Lady Gaga Sings “Sound of Music” at 2015 Oscars

Lady Gaga gave her rendition of Julie Andrews “Sound of Music.” Her performance was spectacular.

Who knew Lady Gaga could sing like THIS?

Oregon’s New Governor is Bisexual

Who cares? Why should anyone care?

Reported in the Los Angeles Times: “Advocates for the LGBTQ community cheer the milestone. Libertarian-leaning Oregon — liberal in Portland, conservative elsewhere — mostly yawns.”

And I must agree. Why do I need to know that Kate Brown is a homosexual? Will she do her job differently because of her sexual orientation? Isn’t her sexual orientation her private business?

The news media’s desire to tell me every detail of every politician’s personal life that has no bearing on their job is a true shame. It appears to me that mainstream media has descended into the area usually covered by the tabloids like The Globe and The Examiner and television programs like TMZ.

This situation is the consequence of the 24 hour news cycle. I am going back to sleep.

Is it Greed or Simply Evolution?

Greed: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. That is the Merriam-Webster definition.

When I was a boy reading comic books there was a character in the Donald Duck series named Scrooge McDuck. He loved money and the cartoon showed him rolling in dollar bills and dancing on the money. That was a characterization of some people in this world. Was that greed?

The stock market continues to hit new highs every several months. The S&P 500 reached another new high on Friday, February 13, 2015. Apple Computer shares are at or near their highest level ever. Most people do not own enough stocks to feel a significant impact. The wealthy, whose source of income is the stock market, are the beneficiaries of this situation.

Meanwhile BBC.com and Fareed Zakaria GPS reports the findings of Oxfam, an anti-poverty group, that the combined wealth of the world’s richest 1% will overtake that of the other 99% of the world’s population by 2016. Furthermore the richest 80 people in the world have collected the same amount of wealth as the bottom 3.5 million people-$1.9 Trillion.

There are two facts that are slowly destroying the middle class and causing even greater harm to blue collar laboring classes.

Without government involvement jobs are performed at the lowest pay rate which moves jobs to the poorest countries.
Technology enables employers to replace workers performing repetitive work with a machine.

These are not new facts. Queen Elizabeth I (queen of England 1558–1603) denied a patent for the first knitting machine in 1589. It was denied because of her concern for the security of the kingdom’s many hand knitters.

Robots install rivets on a 2015 Ford F-150

Paul Wiseman of the Associated Press posted an article titled “Robots replacing workers at a faster pace”. The report was replicated by many news media outlets including ABC, Fox Business, etc. The article said “A new report says that cheaper, better robots will replace human workers in the world’s factories at a faster pace over the next decade, pushing labor costs down 16 percent.” The mechanization has impacted only 10% of the possible uses for robots. 90% of the changeover is still in the future.

Recently two public parking lots I had occasion to use had no pay clerk at the exit. The system was automated. Soon there will be no one to take your order at McDonald’s.

I could go on with more examples of lost jobs thanks to technology or replacing middle income workers with low paid workers but you already understand the point I am making.

The question to candidates for the next president of the United States is what will you do to change the obvious decline in the income of the majority of Americans? You ought to ask your congressional representative and senators that same question.

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.