SUPREME COURT

The next Supreme Court justice nominee will be selected on the basis of skin color and gender.

Others need not apply.

Years ago, that sort of advertisement would be considered racist. And illegal.

Merit is not a consideration.

UNEXPLAINED DEATHS OF YOUNG PEOPLE

Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 are dying at a rate 40% higher than pre-pandemic. An increase of 10% would qualify as a 1-in-200-year event.

Nobody seems to know why. More amazing, nobody seems to care! These are working-age people, not the old and frail. Why haven't we seen the NYT take up the story? The Guardian did, concluded that it was underreporting of COVID, but the actuaries who first alerted us say no. I worked with actuaries, they are really, REALLY smart folks and I would believe them.

Finding the reason is essential. Again, it doesn't seem to register with the folks in D.C. that more people died in San Francisco or fentanyl overdose than COVID. Murder rates are up across the country, as are suicide and traffic deaths. That last one is amazing as driving was curtailed in 2020.

Somebody smart needs to look into this, IMHO.

INFLATION II

Back in August, 2021, the first post about inflation showed up on this blog. Well, it is worse than expected and it will get even worse--refer to the blog post "Clueless" that describes how current leadership is the most incompetent since Carter so we can't expect any help from that quarter.

Three things surprised me today: a Director of the CDC stated that 75% of the deaths from COVID were people who had 4 or more comorbidities. That is not the Party line, folks, she could end up getting Clintonized for such heresy. COVID politics has frightened the public (children, too, which is just infuriating) to believe "if I get it, I am going to die!" To be clear, this refers to a study of 1.2 million vaccinated people where 36 died, 28 of whom had 4 or more comorbidities. The Left has gone nuts making sure we don't think that evidence applies widely. BUT IT DOES. Another controversial statement by another medical official says that the latest Omicron variant will dwindle because "everybody who can get it will have been infected by then."

Number two: the health of your gut is critical to prevention of Alzheimer's. Evidently, if you don't eat well, the gut sends bad stuff to your brain. Makes sense. Read the articles, but in the mean time, eat a diet that avoids polyunsaturated fatty acids (found in vegetable oils, edible oils, seed oils), trans fats and plant oils. Eat high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb ketogenic diet. Don't eat highly-processed foods (sniff, goodbye hotdogs! sniff). Also, practice moderate fasting. Oh, and apparently gluten is on the hit list, too.

Number three: The big Wall Street firms are in a bit of a contest to see who can predict the largest number of Fed rate increases. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan bank, says eight quarter-point increases over the next two years. Goldman Sachs says ten. Meanwhile, the Fed has abandoned the use of the term "transitory" in connection with this spike in inflation. If you simply sit back and think a bit, apply some history, the period of 1% interest rates is OVER! Probably not to return in the lifetimes of your kids and grandkids. 

This extremely low interest period was an anomaly; get over it and adjust to high inflation and high interest rates until we can return some reasonable leadership to the issues. Have you noticed the backlash to the "Woke" phenomenon? We need to get back to something closer to traditional values, not nominating people for high-level jobs who are proponents of Communism or who accomplished the removal of the term "mother" in favor of "birthing people" in this Administration's US Federal Budget. Good grief.

Summarizing, there is some good and some bad, but in my opinion, the latest trends seem to be very positive. Higher interest rates mesh with historical periods of healthy economic growth. Maybe we can get back to immigration that helps the country rather than burdens it. The ability of the political system to frighten everybody into submission appears to be lessening. Medical research may be on to something about the connection between diet/gut health and dementia.  Let's hope these create a more positive future.