Attribution to flickr user Phil Guest

Looking at the headlines this morning, most of them discouraging, I felt like screaming. Decided to google “primal scream”. The image above is an image of the Scottish Band “Primal Scream”. There you go. Was going to title this chirp “Potpourri” Found out a new thing this morning. Potpourri is a mixture of dry naturally fragrant plant materials, used to provide a gentle natural scent. There you go.

US jobs report came out. 261,000 jobs added in October, higher than the 200,000 predicted. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6%, up from a 50 year low of 3.5% in September. So, it is a good thing that more jobs were added than predcicted. Right? Nope. Because with the current high inflation, the more jobs created, the higher the inflation rate could go. Oh. Then maybe a lower number would have been better. Right? Well no. Too low a number of jobs added could start a recession. Don’t want that either. No win.

With regard to inflation. The latest inflation rates for the G20 countries range from 2.8% in China to 85.51% in Turkey. Canada had a rate of 6.9% and the US 8.2%. Our countries are doing fairly well when compared to countries such as the UK – 10.1%, Germany – 10.4%, Italy – 11.9%, and the Netherlands at 14.5%. Inflation is a global problem, resulting from a number of external causes, like COVID, a inequity in demand versus supply and the Russia invasion. These are factors all beyond national government control. Yet ruling governments in each country usually get the blame from opposition parties. Inflation is a key issue in the upcoming midterms in the US. The Republicans could gain control of the House and Senate because of this issue. Yet, if they do take control, they will likely take the same approach short term UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, whose best before date ended up being shorter than a head of lerttuce, took during her reign. Did not end up too well

There is Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Prime Minister, who looked like his political career was over after being indicted for bribery and fraud. Yet, after the latest election, Netanyahu will again become Prime Minister later this month.

Talking about rising from the dead, Donald Trump’s team is looking at the third week of November for Trump to announce his run for the 2024 Presidential election. This is going to happen even tbhough Trump and his organization is facing criminal prosecution on a number of fronts.

In response to the anticipated announcement, DOJ is looking at a Special Counsel to investigate Trump’s alleged criminal activities. A Specialk Counsel will be needed because it would just look bad for Biden’s DOJ to investigate a potential presidential competitor. What a mess.

In other great (sarcasm) news, Russia is ramping up its terrorism in Ukraine by attacking Ukranian energy infrastructures, with the goal of having Ukranians freeze this winter. Russia is now getting military support from North Korea and Iran. Just great.

More good news (sarcasm again), Elon Musk is looking at, and already starting, laying off 75% of the Twitter workforce. So much for guard rails.

In our country, the Emergency Act Inquiry continues. The Freedom Convoy organizers have had a few days to testify this week. When questioned by their own lawyers, they have been able to tell (spew) their version of events. Some have broken crying saying how proud they were that Canad ianunited against the government and how the time in Ottawa was a love fest. (Just like January 6 in the US, I think you get the gist of my sarcasm by now). Yet when they have been cross examined, their memories start failing them. Funny how that is.

More good news this morning. It is being reported that a former member of Prime Minister Trudeau’s security team leaked out his schedule. It has since come out that this former member was an anti-vaccer. Ontario using the notwithstanding clause has forbidden provincial education workers from striking. They are striking anyways. Finally. It just came out that while only 10,000 Canadian jobs were predicted to be added in October, a whopping 108,000 jobs were added. Fantastic! Oh wait. Does this mean the inflation rate is going to go up? Crap.