Children’s neurological symptoms from COVID: https://www.woodtv.com/health/coronavirus/half-of-children-hospitalized-with-covid-develop-headaches-altered-mental-state/ . Nearly half of children hospitalized with COVID exhibit neurological symptoms, including headaches and an altered mental state. This should give considerable pause to those mischaracterizing COVID as a mild disease in children.
Omicron strain on hospitals continues: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hospitals-across-nation-under-unprecedented-strain-covid-deaths-pass-deltas-peak-updates/ar-AATesku?li=BBnb7Kz . Journalists continue to not understand COVID statistics. As we have already explained, Omicron has not caused more deaths than Delta, at least not yet.
Center for COVID Control looking more and more like a scam: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/center-for-covid-control-shuts-down-headquarters-amid-fbi-investigation-but-says-testing-sites-may-branch-off/ar-AAThxXb?li=BBnb7Kz .
WSJ: Vaccine mandate protest in Canada’s capital: https://www.wsj.com/articles/protesters-rally-in-ottawa-to-demand-end-to-canadas-covid-19-vaccine-mandates-11643506207 .
Schools in England reinstate mask wearing: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/29/schools-in-england-reinstate-mask-wearing-rules-as-covid-and-absenteeism-soar .
Daily COVID cases in Russia spike above 110,000: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-europe-russia-pandemics-68088e45ddb1c674147b47cbd1da3bcd .
WSJ: Turkey’s Erdogan decides to kill the messenger: https://www.wsj.com/articles/turkeys-erdogan-fires-statistics-chief-after-record-inflation-11643456492 . This comes after Erdogan’s bizarre policy to cut interest rates in the face of rising inflation. However, there is a cautionary tale here for anyone working to provide accurate statistics.
Millions of unemployed without jobless benefits: https://news.yahoo.com/unemployed-workers-cant-get-jobless-benefits-190358788.html . As we have been shouting for some time, the length of the pandemic has created long-term unemployed who exhaust their unemployment benefits. This article puts the figure at 3.8 million. Keep this in mind when you read our weekly comments on the unemployment rate each Thursday or Friday.
The global demographic destiny of work: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/collision-of-two-megatrends-will-upend-work-190729140.html . Here are links to the author’s promo of the book, which adds more information: https://www.thesuperage.com/ and https://www.thesuperage.com/book . Before you check out my comments, you may want to read the materials and decide what you think of his analysis.
His take on population aging is accurate, and he provides some interesting facts. However, his understanding of work reflects the 1980’s, not the future. Work is clearly becoming increasingly service-oriented and remote. Physical work will be extensively replaced by automation, as everyone knows. But so will lower-level service functions, as for example bookkeeping and accounting. The question is to what extent senior-level functions will be altered or reduced by AI. I anticipate significant change, and more rapidly than most “experts” expect.
The key to employment in the future will be cleverness – the ability to create and to think outside the box. And that, frankly, is the lesson of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and a host of others. It is also the key thing that will keep America on top, assuming we stay on top. Those masses who aren’t clever will be working in what’s left of the lower-level service and physical functions. These trends are likely to lead to significant global population declines. This aligns with the author’s prediction, but based on different reasons.
Choices for Russia over Ukraine: https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-what-options-could-russia-pursue-short-of-invasion-76163a3989bd6e4da3589d542bae32ee . The bottom line is, Putin did not take full advantage of the opportunities he had with Orange Julius at the helm. Putin may still try to take Ukraine. He may succeed. But the price will be far greater than it would have been with an uneducated incompetent who wouldn’t listen to his advisers. More: https://news.yahoo.com/putins-dangerous-gambit-to-invade-or-not-220406872.html . WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-presses-buildup-near-ukraine-as-diplomatic-prospects-narrow-11643464805 .
The challenge to Joe Rogan on Spotify increases: https://www.yahoo.com/now/willful-ignorance-joe-rogans-comments-blackness-challenged-vanderbilt-professor-083926371.html . “Willful ignorance” is an appropriate description. On several levels, it mirrors “fake news”. However, bigger words are involved. Also, it reminds us that this descriptor was applied (appropriately) to Orange Julius: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-willful-ignorance-science-killing-142439998.html .
WSJ: Even the GOP is beginning to understand that Governor Abbott is a screw-up: https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-gop-governor-faces-backlash-over-problems-with-national-guard-deployment-at-border-11643461204 . I asked yesterday if the Journal was improving. Here is a hopeful sign that WSJ will begin reporting on Abbott’s grandstanding rather than governing. Even so, the headline writers at the Journal transmute “a spate of suicides” to “poor morale”. Maybe improvement for the Journal is moving from 3 to 5 on a scale of 0 to 100.
More evidence that the GOP has no clue how government works: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/29/veteran-denied-absentee-ballot-texas-voting-law-beto-o-rourke . Of course, the majority of Texans most affected by this screw-up are Grumpy Old People. The GOP has managed to disenfranchise its own voters in the name of voter suppression.
GOP wallows in its racist ignorance: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-pushes-back-after-republican-senator-says-supreme-court-pick-will-be-beneficiary-of-affirmative-action/ar-AAThy9l?li=BBnb7Kz . Notice that Wicker has condemned the prospective nominee knowing nothing other than a Black female is coming. And when I say “knowing nothing”, that is an apt descriptor for this product of the state with the worst school system in the nation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Wicker .
Also notice that Wicker managed to condemn Justice Sotomayor, of Puerto Rican heritage, in the same stroke of his ignorant brush. What a disgraceful pig. One thing we can say for certain without knowing who the Black female nominee will be – she will be better educated and have more judicial experience than Justice Barrett. I’ll report back when the nomination is made.
Orange Julius fails to understand this newsletter: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-steve-bannon-joe-biden-donald-trump-crime-934c38eb247dd8839e8985ff966b7bc5 . As we pointed out 2 days ago, before anyone had raised this issue, the sentence length being handed out to the insurrectionists means virtually all of them have no realistic possibility of pardon. Sentences longer than 44 months are still likely for a few, for example the leader of the Oath Keepers. And remember, according to Stormy Daniels, it’s only a 4-inch dangle.
California confronts its Confederate past: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2022/jan/29/california-city-to-retain-confederate-generals-name-after-year-of-debate . Californians who dislike this answer might consider moving to Sheridan, Oregon, named after Union General Philip Sheridan. Sheridan served in the Pacific Northwest before the Civil War: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sheridan .
East Coast hit by “bombogenesis” storm: https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/bombogenesis-snowstorm-lashes-the-east-coast-canceling-thousands-of-flights-and-packing-hurricane-force-winds/ar-AAThbZI?li=BBnb7Kz . So apparently “bomb cyclone” was not enough for the journalistic community. WSJ: What new term?: https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-is-bomb-cyclone-noreaster-winter-storm-11643404618 . More on the storm: https://www.wsj.com/articles/winter-storm-churns-up-east-coast-with-blizzard-conditions-11643464558 . Right now, Nantucket sucks, according to the Journal.
Tom Brady to retire, probably, maybe: https://sports.yahoo.com/tom-brady-to-reportedly-retire-after-22-nfl-seasons-filled-with-comebacks-records-and-7-super-bowl-titles-193507540.html . If you wanted to watch tennis on Saturday, this was the best back-and-forth available. We should get clarification soon, perhaps. WSJ: More, maybe: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-brady-retire-buccaneers-patriots-11643485764 .