Briefly Noted: Culture War, Econ War?

Do you get the feeling that beneath the surface of American life something is going on? A cultural shift? We’ve seen hints of it in the polls, with shifting “identity group” electoral tendencies, with the the unrest and dissatisfaction with the way things—America—is going. Most of the public is simply refusing to be distracted by Russia, Russia, Russia any longer. They’re increasingly and more outspokenly disenchanted with CRT and the radical Gender remake of America—”family friendly” drag shows for the kids, and all the rest.

Among indicators of what’s going on below the surface of what you hear on the mainstream news are reports that school districts across the country are short of teachers. Now, teaching jobs in government schools, like most government jobs, are very well paid jobs with extensive benefits. For middle class people those types of jobs are excellent sinecures. So what gives? Is it working conditions or what teachers are now required to teach, or a combination? Is it that prospective teachers don’t want to teach CRT and Gender Bender ideology, don’t want to live through more masking and social distancing—the whole Covid Regime schtick that at least some major districts are trying to resurrect? Very possibly so.

It’s a fact that our rulers are desperately flogging old, previously failed, scare tactics. Have you heard the one about the double Covid/Flu whammy? No, not the one a year ago, but the one this year? It’s a new Winter of Death narrative. But parents aren’t buying it—certainly not for their kids:

Most Parents Are Saying No to Covid-19 Vaccines for Toddlers

More than a month after the shots became available, roughly 4% to 5% of children under 5 years have received them

Parents are having their say about the Covid-19 vaccines for children under 5, and for most, the answer so far is no.

And this is telling:

School Districts Struggle to Maintain Mask Mandates due to Increased Backlash, Scrutiny

School districts and other major public entities are struggling to keep COVID-19 mask mandates in place, with the vast majority having ended their mandates by now due to widespread public backlash against such restrictions, as well as heavy scrutiny that has revealed the ineffectiveness of such orders.

According to Just The News, of the 500 largest school districts in the country, only a mere 7 still have mask mandates in place, accounting for just 1.4 percent of districts. In October of last year, 369 such districts (73.8 percent) still had mask mandates in effect.

Recent examples of major jurisdictions reversing such mandates include Los Angeles County: The county ultimately chose not to reinstate its mandate after several cities openly vowed to defy the new rules, and a county judge ruled that the L.A. Unified School District’s vaccine mandate was illegal, primarily due to its lack of exemptions for personal beliefs, as well as being preempted by state law.

It amounts to an implicit rejection of the Covid Regime, an implicit loss of trust in government at all levels, including the local school board level. And that’s why Dems have been desperate to purchase votes that they’re not sure any longer that they can simply steal. Not steal enough of them, anyway. That’s telling.

Since I’ve been offering Tom Luongo’s view on the world, here’s an excerpt of his view on the Build More Inflation Better bill. I like that he agrees with me that it’s mostly about buying votes at this point, but readers may be interested to see how it fits within Luongo’s worldview:

Economic Reduction and Inflation Expansion – Everything’s Out of Stock and Nothing is Cheaper

So, Davos finally got the mini-me version of Build Back Better through a deeply divided Senate over the weekend. It’s a terrible bill and will be a worse law, but at least it’s only about 12% of the original cost.

I guess it’s true what they say, the US must be broke, even new layers of tyranny are cut-rate at this point.

…

It’s all you can do now but to laugh, right? Nothing in D.C. is what it seems, l…

No, folks, Chuck Schumer doesn’t work for you. ... He works for globalists and foreign actors whose raison d’etre is the destruction of your life and your family’s future.

…

I was asked by Sputnik News to comment on this last week and the article is now out in the world. The main point of this is the one I’ve been making for more than a year now about Build Back Better, as blackmail to the Fed:

“This bill is another lame attempt by Democrats to force the Fed to stop raising interest rates by saddling them with new spending which it would have to monetize, similar to last year’s Build Back Better,” argued financial and political commentator Tom Luongo. “What this is is pure pre-midterm electioneering. The Democrats need something to campaign on.”

Thankfully it’s so small that a few billion in spending next year isn’t going to change much. …

…

What’s clearly going on here is that the Democrats needed a win to go into the mid-terms with to shore up their base. At the same time GOP establishment was more than happy to ‘oppose’ it to fuel their election strategy and fundraising while vowing to try and repeal it (which they can’t) when they gain control of the country post mid-terms.

This bill will do nothing to alleviate shortages and supply chain disruptions caused by COVID lockdowns, Biden’s executive orders and ESG/DEI arm-twisting of companies to ‘get woke.’ ...

…

Stepping back from this particular issue, it’s incumbent to see it in the larger overall strategy of turning the US government even more into the enemy of the people in order to foment civil unrest, if not outright civil war, as a consequence for our unwillingness to eet ze bugz.

You know this is all just unsustainable commie claptrap when you see subsidies for rich people to buy $80,000 electric cars. We really are dealing with people who have no idea how capital formation works or why any of their perceived ‘successes’ were just them piggy-backing on trends that were already emergent in the market before they got involved.