America’s friends of limited government have had a rough go lately. Government bureaucrats and spenders of all stripes have been living it up.

Since 2001, the last time the federal budget was balanced, federal revenues have shown a healthy growth of 3.9% annually, while inflation averaged only 2.5%. These figures would normally signify a sound, sustainable economy. But spending has grown at a rate of 5.5%, so instead we have a destabilizing gross federal debt of $36 trillion.

United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson was killed on Wednesday in New York City.  Written on the shell casings left by his killer were the words “Deny,” “Defend,” and “Depose,” which suggests this was not a random killing.  NYC police have been investigating the fact that UnitedHealthcare has been under attack recently from People’s Action Institute — a leftist organization with a leftist name whose website describes their goals thusly:  “Advance a long-term agenda for racial, economic and gender justice by investing in powerful state and local organizations and campaigns that win real change in people’s lives.”  Why can’t leftists just come out and say what they want?  I can think of only one possible explanation, and it’s not good.

Anyway, People’s Action Institute released the following statement recently about Medicare patients getting denied coverage.  They mentioned no specific cases, but said:
“Despite having health insurance coverage, people are experiencing barriers to receiving care. The largest barrier to receiving care is the private health insurance corporations themselves refusing to authorize or pay for care.”  
These people have apparently never heard of Canadian or British healthcare systems.  They have also never heard of Obamacare, apparently, in which millions of people have health insurance but can’t get health care.  They’re shocked. SHOCKED!

Leftists demand that government pay for health care.  So we get Medicare.  Today, Medicare has a $1 trillion dollar budget, 75% of which is deficit spending.  And even with that, Medicare can’t come close to meeting the health care needs of elderly Americans.  So it allows them to buy secondary insurance, to help cover that which Medicare just can’t afford.  And even with that, the private insurance companies can’t cover everything, either.  We eventually run out of other people’s money.  And guess who leftists get mad at?  Private insurance companies.

Its that time of year:

Source: National Action Network website

In a society based on centralized control (leftist, socialist, communist, whatever), there is really only one way to get ahead.  You must figure out who has political power, befriend them, and do favors for them.  There is no reason for you to help the common man, so you focus on those in power.  Everything is in one pie, and if you want a piece of that pie, you must serve those above you.

The House Oversight Committee has exhaustively confirmed what should have already been well-known about the origins of COVID-19 but for the concerted effort by the governments of China and the USA with the cooperation of zealously anti-Trump media to promote a lie.

The initial rise of COVID-19 cases in the northeast USA and Western Europe simultaneously began in mid-March 2020 and initially peaked in mid-April.  However, virologists had already analyzed the virus in January, and Anthony Fauci knew he had a problem. It was already clear that the virus was very unlikely to have a natural origin.

As of today, it appears to be the new (attempted) spin that Biden did not lie.  Circumstances changed. He considered what was best for his family and he then changed his mind, which means he was sincere earlier when he said he would not issue a pardon for Hunter.  Therefore, he did not lie. Sure.

The arrival of the second Trump presidency has brought out latent tensions in the troubled area of energy policy. Over a four-year period, the Democrats, under the leadership of Jor Biden, have made it their highest priority to turn away from fossil fuels to alternative forms of energy, most notably wind and solar. The key argument for this position was, and remains, that the existential threat of continued global warming makes it critical to adopt stern responses lest—in the words of Inside Climate News—Trump, along with people like Chris Wright, who has been tapped to lead the Department of Energy, manage “to turn the US into a pariah petrostate.”

At the political level, the current trend works in sharp opposition to the Biden administration’s nonstop initiatives that began on day one in 2021 with the shutdown of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which resulted in the cancellation of the project by TC Energy some six months later. TC Energy is a Canadian outfit operating in Alberta, whose Premier Jason Kenney reported that he was “disappointed and frustrated” by the unilateral cancellation without consultation.

Call this a sequel to She’s “Girl, Just Keep Your Legs Together, And All Will Be Well!” She just turned 70. When I turned 50, I thought nothing of it. I didn’t feel old, and actually, I still don’t. All the years between 50 and 60, I never thought much about retirement, being old, or what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Back in the middle of May, I had a cake with more candles than midnight Mass at St. Paul’s Cathedral. BOOM! It’s time to be responsible and start thinking about retirement. I know. I’m a procrastinator. I’m getting around to fixing that.

I started watching Holy Schmidt on YouTube. He is a financial guy with the perfect amount of dorkiness. Great guy with a lot of good advice. I came up with a financial plan that works for me. I won’t be driving a new Teletubby Jaguar but I’ll be fine. I hear they have TRANSmission problems anyway. I’ll get by but I’m looking for another line of work that has nothing to do with programming or managing people. I’ve had enough of both. Except for people I actually want to talk to, and using my computer to send invoices will be okay, too.