High Fashion Comes to Los Angeles

Actually there are currently 24 Louis Vuitton stores in California.

The “Louis Vuitton Series 2 — Past, Present and Future” exhibition is in Los Angeles from Feb. 6-22. The event showcases a “untraditional interpretation” of Louis Vuitton‘s spring 2015 womenswear collection, according to WWD. The exhibition is in a reconditioned building in what is called the new gallery center of Hollywood. There was no cost to see the exhibit. So my wife and I drove down to see the event. We parked on Fountain Avenue just a few blocks south of Sunset Boulevard. It was just two short blocks to the display.

We found what I call the reasoning behind fashion. It’ all about illusion. Isn’t that what makeup, and apparel, and how you walk and talk are really all about? We entered into a dark hall that opened into a mirrored hall that reminded me of a “fun house.” there were no distortion mirrors but the walls were covered with mirrors from floor to ceiling. I could not tell whether I was walking into a mirror or down the hall. Then a short well light corridor lead to a second mirrored hall. The mirrors not only display my likeness but also displayed models on a runway. Beyond this startling part of the exhibit were room showing how their goods are made, a sample backstage room, and a display of their finest shoes, purses(bags), and jewelry.

Backstage Room

More Illusion

Radio Shack and the ever Changing Retail World

Even before the internet became the 21^st century shopping mall major store chains saw their demise. The one thing that they all had in common was their inability to remain relevant at the time of their failure. There is no doubt that Amazon, E-bay and other internet sales companies have impacted the retail world but they only hastened those chain store closings. I believe there is more to the story than that.

A July 18, 1997 article in the New York Times offered this explanation for the closing of Woolworth’s 400 remaining five-and-dime stores. “Among discount stores, Woolworth is only the last, if the most prominent, victim of larger and stronger competitors like Wal-Mart and Target, which offer more selection, quicker checkout and often lower prices.”

Sol and Robert Price raise $2.5 million from friends and family to open Price Club on July 12^th 1976. That was the start of a new wave of warehouse stores that offer limited selection but dramatically lower prices. Part of their success was their ability to negotiate long terms for payment of the merchandise that enabled them to obtain the money to re-pay manufacturers after the goods were sold to their member consumers. Costco’s year to date total return is already 8.43%. Last year’s total return was over 35%. That company has a web site but drop by their stores on a weekend and finding a parking space is a chore.

The latest big chain to enter bankruptcy is Radio Shack. I remember when the chain was known as Allied Radio Shack and its primary goal was serving electronic hobbyists. The chain expanded far beyond that formula and that was its mistake. The chain did not adopt a new formula. Their prices are high and their mix of goods is unimpressive. I am amazed they have survived. “Two brothers open the first “Radio Shack” in Boston, a small retail and mail-order business supplying ship radio equipment and “ham” radios” according to a Radio Shack website.

Sadly Sears will probably follow Montgomery-Ward into a fond memory. The just don’t appeal to the current expectations of retail consumers.

Jimmy Fallon Unveils the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover

This is just a little male entertainment.

Hannah Davis and her descending bikini land 2015 SI swimsuit cover

$1.6t

How much did the United States spend on the wars, counter terrorism operations, reconstruction, diplomacy, and medical care for wounded veterans since September 11, 2001? $1.6 trillion according to a congressional authorized office. Most of that money includes $686 billion on Operation enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and another $815 billion on Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq).

What do we have to show for our efforts? Iraq is in a state of collapse and Afghanistan is teetering towards collapse. ISIS (or ISIL) is on the rise having taken control of eastern Syria and Northwestern Iraq. al-Qaeda is on the rise in Yemen and Libya.

If there is a strategy to defeat al-Qaeda and ISIS it has not been revealed to the press and so the citizens of the United States have no knowledge.

The United States had provided a significant amount of military hardware to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf nations but they seem to prefer keeping it all parked in their garages. Perhaps the killing of a Jordanian pilot will motivate countries in that region to step up to the plate and actively participate, but given their historical behavior this seems like an unlikely occurrence.

The Arab nations will hope that the United States will send in more troops and equipment to stop their enemies. Given America’s exhaustion over wars that did not result in defeat of Jihadi terrorist groups it is unlikely that there will be another wave of American ground troops.

The only event that is likely to cause a major re-engagement of America in the Middle East is a direct attack on the United States.

America’s Peasants

The working masses of America don’t think of themselves as peasants. Oh no, wisely America’s wealthy came up with a much more palatable description. They are part of the middle class. Everyone is part of the middle class. I know wealthy people who tell me they are part of the middle class. The wealthy in Bel-Aire and Calabasas call themselves upper middle class. It seems that the middle class is everyone.

So explain the following to me.

Sixteen million children were on food stamps as of the end of last year, the highest number since the nation’s economy tumbled in 2008. That is 1 in 5 of all children in America. 46.5 million people in the United States are on food stamps. That means more than 14% of our 320 million people are too poor to afford food. These fact are reported by the Associated Press.

A new study released by Morgan Stanley revealed income inequality ranked fourth among concerns of the high-net-worth individuals nationally, behind the 86% citing increasing foreign conflicts, the 81% pointing to fears of terrorism in the U.S., and the 80% noting the U.S. government budget deficit.

The same Morgan Stanley study indicated that those with $100,000 or more to invest made up 21% of U.S. households. In other words 79% of all American households have less than $100,000 to put in a bank or invest in stocks and bonds. That translates into millions of retired people who live almost totally on Social Security and millions of younger people wondering what their retirement will look like.

Can those families with college age children send their children to college? The answer is obvious. Children must qualify for a student loan or their education comes to an end. California’s famous community colleges now cost $46 per unit or $736 per semester. I recall when those schools were free to every high school graduate.

Another part of this story is the wealthy who earn millions of dollars a year and pay the lowest tax rate with thousands of dollars earned that are not taxed at all. One example is tax free municipal bonds. If you own $1 million of those bonds the interest earned is not taxed. If you decide to sells those bonds to earn a profit after owning them for more than one year, your profits will be taxed at 15%. Since 2003, certain dividends known as qualified dividends (Qualified dividends are generally dividends from shares in domestic corporations) have been subject to the same tax rates as long-term capital gains, which are currently taxed at 15%.

In other words if I work for a living, 40 hours a week every week of the year and earn $50,000 a year my joint income tax is about $4,700. However if I am lucky enough to earn my $50,000 in municipal bond interest my income tax is NOTHING.

The problem for the middle class who work for a living is that there is no one who speaks for them in Washington. Oh, the Democrats claim they do but that is a lie. They had control of both the House and the Senate for the first two years of the Obama administration and no relief or help was provided. Meanwhile the wealthy who say they are concerned with income inequality have happily accepted the ever growing divide between the rich and poor. Corporate managers now earn 200 to 300 times the income of the rest of us.

The middle class? What middle class is there? It’s primarily older people who managed to save for their retirement. One day there will be an uprising by the masses who will finally recognize that they are the victims of a system that milks them. It won’t come too soon for me.

A Blueprint for Middle-Class Economics

This is a DOA (Dead on arrival) plan that has little to no chance of passing into law. Frankly it does nothing to stop the wealthiest in our country from becoming even wealthier. The president seems to be unaware that his political party is now in the minority. This is all about his legacy. His ideas will be prominently posted in his library.

Released statement by the president of the United States, Barack Obama

America’s resurgence is real. With a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production, we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth.

Now we have to choose what we want that future to look like. Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and rising chances for everyone who makes the effort?

In my State of the Union Address last week, I focused on making sure middle-class economics helps more Americans get ahead in the new economy. As a country, we need to do more to make working families’ paychecks go farther, give Americans of every age the chance to upgrade their skills so they earn higher wages, and build the world’s most competitive economy for our businesses.

On Monday, I will present Congress with my budget, a plan for bringing middle-class economics into the 21st Century. First, I’m proposing we make the kinds of investments we need to continue to grow our economy and enhance our national security. We would establish new advanced manufacturing hubs, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and lead a new age of precision medicine that uses cutting-edge science to find new treatments for diseases like diabetes and cancer. We would give working parents a chance to get ahead with guaranteed paid sick leave, and we’d give Americans of all ages a chance to earn new skills by making community college free for responsible students. And we should invest in a 21st century military to confront global challenges with strong and sustained American leadership. These proposals are pragmatic; they’re the types of things both parties should be able to support.

But where Democrats and Republicans often disagree is in how to pay for these kinds of ideas. I’m proud that since I took office, we’ve experienced the fastest period of sustained deficit reduction since the end of World War II. My budget will build on that progress with reforms to health programs, our tax code, and our broken immigration system. It would eliminate the trust fund loophole that allows the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying taxes on their unearned income, and use the savings to cut taxes for middle class families. If Congress passes my budget, our country would meet the key test of fiscal sustainability, with our debt declining as a share of our GDP.

Of course, to make these common-sense investments in our future without adding to our deficits, we need to turn the page on the manufactured crises that have defined the debates over our budget in recent years. Our recovery was held back when Congress shut down the government and risked the full faith and credit of the United States. We can’t afford to do that again. And we have to build on the bipartisan budget agreement I signed in 2013 that helped us end some of the arbitrary, across-the-board budget cuts known as “sequestration.” Last year’s agreement helped boost our economic growth without undermining fiscal responsibility. We were able to invest in key national priorities while cutting our deficits to their lowest level since 2007.

In order to get wages and incomes rising faster, we need to take the next step. That’s why my Budget will fully reverse the sequestration cuts for domestic priorities in 2016. It will match those investments with equal dollar increases for defense funding. If Congress rejects my plan and refuses to undo these arbitrary cuts, it will threaten our economy and our military. Investments in key areas will fall to their lowest level in ten years, adjusted for inflation, putting American research, education, infrastructure, and national security at risk. But if Congress joins me, we can make sure that ending sequestration is fully paid for by cutting inefficient spending and closing tax loopholes.

The Budget I’m sending to Congress is a blueprint for success in the new economy. I know that there are Republicans in Congress who disagree with my approach, and I look forward to hearing their ideas for how we can pay for what the middle class needs to grow. But what we can’t do is simply pretend that things like child care or college aren’t important, or that there’s nothing we can do to help middle class families get ahead.

Because we still have work to do. As a country, we have made it through some hard times. But we’ve laid a new foundation. We’ve got a new future to write. And I am eager to get to work.

Follow Barack Obama on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BarackObama

It’s the Druggist

Upon arriving home, a husband was met at the door by his sobbing wife.
Tearfully she explained, “It’s the druggist. He insulted me terribly
this morning on the phone. I had to call multiple times before he
would even answer the phone.”

Immediately, the husband drove downtown to confront the druggist and
demand an apology.

Before he could say more than a word or two, the druggist told him,
“Now, just a minute, listen to my side of it. This morning the alarm
failed to go off, so I was late getting up. I went without
breakfast and hurried out to the car, just to realize that I’d locked the house
with both house and car keys inside and had to break a window to get
my keys.

“Then, driving a little too fast, I got a speeding ticket. Later,
when I was about three blocks from the store, I had a flat tire.”

“When I finally got to the store a bunch of people were waiting for me
to open up. I got the store opened and started waiting on these
people, all the time the darn phone was ringing off the hook.”

He continued, “Then I had to break a roll of nickels against the cash
register drawer to make change, and they spilled all over the floor.
I had to get down on my hands and knees to pick up the nickels and the
phone was still ringing.

When I came up I cracked my head on the open cash drawer, which made
me stagger back against a showcase with a bunch of perfume bottles on
it. Half of them hit the floor and broke.”

“Meanwhile, the phone is still ringing with no let up, and I finally
got back to answer it. It was your wife. She wanted to know how to
use a Rectal thermometer.

And believe me mister, as God is my witness, all I did was tell her.”

The Next Two Years at America’s Capital

Sadly both the president and the congress have decided that the next two years will not be about passing laws that will improve the quality of life for most Americans.

President Obama started the ball rolling with his threat to veto the Keystone XL pipeline. His contention is that there will be a consequential impact on the environment and in addition only 35 jobs will be created. He is talking about the additional jobs that will be added to already functioning refineries. He overlooks the hundreds of construction jobs that will be created in building the pipeline. He overlooks the fact that the refined oil could be used in the United States if needed. He overlooks the fact that oil sands will be transported by rail tanks cars and trucks.

Just as the Republicans are gaining support for the pipeline they distract everyone by attempting to pass an anti-abortion law that would prohibit government subsidized abortions if the woman is more than 20 weeks pregnant and had not reported being raped immediately after it had occurred. It was a large block of moderate female Republican congressional members that refused to vote in favor of the law. It was another prefect example of men deciding laws regulating women.

The other priority for the GOP is the stop Obama’s decision to not deport illegal aliens who have had no brushes with the law. Politico’s column GOP seeking Plan B on immigration suggests a few avenues the Republicans might take but none address the question surrounding the 12 million illegal aliens now in the United States.

Google “new GOP legislation” and all you find is discussion about the failed abortion law and efforts to stop Obama’s executive orders pertaining to illegal aliens.

So where is the unity among Republicans to prove to America’s voters that they can do more than say “No”? Senator Ted Cruz’s “GOP will fight Obamacare until the end of time” position is the best example of Republican philosophy.

Where are the unifiers in the Republican Party? Neither Speaker John Boehner nor Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sufficient respect to lead the party. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Wednesday criticized President Obama’s State of the Union address as “aloof” and “detached from reality.” But Priebus has not been a unifying force in his party.

President Obama told us about his dreams in the State of the Union address. That will be part of his legacy. The Republican legacy for the next two years will be “We said no to Obama.”

State of the Union 2015

For a president who has lost control of both houses of Congress, Barack Obama seems to be oblivious to his situation. That may be a good thing. After all he will hold office for another two years. He wants to be remembered for more than being the first Black president. His will defend his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, forever. Beyond that he wants to be remembered as a leader who cared about all the people.

His speech gave comfort to every group that makes up the Democratic Party. He made references to illegal immigrants, the LGBT community, the conservationists, those wanting more foreign trade, etc. It’s what good speech writers do. They recognize everyone in the hope of creating unity.

The president intentionally minmized every troubling foreign affairs issue from Ukraine to Iran and not word was spoken about the economic divide that separates the very wealthy from the rest of American society. A smart decision since that would only enflame his opponents.

So naturally his State of the Union address was a litany of all the legislation he wishes to sign into law in the next two years. Of course most of it won’t be approved by the congress but at least he had the opportunity to state his wishes. Those wishes are probably the basis for the next Democratic Party platform that will be part of the 2016 election.

Sadly opposition to Obama comes from both political parties. Our system of government has survived these kinds of divides in the past. As a nation the country will continue its dominant position in world affairs.