Inauguration Day 2013

President Barack Obama offered an inaugural speech calling for unification of purpose regardless of political party. This is the sort of speech we all expect in an inaugural presentation. Sadly political divisions in the nation are more like chasms. He knows that there are major differences between the political parties and other groups in the country. Listen to Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity and there is affirmation of the split between the political parties.

Thus he tried to put the best face on a country that is seriously broken by geographic, religious, and racial disagreements. Never mind the breach between rich and poor or the labor unions battling the employers. When state leaders voice intentions to nullify or just plain ignore federal law and many who voice desires to succeed from the union, the president’s job will be about holding the nation together.

This may seem as all too negative. The president’s speech about one purpose was an “A” effort towards healing our differences.

Apple Needs to Take Bold Action

Apple is done, say teens

We know this company for the Mac computer, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. All were leaders in technology.

Many people do not believe that Apple (AAPL) will be a leading innovator now that Steve Jobs has passed away. There are flaws in that thinking. Steve Jobs lead the company through some serious mistakes and the company did thrive despite those events. Those bad decisions did impact company earnings and Apple’s reputation. Some examples below.

Sticking with AT&T as an exclusive partner for too long

If only Jobs had pulled the plug on Apple’s exclusive relationship one year earlier, the U.S. smartphone landscape might be radically different. Motorola released the first DROID phone for Verizon at the end of 2009. It was the first Android phone that we remember seeing in the wild. It was Verizon’s answer to the iPhone.

Emailing an iPhone 4 customer to say, “Just avoid holding it in that way,” was a mistake

Apple had its sterling reputation severely tarnished by Antennagate. The iPhone 4 became synonymous with dropped calls and signal problems. (Sneer if you want, but when we’d pull out the new iPhone a lot of people would ask us if we could even use it to make phone calls.)

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, needs to go Bold. That translates to taking on some new ideas for new products and extraordinary improvements for existing products. He can do it! The question is: Will he do it?

Performance Enhancing Drugs Used by Athletes

AP source: Armstrong tells Oprah Winfrey he doped

At the beginning of this commentary I confess to not being a big sports enthusiast. I watch three to four football games each year. UCLA vs. USC, the Rose Bowl, the Super Bowl and one more time at random. I watch the World Series and the NBA finals.

I believe that the professional teams know that some of their players are using drugs to enhance their performance. They just don’t want to confront the issue. After all a Barry Bonds hitting run after run draws larger crowds to the games and that translates to more money.

Are all extraordinary performances the result of drugs? Of course not. However, if owners of clubs want to sustain their reputations they need to enforce the rules that they have created.

As to the Tour de France bike race. This is supposed to be an amateur race but clearly there is significant money to be earned. Besides the prizes that are as high as €450,000($601,000 USD) and there are the salaries for pro team riders that range as high as €190,000. The Seattle Times reported, “Amid a booming market for TV sports rights, the Tour could be worth as much as $1 billion, says Conor O’Shea, a media analyst in Paris at Kepler Capital Markets. Is it any wonder that Lance Armstrong would be taking drugs to win?”

Where are the screeners who check for drug use? Where are the owners, managers, and others who are responsible for keeping sports drug free? The answer is simple. Money and fame are more important than honesty.

Who cares? Not many people. They watch the sports for entertainment. The public will ultimately abandon events that are not honest. Example: no one in America takes wrestling (WWE) seriously because it is thought of as pre-planned entertainment.

Cities With The Best Infrastructure in the World

In the past three years I have visited Toronto, Ontario, Canada – London, U.K. – Paris, France. All three and their surrounding communities had wide well paved highways and smooth city boulevards and streets. All three had excellent public transportation systems. Unfortunately Los Angeles (my home town) has old crumbling highways and streets as well as an inadequate public transit system.

Ali Velshi, on CNN’s Your Money program a few weeks ago had a segment on the ten best cities for infrastructure in the world. Not one American city made the list. The list was prepared a by a human resources company named Mercer that has offices around the world.

Here is the list:

1. Singapore, Singapore

2. Frankfurt, Germany (tie)

2. Munich, Germany (tie)

4. Copenhagen, Denmark

5. Düsseldorf, Germany

6. Hong Kong, Hong Kong

6. London, UK (tie)

8. Sydney, Australia

9. Hamburg, Germany (tie)

9. Vancouver, Canada (tie)

American cities in this list?

13. Atlanta, Georgia

15. Dallas, Texas

22. Washington, D.C.

28. Chicago

30. New York

Number 30 was the last city in the review.

Paris skyline from the Eiffel Tower

Consider some of those other cities such as Paris, France. “Paris (number 12) is one of the world’s leading business and cultural centers and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, media, science and arts contribute to its status as one of the world’s major global cities.”

The leaders of the United States keep telling us Americans that we are the greatest country in the world. They tell us that we are the exceptional country. If that is accurate then why are our cities so lacking?

Cerberus: The Three-headed Dog in Greek Mythology

The ancient Greek pantheon is rife with symbolism. One such symbolic creature is Cerberus, the three-headed monstrous canine, the loyal servant and guardian of the Greek God of Death. In the Greek mythical tradition, Cerberus is the guardian of the gates of the underworld, the realm of Hades. His job is to prevent the living from entering the land of the dead and to prevent the dead from escaping the boundaries of the underworld.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/cerberusthree-headed-dog-in-greek-mythology.html

Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm. The firm is based in New York City, and run by financier Steve Feinberg, who co-founded Cerberus in 1992 with William L. Richter, who currently serves as a senior managing director. The firm has affiliate and/or advisory offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. [this information from Wikipedia]

Is this an odd name for an investment firm? You decide!

According to Bloomberg News, the father of Cerberus chief executive Stephen Feinberg lives in Newtown, Conn. Cerberus said in its statement that it would “immediately” begin the process of selling off the assets of the Freedom Group (the manufacturer of the Bushmaster assualt weapon used in the Newtown massacre).

Cerberus is the company that owned Chrysler Corporation when it decalred banruptcy on April 30, 2009.

The Financial Times reported that after buyout firm Cerberus Capital Management bought a majority stake in GMAC and took that firm private, it later sold most of its exposure to a variety of other investors in order to reduce its own risk. Fair enough. But how did those other investors decide whether they wanted in on the deal? According to several of them, a group of hedge-fund managers were invited to a private meeting with Cerberus, and most decided–rather quickly–to join in without making any true investigation of their own. “It was a ‘trust me’ kind of trade,” one investor who bought a small piece of GMAC told the Financial Times. “You had no time to do real due diligence. But it was a hot deal and everybody wanted in as part of the gang.” [this item found in a Morningstar.com report]

And now Bloomberg News reports that Cerberus has agreed to acquire Supervalu’s Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market grocery stores in a transaction valued at about $3.3 billion. Will these grocery chains be in business a year or two from now? The Cerberus track record is not encouraging. The owners of this private equity fund may earn significant profits but at what cost? Reduced competition and layoff of employees are the two possible consequences.

Is this the job for the three headed dog?

Gun Control Legislation in the United States

Meager and mild legislation is the best we can hope for.

First we all need to understand that our constitution’s second amendment states we all have the right to keep a bear arms. That is the core reason that gun owners offer to justify their ownership of all the weapons in their possession.

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was almost killed by an assassin, and her husband retired astronaut, Mark Kelly, wrote an op-ed in USA Today that their Americans for Responsible Solutions initiative would help raise money to support greater gun control efforts and take on the powerful gun lobby.

President Obama has appointed Vice President Joe Biden to head a committee that will develop proposed legislation that might reduce gun violence.

Jim and Sarah Brady formed the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Brady, then-President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, was wounded in the 1981 presidential assassination attempt by a mentally ill gunman.

In January, Calfornia Senator Feinstein will introduce a bill to stop the sale, transfer, importation and manufacturing of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.

The NRA spent at least $24 million in the 2012 election cycle, including $16.8 million through its political action committee and $7.5 million through its affiliated Institute for Legislative Action. By comparison, the Brady Campaign spent around $5,800.

And when it comes to direct lobbying of lawmakers, the NRA was also dominant. Through July 1, the NRA spent $4.4 million to lobby Congress, compared with the Brady Campaign’s $60,000.

It is estimated that there are 300 million weapons of various kinds in the hand of the American public.

I would support the idea of confiscating all guns that can hold magazines of more than ten bullets.

It won’t happen. The owners of guns are everywhere. The mere thought of gun controls results in higher gun sales. Gun organizations are too strong to be contained.

Life After Retirement

Huell Howser passed away last night. He was the homespun host of public television’s popular California’s Gold travelogues. He obviously enjoyed producing the programs he presented. I actually found his presentations irritating because of the corny dialog he used. He wrote it and he enjoyed presenting it. He retired in November 2012.

Howser is not the first well known and widely loved personality to die shortly after retiring. Andy Rooney was the ever loved curmudgeon who ended every 60 Minutes program with some silly but interesting observations. He died within a few weeks of his retirement. Remember Edgar Bergen the ventriloquist? He was the father of Candice Bergen. He too died within weeks of his retirement. I am sure there are other well known people who died shortly after retirement.

Still, I know some veterans of WWII that are alive and well who drive cars, play cards, argue about everything, watch television, and are living happily ever after.

So my question is: does being in the lime light impact your life after retirement or is it that those who really love their jobs face an early death upon retirement?

I believe it’s the latter. My own father worked until the age of 70. He would have worked even longer if his employer had not said “We think it’s time you retired.” He was not a happily retired man. He struggled finding things to do. He lived 16 years after he retired.

I on the other hand never loved any of my work. It was work not fun. I do not miss getting up at 5:30am. I do not miss angry bosses. Actually my son was 18 when he said, “You have hated every job you ever had.” Wow! That hurt but it was true.

So since I have no regrets about not working maybe I will live to 100. I hope so!

Israel :Terre De Miracle.mp4 (Land of Miracle)

This is wonderful! Watch this YouTube video to learn some astonishing facts about this country that only has 7 million residents!

Happy New Year!

David Bancroft