Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Affordability = Socialism? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Encourage friends and family to subscribe to War Notes here.

NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight's 9 p.m. ET show, delivered straight to your inbox.

Affordability = Socialism? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Christmas Decorations🎄: Is it too soon for Christmas decorations? I feel no.

🤷🏼‍♂️Especially this year.

Faith Lost ⛪️: Americans have lost faith; now, 49% say they are religious compared to 66% in 2015.

📰From the Pew Research article: "If the U.S. had 100 people: Charting Americans' religious affiliations"
- 23 evangelical Protestants
- 19 Catholics
- 11 mainline Protestants
- 5 people who identify with historically Black Protestant denominations
- 2 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons)
- 2 who identify with other Christian groups, including Jehovah's Witnesses and many other small groups
  - 🤷🏼‍♂️That's it
Competing narratives‼️: There's an American pope. That's never happened before.
- 🗣️He is saying a lot of things about what's happening in the States, and it's not even making news.
- 👀He is kinda irrelevant to us, which is crazy.
- 🤔Charlie Kirk's funeral revival looked like a faith explosion revival, but overall, people are running away from faith. It's weird.
AI faith🤖: The somewhat irrelevant pope issued a rumored encyclical to warn people you can't talk to Jesus through AI — see The Wall Street Journal write-up, "AI Is a Tool, Not a Soul"

Watch tonight📺: Monsignor Jim Lisante, leader of one of Long Island's largest parishes, on what he's seeing and not seeing in the pews.

Warning ⚠️

⛔️In retrospect, the warning signs of a big crash are always there:

🎾In 2008, it was the time when tennis coaches stopped coaching to flip houses.
✈️In 1999, when Priceline was worth more than the airlines combined.

👀But if only there were an indicator before the crash:

🗣️Joe Kennedy claimed he saw it in 1929 when his shoeshine boy gave him a stock tip.

🤷🏼‍♂️Perhaps the Hermes Birkin hedge fund is one today.

‼️Ex-Blackstone executive Dana Auslander started the hedge fund for Hermes bags
- 💰She's investing in Hermes Birkin bags made famous by "Sex in the City."
  - - ✅Hermes reportedly only sells the new ones to "preapproved" buyers — if you have to ask the price, you can't afford one.
    - 👛Used Birkins cost more than what the average American worker makes in a month
  - 🎤"My thesis is very simple: The investor and the collector are the same person, so you have to cater to them in the same way, and they want to be able to also invest in the assets that they collect, whether it's art, whether it's jewels, whether it's Hermès. Trust me, a lot of people collect Hermès," says Auslander.
- 🤷🏼‍♂️No disrespect to Ms. Auslander — she's evidently very smart and making a lot of money — hedge fund executives are like that.
📰You can read more about her here in this glowing Forbes article:
- 🗞️"You Can Now Invest In A Hedge Fund Dedicated To Hermes Bags"
  - 🤷🏼‍♂️Maybe she is right — I don't know.
    - 👀If I were a genius investor, I wouldn't be on TV every night. I would be investing.
📺That said, in September 2022, we opened the show saying:
- 🎤"We are in New York tonight, and the big story here is the most expensive home in the country just went on the market. It's on the billionaires' row overlooking Central Park and will set you back a cool $250 million — for reference, that is about 1,100 times more than the average American house."
- 🎤We continued, "Fairness is dead; America is now an aristocracy."
  - 📺Watch the segment we did on it here.
👀Few things say aristocracy like a hedge fund for investing in luxury handbags.
- 🤷🏼‍♂️ Aristocracies don't last — and if you doubt me, just remember what happened to the rich folks in France and Russia.
⏰Time will tell what the new Birkin investment strategy is a warning for — but it's a warning for something.

Defining the Field of Battle

‼️In politics and war, he who defines the field of battle wins.

🤦🏼‍♂️Right now, Republicans are falling into Democrats' talking points about affordability.

🆓For Democrats, the answer to affordability is to "give away free stuff."
- 🛒Rent controls and state-run grocery stores in New York
- 🏥Unending and unsustainable Obamacare subsidies
  - 💰The one thing we know is free stuff raises costs.
    - 💸Socialism creates an explosion of costs.
🗣️What Republicans should be talking about is lowering costs.
- Reality🤦🏼‍♂️: Rather than talking about lowering prices, they are competing in the free s**t giveaway.
  - 💵$2,000 rebates
  - 💵No taxes on tips and overtime
  - 💵Flirting with price controls
  - ‼️Taking government positions in private companies

🤷🏼‍♂️Democrats will always win a competition of who can give more free stuff.

Be smart🧠: We have been wondering why Trump won't talk about "affordability."

👀He knows better than anyone when he is falling into a trap.

Credit🫵🏼: One great thing about "War Notes" is hearing from all of you — a good friend sent me this today as inspiration for today's "Why it matters" segment —

🎤"Is Dem's new talking point 'Affordability' a synonym for Socialism? If so, shouldn't Trump/ MAGA counter with 'Opportunity?' The Opportunity Society, etc. Dems always get ahead of GOP using more compelling language, is Trump falling into an 'Art of War' type trap: something like: if you choose the battlefield, you win before the battle starts. They chose 'Affordability,' and if Trump adopts it, he loses."
- ✏️Make sure you reply to "War Notes" and find us on social media @lelandvittert with your thoughts and feedback.

Look back⏮️: Senator John Kennedy warned of the high prices squeeze back in August.

Economic reality💰: Giving away free stuff is a lot easier than actually bringing prices down.

💸Prices don't generally come down, but things feel cheaper because of rising wages and economic expansion.
- Understatement🤦🏼‍♂️: Tariffs don't help with keeping inflation low.
  - Too late(?): Trump just dropped reciprocal tariffs on 100 food items to try and bring down prices — we'll see.

Superpanel📺: Tonight, NewsNation's Chris Cilliza, Mike Nellis and Jillian Michaels.

Operation "Southern Spear" ⛴️

🌊There is a modern-day D-Day armada off the coast of Venezuela — the U.S. Navy positioned enough firepower to destroy the infrastructure of South America, much less Maduro.

Military fact💣: You don't need an aircraft carrier to blow up drug boats.
- 🎤CNN: "Most of the strikes have been carried out using MQ-9 Reaper drones, the sources said, which are remotely piloted aircraft used by the military and are typically armed with Hellfire missiles. Other strikes have been conducted by manned aircraft, including AC-130J gunships and fighter jets, the sources said."
Obvious question⁉️: The massive military buildup isn't to end drug trafficking. It's obvious. So what is it?
- 🗞️The Washington Post headlines: Trump weighs Venezuela strikes as U.S. forces prepare for attack order
- 🗣️Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz said, "War is politics by other means."
  - 🤷🏼‍♂️What are the politics?
  - 👀Kicking Nicolas Maduro out?
    - 🤔I have theorized this is a move to trade Putin a peace deal in Ukraine for allowing Maduro to stay — that might be giving the administration too much credit.
    - 👀But — if Trump is going to start a war with another country, he owes the American people an explanation beyond Maduro allowing drug cartels to operate.

WATCH ON BALANCE WEEKNIGHTS AT 9P/8C

Every night during On Balance, Leland Vittert asks "why?" about the most pressing matters of the day, with an intellectual, balanced and sometimes irreverent take on the news.

Make sure to let us know your thoughts on social media and by replying to this email.

See the latest videos and coverage from On Balance