A powerful speech

Some interesting charts for old folks

The Traveling Secretaries

Today, we hear about a trip taken in July by Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. It was about half-business and half-pleasure. The business half consisted of meetings with English and Danish officials. The pleasure half included a Wimbledon championship tennis match, a tour of Westminster Abbey, a cruise on the Thames, a canal tour of Copenhagen, walks, self-guided tours, shopping and photo stops. All with his wife, a security detail, his chief of staff and another aide. They did travel by commercial airlines. Shulkin’s immediate predecessor, Robert McDonald, took no foreign work trips,

Helping for-profit colleges

The Department of Veterans Affairs wants to help them out. It will do so as of October 16 by suspending a 50-year-old ethics law that prevents employees from receiving money or owning a stake in for-profit colleges. These colleges do quite well from 'educating' veterans, as the G.I. Bill pays them hundreds of millions of dollars in tuition every year. The agency plans on doing this despite the fact that no public hearings have been scheduled and no public comments have yet been submitted. Could this be the result of several officials who worked in the for-profit college industry having joined the Education Department, which administers and polices the federal student loan program and the industry.

Why this change is needed is hard to figure out as the existing law allows waivers for individuals or even classes of individuals, like those teaching courses. Invoking the waiver also requires public hearings.

And a report issued in July by the director of the agency’s Education Service found that financial issues involving tuition and fees were by far the leading complaint among students who had called the agency’s G.I. Bill hotline since 2014.

Scenes from a more peaceful world

The purpose of banks

It used to be that the basic purpose of banks was to play a major role in the economy by investing in new businesses. Today, only about 15 percent of the money invested by the huge guys does that kind of investing. It's the little guys that invest in small business; they have only 13 percent of all banking assets, but do nearly half of all lending to small businesses. 

What do the huge guys sped most of their time and money doing? They make deals. They buy and sell stocks, bonds, real estate and other assets that mainly enriches the 20 percent of the population that owns 80 percent of that asset base. It's interesting, although sickening, that the biggest banks provide only 4 percent of all jobs in the country, yet take about a quarter of the corporate profit pie.

As Rana Foroohar writes in the NY Times, "Finance has become the tail that wags the dog. Until we start talking about how to create a financial system that really serves society, rather than just trying to stay ahead of the misdeeds of one that doesn’t, we’ll struggle in vain to bridge the gap between Wall Street and Main Street."

To what country should you move?

Making it difficult to help Puerto Rico

Apparently, we can waive the Jones Act, a law to help people in emergencies, for Houston and Florida, but not for Puerto Rico. The act requires that goods shipped between U.S. ports be carried by vessels built in the U.S., majority-owned by American firms and crewed by U.S. citizens. Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s electrical grid and left it desperately short of food, clean water and fuel. 

College Basketball Today

More waste in Afghanistan

The Pentagon spent nearly $65 million on buying and equipping a single plane to combat drug activity in Afghanistan. The plane has never been used. They couldn't even sell it at auction.This is not something new. In 2014, after spending $486 million on 20 planes for the Afghan Air Force — which, yes, were never able to fly — the Pentagon sold most of them as scrap metal for a whopping 6 cents a pound. The total sale was $32,000. ProPublica claims that as of 2015 there were at least $17 billion worth of such projects.

Interesting?

Do as I say

Mr. Trump has blasted Hillary Clinton numerous times over her e-mail imbroglio. Now, we learn that Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Reice Priebus, Gary Cohn, Steve Miller and Ivanka Tump used their private e-mail accounts to discuss government business.

Murdering Women

The Violence Policy Center, using data from the FBI, last week released a study, "When Men Murder Women", based on the year 2015. In that year, 1,686 women in this country were murdered by men in “single victim/single offender” incidents. The men were not strangers; 90% of the women killed knew their offenders. And of these, 64% were wives or other intimate acquaintances of their killers. More of the women were killed by guns than any other methods combined.

Making money from the presidency

The last days of competition

Flying with the FAA

Who made him play football?

The family of Aaron Hernandez has filed suit against the NFL and the Patriots accusing them of not doing enough to protect him despite knowing that the game was dangerous and could lead to brain damage, i.e., C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Was Mr. Hernandez forced to play football?

Helping out

U.S. support of dictatorships

Using data about dictatorships compiled by Freedom House, Rich Whitney, a man of many professions, has compiled the following charts, which show how much we are spending on dictatorships. Most of the money, by far, is going to the Middle East.

Not a bad deal

The question is for whom - Wisconsin or Foxconn? The state just passed a law that will transfer $2.85 billion from the state’s taxpayers to the Taiwanese tech company. The company will then build a flat-screen television factory that will employ 3,000 people in the immediate term, and up to 13,000 in the long term. If these numbers work out, then enough jobs would have been created to offset the $2.85 billion in about 25 years. Foxconn will get some other goodies besides the cash. It will not be subject to the state’s environment regulations.  

There is at least one big risk for the state in this deal. It is assuming that the next quarter-century produces no technological or economic changes that adversely impact Foxconn or its operations in Racine County, Wisconsin. But, there are questions as to whether the agreement is constitutional.

Where does truth lay?

The robots are coming

Kim Jong-un Speaks

They sound like two 7-year-olds.
Excerpts from his diatribe re Trump:

1. Shaping the general idea of what he would say, I expected he would make stereotyped, prepared remarks a little different from what he used to utter in his office on the spur of the moment as he had to speak on the world’s biggest official diplomatic stage. But, far from making remarks of any persuasive power that can be viewed to be helpful to defusing tension, he made unprecedented rude nonsense one has never heard from any of his predecessors. A frightened dog barks louder.

2. The mentally deranged behavior of the U.S. president openly expressing on the U.N. arena the unethical will to “totally destroy” a sovereign state, beyond the boundary of threats of regime change or overturn of social system, makes even those with normal thinking faculty think about discretion and composure.

3. After taking office Trump has rendered the world restless through threats and blackmail against all countries in the world. He is unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country, and he is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician.

Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy the D.P.R.K. [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea], we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.

4. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.

Asset Stripping

There have been a fair number of bankruptcy filings by retailers in the past year or so. One study published in April found “…43 large retail or supermarket companies, which owned chains with 10 or more locations, have filed for bankruptcy in the United States since January 2015. The 43 companies controlled 52 brick-and-mortar chains. Retailers selling only online and restaurants were excluded from the count." Forty percent of these companies (i.e., 18) were the result of a leveraged buyout (LBO) by a private equity (PE) firm. Almost all of these LBOs saw their debt blossom while large payouts were made to the private equity firm. 

Did the SEC say anything?

Taxes and Profits

His time is really valuable

Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, has an “incredibly demanding schedule”. Last week he had meetings around the country. So, he took private jets five times to meet his obligations. These flights cost us about $60,000. It so happens that all of the places he visited are also visited by commercial airlines and one or two by rail - and the cost would be much less than $60,000. That's what his predecessors did.

And Mr. Price has a cost-cutting agenda for HHS!

Is Equifax the stupidest company?

Equifax has made a number of mistakes handling the hacking of its site. The latest one involves sending people who accessed the company's real site to a fake web site. Nick Sweeting, a software engineer, created an imitation of equifaxsecurity2017.com, Equifax’s page about the security breach that may have exposed 143 million Americans’ personal information. He named it securityequifax2017.com. Equifax's Twitter account directed consumers to Sweeting’s version,  This happened about 200,000 times. Eventually, Equifax corrected the mistake.  

Sweeting built the fake site to simply make a point about Equifax's abilities. Although the layout was the same as the real version, a headline in large text differed: “Cybersecurity Incident & Important Consumer Information Which is Totally Fake, Why Did Equifax Use A Domain That’s So Easily Impersonated By Phishing Sites?”

Veterans and suicide

Some interesting and disturbing facts from a Veterans Affairs press release:

Veterans are about 20% more likely than non-veterans to kill themselves.
Female veterans are 250% more likely than female non-vets to do so.

Some quotes:
“This report is unprecedented in its comprehensive analysis of suicide rates among all U.S. Veterans,” VA Secretary Dr. David J. Shulkin.
“Rates of suicide were highest among male OEF/OIF/OND veterans ages 18 to 29 and decreased with age” — referring to Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn.

How much will Trump get when he retires?

Funds we pay retired presidents is probably a little more than you are getting from your lifetime of work. The funds include a nice pension and money to pay for staff, travel, an office, postage and supplies and Secret Service protection for themselves and their spouse. 

Clinton did much better than that by giving speeches, a lot to the Wall Street crowd. In just his first two months out of office he made almost $1.5 million. Some of his speeches brought in as much as $500,000. Then, there are the book royalties.

Now we learn that Obama is walking down the same path. He's made about $400,000 for each speech to Northern Trust Corp., Cantor Fitzgerald and  Carlyle Group LP.  And he and Michelle  will receive upwards of $65 million from Penguin Random House to publish their respective memoirs.

Do you think any of their predecessors made anywhere near that money?

The Media and Natural Disasters

Can you find him golfing?

Is it only New York City apartments?

Apartment house developers in NYC have gone wild in offering amenities to residents. It's possible that part of the reasoning is to offset the fact that, since the mid-1990s, the average size of rental units has dropped to about 900 square feet from more than 1,000 square feet. If you're thinking of moving, here are some of the amenities offered:

rock ’n’ roll rehearsal rooms, 
Imax theaters, 
bike-repair stations, 
stargazing sessions, 
woodworking shops, 
greenhouses for growing herbs, 
yoga classes for dogs, 
wine cellars,
music rehearsal space that offers use of a drum kit, karaoke machine and Fender electric guitar,
a gym, 
library,
golf simulator,
pool, 
library,
Porsche bicycles that can be borrowed for rides of up to 12 hours, 
a “lifestyle director” who intends to book rock bands and comedians for in-house performances, in addition to planning other get-to-know-your-neighbor activities.

Who's making the good but not great money

Rating job satisfaction

Who pays?

The CIA speaks.....

...and Harvard acts. The day after Harvard selected Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow, Mike Morrell, former deputy director of the CIA, resigned as a fellow in protest of Manning's nomination. Then, Mike Pompeo, the current head of the CIA, withdrew from a Harvard forum, also in protest.

The reason given by Douglas W. Elmendorf, the dean of the Harvard Kennedy School? “I see more clearly now that many people view a visiting fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations.”

Why didn't the CIA claim about the quality of  a few other fellows: Sean Spicer,Corey Lewandoski, Jason Chafetz, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

Some Swiss laws re animals

From an essay, "10 Reasons Switzerland Is a Great Place to Be a Pet" by Laura Burge:

Guinea pigs, parrots, and goldfish must have companions, and matchmaking services for guinea pigs have been formed.

Cats need to be able to interact with other cats or at least see other cats from their homes.

Fish also must experience natural day and night cycles.

Rabbits must be able have privacy in their enclosures. In this sense, privacy is a freedom and many other animals other than rabbits also need "to be able to get away from it all" when they choose to do so.

Before bringing a dog into a new home, a person must provide a certificate of competence demonstrating that they know how to deal with and treat dogs. If they can prove that they’ve already had a dog, though, they’re off the hook.

Dogs also must be exercised regularly and be off leash as much as possible. They also must be able to run freely for at least five hours a day and clipping their ears and tails is forbidden.

I think it's a real animal

When will we accept reality

William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel, has an excellent article on our military, The American Military Uncontained: Out Everywhere and Winning Nowhere, which describes what I feel is our inability to see our military for what it is - a loser. We have not won a war since WWII.  Here are some non-contiguous excerpts:

When it comes to the “world’s greatest military,” the news has been shocking. Two fast U.S. Navy ships colliding with slow-moving commercial vessels with tragic loss of life. An Air Force that has been in the air continuously for years and yet doesn’t have enough pilots to fly its combat jets. Ground troops who find themselves fighting “rebels” in Syria previously armed and trained by the CIA. Already overstretched Special Operations forces facing growing demands as their rates of mental distress and suicide rise. Proxy armies in Iraq and Afghanistan that are unreliable, often delivering American-provided weaponry to black markets and into the hands of various enemies. All of this and more coming at a time when defense spending is once again soaring and the national security state is awash in funds to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars a year.

Too few ships are being deployed for too long. Too few pilots are being worn out by incessant patrols and mushrooming drone and bombing missions. Special Operations forces (the “commandos of everywhere,” as Nick Turse calls them) are being deployed to far too many countries -- more than two-thirds of the nations on the planet already this year -- and are involved in conflicts that hold little promise of ending on terms favorable to Washington. Meanwhile, insiders like retired General David Petraeus speak calmly about “generational struggles” that will essentially never end. To paraphrase an old slogan from ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” as the U.S. military spans the globe, it’s regularly experiencing the agony of defeat rather than the thrill of victory.

One option -- the most logical -- is never seriously considered in Washington: to make deep cuts in the military’s operational tempo by decreasing defense spending and downsizing the global mission, by bringing troops home and keeping them there. This is not an isolationist plea. The United States certainly faces challenges, notably from Russia (still a major nuclear power) and China (a global economic power bolstering its regional militarily strength). North Korea is, as ever, posturing with missile and nuclear tests in provocative ways. Terrorist organizations strive to destabilize American allies and cause trouble even in “the homeland.”

Such challenges require vigilance. What they don’t require is more ships in the sea-lanes, pilots in the air, and boots on the ground. Indeed, 16 years after the 9/11 attacks it should be obvious that more of the same is likely to produce yet more of what we’ve grown all too accustomed to: increasing instability across significant swaths of the planet, as well as the rise of new terror groups or new iterations of older ones, which means yet more opportunities for failed U.S. military interventions.

Since the early 1990s, largely unconstrained by peer rivals, America’s leaders have acted as if there were nothing to stop them from doing as they pleased on the planet, which, as it turned out, meant there was nothing to stop them from their own folly. We witness the results today. Prolonged and disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Interventions throughout the Greater Middle East (Libya, Syria, Yemen, and beyond) that spread chaos and destruction. Attacks against terrorism that have given new impetus to jihadists everywhere. And recently calls to arm Ukraine against Russia. All of this is consistent with a hubristic strategic vision that, in these years, has spoken in an all-encompassing fashion and without irony of global reach, global power, and full-spectrum dominance.

In short, America’s troops are out everywhere and winning nowhere

Incessant warfare represents the end of democracy. I didn’t say that, James Madison did. I firmly believe, though, in words borrowed from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that “only Americans can hurt America." So how can we lessen the hurt? By beginning to rein in the military. A standing military exists -- or rather should exist -- to support and defend the Constitution and our country against immediate threats to our survival. Endless attacks against inchoate foes in the backlands of the planet hardly promote that mission. Indeed, the more such attacks wear on the military, the more they imperil national security.

House stealing

This may be a first but a house was stolen in Australia this week. Well, it wasn't a full-size houses; it was one of those "tiny houses". The house was intended to draw customers to a timber business and, perhaps, become a product next year.

The thief was caught after having driven the house 900 miles.

Chainsaw Nun

Read this

I don't normally publish e-mails sent to me and hundreds of others. But, this one is particularly relevant and good. It is by Charley Reese, a reporter who just retired from the Orlando Sentinel. It was sent to me by a friend from Plymouth, MA.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? 

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? 

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does. 

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. 

 You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. 

 You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. 

 You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does. 

 One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. 

In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. 

 I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. 

 What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. 

 Who is the speaker of the House now? He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. 

 It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. 

When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Army and Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ... 

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way. 

 There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses, provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... 

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess! 

What you do with this article now that you have read it... is up to you. This might be funny if it weren't so true. Be sure to read all the way to the end: 

Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table, at which he's fed. 
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes are the rule. 
Tax his work, Tax his pay, he works for peanuts anyway! 
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, 
Tax his dirt. Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think. 
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries tax his tears. Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways to tax his ass. 
Tax all he has, then let him know that you won't be done till he has no dough. 

When he screams and hollers; then tax him some more, tax him till he's good and sore. Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod into which he's laid... Put these words upon his tomb, "Taxes drove me to my doom..." When he's gone, do not relax, it's time to apply, the Inheritance tax. 

Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Excise Taxes Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Permit Tax Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon) Gross Receipts Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Personal Property Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service Charge Tax Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax Sales Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax 

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? 
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago; our nation was the most prosperous in the world. 

We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom, if agreed, stayed home to raise the kids. 

What in the heck happened? Can you spell 'politicians?' 

 I hope this goes around THE USA at least 545 times!!! 

YOU can help it get there!!! 
 GO AHEAD. . .BE AN AMERICAN!!!

Fake News?

Harvard has appointed Chelsea Manning and Sean Spicer as visiting fellows for this school year. Supposedly, the reasoning is as follows: 

"Broadening the range and depth of opportunity for students to hear from and engage with experts, leaders and policy-shapers is a cornerstone of the Institute of Politics,” said Bill Delhunt, acting director of the institute at the Harvard Kennedy School. “We welcome the breadth of thought-provoking viewpoints on race, gender, politics and the media.” 

I find this very hard to believe.

September 14

It is not fake news. They join such luminaries as Corey Lewandoski, Jason Chafetz, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

Why What Happened

Based on Hillary Clinton's latest book, "What Happened", the BBC has an excellent summary of the factors Hillary thinks negatively effected her campaign. Here are the factors:

James Comey
Vladimir Putin
Barack Obama
The Media
Bernie Sanders
Jill Stein
Sexism
White Resentment
Hillary Clinton

For the reasons why, click here.

Hitching a ride in Canada

A coyote darted in front of a car driving down the road in Alberta at a reasonably fast clip. The driver heard a "crunch", and thought she had killed it. Twenty miles later a construction worker flagged the driver down at a traffic light and told her it was alive and "embedded" in the car. "When I got out to look, this poor little guy was looking up and blinking at me," she said on Facebook.

What is this?

In London they call it a fatberg. In the words of The Guardian, "it's a congealed mass of fat, wet wipes and nappies" that weighs 130 tons, is over 270 yards long and is blocking the sewage system. It will take three weeks to break it up.

Sand

For most of us, sand means beach. Howsomever, sand and gravel are now the most-extracted materials in the world. Sand is a key ingredient for concrete, roads, glass and electronics. Massive amounts of sand are mined for land reclamation projects, shale gas extraction and beach re-nourishment programs. 

In 2010, the world mined about 11 billion tons of sand just for construction. In the United States alone, production and use of construction sand and gravel was valued at $8.9 billion in 2016, and production has increased by 24 percent in the past five years. Further some scientists think that the published numbers for extraction and use are grossly underestimated. This is the result of under-reporting and failure to include non-construction purposes such as hydraulic fracturing and beach nourishment. Sand extraction is so popular that organized crime groups in India, Italy and elsewhere now deal in it.

This over-exploitation of global supplies of sand damages the environment, endangers communities, causes shortages and promotes violent conflict. Mining too much sand physically alters rivers and coastal ecosystems, increases suspended sediments and causes erosion. It can also negatively affect a variety of animals, including fish, dolphins, crustaceans and crocodiles. And it can impact us in bad ways. Beaches and wetlands buffer coastal communities against surging seas. Increased erosion resulting from extensive mining makes these communities more vulnerable to floods and storm surges.

Businessman President

It must be fraudulent

That's what Wichita's Emprise Bank must have said when Sattar Ali, an Iraqi-American citizen who moved to the United States in 1993, gave the bank a check for $151,000 from the sale of his family’s old house in Michigan. A few minutes after he first presented tellers with the check, he was in handcuffs. When the police took him to their car, he found his wife and daughter there and they were all taken to police headquarters.

Ali says, “No one told me why I was being arrested until we were being released. They didn’t read me rights or anything.” He also says, "And I told them I don't need it until I find a house. So keep the check with you, verify, take your time." "Simply we were just going there to deposit a check. We were not asking for money." large check came from someone with his name and not someone named “James or Robert.” Ali was puzzled with why the bank couldn't seem to verify the check but police did.

Ali, who along with his wife and children are American citizens, lived in Wichita from 1998 to 2008, and was returning to get his doctorate in engineering from Wichita State, where his eldest son is a freshman.

What the iPhone hath wrought

Another questionable issue

McClatchy recalls that President Trump said that his family business would not engage in any transactions with foreign government entities while he serves as president. But, according to news releases by both companies, Trump’s Dubai partner, DAMAC Properties, awarded a $32-million contract to the Middle East subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation to build a six-lane road as part of the residential piece of the Trump World Golf Club Dubai project called Akoya Oxygen.

Interestingly, the company was one of several accused by the World Bank of corruption for its role in the bidding process for a roads project in the Philippines and banned in 2009 from World Bank-financed contracts for several years.

Cats on a train

Are disasters more frequent?

Jay Zagorsky, an economist at Ohio State, and NOAA think so. N0AA has recorded 212 disasters since 1980; the damage was over $1.2 trillion. Using NOAA's data Zagorsky calculates the number of billion-dollar disasters since 1980; the results have increased from 2.7 in 1980 to 5.4 in 2016. An additional billion-dollar disaster occurs every four years. But NOAA's data does not account for the growth in the economy in that period. Zagorsky adds that in and concludes  that an additional billion-dollar disaster occurs about every 25 years, not every four years. So the frequency of these natural disasters is increasing, but not nearly as fast as the raw NOAA data suggest.

The Navy is in trouble

We've all read about the recent crashes of Navy ships. It doesn't look as though it will be getting better soon, at least as far as Military Sealift Command ships are concerned. They perform a wide variety of support services and missions, including transporting military equipment and supplies in the event of a major contingency and replenishing fuel and provisions for U.S. Navy ships at sea. The GAO has just released the conclusions of their recent study of the Command. They are not heartwarming: 

• The average age of the ships in the surge sealift fleet is nearly 40 years, and the number of surge sealift ships reaching the end of their programmed service lives over the next 10 years will reduce sealift capacity by over 25 percent.
• 
  
• Plans does not include a needs assessment or project prioritization comparing the costs and benefits of proposed investments to each other.
• 
  
• An aging surge sealift fleet in which some ships are more than 50 years old, and a combat logistics force tasked with supporting more widely distributed operations (i.e., the employment of ships in dispersed formations across a wider expanse of territory), present several force structure and readiness challenges.

It's legal. But is it ethical?

Should a sitting president collect money from lobbyists and others who spend their days trying to shape federal policy or win government business? The issue, like many others, is in sharper focus under Trump than previous presidents. The problem begins with Trump's golf clubs. The clubs are expensive. The initiation fee is high, often more than $100,000 and dues are in the thousands. The profits from the clubs are held in a trust for Trump's benefit. So, for the first time in U.S. history, wealthy people with interests before the government have a chance for close and confidential access to the president as a result of payments that enrich him personally.

USA Today has looked into the matter and found a number of facts that lead one to believe that the clubs can be hothouses for influence peddlers. For example, membership includes top executives of defense contractors, a lobbyist for the South Korean government, a lawyer helping Saudi Arabia fight claims over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the leader of a pesticide trade group that sought successfully to persuade the Trump administration not to ban an insecticide government scientists linked to health risks. At least fifty of the members are executives whose companies hold federal contracts and twenty are lobbyists and trade group officials. Two-thirds played on one of the 58 days the president was there, according to scores they posted online.

Here's your opportunity to hear and see Hillary Clinton as she talks about her new book.

It's not free. The best deal is a VIP Platinum ticket. It includes Front Row Seating, Admission for Two, Back Stage Meet and Greet with photo and signed Book. And it's only $3,000. Or maybe you'd prefer a basic VIP ticket for $229; it buys you her Book, General Admission and Guaranteed seating in VIP section. If times are tough, would you buy a Gold Ticket for $149; it provides General Admission and Guaranteed seating in Gold section. If you can't afford any of these, there is a Silver Ticket available; it's only $89. It gives you General Admission and Guaranteed seating in Silver section.

Here's the basic pitch: "She'll connect with audiences in a conversation about a story that's personal, raw, detailed and surprisingly funny. She'll take you with her on her journey and talk about What Happened, what's next, and what's on your mind."

Save the date. September 28, 2017 6:30 PM at Enercare Centre,  100 Princes' Blvd, Toronto, Ontario

Christians in America are declining

Public Religion Research Institute publishes a survey of American religious and denominational identity that is the largest of its kind. It is based on a sample of more than 101,000 Americans from all 50 states and includes detailed information about their religious affiliation, denominational ties, political affiliation, and other important demographic attributes. The findings are interesting.

1. White Christians now account for fewer than half of the public. 
2.  White evangelical Protestants are in decline—along with white mainline Protestants and white Catholics.
3. Non-Christian religious groups are growing, but they still represent less than one in ten Americans combined.  America’s youngest religious groups are all non-Christian. 
4.  The Catholic Church is experiencing an ethnic transformation. 
5.  Atheists and agnostics account for a minority of all religiously unaffiliated. Most are secular. 
6.  There are 20 states in which no religious group comprises a greater share of residents than the religiously unaffiliated. 
7. No state is less religiously diverse than Mississippi. 
8. The cultural center of the Catholic Church is shifting south Jews, Hindus, and Unitarian-Universalists stand out as the most educated groups in the American religious landscape
9. Asian or Pacific-Islander Americans have a significantly different religious profile than other racial or ethnic groups. 
10. Nearly half of LGBT Americans are religiously unaffiliated.
11. White Christians have become a minority in the Democratic Party. 
12. White evangelical Protestants remain the dominant religious force in the GOP. 

Want some gin with your yogurt?

Go to a British supermarket. They sell all sorts of gin-flavored foods, from yogurt to fish. The yogurt contains 0.25% alcohol.

The manufacturers have begun the process to make more gin foods, such as a smoked salmon paté with a gin & tonic glaze. Other items on the shelf include gin-infused salmon, gin-flavored popcorn and sweets, gin and tonic ice cream and gin sauces.

Protecting the border

Training horses

Maybe you should deliver your baby in England

Fewer birthing mothers die in England than in the U.S. A lot less. In the U.K., 8.9 women for every 100,000 live births die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth. In the U.S. it's 25.1 women per 100,000 in 2015, almost three times higher than the U.K., and among the worst in the Western world. It seems as though these results reflect a greater standardization in England. Every British doctor, whether newly qualified or approaching retirement, is required to follow the same guidelines for many aspects of maternity care, including treatment of bleeding. In the U.S. this is not generally the case.

Today, the average mother in the U.K. receives more comprehensive and consistent care, ranging from earlier prenatal appointments to closer monitoring after she gives birth, than does her American counterpart. And if a mother dies, the U.K. investigates and tries to learn from it. In the U.S.,this is generally not the case. Also, in England the mother's life is prioritized if she and the baby are in danger. In America, the baby's life is prioritized.

Here, women who are poor, African American or live in a rural area are more likely to die during and after pregnancy. In the U.K., there is no statistically significant difference in mortality rates between women in the highest and lowest socioeconomic groups. Perhaps, this is because of England's National Health Service in which all British women have equal access to public medical services, including free care and prescriptions from pregnancy through the postpartum period.

Further, having a baby is cheaper there. The average cost for a normal delivery or planned cesarean section on a hospital labor ward in 2016 was $2,300 (£1,755), while a complicated case like Helen’s rose to $3,400 (£2,582). On average, the total price charged for a vaginal birth in the U.S. is $30,000 (£24,000), which rises to $50,000 (£39,000) for a cesarean section. 

England keeps better and more detailed numbers. There is a full report covering a three-year period which includes data on every woman in the U.K. who has died during pregnancy or up to six weeks after childbirth. It also discusses later maternal deaths — those occurring up to a year after delivery — and makes recommendations for improvements to care. Direct deaths from obstetric causes, such as hemorrhage, sepsis or blood clots, are distinguished from indirect deaths from conditions worsened but not caused by pregnancy, such as epilepsy or certain types of heart disease.

Not a good day for police

Hate Groups Growing