The World and Everything in It: August 22, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Chuck Garner. I live in Memphis, Tennessee where I teach and do research in organic chemistry. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! 

Democrats call for a cease-fire in Gaza at this week’s convention, but what is their policy on Iran?

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: We’ll talk about it with a policy expert. Also, obstacles to getting federal student aid this year. And a family-run bakery honors veterans from World War II.

AUDIO: We had a lot of vets that would bring their stuff that they got. A picture or their medals.

Plus, Cal Thomas on San Francisco Democrats in Chicago.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, August 22nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: DNC day-3 » Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made it official last night.

WALZ: It’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States.

He used his Democratic National Convention address to thank the packed arena for—quote—“bringing the joy” to an election transformed by the elevation of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Earlier in the evening, former President Bill Clinton took center stage, ripping into Donald Trump, saying the Republican nominee only cares about himself.

CLINTON: He’s like one of those tenors opening up, trying to get his lungs open by singing me, me, me, me, me.

Democrats gathered at Chicago’s United Center have been hoping to build on the momentum that change at the top of the ticket has provided, after President Biden stepped aside.

And tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris will rally Democrats and make her pitch to the nation as to why she should be the 47th president of the United States.

SOUND: [Chicago protests]

Protesters arrested at DNC » Nearby the United Center last night …

SOUND: [Chicago protests]

More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters rallied again last night. The demonstration comes after authorities arrested 56 protesters the night before following an intense stand-off with police.

Chicago PD Superintendent Larry Snelling:

SNELLING: We had a group that showed up, and they showed up with the intent on committing acts of violence. Vandalism. That was their intent.

Thirty of the people detained by police were issued citations for disorderly conduct. One person was arrested on a felony charge of resisting police, while nine were charged with misdemeanors.

Trump outdoor rally » Meantime, former President Donald Trump this afternoon held his first outdoor rally since a would-be assassin’s bullet struck him in the ear at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.

TRUMP: This November, Americans are going to tell Kamala Harris that we’ve had enough. We can’t take it anymore. You’re doing a terrible job. Comrade Harris, you’re fired! Get out of here!

He campaigned in the town of Asheboro. North Carolina is one of several swing states he’s visiting this week while Democrats gather in Chicago.

Recent polls show Vice President Kamala Harris gaining ground in the state, though Trump still enjoys a 1-point lead there.

RFK Jr possible dropout » As the Harris and Trump campaigns continue to battle, another White House hopeful might be calling it quits.

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering ending his campaign.

That’s the word from his running mate, Nicole Shanahan who says they’re not taking the decision lightly.

SHANAHAN:  We come to this moment because in every single decision we make first and foremost, we want to make sure that we are representing the best interests of health and wellness of young people, children, and future generations.

If Kennedy does bail out, Shanahan says he would throw his support behind Donald Trump for president.

DHS missing unaccompanied minors » A new report suggests immigration officials are struggling to keep track of minors who cross the border alone. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: When minors arrive alone at the border, Immigration and Customs Enforcement processes them and then turns over their care to Health and Human Services.

HHS then either releases them or places them in a shelter or designated home.

But a government watchdog reported to Congress this week, ICE officials did not always notify HHS when children failed to appear for their court hearings.

And some 32,000 minors who arrived at the border between 2019 and 2023 are unaccounted for.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Jobs revision » An updated government jobs report shows that the labor market has cooled off more drastically than previously revealed.

The economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than first reported. The revised total marks the biggest revision in 15 years.

The revisions are preliminary, with final numbers to be issued in February.

That latest numbers will likely reinforce the Federal Reserve’s plans to start cutting interest rates soon.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: The Democratic party’s Middle East priorities. Plus, honoring D-Day veterans.

This is The World and Everything in It.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: It’s Thursday the 22nd of August.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up on The World and Everything in It: Middle East policy.

While the Democratic National Convention is taking place in Chicago, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been traveling between Egypt and Qatar. He and other negotiators are making a so-called final push to get a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.

What are the foreign policy objectives of this year’s DNC, and how do they connect with what’s happening in the Middle East?

BUTLER: Joining us now to talk about it is Rich Goldberg. He served the Trump administration as a member of the National Security Council staff, and is now a senior advisor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. This week we’re talking to him from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Good morning, Rich.

RICH GOLDBERG, GUEST: Good morning.

BUTLER: Well, the country has primarily been focused on the DNC keynote speakers like former President Barack Obama and former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. What else is going on there that we should be aware of, especially related to foreign policy?

GOLDBERG: Well, there's two things that are going on. One is outside the convention halls. There are a number of, I would call them pro-Hamas demonstrators, or rioters. This is not pro-Palestinian, to be clear. This is anti-semitic. This is anti Jew, anti-Israel, and we're seeing American flags being burned. This is anti-American as well. I mean, at its core, they hate America for standing for democracy, for standing with Israel, and they're trying to silence any Jewish communal voice in American politics. So that's happening outside the DNC.

What's happening inside the DNC? Unfortunately, there is a pocket of those folks that are aligned inside. We've seen applause lines when speakers like AOC, Senator Warnock mentioned Gaza. And we even saw the President of the United States, for those who stayed up late enough to see him, around midnight on the East Coast, talking about how the protesters, these rioters I just talked about outside, have a point, he said.

So clearly, this issue is one that that is a problematic inside the base. The platform was released by the DNC. It does pledge support for Israel, pledges to combat the BDS, the boycott campaign. Pledges to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. At the same time, lambasts the Trump administration for leaving the Iran nuclear deal that I and others believe would have paved the way to a nuclear weapon for Iran, gives a lot of discussion of a two state solution and nods to the Palestinian cause.

That's the foreign policy piece so far. But as people have seen, the speeches without those nods, other than those nods to Gaza, you're not really hearing a lot of foreign policy. You're really seeing a focus on domestic issues, abortion being number one, some of the sort of class warfare type rhetoric that's been classic in past campaigns, and I think in general, steering away from from foreign policy.

BUTLER: So you mentioned the platform. You know, there's a 92 page platform document that's been approved. And tucked near the back is where the supposed priorities are for Middle East policy. Rich with Tehran within reach of nuclear weapons. What kind of Iran policy do you think the next American president should lead with?

GOLDBERG: Well, there's no question that we now have two different ways of approaching the region in the last four to eight years that we can now look at. We have maximum pressure on Iran and maximum support to Israel, and we have what I would call maximum deference to Iran and pressure on Israel.

The first produced the Abraham Accords and put Iran on its knees. Nearly broke Qasim Soleimani, its terror in chief, dead, its godfather of its nuclear weapons program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, dead. Budgets for terrorist groups going down. And then we saw the reversal to this maximum deference program, allowing sanctions relief for Iran, pumping Iran with more cash, no further expansion of the Abraham Accords, no Saudi-Israeli normalization that we had all hoped for coming after the Abraham Accords, and instead, we have an eight front war for the last almost 11 months that Iran has been waging in the Middle East with the cash that they have available because of the deferential policy, the accommodationist approach.

So I would argue whoever wins should take stock of where we are today and just face reality. Iran is on the one yard line of a nuclear weapons capability. They are now apparently working on an actual weapon through computer modeling, not just the fissile material, through the production of enriched uranium. That means we now have to look at other options, not just balancing sanctions, political rhetoric. We're talking about the need for potential military action soon to prevent a catastrophic event for the world and making sure our ally Israel has our support, not our back, not our pressure.

BUTLER: Well, as we wrap up this morning, focusing in on that ceasefire deal, it seems like it's a big priority for the White House and the Democrats. Can you tell us where things stand in terms of what Israel has put on the table compared to Hamas?

GOLDBERG: Yeah, basically every single time the United States has come back to Israel saying, can you compromise, can you can you come closer to the Hamas position? Let me pause there by just saying, think about that when you when you're talking to Israel and saying, “Can you come closer to the Hamas position,” this is a terrorist organization.

But where it stands is every time they still have come to Israel, because in the end, the families of the hostages in Israel want their loved ones back. And there's protests inside Israel, you know, saying, Give Hamas whatever it wants, just get our loved ones back. You have the United States come and say, Well, is there anything more you can give them? Give them more terrorists to let out of jail for every hostage they release. Israel says, Fine. Agree that you're going to withdraw all the Israeli forces from various areas inside Gaza day one. Israel says fine.

But there's a couple of bottom lines where Israel just says we can't commit national suicide for you just to get the ceasefire, they can't remove their forces from the Egyptian Gaza border, this area in Rafah it's called the Philadelphi Corridor. You're hearing about in the news. Israel has found, now, according to its defense minister, more than 150 tunnels connecting Gaza into Egypt. This is where Hamas has been getting all of its weapons for years. And so the idea that you're gonna say, well, we'll just put the Egyptians back in charge of this border, that's just saying Hamas come right back. That's the major holdup right now. There's a few other key areas where they don't want to withdraw forces from to prevent Hamas from retaking control of Gaza as you work on the day after.

And so I would just say, rather than going back to the Israelis and saying, please just, we just need this ceasefire, remove your forces so Hamas can come back and take over Gaza again, and you might have another October 7 and Iran wins on all fronts, how about we start looking at actually putting more pressure on Iran and on the Qataris in Doha that have been sponsors of Hamas, and on the Egyptians that have clearly been complicit in the tunnels, and on Lebanon that hosts Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all of these actors, rather than saying to Israel, hey, keep caving so that Hamas can hold out for more caves in the future?

BUTLER: A lot to consider and a lot to keep our eyes on. Thank you so much. Rich Goldberg is Senior Advisor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the National Security Council staff. Rich, thanks so much for joining us today.

GOLDBERG: You bet.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Fixing financial aid for education.

Congress passed legislation in 2020 that required the Department of Education to simplify its form for the Free Application for Student Aid or FAFSA

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: The department released that updated version late last year—about two months later than the typical FAFSA release date. Education advocates said the delay complicated the admissions process for millions of students.

Going into the Fall, have those issues been resolved, or will families endure another round of problems?

Joining us now to talk about it is Tim Rosenberger…he’s a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where among other issues he researches education policy.

Tim, good morning.

TIM ROSENBERGER, GUEST: Good morning.

BROWN: Well let’s start at the beginning. What problems was Congress trying to fix when it told the Department of Education, “simplify the form?”

ROSENBERGER: So, Congress was looking at a really complicated higher education funding landscape. They knew they had these big, federalized loan programs that were pushing tons of money out. Repayment on those wasn't going particularly well. They had a Pell Grant program that was not quite funding all the students who seemed to be eligible. They had a work study program that students seem to like, but maybe should be expanded. And so, they were trying to figure out how to take a form that hadn't been changed in decades, and have it develop numbers for what families should contribute towards higher education that were better aligned with where families are today. And they wanted to be less complicated. The old FAFSA was pretty long. The new FAFSA is a good way shorter. It asks for less information. In theory, a shorter form, looking at fewer things, would put out numbers that were more equitable and were more similar for students across different circumstances.

BROWN: Sounds like an easy enough plan. So why did the new process cause so many problems for students and the schools they were applying to.

ROSENBERGER: Well, there were several problems with it. First, the tech wasn't so good. So the actual filling out the form, getting it to your school, having your school use it to build your aid package, the IT to do that wasn't quite working. That bugginess seems to have mostly been fixed.

As a secondary matter, the changes that simplified the form weren't particularly well thought out. By asking fewer questions about what kinds of different assets your family had, it grouped things together that we probably really wouldn't think of as the same. So for example, if your parents had just a bunch of money sitting in their checking account, it would think of that in a very similar way to how it might think about the stock and trade and vehicles and things like that they used for a small business. So if you think about it, you know, a family that's been saving money for something like college and a family that's been building a business like, say, a plumbing business or a roofing business, those both are no assets, the implication of this would, of course, be sell part of your family business to pay for your student's education. That that doesn't quite work.

It also looked at families a different way, and most problematically, it considers people married to students' parents, their income and assets as things that can go towards those students education costs. So you think about it, this could be someone who marries your parent well after you're out of the house, their assets, their money now is considered something that can pay for your college education, and a lot of families don't quite think of it that way. That's not sort of the reality on the ground, but that is how the FAFSA thought of it.

And finally, it got rid of the division by students in college used to be there was a family contribution and expected familial contribution, and that was divided among the number of students who would be attending college that's been done away with it now calculates per student, and it doesn't do that division. So a family with 2, 3, 4 students pursuing higher education at the same time now can have a very strange number where we're a big number like 4x the amount of money that anybody reasonably could think they could spend on college in one year now is expected to be given by them to all these various schools, and that doesn't quite work.

BROWN: Along with that, earlier this month, the Department of Education announced that this year's form won't be available until December 1. What concerns you most about this new delay?

ROSENBERGER: Well, the concern that this tells us that things aren't really buttoned up. So we saw last year, students filled out the form with their parents. They sent it in. It did or didn't work at all. Assuming it did work, their school then had to try to work through it to build them an aid package, and those aid packages came in really late. Now this is a big problem, particularly for new students, because they don't know what their package is gonna look like. They don't really have a sense what it's gonna be, and they can't make an informed decision about what program to pursue. They don't know what they're going to be offered in terms of loans, in terms of grants, in terms of work study.

So, all that happened last year. You fear it'll happen again this year, and the fact that we're sort of already delaying suggests there are some big bugs in the system. If it comes out December 1, that that's probably okay. If it comes out and it works, because when people really have the time to fill this out, is Christmas break, right? If it can be filled out in work during that break, this fixes a lot of problems. That didn't happen this year for most students. So one hopes it will, but, but still, we're a little late, and that's worrying.

BROWN: Okay, final question, what do you think Congress would have to do to fix this problem?

ROSENBERGER: Well, I think there are a couple things. There's sort of the immediate term fixes that one could do, and that would look like bringing back the ability to divide by the number of students in school, bringing back the exemption for small businesses and for more assets so that families that have small businesses, particularly the trades, aren't expected to liquidate, like a family run plumbing business to find college for their students.

There's probably a broader thing that needs to be done that I think this initial change came from, where we say, How are students really going to pay for college? Do we really think that the answer is these federal student loans? Because it all seems like sort of a joke, right? The FAFSA is somewhat an artifact of a system that says we're going to have these sort of comically large amounts of money that aren't really going to ever be paid back by students, probably, maybe.

And so using congressional action to better tie funding to actual student outcomes to make college more affordable on the front end, you know, something that's sort of clear and rational on the front end of funding higher education probably obviates a lot of the problems you have with a Byzantine FAFSA.

BROWN: Tim Rosenberger is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Tim, thank you for your time.

ROSENBERGER: Thank you.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Nothing’s better than fish and chips at the seaside, salt and vinegar to season it all up just right.

AUDIO: [Seagulls]

until seagulls swoop down to snatch your lunch right out of your hands! The birds have plagued seaside food trucks for years.

So some business owners on the Isle of Man hit upon a solution for traumatized customers.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Oh yeah? What’s that?

For about a buck thirty, you can buy seagull insurance along with your meal. So get this, Paul. If a thieving gull grabs your food, you’re covered and you get a replacement meal.

Customers like the option, and proceeds go to a wildlife charity that protects the birds and beasts of the island.

BUTLER: Do I look gullible to you? There’s something fishy about this story.

BROWN: It’s The World and Everything in It.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 22nd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: honoring D-Day veterans.

On June 6th, 1944— 80 years ago—the largest amphibious invasion in history, nearly 133-thousand allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France amid World War II.

More than two months later … the forces began a 6-day battle known as the liberation of Paris. August 25th, 1944, Paris declared victory over the Nazis.

BUTLER: Each year, a family-owned French bakery makes a point to honor the veterans who served in those battles by providing them space to gather and reminisce together on D-Day.

WORLD reporter Maria Baer visited the bakery in June and brings us this report.

MARIA BAER: Every waitress at La Chatelaine Bakery and Bistro wears the same uniform: a striped shirt, navy slacks or skirt, and a handkerchief in her hair. Tres chic.

AUDIO: Bon Appetit, ladies… Bon Appetit! [French music]

La Chatelaine is popular with locals here in Columbus, Ohio. But every year on June 6th, the restaurant’s original location closes after lunch. At 5 p.m., the veterans start showing up.

AUDIO: Good evening, it’s my pleasure to be here representing our post in Westerville, American Legion 171…

This year is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and La Chatelaine is doing what they’ve done every June since the restaurant opened in 1991: hosting military veterans and their families for a private party, including a lavish French buffet dinner at no cost.

AUDIO: [At ease everybody! (Whistles)... Airborne! (Airborne!) All the way! (Every day!)]

La Chatelaine’s D-Day celebration traces back to the owners—Stan and Gigi Wielezynski. They opened the restaurant after emigrating to the U.S. in the 1980s. Stan’s mother had lived under the Nazi occupation in France. Gigi’s mother was a child living in Belgium then.

Their daughter, Charlotte Harden, runs the restaurant now. In her trademark French stripes, Charlotte is elegant and energetic. She remembers her grandmother’s stories of the liberation of Belgium in 1944.

CHARLOTTE: She remembers the troops coming in through the streets on their tanks, and that’s the first time she ever had chewing gum, so she always assumed Americans talked that way. She always remembered he handed her an orange and a piece of gum from the tank.

By the time the Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches on June 6th, 1944, the Nazis had occupied France for four years. The Allies came by the air and the sea, suffering heavy casualties as they advanced slowly up the coastal cliffs of northern France. Over the next several weeks, the troops liberated nearby towns, one by one.

It was the beginning of the end of World War II.

Charlotte said her family always felt a deep debt of gratitude for the troops who freed their countrymen, and for the freedom they found in America.

That’s why they started the parties.

At first, the Wielezynskis invited only World War II vets. They didn’t really advertise it, but the invitations spread, like gossip, through the close-knit veteran community.

CHARLOTTE: We had a lot of vets that would bring their stuff that they'd gotten, a picture, or their medals…

In the early years when the parties were small, they kept the rest of La Chatelaine open to the public at the same time. But that caused some confusion, especially the year one vet, who’d escaped German captivity, wanted to show off the Nazi flag he’d swiped upon his escape.

CHARLOTTE: The first thing he would do is he would hang the Nazi flag from the corner, you know there’s the hutch, I mean the thing was massive, at least half this wall. And customers who didn’t know it was D-Day…

One year, Charlotte and her family met Marion Gray, an Army medic who stormed Omaha Beach in the first wave of the D-Day offensive. He’d never been back to Normandy. Now 78, he was working at Wal-Mart.

CHARLOTTE: My parents were like that’s it, we can’t pay a trip for everyone, but we’re gonna pay a trip for him in honor of everyone.

The story of the Wielezynskys bringing Gray to Normandy was covered in local newspapers back in Ohio, and La Chatelaine’s D-Day celebrations grew. News reporters and politicians started showing up. But the Greatest Generation was getting smaller. The surviving vets told Charlotte to widen the list of invitees.

CHARLOTTE: So they told us, don’t stop. Even if no more of us are here, please, don’t stop. The Vietnam, and obviously Korea… continue with them. And continue teaching the younger generation what we did.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates there are roughly 115-thousand American veterans of World War II still living — that’s fewer than one percent. My grandfather, who fought in Japan and survived to have five children, 17 grandchildren, and 35 great-grandchildren, died just last year. Marion Gray died in 2015, but his family are here at La Chatelaine’s party this year.

So are veterans from the wars in Vietnam, Korea, and Afghanistan.

And so are three handsome (if a bit wobbly) World War II vets. Al Williamson and Carl Strout are 98. Bob McLaughlin is 99. They’re treated like celebrities here.

Before Charlotte releases everyone to the buffet, a member of the local chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association leads the group in a song they apparently all know: it’s a macabre revision of The Battle Hymn of the Republic:

SINGING: He thought about the medics, and he wondered what they’d find, and he ain’t gonna jump no more

After dinner around crowded tables, the group gathers outside, where local collectors of military memorabilia have parked two World War II-era army jeeps. Charlotte calls for a picture.

AUDIO: [Beeping horn of Jeep]

Someone lifts 98-year-old Carl Strout into one of the jeeps’ driver’s seat.

AUDIO: Yayyy!

Charlotte knows these heroes of the Second World War – men she calls her “buddies” — might not make it to La Chatelaine’s D-Day party next year. But she’s promised to keep hosting them for all the men and women of the military, who make it possible for families like hers to live free and bake pastry.

CHARLOTTE: What does it mean to our family? It’s like something in your gut.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Maria Baer.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 22nd, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. The Democratic National Convention wraps up tonight with Kamala Harris accepting the party’s nomination for President. Barack Obama spoke Tuesday evening saying America is ready for a new chapter…but commentator Cal Thomas says there’s a familiar ring to this year’s convention that feels like a look back, not forward.

CAL THOMAS: The first Democratic National Convention I attended was in San Francisco, 1984. UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick indelibly labeled attendees: “San Francisco Democrats” due to their left-leaning policies.

Forty years later it appears little has changed. Then, Vice President Walter Mondale gave his acceptance speech. He’d been nominated to take another crack at the invincible Ronald Reagan. He gave many promises and criticisms today’s Democrats are renewing at their convention this week in Chicago.

Then, Mondale claimed to have learned a lesson from his and Jimmy Carter’s defeat by Reagan in 1980. In his acceptance speech, Mondale tried to move toward the center by using familiar buzzwords like: “family,” “hope,” “caring,” “patriotism,” and “the future.” Today, Mondale’s party uses the same terms…but means something radically different, and the party has moved even further left.

Mondale claimed he wouldn’t raise taxes, but later in a debate with Reagan he said he would. He bashed corporations and “the rich,” claiming they were better off, but “working Americans are worse off” … sound familiar? Another golden oldie: he claimed Reagan and the Republicans wanted to “slash Social Security and Medicare.”

Mondale bemoaned the $200 billion deficit…I wonder what he’d say about today’s $35 trillion debt?

If Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech last Friday in North Carolina is any indication of what she might say tonight in Chicago, she may be channeling Mondale and other Democratic presidential nominees…some of whom became president, raised taxes, and increased the debt.

In North Carolina, Harris announced her support for more than a dozen economic policies aimed at “lowering costs for American families,” including $25,000 down payment assistance for first-time home buyers. Harris apparently has yet to realize that more government spending and increased debt causes inflation. Inflation is what has led to higher grocery and gas prices and higher mortgage rates. Once again, we hear the denunciation of corporations and charges they are “price gouging,” a term they never define.

If Harris proposes to use the power of the federal government to lower prices she should consider past attempts at price controls. Richard Nixon tried it and it failed. Socialist countries didn’t succeed either. Cutting the size and cost of government, along with maintaining the soon to expire Trump tax cuts would create an economic boom. They have in the past.

A Wall Street Journal editorial last week has it right. Titled; “How the Biden-Harris Economy Left Most Americans Behind.” It says: “A government spending boom fueled inflation that has crushed real average incomes.” Harris wants to spend more. Does anyone think continuing on a path that has led to inflation will reduce it?

Democrats have played the envy of the wealthy, greed for what they have, and entitlement tunes since the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sometimes it’s worked because human nature likes free stuff…except it isn’t free. As humorist P.J. O’Rourke said: “If you think health care is expensive now, just wait ‘til it’s free.”

Harris will likely reprise the tune in tonight’s acceptance speech. She might even promise to do something about the massive influx of migrants, but the obvious question would be why hasn’t she and the president done anything about it during their administration, except falsely blame Republicans in Congress?

Harris is dangerous because no one knows what she believes and the few things she said she once believed – no fracking is only one example – she has flipped on without explaining why.

Those San Francisco Democrats may have migrated to Chicago this week.

I’m Cal Thomas.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet on Culture Friday. And, a new film from the Kendrick brothers. We’ll have a review of The Forge. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said: “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.” —Luke chapter 11:33–35

Go now in grace and peace.

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