Year in Review #315
By Hank Silverberg
There is less than a week left in 2024, so it's time to take a look back on what has happened this year and what we might expect in 2025. I know everyone does this kind of column this time of year, but I think my take may be a bit different.
The presidential election dominated the year of course, followed by the election results and the huge questions they raise for the future.
But here are some things you may have missed.
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The unemployment rate stands at 4.2%, a good figure even though it is a bit higher than the 3.6% of a year ago. It means about 7.1 million people are looking for work, a relatively small number when you take the country as a whole. Economists say a 3% unemployment is full employment because there are always people looking for work or between jobs. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
The annual inflation rate for the past 12 months has been 2.7%, a bit lower than the 3.4% rate of 2023 and way above the post-pandemic rate of 6.5 in 2022 and 7.0 in 2021. (Source: U.S Labor Department)
The Gross Domestic Product for the third quarter of 2024 increased to 3.1% in the third quarter of 2024, up from 3.0% in the second quarter (4th quarter numbers not available yet). (Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis)
These are all good numbers. Our economy, which was in the pits when Joe Biden took over mid-pandemic, has recovered nicely. But if you ask people on the street, they will tell you the economy is bad and we are in an economic downturn.
That, my dear readers, is the result of good propaganda by the people about to enter the White House next month.
When the full numbers come out sometime in late January, you can be sure they will claim credit for them just like they did in 2016 when President Obama left the economy in good shape.
Mr. Trump's proposed tariffs, if they make it though a skeptical Congress, will pretty much wipe out the progress of the last few years, which the GOP will then blame on the Democrats. But please don't be fooled by the inevitable disinformation the new Trump administration will spread with big help from Elon Musk.
They will push through tax cuts for the rich. They they will cut many federal programs to try to lower the huge federal deficit Trump helped create in his first term.
And you know what? My friends in the media will stick with the play-by-play and pass by the real meat--the impact of all this on the middle class and the poor. Let's hope this is obvious by the election cycle of 2026 when we can send Mr. Trump and his lackeys on Capitol Hill that we are not going to sit by and do nothing.
The quote from pop culture, Mr. Spock on Star Trek, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or of the one." I know it's probably a bit tacky to use this quote, but in this case it's applicable.
Watch, and listen. We vote again in less than two years.
News You May Have Missed
GAZA Death Toll Manipulated!
For more than a year we have been hearing and reading about the staggering death toll among civilians in Gaza. It has made a lot of people wonder if the Israelis are doing all they can to prevent the deaths of non-combatants.
Well, now there is a study which shows the death toll figures put out by the Palestinian Health Ministry have been manipulated to make the death toll look worse than it actually is.
The media has been a bit careful, always attributing the report of the number to the Palestinians as a qualification that many people simply ignore.
The report comes from the U-K based Henry Jackson Society, and it points out that Hamas has been manipulating the casualty count since the beginning. 
(Courtesy U of Texas)
For example, their latest count puts the civilian death toll over 44,700 non-combatant deaths since the war began. But that figure does not indicate that more than 17,000 of those deaths were actually Hamas terrorist fighters, not civilians. The report says the overall number also includes people who have died of natural causes, and that the Palestinian Ministry of Health is over reporting the number of women and children killed. Men were often included in the number of women killed, and some adults were counted as children.
For example, about 5,000 natural deaths have been listed as casualties of the war, including some cancer patients who are actually still alive.
According to the authors of the report, Hamas reported the numbers the way they did to increase public outcry around the world and raise the pressure on Israel to cease fire.
This comes as no surprise to many people since Hamas is never a good source of true information. But much of the media have ignored this independent report.
I should note that it is still a tragedy that so many people have died. But the fault lies with Hamas, which started this war when they invaded Israel on October 7th, 2023 and murdered more than a thousand civilians.
Dr. Biden Gives Up Teaching?
I noted with interest that the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, who is 73, has decided to stop teaching English at Northern Virginia Community College. She has spent 40 years in the classroom, but she announced last Monday she has taught her last class at NOVA, where she has been teaching for 15 years.
She started her teaching career in 1976 at a high school in Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. Biden was the first woman to continue her career outside the White House while serving as First Lady.
My regular readers know that I also teach at NVCC, and have done so for eight years now. Our boss, College President Anne Kress, called Dr. Biden an "exceptional faculty member " who is loved and respected by her colleagues.
I never had the honor of meeting Dr. Biden because we taught on different campuses of NVCC, and I am sorry about that.
The statement on her decision to leave NOVA did not indicate if she is retiring from teaching altogether. Her decision may be related to re-location plans once her husband, the President, leaves office next month.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
Not surprisingly, president-elect Donald Trump does not understand international law.
He is apparently upset about the fees the Panamanians now charge us to allow our ships to pass through the Panama Canal. So Trump said this about the canal, which we gave back to Panama on December 31, 1999:
"It was given to Panama and the people of Panama, but it has provisions. You get to treat us fairly, and they haven't treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question."
Sorry, Mr. Trump. That's not the way it works. The Canal is part of Panama now, a sovereign country with its own leaders. I doubt Congress, the public or anyone else would support a military intervention to take the Canal. Okay, we built it in the early 20th century, but it's been part of Panama, legally, since the 21st century began.
The President of Panama, Jose Raul Mulino, wasn't impressed with Trump's threat.
"Every square meter of the Panama Canal and the surrounding area belongs to Panama and will continue belonging (to Panama)," Mulino said in the statement, which was released on X.
By the way, it's also a big break with tradition for a president-elect to be talking about such things until he is actually the president. That's about 28 days from now.
(You suggestions and comments are welcome)
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
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