ROBERT GATES

Bob Gates served Presidents Bush and Obama honorably as Secretary of Defense and had compliments for both. He said that Joe Biden, on the other hand, was “on the wrong side of every major policy decision” that came before them.

We know, in the words of Forrest Gump, that Ol’ Joe “is not a smart man.” He is a boastful non-truth teller and back when there were actual journalists, they pointed that out and his run for the Presidency in 1988 cratered. His plagiarism spans from, at least, his law school days when he finished 76^th out of 85 at the Syracuse Law school to his 1988 campaign where he just stole stuff from others’ speeches.

He is weak. Putin is clever and strong, a back-alley fighter. All the liberal press can do is condemn Trump (how did he get into this?) for saying that Putin was smart and clever to use the ruse of “peacekeeping” in Ukraine. Joe has no idea how to use the tools he has or to creatively block Putin. How about China? They have renewed their claim to Taiwan that goes back many years and is resisted by the rest of the world.

If he isn’t, Robert Gates should be saying, “I told you so.”

SAN FRANCISCO

 What a lovely city, amazing history and now it is in the hands of people who seem to want to destroy it.

When Linda worked in the city, it was starting—she would walk from the train to work and had to dodge human excrement and all the homeless, but it was minimal compared to now. But I want to talk about the school board.

Three members of the school board were recalled in a recent election and blamed it on “white supremacy.” Facts do not, of course, support such a claim, but let’s see why voters really told them to hit the road:

1.       The school board was in the process of changing the names of 44 schools named after historical and current figures who did not meet their standards. Among them were these “inappropriate” names of schools:

a.       Paul Revere

b.       George Washington

c.       Abraham Lincoln

d.       Alamo

e.       Thomas Jefferson

f.        Daniel Webster

g.       Diane Feinstein

h.       John Muir, the environmentalist

The reasoning—fight for racial justice

2.       The premier school in the city will no longer select students based on merit. Lowell High School will get students in a lottery

3.       San Francisco schools have been closed longer than just about any other city

4.       Rampant anti-Asian prejudice

Was it the white supremacists? They had probably left the city years ago, but what really happened was that the Chinese vote turned out in record numbers and the non-citizen voters (yeah, non-citizens have voted in San Francisco for many years…go figure) were not the dependable Democratic voters that they have been historically. This is too weird for even them!

The black female mayor supported ouster of those goof balls.

All I’m saying is that the people in this country need to wake up and vote. Otherwise, we will all be governed by inept, evil people like were taken down in San Francisco with this recall election.

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.

ELIZABETH WARREN

 Elizabeth Warren made news this week. That was her goal, apparently, because what she said made no sense:

1.    She said Elon Musk did not pay his fair share of taxes. Musk paid about half a billion and seriously disputes her claim. Facts don't matter.

2.    Grocery stores are responsible for the increase in prices on food. That is akin to blaming the thermometer for the temperature.

She has a net worth of about $9 million. Did that come from her Senatorial salary?

I don't know why the press pays attention to her.

BEWILDERED

When Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, you could buy a very nice new car for $5,500. That was up from $3,500 in 1972, four years before he won the election.

Going into 2022, the price of an average new car is about $45,000. Let’s make this simple for those of us who are thinking in terms of multiples--$4,500 to $45,000…10 times.

Meanwhile back in 1977-1981, the highest taxes for my clients who were high income, like physicians, was 70%. Interest rates hit 21% or more, inflation was even more than it is today, Americans were held hostage in Iraq, farmers were going broke (Willie Nelson started Farm Aid in 1985) and Jimmy Carter was bewildered. No idea what to do to make things better. 

That has, until now, earned him the title of worst American president.

An opinion on this stuff is like belly buttons, everyone has one, but think of the world to come—an average car will cost 10 times as much, say $450,000? Interest rates are low, so the inflation damage hurts retirees, those on fixed income and people with cash investments disproportionately. Instead of $10,000 an acre, Nebraska farm land will sell for $100,000 per acre. Our good friend Butch Shadbolt said that he never bought a piece of land that would “pencil out,” you had to believe in inflation.

Make your own conclusions about residential real estate and the stock market, not going there.

The real kicker is that with all the similarities to the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the current president and his administration are bewildered. No clue what to do about 2 million illegal immigrants into South Texas. Maybe call them “undocumented” and that will help? No idea what to do about lawlessness in San Francisco (the DA will not prosecute for looting and shop lifting, so people grab a TV and run), Portland, Chicago, Baltimore…and so on.

My guess is that Jimmy Carter’s title of worst president is in jeopardy.