1 hour ago, Boilernation said:

Doyel has carried the woke flag on numerous occasions. Shouldn't he play by the rules he lives by?

Good point.  Then he should offer to resign from the Indianapolis Star, and then start a podcast.

2 hours ago, Daniel_Bragg said:

Are you suggesting otherwise, or is my sarcasm meter off?

No, and No.

Mr. Doyel will probably be suspended or even fired by the woke Indy Star for this faux pas.

He also apologized in his latest column, but I guess those are not good enough anymore.  Woke American society demands it's pound of flesh for any transgression:     https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2024/04/17/caitlin-clark-im-so-sorry-on-wednesday-i-was-part-of-the-problem/73364922007/

Quote

I’m devastated to realize I’m part of the problem. I screwed up Wednesday during my first interaction with No. 1 overall draft pick Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever.

What happened was the most me thing ever, in one way. I’m sort of known locally, sigh, for having awkward conversations with people before asking brashly conversational questions. I’ve done this for years with Colts coaches Chuck Pagano, Frank Reich and Shane Steichen. I’ve done it with Purdue players Carsen Edwards and Zach Edey. I did it with IU’s Romeo Langford, talking to them as people, not athletes. 

Notice something about all those names? 

They’re all men. 

On the one hand, yes absolutely, male and female athletes should be treated the same. I’m talking about coverage, respect, compensation, terminology, you name it. Stories have been written about idiots who say or act otherwise. 

And then, along comes a story about another insensitive man, which goes viral on social media, and I decided to write about that idiot. 

Me. 

What I’ve learned is that I need to be more aware about how I talk to people – not just athletes. I realized that only after my exchange with Clark went viral and I navigated the first two stages of grief during a discussion with the people I care about the most. 

Denial: I didn’t do anything wrong! I gave Caitlin her signature heart-shaped hand gesture as a way of introducing myself and welcoming her to town! I did this during a nationally televised press conference! What kind of idiot acts creepy on national television! (Me.) 

Anger: This is how I talk to everyone! Had that been the male equivalent arriving to energize team and town – since I’ve been here, the closest thing Indianapolis has had is Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson – I’d have shown him the heart gesture and reiterated, “I like that you’re here.” 

This is where I was, convinced I was harmless and right, when a woman I deeply respect told me, “But Caitlin Clark is a young woman, and you don’t talk to a young woman the same as you would a young man.” 

And my heart dropped. Because now I saw it: After years of being so sure I was on the right side of these arguments, I was now on the wrong side, and for the oldest reason known to man and woman: 

Ignorance. 

You can say that’s absurd, that I should’ve known better, and I do. But here we are. I was just doing what I do, talking to another athlete, another person, and didn’t see the line – didn’t even know there was a line in the vicinity – until I crossed it. 

In my haste to be clever, to be familiar and welcoming (or so I thought), I offended Caitlin and her family. 

After going through denial, and then anger – I’m on the wrong side of this? Me??? – I now realize what I said and how I said it was wrong, wrong, wrong. I mean it was just wrong. 

Caitlin Clark, I’m so sorry.

3 minutes ago, 00NWP said:

NorthWood started demoing their field this week and will have turf starting next year as well.  That leaves Concord as the only school in the NLC with natural grass.

Fighting the good fight I see.  Good for the Minutemen.

1 hour ago, NE8Fan said:

Carmel and a Westfield kid?  I had no idea Sheridan got those kind of transfers.

I'm sure they were purely for academic reasons, or some family situation.

18 minutes ago, First_Backer_Inside said:

That will be a sad day for you. In most apocalypse themed movies and books, all the grass is gone. Everything sports related will have to be done on one of @Muda69 most hated things on this Earth, dare I say it, ARTIFICIAL TURF!

I'd rather play on dirt.

17 hours ago, Rodney said:

arguing about the duties of the IT guy

 

this place has reached a new low

When the apocalypse comes we IT guys, and HAM radio operators, are going to be the ones to save the world.

33 minutes ago, First_Backer_Inside said:

Kokomo has multiple high schools(Kokomo, Western, Northwestern, Taylor), but yet there is just one with the name Kokomo. It is interesting how some have the city name and some do not.

I would say Howard County has multiple high schools (throw Eastern (Greentown) in there as well), not the city of Kokomo.  Although Taylor is close.   Residents of the Northwestern and Western school districts want nothing to with the city itself, other than a job a Chrysler/Stellantis transmission plant. 

The city of Kokomo did once have two high schools.   Haworth High school was open from 1968 to 1984, and the current Kokomo high school building on the southwest side was originally the Haworth building.   IIRC Haworth had it's own sport facilities except for basketball where both schools shared historic Memorial gymnasium, a decision that rankled a lot of Kokomo fans at the time.

https://fox59.com/indiana-news/lafayette-elementary-school-to-become-first-in-indiana-with-a-4-day-week/

Quote

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — An elementary school in Lafayette is making a change no Indiana public school has before.

The Lafayette School Corp. Board of Trustees voted Wednesday night to approve a four-day school week for Vinton Elementary School.

Students at Vinton will now attend classes from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., Mondays to Thursdays, the school board said. The change will take effect in August of this year.

“This adjustment comes after careful consideration and planning, aiming to enhance the overall educational experience for our students while promoting a healthy work-life balance for families and staff alike,” the board said in a release Thursday.

The Indiana State Board of Education has approved a waiver allowing the change for the next three years. The change makes Vinton the first public school in the state to operate on a four-day week.

For any parents or community members concerned with the change, the school board and Vinton administration will host information meetings at the school. The meetings will be held at:

• 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24,
• 4 p.m. on Monday, April 29, and
• 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 2.

During the meeting, parents will be given “detailed explanations” on how the change will be implemented. All families, even those outside the district, are being encouraged to attend.

Furthermore, the board said that any parents who feel the new schedule does not align with their needs will have the option to transfer to a different LSC elementary school.

The school board provided the following statement regarding the change:

“Lafayette School Corp. is thrilled about the opportunities this transition presents for our school community. We believe that the four-day week will not only provide students with enhanced learning experiences but also allow for more meaningful family time and opportunities for extracurricular activities. Together, we are embarking on an exciting journey toward a brighter future for our students and families.“

For more information on how to contact the school, click here.

Hmm. I assume teachers and administrators will still make their full salary as if they were teaching 5 days a week, and now they even get more time off during the calendar year.

And support staff that gets paid hourly,  like custodians and cafeteria workers, will make less.  Nice.

And the real losers will be the children.  The dumbing down of the government school system.   Maybe this will make more parents decide to home school their children. 

https://mises.org/mises-wire/social-security-and-decline-employer-pension-system

Quote

The Social Security Act is considered the first federal social welfare program in American history, being signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. American government pensions have existed for government employees and veterans since the Civil War, and private pension systems even longer. There was not great support for a public pension system in the US, as voluntary association and self-sufficiency was the standard. An example of this is the fact that nearly 90 percent of people over sixty-five in New York were not reliant on any sort of organized private, or public assistance programs prior to 1935.

Some assume that the Great Depression would automatically lead to an absolute devastation of the private pension system. Fortunately, this was not the case. More than 85 percent of private pension plans in existence operated normally during 1932. FDR would champion a social security bill in 1935, arguing that it was true insurance for all retirees. Amendments were introduced, including an amendment to allow Americans to opt out if their private pension system was more lucrative. It was not included in the final act, thus killing any competition in the pension system. One main argument against a compulsory social security system was that it could discourage hiring, as it would increase the cost associated with each employee. So, during the worst depression in modern American history, through the payroll tax, the president championed legislation which would force older people out of work and discourage business owners from hiring more labor.

The historic effectiveness of the Social Security program must be evaluated, and ideally compared to the private pension systems which are becoming less and less prevalent. The Social Security Administration’s published outcome indicators are meant to be a starting point but come with additional complications and red flags. Data provided an available report is mainly from the years of 1998-2002, it is thus extremely limited in its reporting. The report claims that it achieves high levels of eligibility and of utilization. This is of course, true, and would be true of any governmental program which is compulsory. The data provided shows a decrease in labor force participation of men between the ages of 25-54, but an increase of participation for men from the ages of 55 to 64. Participation also increased for men 65 and up. This trend should show some indication as to how Social Security benefits may not have benefited the government’s intended demographic.

The next indicators used are measures of adequacy, equity, and reliance. The main data presented for the five years given indicates how much a person receives from benefits in relation to their previous monthly income. Those from lower incomes will see up to a 70 percent match to their previous monthly income, while those in the high-income bracket may see as low as 30 percent. There is also data which suggests an overall decrease in poverty during a four-year period, but it is unclear if this is due solely to this program. The study points to a supposed increased level of reliability, as the percentage of families using OASDI for 50 percent, 90 percent, and 100 percent of their income slightly increased during the five-year time frame given. An increase of only 1-3 percentage points in each category is seen, which does not seem immediately significant.

Benefits to those who are temporarily disabled are next examined. The report admits that only a small fraction of recipients makes over their designated income amount, indicating Substantial Gainful Activity, (SGA). This simply means that a very small fraction of receivers worked enough to trigger the suspension, or termination of SSI benefits. Put into numbers, from the years 1999-2002, an average of 6.8 percent of SSI recipients worked at some capacity; and only .6 percent of working recipients met SGA requirements, with the rest working at, or below it. Without the examination of outside factors, and assuming a similar trend two decades removed, this would indicate that recipients of temporary SSI benefits are very unlikely to return to the workforce at full capacity.

The final indicator is the use of private pension plans. The administration notes that around 50 percent of the US population has been part of a private pension plan since the 1970s, with participants dwindling greatly. The data notes that older individuals increasingly have insufficient savings to supplement Social Security payments, and that pension plans are being transitioned to defined contribution plans, which have associated risks that come with market changes.

This government report from over two decades ago is lackluster at best. The SSA failed to meet some of its own KPIs, while others were faulty from the start. While there are high levels of eligibility and utilization, this is not a marker of the necessity or effectiveness of said program, but simply how well the federal government has a grasp on coercive implementation. The Social Security Act is binding, and the components are seen by many as compulsory, with a complicated exemption process. It is not surprising that most of the population is eligible for this extremely accessible, and heavily subsidized program. The second indicator points to the reliability of the program. It is true that the number of participants using benefits for 50 percent or more of their income did rise slightly during the timeframe given. This amount is not significant and has potential negative externalities. Increased reliance on federal programs is not a sign that a program is beneficial for the economy; it is a sign that a program is siphoning participants away from the private sector, thus leading to more individuals who are reliant on the tax-funded program. This is problematic, especially as the program’s funding relies on the working, and thus taxed, population. More low-income participants means less funding for the system to tap into for future users.

Those who are temporarily placed on Social Security benefits are very unlikely to come off, as indicated by this data. One can point to human nature, the unemployment levels of the years examined, or to other factors, but the data is clear that the benefits greatly discouraged a meaningful return to the workforce during the four-year period that was measured. In the long term, this is a problem, as young working people need to contribute to the system to make it work. The use of private pension plans is then examined. There is no comparison to the cost efficiency of private plans, but simply the fact that roughly half of American adults have access to a private plan, and have had access since the 1970s. Older adults having far less savings is also not an ideal outcome, as the state is not immune to the effects of inflation or an insolvent program, thus potentially harming the quality of life seen by SSI users.

There are warning signs which point to the Social Security fund being insolvent by the year 2035. This short window into the effectiveness of this system should give clues as to why. Employers must pay more to hire an individual, leading to a marketplace where low-skilled workers are constantly priced out. This has worsened in recent years, as even recent college graduates are having trouble finding meaningful employment. Employers would also rather have the option to spend less to match their workers’ 401k, or similar fund, rather than provide a set pension.

This is the case, as Social Security is often seen as primary support, rather than supplementary. As more people become eligible for benefits, fewer are working to fund these benefits. Birthing rates have also dropped significantly when compared to the rates of 1935. Finally, these plans are not competitive. Employers used to pride themselves on the excellent retirement funds/pensions which were made available to employees. Rather than rely on innovation to create more meaningful retirement plans, the state has imposed a one-size fits all plan onto the American public. FDR, in his attempt to signal his goodwill to desperate Americans, championed a policy which was doomed to harm future generations.

Yes, it will harm future generations.  SSI is scourge on the American Dream.

NPR's Uri Berliner Has Shown That DEI Is About Punishing Heresy: https://reason.com/2024/04/17/nprs-uri-berliner-has-shown-that-dei-is-about-punishing-heresy/

Quote

Uri Berliner, a long-time editor at National Public Radio (NPR), has resigned from the media organization.

His saga began last week after he published an essay for Bari Weiss' The Free Press in which he criticized creeping liberal groupthink at his place of employment. Many NPR employees were furious that he would "torch his workplace," though Berliner's piece carefully noted that he still believes the outlet is important and should continue to receive government funding.

For writing about his own outlet without seeking permission from his bosses, Berliner was suspended for five days without pay. But ultimately, he has chosen to resign.

"I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay," he said, referencing statements made by NPR CEO Katherine Maher—whose considerable history of tweeting woke nonsense is now under public scrutiny as well.

And he is quite correct. Berliner's article for Weiss concludes with this thought: "What's notable is the extent to which people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview. And this, I believe, is the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity."

Berliner cited Russiagate, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and coverage of the lab leak theory of COVID-19's origins as coverage areas where NPR's bias in favor of the progressive, establishment Democratic Party perspective led the outlet astray. A media company that did not completely dismiss non-progressive opinions out of hands might have fared better.

The absence of viewpoint diversity at NPR should be no surprise, however, when its CEO apparently believes that ideological diversity is a "dog whistle for anti-feminist, anti-POC stories." For Maher, diversity involves "race, ethnicity, gender, class, ability, geography"—everything except diversity of thought.

 

And Maher is not alone. Some 50 of Berliner's colleagues signed a letter to Maher demanding that she enforce NPR's current editorial line by weaponizing all available tools at her disposal.

"Staff, many from marginalized backgrounds, have pushed for internal policy changes through mechanisms like the [diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)] accountability committee, sharing of affinity group guidelines, and an ad-hoc content review group," they wrote. Elsewhere in the letter they put the term diversity of viewpoints in scare quotes.

It certainly does not sound like the DEI accountability committee works to broaden NPR's ideological perspective. On the contrary, the employees who are obsessed with DEI seem to care first and foremost about rooting out anti-DEI heresy.

Now Berliner is not a victim of cancel culture: Most journalistic organizations would exercise some disciplinary authority over an employee who publicly discussed internal company policies without prior approval. But there should be little question that he accurately described a real problem at a (regrettably taxpayer-funded) media outlet. The acronym DEI ostensibly stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion—and the public is learning precisely what those terms really mean.

Indeed they are.

1 hour ago, gonzoron said:

Lol, I don't need to 'go back' anywhere. I can look in the mirror and see an educated adult. Plus, I know how to spell "and", so there's that, Mud.

Oooh,  somebody sounds testy.  

Thanks for the typo correction,  our GID English Teacher. 

15 hours ago, gonzoron said:

A good one should. 

Your ignorance of IT shows, Chief.  

Go back to your Hamilton county compound an let the educated adults talk.

They Said They Didn't Want War With Iran. Now They're Cheering on War With Iran.

https://reason.com/2024/04/17/they-said-they-didnt-want-war-with-iran-now-theyre-cheering-on-war-with-iran/

Quote

Drop a frog into boiling water, and it jumps right out. But put the frog in lukewarm water that is being heated gradually, the legend goes, and you can boil the unsuspecting creature.

We are now in boiling water. After years of tension with Iran, war looks to be on the horizon. Iranian-backed militias have been clashing with U.S.-led forces across the region for the past several months. This weekend, the U.S. military stepped in directly to defend Israel from a direct Iranian missile attack for the first time ever.

Many of the hawks calling for war today used to swear up and down that they weren't seeking war. We just want a little bit more pressure on Iran, politicians insisted, and certainly wouldn't call for a full-on invasion. Boil the water slowly.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) has been one of the loudest voices in Congress calling for war over the past few months. In the wake of the October 2023 attacks on Israel, he called for bombing Iran even if there was no evidence that Iran was behind the attacks. After Iraqi militias killed three U.S. troops in December, the senator declared, "Hit Iran now. Hit them hard." Referring to an Iranian military headquarters, Graham urged President Joe Biden to "blow it off the map."

 

A few years ago, Graham was terribly offended by the idea that he would call for war with Iran. In 2015, when then-President Barack Obama said that a deal to halt Iran's nuclear program was the only alternative to war, Graham issued a joint statement with the late Sen. John McCain (R–Ariz.) attacking the "false choices" that Obama was presenting.

"No one believes that military force can and should solve all problems. No one believes that diplomacy, including diplomacy with adversaries, is tantamount to weakness," Graham and McCain stated. "The alternative to this deal was never war; it was greater pressure on Iran and insistence on a better agreement."

Commenting on Graham's attitude, Max Fischer noted in Vox that "Iran hawks can't be honest about what they really want" because "a repeat of what we did in Iraq…is not a politically palatable idea." At least not yet.

Graham got what he wanted; former President Donald Trump tore up the deal that Obama had made, began a "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran, and brought in Graham as an adviser. They never did get that "better agreement," but the United States did come close to bombing Iran several times, with Graham as a cheerleader for escalation.

Along with Graham, the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) was one of the most important actors advising Trump on Iran. FDD had a cozy relationship with the administration and even kept a member of Trump's National Security Council on its payroll.

Like Graham, the foundation's CEO Mark Dubowitz had insisted that his goal was to "fix not nix" diplomacy over the Iranian nuclear program.

"One thing we don't want to do is go to war with Iran, and we're trying to find peaceful ways to stop the Iranians and all the malign activities," Dubowitz said in a 2016 interview on C-SPAN.

 

Would it be surprising to hear that Dubowitz is now calling for war? On Monday, he mused that "it is time for friendly foreign powers to commit to a crushing preemptive attack on Iran's nuclear weapons program as well as giving Israel all the support it needs to destroy Tehran's terror armies." 

He made it clear on social media that "friendly foreign powers" means the United States: "It's geopolitical malpractice for the US to subcontract the destruction of [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamanei's nuclear weapons program to Israel, a country of 10 million people. The Islamic Republic is one of our most dangerous enemies."

Dubowitz had also claimed in 2019 that he wasn't pursuing "regime change" in Iran because that would involve "mechanized US troops invading Iran like [in the] Iraq War." He then argued in 2022 that he had always been calling for "regime change" but only "through support for the Iranian people."

What do the Iranian people actually want? The Iranian opposition inside and outside the country is bitterly divided on whether Iran should be freed through foreign intervention.

But whenever the threat of war flares up, American media likes to give the hawkish faction a megaphone. One of the most prominent commentators is Masih Alinejad, an exiled Iranian journalist who now works for Voice of America, the U.S. government-funded news outlet.

After Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Syria earlier this month, killing seven Iranian military officers, Alinejad told CNN's Jake Tapper that "Iranians are celebrating" the attack.

Alinejad once denied that she supported this kind of campaign. On the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum in November 2022, she urged a journalist in Persian to ignore anti-interventionists "who tell you 'don't launch a military attack, don't close the embassies,' because no one is calling for a military attack."

 

Exactly one year later, at the next Halifax conference, Alinejad called for a military attack. "If Israel or any allied democratic country were to strike Iranian nuclear sites," she said in another Persian-language interview, "I would naturally welcome it. Not just me but the people of Iran, too."

Others in the Iranian opposition disagree. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer who has been in and out of Iranian prison for the past decade, issued a statement on Monday condemning both Iranian and Israeli actions. "We don't want war by any name," she wrote.

Americans are no strangers to the anti-war to pro-war switcheroo. The Iraq War had unfolded in much the same way. In the aftermath of the Gulf War of 1991, many American leaders insisted that regime change in Iraq would be going too far. A decade later, they insisted that regime change was the only way forward.

"I was not an enthusiast about getting U.S. forces and going into Iraq. We were there in the southern part of Iraq to the extent we needed to be there to defeat his forces and to get him out of Kuwait, but the idea of going into Baghdad, for example, or trying to topple the regime wasn't anything I was enthusiastic about," former defense secretary Dick Cheney said in a 1996 interview. "I felt there was a real danger here that you would get bogged down in a long drawn-out conflict, that this was a dangerous, difficult part of the world."

Just six years later, speaking as vice president, Cheney attacked the idea "that opposing Saddam Hussein would cause even greater troubles in that part of the world, and interfere with the larger war against terror. I believe the opposite is true. Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits to the region."

We've been boiled once. Will we get boiled again?

All these war hawk hypocrites should be voted out of office.  How much war can this nation afford, both in blood and in treasure?

4 hours ago, gonzoron said:

Shouldn't an IT guy know the answer to this?

I don't know, gonzoron, should they?  I don't have an account on the Region Sports board, let alone administrator access which may let you track things like connecting IP addresses.   

Do you have such access to the Regions Sports board?

16 hours ago, scarab527 said:

Currently on the Region Sports board he's on one thread posing as three different people having conversations with himself. 

Has this individual admitted to having sockpuppets?  If not, how was this allegation proven?

2 hours ago, Impartial_Observer said:

You guys also seem to be under the impression that principals give two shits about seeding. Certainly some do, but for the masses, nobody cares. And make no mistake it is the principals who pull the weight, not the AD’s. 

As it should be.

On 4/13/2024 at 6:15 PM, Footballmomma said:

Supposedly merrillville is thinking by 2029-2032 they will be around 3500… and crown point will be a little over 4,000 but I mean we gotta see what type of people move in and if they have kids lol.

That also mean the likes of Carmel may be in the 6000-7000 student realm by then as well.

1 hour ago, WestfieldRocks said:

I still remember during the debate over whether or not basketball should go to class, and if so, how many classes, etc. Former Indy Star sports writer Bill Benner, ending a column after it was decided to go to a four class tournament, said "the sound you are hearing are the private schools adding on to their trophy cases" 🙂

Thank you for that anecdote.  Mr. Benner was a regular Nostradamus. 

6 hours ago, BTF said:

Oh, he was acquitted? I guess that means he didn't do it. I stand corrected. 

Depends on who you believe.  An alternative theory:  https://www.distractify.com/p/oj-simpson-son-murder-theory

O.J. Simpson dead at 76, family announces: https://sports.yahoo.com/oj-simpson-dead-at-76-family-announces-144012008.html

Quote

O.J. Simpson, whose immense fame on the football field was eclipsed by his infamy off it, died Wednesday according to his family. He was 76.

Simpson had been battling cancer and had been in hospice. Simpson's attorney also confirmed his death to TMZ.

"On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer," read a statement posted by Simpson's family on X. "He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren."

“O.J. Simpson was the first player to reach a rushing mark many thought could not be attained in a 14-game season when he topped 2,000 yards,” Pro Football Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said in a statement. “His on-field contributions will be preserved in the Hall’s archives in Canton, Ohio.”

No matter what Simpson did as a football player, he will always be more remembered for perhaps the most famous murder trial in American history, one that had people glued to their televisions on a daily basis and split the country along racial lines. The moment he was found not guilty of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman was one of the most-watched in television history, as was Simpson’s slow-speed Ford Bronco chase through Southern California freeways after he was charged with the murders and failed to turn himself in.

Long before the trial that fascinated a large majority of Americans, Simpson’s fame was undeniable. He was one of the most famous football players ever, and became a celebrity off the field.

A sad day for football fans.

https://mises.org/mises-wire/lets-be-honest-economy-not-doing-well

Quote

The American economy is not all right. But to see why, you need to look beyond the dramatic numbers we keep seeing in the headlines and establishment talking points.

Take, for instance, the latest jobs report. For the third month in a row, the American economy added significantly more jobs than most economists had been expecting—a total of 303,000 for March. On its face, that’s a good number.

But as Ryan McMaken laid out over the weekend, things don’t look as strong when you dig into the data. For instance, virtually all the jobs added are part-time jobs. Full-time jobs have actually been disappearing since December of last year. In fact, as McMaken highlighted, “The year-over-year measure of full-time jobs has fallen into recession territory.”

Also, most of these new part-time jobs are going to immigrants, many of whom are in the country illegally. There has been zero job creation for native-born Americans since mid-2018. While immigrants are not harming the economy by working, the scale of new foreign-born workers has papered over the employment struggles of the native-born population.

Further, government jobs accounted for almost a quarter of those added—way above the standard ten to twelve percent. Just like with government spending and economic growth, government hiring boosts the official jobs number while draining the actual, value-producing economy.

Some economists, like Daniel Lacalle, argue that the US economy is already experiencing a private-sector recession but that government spending and hiring are propping up the official data enough to hide it.

A recession is inevitable, thanks to the last decade of interest rate manipulation by the Federal Reserve—and especially to its dramatic actions during the pandemic. The recession-like conditions in full-time jobs is further evidence that Lacalle is right.

But jobs numbers are only part of the story. The stock market has been fluctuating a lot recently, not because of changing consumer needs or the adoption of some new technology, but based on what Federal Reserve officials are saying about what the central bank will do this year.

At the same time, prices are still high. And they continue to rise at a rate that frustrates even some of President Joe Biden’s biggest economic cheerleaders. Our dollars are worth about 20 percent less than they were four years ago, with no prospect of that trend reversing. That hurts.

But instead of addressing this economic pain, much less their role in creating it, members of the political class are still pretending everything is great. They’re even gearing up to make things worse by, for example, sending even more of our money to the Ukrainian government. All to prolong a war it’s losing, not because of a lack of money, but because of a lack of soldiers.

And at home, President Biden is scrambling to put the brakes on energy production and to transfer money from the working class to his base of college graduates, all before he’s up for reelection in November.

Predictably and appropriately, the establishment’s head-in-the-sand economic strategy is coinciding with a notable decrease in support for the Democrats—the establishment’s preferred party these days. President Biden is behind in the polls in six of the seven swing states and is losing support from working-class and nonwhite voters.

The political establishment and its preferred candidates deserve to lose support, not only for failing to acknowledge America’s economic problems but for causing them in the first place.

Agreed.  All of this printing of money in the face of COVID and just continued unabated.  And the results are becoming clear:  a huge recession is starting.    But gold.  And seeds. Your ability to service may depend on it.

10 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

final score:   UCONN 75, Purdue 60 

Pretty Impressive @Muda69

Great effort/ year for my Boilers, no shame in finishing 2nd in that tournament. 

Thank you.  UConn exposed the Boilers guards, which was also their weak link last year.  Smith and Loyer have improved, but they are still not the playmakers that will allow Pudue to win a national championship.

It was pretty cool.  The city of Frankfort was literally right on the line of totality.  If you were on the northwest side of town you were out of the zone while if you were in the southeast side of town you were in the zone.   We ended up driving a few miles east and south and found a good quiet spot near Kirklin, surrounded by fields.   After the event the traffic going north on U.S. 421 north between Kirklin and Frankfort was very, very, very, busy.  Easily the most traffic I have ever seen on that road.

2 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

playing for a Natty in case you are wondering

Prediction:  UConn 85, Purdue 70