Tag: Americans

Commentary: Second Amendment a Blessing, Not a ‘Curse,’ in End-of-Year Examples of Defensive Gun Use

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The editorial board of a major New Jersey newspaper started the year off with an anti-Second Amendment screed, decrying the right to keep and bear arms as a “curse” perpetuated by a “fanatical” interpretation created by the Supreme Court in 2008.

Among other things, editors at the Newark-based Star-Ledger bemoaned that the Second Amendment keeps the nation from enacting “rational” gun control along the lines of Canada—which is a hair’s breadth away from banning all firearm sales—and called for readers to imagine the possibilities if the Supreme Court would just reinterpret the Constitution according to the justices’ personal perceptions of “reasonable” public policy.

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Commentary: Inflation Takes a Bite Out of Christmas Cheer

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Americans may want to light the fireplace more often this winter and cut back on the holiday festivities, according to new data from the Energy Information Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Energy costs have remained consistently high for over a year, having risen over 13% since November 2021. So, American families can expect to pay significantly more for their heating oil as the colder months approach. As of the week of Dec. 12, the average cost for residential heating oil hit $4.56 per gallon, which is about 95% higher than it was the week of Dec. 14, 2020, shortly before President Joe Biden took office.

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Americans Say the Government Is Their Biggest Problem for Seven Years in a Row: Poll

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Americans listed the federal government as the top problem facing the country for the seventh year in a row, according to a new poll.

Of over 1,000 respondents, 19% mentioned the government as the top problem with the country, saying they are dissatisfied with “some aspect” of the government, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. The government was ranked as more of a problem than inflation and the economy in general, with 16% dissatisfied with inflation and 12% dissatisfied with the economy in general.

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Half of Americans Believe Wokeism Is Undermining the Military

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Half of Americans believe “so-called ‘woke’ policies” cause the military to be less effective, according to a poll published Thursday by the conservative Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

The National Defense Survey, which was conducted in November, found that overall, perceived politicization among the military’s top brass continues to drive historically low levels of trust in the institution among Americans. Half of respondents, mostly Republicans, identified “woke” policies, such as a focus on race and gender diversity in the U.S. service branches and training academies, as one of the greatest threats to the military’s overall effectiveness and the greatest contributor to decreased trust.

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Poll: Most Americans Trust Elections Less If Results Take ‘Days or Weeks’

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Americans are less likely to trust the fairness and accuracy of an election if results take “days or weeks” to be counted, according to a new poll.

When asked if results that took “days or weeks” to tabulated were more or less trustworthy, 33.9% of respondents said that it is “much less likely,” and 20.9% said that it is “somewhat less likely,” according to the Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll. Across party lines, 62.7% of Republicans, 27% of independents, and 10.4% of Democrats said that they were “much less likely” to trust results that took “days or weeks” to tabulate.

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Commentary: Mob Rule and the Death of Trust

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It’s been clear to millions of Americans for decades that the media was biased, that the Democratic Party and their government employee union allies controlled and corrupted big city elections, and that the “climate crises” and the threat of “white supremacy” were being oversold. These and other annoyances were perennial. But for many skeptics, the level of mistrust remained tolerable. The system itself was resilient. Nothing is perfect. The tide can turn. The good guys could still win. The 2015 arrival of Donald Trump on the national political scene changed the rules. The system not only revealed itself to be even more fraudulent than most people had previously believed, but it became malevolent.

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Commentary: People Are Fighting Back Against the Government’s Use of Drones to Spy on Americans

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Americans have long been concerned about government surveillance, and rightly so. Being watched by the government is incredibly disconcerting, especially when government agents are probing into your private life.

The rise of drone technology has not helped on this front. Whereas before a government would need a plane or helicopter to get aerial views of you or your property, now they just need a small remote-controlled device.

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Higher Prices Hit the Holiday Season as Black Friday Approaches

The Center Square

Americans will pay higher prices for a range of goods and services for the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping this year, and it looks like things may only get worse as we draw nearer to Christmas.

Those driving for the holidays and of course those preparing the Thanksgiving meal will pay the price this year. Federal inflation data from the Commerce Department shows energy costs have risen 17.6% in the past year, and overall food costs increased 10.9% in the same time.

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Americans Can Expect Record-Setting Gas Prices over Thanksgiving

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The average national gasoline price during Thanksgiving will be at its highest level since 2012, according to estimates from the fuel-saving app GasBuddy.

Thanksgiving gas prices on average will hit $3.68 per gallon, almost 30 cents higher than they were during 2021 and more than 20 cents higher than the previous record of $3.44 a gallon set in 2012, according to a GasBuddy news release. Gas prices have reached record highs in 2022 due to increased post-pandemic demand, fuel-refining constraints and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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More Americans Can’t Afford Their Car Payments in Biden’s Economy, Analysts Say

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Delinquency rates on U.S. auto loans hit their highest level in over a decade as low-income borrowers struggle with the end of pandemic era benefits programs and rising interest rates, CNBC reported Tuesday.

Roughly 200,000 auto loans reached 60-day delinquency after pandemic-era loan accomodation programs — intended to prevent those who were laid off during the pandemic from having their cars repossessed — lapsed this year, CNBC reported, citing data from credit agency TransUnion. An additional 100,000 remained in accommodations, contributing to the overall rate of 60-day delinquencies hitting 1.65%, according to TransUnion’s tracking of more than 81 million U.S. auto loans.

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Poll: Over Half of Americans Not Confident in Elections

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A recent poll shows that, two years after a controversial presidential election with widespread allegations of voter fraud, over half of Americans still do not have confidence in the way elections are carried out in the United States.

As reported by the Associated Press, the poll by the AP and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 52 percent of American voters say that American democracy is not working well; by contrast, just 9 percent of voters think democracy in America is working “extremely well” or “very well.” Prior to the 2020 election, only about 40 percent of Americans were confident that their votes would be counted fairly and accurately.

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Report: Wages Took Their Worst Hit in 25 Years

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More than half of Americans saw their wages fail to keep up with inflation between the second quarters of 2021 and 2022, according to researchers from the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and Cleveland in a report published Tuesday.

On average, over the past 25 years, just 44.6% of employees saw their real wages decline over 12 months, with the second quarter 2022 rate of 53.4% being the most aggressive since 2011, the researchers reported in a Dallas Fed-published article. Of those who saw their wages decline, the median decline was 8.6%, much higher than the average median decline of 6.5% seen in the past 25 years, the typical range of which is a 5.7% to 6.8% decline.

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As Inflation Rages On, More Americans Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck

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As inflation continues to batter consumers, the number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck climbed to 60% in August, according to a Friday report from financial services company LendingClub.

The increase, up from 57% in September 2021, was driven primarily by a greater portion of six figure earners slipping into a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle, according to the LendingClub report. While the proportion of those earning less than $50,000 and those between $50,000 and $100,000 living paycheck to paycheck stayed roughly the same, at 73.6% and 62.4% respectively, earners between $100,000 and $150,000 saw a more than 6.5% increase to 43.8% living paycheck-to-paycheck.

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More than Half the Nation Wants a Crackdown on Violent Crime, Poll Suggests

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More than 75% of probable voters said they would not likely back candidates supporting policies that stop police from detaining criminals charged with violent offenses, according to a new poll, with a state measure set to potentially free some violent crime suspects.

About 76.9% of respondents said they would not be at all likely to vote for a candidate supportive of such policies toward criminals facing violent charges like kidnapping and armed robbery, according to the September poll by the Trafalgar Group partnered with Convention of States Action. Illinois’ Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE–T) Act is set to permit the bail-free release of people accused of kidnapping, aggravated battery and other crimes punishable by probation next year, Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Reitz told ABC 20.

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Most Americans Believe Migrants Should Be Sent to Sanctuary Cities, Poll Finds

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The majority of Americans believe illegal immigrants should be sent to sanctuary cities, a new poll from Scott Rasmussen and RMG Research Inc found.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent 50 migrants last week to Martha’s Vineyard, which advertises itself as a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, last week, sparking widespread backlash. The new poll suggests that ordinary Americans are actually supportive of the decision despite the media’s negative response.

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For First Time in History Chinese People Are Living Longer than Americans

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As life expectancy declines in the United States, life expectancy in China has continued its steady climb, potentially surpassing the U.S., according to certain recent data sets.

The U.S.’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently estimated that life expectancy at birth had fallen nearly a year to 76.1 years in 2021, while the Chinese National Health Commission estimated that life expectancy in China had risen to 78.3 in 2021, according to The State Council Of The People’s Republic of China. However, this data is disputed, with Chinese state estimates of life expectancy in 2020 nearly a year higher than estimates by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), or by the World Bank.

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Poll: Most Americans Would Rather Live in Florida than California

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American voters prefer Florida to California by a three to two margin, a new poll from WPA Intelligence found.

When asked where they would prefer to live, 61% of registered voters said they would rather live in Florida and 39% chose California, the poll, conducted Aug. 22-25, found. Independents and Republicans showed an even stronger preference for Florida, while Democrats preferred California.

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Commentary: The Two Most Destructive Frauds in History

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It’s getting harder and harder not to abandon faith in the institutions we once regarded as respectable and relied on to keep the country moving. It is harder still to avoid rejecting unequivocally what has become their core governing premises, which seem to be entirely different from what we once believed them to be. 

So here goes: the entire “climate crisis” is an opportunistic hoax; the entire “equity” (along with “diversity” and “inclusion”) movement is a corrupt fraud. This hoax and this fraud have permeated and overwhelmed every formerly respectable sector of American life, with disastrous consequences we’ve only just begun to feel.

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Poll: Americans Skeptical of DOJ’s Motives in Trump Raid

The Center Square

The Federal Bureau of Investigation raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence has led to a drop in trust for the law enforcement agency, a new poll shows.

Convention of States Action, along with the Trafalgar group, released the poll Thursday, which showed a large segment of Americans say the raid has lessened their confidence in federal law enforcement and that they question the motives for the raid.

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Commentary: Racism to Achieve Diversity Harms All Americans

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If you’ve navigated the thicket of microinstructions, hectoring, guilt-tripping, institutionalized resentment, establishment-generated misinformation, double standards, and bizarre new terminology, then welcome to the world of woke antiracism in America today.

One of the biggest absurdities spread by the woke antiracists is that white people must practice “allyship” and refrain from sharing their opinions on race relations with “people of color.” There is nothing wrong with listening as well as talking, but for white people to remain silent in the face of one of the most destructive movements in American history is negligent and cowardly.

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Commentary: Americans Should Support Cryptocurrency to Improve America’s Economic Woes

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The U.S. financial system is not working for too many Americans. We see it every day at the gas pump and grocery store with record-high inflation. We see it with empty store shelves and higher rents. We see it with high fees and slow transactions at the big banks – the same ones we taxpayers bailed out a little more than a decade ago. 

There’s an alternative that can help these systemic problems: cryptocurrency. 

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Report: Americans Spend Thousands to Get Their Names Written on Ukrainian Munitions

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Americans are spending as much as $3,000 to get their names on Ukrainian weapons and munitions, according to a report by the Washington Post.

Ukrainian forces will scrawl messages on munitions used against Russian forces invading the country for as little as $30 on an 82mm mortar round, the Post reported. $3,000 could earn the donor a Ukrainian T-72 main battle tank named in their honor.

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Commentary: Democrats’ IRS Expansion Would Empower Ruling Elites to Target Americans

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“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

Those were the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, referring to the depredation of King George III. The sentence was part of a long list of grievances that bolstered the argument that England’s king and Parliament were becoming tyrannical.

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Survey: 80 Percent of Americans Believe U.S. Has Two-Tiered Justice System

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A new poll by a highly respected and accurate pollster indicates that nearly 80 percent of Americans believe there is a two-tiered system of justice in the United States.

According to The Daily Wire, the poll, formally titled the “National Issues Survey,” was conducted by the Trafalgar Group, one of the few pollsters to accurately predict President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. Featuring over 1,000 likely voters and carried out between July 24th and July 28th, the survey asked the question “What is your opinion of the current state of the American justice system?”

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Report: Most Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck After Inflation Spike

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Rising prices mean that Americans are spending more on the same goods and services, and as a result more than 60% of U.S. consumers are living paycheck-to-paycheck or dipping into savings to cover their routine costs, a recent LendingClub report found.

The number of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck was up 5.5% in June from a year prior as fully 61% of Americans now devote nearly all of their salaries to expenses with little or nothing left over at the end of the month, according to LendingClub’s report. Americans’ purchasing power has declined in recent months as inflation has outpaced wage increases, making it more difficult to afford normal budgets, the report concluded.

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Poll: Americans Reject Violent Protests, Protesting Outside Homes

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Americans do not believe it is right to protest outside the home of Supreme Court justices or conduct protests that interfere with the justices’ personal lives, a new poll found.

Around 61% of Americans believe that protesters should not interfere in the private lives of Supreme Court justices, according to the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) poll released Wednesday. The poll found that Americans were uncomfortable with protesters invading spaces such as restaurants or the neighborhoods of the Justices in order to voice their opinions.

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Poll: Most Americans Worried About War with Russia, See Conflict with China as ‘Likely’

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A Rasmussen poll released Thursday found that roughly half of Americans are worried the U.S. will go to war with a major nuclear-armed power in the near future.

The Scott Rasmussen National Survey found that 58% of Americans felt “somewhat” or “very worried” the ongoing war in Ukraine could lead to a conflict between the U.S. and Russia, and exactly half of respondents said they thought it likely that the next decade could see war with China. Roughly a third of respondents said President Biden had done a “good” or “excellent” job at managing the situation in Russia and Ukraine, while 24% rated his performance as “fair.”

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D.C. Lobbyists Rake In Massive Profits as Americans Continue to Suffer

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Federal lobbyists have made huge profits in the second quarter of 2022, according to financial disclosures reviewed by Politico, while many Americans continue to feel the effects of inflation and the ongoing energy crisis.

Of the top twenty lobbying firms by revenue, just two saw revenue decreases when compared with the first three months of the year, Politico reported. The lobbying boom was largely attributable to reconciliation negotiations between Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, as well hotly contested deliberations on whether to dole out subsidies to domestic semiconductor companies.

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Poll: 83 Percent of Americans Cutting Back on Personal Spending Due to Inflation

The Center Square

The vast majority of Americans are cutting back on their spending because of rising inflation, according to new survey data.

Provident Bank based in New Jersey released the report, which found that roughly 83% of those surveyed have cut back on personal spending due to inflation, with about 23% saying they have made “drastic changes” to their spending.

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Commentary: Feds Ignore Illegal Alien ID Theft Plaguing Americans as U.S. Coffers Fill

RealClearWire

The historic surge of illegal immigrants across America’s southern border is fueling a hidden crime spree few in Washington seem willing or able to address: widespread identity theft by migrants who need U.S. credentials to work.

An extensive review of government reports, think-tank research, news accounts, and interviews with policymakers and scholars suggests the problem involves millions of people – though measuring it with precision is difficult because of the lack of data provided by authorities.

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Commentary: Hollywood Should Make More Patriotic Films

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Clocking in at 72 verses, Psalm 78 is one of the longest in the Jewish and Christian Psalters. At great length, it recalls the story of the Hebrew nation, focusing especially on the special, covenantal relationship between the Jewish people and God. Psalm 78 doesn’t merely recount a list of facts — it displays Israel’s past for a purpose: to say who they are and who they should strive to be.

Americans show a consistent hunger for reflecting on our own grand story. We find it in the continued success of books on our Founders. We also see it in a recent Echelon Insights poll which found that Americans — by wide margins — want to see more historical and patriotic films.

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Commentary: Gun Violence Is the Penalty for Our Failure to Uphold a Moral, Functioning Society

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In the wake of recent mass shootings in New York, Texas, and Oklahoma, Democrats are once again sending Americans up a blind alley. Their “solution” is to punish millions of law-abiding gun owners for the crimes of a few evil maniacs. Undeniably, there is a certain appeal to this response. Gun control is a facile “fix” to a complex problem. 

Americans have owned guns since the founding, but it wasn’t until comparatively recently that mass shootings became a concern. Guns are not the problem. Our culture is. Broken cultures produce broken human beings. For every school shooter, there are thousands of other weak, confused, mentally disturbed men who are drifting away from society. They aren’t dating, aren’t working, and they spend most of their time in their bedrooms playing video games, smoking weed, watching pornography, and stewing in social media echo chambers. 

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