As a teenager, I once had a job loading 18-wheelers.
We started work at 7 am. At 6:55, I pushed all the buttons to open the massive doors so the waiting semis could begin backing in. Commanding these mechanical giants to move on my touch was enticing. And I had the crazy idea that way we could start work at 7 sharp.
The shouting protests of the other dock workers disabused me of that move.
They never opened the doors until 7. That way, they didn’t really have to begin working until 7:05.
Those were long work days, which I didn’t mind. That was before electric forklifts. So, every box was carried on and stacked by hand. The five-day work weeks were long too. That did grow old.
Eventually, I moved into an office job. Those five-day weeks weren’t any shorter.
But now there’s hope for more family time and less stress. In many cases, the workweeks are getting shorter. New industrial surveys find growing popularity in four-day weeks. That’s the biggest workplace change since Henry Ford introduced the five-day week nearly a century ago.
This, combined with the work-from-home phenomenon produced by the pandemic, is causing revolutionary changes in how Americans earn a living — from empty office spaces to struggling lunch counters and parking lots.
That’s the subject of this week’s audio commentary.
The most recent commentary, in case you missed it, looked at the growing number of senior citizens in our federal government’s elected positions.
Actually, that was the subject, even if you didn’t miss it.
And by senior, I mean quite senior. The incumbent president turns 81 this year and wants to extend his White House lease to 2029 when he’ll turn 86. I said, HE’D BE 86 THEN.
But he’s a youngster compared to some of the seniors in Congress. Age shouldn’t necessarily be a limiting factor. It’s the impact of those long years that counts.
If you don’t remember how to enter a room. exit a stage, or need staff reminder notes to say “Hello” to others, that indicates a non-political problem with competency.
This week’s column was a complex one to research and assemble. It dealt with the Wagner military revolt in Russia, the reasons for it, the anticipated aftermath of it, and the scary possible developments if it had continued or grown.
Or if it reappears later in another form.
Some years ago, I had an unforgettable Independence Day experience that I’ll never see again. That’s what I shared with RedState readers outside the paywall.
One of the fundamental promises in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign was his vow to return the nation to normalcy. Well, his idea of normalcy is not my idea of normalcy.
Too many examples of “abnormalcy” to list today. But here’s a start: Cocaine discovered in the White House, where recovering addict Hunter Biden is now living to duck process servers. Although this story keeps changing.
And my colleague Nick Arama details yet another unusual trip paid for by taxpayers involving the global travel buddies, Joe and Hunter.
Seems Joe Biden has yet another emerging classified document problem. Funny coincidence as his administration prosecutes his potential 2024 rival for a similar offense.
Oh, and Joe has a new idea to stall global warming: Block the Sun. What could possibly go wrong there?
So, that’s the new normal for Americans.
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