January 17

It certainly doesn't look like winter. We got a bit of snow last week--enough that they had some snow removal people out and we had to remove snow from the car on Friday. But it is totally gone and we have had two days of rain. The temperature was just over 40F very early this morning. That is very unusual. A weather reporter noted over the weekend that our weather is more typical of early November than mid January.

Evidently Europe's mild winter has put a dent in Russia's finances. According to a report on the news this morning the weather is one of many factors easing somewhat Europe's energy crunch as imports of Russian gas and oil have plummeted. I have thought for sometime that countries, as a matter of national security, should source as many of their critical needs (medicine, energy, and food) from within their own boarders as much as possible. Under the spell of "globalization" most western nations (and probably others as well) have shifted that trade and manufacture to foreign countries some of which are not exactly friendly.

Another interesting story said that China's population has dropped by nearly 1 million thanks to the COVID epidemic and the falling birth rate. Someone once said a while ago that China's society was going to get old before it got rich and it appears that is now the case. That drop in population is the first since 1961.

I think we have seen this situation before and I really wish the voters would get tired of it. Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary, has sent a letter to Speaker of the House, Kevin "no spine" McCarthy, telling him that the country would bump up against the debt ceiling this coming Thursday and, if it isn't raised, the country risks a default by early June. In between some tactics of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" will mean some of the country's bills won't be paid on time. Ole Spineless has promised his MAGA/QAnon crazies that he won't bring a clean bill to the floor meaning that he will propose drastic budget cuts especially to "mandatory" spending programs (read Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid). He hinted that he might be amenable to capping the defense budget to 2022 levels (I think). William Hartung on Tomdispatch today has some interesting things to say about that bloated budget and the unsatisfactory weapons systems (read F35) that should have been cut long ago. A couple of commentators had some acidic things to say about Spineless's pious expressions of moral concern about the Dems being like kids who need to have their credit cards controlled by responsible adults since the largest increases in the debt which came during the Former Guy's administration. It seems they have only cared about the debt and deficits when Democrats are in the White House. And every time this comes up they want to balance the budget on the backs of those who have the least.

So a Republican Representative from Georgia claims that raising the age when people can apply for Social security makes sense because "people want to work longer." I always wonder who those people are. I took Social Security 13 years ago just before I turned 62 under my deceased ex-husband's account after being unemployed for nearly 2 years and after sending out a hell of a lot applications which netted only one interview during which I was told I was "overqualified." News Flash--a reasonably intelligent high school graduate would have been overqualified. What the interviewer really meant was she thought I was too old. I really do not want a new job and I no longer have the stamina. By the way, the woman I talked to at the Social Security office checked on how delaying my retirement til age 65, or 67, or 70, would affect what my benefits would have been. Answer--not at all. My next younger sibling who is now age 70 and retired at age 66. He couldn't physically delay retiring from a job that left him with spinal and joint damage that had already required surgeries. My much younger sister just retired at 62 with physical problems so she isn't interested in working longer and our youngest sibling a brother age 60 is on disability with serious health disabilities. People already have the alternative to work longer if they are physically and mentally able. We don't need to legally raise the age.