Where's the $340 billion?

In March Congress passed the CARES Act, which provided $454 billion to be distributed by the Treasury to the Federal Reserve to be used for emergency lending programs to save businesses and jobs during the pandemic and keep credit flowing to the economy.

 
But for months now, the Federal Reserve’s weekly financial statements have indicated that all the Fed has received from Treasury for its emergency lending facilities was $114 billion, leaving $340 billion unaccounted for. Yet, since March 98,000 businesses have permanently closed while this money, intended for economic relief, went missing. 

Now, Mnuchin has told the Fed that he wants all the remaining money back so that he can put it to better use. He had taken some money back earlier this year. He bought $11 billion of US securities and deposited another $20+ billion with foreign governments. 

Meteor

Soon he'll be gone but we'll still be hearing him

What Jane Fonda has learned

Rocking the boat

Looking at the Spanish flu and Covid

Vaccine history

Thoughts on the distribution of Covid vaccines

Remember Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians

Waste can fertilize

Solar power for trains

The Oxford vaccine

Looking at Covid vaccines

Rescuing an elephant

Looking at a rural hospital

Another way to help the environment

 

Attacking pollution

Your cell phone may help you fight Covid-19

About 100 million Americans now have the ability to get pop-up notifications from local health authorities when they’ve personally spent time near someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus. Connecticut has this capability. Check it out here. Once you set it up, you can forget it until you, or someone you’ve been around, gets a positive coronavirus test.

For a deeper analysis go here.

Bocelli and Kraus

Helping a baby deer

Courtesy of our Florida correspondent

Nuremburg 75 years later

An example for Mr.Trump

He's one year old

Born to play the piano

She doesn't sound like 12

Ballroom Dancing at 90

Santa gives advice

Thanking his helpers

Zimbabwe's Water Supply

What does this signify?

The parrot of the year

Mars for Sale

Visitors

Is Ruby handicapped?

2 old Republicans who got Covid-19

Luciano at work. Or is it play

Building and Destroying

Courtesy of our Florida correspondent

Getting by in NYC today

 

Why not Fireman's Day?

 When I was a kid in the 1940s, it was pretty obvious that this nation was at war. Everyone was involved in some activity to help the war effort. I and my friends collected aluminum foil. My sisters knitted. We went to the market with ration book in hand. Every so often we prepared for an air raid. My brothers served in the Battle of the Bulge and other combat. All of my male cousins and most of the men I knew were drafted. I learned to read via the headlines and the lead stories of the war that the newspapers carried every day. I practiced my writing by writing letters to my brothers. All of the men in East Cambridge were drafted. It was pretty obvious why we should celebrate their efforts. Hardly anyone was against the GI Bill. I can fully understand why in the '50s and '60s Armistice Day was a big deal. And, I can readily understand why Eisenhower renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954. 

However, I find it very hard to understand the brouhaha that is now made of Veterans Day. When Nixon abolished the draft in 1973, people now had a choice as to whether they wanted to join the military or not, as they always had a choice whether they should join the police, become a teacher, practice medicine, fight fires, etc. There are many professions where the goal is not making a dollar. Soldiers are not the only ones risking their lives. Police and firefighters also risk their lives. The military is not the only important profession that keeps this country whole. Where would we be without teachers or policemen? Why don't we have a teacher's day or a policemen's day?  

The fact of a volunteer army makes us more susceptible to go to war, especially because we know so few of the volunteers. As I said above, many of the people I knew in the '40s were drafted and risked their lives defending this country. Some of my relatives served in Korea. Friends served in Vietnam or moved to Canada. Coffins landed in the military base in Bedford, MA, almost every night. We were all involved in these wars and realized their cost. The President didn't tell us to avoid the fact that we were at war, we were all helping the war effort. That was our duty as citizens, no matter our age or circumstances. 

It is interesting that most of the politicians that will be speaking on Veterans Day have not served in any capacity in the military. I'll end with a comment from Aaron O'Connell, a professor at Annapolis, "Uncritical support of all things martial is quickly becoming the new normal for our youth. Hardly any of my students at the Naval Academy remember a time when their nation wasn’t at war."

(This is the fourth year I have posted the above.)

Is there a meaning here?

What's wrong with us

The above chart is from Our World In Data. Here are their comments: 

 “Why do Americans have a lower life expectancy than people in other rich countries, despite paying so much more for health care? The short summary is that Americans suffer higher death rates from smoking, obesity, homicides, opioid overdoses, suicides, road accidents, and infant deaths. In addition to this, deeper poverty and less access to healthcare mean Americans at lower incomes die at a younger age than poor people in other rich countries.”

Mandate the Mask?

I'm a little leery about this chart. It lists Connecticut as a state where masks are mandated. I didn't know that was the case and I live in Connecticut.

A post-campaign video

Some young voters

They have found a home

How do you top this?

 

Your coat and Covid-19

The virus is affecting animals, the mink being one example. Denmark, the home of more than 15,000,000 minks, is a major supplier of mink furs to the world.

Well, the country thinks that a mutation in the novel coronavirus has infected and could possibly interfere with the effectiveness of a vaccine for humans. Hence, the government will slaughter millions of mink at more than 1,000 farms.

Mink problems are not unique to Denmark. The minks in Utah are also infected. Mink on two farms have become the first in the United States to test positive for the coronavirus, state and federal officials state. Five animals on the two farms tested positive for the virus, but many more are believed to be infected because of a recent upswing in the number of mink deaths on the farms.

Viewing our election from overseas

The Police and Armed Groups

America - November 3, 2020

Part 1 is over

 

Try to Remember from "The Fantasticks"

 

Try to remember the kind of September 

When life was slow and oh so mellow 

Try to remember the kind of September 

When grass was green and grain so yellow 

Try to remember the kind of September 

When you were a young and a callow fellow 

Try to remember and if you remember 

Then follow--follow, oh-oh 

Try to remember when life was so tender 

That no one wept except the willow 

Try to remember when life was so tender 

That dreams were kept beside your pillow 

Try to remember when life was so tender 

That love was an ember about to billow 

Try to remember and if you remember 

Then follow--follow, oh-oh 

Deep in December it's nice to remember 

Although you know the snow will follow 

Deep in December it's nice to remember 

Without a hurt, the heart is hollow 

Deep in December it's nice to remember 

The fire of September that made you mellow 

Deep in December our hearts should remember 

Then follow

Simon & Garfunkel

 

Popular Music from 1954

A childhood friend of mine sent me this link
http://thenostalgiamachine.com/
You can listen to popular music from 1951 to 2015 at that site.

Rosemary Clooney


Perry Como


The Four Aces


Dean Martin


Tony Bennett
Kitty Kallen

Is this the country we want?

Alipay

Rock stars helping kids in Afghanistan

How soon will this be paid off?