Monday's podcast: The week in review with Bill Katz the editor of Urgent Agenda

Monday's podcast:     

The week in review with Bill Katz the editor of Urgent Agenda

Twitter and the 2020 election........Trump talks too much......Outside money in Senate campaigns.......Pearl Harbor 1941.....and other stories..

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No Feliz Navidad for many in Mexico

 (My new American Thinker post)

It was not easy to read this report.  After all, the victims in this story are children.  This is from Jessica Guerrero over at Pulse News Mexico:  

The constant climate of extreme violence in which Mexico has lived since the start of the so-called drug war in 2006 has left a huge red stain in the modern history of the country. 

From 2006 to 2021 alone, it is estimated that 350,000 people were killed in the country because of drug wars and power struggles between cartels and other organized crime groups, and at least 72,000 people have been missing since then, more than 30,000 of whom have disappeared during the last four years under the watch of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

This situation by itself has had a great impact on the quality of life of Mexicans, but it is especially the nation’s children and adolescents who have had to bear witness to the most atrocious side of the violence generated by organized crime. Just under AMLO’s administration alone, so far 4,090 minors have been murdered.

According to statistics, an average of seven children are killed under violent circumstances every day in Mexico, 70 percent of them by firearms. Such numbers even surpass those of Syria, which has been in a civil war since 2011.

The incidence of these murders is concentrated mainly in the states of Michoacán, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Jalisco and Zacatecas. The security conditions that these states face due to disputes between local criminal groups have favored the rise of violent crimes against Mexican children.

Why children? As in Chicago, they are often at the wrong place at the wrong time.  

What is the Lopez-Obrador government doing about this? So far nothing, as most of my Mexican friends say. They are embracing something called "hugs not bullets," or a dismal policy that projects weakness or a lack of interest in addressing the violence. The criminal elements in Mexico look at the weak president in Mexico and the chaos on the U.S.-Mexico border and have concluded that it's a good time to move drugs and people.

So the violence persists and more children get killed when both sides pull the trigger.  It's a horrible story as many of us get ready to cheer the Christmas season with our families. For many south of the border, there won't be a "Feliz Navidad" this year and probably not one for a long time.

P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

 

Senate elections are way too national

 (My new American Thinker post)

In a few days, we will know whether the Democrats have a 51-49 majority or we are back to 50-50.  In the meantime, we read about the costly campaign in Georgia.  So much money, or so they say:

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock's campaign has almost three times as much cash on hand as Republican candidate Herschel Walker's heading into the final stretch of Georgia's runoff Senate election, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.

Warnock, who is trying to defend his seat in a tight race, had just over $29 million on hand as of Nov. 16. Walker, a former NFL player and favorite of ex-President Donald Trump, had over $9.8 million on hand heading into the final weeks of the election.

The filings show fundraising data for each candidate from Oct. 20 — days before the midterm elections — through Nov. 16. Warnock's campaign raised $52 million during that time period, compared with Walker's nearly $21 million, records show.

Do they have that kind of money in Georgia, or are outside interests writing checks?  According to Bloomberg, "Out-of-State Money Is Flooding Midterm Races — and Drowning Out Local Issues."

I thought senators were supposed to represent states, but it looks different.  They used to be chosen by state legislatures, but now they are like a presidential election, attracting the kind of national coverage, and money, that changes everything.

So maybe we should repeal the 17th Amendment and let the legislatures choose the senators.  I know that nothing is perfect, but the current system is too national rather than local.  After all, they are supposed to represent Georgia, not California.

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

Gaylord Perry and complete games

(My new American Thinker post)

The legendary Gaylord Perry died this week at age 84.  Along with his brother Jim, also a successful major league pitcher, he was raised in North Carolina back when boys used to work at the farm rather than play video games.  This is from The Society of Baseball Research:   

Gaylord Jackson Perry was born September 15, 1938, to tenant farmers Evan and Ruby. Gaylord’s older brother James also had a long major league pitching career, and younger sister Carolyn completed the family. Evan Perry was a great athlete who played both baseball and football, and reportedly turned down a minor league contract because his family could not afford to have him leave their farm. Evan and Ruby had a 25-acre parcel of land, where they grew tobacco, corn and peanuts for money (sharing half with the landowners), and raised animals and additional vegetables to feed their own family.

Gaylord and Jim began plowing the fields with a mule at the age of seven, and Gaylord’s earliest childhood memories were of working on the farm and wanting to be a cowboy. The Perry boys were luckier than most--their father loved baseball and gave them as much free time as practical so that they could pursue the game. Jim and Gaylord both began playing ball with their father during their lunch break, and later all three played on the same local semi-pro team.

From 1962 to 1983, he pitched in the majors and did some pretty amazing things:  314 wins, 2-time Cy Young Award winner, a no-hitter, 4-time 20 games winner, an amazing 3.11 ERA over 5,350 innings and 3,534 strikeouts.  Like Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry did not play for good teams so his overall record has to be understood in that context.  His only post-season appearance was in 1971 with the Giants.  

However, his greatest accomplishment was completing games, or a rarity these days of counting pitches and computer statistics.  He completed 303 games of the 690 that he started.  Talk about you won't see that again.  Of course, all of these numbers put him in The Hall of Fame in 1991.

I don't know whether he threw a lot of spitballs but the batters said yes. Back in the 1972 All Star Game, Henry Aaron hit a HR off Perryand said: “The pitch I hit off him was a spitter. It wasn’t one of his best spitters, but it was a spitter..”    

I saw him pitch a few times and he was constantly touching his cap and jersey driving batters and the other dugout crazy like what we remember from the 1973 season when the Yankees could not take it anymore:    

In June of 1973, literally taking matters into his own hands, Yankee manager Ralph Houk charged the mound, pulled the cap from Perry’s head, tossed it on the ground and kicked it. 

After the game, in which third base coach Dick Howser was ejected during another greaseball allegation, Yankee outfielder Bobby Murcer lamented, “If the league president or commissioner had any guts, they’d ban the pitch.” Murcer was fined for his comments, but did not back off.

On June 29 ABC-TV filmed a Perry outing, and the next day, on Wild World of Sports, Bobby Bragan provided expert commentary to Howard Cosell while reviewing the film. 

Bragan, an old adversary of Perry’s from the National League, claimed he saw several greaseballs, further showing the world that Perry was getting the stuff from his armpit. Perry was livid, claiming that Bragan had privately told him he had seen nothing suspicious. 

After another game, the league chemically analyzed a batch of balls that Perry had used and pronounced him clean.

In the end, he got the "W" and another complete game. Call it mind games -- it worked every time and Gaylord laughed all the way to the 27th out.

RIP Gaylord Perry.  Maybe Gaylord can tell Saint Peter that all of this stuff about spitballs was fake news.  And don't be surprised if Saint Peter gives him a funny look.  

P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

Friday's podcast: The Twitter story and Hunter Biden plus more

The Twitter story and Hunter Biden....Democrats rearrange their primaries....Cold Winter in Europe......Gerald Ford became VP 1973...Fidel Castro 1961.........And other stories....

click to listen:

Friday's video: The Twitter story and Hunter Biden....Democrats rearrange their primaries.....

Friday's video: 

The Twitter story and Hunter Biden....Democrats rearrange their primaries.....

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

 

Janet, this is annoying!

 (My new American Thinker post)

All due respect to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, but your inflation quotes are getting annoying. Please stop it Madame Secretary, because this is not good for your reputation or parents budgeting for Christmas.

We recall that back in June she admitted failing to anticipate how long high inflation would continue.  Stephen Colbert did not ask her about that, but what do you expect from that show?  

In September, she said inflation remained a problem.

Just this week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said: "no clear progress toward lower inflation".

Janet please call Jerome, and I don't mean getting an update on the World Cup games.  Ask him about inflation.

'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is not exactly a place to discuss something serious.  During the conversation, the secretary was asked about inflation.  And she said:  

Yellen argued the administration managed the COVID-19 pandemic so well that consumers felt comfortable to "splurge" on goods.   

"So we had a rapid recovery from the pandemic," she said, arguing Biden's policies brought unemployment down from 7% to 3.7%.

"It turned out the pandemic had very special impacts on the economy. Remember, everybody stopped spending on services," she pointed out, as businesses were shut down. 

Instead, people spent more money on "grills," "technology" and office equipment as they were working from home.

"They were in their homes for a year or more, they wanted to buy grills and office furniture, they were working from home, they suddenly started splurging on goods, buying technology," she claimed, which led to supply chain "bottlenecks."

Later in the interview, Yellen also blamed Russia for the increase in food and gas prices.

The secretary did not say a word about a surge in federal spending under President Biden or high energy prices as a result of a war on fossil fuels.  She did not say that unemployment rates are simply going back to the pre-Biden levels.  In other words, the Biden administration inherited an economy in recovery and then screwed everything by blowing trillions of dollars.

She is now blaming inflation on the great Biden economy and how the consumers love it so much that they can't stop spending all of those dollars.

I guess that's why they go on Colbert or "The View" -- to tell us how great they are doing.

P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

Thursday's podcast: Secretary Yellen and inflation, Another court said no to college loans & more

Thursday's podcast:   

Secretary Yellen and inflation, Another court said no to college loans & more....

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Sunday's video: Secretary Yellen and inflation, Another court said no to college loans & more

Secretary Yellen and inflation.....Another court said no to college loan bailout....Rail strike......Iranians cheer for US team.....Arizona election......Gaylord Perry (1938-2022)......And other stories.... 

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

November ends with a bad jobs report

 (My new American Thinker post)

November started with talk of a red wave, turned into the GOP winning the House by a small majority, and closes with a bad jobs report: 

Private hiring slowed sharply during November in a sign that the historically tight labor market could be losing some steam, according to a report Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP.

Companies added just 127,000 positions for the month, a steep reduction from the 239,000 the firm reported for October and well below the Dow Jones estimate for 190,000. It also was the lowest total since January 2021.

The relatively weak total comes amid Federal Reserve efforts to loosen up a jobs picture in which there are still nearly two open positions for every available worker. The central bank has raised its benchmark borrowing rate six times this year, but the unemployment rate is still 3.7%, near the lowest since 1969.

“Turning points can be hard to capture in the labor market, but our data suggest that Federal Reserve tightening is having an impact on job creation and pay gains,” said ADP’s chief economist, Nela Richardson.

Having an impact on job creation?  So does the last paragraph mean that the recession is here or knocking on the door?   The markets reacted cautiously to mixed economic signals and wait for the Fed's next move.

The jobs report confirms that it will be a rough ride for the Biden administration in the near future.  Jobs report, rail strike, diesel shortage, and a few others.  It's time for Pres. Trump to stop having dinner with controversial characters and leave the front page to President Biden's economy.  

P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.