Made the mistake of looking at the stock market indexes today – ouch! Stocks are down about 18% in the last six months. That’s ugly news for us old retired folks.

What really worries me is that it’ll take at least a year to reverse some of the underlying causes of inflation and the market’s lack of optimism – oil supplies, the Ukraine war, the supply chain shitshow, airline capacity versus demand, the ongoing litigation of Trump and 2020, etc. This stuff doesn’t change fast, unlike prices at the pump.

And I am *really* worried about the 2024 elections. With Biden’s term not going so well, Trump and his followers are energized. Another four years of slouching toward right-wing authoritarianism won’t be good for anyone, economically or (especially) socially.

This is a long read, but it’s worth it. Anyone who says racism is dead in America should read this. School boards weaponized, a respected educator pretty much driven out of a GA county, truckloads of ignorance and hate revealed. Words like “equity”, “justice”, and “race” have become trigger words that inflame the mob. And the mob uses the label and lie of Critical Race Theory to work (white) people into a frenzy, when CRT simply isn’t a thing in K-12 education. It’s all a right-wing lie leading to a sad story.