Tom Faranda's Folly

Back on weblog; Essay in The Atlantic calls for COVID Amnesty for liberals!

I have been off my weblog for three days - here's why, from typepad:

As a reminder, we are proceeding with the data center migration this evening starting at 9:30 PM US Eastern Time. We have more information and will update the Everything Typepad blog

Meanwhile thanks to Maria for sending me this: In a new essay in The Atlantic which is excerpted below from Townhall:

The COVID-19 pandemic threw the world upside down in 2020, and the reaction to the virus did not help matters. In a new essay in The Atlantic, Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, is calling for a "pandemic amnesty" for the disastrous response to COVID-19 because people were in the dark about it.

Oster pointed to how in April 2020, her family took absurd prevention measures to prevent infection while hiking outside, like wearing cloth masks and staying away from people. She admits nothing they did would have worked. "But the thing is: We didn't know."

It was because of the lack of knowledge, Oster said, that other draconian prevention measures seemed like a good idea at the time:

Some of these choices turned out better than others. To take an example close to my own work, there is an emerging (if not universal) consensus that schools in the U.S. were closed for too long: The health risks of in-school spread were relatively low, whereas the costs to students’ well-being and educational progress were high. The latest figures on learning loss are alarming.  But in spring and summer 2020, we had only glimmers of information. Reasonable people—people who cared about children and teachers—advocated on both sides of the reopening debate.

Another example: When the vaccines came out, we lacked definitive data on the relative efficacies of the Johnson & Johnson shot versus the mRNA options from Pfizer and Moderna. The mRNA vaccines have won out. But at the time, many people in public health were either neutral or expressed a J&J preference. This misstep wasn’t nefarious. It was the result of uncertainty.

One way Oster's reflection falls flat is that the only example of people intending "to mislead and made wildly irresponsible claims" was, "Remember when the public-health community had to spend a lot of time and resources urging Americans not to inject themselves with bleach? That was bad."

Seriously.

"We have to put these fights aside and declare a pandemic amnesty. We can leave out the willful purveyors of actual misinformation while forgiving the hard calls that people had no choice but to make with imperfect knowledge," she continued. "Los Angeles County closed its beaches in summer 2020. Ex post facto, this makes no more sense than my family's masked hiking trips. But we need to learn from our mistakes and then let them go."

The reason why there's the sudden turn of wishing unvaccinated people to be treated as lepers to "please forgive and forget" is because many of those who cheered on the authoritarian response have been proven over and over to be wrong. They know they caused harm and struggle to large portions of the country, and it was all for nothing. While it is true we didn't know much about the virus in March 2020, we understood a lot more by the summer, and yet, Democrats still pushed for lockdowns to continue.

Not mentioned: the sending of COVID infected people back to nursing homes - this comment is from Janice Dean a weather commentator on FOX - both her in-laws died in nursing homes.

Many of us won’t ever forgive or forget. Especially when it comes to the seniors who died in nursing homes after leaders flooded their residences with covid patients and never told us or protected them. They knew better. We deserve justice first.

Very popular rendition of "Hallelujah", by a very young woman!

I don't think Lucy Thomas is even 20 years old. She is from Wigan, in Lancashire, UK. Our very much missed best man Mick Paine was from Wigan and we know the area well. It's perhaps best known from a book by George Orwell The Road to Wigan Pier, which is a commentary on the miserable conditions of the British working classes in northern England in the 1930's.

Here's Lucy Thomas rendition of Leonard Cohen's famous song.

 

What the European High Court calls "freedom of expression"

Almost amusing if it wasn't pathetic. The French Court had to pay the woman damages.  From the Catholic League -

Christmas carols were being sung when a woman walked into Mass, ascended to the altar, naked from the waist up, with pro-abortion slogans all over her body. She then proceeded to “abort” Jesus, holding up pieces of calf liver to symbolize an aborted baby. She completed her blasphemous act by urinating on the altar in front of parishioners.

This 2013 stunt occurred in France. Now the European Court of Human Rights has taken her side, saying she was unjustly found guilty by a French court for an unlawful “sexual display.” The high court said she was merely engaged in freedom of expression, and should never have been prosecuted. Indeed, it ordered the French courts to pay her more than $9,500 in damages, costs, and expenses.

No one has more fully understood this kind of moral depravity better than Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He spoke eloquently about the “dictatorship of relativism” taking place in the West, a reference to the absence of objective moral truths. What better example than this high court ruling?

He also warned of the dangerous aspects of multiculturalism. It is not, as some have contended, a way of appreciating cultural diversity. No, from the get-go it has been used as a club to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage.

The European Court of Human Rights proved its hatred for our heritage when it called this vicious act a “performance.”

If this same woman walked into their court, half naked, ascended to the bench, with obscene slogans on her body condemning the judges by name, and then proceeded to defecate on pictures of their mother, would these open-minded wizards call this freedom of expression?

Here’s more proof of their animus against Catholicism. Four years ago it upheld the conviction of a lecturer in Austria who called Mohammad a pedophile for having a sexual relationship with a 9-year-old girl named Aisha.

This court has no legitimacy. It should be disbanded.

 

 

Thursday wordle

Delayed! Trouble uploading pictures as typepad rejiggering their operation.

 

Was difficult but got lucky on the third line. Will post when I can.

 

For Democrat Party, the 1 reason Fetterman must win the Pennsylvania Senate seat. 3 Minute video.

The obvious reason, of course, of course. I didn't watch the Fetterman debate catastrophe Tuesday, but did see some "highlights" on youtube. Cringeworthy. I have no opinion on his opponent "Dr. Oz" - no idea what his policies or positions are. Fetterman - I guy too disabled to hold the seat - could easily win.

 

 

 

Wednesday wordle

WSJ: American Universities continue to falter in world rankings; guess who is rising?

Uh huh -

Fewer U.S. universities rank in the top 100, while China’s schools produce more high-quality research than ever

The U.S. and U.K. continue to dominate the upper echelon of the rankings, with the U.S. taking seven of the top 10 slots and Britain three. Oxford is followed by Harvard University, University of Cambridge, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University and Imperial College London.

But among the top 100 universities, the number of those in the U.S. fell to 34 from 43 between 2018 and this year. The number of universities in mainland China, which excludes Hong Kong, in the top 100 increased from two to seven.

“The data is very clear: America can no longer take for granted its decadeslong dominance of world higher education and research, and it is China that is leading the challenge,” said Phil Baty, the rankings editor. “If current trends remained the same, we would see China overtaking the U.S. in the coming years.”

The number of Chinese scholarly publications has been growing steadily since the mid-1990s, but as recently as this year it was widely believed in the Western academic community that the quality of Chinese scholarship still lagged behind Western nations.

Then a paper published this spring in the journal Scientometrics, which studies the quantitative features and characteristics of science and scientific research, found that China has overtaken the U.S. as the world leader in scientific research output of “high impact” studies.

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Not only was China producing more research than the U.S. and Europe overall but a higher percentage of that research was among the top 1% of papers most cited globally. Dr. Wagner and her colleagues found that China surpassed Europe in high-quality research in 2015 and the U.S. in 2019.

“The work coming out of China is getting better,” said Dr. Wagner. “We are now seeing China able to produce that kind of quality work and they are doing it at scale.”

China’s research was concentrated in materials science, chemistry, engineering and mathematics, while U.S. researchers were more prolific in research into clinical medicine, basic life sciences and physics, Dr. Wagner said.

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China also increased its share of international patents to 49% in 2020, up from 16% a decade earlier, while the U.S. share declined from 15% to 10% in the same period, according to data from the National Science Foundation.

Though China has nearly 3,000 universities, only the very top tier is world class, said Denis Simon, a professor of China Business and Technology at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

“China is a rising star, there is very little difference between an engineer trained at Tsinghua University and an engineer trained at MIT,” Dr. Simon said. “The problem for China is there is a tremendous falloff. In the U.S. the top 300 universities are pretty good. In China, after the top 50 the falloff is very significant. China doesn’t have a lot of bench strength if you’re not at the top universities.”

Tuesday wordle

Took about 8 minutes but another close call

WSJ: "Of Catholics and Chinese Communists"

Very unusual as the Journal is highly critical of the Vatican and their dealings with the Chinese Government. Lots of good points - unfortunately.

... the Vatican said Saturday it has renewed its agreement with the Chinese Communist Party. This is the second renewal since the deal was brokered in 2018, though there’s little progress on religious freedom to show for it. Its main contribution has been to mute Vatican criticism of human-rights abuses, from the genocide of the Muslim Uyghurs to the political prosecution of Cardinal Joseph Zen in Hong Kong.

The deal gives Beijing a say in the appointment of Catholic bishops, but it’s telling that its terms are secret. A handful of mostly pro-Beijing bishops have been appointed. But the National Catholic Register reports that 36 of China’s 98 dioceses lack a bishop.

All this comes as China insists that priests and bishops serve the interests of the ruling and atheistic Communist Party. Yet Pope Francis, who is so critical of the U.S. and capitalism, is silent on China. This is a return to the Vatican’s failed Ostpolitik of the 1960s and 1970s, when Rome muted criticism of the Soviet Union and its East European satellites.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who as secretary of state is the most powerful man in the Vatican after Pope Francis, has acknowledged limited progress from the deal but last month on Italian TV said it is imperative to assume Beijing’s “good faith.” The use of “faith” in that sentence is appalling since China’s Communists repudiate all religious faith. China has also done nothing to merit this presumption.

In the history of the papacy, perhaps nothing was as thrilling—even for non-Catholics—as the election in 1978 of a Polish pope from behind the Iron Curtain. “Be not afraid,” Pope John Paul II would tell believers, and he set the example by morally challenging regimes such as the Soviet Union and using his papacy to bring the plight of the forgotten and persecuted to the world’s attention.

The current Vatican’s motto is: be afraid. Pope Francis has given the Chinese Communist Party a free pass on its inhumane behavior, and in so doing he has compromised the moral authority of the Catholic church.

The Monday wordle - back on track after Sunday's miss

This was Sunday - Sunday wordle - my fourth miss!

NY Times endorses Kathy Hochul for Governor

Silly me. I thought there was a chance they'd endorse Zeldin or at least go with no endorsement. She does pass the NY Times litmus test though; loves abortion. It opens with an interesting picture of her... not the picture I've posted.

...the record of Kathy Hochul, who has used her first year in office as governor to show that she can get things done to improve the lives of New Yorkers. Ms. Hochul has set aside political drama to make progress on the things that matter most to New Yorkers — health, safety and access to good jobs and housing. For that work, she has our endorsement for a full term.

Read the whole thing - of course starts with them slagging Zeldin. Hochul  - what planet are they on?

Sunday wordle - my fourth miss!

Oh well. Look at the mistake I made on the fourth line - repeating a letter that was eliminated on the third line. The correct word is MUMMY. 

 

Poll: Hispanics much more likely to say border is insecure than white Democrats are

Note below, that the poll was commissioned by Republican Party -

Is this a case of cognitive dissonance?

Hispanic voters are far more likely than white Democrats to say the southern border is “not secure” — and less likely to say it is secure — according to a new survey from the Republican polling firm WPA Intelligence. The survey, provided exclusively to National Review, asked 1,000 registered voters — 936 of whom said they were likely to vote in the November midterm election — if they “believe the southern border of the United States is secure or not secure.” Among likely voters overall, just 26 percent said the border was “secure,” whereas 66 percent said it was “not secure.” But there were major discrepancies, reaching double-digit margins, by race and ideology: 48 percent of white Democrats said the border was “secure,” while 42 percent said it was “not secure,” whereas just 34 percent of Hispanics said the border was “secure,” while 53 percent said it was “not secure.”

Those discrepancies persisted in other questions related to immigration and the border. When asked if they “believe the security situation at the southern border impacts your community positively, negatively, or not at all,” 50 percent of likely voters said the effect was “negative,” 9 percent said it was “positive,” 26 percent said “not at all,” and 15 percent were “unsure.” Twenty percent of white Democrats said the security situation at the southern border had a negative effect on their community, while 13 percent said it was positive, 46 percent said it had no effect, and 21 percent were unsure. But among Hispanics, 47 percent said the lack of border security had a negative effect on their communities, with just 12 percent saying it was positive, 27 percent responding “not at all,” and 15 percent unsure.

The same was true when pollsters asked: “Compared to the border states, do you believe liberal states are doing their fair share regarding the absorption and care of asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, and refugees?” Twenty-five percent of likely voters answered “yes,” 43 percent answered “no,” and 31 percent said they were “unsure.” Fifty-three percent of white Democrats answered “yes,” 14 percent answered “no,” and 33 percent were unsure. But among Hispanics, 32 percent answered “yes,” 40 percent answered “no,” and 27 percent were unsure.

 

"4 Spooky Halloween Cocktails for Grown-ups"

I like this guy. A professional bartender, he started this channel during the pandemic. I outgrew lite beer in 2005, congruent with starting my chemotherapy and have picked up several cocktail ideas from him in the last few months.

The El Diablo is the easiest to make.

 

Saturday wordle

Brigid post cataract surgery - plus a Brigid oldie but goodie!

Brigid's surgery was Wednesday and she had checkup the next day - it's all good. Now she has to do the four-times-a-day drops in eye regimen.

Here she is long ago - Brigid was 15 - on a beach in Ireland with her parents.

Worth zooming in! Not so sure about the hat though.

 

 

Friday wordle

Feast Day tomorrow: Pope Saint John Paul II. Yay!

A few days ago I posted that Teresa of Avila was my all time favorite Saint. But this guy gives her a run for the top spot. This posting is a virtual repeat of what I put up last year.

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The Great. Below link from Franciscan Media. 

At Yankee Stadium in 1979

Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong! Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later.

Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations.

John Paul II promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome’s main synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. He improved Catholic-Muslim relations, and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria.

The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul’s ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his papacy.

“Christ is the center of the universe and of human history” was the opening line of John Paul II’s 1979 encyclical, Redeemer of the Human Race. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as “a witness to hope.”

 

NYP: "Real-life Santa Claus’ grave found: ‘An extremely important discovery’"

They seem to be pretty sure about this. Thanks to Maria for sending me this link.

Xmas marks the spot.

Turkish researchers claim they’ve located the tomb of St. Nicholas, the real-life figure who inspired Santa Claus, under a 5th-century church in Turkey. While it’s long been known that St. Nick was buried in Turkey’s Antalya province, the holy man’s remains were pilfered around 700 years after his death, so his exact burial spot was unknown — until now, Live Science reported.

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Researchers discovered St. Nick’s alleged final resting place after uncovering the remnants of the ancient sanctuary in the coastal town of Demre.

The Kris Kringle precursor, who died Dec. 6, 343, had reportedly been interred at the UNESCO heritage site, the Daily Star reported.

However, the basilica was then submerged by rising Mediterranean sea levels in the Middle Ages, whereupon another church was built atop it in the town — then known as Myra — between the 5th and 12th centuries to protect the holy man’s grave. Unfortunately, thieves from Bari, Italy, desecrated the tomb in 1087 and carted off most of St. Nick’s remains, according to Live Science.

All seemed lost until recent excavations unearthed the remnants of the tile and mosaic flooring from the original basilica, leading them to believe that St. Nick had been interred there.

“Now we have reached the remains of the first church and the floor on which St. Nicholas stepped,” Eravşar said. Researchers speculate that his exact resting spot is at the base of a fresco of Jesus.

While little is known about the real St. Nick, the bishop allegedly boasted a Christ-like résumé of miracles, including rescuing three girls from prostitution, chopping down a demon-possessed tree and saving a ship from wreckage by praying.

His most famous alleged deed entailed donating most of his wealth to the poor, which formed the basis for Father Christmas’ yearly gift-giving sprees.

Thursday wordle

Took 7 minutes.

WSJ: "As Covid Hit, Washington Officials Traded Stocks With Exquisite Timing"

Further proof - if you needed any - that Washington politicians and officials should not be able to buy individual stocks or they must put their money in a blind trust.

Some sold in January 2020 when the government began mobilizing against the threat. Others bought shares as a market-rescue plan was taking shape.

A deputy to top health official Anthony Fauci reported 10 sales of mutual funds and stocks totaling between $157,000 and $480,000 that month. Collectively, officials at another health agency, Health and Human Services, reported 60% more sales of stocks and funds in January than the average over the previous 12 months, driven by a handful of particularly active traders.

By March, agencies across the government were working on wide-reaching measures to prop the economy and markets. Then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao purchased more than $600,000 in two stock funds while her agency was involved in the pandemic response and her husband, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, was leading negotiations over a giant, market-boosting stimulus bill.

And as the government was devising a loan package aimed specifically at helping companies including Boeing Co. and General Electric Co., a Treasury Department official involved in administering the aid acquired shares of both companies.

Federal officials owned millions of dollars of stock in industries most affected by the pandemic and the government’s response. About 240 officials at health agencies and at the Pentagon, a key player in the vaccine rollout, reported owning a total of between $9 million and $28 million in stocks of drug, manufacturing and biotechnology companies that won federal contracts related to Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, the Journal’s analysis found.

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By March, every major agency was drawn into the pandemic response. That month was the most active for trading by officials across the federal government, including at HHS, in the Journal’s analysis of financial disclosure forms for about 12,000 officials spanning 2016 to 2021. Federal officials reported more than 11,600 trades that month, 44% more than in any other month in the analysis.

The health agencies didn’t respond to requests for comment. A Pentagon spokeswoman said most defense personnel don’t work on matters affecting large defense contractors or affecting the finances of private companies, and said the department is “committed to preventing conflicts of interest.”

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Most agencies’ ethics rules focus on what kinds of stocks officials can trade, not when they can trade. And there are no restrictions on federal officials’ investing in diversified mutual funds, which were more volatile than usual early in the pandemic. Ethics officials certified that the employees identified by the Journal were in compliance with these rules.

Wednesday wordle

Took me almost 15 minutes to get this.

Feast Day - Peter of Alcantara, an important Saint; mystic and ascetic

Among other things, Peter of Alcantara  was the counselor to Saint Teresa of Avila (a great reformer and Doctor of the Church - my favorite Saint since I read her book a few years ago The Interior Castle. For a bit more about her, go here). He was born in 1499 and lived 'til 1562.

Tuesday's wordle

WSJ: Economist survey - majority expect a recession

Well, duh. This has been obvious for months.  How will it effect the stock market? Going lower. A stock and bond rally will start when there is a sniff of the Federal Reserve lowering the Fed Funds rate.

Majority think Federal Reserve will start cutting rates in late 2023 or early 2024

On average, economists put the probability of a recession in the next 12 months at 63%, up from 49% in July’s survey. It is the first time the survey pegged the probability above 50% since July 2020, in the wake of the last short but sharp recession.

Their forecasts for 2023 are increasingly gloomy. Economists now expect gross domestic product to contract in the first two quarters of the year, a downgrade from the last quarterly survey, whereby they penciled in mild growth.

On average, the economists now predict GDP will contract at a 0.2% annual rate in the first quarter of 2023 and shrink 0.1% in the second quarter. In July’s survey, they expected a 0.8% growth rate in the first quarter and 1% growth in the second.

Employers are expected to respond to lower growth and weaker profits by cutting jobs in the second and third quarters. Economists believe that nonfarm payrolls will decline by 34,000 a month on average in the second quarter and 38,000 in the third quarter. According to the last survey, they expected employers to add about 65,000 jobs a month in those two quarters.

****************

“‘Soft landing’ will likely remain a mythical outcome that never actually comes to pass,” said Daniil Manaenkov, an economist at the University of Michigan. A soft landing occurs when the Fed tightens monetary policy enough to reduce inflation, but without causing a recession.

“The coming drag from higher rates and stronger dollar is enormous and will knock off about 2.5 percentage points from next year’s GDP” growth, said Aneta Markowska, chief economist at Jefferies LLC. “In light of this, it’s hard to imagine how the U.S. can avoid a recession.”

Economists’ average forecasts suggest that they expect a recession to be relatively short-lived. Of the economists who see a greater than 50% chance of a recession in the next year, their average expectation for the length of a recession was eight months. The average postwar recession lasted 10.2 months.

Monday Wordle

"Sanders says it’s mistake for Democrats to go all in on abortion"

Bernie Sanders has one thing going for him and one thing not going for him. The thing going for him is he's a passionate populist. I think people appreciate that. The thing not going for him is none of his ideas have ever been shown to work. Even his simplistic thoughts on healthcare - how's the British healthcare system working for people Bernie? I doubt if Sanders has read a book in fifty years. The guy interviewing Sanders - Jake Tapper - his wife is a former field operator/lobbyist for Planned Parenthood. 

 

 

 

Sunday's wordle

"Texas Votes To Airlift Austin To California"

Texans overwhelmingly voted to have a giant airship pick up Austin via tow cables and drop the city off in California. As the city is mostly inhabited by Californians who left their state due to the cost of living, high taxes, and crime - and then proceeded to vote for the same policies in Texas - the move is just "setting things right" by sending immigrants from the Golden State "back where they belong," according to the bill's sponsors.

The act took effect immediately, and a massive, lumbering dirigible slowly crawled over the city, its ominous shadow eclipsing the coffee shops, microbreweries, and vegan hemp handbag stores below. Liberals screamed and attempted to flee, but it was too late. Harpoon cannons blasted massive steel cables into the Pennybacker Bridge, the Independent skyscraper, and various other anchor points throughout the city. The airship then rose into the sky, lifting the city along with millions of Austin progressives thousands of feet into the air.

"Oh no!" cried recent Texas transplants Timpani and Steve Strudelfudd as the ground shook and they nearly fell off their electric scooters in downtown Austin. "This is, like, totally, like, one of those earthquake things from back home! Hold onto your lattes!"

The city was safely transported back to California and dropped off in a nice rural area north of Santa Clarita. Texas is once again safely red, and many Austin residents reportedly don't even realize they've been transported to California.

Saturday wordle - an ace

Yay! This is the 5th or 6th time I've gotten it on the second line.

Pope Francis warns against worldly ‘progressivism’ and backward-looking ‘traditionalism’

From America, the Jesuit publication. Worth hitting the link - excerpts below it.

Pope Francis marks 60th anniversary of Vatican II by warning against worldly ‘progressivism’ and backward-looking ‘traditionalism’

The council reminded the church of what is “essential,” the pope said: “a church madly in love with its Lord and with all the men and women whom he loves,” one that “is rich in Jesus and poor in assets,” a church that “is free and freeing.”

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In his homily, the pope said the council was the church’s response to that question and marked a renewed effort to feed God’s sheep, not just those who are Catholic, but all people.

The debates that followed the council and continue today are a distraction from the church’s mission, Pope Francis said.

“We are always tempted to start from ourselves rather than from God, to put our own agendas before the Gospel, to let ourselves be caught up in the winds of worldliness in order to chase after the fashions of the moment or to turn our back the time that providence has granted us,” he said.

Catholics must be careful, he said, because “both the ‘progressivism’ that lines up behind the world and the ‘traditionalism’ that longs for a bygone world are not evidence of love, but of infidelity,” forms of “selfishness that puts our own tastes and plans above the love that pleases God, the simple, humble and faithful love that Jesus asked of Peter.”

“A church in love with Jesus has no time for quarrels, gossip and disputes,” the pope said. “May God free us from being critical and intolerant, harsh and angry. This is not a matter of style but of love.”

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Among the more than 400 priests concelebrating the Mass, the Vatican liturgical office said there were five who were present at Vatican II.

According to the websites GCatholic.org and catholic-hierarchy.org, there are six bishops alive in the world today who participated in at least one session of the Second Vatican Council. Among them is Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, an 89-year-old former Vatican official who was ordained a bishop in 1965 and attended the council’s last session; he was one of the concelebrants at the anniversary Mass.

The Friday wordle

Some facts on the social security retirement benefits rising

Inflation adjustment going up 8.7% - biggest increase in 40 years. This from the Wall Street Journal. Note how many people are totally or almost totally dependent on SS benefits to live on!

Social Security checks will be 8.7% bigger in 2023, the largest cost-of-living adjustment to benefits in four decades, the Social Security Administration said Thursday. The extra funds will provide relief for many of the roughly 70 million Social Security recipients whose budgets have been stretched thin by high inflation and whose nest eggs were walloped by plunging stock and bond markets. The average monthly Social Security check for retired workers will rise to $1,814 in January, up from $1,669 this year.

The cost-of-living adjustment is intended to ensure benefits keep pace with inflation. The annual increase is tied to the average inflation for July, August and September, using the Labor Department’s consumer-price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. The broader consumer-price index rose 8.2% in September from a year earlier. 

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Next year’s increase will be the largest since 1981, when benefits rose 11.2%, according to Social Security Administration data. The highest COLA since the program began automatic cost-of-living increases in 1975 was 14.3% in 1980.

Just over 40% of Americans age 65 and older rely on Social Security for half or more of their income, according to an AARP analysis of recent government data. About 20% of recipients in that age group depend on the benefits for 90% or more of their income, the analysis found. 

Mr. Certner said soaring inflation has been hard for many retirees to manage. While Social Security benefits rose 5.9% this year, that hasn’t fully kept pace with inflation. Most private-sector pensions don’t have a cost-of-living adjustment, he said, and most other sources of retirement income, such as 401(k) and individual retirement accounts, have declined this year with the markets.

Retirees also got hit this year with a 14.5% increase to $170.10 a month in Medicare premiums for Part B, which covers outpatient care and is typically deducted from Social Security checks. Next year, Medicare Part B premiums will decline by $5.20 to $164.90 a month, due in part to lower-than-expected Medicare spending for Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm.

 

Californians Move to Texas, Episode Two

I posted episode one here about four weeks ago -  California Couple Adjusting to Life in Texas   and it's been seen on youtube over a million times. You may want to watch it before viewing episode two, below.

 

Thursday wordle

Former Democrat "rising star" and vice chair of the DNC leaves the Democrat Party

Full Disclosure: I am a registered Independent. Rarely vote for Democrats; do a lot of write-ins.

I admire her independent spirit without agreeing with many of her positions (or with all Tucker's positions).

Wednesday's wordle - third day in a row only nailed it on the last line.

Here are the prior two days. Monday wordle   &  Tuesday wordle

Alex Jones - who caused massive amounts of pain and anguish - owes $965 million

A man with many screws loose. And that's being charitable. Normally I'd put the person's picture up. But Alex? Nah.

The $965 million verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host for spreading the myth that the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.

Who says I can't whip up a few meals

OK so a few  weeks ago I got tired of my family ALWAYS pointing out my ineptitude in the kitchen.They thought my only talent was scooping out ice cream.

So the deal was I had to do three dinners in one week - and the week was last week.

On Tuesday I did a one bowl concoction - flavored rice, green peas and bacon. Very, very tasty - here you go.

Then on Thursday, a cold pasta salad - gluten free - with olives, ranch dressing, cheddar cheese, more bacon. I loved it, Brigid liked it, but otherwise mediocre reviews from the other two voters. It tasted much better than this picture of the leftover looks.

But then - good Success! Tuna burgers or tuna patties, whichever you prefer, with mixed vegetables and wild rice with "herbs and seasoning."

This easily fed the four of us (that's a rum manhattan which I was drinking)...

While Brigid made herself a gin concoction.

So I need to thank - amongst others - the Bumble Bee tuna people, Ben's Original rice varieties, Applegate bacon, and our microwave. It will be awhile before I do this again...

Tuesday wordle

Another tough one. Similar to yesterday's Monday wordle

Angela Lansbury

96 years old. A great and versatile actress with a 70 plus year career.

Angela Lansbury, a formidable actress who captivated Hollywood in her youth, became a Broadway musical sensation in middle age and then drew millions of fans as a widowed mystery writer on the long-running television series “Murder, She Wrote,” died on Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 96.

 

As  young, very young, actress. Decades ahead of "Murder She Wrote"

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on the economy and probable recession coming

As Head of JP Morgan Chase Dimon is probably the most influential banker in the country. He's the only head of a large bank who was a CEO during the 2008 financial crisis.

In this short vid Dimon says there's a possiblility of "an easy 20%" - down for the S & P. When it's available I will post the whole interview. His comments are always dissected and followed closely by Wall Street.

 

Here he goes on about mistakes we've made in energy production. Full interview when it's available.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday wordle

Tough one - took almost 20 minutes.

Mohamed El-Erian on "Face the Nation" gives a succinct answer on stagflation

El-Erian is one of the MOST astute market analysts - I've posted about him several times.

The first video gives the quick stagflation answer - the second (worth watching) explains what mistakes were made and where we are likely headed.

This is 18 seconds.

 

There you go; now the six minute full interview.

 

 

 

Sunday's wordle

Interesting: Article on near death experiences - "The Afterlife is in Our Heads"

Proves nothing, one way or the other but worth a read if you are interested in the topic. The author is a science writer living in Brooklyn.

Prior belief in god or an afterlife does not, perhaps surprisingly, seem to influence one’s propensity to have an NDE, according to the research, but there is a strong association between the “depth” of the NDE a person experiences—as measured by the Greyson NDE Scale4—and the likelihood that they will experience a religious or spiritual transformation afterward, including reduced fear of death, greater empathy, and decreased interest in material possessions.

 

Saturday wordle

Took some time -

‘State of emergency’: Adams says NYC migrant influx to cost city $1B

Adams the Mayor of NY City of course. Hit the link for the whole article - if you are wondering, the mayor of El Paso is a Democrat.

“El Paso, the city manager, the mayor, they should stop sending buses to New York.” Adams emphatically denied Leeser’s assertion — made during a public meeting last month — that he’d agreed during a phone call to “welcome” as many as 200 migrants a day from El Paso.

The Friday wordle

Aaron Judge Thanks His Adoptive Parents ... “I’m Blessed”

Lovely story. An even better picture - including his wife - if you hit the link.

New York Yankees star player Aaron Judge credits his success to the lessons that his adopted parents taught him growing up. On Tuesday, the 30-year-old athlete, who was adopted as a newborn, broke a six-decades-old record when he hit his 62nd home run in a game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, NJ Advance Media reports. Judge is the right fielder for the Yankees, and has received numerous awards, including Rookie of the Year, Silver Slugger and MLB All-Star.

After the game, Judge told reporters that his family was at the front of his mind as he ran around the bases.

“I was thinking of my wife, my family, my teammates, the fans,” he said. “All that was running through my head, just the constant support I’ve had through this whole process.”

Judge, a Christian, has been open about being adopted as a baby and the incredible blessing that his parents, Wayne and Patty Judge, have been throughout his life, according to Adoptions with Love.

“I know I wouldn’t be a New York Yankee if it wasn’t for my mom,” Judge told the New York Post in a recent interview. “The guidance she gave me as a kid growing up, knowing the difference from right and wrong, how to treat people and how to go the extra mile and put in extra work, all that kind of stuff. She’s molded me into the person that I am today.”

To the celebrated athlete, his adopted parents are his family. He never knew any differently.

“I was about 10 or 11 and we really didn’t look alike, so I started asking questions and they told me I was adopted and answered all my questions, and that was that. I was fine with it. It really didn’t bother me because that the only parents I’ve known,” he told the Post.

Judge said he knows that God brought them together, and his parents said their son has been a huge blessing in their lives.

“Some kids grow in their mom’s stomach; I grew in my mom’s heart…” Judge said. “She’s always showed me love and compassion ever since I was a little baby. … I’ve never needed to think differently or wonder about anything.”