I was glad to see a rejection of the “election deniers” November 8, not because I thought they were wrong (who knows) but because it might dissuade Donald Trump from running for president again. I can’t think of a better way to elect Joe Biden or whoever his party picks. People who think money grows on trees, and deny that it causes prices to rise are very destructive to those who can least afford it.

I couldn’t vote for Grassley because of his support for intervention in energy markets. Any intervention in our freedom to deal with each other causes higher prices which is particularly concerning for low income families. Throwing money at foreign conflicts is prolonging the suffering of Ukrainians, draining the readiness of our defensive capability, and taking funds out of Americans’ pockets.

I was at Fareway and saw a t-shirt calling our governor “Kimmie.” I can’t remember the exact words but it wasn’t a term of endearment. The wearer was a teacher. Kim Reynolds has evoked the hatred of the teaching establishment because of her attempts at making public education appear more accountable to parents. Rural schools would have seen reductions in funding from the state if her proposals would have passed but they didn’t. The lack of private alternatives in rural areas made the privatization through vouchers look like it couldn’t follow a close enough course to our traditions.

I married into a family of teachers. My only aunt was a teacher. I hear the stories about teachers having to play the role of parent when the parents just don’t care. The role of parent has been gradually taken by schools. And that has accelerated this transfer of responsibility. Now, parents are seeing their kids being taught things that they disagree with. Flight by responsible families from public schools has increased, leaving the schools with a higher percentage of basically parentless kids.

I could have voted for Reynolds because of her attempt to make schools more accountable to parents, especially the part where live-feed video would have let parents know what was going on in class as a band aid on the fact that parents are forced to pay twice if they want control of their kids’ schooling. But then other issues made that a problem.

Kim Reynolds accepted $188,000 in campaign donations from Bruce Rastetter. She, along with the Senate Majority Leader and House Majority Leader (who also accepted Rastetter donations) successfully defeated legislation to prevent using eminent domain for the moronic carbon capture pipelines. What is most troubling to me about this is that carbon capture pipelines are needed to qualify ethanol plants (not viable in a free market) for carbon credits (also not viable in a free market). Then, opposition to the pipelines can falsely be used as an example of being anti-free market. Opposition to eminent domain is anti crony-capitalism. Crony-capitalism such as the trampling of rights by the ethanol and carbon capture industries is a perfect example of oligarchy.

In the supervisor race I voted for Landon Plagge. Sorry Landon but the canned statement on the “Newsmakers” radio interview show didn’t help. What bought my vote is that if windpower were viable without government handouts, well okay. But it isn’t. It seems our last line of defense, since our pockets are legally fair game, is local government at any cost. The claim that the footing for one of these monstrosities can be dug up and the land returned to its previous productivity is bunk. I hate it that it’s come to this.

Government favors for foreign countries, ethanol, carbon capture, even schooling, and myriad other industries guide the economy to inefficiencies that end up costing us in a reduction of living standards that is not evident on the surface.