As part of her successful effort to take the majority back in the House of Representatives in 2006 after 12 years in Republican control, then minority leader Nancy Pelosi used the tagline “culture of corruption” to describe why the voters needed to vote for change. It worked.

It is more than 19 months before the next presidential election. That sounds like a long time. It is. But not for the players. They are already working hard to plan and set up a strategy to accomplish their goals. And those goals are not always to be president. Here’s the first of what I’m sure will be many blogs about this race over the next 19 months.

That country song came out in 2009. Change New York to Silicon Valley and make a few other adjustments, and it would seem relevant again right now. I was in Congress in the middle of the crisis in 2008. I rarely toot my own horn, but I actually do know a lot about this stuff. So, here’s my analysis on where we are, how we got here and what is next. I apologize that it is a bit longer than my usual missives. But, this is important stuff.

In a 1901 speech, then President Theodore Roosevelt said, “speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far.” Roosevelt did not make up the phrase, which had existed as a proverb for a long time. But it is his use of the words that brought that proverb to prominence in American lexicon.

There are some things we know about the recent experience with the Chinese Spy Balloon. There are a lot more things we don’t know about it and the three other “objects” that we downed by U.S. missiles. In spite of so many unknowns, I think we can make reasonable postulates about the impact that the last few weeks have had or are likely to have on U.S. Foreign Policy.

From the title of this missive, you will be excused for thinking that it is about China. It could be. But it’s not. That’s for another conversation. It is instead about the coordinated attack on western Judeo/Christian civilization from within. This may be one of the more important pieces I have written to date.

Speaker McCarthy wants to get some spending reductions as part of the debt limit extension. Good for him. I hope he is successful. But even if he gets something, it will likely only very slightly slow the growth of the national deficits and debt. Both the current deficits and the total debt level are massive by almost any historical measure. Demographics and existing law suggest that the numbers only get worse from here.

The express purpose of this blog is to examine the chaos developing around us in the fields of politics, culture, economics and international affairs. In the realm of economics, the stock market is crazy.

I co-wrote the following article with Jon Coupal, the longtime president of the Sacramento-based Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association. Well within my lifetime, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann in 1978 launched a rebellion against tax increases in California. That successful effort spread nationwide and still, believe it or not, keeps the golden state’s taxes lower than they otherwise would be.

I’m not generally a conspiracy theorist. But, I’m starting to rethink that. So many conspiracy theories of late have turned out to be true. From the “Russian Collusion” hoax, to the Hunter Biden laptop, to the Covid “misinformation police” and so on, we now know there actually were conspiracies on all of these issues between the government, the media and big tech to block the truth and feed us lies. They did this knowingly.

The current federal budget process was signed into law in 1974. Congressional Democrats wanted to spend more money than Republican president Richard Nixon did. Some things never change. The ’74 budget process was designed to make increased spending easier to pass than had previously been the case. Nixon didn’t like it, but signed it as he was weakened by the Watergate crisis.

It was just a year ago that I started this blog. Thanks to all of you loyal readers, year two is beginning. If you read the “about” section of this website, you will find my explanation, written a year ago, of why I was writing this blog and why it carries the name that it does. “I expect we are on the cusp of entering that chaotic period,” I wrote.

As I write this, a Speaker of the House has still not been chosen. Obviously, I did not experience this in my time in Congress since it has been 100 years since that last time this choice went beyond the first ballot. That said, I am very familiar with the sort of mentality that has caused this inter-party gridlock to occur.

This is not an old carol, since it was written in 1991. But the music is beautiful, the lyrics are powerful, and the overall affect is transformative. Good things and great creation are still going on, in spite of the travails and heartbreaks we see in the world today.

I live in Arizona and so obviously pay more attention to political happenings there. But that is not why I am writing about the Arizona senior senator’s recently announced departure from the Democratic party. This move is particularly interesting at this moment in time, and how it plays out from here is far from certain.