News Vérité

I shop for groceries at least once a week, usually twice, so I can see how prices continue to rise despite protestations by our president to the contrary. Yes, eggs — with a one-time, sudden spike — have returned to earth price-wise, but I can’t think of a single other product that doesn’t continue to face inflationary pressures. Fortunately, I have a mortgage that is fixed rate, and I bought my house long enough ago that it is still (barely) affordable. I can’t imagine what it would be like today to find housing similar to mine for rent or sale. I couldn’t afford either lease or purchase, I guarantee you, not even in my highest-salaried days. I doubt few in the White House feel the financial pinch the rest of us do, and certainly not those in the President’s Inner Circle. The government dole extends to executive branch employees in generous ways that few out here in the hinterlands can rival. I realize that a president can’t go shopping in a grocery store for security reasons (though you once did man a McDonald’s window by yourself). Still, how about sending some people out weekly to check on prices in their

I live in the Stolen State, where just about everything — especially government-run or regulated enterprises — is a scam. I found this to be a painful truth when I chose to install solar panels on my roof. I chose to go solar after fires 50 miles from my home caused Southern California Edison (SCE) — a real scam artist company — to shut off my power twice for about four days at a time. They did this because, I believe, I live in Reagan Country, where people fly flags for Trump. The shutoff had nothing to do with the fires since they didn’t even shut down power 10 miles from the coastal blaze. We hear President Trump repeatedly refer to the “Green New Scam” when it comes to solar and wind energy. Even agreeing with this, I still found the sales pitch from Sunrun, a  home solar company, so strong that I bought into an installation. What a mistake. I just got a monthly bill from SCE for $197, more than I paid before going solar. Of course, SCE just got a 13.5 percent increase in rates from the state, but winter bills in the past were about $125 —

I recently read an article with the lengthy title, “Psychology says people who grew up in the 1960s and 70s learned 9 life lessons that are rarely taught today.” Well, I grew up in the 1960s and can’t think of a single thing I learned that can’t be learned today. The article, on some site called Global English Editing, listed things learned then but not now to include: Boredom was the birthplace of creativity Failure was allowed to sting Waiting was simply a part of life Unsupervised play was the norm Yaha, yada, blah, blah You can READ ALL NINE HERE Meanwhile, my experience from growing up back in the Dark Ages was that the Big Mac revolutionized eating in America and Disneyland revolutionized entertainment. Back then, of course, McDonald’s French Fries were cooked in delicious fat, and Disneyland was actually affordable and you could park within a five-minute-or-less walk. Anyway, my point being — I don’t have one except maybe that the Big Mac and Disneyland pretty much defined modern, postwar America. They and their offshoots still do.