• WOKEISM LOOKS FINALLY WANING IN AMERICA.  Not disappearing, but evolving into a “subculture that will remain entrenched in Human Resource departments enforcing risk-averse procedures and pro-diversity rhetoric for rear of employment lawsuits, controlled by a mass of highly educated, highly white and fairly feminine managers.  Not enough to run the country or all its major institutions, but also likely to achieve even greater hold over American universities due to the tenure system, low personnel turnover, and retirees replaced with younger faculty who are more left-wing.”  But ‘wokeism’ as a cultural priority has peaked, as people with common sense have tired of its “preachy, alienating, self-righteous overconcern with symbols of Racism and Social Injustice” – words which have lost all rational definition. Typical examples are San Francisco voters recalling School Board members (who focused on renaming schools for Political Correctness rather than on re-opening schools, and planning to replace grades & exam scores with a Lottery Admissions system) and by Virginia voters rejecting Critical Race Theory curriculum in schools (by electing a Republican Governor, House and Attorney General). It looks pretty clear that the wokeism force has thankfully ebbed.  [BLOOMBERG – 2/15/22]
  • LIKELIHOOD OF I.R.S. TAX AUDIT DIMINISHING IS HIGH.  With combination of pandemic shutdown, hiring shortages, inefficient practices, outmoded digital processing, with a backlog of now over 24 million tax filings, the agency reports that refunds are already being held up over ten months along with suspension of some collections and penalty enforcement including notices of tax liens.  Additionally, “beginning 2020, lawmakers deputized I.R.S. to send out varying rounds of Stimulus relief checks, adding immense pressure to act swiftly” as well as to gain political points. Recent attempts to recruit 5,000 positions have succeeded in hiring just a couple hundred agents, so if skitzy about audit of your personal or business returns, sleep a little easier[WASHINGTON POST – 2/11/22]
  • THE ASSET OWNERS OF STOCKS, BONDS AND REAL ESTATE HAVE BEEN MADE DRAMATICALLY WEALTHIER over the past several years, while renters, bank savers and those on fixed incomes made poorer, by action of the Federal Reserve – an agency controlled by “unelected elite so-called experts, that have close ties to Wall Street interests, migrating back & forth from the financial industry to the regulatory body that supposedly supervises them… Their policy of Quantitative Easing is what makes asset inflation possible, by injecting ‘Reserves’ to retail banks, investment banks & hedge funds at nominal interest rates… Their ability to take bold actions that affect every American (and the world) is because they feel (validly) that Congress is dysfunctional and cannot act appropriately, while continuing to impose more tasks on the Fed, such as engaging in the Left’s view of social justice and environmental reforms, all enabling massive increase in the size of government… Initially established as a program to deal with financial emergencies, it’s a story of ‘mission creep’ now impacting good times as well.”  [PRICKLY PEAR – 2/9/22] 
  • OLD FASHIONED ASSET PROTECTION is turning up in tear-down or remodel of old homes, with cash/coins/dividend checks/stock shares showing up stashed in jars inside toilet tanks;  plastic zipper bags & blocks of ice in freezers;  cereal boxes, coffee cans, flour bags on kitchen shelves; between pages of books & bibles;  stuffed under carpets, throw-rugs & floorboards; inside old trunk linings, false bottoms & secret side compartments, closet shoeboxes, clothing pockets & linings, chest drawers & vanities with false bottoms for jewelry. Check these spots especially when cleaning out parent or grandparent homes before sale.  [AARP – Feb/Mar 22]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

Apple Air Tag Caution:  A cheap and easy way to track everything – keys, wallet, purse, backpack – but the small button-sized device has also been used by stalkers and thieves to track people, stories have surfaced on social media of people finding Tags hidden in their belongings, and Canadian law enforcement report that Tags were being found in later stolen luxury vehicles.

For a quick refreshing pause, Lindsay Sterling violist: https://biggeekdad.com/2021/12/lindsey-stirling-guardian/  And for those who absolutely refuse to believe in Card Magic: https://biggeekdad.com/2019/02/shin-lim-magic-cards/

The best description of Congressional legislation these days may be from Nancy Pelosi: “We have to pass it, to find out what’s in it,” after which a physician supposedly called into a radio show and said: “That’s the definition of a stool sample.”

 Border Enforcement Comparisons:  In Korea, crossing illegally results in 12 years hard labor;  in Iran/ Saudi Arabia/ Cuba – jail indefinitely; Afghanistan – shot; China/ Venezuela – likely never heard from again.  But crossing the American southern border illegally, immigrants now can receive (based generally on arbitrary dictates of bureaucrats): free health care, welfare, food stamps, education, subsidized rent & even home loans, driver license, credit card, social security card, job, right to ‘protest’ against American law & culture, and in many cities/states the right to vote. What a surprise the caravans keep growing.