Who are we?

Today's reality by Jen Sorenson

It's worth looking at her site. You'll find some relevant cartoons.

An interesting chart

For the past ten years Gallup has been producing the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index. It's an attempt to measure what they call the five essential elements of well-being, which are: 

Purpose: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals 

Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life 

Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security 

Community: liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community 

Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily. 

The score of 61.5 for 2017 was less than the 62.1 of 2016. It is the largest year-over-year decline since the index began in 2008.

Just dazzling

One in a million

32 iterations and still about 1,000 unresolved deficiencies

You must know that I'm talking about the F-35 once more. The Defense Department’s Operational Testing has released its annual report and, once more, the F-35 has problems beyond being our costliest weapons system. The director of the Testing unit said, the availability of the fighter jet for missions when needed -- a key metric -- remains “around 50 percent, a condition that has existed with no significant improvement since October 2014, despite the increasing number of aircraft.” In fact, there has been ‘No significant improvement’ in aircraft available in years. Aircraft have been sitting idle over the last year awaiting spare parts from the contractor, Yet, Lockheed has been developing the plane for 16 years.

Despite these problems, more than 600 aircraft already will have been built. That’s about 25 percent of a planned 2,456 U.S. jets; 265 have been delivered to date.

Use your phone better

A tough life

Dating and the economy

Looking at the numbers

The Treasury has released its “Fiscal Year 2017 Financial Report of the U.S. Government”. The report separates cash results from complete results. Net Operating Cost ($1.157 trillion) is defined as revenues minus costs,which I interpret as complete results. The Budget Deficit ($665.7 billion) is defined as receipts minus outlays (cash spent). The difference of $491 billion between the two is, according to the report, “primarily due to accrued costs (incurred but not necessarily paid) related to increases in estimated federal employee and veteran benefits liabilities and certain other liabilities that are included in net operating cost, but not the budget deficit.”

Here's where the $3.4 trillion in revenues came from: 
80% from Individual income tax and tax withholdings, including Social Security 
9% from Corporation income taxes 
11% from other revenue. 

The costs of $4.5 trillion were divided up as follows: 
24% Department of Health and Human services 
22% Social Security 
15% Department of Defense 
11% Department of Veterans Affairs 
22% All other 
6% Interest on Treasury Securities held by the public

A Stupid Liar

When will we reach this situation?

Living in Hell

In the New York Review of Books for March 8 Enrique Krauze describes current conditions in Venezuela. While Chavez and Maduro made a considerable number of bad decisions, the worst one was with the state-owned oil company, the driver of the economy. Their changes to the company resulted in a huge loss of production.Here is how the article begins:

In the spring of 2017, and all through the year, social media feeds in Venezuela were filled with images of deprivation and despair: long lines of people hoping to purchase food; women fighting over a stick of butter; mothers who could not find milk to buy; children picking through garbage in search of something to eat; empty shelves in pharmacies and stores; hospitals without stretchers, drugs, or minimum levels of hygiene; doctors operating on a patient by the light of a cell phone; women giving birth outside of hospitals. Venezuela’s economy, the economist Ricardo Hausmann wrote in a recent study, is suffering a collapse that is “unprecedented” in the Western world. Between 2013 and 2017 the country’s national and per capita GDPs contracted more severely than those of the US did during the Great Depression and more than those of Russia, Cuba, and Albania did after the fall of communism.

This is a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions. By May 2017, Venezuela’s minimum monthly wage wasn’t enough to meet even 12 percent of a single person’s basic food needs. A survey of 6,500 households by three prestigious universities showed that 74 percent of the population had lost on average nineteen pounds in 2016. Infant mortality in hospitals has risen by 100 percent. Diseases nearly eradicated in many countries, like malaria and diphtheria, have flourished; illnesses largely new to the area, like Chikungunya, Zika, and dengue, have spread. Caracas is now the most dangerous city on the planet. All this is happening in a country that has one of the largest oil reserves in the world.

Watch it and weep

Comparing Health Systems

The Commonwealth Fund has concluded that our health system is worse than that of many high-income countries (Switzerland, Sweden, France, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Norway, Austria). Yet we spend more, as a percentage of GDP, on it than any of the other countries.

The Fund used 72 indicators to look at five areas: Care Process, Access, Administrative Efficiency, Equity, and Health Care Outcomes. Here's what they found.

Want some pie?

Or, do you want to frame it?

What is Truth?

One of the difficulties in writing a blog is trying to figure out what is true. Another problem is not reading as carefully as one should. I screwed up in both cases on a post about the Florida school shooting.

The Miami Herald article that was my basis clearly questioned whether there were 18 school shootings this year. This number was issued by Every Town for Gun Safety. It includes shootings where the only connection of a school to a shooting was that the shooting was near the school. The group included shootings late at night when the schools were closed. 

Well, this is the "first mistake" I've made this year. Hopefully, it's the last. But, that's highly unlikely as, being human, I do err reasonably often.

What am I missing?

On the previous post there are a number of charts related to deaths by gun. Vide:

We have the most deaths per million by firearm (29.7) than any other country. The closest is Switzerland at 7.7.
We own 42% of the guns in the world yet our population is only 4.43% of the world's population.
Yet we are below average in the amount of violent crime.

True, the number of suicides by gun in the U.S. are more than homicides by gun. But there are still a lot of people dying by guns, more than any other place in the world. We need much, much better control.

Some interesting charts

From VOX

Combining work and vacation time

David Shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs, has been called to task by the Inspector General for a 10-day, $122,000 business trip he took to Europe in July, which included $4200 airfare for his wife. He led a VA team to Copenhagen and London for 10 days in July,but only 3-1/2 days were devoted to business. The rest of the time was spent on sightseeing and unofficial activities, such as attending the Wimbledon tennis tournament using free tickets. He was not alone; he was accompanied by his wife, a small staff and a six-person security detail.

To justify paying for the secretary’s wife’s $4,000 airfare, the IG's report said, the department’s chief of staff altered an email to indicate that Dr. Shulkin and his wife had been specifically invited to an honorary dinner in Denmark, when in fact they had not. While the couple were in London, the report found, they improperly accepted tickets to a tennis match at Wimbledon.

Shulkin is not the only cabinet secretary to be accused of lavish spending on travel. Tom Price was dismissed as secretary of health and human services over his use of private jets.

More personnel questions

What does it take to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy? Before Trump, it has taken a very intelligent and experienced scientist. Trump has failed to nominate someone for this position. He has assigned the job to Michael Kratsios, a graduate of Princeton in 2008 with a political science degree that featured a concentration in American politics. 

GE and Barack used their guy to  handle the anthrax scare, the Deepwater Horizon disaster and an Ebola outbreak. Now we are having one of the worst flu seasons in more than a decade. What is the government doing about it? Then, there  are the questions about lead-poisoned drinking water and record-breaking disasters that many scientists say are sharpened by rising temperatures. What can Katsios do about these problems?

Concussions in women's sports

What's with schools and guns?

Today's shooting in the Florida high school is the 18th school shooting so far this year. That's a shooting every two-and-a-half days. Twenty people have been killed, or one every two-and-a-quarter days.

Good signs or bad signs?

Lacking management skills

At the beginning of Trump's presidency I raised some issues which led me to question his management skills. The recent press about the number of departures from the White House staff causes me to return to this issue.

So far, 37 high-level Trump aides or advisers have resigned or been fired, including a chief of staff, multiple agency heads, deputy directors of the National Economic Council, the National Security Council, and the Domestic Policy Council.  And there are more. In fact, 34% of the administration's top staffers and advisers have left. Compare that to 9% of Obama's appointees, 11% of Clinton's, 7% of GW's and 17% of Reagan's.

Ezra Klein attributes this fallout to Trump’s volatility, which Klein believes creates fear, confusion, and frustration. Because he changes his 'position' so often, no one knows quite what he will do or say or want.

Planning for war, not people

So, the chances of Trump's proposed budget being implemented are supposedly non-existent. But it does give some insight into his preferences. 

He's a big fan of the military. Ergo, a $777 billion boost to defense spending over 10 years.
He doesn't think much of science as a way to better our lives. Ergo, a 33.7 percent cut to the EPA, a 29.5 percent cut to the National Science Foundation and cuts to NIH and EPA.
He isn't worried about medical treatment. Ergo, a 7.1 percent cut to Medicare, 22.5 percent cut to Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies by 2028.
He thinks all the kids are okay. Ergo, cutting Head Start, food stamps and Section 8 housing assistance by 2028.
He thinks diplomacy is useless. Ergo, cuts to the State Department.

Surprise?

Trump's most important adviser?

Flying Blind?

“A Diva, Mogul, Author, Idealist with scars to prove it.”

That's how Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur, describes herself on Twitter. Maybe that's why she was given a $156 million contract by FEMA to supply 30,000,000 million meals to Puerto Rico as soon as possible. She has a one person company that uses subcontractors to do her work. She has never worked in large-scale disaster relief; plus, government agencies have cancelled at least five contracts with her. 

Things did not go well. By the time 18.5 million meals were due, she had delivered only 50,000. Furthermore, the food had been packaged separately from the pouches used to heat them. FEMA’s solicitation required “self-heating meals.” FEMA terminated her contract. FEMA has had delivery problems before. 

After Hurricane Maria, FEMA awarded more than $30 million in contracts for emergency tarps and plastic sheeting to a company that never delivered the needed supplies.

How do you want to go?

What would war with North Korea be like?

The trade deficit gets worse

In 2017 it hit $566 billion, or 2.9% of GDP, up from 2.7% in 2016. Our surging performance in oil reduced the deficit by $176 billion. It was the worst trade deficit since 2008.

Would you have a drink here?

Treason as defined by President Trump

The above is a Trump ad for the 2020 election. Isn't it a little early for this? It seems in his eyes partisanship is treason. See here.

One way to invest government money

When will we go to war with Iran?

Lawrence Wilkerson thinks we're on the road to doing so, just as we did with Iraq, which he, as chief of staff to Colin Powell, the Secretary of State under Bush 2, helped sell. Wilkerson, also a former Army colonel, has an excellent article in today's NY Times. It is entitled "I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again." You really should read it.

No sex for the marbled crayfish

It reproduces by cloning. The first one, discovered only 25 years ago, was a female. All subsequent ones have been female. They are almost genetically identical to one another. They clone pretty often, almost every day. One scientist says, “Three of us once caught 150 animals within one hour, just with our hands.” The crayfish made its way to Madagascar in 2007; now there are millions of them. They are moving across Europe. When will they come here?

Music can heal

Will there be a 2020 census that makes sense?

Make Peace, Not War

William Astore, a former Lieutenant Colonel and now a history professor, has some suggestions:

1. Abandon the notion of perfect security. You can’t have it. It doesn’t exist. And abandon as well the idea that a huge military establishment translates into national safety. James Madison didn’t think so and neither did Dwight D. Eisenhower.

2. Who could have anything against calling the Pentagon a “defense” department, if defense were truly its focus? But let’s face it: the Pentagon is actually a war department. So let’s label it what it really is. After all, how can you deal with a problem if you can’t even name it accurately?

3. Isn’t it about time to start following the Constitution when it comes to our “wars”? Isn’t it time for Congress to finally step up to its constitutional duties? Whatever the Pentagon is called, this country should no longer be able to pursue its many conflicts without a formal congressional declaration of war. If we had followed that rule, the U.S. wouldn’t have fought any of its wars since the end of World War II.

4. Generational wars -- ones, that is, that never end -- should not be considered a measure of American resolve, but of American stupidity. If you wage war long, you wage it wrong, especially if you want to protect democratic institutions in this country.

5. Generals generally like to wage war. Don’t blame them. It’s their profession. But for heaven’s sake, don’t put them in charge of the Department of “Defense” (James Mattis) or the National Security Council (H.R. McMaster) either -- and above all, don’t let one of them (John Kelly) become the gatekeeper for a volatile, vain president. In our country, civilians should be in charge of the war makers, end of story.

6. You can’t win wars you never should have begun in the first place. America’s leaders failed to learn that lesson from Vietnam. Since then they have continued to wage wars for less-than-vital interests with predictably dismal results. Following the Vietnam example, America will only truly win its Afghan War when it chooses to rein in its pride and vanity -- and leave.

7. The serious people in Washington snickered when, as a presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008, Congressman Dennis Kucinich called for a Department of Peace. Remind me, though, 17 years into our latest set of wars, what was so funny about that suggestion? Isn’t it better to wage peace than war? If you don’t believe me, ask a wounded veteran or a Gold Star family.

8. Want to invest in American jobs? Good idea! But stop making the military-industrial complex the preferred path to job creation. That’s a loser of a way to go. It’s proven that investments in “butter” create double or triple the number of jobs as those in “guns.” In other words, invest in education, health care, and civilian infrastructure, not more weaponry.

9. Get rid of the very idea behind the infamous Pottery Barn rule -- the warning Secretary of State Colin Powell offered George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that if the U.S. military “breaks” a country, somehow we’ve “bought” it and so have to take ownership of the resulting mess. Whether stated or not, it’s continued to be the basis for this century’s unending wars. Honestly, if somebody broke something valuable you owned, would you trust that person to put it back together? Folly doesn’t decrease by persisting in it.

10. I was an officer in the Air Force. When I entered that service, the ideal of the citizen-soldier still held sway. But during my career I witnessed a slow, insidious change. A citizen-soldier military morphed into a professional ethos of “warriors” and “warfighters,” a military that saw itself as better than the rest of us. It’s time to think about how to return to that citizen-soldier tradition, which made it harder to fight those generational wars. Consider retired General John Kelly, who, while defending the president in a controversy over the president’s words to the mother of a dead Green Beret, refused to take questions from reporters unless they had a personal connection to fallen troops or to a Gold Star family. 

Financial Secrecy

The Tax Justice Network investigates cross-border financial flows. Its latest report tries to rank those countries involved with promoting financial secrecy. In their view, Switzerland and the United States are the biggest promoters based on their level of secrecy and the percentage of financial services provided to non-residents. It claims that $21 to $32 trillion of private financial wealth is located, untaxed or lightly taxed, in secrecy jurisdictions around the world. Each year $1-1.6 trillion flows across borders each year.

Here are its rankings of the biggest countries operating in this field:
Switzerland
United States
Cayman Islands
Hong Kong
Singapore
Luxembourg
Germany
Taiwan
United Arab Emirates (Dubai)
Guernsey

Have you heard of the Wing Bowl?

It's been held in Philadelphia for twenty-six years and attracts a fairly large audience of almost 20,000. The contest is to see who eats the most chicken wings in thirty minutes. The winner won the bowl for her third time by eating 501 chicken wings in 30 minutes, a new world record.

From our Florida correspondent

The Federal Debt Is Going Up ---- A Lot

The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It's the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year. The Congressional Budget Office attributed the increase to lower tax receipts because of the new tax law.

The world is changing

In England, Germany, Holland, Spain, and now France there are brothels staffed with sex dolls. In France an hour with a sex doll costs $110. Each doll has her own profile for online perusal: Lily is "Fine à la poitrine généreuse" ("Thin with generous bosom"); Sofia bills herself as: "I am the most athletic and strongest of the Xdolls"; and Kim is green-eyed and has a "form" that is "très..très.. généreuses."

The brothel features "private relaxation areas, equipped with a TV screen and an audio headset (or VR), to make your appointment with the doll of your choice comfortable".

Fake News?

The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland will be offering a three-year bachelor's or two-year master's degree in yodeling starting in the Fall. Aspiring yodelers will be taught how to perform the singing style that dates back more than 500 years, and which was used by herders in the Austrian and Swiss Alps to call their stock or communicate between villages. Plus, the program will cover theory, history and advice on how to start a business teaching yodeling to others,

Problems with BMI

Do you really need that test?

There's a movement starting to reduce medical expenses by eliminating tests and procedures that the patient does not need. This amounts to a lot of money; $282,000,000 in one year in at least one case. The Washington Health Alliance found that in a single year more than 600,000 patients underwent treatment they didn’t need.

The group looked at the insurance claims for one year from 1.3 million patients in Washington state who received one of 47 tests or services that medical experts have flagged as overused or unnecessary. Here's what they found: 

More than a third of the money spent on the 47 tests or services went to unnecessary care.
Three of four annual cervical cancer screenings were performed on women who had adequate prior screenings — at a cost of $19 million.
About 85 percent of the lab tests to prep healthy patients for low-risk surgery were unnecessary — squandering about $86 million.
Needless annual heart tests on low-risk patients consumed $40 million.

The National Academy of Medicine believes that  about a fourth ($765 billion) of all the money spent each year on health care is wasted.

Moving Day