penny press 16, 2020

Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 17 Number 32 APRIL 16, 2020

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CreditsPublisher and Editor: Contributing Editors:Fred Weinberg Floyd Brown Al Thomas Doug French Robert Ringer John Getter Pat Choate Ron Knecht Byron Bergeron

The Penny Press is published weekly by Far West Radio LLC All Contents © Penny Press 2020

Letters to the Editor are encouraged. They should be emailed to: [email protected] No unsigned or unverifiable letters will be printed.

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THE PENNY PRESS,APRIL 16, 2020 PAGE 2

By BYRON BERGERONContributing Editor

Judges, for the most part, are the dumbest of lawyers, they cannot make it in private practice because they are borderline incompetent.

Thus, they run for judge to earn a living that they could not make otherwise.

Some firms even get rid of their incompetent lawyers by supporting them in their bid to become a judge. Those are the worst legal minds in the profession. Some lawyers become judges at the end of their career to supplement their retirement income. These judges

follow the law, enforce the law and are to be respected despite the fact that they are working for a retirement income, they are not “activist judges”. Others do it because they are just plain tired of private practice.

Always elect a former defense attorney to be a judge that is tough on crime. They have met with their clients for many years and can see them coming a mile away. If you want a judge that is tough on crime elect a former defense attorney. Prosecutors are good judges too, but in their zeal to be fair, they sometimes give people who are not deserving of a break… probation.

Some tips on judges:The reason the bench is elevated

is so they can look down on you (not in a disrespectful way). It is done so you obey the judge when

they order you to do something or to refrain doing something. It is a form of intimidation.

The robe is black with puffed out shoulders for a reason. It is done to make them look intimidating and gives them a larger physical presence. (i.e. bigger shoulders and broader girth)

The little wooden hammer/mallet is made, to make, a large smacking sound to further intimidate the people in the courtroom so that they obey the judge without the aid of law enforcement. The bailiff is law enforcement, usually a sheriff’s deputy.

Judges are officials in the courtroom, yes even appellate judges. Think of appellate judges as the officials in the replay booth. The only job of judges is to know the rules of evidence and to render

sentence unless it is a death penalty case. They call balls and strikes. Judges do not routinely know the rules of evidence. Can you imagine an official of any given sport who does not know the rules of the game?

Judges are also redundant and a burden to our society. When the judges say they need more judicial resources, they do not. They merely want to work less. When the government adds a judgeship it reduces the case load of all the other judges, thus. they get to go home early.

Occasionally, I enter court and one judge handles the case load of five judges because they don’t want to come to work. Consequently, if they were doing their job, then we would only need one judge instead of five.

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 17 NUMBER 32 APRIL 16, 2020

Penny WisdomThe Chinese government is responsible for 16,000 American deaths, and 17 mil-lion Americans being unem-ployed. It's the Chinese govern-ment and the way they behaved that led to this pandemic. —Lindsey Graham

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of NevadaInside:SBA Seems Part OfDeep State Hate

See Editorial Page 6

RON KNECHT PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6ROBERT RINGER PAGE 7DOUG FRENCH PAGE 9LAWRENCE REED PAGE 10ROBERT ROMANO PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

Should You Respect the Office or Its Occupant?

Commentary

Continued on page4


The point of our legal system is to get people to respect and admire the rule of law. Many judges are not worthy of your respect and admiration. If people respect the rule of law, they will obey the rule of law but, it has the effect of creating respect and admiration for the judge and the rule of law. We cannot put a police officer on every corner.

Judges do not write their opinions for the most part. They order their law clerk to do so. I was a law clerk for two judges, one federal and one state. I was a law clerk for the first female United States Magistrate Judge in the United States and a law clerk for a District Court Judge in and for the State of Nevada. I was also the acting bailiff in state court although I was never law enforcement. I wrote all the decisions and did the research to support the decisions. I had only just graduated from law school. I was not qualified. Many judges do not cite any legal authority in support of their decisions. That is done so the appellate judge does not know what legal authority the previous judge is reliant on.

An example of a poor legal judgment is: “It is hereby ordered that.....”, with no legal citation. I would research the law and suggest the appropriate legal outcome to the judge. Sometimes the judge would say but, I don’t want to rule in that manner. That means he/she does not want to follow the law. That is what many refer to as an “activist judge”. Thus, I would attempt to write around the law. It is very difficult to write a judicial order that does not follow the law. It is not difficult to write a judicial order that simply says “it is hereby ordered” with no legal citation.

Judges are not supposed to create the law, they are only supposed to interpret the law when the law is not clear. They are a referee, an umpire or an official. When you watch a sporting event do you root for the official? Most judges do the opposite and fight the law they personally disagree with. They are not to be revered, admired or respected.

Respect the law not the judge.

Calling Just Balls and Strikes???Continued from page 3

Earth Day Highlights Major Errors of Environmentalists

Next Wednesday is the fiftieth anniversary of the first Earth Day. As Earth Day does every year, this one will highlight some fundamental errors of environmentalists.

The first error is the Malthusian fallacy. In 1798, the English cleric Thomas Malthus predicted population would grow indefinitely at an exponential rate, while food production would grow at an arithmetic rate – resulting in disaster.

Exponential growth means, by definition, population would grow by a constant percentage annually.

Hence, population growth numbers each year would be greater than the growth numbers of the previous year. The arithmetic growth of food available means the harvest each year would be a constant amount greater of crops and livestock each year than the last.

With population growing by ever greater numbers per year and food available growing only at a constant annual quantity, the average amount of food for each person would decline until malnutrition and starvation would overtake many poor folks.

His population growth reasoning was that both human fertility rates and death rates were constant. So, population growth would continue annually at a rate equal to the difference between the fixed birth and death rates. Thus, exponential growth.

His food availability reasoning

was that only a constant rate of arable land could be added each year to production for crops and livestock. This arithmetic (or linear) growth limit is implausible on its face, with population growing exponentially. However, his exponential assumption about population growth, which seemed obvious to him and his peers, also errs, as history has proven.

The Environmental Handbook was the bible for the first Earth Day. Its most remarkable prediction of disaster came from biologist Paul Ehrlich, who basically adopted and updated Malthus’ errors. In the Handbook and elsewhere, he claimed devastating famines would kill tens of millions of people in the 1970s and even 100-million to 200-million in the 1980s.

Like other environmental doomsday prophesies, his was wildly wrong. Thank goodness.

Many other Earth Day predictions were almost as spurious. The catastrophists essentially adopted some version of Malthus supply forecast for minerals, metals, fuels and other resources. They also forecast people would be overwhelmed by various kinds of pollution, even as we exhausted resources, the use of which produces pollution.

They were spectacularly wrong on both counts, as the last half-century has shown. But even as early as 1972, John Maddox showed directly and in estensive detail many of their errors in his book The Doomsday Syndrome.

At the same time, economist and demographer Julian Simon explained their key error: The only meaningfully limited resource is human creativity. It extends theoretically finite resource bases via technological change and productivity growth to practically infinite levels, at least until substitutes are developed. Human creativity also finds

more recoverable resources in the earth than the small minds of catastrophists can imagine. And it hugely mitigates pollution.

Simon also showed that higher population concentrations produce higher per-person levels of creativity and thus more resources and less pollution.

A key element undermining the Malthusian fallacy is that government planning, command and control stifles this creativity and thus exacerbates resource and pollution constraints. People operating under individual liberty and free markets, not the heavy hand of government, do remarkable things to solve these problems and promote aggregate human well-being and fairness.

They do things catastrophists cannot foresee due to their static, not dynamic approach to analysis and forecasting.

Besides the things people do to expand the supply side and mitigate pollution, on the demand side – that is, growth in population – they also make adjustments on their own. In the last half century, birth rates have fallen around the world. In fact, in half the countries, including the US and half the world’s people, fertility rates are now below replacement levels. So, the real population problem we now face is decline, not Ehrlich’s population bomb.

Another error environmentalists make is their forecasts and policy proposals are driven by ideological agendas, not by an unbiased quest for knowledge and service to the broad and true public interest. Essentially, environmentalism has become an apocalyptic religion or left-wing political ideology that’s predatory upon the public interest.

In my column next week, on Earth Day, I’ll explain that and other errors.


The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:Doug McMillan, WalMart’s CEO for directly taking to television in a commercial to thank and commend his front line employees for their work during the COVID19 crisis. There is no question that he is doing the right thing for the right people. When this is over, we hope he throws a great party for them all.

The citizens of the United States. When we all pull together, things get done. And, with the exception of the legacy media, we average citizens are pulling together and doing the right things, including ignoring the CNN’s of the world.

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:AT&T’s management for allowing it’s subsidiary, CNN to run amok with the truth in a leftist attempt to go after President Trump. What do its executives think is going to happen when people start picking their telecom providers based on politics? Do they think that nobody will figure out the connection? www.pennypressnv.com

Tips Of Our Cap and

Bronx Cheers

RON KNECHT

Commentary: Ron Knecht

It appears to me that the Small Business Administration is just another part of the Trump-hating deep state.

When the CARES act was finally passed (thank you Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi), we read the whole book. Short version was that Congress had appropriated $350-Billion for forgivable loans to small businesses to keep employees on their payrolls. And they gave the money to the SBA with instructions to have banks get it out immediately.

What could go wrong?

Indeed.

Let’s see…

The first noise came from the Bank of America which the taxpayers bailed out in the last financial crisis to the tune of more than $120-Billion. They (the royal they) told us that in order to be eligible for the paycheck protection loan, you had to have not only an account there but a lending relationship with that fine, taxpayer bailed out institution. We bank there but we’ve never borrowed any money from them. So, before the BofA felt the pressure and changed their minds, we sent our application through a local credit union we do some business with.

That happened a short time after the opening bell.

Guess what? As we write this, nobody we know has been funded.

What could go wrong?

Well, start with the SBA. It was chartered by Congress in 1963 to “aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns.”

That’s a fancy way of saying. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

Here’s the problem with that: The SBA is run by “administrators” as opposed to people which have actually run small businesses. Most people who run small businesses have not had the experience of being well and reliably paid no matter the circumstances. So, when the bureaucrats say they will do something quickly, they actually believe the truth is being told.

However, when Washington promises something, there are two kinds of truth. The real truth and the deep state truth. When the real truth turns out to be not so true, the deep staters then say, “well, running a government is like running an aircraft carrier and nothing ever happens quickly”.

Right.

The problem here is that people who run small businesses think that when they are told something, they are being told…well…the real truth.

But the real truth is not what Washington expects you to believe.

What makes the SBA different from the Russia and impeachment hoaxes?

It’s not as heavy handed but—for small businesses—just as deadly where productivity is concerned.

Many—not all—of the financial institutions are acting as if it is some kind of a burden upon them to pass out money to their actual customers.

That great sucking sound could and should be President Trump removing his boot from official derrieres.

Go get’m Mr. President. They work for you. Make’m work.

FRED WEINBERG


OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

SBA Just Another Part of the Deep State


Coronavirus Impeachment Scam?I don’t believe anyone has ever summed up the evils of government in

so well, and in so few words, as Ludwig von Mises when he wrote:The state is God, deifies arms and prisons. The worship of the state is

the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.

One-hundred percent true, but let us not forget that people do, indeed, get the government they deserve. And when societies are overwhelmed by a crisis is when they are most likely to forget just how corrupt and evil their governments are. As soon as the calls for patriotism begin, people become compliant, and a compliant citizenry is the key to government treachery.

Clearly, Democrats are giddy with excitement over the coronavirus, because they see it as a crisis they can exploit to destroy the economy and, as a result, get Trump booted out of office. And if weak-kneed Republicans give in to Democrats in the next stimulus bill — and the one after that … and the one after that — by allowing them to stuff it full of socialist goodies on their wish-list agenda, they might just achieve their goal.

Now that Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi have made it clear that

they have learned nothing from their failed impeachment effort and are preparing to give it another try centered around COVID-19, recently fired Fox Business anchor Trish Regan is looking pretty smart for referring to it as an “impeachment scam.” Not that I believe the Dirty Dems planned COVID-19 (although they would have if they knew how to do it), but their announcement that they’re going to investigate Trump’s response to it smells an awful lot like another impeachment scam brewing.

Specifically, Pencil Neck has called for “a nonpartisan commission on the government’s coronavirus response.” Very impressive language, but I have a better idea. Rather than allowing Schiff to start another phony investigation, why don’t Republicans turn things around and start an investigation into the criminal behavior of Adam Schiff?

I guess it’s for the same reason they dare not go after Joe Biden, Hillary, Chuck Schumer, Susan Rice, and the whole cast of establishment/deep state/Dirty Dem criminals who continue to flaunt their crimes on national television without fear of repercussion. As the great Chris Plante likes to say, “It’s great to be a Democrat.” ROBERT RINGER Robert Ringer (© 2020)is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com

Commentary: Robert Ringer

More Taxpayer Money for the Bailout Bowl

The stadium naming curse is well known. Enron Field, Adelphia Coliseum, and MCI Center are just a few of the companies where bankruptcy followed their corporate names adorning a company’s home team’s stadium or arena. Financial trouble typically comes after the name is attached and the team plays some games.

In the newest case, the company is struggling before a game has been played. Last August Allegiant Airlines inked a deal with the NFL’s used-to-be-Oakland, used-to-be Los Angeles, used-to-be-Oakland (again) and now, Las Vegas Raiders for the naming rights to the new 65,000 seat and partially taxpayer funded stadium which sits along I-15 in Clark County, Nevada.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, “experts with experience on similar deals say Allegiant is likely paying between $20 million and $25 million in cash and in-kind services a year to put its name on the building.”

Raiders owner Mark Davis let this slip at the time, “I look forward to learning a lot more about the Allegiant brand. We’ve got 30 years ahead of us, so let’s make the best of it.”

Allegiant may be wishing it hadn’t made a 30-year deal. Eli Segall writes in today’s LVRJ, “Allegiant Air’s parent is burning through at least $2 million in cash per day and hundreds of workers are taking two-month leave at half pay as the carrier grapples with the fallout from the

coronavirus pandemic.” March revenues were down 40-45 percent from a year ago and its

prospects are likely to get much worse. The company is applying for funding from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program to keep its doors open. Meanwhile, “management expects flying capacity for April and May to drop 80 percent to 90 percent from the same period last year and is ‘continuously’ re-evaluating its flight schedule ‘in light of low demand for future bookings,’” Segall reports.

Allegiant (ALGT) stock has fallen from $183+ per share in December to a close below $80 today. The company sported over $457 million in cash at year end: a couple hundred days worth at the current burn rate, excluding a payment to the Raiders of course.

Allegiant Stadium may work out like New York’s Citi Field, known in the years after the 2008 financial crisis as Bailout Ballpark. CNBC reported,

“On the heels of announcing a naming deal that cost Citigroup $20 million a year over 20 years, the company was forced to take $45 billion in government bailouts and saw its stock price drop nearly 94 percent from its November 2006 levels. Because of the heavy taxpayer support given to Citigroup, lawmakers began urging the company to scrap the names rights deal. But the company stuck with its plans, and has managed to avoid bankruptcy.”

Allegiant Stadium will likely be the Bailout Bowl, with construction requiring $750 million of taxpayer largesse, and now, more government bailout money required for the Bowl’s name holder to pay its Raiders bill. DOUG FRENCH


Commentary: Doug French

Media Still Peddling Fake History From the Great Depression

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once cautioned newcomers to learn from those who held the same positions before. “Try to make original mistakes rather than needlessly repeating theirs,” he said.Was Hoover an Innocent Bystander?

Harry Kazianis should have taken Rumsfeld’s advice before writing this annoying paragraph in his April 2, 2020 commentary at Fox News:

“The rapidly worsening pandemic is shaping up as the defining challenge of the Trump presidency. Future historians will judge if Trump should be viewed like President Herbert Hoover or President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in meeting the challenge. While Hoover is generally blamed for not doing enough to fight the Great Depression, Roosevelt is generally credited with ending it.”

To his credit, Kazianis doesn’t claim that this view is his own considered opinion. He offers no evidence he has researched the topic himself. He simply implies it’s a common view. That’s still an offense, only slightly less sinful than knowingly fobbing off falsehoods as truth. It’s how lies and errors become institutionalized.

In Great Myths of the Great Depression, I showed that not even Franklin Roosevelt believed that Herbert Hoover was innocent, inactive, or a bystander. In his 1932 campaign for the presidency, FDR assailed Hoover for “presiding over the greatest taxing and spending administration” in American history. FDR’s running mate, John Nance Garner of Texas, declared that Hoover was “leading the country down the path to socialism.”

Roosevelt and Garner criticized the Hoover administration for jacking up tariffs to record highs, as well for more than doubling federal income tax rates. Upon assuming office in March 1933, FDR mostly followed Hoover’s example and prolonged the Depression with harmful schemes of his own.Fake History

FDR’s own Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, declared this:We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not

work…I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started, and an enormous debt to boot!

The “Hoover did nothing and FDR saved us” fairy tale originated with statist media and historians intent upon advancing an ideological agenda. Fake news, fake history—not the first time or the last time both have been employed in the service of state worship.

Arthur Schlesinger, among the worst culprits, smeared small-government President Calvin Coolidge with deliberate distortions aimed at making people think he too helped cause the Great Depression. If you want to empower government elitists to “plan” an economy, you have to get people to think that small government is bad and big government is good; since the evidence for that is scant at best, you just make it up if truth means little to you.

So Mr. Kazianis, the next time you casually miseducate Americans about the Hoover-Roosevelt years, please come up with something that’s

at least original if not factually correct.Meantime, here are some helpful sources to improve anyone’s

understanding of that era:• New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has

Damaged America by Burton W. Folsom• “Great Myths of the Great Depression” by Lawrence W. Reed• “The First Government Bailouts: The Story of the RFC” by

Burton W. Folsom• “The Politically-Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the

New Deal” (reviewed by Raymond Keating)• “The Real Questions You Should Ask Your Economics Professor”

by Lawrence W. Reed• “The Smoot-Hawley Tariff and the Great Depression” by Theodore

Phalan, Deema Yazigi and Thomas Rustici• “Myth: FDR Was Elected in 1932 on a Platform to Plan the

Economy” by Lawrence W. Reed• “FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the

Great Depression” by Burton W. Folsom and Jim Powell• “The Great Crash and Depression, 90 Years Later” by Lawrence

W. Reed• “Franklin Roosevelt and the Greatest Economic Myth of the 20th

Century” by Burton W. Folsom LAWRENCE REEDLawrence W. Reed is President Emeritus, Humphreys Family Senior Fellow, and Ron Manners Ambassador for Global Liberty at the Foundation for Economic Education.


Commentary: Lawrence W. Reed

We Need to Make Essential Items in America

There are many lessons for our country to learn from the Chinese coronavirus both from a public health perspective as well as the capacity of the federal and state governments to critically impact the well-being of the U.S. economy negatively as is being seen by the closures that are driving unemployment to the moon.

We’re learning that with these deadly novel coronaviruses and flus that pass from animals to humans overseas, early identification is essential and that immediate travel restrictions can be effective in slowing the spread to U.S. shores. This experience will have long term implications for sectors of the economy like the airline industry, since we know this won’t be the last time this happens. An early call like the one made President Donald Trump to close travel to China on Jan. 31 that may have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

It also highlights the need for transparency from China. For a country bent on being the world’s supplier, Beijing sure did not help the global community out when they did not immediately bring this virus to everyone’s attention, particularly deadly to the elderly and those with underlying conditions. There’s a price to be paid for that, and they still have not provided information about patient zero in Wuhan. The longer they wait, the more public attitudes will set in that the communist government there is simply not a reliable international partner.

This experience also serves as a strong warning against economy-killing policies like the Green New Deal and universal income, which use a combination of prohibitions and incentives by banning the entire carbon-based energy industry and to reduce the need for people to work to earn a living. We can see right now how sharply unemployment can rise when individuals are given enough of an incentive to stay home, with anywhere from 10 million to 13 million jobs lost in less than a month.

But the first and foremost lesson is that in a national emergency or a world war, global supply chains are profoundly dangerous and can be deadly. After the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, and in the phase four legislation now under consideration by President Trump and Congress, as well as any executive actions necessary under existing law, the federal government needs to require that essential items be made here in America, and enough of them.

This is an important discussion. Markets support a nation’s economic well-being, but they do not determine national interests, and sometimes what’s cheaper or more cost efficient is not necessarily in the national interest or protects the lives of the American people.

We already know about the supply chain shortages now on ventilators. A 2015 paper published in Clinical Infectious Diseases predicted the very supply shortage we are now experiencing. Now with the pandemic upon us, we’re having to resort to car manufacturers retrofitting their factories to produce these desperately needed machines.

But many of these machines are already made in the United States, just not enough of them as state governments and hospitals simply did not adequately plan for a respiratory pandemic. Additionally, there was a run on ventilators earlier this year with $27 million worth in January and February going, believe it or not, to China.

The CDC Strategic National Stockpile, now being tapped, is owed to preparations made during the Bush and Obama administrations following a series of emergencies. It’s still might not be enough, or it might be barely enough to meet our needs right now, but it shows that a little planning ahead can go a long way.

Our dependence on foreign manufacturers stretches to many other items. In 2019, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, noting that almost all our medicine comes from China, writing, “Unbeknownst to many consumers… 80 percent of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients are produced abroad, the majority in China and India; however, the FDA only inspected one in five registered human drug manufacturing facilities abroad last year.”

A 2016 National Academy of Science paper noted that 90 percent of our latex gloves are made in Malaysia.

In the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the U.S. learned painfully what foreign dependence on oil could lead to.

It goes on and on. In different areas of economic production, history has shown again and again foreign dependence hurts America badly. In the normal course of business, outsourcing can be cheaper, but in an emergency, those supply chains are instantly taxed and shortages emerge.

And then there’s the rare earth mineral shortage that will surely come into play should the U.S. and China ever find itself in a military conflict or even just a trade war. Rare earths are used in smart phones, computers and high-tech military hardware,

but for years China has had a global monopoly on their production. The Trump administration fortunately is already addressing this shortfall.

The Pentagon began asking miners to submit plans to develop more U.S. mines and processing facilities last summer. “The overall goal is to secure and assure a viable, domestic supplier (of rare earths) for the long-term,” according the Pentagon paper sent to the miners.

To that end, President Donald Trump invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act on July 22 in a proclamation, writing, “the domestic production capability for Samarium Cobalt Rare Earth Permanent Magnets is essential to the national defense. Without Presidential action under section 303 of the Act, United States industry cannot reasonably be expected to provide the production capability for Samarium Cobalt Rare Earth Permanent Magnets adequately and in a timely manner.”

The proclamation added, “Further, purchases, purchase commitments, or other action pursuant to section 303 of the Act are the most cost-effective, expedient, and practical alternative method for meeting the need for this critical capability.”

By invoking the law, the Defense Department can go ahead and fund directly the construction of rare earth processing facilities in the U.S. and expand mining operations by working with private contractors.

The U.S. consumed about 9,500 metric tons of rare earths in 2018, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and we are 100 percent reliant on imports of rare earth metals, 80 percent of which comes from China.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “The estimated value of rare-earth compounds and metals imported by the United States in 2018 was $160 million, an increase from $137 million in 2017.” But these numbers do not account for rare earths used in manufacturing in China and then exported.

Despite being in a commanding position for years, the good news is that China has been losing global market share, from 95 percent of global production in 2010 down to 80 percent global market share now, largely because Australia ramped up production, which is now the number two producer in the world at 20,000 metric tons in 2018. Australia also has all of the elements we would be looking for, according to Geoscience Australia. Additionally, a discovery of 16 million tons of rare earth oxides off the coast of Japan last year could supply the minerals for the entire world for centuries.

We have about 1.4 million metric tons of reserves in the U.S., and after years of not mining rare earths, in 2018 the U.S. ramped up production to 15,000 tons of compounds according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

MP Materials, which runs the Mountain Pass site in California’s San Bernardino County, the nation’s only operational rare earth facility, is currently exporting to China for processing but plans to have its own domestic processing facilities running this year.

But simply sourcing the minerals here is only half the battle. We still need to make these electronics, computers and other military hardware components here, because in the event of war, we will instantly have shortages. But almost all of our high-tech production has been outsourced to Asia. That should change now.

Preparation might also dispel any notions Beijing has about using our dependence to their advantage in trade negotiations, and compel compliance with the new U.S.-China trade deal. In other words, bringing more production back here might actually avert a conflict, because the temptation for China to assert a global strategic monopoly on this line of production to fuel aggression will have been removed. Weakness is provocative.

An overall stronger manufacturing base here in the U.S. might have averted the current coronavirus crisis combined with adequate emergency preparedness locally where it matters the most. It’s the combination of the two that is needed. The free market’s invisible hand can only allocate what you think you need in a cost-efficient manner in peacetime, but in an emergency or war, that all goes out the window every single time.

There must be a balance between national strategic needs and big business’ desire to boost profit margins by cutting production costs. With the Chinese coronavirus, it proved to be deadly. Next time it could be even worse.

While globalist alarmists have been busy warning of Smoot-Hawley depressions for a generation, they were undercutting U.S. strategic interests the whole time. We must say never again. President Trump warned us this would happen in 2016 in so many words. This is the discussion that is urgently needed in any phase four legislation and further executive actions taken authorized under current law.

Fortunately, President Trump is just the right guy for the job to lead that discussion, owing to the fact he was the only national candidate in a generation who had the foresight to emphasize the desperate need for American manufacturing. Globalism and foreign dependence is a sickness, and Trump is the cure. ROBERT ROMANORobert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.


Commentary: Robert Romano

Race Hustlers Never SleepA few days ago a friend sent me a meme featuring an elderly white

woman knitting a hangman’s noose in her lap. The caption read: “After 2 weeks of quarantine with her husband, Gertrude knit him a scarf.”

This was CLEARLY a coronavirus-related joke aimed at ANY married couple, but especially couples who have been married a long time. It’s been shared widely all over the Internet.

But when Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach posted it on his Twitter account, all hell broke loose. The race hustlers jumped all over him, claiming the meme somehow was related to lynching and was “insensitive.”

Good grief. Give it a rest already.In other race-hustling news, Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel,

tweeted yesterday this absurd and obscene pile of macaca… “The high rates of infection and death within our African-American

population from #COVID19 is staggering and horrific. It further establishes how AA’s are treated like garbage…”

So in this genius’ mind the Kung Flu is racist for supposedly targeting African-Americans?

In a separate tweet she added… “I just can’t hear about one more black health care worker, police

officer or bus driver die while getting a barrage of complaints from white folks outraged because they can’t go golfing.”

So, um, we’re supposed to believe that no white health care workers, police officers or bus drivers are dying and there are no black golfers. Does Tiger Woods know about this?

BTW, this race-hustling goof is from the same state as Gov. Gretchen “Half”-Whitmer. Seems the real pandemic infecting politicians there is the Stupidity Virus.

Can’t we put this race crap aside for just one moment and instead look into the statistics for something really important: Is the Kung Flu infecting more Democrats or Republicans?

Flatten the Curve, Not the EconomyLet’s say you’re driving down the road doing 45 mph. You approach

a dangerous curve. Do you just come to a full stop? No. You slow down, safely navigate the curve and continue on.

That’s where we are with the coronavirus as it relates to business. The danger is real, sure. However, we shouldn’t have come to a complete stop. We should have slowed down. Taken additional precautions. And continued on.

Consider WalMart, for example. The retail giant has been allowed to remain open as “essential” and has implemented a long list of operational changes to minimize the risk, including…

• Taking employees’ temperatures before each shift• Limiting the number of people who can be in stores at once• Creating a single-entry line at the front door• Creating a separate single-exit door• Signage reminding shoppers about social distancing• Instituting “one way” aisles• Social distancing markers on the floor• Increased cleaning & sanitizing throughout the day• Installing sneeze guards at checkout counters

• Making gloves and masks available for workers who want them• Closing stores overnight for cleaning and restockingAll reasonable precautions to lessen the chance of getting or spreading

the Wu-Flu.Now here’s the thing…If YOU are still not comfortable shopping there or are in a high-risk

category or have some underlying conditions…YOU don’t have to go. Nobody’s FORCING you. But why should everyone else get screwed?

In addition, why can’t OTHER supposedly “non-essential” retail stores – like electronics stores, office supply stores, liquor stores, vitamin shops, automatic car washes and sporting goods stores – reopen as long as they implement similar precautions?

And as the lovely and talented Courtney Holland put it in a tweet this afternoon as far as non-retail type businesses are concerned…

“For those who have to go into an office, a restructuring of cubicles & ‘hot desks’ should be made. Everyone should have their own designated work area with enough space between.”

Doesn’t that make sense?Look, maybe we can’t reopen ALL businesses…yet. But we could

and should open SOME. There’s no reason to continue this full-stop. We should be flattening the curve, not flattening the economy.

Let’s Help Polar ShadesThe Las Vegas Sun recently reported on how one local company in

Henderson, NV was retrofitting its manufacturing operation to help out with the Wu-Flu crisis. In case you missed it…

“In normal times, workers at Polar Shades would be busy making window shades out of the company’s factory in Henderson. But these aren’t normal times.

“The company has turned the facility into a plant producing masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment used by Las Vegas-area health care professionals and first responders fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“We knew that we had the equipment to do this,” Polar Shades owner Steve Mevius said. “Right now, we’re just trying to do the right thing.”

I toured the plant and interviewed Mr. Mevius back in 2015 about how badly former Gov. Brian Sandoval’s “Commerce Tax” was hurting businesses. Great people; impressive operation.

So it came as no surprise when I read how Polar Shades was stepping up to help Nevadans in this time of need. That’s just the kind of people they are.

But make no mistake, they’re taking a BIG financial hit switching over their manufacturing operations and working round-the-clock. So they’ve set up a GoFundMe account for people who would like to help them help others…

“Your donation will be critical in directly helping our Nevada doctors, nurses, firefighters and first responders stay safe. Currently, they are rationed to 1 mask per shift and need more protective equipment in order to see patients and keep themselves and their families safe.

“Your donation will help fund materials and assist staff at Polar Shades to mass produce approximately 8,000 masks and 2,000 gowns daily to provide to our Nevada healthcare providers and first responders.”

CHUCK MUTH


Commentary: Chuck Muth


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