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The debate raged during my youth whether you starved a cold and fed a fever, or the other way around.

In reality, it is best to supply ample nutrition and hydration for both ailments.

When it comes to curing an attention whore, there is no debate. Just starve him or her. That is, deny them the attention they so desperately crave to make palatable their otherwise shallow existence.

Along that line, I went to the Monday meeting of Southmont Borough Council looking to blend into the background. No sense giving any added attention to those craving same. I would not avail myself of the five-minute window council provides to interested spectators to make a statement on items under consideration.

But, after watching the customary blend of profane bullying alternating with playing the victim card, I felt compelled to join into the discourse. Borrowing a page from the usual antagonists, and with the customary pre-meeting signup sheet seemingly having been dispensed with, I maneuvered myself into the final speaking slot.

I highlighted outright conflicts in what I had heard by some earlier speakers, dispensed a personal experience or two, and sat down.

Back home, in the calm of night with others asleep, it’s time to embark on dishing out the starvation diet. The blog entry will attempt to avoid totally providing specific attention to the addicts.

Blog metrics reveal quite a few checks of the home page already in recent hours, without actually viewing a post. Perhaps anticipating this offering as an attention snack?

Sorry. No soup for you.

The meeting began with a rare moment of agreement as all seemed to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

This was a curious meeting, with some members phoning in, and being delayed in voting because of the communications lag, or commenting late, thereby providing some light diversion.

There was a lot of back and forth on semantics regarding an ordinance, such as what exactly is a large truck.

In a bit of unintentional amusement, there was an attempt by antagonists to portray themselves as people of peace and love.

Mostly, the big news was the passing of an ordinance designed to quell parking abuse as a sort of vendetta for some lost court cases regarding claims to ownership of a paper alley.

Whether or not this will resolve the issue and return the neighborhood to a more tranquil existence remains to be seen.

What is clear is that residents aggrieved by outrageous actions went through the system to address their concerns and perhaps received some redress.

The borough solicitor, after the official meeting had ended, advised those in attendance to do something similar in urging our district attorney to take an interest in addressing ongoing disruptions of the meetings in a bastardization of free speech.

I wrote my email to the DA before compiling this post. Hopefully, he will follow the path of Southmont Council and get on the right page, eventually.

To have lived decades in Greater Johnstown is to have experienced the steady drip of losses year after year after year.

In no particular order, during my lifetime I’ve seen us lose our steelmaking industry, a host of supporting companies, most of our underground coal mining, our low crime rate, a large amount of our population, many of our formerly desirable residential areas, downtown department stores, hilltop malls, local ownership of media outlets, functioning infrastructure and even success at the once-proud Johnstown High School football program.

Of late, we’ve gotten word of another impending loss, that being the Thunder in the Valley motorcycle event that likely won’t be back next summer. I’ve written of this before, but felt compelled to write again because the local newspaper was out with yet another tale regarding Thunder in its most recent weekend edition.

Curiously, the story led with the assertion that putting a “precise” economic value on what losing the event would cost “is not possible.” I’ve been saying that for years, but from the standpoint that the impact is overestimated in keeping with promoting the all-tourism-all-the-time mantra we hear constantly being pitched as our economic salvation.

The thing that stuck out in my mind is that I seem to recall vividly the $20 million number being offered a lot in regard to Thunder.

As an aside, I pride myself on my memory, although a flood of TV advertising suggests someone my age (68) needs chemical aid to recall what they had for yesterday’s dinner.

In a self-performed memory test, just last week I called a former Tribune-Democrat colleague, Mike Mastovich, who is the hockey history guru of Johnstown.

I was recalling the days when we had a very good minor league team, the Jets, and they played a Czech national team. I wanted Mike to confirm my recollection that it was in the late 1960s, possibly 1968, and the Czechs had won, 8-4. He checked this in one of his books. Bingo. Bingo. Bingo.

Further research by me revealed that earlier in 1968 the Czechs had won silver medals at the Winter Olympics, behind the Soviet Union team and ahead of the Canadian team.

The Jets eventually became another another Johnstown loss decades back, to be replaced by the Chiefs and now the current Tomahawks, who will end up leaving some day, too.

Back to Thunder: A quick internet search confirmed my $20 million recollections to be accurate.

I found entries on the WJAC-TV web site for 6/27/17 ($20 million) and for 6/28/21 ($20 million).

There also was a 5/23/20 posting on the Tribune-Democrat’s web site, under the byline of the very same guy who wrote the Saturday 9/16/23 piece. That 2020 story, lamenting the COVID forced cancellation of Thunder, cited an “estimated $15 million to $20 million annually” pumped into the region by the event.

There was no citation for the source of this estimate. But I’m wondering how just a few years later the best the story could do was an estimate of “millions of dollars” with the disclaimer that exact numbers are impossible to determine?

Why not recycle the oft-used $20 million estimate?

Allow me to leave you with a story, perhaps apocryphal, that I’ve seen attributed to the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

As the story goes, Churchill inquired of a woman at a dinner whether she would sleep with him for a million pounds (back when British pounds were worth much more than U.S. dollars). She would.

Churchill was then said to have asked, “What about five pounds?” to which the indignant woman replied words to the effect of, What sort of woman do you think I am?

Replied Churchill: We’ve already established that. We’re just haggling about price.

A long time ago — as I recall it was during a dinner having to do with a forthcoming boxing program at the War Memorial Arena — I was having a debate with a sports guy from a local TV station about journalism.

He was being his usual pompous self, indulging in orgy of self-promotion. I pointed out he actually was in show business, not journalism. Oh, he sniffed, and what do you mean by that? was basically his comeback.

Said I: “Because before I sit down at the keyboard to write, I don’t feel the need to slap on a wig and makeup.”

So it was often in discourse between print guys and TV types, the latter ones being those whom a print colleague used to dismiss as the “blow-dry boys.”

Understand, there were and are some very good TV journalists. But there were and are more superficial types on the TV screen.

Did you ever wonder why most whom you see on TV news or sports, particularly at the network level, are above average in terms of physical attractiveness? Are they truly the best journalists, or simply the best looking?

How about those sideline babes during sports broadcasts? I can think of only one prominent example who is not extremely attractive physically.

On the other hand, your average newspaper type (and I include myself in this category as a retired example) tends to be below-average in the looks department.

I tell you all this because my thoughts are on journalism today, for reasons both local and national.

First, the local. I tuned in a noon news broadcast Wednesday so my wife might see the weather, which for some reason she considers worth the effort. I tell her to dial up accuweather.com or weather.com on a computer or her smart phone at any time and she will get what she needs without having to sit through tedious reports on the latest about Centre County, Altoona, Clearfield or DuBois – this from a station whose main building sits in Upper Yoder Township less than two miles from my house.

On this day, the local anchor was relaying the arrest of the escaped murderer in Eastern Pennsylvania, an illegal immigrant by the way.

The video showed a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman, a Lt. Col. George Bivens. I’m thinking since it’s a rank before his name, he’d be a Lieutenant Colonel.

But the gifted journalist reading the script referred to him as a “Lieutenant Colonial.”

Call the Peabody Award people and don’t forget the Emmys.

Even as this fresh take on ranks was being shared, word nationally was that the White House Legal Counsel’s Office, an arm of the Biden Regime, had put out a warning to media covering the Impeachment inquiry regarding Biden.

Since the nation’s justice department, along with select state justice operations in deeply blue cities, have been weaponized to Get Trump!, the letter had all the earmarks of a this-could-happen-to-you communique.

Think of the scene in the movie “The Godfather” when the severed head of an enemy’s prize horse was left in said enemy’s bed. He got the you-could-be-next message as judged by his hysterical screaming.

It speaks volumes, considering the typical lapdog approach of LameStream media in covering Biden’s many foibles, that such a warning to the media even was thought to be needed from the Biden machine.

Perhaps it was due to their shock and horror that CNN, a usually dependable propaganda arm, had the temerity to fact-check Biden on many things, including the false claim that he had been at Ground Zero a day after the 9/11 attacks.

When a reporter asked a Biden spokesman about several of these Biden mistruths, the guy totally ducked the question.

But CNN, of all places, actually chronicled a bunch of Biden’s baloney. They began with the 9/11 claim. He actually got there nine days after the attack, not the next day.

CNN also recounted three instances in the same recent speech of Biden misstating facts ranging from claiming to have witnessed a Pittsburgh bridge collapse (he didn’t), claiming his grandfather succumbed a day before Biden’s birth in the same hospital (he’d died more than year earlier IN A DIFFERENT STATE!) and also recounting a favorite story about a conversation with an Amtrak conductor (he was dead by the time the supposed conversation was said to have taken place).

Journalism isn’t what it used to be, but perhaps CNN’s return to calling out mistruths by Biden is a welcome change of direction.

Or maybe, as a cynic might posit, the new marching orders from the Democratic Deep State machine are to wound Biden’s image seriously, that he might withdraw from the race and allow the Democrats to replace him with a candidate whose charisma and mental acuity are not on a cucumber level.

Of all the misinformation, propaganda and outright spin we face on a daily basis, nothing can compare to the pap being spewed by the electric vehicle lobby.

Typical of climate crazies, they make outrageous claims as to the imminent death of our planet, claims that must be pushed further into the future when the appointed dates for climate Armageddon come and go with nothing more than slight ripple in our existence.

We all were going to be living in a veritable water world by now with all the polar ice melted due to global warming. Or maybe our world would be smoldering cinder. Remember opportunist Al Gore and, more recently, the screaming girl?

Then, having changed the buzzwords to climate change, we were to perish from brutal storms – winter, spring, summer and fall.

Floods alternating with droughts, warm when it should be cold and vice versa, that was our inescapable fate. If only more of us would leap on the electric vehicle bandwagon, all could be saved.

The climate crazies have revealed themselves to be hypocrites and massagers of the facts on many fronts, none more transparent than their changing opinion of Elon Musk.

Back when Musk’s Tesla company was selling EVs based mostly on monstrous tax credits offered by Uncle Sam, anyone who dared define Musk’s status as anything less than environmental god was promptly canceled.

But Musk bought Twitter, rebranded it as X and, more importantly, restored free speech on the social media platform. Environmental zealots, like most of their left-wing brethren, can’t stand when their claims are subjected to statistical analysis. They can’t win in open debate, and so there must be no debate, lest the sheeple take off their blinders and realize they’re consistently being sold a bill of goods.

But the EV propaganda continues, even if Musk has been relegated to Hillary’s Undesirables category.

Traditional auto manufacturers are rushing to field EV fleets, even if they are losing money on the endeavors almost across the board. No matter. They are bowing to wishes of their political masters that the internal combustion engine will be the death of us all.

Intellectually challenged sorts such as Clueless Joe Biden wants half of the cars sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.

Sounds good, until you crunch the numbers.

Where will all that additional electricity generation capacity come from? It’s been calculated that keeping an EV charged for a year is equal to running 50 refrigerators per household. Our electric grid already creaks and groans during periods of high demand, and consumers are asked to sit in the dark, either sweltering or freezing depending on the season, that the grid might remain operational.

Too many EV types think electricity magically appears from those outlets in the wall.

But we’ll just add more wind and solar power, the EV types insist. Already that has been proven to be a pipedream. Those “renewable” sources are not dependable, being subject to the whims of nature.

And how is most electricity currently generated? Why, by burning fossil fuels. But you’re not supposed to look behind that curtain.

The long-term cost of EVs also has come under scrutiny. They tend to cost more upfront, but the promoters argue that is offset in part by tax credits ranging up to $7,500. But why should I as a taxpayer subsidize your purchase?

Worse, EV promoters conveniently look the other way regarding the high cost of battery replacement, and the matter of what to do with the expended battery packs. There currently is an image of an invoice making the internet rounds of a nearly $30,000 charge to replace an EV battery pack.

No less a left-wing fact-checking operation that Snopes has been forced to concede it is accurate. But, but, but, but, they argue, it’s not for the current GM product.

So what? I checked the VIN on the invoice and it is for a 2012 Chevrolet Volt. The invoice cites 70,489 miles. In just 11 years and 70,000-plus miles, a $30,000 maintenance fee. And you don’t get tax credits for that.

The propagandists insist the bill is less for newer cars. $20,000? $15,000? $10,000? It’s still a lot.

And this doesn’t even factor in the reality that EVs don’t perform well in the real world. Heat or cold can drastically reduce their range. Ford’s electric pickup truck sees its range drop dramatically while towing or hauling a large load, just the things you might buy a truck to do.

Also, at least one test found it hard to recharge the thing at most stations with a trailer hitched on the back.

Speaking of charging, recently our beloved Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm organized a four-day dog and pony show designed to demonstrate the utility of EVs on a road trip.

The group was accompanied by a reporter from National Public Radio, ordinarily a reliable propaganda arm.

But this reporter told the truth. She recounted how the Granholm caravan (no Teslas, likely for political reasons now that Musk has left the reservation) didn’t get the expected range. When a need to recharge was anticipated and advance people saw a lack of charging outlets, a dirty internal combustion car was sent to block access to a charging station so that it was ready when Queen Granholm arrived. If you have advance people to block out charging space for you, you are a candidate for an EV. Otherwise, not so much.

The aggrieved family, with a baby in its car, didn’t like sitting in the Atlanta heat waiting for the charger while the Queen arrived, so they called the police.

Two more points about the EV lunatics:

First, they might do well to consider the environmental damage done by lithium miners in pursuit of the battery metal.

Also, they might take the time to read and think about a story from leftist outlet MSN.com, that a full 20 percent of the so-called “early adopters” of EVs — the crazed virtue-signalling types who couldn’t wait to be the first on their block to save the environment — are opting to go back to traditional internal combustion engine transportation now that the hype of EVs has fallen victim to the reality of the experience.

Angst is great among Steelers fans after their beloved Black and Gold gang took one on the chin Sunday, or to quote coach Mike Tomlin from his postgame address, “got kicked in the teeth.”

The 30-7 beatdown came at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers, a game not as close as the final score would indicate. The 49ers are being touted by some as Super Bowl material. The more optimistic among the sporting gentry had thought the Steelers were poised for some measure of greatness themselves this season– before Sunday, that is.

Predictably, these rabid Steelers fans, famed for dramatic mood swings based on the latest performance of their team, are ready to throw in their Terrible Towels and stop this season a mere one game into the festivities.

They had seen their vaunted defense humbled. They had seen quarterback Kenny Pickett suffer the worst day in the state for a guy named Pickett since the famed charge at Gettysburg during the Civil War.

But hang in there, people. The Steelers still have an ace in the hole, that being their customarily soft schedule.

Take a trip to the sharpfootballanalysis.com site and you will see the Steelers had what was considered the seventh easiest schedule in the NFL entering the season.

The key to this schedule analysis is it is not based on the backward-looking metric of teams’ records in the previous season, but the more realistic Las Vegas oddsmakers predictions of win expectations for teams in 2023.

History indicates there is something to this.

For example, of the 10 teams thought by Vegas to have had the hardest schedules at the beginning of the 2022 season, only two made it to the playoffs.

By contrast, six of the seven teams having what were considered the easiest schedules made the playoffs.

This strength of schedule is significant because the NFL, unlike big-time college football, does not allow teams to schedule games with teams from Sisters Of The Poor or School For The Blind to pad the record and allow a veritable bye week while still getting in some play under game conditions.

Theoretically, the NFL scheduling system penalizes successful teams with tougher schedules. But the concept is flawed in that it is based on the previous year and there is a rotation system that sets up teams with games vs. a specific division from the opposing conference each year.

If you get lucky in drawing a down division, your road got that much easier. Also, sometimes you have an apparent tough team late on your schedule, but by the time you meet the team it has been decimated by injuries.

Regardless, schedule strength, while not completely scientific, seems to be a better indicator when we are looking ahead based on how the wise guys rank win prospects of NFL teams.

I see the Steelers winning three of four games against the AFC South opposition (Jacksonville, Tennessee, Indianapolis and Houston) and even with the loss to San Francisco, taking three of four games with the NFC West (remaining games are with LA Rams, Arizona and Seattle).

Break even in six AFC North Division games, which the Steelers tend to do (including last year), and you’re up to nine wins. Grab one additional victory somewhere along the line and you’re at 10 wins and in playoff contention.

Despite the present despair, the Steelers very easily could be 2-2 after upcoming games with Cleveland, Las Vegas and Houston have been played.

If I’m wrong and they’re 0-4, give it up. If they’re 2-2, keep the faith.

Thunder in the Valley, the motorcycle rally that was cut adrift from official support Thursday, is a metaphor for Johnstown in general.

Once a thriving, vibrant thing, Thunder succumbed to discord, competition and general lack of effective promotion. Sound familiar?

We wrote in this space not that long ago, regarding the most recent event, that it had become a pale imitation of its early days – sort of like Johnstown. But we didn’t expect the event to lose its official backers, at least not this soon.

One of the tourist people, who never did get around to announcing the specific bottom line for the 2023 edition, was quoted in a story on the WTAJ TV web site claiming the event never broke even in any of the 25 years it was held.

If we accept that, then even in the early days, when the event drew hordes of bikers and gawkers, it didn’t pay the expenses. So, who’s to think anyone down the line can take over running the event and hope to make money, without a healthy infusion of handouts either private or public?

Imagine this sad news being broken to a select group of national left-wing types.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Motorcycles? Come on, man! You know, I own a Corvette. Almost lost it in a home fire, just as tragic as that Hawaii thing. Did I ever tell you about the time when I was a lifeguard at a swimming pool that I faced down the leader of a Hell’s Angels gang? Old Corn Dog really turned tail when The Big Guy threatened to withhold funding unless he left. And don’t think just because I fell off that pedal bike awhile back that I can’t ride a hog. Right, Dr. Jill? Hog, that’s a Harley, right?

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Johns Town (Pause. Spontaneous cackle) Johns Town. Motor Cycle. Thunder. That would be loud. The thunder and the motorcycle (More cackling). But I can assure you if anything should happen to Joe Biden, I’m ready to ride to the rescue on my motor . . . cycle . . . in Johns . . . town . . . or where . . . ever . . . it . . . might . . . be . . . necessary.

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS: I can understand Johnstown’s problem. You throw open the door, declare yourself a sanctuary city and then illegal immigrants, or bikers, show up and take over and leave the city unable to meet the logistical challenge. I commend Johnstown for biting the bullet and admitting to a failed experiment. I only wish my electorate would allow me to speak the truth about our illegal immigrant problem, the one I’ve said will destroy New York City, by putting the blame squarely on my fellow Democrats and their open-border policies.

PRESIDENTIAL PRODIGAL SON HUNTER BIDEN: Fear not, Johnstown. I will put in a call to The Big Guy and we should be able to make this little problem go away. We have a brand, you know. Just tell me you have a high-paying opening for a guy with zero tourism organizing experience, one that has my name written all over it, and your problems are over.

OPRAH WINFREY AND DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON: Recognizing losing this $20-million-a-year infusion into the local economy will sting, we are organizing an effort to appeal for donations. We will seed this with $2.50 cash money from our own funds and count on the little people coast-to-coast and around the world to make the bulk of the donations that we can present in our names. By the way, is there any cheap real estate available in Johnstown, which I understand soon will rival Hawaii as a tourist destination?

Long time, no write.

This being the week of my birthday, I gave myself the gift of detachment from the ugly realities of what is happening internationally, nationally, locally. That meant no paying attention to unfolding life and, by virtue of that, writing no blog entries.

I recommend these breaks, the pauses that refresh, to anyone. While the world churned away, feeding the wants and desires of the tinpot dictators, attention whores and spinmeisters, I watched a lot of TV reruns. I will continue that by ignoring the opening tonight of yet another virtue-signalling NFL season.

Call it cheap escapism, much less expensive than jetting off to some tropical island for a respite.

There was an abundance of the old Perry Mason series episodes to be viewed, available many times each day on my satellite TV provider’s channel 82.

There also was a smattering of old movies on channel 132, some Magnum, PI, episodes and various other dated television and film opportunities.

In one Magnum episode tonight, Frank Sinatra’s character dispatched two thugs who had raped his granddaughter. It was raw and fitting.

I marvel at those simpler times as recorded on film, when Mason’s private investigator buddy Paul Drake could say “Hi, beautiful,” to Mason’s secretary, Della Street, and the world didn’t brand him a sexual harasser.

A lot of people smoked in those shows, drank alcohol and generally lived their lives free from a more modern form of addiction, that being to social media and political correctness.

There was a stark contrast in shows of that era between good and bad, something accentuated by them being filmed in black and white.

No room, back then, for hucksters, navel gazers, poverty pimps or race baiters to be glorified in the story lines. The public recognized wrong from right and the people putting out the shows were very aware of that, so they didn’t try to turn every show into a propaganda piece to appease the far left causes of the moment.

Entertainment was just that, entertainment, not political indoctrination. Similarly, I recall the actual news broadcasts of the time were direct, to-the-point recitations of facts, not opinion, narratives and propaganda passed off as the truth.

For those of you too young to recall such a time, I invite you to revisit it indirectly by viewing some of the great TV and films of the past.

Do this with a mix of inquisitiveness, close study and open-mindedness.

Compare then to now, and shed a tear for what we have become.

What an amazing transformation of Johnstown’s Central Park. And so quickly!

It seems like just earlier this week the elites who run everything were proudly displaying how they were going to dump $17 million, give or take, into the downtown gem in the interest of improving it and attracting visitors.

Then Saturday, I discovered the plan already had come to fruition, with so many classic cars and trucks rimming Central Park. I noticed this as I visited downtown.

Fantastic, although I’m not sure there was $17 million worth of vehicles. But it’s a government project, so there is slippage — wink, nod.

But those sparkling vehicles around the park and along Main Street sure did brighten the picture.

Of course, this begs the question of how a city short on funding is going to keep all those vehicles clean and shiny when they can’t even trim brush or patch holes in streets. Protecting the vehicles from vandals, or theft, also would seem to be a major consideration.

It also makes me worry about snow removal when winter arrives. Then again, downtown snow removal plans of late are to wait for it all to melt in the spring.

But this is progress and what sort of person would stand up against what the uncrowned leaders have determined is best for us?

Our area, you might have heard, is supposed to be hitching its economic wagon to tourism. And I will admit there were more people downtown than on a usual Saturday afternoon. I saw people in businesses. I am fairly certain they were spending money.

Will the economic bean counters run their models and estimate the customary $20 million was pumped into the local economy based on Saturday?

Speaking of that, have they ever gotten around to putting a number on what was the raging success of Thunder in the Valley 2023? If so, I missed it and so, apparently, did the area media.

But I’m sure those economic numbers were/are huge, both from the motorcycle event and going forward on the Central Park Car Display.

What? That display of cars and trucks was just for a few hours this weekend? They managed to get people into town simply by holding an event in the old, not updated Central Park?

I’m shocked, I tell you.

Fittingly for a Labor Day weekend, the soon-to-be-6-year-old granddaughter was talking about her career plans Friday.

She is, after all, in kindergarten and had just helped drop off her four-year-old sister for the start of the year’s preschool. Our “older” granddaughter, apparently having become aware of the fleeting nature of time, was contemplating her life’s work – DoorDash.

There were audible groans from the wife and I. Not that I’m impugning DoorDash delivery people. I read on smallbiztrends.com these people make, on average, $15-$25 an hour.

Of course, they are independent contractors, with all the positives and negatives that come with that, things on the downside such as no healthcare benefits, pensions and the like. We stressed to the child this was more of a second job than a main profession.

And the granddaughter audibled to then wanting to become a kindergarten teacher. After all, her father is a high school math teacher. I held my tongue to avoid telling her to keep picking careers.

Despite the magnificent weather we are enjoying locally, this is not a particularly happy labor day weekend for the economy writ large.

The government statistical distorters were out today with a job report for August, showing a major loss of full-time jobs and a big increase in part-time employment. All those jobs you hear about going unfilled, most of them are not the kind of jobs that can support a household or family.

Oh, they might be grabbed up in other lands. But here in the USA, where the government transfer payment system is alive and well, they are not a viable alternative to life on the dole.

And an increasingly large number of Americans who do work find they need to toil at multiple jobs just to keep up with the inflation brought to you by Brandonomics.

An insightful story on zerohedge.com broke down that these government jobs reports, and we use that term in the most generous way, are long on adjustments such as the birth-death model. It’s not that actual jobs are counted, or births and deaths of jobholders. Instead birth-death is a term for the estimating creation and disappearance of businesses.

A certain amount of this is assumed and then, when the facts actually come in later, the reports are adjusted, usually in a negative way.

According to that story, every single month this year to date jobs have been adjusted lower later in the year, after the purported gains have been reported, headlines have been written, stocks have jumped and media types have sung the praises of the Brandon Regime.

It’s the same phenomenon I’ve written about before, with newspapers sometimes sporting glaring headlines on Page 1 and, if the stories need corrected later, a small one-paragraph item appears on an inside page with a tiny headline and in the text beneath the usual “we regret the error” wording. It just doesn’t seem to balance out the error that commanded the front page earlier.

The point is, this economy is in the vapor stage. The government COVID-19 stimulus handouts have gone through the system like a small animal through a snake, boosting inflation and creating a mirage of demand that is waning now as the excess savings have disappeared.

The low-buck retail outlets such as DollarTree and Dollar General are seeing their earnings hit and, by extension, their stock prices.

Retailers in general are coming in light on earnings, with many using the convenient excuse of the moment, “shrinkage.” That’s the polite euphemism for shoplifting, AKA stealing by the masses who have come to find it’s almost a given there will be no punishment for it even if one is caught.

That the job reporting would be suspect under Brandon’s crew should come as no surprise. His head press flack was out proclaiming our borders have never been more secure, a blatant falsehood that even the lapdog media types couldn’t pass along without noting it isn’t exactly true.

You get the feeling this mountain of deception, not to mention HunterGate, is going to crash in around Brandon, and even his former backers will be quick to feed him to the dogs if only to get this bumbling, stumbling, feeble guy out of the picture for the 2024 presidential election.

By the time that election is held, one can only wonder what sort of statistical legerdemain it is going to require to paint the economy in a positive light.

If the national economy goes sour to the Great Recession level some are predicting, it will come as quite a shock for those people of lesser economic circumstances who now are big on DoorDash to deliver ready made food. Imagine if they find themselves having to cut back and – horrors – prepare food at home to save money.

There goes that segment of the gig economy, along with countless Uber or Lyft drivers, YouTube influencers, and other non-essential service providers.

The warmongers seem to be trying to get this country into yet another direct confrontation, moving on from using Ukraine in a proxy war with Russia. An embattled Brandon Regime would welcome the diversion from domestic failures. Can you say wag the dog?

Stay tuned. This should get very interesting within the next year or so.

Why the long face, John? I ask because you say on Facebook that you are sad regarding me.

And how do I know this, not being a Facebook member or a person addicted to checking for posts?

I got a call at 9:12 p.m. Monday night from someone alerting me to your commentary on Facebook regarding me and posting my latest blog contribution, although being unhappy about doing so. This amazed me since I’d just finished writing it and posting at maybe 8:20 or so and had sent my son an email at 8:52 p.m. noting that there had been curious activity on my blog stats page earlier. I’d noticed it while making my post. That strange activity was a heavy preponderance of visits to the home page and archives without actually opening a story. That was pushing a 2-1 ratio. Usually there many more views than visitors because each person tends to stick around and read several entries.

I noted in that email it was as if somebody, or somebodies, had been eagerly checking for something new. Unaware of that before sitting down to write, I apparently responded to some sort of cosmic influence.

John, unlike some of your Facebook pals and their too often exaggerated assertions, I can document this timing with email and phone logs.

As an aside, let me tell you my caller took advantage of our conversation to express for the second time his voter’s remorse that he was feeling since I had talked him into voting for you and Joe Taranto. He does frequent Facebook and is appalled by some of what you two have posted on many issues since that ill-fated election.

I conceded I had misled him, albeit inadvertently. Fortunately, that Republican primary was such a runaway win for our current Democrat-light member that I don’t think I harmed this voter with my blog advocacy of DeBartola and Taranto. If there are others like him, I apologize to them, too.

And I assured my caller I would try to do better in the future.

During our only face-to-face meeting, John, you asked if I minded you posting my blog work on Facebook. I said then and repeat now, you can do whatever you wish, it’s part of the public record when I post it. I never before or since have asked you to do it.

Once again, I make no money by blogging. There is no advertising, no login on the site. It costs me money, but I like to write and share it with anyone, or no one, as is their wish.

Also, I had noted in a blog post explaining our relationship that I have met you face to face exactly once, while you and Taranto were in the neighborhood collecting signatures in order to be put on the ballot.

I find it curious that you chose to send me a message on Facebook about your sadness when I distinctly remember giving you my cell no. at the time we met. I told you then you could call me for assistance or to discuss anything you found to be important. Also, since you know my address, you could stop by to chat.

Please note this is an invitation to you, not to anyone else.

I have neither your cell number, nor your home address, but I could make an educated guess as to your home based on information I’ve been provided such as screenshots about you lamenting neighbors not cutting their grass. Also, I lived both in Oakland  and Walnut Grove during my youth, so know the areas well.

I’ve decided since you are a faithful reader of this blog, you will find this open letter shortly, likely even more directly than me having to be told by a third party about your Facebook sadness.

Bottom line: I’m not on Facebook and do not intend to be. There is a reason I label social media as the megaphone for morons. It’s not that everyone on social media is a moron. But there is much larger percentage of posters who are weak-minded, reactionary and doctrinaire than one would find in the general population. Plus, in the pre-internet days, people who knew these lesser lights personally, discounted almost everything they said. But these same deluded people post on social media and people who don’t know them take it as gospel. I choose not to get into exchanges with people like that. That is my right, like it or not.

That is why my blog has no comment provision. If a critic wants to get his or her opinions out, spend the money to create a blog site and then see how easy it is to compile your own content. I repost zip. If there is something on my blog, I came up with the idea and wrote it.

Or, critics can just fire from the lip on Facebook, X (Twitter) and the like for free.

At the peak of the Tribune-Review Publishing network of papers, for which I wrote for 15 years, the combined Sunday circulation was about 200,000.  Multiply that by the average 3 person household and it was about 600,000 potential readers on that day alone.

I’ve appeared on TV sports talk shows on KDKA in Pittsburgh, WJAC in Johnstown and WTAJ in Altoona. I had my own sports call-in radio show for a time on WJAC and did sports commentary for WKYE.

Hell, I was on half-hour TV shows several times as a teenager. Scholastic Quiz used to be televised weekly by WJAC and the Johnstown High School team of which I was a member won three times before losing in the semifinals.

My point is, I’ve had my share of exposure and a lot of people in this town still know who I am from the 20 years I spent working full-time at the Tribune-Democrat, not to mention my time as a freelance columnist for the TD.

I’m not trying to make a name for myself. I’m just having fun while in retirement and trying to shine the light on obvious wrongs.

John, you told me during our only meeting — and I’m told you have repeated similar things on Facebook — that you admired my writing skills. I thank you. Alas, I’m not always going to write what you, or others, think is the correct take on events. My blog content is researched by me and reflects the facts, with my take on what they indicate. It can be satirical. It can be a parody. It might make offending parties uncomfortable to have their antics exposed to this slice of the public.

But, if you or anyone else agreed with everything I wrote, we’d be the same person and we are not.