
I saw it mentioned in an earlier comment, and I thought I'd put it a little more harshly: WE have allowed it to happen, by trusting in politicians to do the right thing, because we became lazy. I was guilty of shrugging off personal responsibility, too, and it almost destroyed me; it certainly shattered my first family. Not irreparably; I am grateful that my growth out of that dangerous immaturity also resulted in those two people finding forgiveness for me. Never again will I turn away with a "Someone else can get this" attitude. My heart has not hardened, but I guaran-damn-tee that my Spirit has, ready to stand, and if necessary, fight. I don't want to have to; therefore I stand now, and not quietly. No more turning away. My children and grandchildren (and yours, too) deserve nothing less.
Aug 23, 2023·edited Aug 23, 2023Liked by Don Surber
Excellent column and comments as usual today.
Slut shaming used to be standard operating procedure. In high school in the early 70s, if we thought a girl was a slut or dressed like a slut, there was no mercy given to the abuses she received. Even though we were teenagers with raging hormones, we did not care for raging whore moans.
Now, sluts are everywhere and idolized. On TV. On the radio. The VPs office. Unwed mothers galore.
Ugh... My Minneapolis... I live 40 miles from there and will not return until I drive through on my way to visiting my daughter's family in Houston.
Middle Class: As recently as 2020 I was accumulating wealth without even trying; deflation by Trump's - namely fossil fuel energy based - policies along with southern border control and strategic tariffs on China...
It should be noted that at least 15 senator's are against America First and vote with Biden every time. Remember these: Blunt (MO), Burr (NC), Capito (WV), Cassidy (LA), Collins (ME), Cornyn (TX), Ernst (IA), Graham (SC), McConnell (KY), Murkowski (AK), Portman (OH), Romney (UT), Tillis (NC), Toomey (PA) and Young (IN).
Mr. Surber wrote: "The American dream was simple and small because it involved a man, a woman and their child living in a small house that they made a home because it was theirs."
But, but -- it only allowed for two genders! Now we're blessed with 57. Try writing a popular song about that!
We are witnessing the culmination of the Battle of the Ages: Good vs.Evil.
It has been so from the beginning of time.
Without God there can be no Good; not “humanism”, or “secularism”, or anything else one might cling to will be able to fill that void, or be able to create anything truly good.
Rejecting God is a direct invitation to the devil. That is the most eternal fact ever. Only when each individual admits the error of their ways, repents and returns to embrace God and His true righteousness, can this tide be turned and then goodness and mercy shall follow.
“ I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
Deuteronomy 30:19 (read the whole chapter, really)
Just a little personal anecdote to give you a bit of hope…
I’m 70 years old and grew up in a typical middle class household. I survived my generation’s excesses and upheavals by rejecting them and by marrying a former Marine. We created a typical middle class household, attended church and struggled financially in the 90’s because I was a stay-at-home mom and we had only one income. Our daughter now has her own middle class household with four kids, a husband who owns two small businesses and their own Blue Heaven complete with large vegetable garden among the roses. They also attend church. Their friends are all doing the same thing - working, having large families and attending church. And they all live within 40 miles of Washington DC.
Ultimately, we will win.
Just a short personal vignette. My father, the son of immigrants from eastern Europe, got a job in the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA, where his father had worked since he arrived on these shores from his native Slovakia. He worked there until retirement, as had his father before him. Back in the '60's, the plant was still booming, employing well over 20,000 in the manufacturing process and another 20,000 in administrative/research/managerial positions, IIRC. I was fortunate enough to be able to land one of the 90 day summer jobs then offered to the sons of employees, and was able to finance my college education as a result, since I banked all of my pay while living at home between semesters. One day my dad, God rest his soul, told me I should never expect to hold a job with Bethlehem Steel because, by the time I reached his age (mid-forties) there would no longer be a Bethlehem Steel Company in existence. He opined that "the union" was killing that golden goose, and management was complicit in the arrangement. He was a wise man and I'm glad I followed his advice. Bethlehem Steel's demise was emblematic of the larger changes in American society, the culmination of which is evident today.
Don, thank you for this jewel of an early bird article. How true. My Blue Heaven will be on my mind all day today.
"Like the Grinch at Christmas, Democrats soured on seeing this dream come true. They mocked it with a song called Little Boxes."
Decades later, John Cougar Mellencamp, embarrassment and disgrace of Indiana, poseur extraordinaire, and no-talent ass-clown would further mock the recovery from the 70s and Jimmy Carter, a re-emerging America, American greatness, and American exceptionalism with, Little Pink Houses, merely co-opting another's work - but that is what Democrats and their useful idiots do. "Maybe you built that, and maybe you didn't - we don't care, it's ours, now."
While I am glad to be long gone from Minnesota (thirty-three years, now), it pains me to see what its leftists have wrought on my former home state.
So, it's not enough that these white owners/custodians of virtually all of our institutions are self-loathing leftist adherents to the woke religion, their unforgivable sin is that they're white?
The existential threat to America is Biden - not because he's a doddering, incoherent, incapacitated, dementia-addled fool, but because when he finally is no longer useful to the deep state, he'll just be hot-swapped out for the next vacuous pinhead.
The party of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and endless wars will be the party of Nuclear Holocaust. The Devil never rests with the Democrats.
Too many brilliant comments by Sir Surber to note. One of your best rants ever.
Another song that promotes all that is good in the Paradise that is North America is ‘Tea for Two’.
I prefer the Blossum Dearie version…
https://youtu.be/D62MjlVYkyg
Also…an Article on how to get ourselves out of this mess…
https://rufo.substack.com/p/bring-on-the-counterrevolution
They are now killing us and our children with death rays…T has to…HAS TO, either be elected or installed, I ( in my limited ability to see anything) can see no other way!
With apologies, here is the last comment I will make regarding the Larry Elder-qualifying-for-the-debate situation, and thank you for bearing with my comments the last few days on this.
CitizenFreePress.com put up two highlighted articles last night about Larry Elder situation--and they confirm that Larry DID get the needed 40,000 individual donors needed by the Monday night deadline. So first-- let's truly celebrate this victory, that as Larry got the word out, people responded, and he DID GET the 40,000 donors he needed to qualify in time. YAY!!!!!!
But second, you can read in the articles the vicious details about how the RNC is outrageously preventing Larry from participating in the debate, stating that one of the polls that qualified him as having met the minimum requirement of 1% polling support-- the Rasmussen poll--doesn't count!!!! Rasmussen is one of the most respected and accurate polling groups in America. The RNC's position is blatantly absurd. So Larry Elder is suing the RNC, to halt the debate, or at least to get into the September debate. You can read about it on CFP.
I would just say that this is further exposure that the RINO-run Marxist-cooperating RNC is corrupted and against America. Each of these exposures of the evil that has been undercutting us is indeed dismaying. BUT-- realize that the moment each bit of poison is exposed, represents the first moment of their loss of power in that area. These Leftist and RINO operators are at the peak of their power when they have managed through stealth and misrepresentation to get themselves into power positions. But once they are exposed, the exposure alone cuts deeply into their ability to continue, and the remainder of their power starts to slide away now that they are out in the open. It's been said, "evil exposed is 2/3 destroyed, and the last 1/3 destroys itself". So we can celebrate the exposure.
And, bear in mind, that this is why America is undergoing such a censorship and suppression assault. It's because THE EXPOSURE ALONE goes a long ways to undercutting and destroying this evil. That's why they are SO desperate to suppress and censor information. So don't be discouraged-- cheer! And keep talking individually to leftists and Rino's to wake them up, and keep sharing widely all the information that is coming out. Exposure of all this evil is that "sunlight that disinfects"; like sunlight to the vampires that have been sucking the blood out of America.
So younger left leaning daughter paid off her college loans last year. It was a struggle but she was determined and did it. Asked her how she felt about paying off the loans of others. Silence. Hopefully this is a wake up call for her. Colleges have become evil places and they should be paying for loan bailouts. In addition, there should be some stipulation that states that if you can’t find a job in your field of study after attending (provided that you maintained a certain GPA) the college should refund your tuition.
I would like to straighten out one of the biggest falsehoods in the last 100 years. The article said;
Then came the Depression. The Federal Reserve was created to avoid such a calamity but it screwed up by tightening credit when it should have increased the money supply. The government blamed Wall Street and a decade of mass poverty followed.
Here is my take:
The "Great Depression" started less than a year after Germany said they would default on their war reparations (Gee, I wonder where I have heard that before). There was no possible way Germany could pay of their loans--not then, not now, not ever and they did what any country would have done. They defaulted and WWII became a fact.
We have fought a series of battles and the BIG ONE is only a matter of time. WWI and WWII were stepping stones to financially good times. Does anyone who has a clue really think Joe Biden is the ticket to prosperity? Interestingly, this article also brought forth the seven deadly sins: Greed, lust, anger, Gluttony, pride, sloth and envy. is there anyone out there stupid enough to think we can survive this?
Things I like about reading Don’s column are that he writes well, has a good sense of humor, and he’s fundamentally a well informed generalist. Generalists know enough about a lot of disparate topics which enables them to synthesize a coherent picture out of the chaos.
We cannot have a strong republic without a strong middle class. It’s been the hallmark of this nation. Totalitarian states always look the same. 1-2% of the country owns everything and the rest own close to nothing. That’s economic feudalism. It’s not progress. It’s regressive, abusive, and does not make for a stable country. How many dictators have a happy ending? Almost none of them.
As far as the student loan racket, which is what it is, any time the government steps in and throws money on the table, the price goes sky high. Universities jack up tuition, room and board because they know students will borrow the money. Well why would they do that? Because they are as greedy as anybody else. When I go back to my alma mater, it’s packed with new buildings, luxe dorms, expensive real estate. It’s a business. The education on the other hand, not improving. It’s getting worse. Less quality for more money seems to be the national motto these days.
Commies destroyed the middle class and the professional thinking class in Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba etc. Now they want to do it here. If you have a stake in something you’ll resist abuse. If you have nothing, harder to get you motivated. Until there’s a cataclysmic revolution usually.
The people running the show are diabolical and yet functionally stupid. They are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They need to be ignored, resisted, and harshly held to account.
Good morning, all.
I saw it mentioned in an earlier comment, and I thought I'd put it a little more harshly: WE have allowed it to happen, by trusting in politicians to do the right thing, because we became lazy. I was guilty of shrugging off personal responsibility, too, and it almost destroyed me; it certainly shattered my first family. Not irreparably; I am grateful that my growth out of that dangerous immaturity also resulted in those two people finding forgiveness for me. Never again will I turn away with a "Someone else can get this" attitude. My heart has not hardened, but I guaran-damn-tee that my Spirit has, ready to stand, and if necessary, fight. I don't want to have to; therefore I stand now, and not quietly. No more turning away. My children and grandchildren (and yours, too) deserve nothing less.
Excellent column and comments as usual today.
Slut shaming used to be standard operating procedure. In high school in the early 70s, if we thought a girl was a slut or dressed like a slut, there was no mercy given to the abuses she received. Even though we were teenagers with raging hormones, we did not care for raging whore moans.
Now, sluts are everywhere and idolized. On TV. On the radio. The VPs office. Unwed mothers galore.
Satan is running amok. The battle is on.