Author: haroldblackphd

Harold A Black

The Congress is diverse. Not just in race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and politics but in degree of ideology with members on the far far right and some on the far far left. I have a dear friend who describes Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as a “right-wing nut job.” Even the most loyal Republican would admit that some of her comments are a bit bizarre. But the removal of her from all committees was extreme – even for the Democrats.  On the far far left is the “Squad”. When asked about one of the Squad’s members, Mondaire Jones (D-NY), after his comments following the Uvalde shootings my friend described him as a “left-wing nut job.” In case you missed it, Jones ranted at the Republicans, “You will not stop us from passing gun control. If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand. We will not rest until we’ve taken weapons of war out of our communities.” Now isn’t that interesting? I can find no similar statements by him after any of the killings and increased crime in his hometown of New York City. Yet, in response to a shooting in Texas, he is willing to remake constructs of the American republic to suit his views. Jones forgets the old adage “what goes around comes around”. Recall that if Harry Reid had not gotten rid of the filibuster for Federal judges in order to make it easier for Obama appointees to get through the Senate, we would not have Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett on the Supreme Court.

Biden and a myriad of politicians commented on the Uvalde shootings. Biden wanted a ban of assault rifles and at a minimum an increase in the age at which the guns could be purchased. He was not interested in “hardening “the schools. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments on the shootings were mostly ignored by the media. Green tweeted “Joe Biden wants to ban “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines” yet Democrats refuse to prosecute violent crimes in Democrat cities all over the country and refuse to protect your children at school with armed security. Same Democrats are protected by armed guards daily.”

Her tweet devastates Mondaire Jones, Joe Biden and the Democrats. Greene notes their hypocrisy for remaining silent while mainly black adults and kids are wounded and killed daily in our major cities. Last year Houston had 473 homicides, Philadelphia had 559, New York, 488 and in Chicago there have been 1,184 people shot as of June 1. Where is the outrage? The silence from the Democrats shows that they do not care one whit about shootings and their victims. What they care about is gun control. As Shelby Steele notes, “The left gets power from fighting white evil not black despair.”

Greene’s second point is brilliant. If Joe Biden does not see the benefit in hardening our schools, then he should remove the barriers in front of the White House. Gone should be the concrete structures that are there to prevent a vehicle from entering the White House grounds with a bomb. All metal detectors should be removed from the doors and the Secret Service personnel should be disarmed. The same is true for the security accorded congressional Democrats. As Greene points out “Same Democrats are protected by armed guards daily.” I think that many people feel that at a minimum, our children deserve the same protection as our politicians.

Redistricting is likely to cost Jones his seat in Congress. On the other hand, Greene, who is constantly ridiculed by the mainstream media won her primary by over 70 percent of the vote. Apparently, her constituents do not care if she is a “right-wing nut job.”

Lastly, I would love to see a debate between the “right-wing nut jobs” and the “left-wing nut jobs”. Wouldn’t Greene, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Thomas Massie versus AOC, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush and Mondaire Jones be great theatre?

The French Election and the international Revolt Against the Ruling “Elites”

Harold A Black

May 2, 2022

The latest French election shows voter discontent with the establishment. The incumbent was primarily challenged by the same far right candidate that was soundly vanquished in the last election. However, this year, the election was closer than predicted with the ruling party garnering less than 50% of the vote dictating a second round runoff. The challenger’s party was openly racist and pro-Nazi when it was founded with its sole issue being the massive immigration of Muslims into France. Today its rhetoric is softer. The party now speaks of independence from the European Union, the removal of French forces from the command of NATO and amending the French constitution to limit immigration. 

In last week’s runoff, the opposition party ended up with less than 50 percent of the vote but the French discontentment was still evident. It is almost identical to the discontentment with the Biden Administration. The Wall Street Journal called the discontent a “cultural alienation from a progressive hegemony in the West’s academic, media and artistic institutions” and “resistance to the new religion of universal climate change compliance with its costly implications for energy customers and seething fury with the little autocrats in government and health bureaucracies decreeing lockdowns, masks and vaccine mandates. … “underlying it all, righteous indignation at the arrogance of unaccountable elites who dismiss opposition to their authority as the product of bigotry and ignorance and denounce anyone displaying it as a traitor or a domestic terrorist.” Sound familia?

The incumbent, Emmanuel Macron won but acknowledged that many voted for him as the lesser of two evils. A few on the American Left have said that if Macron could be re-elected with his low popularity then there is hope for Biden. I am no expert on the sagacity of French leadership but Macron is no Joe Biden. Here our problems are compounded by the ineptitude of our leadership. We, too, must endure the left’s obsession over climate change, open borders and Covid mandates. Add to that Afghanistan, gender identity, transgender athletes, Critical Race Theory, the woke military, inflation, shutting down pipelines, shackling oil and gas, the ‘Build Back Better’ fiasco, the surge in crime and the war on parents where the attorney general was investigating parents attending PTA meetings as domestic terrorists. 

The difference between the French election and our forthcoming election is that the opposition is projected to win. If Republicans win both the House and the Senate, then Biden will try to enact his changes through edict – something that the progressives in Congress have been urging all along. No Biden budget would pass both Houses. No radical progressive would be confirmed by the Senate. Republicans would have the power to effectively shut down the Biden agenda and throttle back actions taken by those in the administration who think that climate change is the “existential crisis of our time.” I find it remarkable that so much damage has been done to our economy and our national psyche in so short a time. 

We are confronted with elected officials who want to severely curtail our freedoms, re-write the Constitution, pack the Supreme Court, eliminate the Electoral College, abolish the Senate, cancel our culture, muzzle free speech and annul the second amendment. We take to heart the words of Abraham Lincoln: “Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Amen.

Knoxville Focus

Henry John Temple once said “Countries don’t have permanent friends only permanent interests.” How else to explain how our once enemies (Japan and Germany) are our friends and our once friends (China and Russia) are our enemies? The same is true in politics where once the right favored easing immigration in order to attract cheap labor and the left opposed it. Bernie Sanders once said that open borders was a Koch Brothers proposal. Of course now he embraces it. On the right, freedom of movement of people (labor) across borders was equated with freedom of movement of capital. Thus, classical economists provided the rationale behind the desire of big businesses to have a freer flow of immigrants. On the other hand, the most fierce opposition to freer immigration was by the labor unions – for obvious reasons. Less immigration meant fewer competitors and higher wages for union members.

Now the script has flipped with the left favoring open borders and the right opposing it. A closer look at the supporters on the left reveals billionaires such as Bill Gates and the executives of “woke” corporations such as Nike and those that employ large numbers of immigrant labor. These workers may be well educated with technical expertise and be in areas where there is a shortage of native born workers. The workers may also be at the bottom of the skill ladder and work at low wages. The rich on the left need their gardeners, maids, nannys and cooks as well as IT and AI experts. The right, on the other hand, has latched onto the exploitive nature of open borders and security issues such as drug trafficking, sex trafficking, entry of criminals and terrorists. 

So there is an empirical issue here. Is there evidence that areas with high numbers of illegals have lower wages than other areas? If there is a wage differential, does it persist over all skill levels? Asia, Mexico, Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and the rest of the world have been exporters of educated professionals to the United States, in essence making those countries poorer and ours better off. Some on the left and the right might say that this is a good thing for America. But today’s argument is not over the well educated immigrants but over the masses who show up at our southern border. What percentage of those people are professionals? In a survey of “unauthorized” residents of the United States, it was reported that 24 percent had the equivalence of a high school education, 12 percent had some college and 18 percent had college degree or higher. Of course, many illegals with higher education may have to work in areas other than where they have expertise. One would think that doctors and lawyers would not be able to practice legally in the United States. I am less certain about engineers and architects.

I have a soft spot for those who trek hundreds of miles, leave their homes with few possessions in search of a better life for themselves and their families. For many immigrant groups, the second generation will in many cases be more American than the native born. They will be capitalists, well educated and English speaking. However, for me, the most important reason not to have open borders is that such a policy overwhelms the border states. There are real costs to social services, education and health care. There are costs associated with law enforcement and crime. That those residents on the border do not welcome the influx can be seen in the changing politics at the border where increasing numbers of residents have switched party allegiance and are electing Republicans rather than Democrats. We have laws on the books that need to be enforced and laws that need to be written. However, neither party appears willing to tackle the issue. The Democrats are fearful of alienating the far left in their ranks and the Republicans appear to want to keep the issue alive for political reasons.

Lastly, the FBI defines a Ponzi scheme as one that “promise high financial returns or dividends not available through traditional investments. Instead of investing the funds of victims, however, the con artist pays “dividends” to initial investors using the funds of subsequent investors.” That sounds like Social Security to me and its looming insolvency may be another reason why the Left favors open borders.

Knoxville Focus

May 30, 2022

Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices. This means that much of the conversation about the cause of the current inflation is confusing at best and essentially wrong. The administration has blamed Putin’s Ukrainian venture, Covid and supply chain bottlenecks as inflations’ primary cause. After first saying that the inflation was transitory, it didn’t take long for the administration to pivot and start pointing fingers at others. Yet Biden has ignored the real culprit – the Federal Reserve.

Yes, there was inflation prior to Biden taking office but that inflation was indeed “transitory”. Trump oversaw a massive increase in spending that was Covid-related but that impact on prices was winding down when Biden took office. Nevertheless, Biden and the democrats pushed thorough a totally unnecessary $1.9 trillion Covid “relief” bill that was a handout to their supporters and contained only about 9% slated to Covid “relief’. From day one, Biden stoked the inflationary fires by declaring war on the fossil fuel industry. His well-documented actions of canceling leases on federal lands, blocking pipelines, discouraging financing of investments in fossil fuels drove up the price of energy. This created a shortage of supply and drove up energy prices. Government policies to “fight” Covid led to supply chain problems as ships await unloading primarily at California docks. This too has led to an increase in prices. Thus, when one looks at the causes of the inflation, it is easy to blame supply shortages.

However, the great Milton Friedman said that in every instance inflation is a monetary phenomenon. That is, inflation cannot occur in the absence of an increase in the money supply. Think of inflation as being the measure of the total air in a balloon and the money supply being the air. If prices increased without adding more air, then it is like one squeezing on the balloon. Prices would go up in on sector but must go down in others. But the total air in the balloon is the same only its being redistributed. Hence, no change in the general level of prices and no change in inflation. Thus, a decrease in supply of some goods would lead to higher prices for those goods but consumers would then demand less of other goods.

The only way to get more inflation is through an increase in the money supply. That is, pump more air into the balloon. The blame for inflation lies squarely on the Federal Reserve. Over the past two years, the Fed has increased the money supply by 40 percent. M2 has increased from $15.5 trillion in 2020 to over $22 trillion today. In doing so the Fed has added to its balance sheet by purchasing over $5 trillion in mortgage backed and Treasury securities. The Fed is staffed by a bunch of smart people who know the consequences of their actions. They know fully well that this dramatic runup in the money supply causes inflation and they know that it is not “transitory”. So why do it? First, the initial runup was deemed necessary to keep the economy from falling into a deep recession due to Covid. However, post-Covid the Fed has continued its easy money policy. In large part it is because its chairman Jerome Powell wanted to get Biden to nominate him for a second term. Since Powell was nominated by Trump and that Biden was hell-bent on erasing all signs of Trump from the first day he came into office, Powell was not going to counter Biden’s policies. Instead, he provided the fuel to finance all the unnecessary spending undertaken by the administration. The Fed knew that its actions was inflationary but went ahead anyway. The Fed’s governors and most of its reserve bank presidents usually concentrate on interest rates and not on monetary aggregates like the money supply. Friedman and monetary economists warn that such a concentration invariably leads to inflation as the money supply grows unchecked. And it did.

Since Fed actions impact the economy with a lag of 12-36 months, look for a longer term inflation. Also hopes for a soft landing are just that – hopes. More than likely, interest rate fixation rather than concentrating on money growth will lead to a recession. Let’s hope that the Fed doesn’t try to overcorrect because the last time it did so, it caused a longer economic slump. Leaving the market to self-correct without Fed interference should cause a shorter term recession, but I am not holding my breath.

It is no secret that we are poorly governed at the federal level. I believe that state and local governments are more responsive to their constituents. One of the obvious examples of poor governance can be found amongst those appointed by the president – and confirmed by the Senate – to run the federal departments and agencies. Some appointments have been weird, with there being little if any competence displayed by the appointee. Consider members of Biden’s cabinet: Deb Haaland the Secretary of the Interior, likely nominated so a Native American could be in the cabinet, or Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, nominated because he is Hispanic, or Pete Buttigieg at Transportation, nominated because he is gay, or Jennifer Grandholm at Energy, nominated I guess because she is a straight woman (or birthing person), or Denis McDonough at Veterans Affairs who is not even a veteran, or Marcia Fudge at Housing and Urban Development who probably has lived in a house and is from an urban area. 

Two of the more controversial nominations were for banking agencies and both failed to get Senate confirmation. Sarah Bloom Raskin, nominated to the Federal Reserve as vice chair for supervision and Saule Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency (my old agency). Raskin was nominated because of her views on climate change. She had stated many times the view that the Fed should not allow credit to be given to companies that produce fossil fuels. Not surprisingly, this expansive view of the Fed’s role was not embraced by the Republicans or Joe Manchin who is from the coal producing state of West Virginia. The nomination of Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency was also rejected by the Senate. She had advocated the shrinking of large banks and the shifting of consumer deposits from banks to the Fed. The Comptroller of the Currency is the regulator of national banks – those banks that get their charter from the Federal government rather than the states. Omarova had also been critical of certain bank mergers and had advocated a federal takeover of the banking system. She was strongly opposed by both the large banks and the community banks.

 

Biden also nominated Fed chair Jerome Powell to another term as chairman and Prof. Lisa Cook of Michigan State University and Prof. Philip Jefferson of Davidson College to serve as Fed governors. Although both Cook and Jefferson have impressive academic credentials, neither is a monetary economist. Cook’s writings are primarily in African American studies while Jefferson has written extensively on poverty. However, the Fed is tasked with overseeing the financial system, conducting monetary policy and providing services to the banking system. It’s stated objectives are controlling inflation, pursuing targets of full employment and stability in exchange rates. Typically, Fed governors have come from the banking system, the financial system and academia. But the typical academic has had expertise in macroeconomics, international economics, monetary theory and or financial institutions. Those not versed in these areas find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data and statistics used by the Fed governors to make decisions within the scope of the Fed’s duties. Prior Fed governors who have lacked relevant expertise have not fared well and have resigned early into their tenure. I remember one appointee saying that he had studied monetary economics since his appointment and was now well versed in its nuances after a couple of weeks. A senior Fed staffer when asked about the statement called the new governor “scary.” Although several of the Federal Reserve regional banks have recently held seminars on the impact on financial institutions by such trendy social issues such as income inequality and climate change, I seriously doubt if either Prof. Cook or Jefferson will have the clout to change the focus of the Fed Board to embrace “wokeness”. It will be interesting to see if they try.

 

I have never figured out why the term “elites” is used for the leaders on the left. There is nothing elite about Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer or AOC. Quite the contrary. They may be elitist but they are certainly not elite. A definition of “elites” is “a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group”. Well if that is the definition, then those commonly referred to as “elites” are certainly not elite.

The oracle-who-names obviously decided to change state colors after the 1994 election making Republican states “red states” and Democrat states “blue states”. Perhaps this is because red had always been associated with communists and this was an attempt to rebrand American democrats. If the democrat states were called “red” it would conjure up socialism, statism, and Marxism on a daily basis. Let’s call this the art of deception.

I wonder why this late in Covid do I find the vast majority of mask wearers are black? Maybe this is because most blacks are democrats and democrats are much more likely to wear masks than republicans.

I think that white democrats are more likely to wear masks because of their Klu Klux Klan roots.

This transgender stuff is getting ridiculous. I still say that one’s genitals should be the determining factor as to sports participation and bathroom/locker usage.

Want to bet now that the transgender swimmer’s eligibility is up that she (he) will return to being a male? Recall that she (he) still has his genitals and gets sexually aroused by women.

I don’t know why Penn where the transgender swimmer goes to school, doesn’t field a transgender basketball team, soccer team, track team and a transgender team in every sport. They would dominate Ivy League “women’s” sports.

Again, why are drag queens more attractive than transgender males (or is it females). Can you seriously look at Rachael Levine? Or for that matter Catlyn Jenner?

The media is going bonkers over the leak of Alito’s draft ruling on abortion. I thought the case was the 15 week Mississippi law. But it looks like the court is taking the opportunity to weigh in on Roe. The left is acting as if it is the end of civilization. But the court is taking the power away from the federal government and putting it back to the states. The issue has always been whether abortion was a constitutional right and not whether it was illegal, Repealing Roe just means that the states will make the law and not the courts. It will be nice to remove Roe from the courts.

All the noise surrounding the leaked opinion has featured pro-abortionists. Why no reporting on pro-life women? Some surveys show around 50 percent of women either are pro-life or favor some curbs on abortion.

If the democrats couldn’t define “woman” before the leak, then how do they now claim to defend awoman’s “right to choose?”

The leaker is likely to be on the staff of one of the liberal justices. My money is on Sotomayor – the so-called “wise Latina”. If found to be true then the leaker should go to jail and Sotomayor should be forced to resign.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have a debate with Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar on one side and AOC, Corrie Bush and Ilhan Omar or the other?

I don’t understand super yachts.

What is “body wash”?

Random thoughts

The Wall Street Journal reported that the state of Massachusetts may take over the Boston city schools because of their dismal record of educating school kids. Despite a $1 billion budget only 25% of black elementary students read at grade level. However, I bet you that those kids are well versed on climate change, CRT and gender identity.

The Biden Administration has announced the formation of a dystopian  “Disinformation Governance Board” within the Department of Homeland Security. Weird. Are they going to monitor Jen Psaki and Tony Fauci and the rest of the purveyors of misinformation within this administration?

Hitler had an Office of Public Enlightenment. The Russians had a Special Disinformation Office. Harry Potter had an Office of Misinformation. Orwell’s 1984 had the Ministry of Truth. Now we have Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board.

Some Jokes

What do you call Joe Biden’s mother?

         Joe Mama

My mother always voted Republican but her mail-in ballot was cast for Joe Biden

         No way she would have done that if she were still alive

Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and AOC were in a plane crash: who survives?

         The country

What do Joe Biden and Bill Cosby have in common?

         Neither can complete a sentence

What is a government mandate?

         Its when Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer go to dinner together

Is it true that when Biden was told he had to assemble a cabinet, he went to Ikea?

How do you get Biden to change a light bulb?

         Tell him Trump installed it.

The Squad always play the race card, Trans activists play the gender card, what is the democrats favorite card?

         The Trump card

What is the favorite nation of racists?

         Discrimination

What happens when you take a joke too far”

         The 46^th president of the United States

How do we know Joe Biden is a racist?

         He lives in the White House.

Why haven’t we seen any Biden hair plug jokes?

What does a socialist state lack?

         Rights.

Con is the opposite of pro which is why Congress is the opposite of progress.

Politically incorrect jokes

What do you get when you cross a Mexican with a civil rights novel?

         Tequila Mockingbird

Why did God invent golf?

         So white folks could dress up like blacks.

A black guy told me he has been a vegan for the past 10 years.

         I asked him “don’t you miss fried chicken?”

Why is do difficult to solve a redneck murder?

         All DNA matches

         No dental records

Why do blacks call white people “honkies”?
Thats the last noise they hear before the white people run them over.

What do you call a black wizard?

         A Negromancer.

Social media jokes

I’m starting a social media website for religious people with a lisp

Faithbook

My doctor refuses to post my diagnosis to social media…

He says my disease is untweetable..

Do you remember how before social media nobody cared what, where and with whom you ate?

Nobody still cares.

Until I went to the University of Konstaz am Bodensee to finish my dissertation for Ohio State, I did not drink any alcoholic beverages. I had my first beer at my high school senior picnic and spit it out. When I went to the University of Georgia, I was 17 years old and had a beer starting my junior year at a private club in Athens – Clarke County was a “dry” county” in those days. When the first light beers came out it tasted awful. There was a joke that it was sent to a lab and the report came back that “you horse has diabetes”. I didn’t drink wine because I always thought that wine tasted like grapes gone bad. However, living in Germany I discovered the local beer, Ruppana with its deep rich color and flavor. The beer was delivered to your door, like the milk of my youth, and left on your door step. It was wonderful. When I came back to the US, I stopped drinking beer because no commercially brewed mass marketed beer was to my taste. Then came the micro brews. I discovered that I really hated the trendy IPAs. To me it was merely a contest to see who could brew the bitterest beer. But it was the stouts and porters that were more to my tastes. So now I drink at most one stout or porter a day when I have a beer. Here are my favorites – I do not care for Guiness::

1. Split Shot stout – Elysian brewing company. Of course since this is my favorite, our local distributed stopped carrying it
2. Left Hand Nitro stout
3. Portly stout – Turtle Anarchy Brewing Company
4. Thunderstruck Coffee porter – Highland brewing company
5. Old Rasputin – North Coast Brewing Company

I also like some scotch ales namely old Chub from Oskar Blues and Yee Haw’s Eighty. By the way Yee Haw’s Velvet Charmer is to die for.

Isn’t it time to dump the Dow? Currently, the market is in sell off mode and the business channels are breathlessly reporting the fall in the Dow. However, I am less interested in the Dow than in how the overall market is behaving. Concentrating on the Dow is for rookies. Pros look at broader indexes and focus on stocks not on the Dow. So isn’t it time to dump the Dow?

The Dow is the closest watched (by much of the public and the business media) indicator of the stock market. Yet the Dow is made up of only 30 companies. It started out in 1884 comprised of nine railroads and two industrial companies. The value of the Dow is not the actual average of the prices of its component stocks, but rather the sum of the component prices divided by a divisor, which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock split or stock dividend, so as to generate a consistent value for the index. 

The components of the Dow change over time as some companies gain prominence and others lose prominence. Yet companies such as Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla and meta are not on the Dow. There are over 15,000 publically traded companies in the US with about 5,000 traded on the exchanges. Now it is understandable why there was such a small number on the Dow initially given the logistical difficulties of calculating a composite average for all publically traded firms. But that is no longer a problem. The Dow is top heavy with the highest priced stocks carrying more impact than the lowest priced stock. Recently, the biggest company in market cap Apple surged with the Dow falling. How could this happen? Its because Apple is not included in the Dow! So the question of the day is why not ditch the Dow and do something akin to the S&P 500 which accounts for market capitalization or the Russell 2000? Better yet, since we have the technology, why not include all stocks traded on all the major exchanges and have a weighted market cap average? Now that would be an accurate representation of what is happening in the market rather than citing an outdated anachronism of the past.

You know you are getting old when 

1. The TV shows you watch only air commercials about ED, debt reduction, class action lawsuits and stool softeners. 
2. On the stations you seldom watch, you haven’t a clue what anyone is talking about. 
3. On those stations, none of the commercials make sense.
4. Your grandchildren are in college. 
5. You haven’t a clue as to what is “body wash.”
6. All your favorite movies and music are by dead people.
7. You don’t understand all the tattoos and body piercing (particularly the nose rings/studs).
8. It finally dawns on you how smart your parents were.
9. Your grown children are having the same troubles with their kids as you had with them.

The FBI says that a Ponzi scheme is “a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.”

Hum. Sounds like social security to me. Maybe this is why the Left is for open borders.

The pundits note that Biden’s approval ratings are in the 30s and some have wondered why is it so low. I on the other hand wonder why is it so high? How could anyone who is breathing approve of this president? I don’t know any of those supporters. Do you? 

Evidence that the Left is braindead is that Elizabeth Warren says that Democrats need to pass stalled agenda items in the next few months, otherwise they are “headed toward big losses in the midterms.” Huh? The reason that they are headed toward big losses is because of their agenda.

I guess the Democrats don’t believe all the polls about the coming election. Instead, they could easily avoid the impending disaster. All Biden has to do is lift the moratoriums on fossil fuels. Say “drill baby drill”, open up Federal leases, lower (instead of raising) royalties on leases, approve all the pipelines, repeal all the Covid mandates, keep quiet on CRT and gender identity, embrace charter schools, reinstitute “stay in Mexico”, keep Title 42 and announce funding for the wall. Sure the Left will go ballistic but they are not going to vote for any Republican. I bet that the poll numbers will flip and the Democrats might maintain control of the Senate if not the House.