The Angry Bear

Having to file with the VA for issues resulting from being stationed at Camp Lejeune, I can see why such a maneuver by Koch Industries is frustrating. GP is attempting to avoid all responsibility. At least, the VA will hear you out. Then take their time deciding. One family friend (Marine) had to file three times before the VA accepted his claim. He died shortly afterwards. Georgia-Pacific’s Asbestos Trust Fund Opposed by Senators by Devin...

More People Moved Farther Away from City Centers Since Covid-19 by Lindsay Spell and Marc Perry CENSUS.Gov I guess people did not like the threat of catching Covid in crowded areas so they are going to the suburbs. Even if they are in less populous areas, they still will have to get the vaccines and distance themselves. ~~~~~~~~ In a possible sign of the COVID-19 pandemic’s lasting impact, the country’s fastest-growing places are...

By Robert Gundran copper courier Arizona is a strange state which makes Michigan appear to be sane. Obviously, politicians want to be in control and they are taking any method of doing so. This came about due to a bunch of Arizona judges decided to make abortion something very difficult to do. “With a stroke of a pen on Thursday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs struck down a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban. Just a day earlier, Democrats...

 – by New Deal democrat The FHFA and Case Shiller repeat sales indexes are the last home sales and price data for the month. Two months ago I wrote that “for the next seven months the comparisons will be against an average 0.7% increase per month in 2023. Because house price indexes have shown a demonstrated lead over shelter costs as measured in the CPI, if present trends continue, as these YoY comparisons drop out, the YoY deceleration in OER...

I chose three graphs off of the USA Facts Org. site to make points of where are immigrants coming from, the makeup of them, how the border apprehends them, and the numbers turned away or apprehended. There is a much longer, well detailed, and interesting version of this commentary at USA Facts Org. ~~~~~~~~ 2024 Current State of the Union: US Immigration by USA Facts Org. Some Summary Data Authorized immigration to the US rebounded...

When I was in high school and college in the 1970s, marijuana was (a) illegal and (b) plentiful. I may or may not have inhaled, but people I knew were certainly growing, drying, selling and buying dope at the time. From a public health standpoint, marijuana is more benign than alcohol and tobacco.I’m happy to see the cannabis industry taxed. Cannabis, while organic, isn’t exactly health food and certainly isn’t the staff of life. But from an economic...

Daniel is based in western Europe where he teaches. Many of his students write essays which he posts from time to time. WE are allowed to answer his students as to the accuracy or thoughts of the essays. I am sure the news he obtains about eastern Europe is far mor accurate than what we are getting in the US about Russia and its causalities. Putin’s choice: 500,000 casualties by Daniel Zetland The one-handed economist This figure...

In 2006, Joel Garreau (Smithsonian) wrote: “The United States’ population is growing at the rate of almost 1 percent per year, thanks in part to immigration and its secondary effects. Not only does the United States accept more legal immigrants as permanent residents than the rest of the world combined, but these recent arrivals tend to have more children than established residents—until, as their descendants attain affluence and education, the...

Memorial Day . . . I am sure everyone is out cooking burgers and hot dogs except in the desert where the temperature is triple digit. And what is this old Marine Sergeant gonna do? Certainly not get out in the heat. I will drink a beer to honor the friends I lost and in the silence of my home. No parades, no John Wayne movies, just silence and thinking of the times I drank a beer with them. Robert Reich has an interesting commentary up about...

Can you spare 21 minutes of your time? [embedded content] Ken Burns, H’24 Keynote Address to Brandeis University’s 2024 Graduates, youtube.com.Some easy listening . . . Tags: Ken Burns