We havn’t heard anyone in the media refer to a recession recently have we? Is it because the president refuses to believe we are in fact in a recession because we’ve met the definition which is 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth? In any other administration, the media would be all over this issue and would be questioning the administration daily about it. But not the Biden administration. Uncle Joe’s denial has led the media to become silent, during an election year. The media wonders why 59% of the public have zero trust in them. If thr Republicans do take both Houses of Congress, thay habe a chance to stop all of this spending that’s been going on to cause this inflation as well as use current federal resources to help bring this crime wave to an end, If they did those 2 alone, it would be viewed as a successful Congress. Let’s see if they’re all talk and no walk.

It’s true that gasoline prices over the summer declined somewhat, not enough to justify the White House throwing a parade, but when fuel was around $5 per gallon and had fallen about $1 per gallon, at least there was an appearance of returning to normal, if only a psychological one. Selling off our Strategic Oil Reserve did help to alleviate the prices, to around 5 cents per gallon less than before. Of course, as I’ve said before, people driving less is why we saw a dramatic drop over the summer. If only there were a policy that could be quickly implemented that would take the strain off peoples income, over time. ALready, California is seeing prices rise substantially, and will probably cost. The president just announced selling another 15 million barrels from the Strategic Reserve to help alleviate the prices that are now rising again, as much as 50-60 cents in the last month. The sad part is that it won’t do anything because on a daily basis, we use around 22 million barrels. This is strictly a political ploy as the mid-term election approaches. It’s asking people to “look over here” instead of paying attention to the real issues they face daily.

I’ve written a few posts this year critical of Russia, and Vladimir Putin, over the unwarranted invasion of Ukraine. othing awful, but I didn’t spare my thoughts and still don’t today. I would probably not travel on my own to Russia today as even though I am not really a “voice” in America criticizing Russia not because my reach is so small, but it is a fact that countries like this do, in fact, look for people that may antagonize their public and. for authoritarian governments, that’s exactly the opposite they desire from anyone that visits their country. U.S. citixens have been arrested in a lot of countries for a lot of different reasons, like this guy, who dared tweet negatively about Saudi Arabia. Note the person is a dual citizen and therefore having been a citizen of KSA his entire life, anyone would think that yes, it is probably dangerous to openly criticize this government and not expect some retaliation when he visited there recently. I do have empathy for him, but good grief! Did hr not realize that hemight be a target for the Saudi government? Maybe not. The same with WNBA star, Brittany Griner who was recently sented to prison on drug possession charges. Nine years. Yes, I am sorry for her situation and yes, it’s possible that part of it is due to the strain in relations between our two countries over Ukraine. But still, she shoud’ve known what the laws in Russia were and abided by them. I used to trsvel overseas quite. bit and before I went to any country, there was always a briefing about obeying local laws. Knowing what was legal and not, If you were unsure, assume it’s illegal. You wont wind up in jail. Just some unrequested advice for all of you.

Well, this doesn’t bode well but it’s inevitable when a madman believes he is cornered and all about him are enemies. When defense ministers on the west are in frenzied conference about a possible nuclear detonation just as a show of strength., the world has to believe that more is possible and needs to be ready to respond to what may be more aggression be the Russians. We should assume all NATOP forces are currently on alert and although it’s too early to panic, governments need to be transparent with their populations to the extent they are able .These governments, hopefully lead by the U.S. will let Russia know what would be unacceptable in it’s attempt to save face over their abysmal performance in Ukraine. Stay tuned. Hopefully the media will carry this story as important and not push it off their desks as expected.

Believe it or not, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been an issue through multiple administrations as it operates virtually independently of any oversight to the extent that Congress ceded it’s authority to even fund the organization. There have been court cases in the past, but this is the first time a court, an appeals court, has agreed to a certainty that the institution is unconstitutional on it’s face. Yes, this is an agency that operates on it’s own and no one else in government has any say over any rules established or rulings made. This won;t be the final word . Expect an appeal to SCOTUS to finally resolve this agencies existence as a completely independent entity of the U.S. government.