thependulumswings

It’s been a minute.

1. Charles Barkley once said, “poor people have been voting Democrat for over 50 years and they’re still poor.”  Inflation hits all, but it hits the lower income tier hardest.  November midterms are about 100 days away.  It’s also said people vote with their wallets, or how they feel financially.   We will see.
2. Speaking of the economy, some economists believe that we are already in a recession.   But what is a recession?  On WH.gov, the official White House website page it seems the traditional definition two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP) is getting a whitewash.  We quote, “That is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle.”  Changing times.  It goes on, “it is unlikely that the decline in the first quarter of 2022 if followed up by a second-quarter similar result indicates a recession.”  Is someone trying to move the goal posts?
3. Dozens of incoming University of Michigan Medical School students walked out of a pro-life keynote speaker’s address, after a previous petition to get the speaker removed failed.  Students petitioned the school weeks prior to remove Dr. Kristin Collier as the keynote speaker over her support for the unborn.  Why did they show up to begin with?  Attention seekers?  How many want to become a Pediatrician?  Free speech anyone?
4. If you travel to Mexico these days you need not wear a mask on the plane nor into the country throughout the airport including customs.  But when you depart when entering their version of TSA and until you board you do.  Makes sense?  But wait, there’s more.  Signs and announcements throughout the Aeropuerto remind you to socially distance by maintaining a space of five feet minimally.  We guess with inflation being so bad that five feet is the new six feet.
5.  When you head through the security another difference or two becomes obvious.  The x-ray machines are the old ones, not the full-body scan ones.  Also, you need not remove your shoes.  Shoe bombs aren’t a threat exiting Mexico, just entering we guess.
6.  Speaking of Covid, as you know fully vaxxed and fully boosted President Joe Biden tested positive late last week.  But, because tennis great Novak Djokovic isn’t vaccinated he cannot enter the US to defend his 2021 US Open title.  Last year no covid shot was necessary to compete.  This year it is.  Do the nuts have the keys to the insane asylum?
7. Speaking of Covid, can we please, please, please stop calling the shots “vaccinations?”  Vaccinations provide immunity.  These shots that are making Pfizer and Moderna lots of money don’t provide immunity.  The only people that think that they do are the ones you see driving alone in their car with a mask on.
8. The chief of the World Health Organization General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus isn’t monkeying around.  He said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that now qualifies as a global emergency.  It’s a declaration that will spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.   Pfizer’s ears just perked up.
9.  Climate change became a national emergency last week Joe Biden told us.  Except, he didn’t officially declare it a national emergency.  Maybe someone can explain why.  NBC’s Meet the Depressed trotted out good old Al Gore yesterday to help the “climate activists” further scold the “climate deniers.”   Gore said that time is running out or may have already run out.  Which is it?  Hard to tell.  Of course, he said way back in the ’80s that the year 2000 was the turning point.  Is somebody trying to move the goalposts again?
10. If you like baseball, you have to like the comeback from Tommy John surgery that Justin Verlander is having.  He’s 39 years old and hadn’t pitched in two full seasons.  He sports a gaudy 13-3 won/loss record with a razor-sharp 1.86 ERA this year.  In his last five starts, he’s 5-0 with a paltry 0.59 ERA.  And on Saturday in a high leverage seventh inning v the Mariners his 103rd and final pitch hit 100 mph to get out of a jam and secure the win.  He said that he wants to pitch until he’s 45.  Why not?

You’ve been served.