Richard V. Rupp

July 24, 2021

Good Saturday morning. I'm author Richard V. Rupp, writing from Burbank, California. Welcome to Rupp's Notes/FBI Special Agent Hartman Series posts.

 

I had a tooth pull yesterday. Still recovering both physically and mentally. They canceled doing a tooth implant because new x-rays showed more problems. The oral surgeon said he was going to have to develop a new plan with my dentist. Bummer. So, this post may be a bit jumbled.

 

Returned home from the oral surgeon and watched the Olympics Opening Ceremony. The LA TIMES headline for the Ceremony was 'A Chill In The Air' and termed them 'muted.' I preferred the word 'boring.' This morning at 4:30 AM PST, I watched the USA Woman's Soccer Team make a comeback against New Zealand. Yeah!!! As soon as I finish this post, I will figure out what other Olympic events to watch.

 

Besides those at the Olympics, there seem to be many UPs and DOWNs in the world these days.

 

On the UP side, we have expanded space exploration, and on the DOWNSIDE, there is Earth's Climate Change.

 

On the UP side, we have inflation, and on the DOWN side, we have U.S. life expectancy. Both are really examples of downers.

 

There have been news articles and letters to editors objecting to the billionaire's space race. Based on the current UPs and DOWNs I see globally, I think what they are doing will actually end up helping mankind, and the Earth heal.

 

The concept of space travel is becoming real in the business world. I noticed an article in BARRON'S indicating the French insurance company Axa SA is planning to launch a line of coverage providing insurance for space travelers.

 

Our increasing world population, which is splintering into tribalism groups, is creating confusion that will continue to allow the virus to spread among us and make it impossible to impact climate change.

 

I don't know what your belief is as it respects climate change. I'm convinced it's genuine by just looking around and watching news reports about what's happening worldwide. Here's a piece from the July 22 LA Times on the subject – "All of this was predicted in climate science decades ago," said John P. Holdren, a professor of environmental policy at Harvard's Hohn F. Kennedy School of Government. "We only had to wait for the actual emergence in the last 15 to 20 years. Everything we worried about is happening, and it's all happening at the high end of projections, even faster than the previous most pessimistic estimates."

 

As respect inflation, in my post of June 12, 2021, titled WHAT AM I MISSING, I indicate that "my gut tells me that inflation will be well above the Fed's target of 2 percent for the foreseeable future." Here's what the KIPLINGER LETTER just forecast. "2021 will bring the highest inflation level in more than 30 years: 5.5% at the end of the year. The combination of high consumer demand, shortages of workers and goods, and very easy monetary and fiscal policy has resulted in the worst upward cost pressures the U.S. economy has seen since the 1980s. Price increases are likely to slow next year but remain higher than normal. After averaging 1.7% over the prior decade, consumer prices will rise 2.5% to 3% over the next decade, with wages also rising faster than before."

 

As respects life expectancy in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that in 2020 it had the most significant drop since World War II. "Deaths from Covid-19 and drug overdoes fueled the decline — wiping out any improvements the country made in decreasing deaths from cancer and chronic lower respiratory diseases — leading to a 1.5-year drop and bringing the life expectancy at birth down to 77.3 years."

 

Apparently, I'm not the only one having problems with FaceBook. This is from the AP NEWS  about a gardening groups posts - Facebook's algorithms sometimes flag this particular word (hoe) as "violating community standards," apparently referring to a different word, one without an "e" at the end that is nonetheless often misspelled as the garden tool. Typically, Facebook's automated systems will flag posts with offending material and delete them. But if a group's members — or worse, administrators — violate the rules too many times, the entire group can get shut down. . . Facebook's algorithms sometimes flag this particular word as "violating community standards," apparently referring to a different word, one without an "e" at the end that is nonetheless often misspelled as the garden tool.

 

Finally, living in Burbank, the media capital of the world, a LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL reader poll caught my attention. It indicates that many of us are planning to spend more time at home these days. The poll question is, "Have you gone to see a movie this summer?" Here are the answers  - Yes, I went to an indoor theater – 24%, Yes, I went to an outdoor/drive-in venue – 4% Not yet, I'm waiting for the Covid-19 situation to improve – 37%, and No, I prefer watching movies at home – 34%

 

Back to watching the Olympics and eating soft food. No booze because of the antibiotics I'm taking.

 

Stay Healthy,

 

Richard V. Rupp, Author

Website – www.richardvrupp.com

Email – rupprisk@gmail.com

Copyright©2021 by Richard V. Rupp