Stock market is at an all-time high, inflation and unemployment is down, as is the price of gas. The Fed suggests interest rate cuts are in the offing for next year. Yet people who weren’t around when there was negligible inflation or high interest rates and relatively high gas prices complain and blame it on Biden.

U.S. oil and natural gas production are at record levels, yet Trump wants to drill, baby, drill on his first day as president.

God save us from low-information voters!

Rep. Jim Jordan, who refused to comply with the Jan. 6 Committee subpoena, has the chutzpah to call for contempt proceedings against Hunter Biden for refusing to comply with the subpoena for a closed-door hearing. Despite the fact Hunter said he would comply if the hearing was aired publicly. I mean, really? What is there about this process that passes the smell test?

Oh, the craven hypocrisy of most anti-abortion politicians. They claim that abortion is murder and against their deeply-held moral beliefs. Yet they are willing to set time limits during which that murder can be allowed - just so they can get votes. Granted, some legislators are in favor of banning abortion at the moment of conception, but they’re in the minority (thank goodness!).

The college football playoff committee decided that one-loss teams should be chosen over an undefeated team in a Power 5 conference to play for the national championship. First time that has happened. Granted, Florida State lost their starting quarterback a few weeks ago, and though it won the conference title game, it didn’t “look” good doing so. So does the “eye test” trump record? Apparently so. But as Bill Parcells famously said, “ You are what your record says you are.”

#politics So Trump’s argument now against the effort to ban him from ballot listing is that his presidential oath included preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution, but did not include “supporting” the Constitution. Not that he wasn’t involved in an insurrection (which a judge recently ruled he was). So even if he was an insurrectionist, it doesn’t matter, because the Constitution says he must also have taken an oath to “support” the Constitution to be barred from the ballot.

When you consider buying a book on Amazon by an author you’re not familiar with but find glowing blurbs for it by famous authors that don’t even indicate they’ve read the book, be very skeptical. I just finished a book that had several praising blurbs by well-known authors. The book was so badly written that I wondered if an editor had been involved at all in its publication.

Rather than using these blurbs as a guide, read the reviews given by normal readers to get an idea of what to expect.

Oops, I meant unemployment rate, of course.

#politics When he was president, Trump bragged about having the greatest economy and the lowest employment rate in the history of the country - day after day. Say it enough times, people believe it, even if it’s not true. Biden actually has a better economic record, but does he constantly hype it? No. But it doesn’t matter, because under his watch we have inflation. And Joe Sixpack only cares about the price of gas and food, not the stock market or any other economic measurements.

#politics Biden has two chances to win next November: Trump becomes incapacitated or dies, or Trump gets convicted in one of his trials before the election. The first is possible, but unlikely; the second, based on the snail’s pace of the justice system, probably won’t happen, and even if it does, still might not be enough to get Trump supporters to switch or stay home. Color me discouraged, but I’m holding onto Yogi Berra’s aphorism: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

So SCOTUS will adopt a code of ethics, something it has already had unofficially, according to Roberts, in order to clear up a “misunderstanding” the public has about the Court. Oh, and there will be no enforcement/accountability for violations. Give me a break.

I get irritated (my bar is obviously low) whenever I hear a government official or news person pronounce Qatar as if it rhymed with butter. How did this mispronunciation get started? It should be pronounced Kuh-TAR. That’s how that country’s inhabitants pronounce it and how I learned it way back in grade school.

Yesterday’s election results give me hope that democracy can survive the forces aligned against it.

Let me get this straight. College football coaches scouting opposing teams’ games to see what they do is illegal? Because secret “signs” might be on display? Give me a break.

Maybe I’ve been streaming too many series like Suits and Billions, where revocation of professional licenses occur with one board hearing, but I’m perplexed over how long Eastman’s trial over his law license is taking. Months, and no decision yet!

RIP, Bobby Knight. You were not a nice person, but a helluva good basketball coach.

Here’s the reason the MLB playoffs are what they are today.
https://apple.news/AaPUjWBNETJmFMOANNtz_Xw

It’s supposed to be the best against the best, as determined by a season’s record, not just survivors of short series. A barely .500 team can now enter the crapshoot that is today’s MLB playoff system and knock off, in just three games, a team that has proved itself one of the best by winning more than 100 games. There should be a better, fairer way to do this.

#MLB In the old days, the winner of the American League (most wins in the season) would play the winner of the National league for the World Series title. But now, with all those added teams and the creation of wild cards and divisions and multiple playoffs, the process has become almost silly. Any team can beat another two out of three or three out of five. The best teams in the leagues can be eliminated before ever getting to the World Series, as has happened many times. Is that what we want?

Two from my it-looks-so obvious-now-but-it’s-too-late list:
1. If only Israel had given over the West Bank to be a Palestinian state years ago. It was extra territory, after all - not a part of the original Israel.

2. If only Israel had not given over control of Gaza to Hamas. What the hell were they thinking? That an extremist Muslim organization that pledged to kill Jews and wipe Israel from the face of the Earth would change its mind and be peaceful neighbors?

Of course Hamas knew that Israel would respond ferociously to its brutal attacks and that it would devastate Palestinians living in Gaza. They don’t care, obviously. They know that Israel will take international heat for the humanitarian disaster that will ensue. The Palestinians are pawns that will be sacrificed in Hamas’ determination to obliterate Israel.