• “FLEXIBLE EMPLOYERS WERE A PANDEMIC BLIP… The empathetic, understanding, coddling bosses and perks” are fast disappearing in most professional work sectors, with major layoffs so far this year (over 100K tech industry alone). New workers are being hired in Contract roles rather than as full-time employees, with corporate emphasis on the ‘bottom line’ – especially after a recent Microsoft report describing a “paranoia in which 85% of managers questioned whether their remote workers were effective.” Talk of the ‘Great Resignation’ last year had employers scrambling to keep as many of the 88 million professional workers happy, including abandonment of the 9 – 5 workday, shut-down Fridays, along with support for DEI social issues. Today, employer demands are back up to 60-hour in-office workweeks in some sectors, deprioritizing commitments to diversity & gender equality (that arose in the wake of #MeToo), with focus on bottom line profits. Reality is that these changing employer attitudes may negatively impact profits, since engaged workers generally perform more effectively than those resentful for loss of work-balance flexibility and benefits.  Just another critical factor in the direction of U.S. economy.  [TIME – 2/21/23]
  • “NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY REMAINS A PRIORITY, BUT WITHIN LIMITS,” according to the World Health Organization’s just released ‘Pandemic Treaty’ – to which the Biden Administration has negotiated and signed on – which “goes into effect on a provisional basis as soon as signed by any delegates to the WHO, and is legally binding without being ratified by the 194 nation members’ legislatures.” The Treaty draft effectively grants Geneva-based WHO a “medical police state, with power to declare & manage any global pandemic emergency…under sole authority of its Director-General, regarding treatments, government regulations such as lockdowns & vaccine mandates, global supply chains, preventing doctors from prescribing non-vaccine treatments or medicines, and monitoring/surveillance of populations… The document was deliberately drafted to circumvent our Senate’s constitutional power to ‘Advise & Consent’ to treaties, while this Administration is attempting to appeal to international organizations to impose policies that have been rejected by America’s voters.” [EPOCH TIMES – 2/18/23]
  •  TERMS LIKE ‘TRIGGER’ AND ‘SAFE SPACE’ HAVE BEEN “STOLEN FROM THE SELF-HELP THERAPY MOVEMENTS and utterly bastardized in a way opposite from initial intent… ‘Denialism’ is the latest, labelling someone who disagrees with current standard-think (covid/ climate/ election integrity/ science/ etc.) …the term Denier is now bandied about to immediately end debate and tar any difference of opinion as literally insane, depicting anyone who ever disagrees as stupid and evil… Endemic amongst the woke, while appropriate when involving difference of Opinions with reasonable and appropriate debates over whether something did, or is going to happen. But, current usage implies stupidity – like ‘how can a person disagree?!’…. Those who toss the Denier term about are also the same people who ignore denigrate, and outright block any attempt to actually figure out what exactly happened, so evading any impartial investigation allows declaring with confidence that ‘no investigation has ever found fault,’ thus claiming final, determinative & certain Truth of their positions.” Bizarre, but supported by today’s power & audience-focused media. [BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE – 2/23]
  •  THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

The average age of children opening their own social media accounts is now 12, with 45% of teenagers saying they are online ‘almost constantly.’ 3 of every 5 teen girls face depression & anxiety (according to CDC), with “dramatic increases showing in experiences of violence, poor mental health and suicidal thoughts. One of the best possible ways to protect children’s’ well-being is to “take their smartphones away, with no social media or internet until reaching an age where mentally capable of understanding and handling the consequences.”  [WASHINGTON EXAMINER]

The upcoming ‘Debt Ceiling’ politics are among the more incongruous games of congressional delegates, providing a media excuse for even more diversion from immediate crises. An explicit ‘Ceiling’ defines a constraint limit on the gap between spending and revenues which should be implicit in every spending Bill which gets passed along the way. Instead, the process for separate annual political gamesmanship puts the Executive Branch in a position of picking which laws it will then favor or not along the way. Just what Americans need: more opportunities for diversion of focus.