Heads Should Roll...

 

 

"What difference would it make?"

 

One of the reasons I miss having a Republican in the White House is watching the boldness of Congress. For example, if GW Bush was still president when the Benghazi mess happened, all hell would be breaking out. The articles for impeachment would have been drawn up, and calls for his Secretary of State to be fired or tried I n court would be deafening. It would have made Watergate look like a walk in the park. However, with our current President and the most popular woman in the world serving as Secretary of State, it seems as if most hands are wearing kid gloves.

 

Lets first review some facts. President Obama made it crystal clear from the get-go he wanted to be the "Anti-Bush". Whatever policies Bush had, Obama wanted the opposite. This was the most clear in the "War on Terror" and how radical Muslims were portrayed as "bad guys". The script for his presidency was going to be very simple - Bush waged illegal wars in the Middle East and aggravated the Muslims. Obama on the other hand, was going to show the world we understand, and are not "Crusaders".

 

The Arab Spring, which was endorsed by our Administration, was okay when Egypt first over threw Mubarak. However, the wheels started coming off in Libya. Not wanting to have boots on the ground, we sent arms to the rebels. In this crazy mixed-up world of the Middle East, it is hard to tell who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. So Qaddafi is overthrown, and a very loose knit, ad hoc government took over. All kinds of bad actors were involved - Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and other minor players. As with Fast and Furious, we lost track of the weapons we supplied to people of questionable motives.

 

What happened in Benghazi really went off script. We sent our ambassador to a small, under protected consulate to do "something". Many think this "something" was to try and get our weapons back which had fallen into the wrong hands. Now we are way off script. First off, there were not suppose to be any bad guys in Libya anymore. We knew other consulates in Benghazi had been recently attacked by radicals, and we ignored it. After all, we were the good guys - everyone loved us now. We sent our ambassador, with minimal protection, into a hornet's nest. The bad outcome was almost predictable.

 

So what happened was a huge flub on the part of the Administration. The script had changed and we reacted poorly. It cost four brave Americans their lives. People should be fired for how this was handled. People should go to jail for not rescuing Americans who were begging for help. The Administration should be thrown out of office for a cover up which makes Watergate look like a Sunday School picnic.

 

What difference does it make Madam Secretary? It should make no difference if the administration is Republican or Democrat. However, in this case, it seems that it does.

Care and Feeding for ObamaCare

 

 

"The cat is now out of the bag..."

 

 

One of the lessons I learned in business (painfully, I might add), is that you don't take something and "throw is over the wall" assuming someone on the other side will catch it and make it work. Every project, every initiative, every product, takes care and feeding. The bigger the effort, the more care and feeding required. The biggest I have seen in my lifetime is Obama care - and it is now a hot mess.

 

It seems like the cat is now out of the bag. Some of the President's supporters of this health care do-over are now sounding the same alarm the Republicans have for years now. The term "train wreck" has now become common vernacular. Nobody, with the exception of Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is watching the store.

In fact, during testimony on the Hill last week, our HHS Secretary pulled an old Obama trick out of the hat - she blamed the Republicans for the failure of the insurance exchanges the states were to set up. Carl Rove responded to this unfounded attack with the following op-ed from the WSJ:

“Nice try, but GOP governors aren’t the problem. Team Obama’s tendency to blame someone else for its shortcomings is tiresome. The Affordable Care Act requires HHS to operate exchanges in states that won’t operate their own. Since the act became law in March 2010, it has been abundantly clear that the agency would have to deploy a model exchange."

Also last week, it was found out in a Pew poll that 42% of all Americans know nothing of Obama care. To make matters worse, they don't even know it is the law of the land and how it will affect them.

Since passage, we have found out the cost model was all wrong. Remember the promise? It was going to "bend the cost curve". Promise kept - only it bent the cost curve the wrong way. It will add trillions to our debt. The added costs are going to be back breaking on our struggling economy. We will have no choice but to ration care. In a few years, we will be in the same boat that the UK is.

With a bill that is over 2,500 pages, ancillary regulations which are 15,000 pages and counting, absolutely nobody understands this thing. It is Frankenstein's Monster, and the President is playing the part of Dr. Frankenstein.

We are in deep "do-do" on this one, and it will only get worse once we get into 2014. History will record this "Affordable Care Act" as not only the destruction of our health care system, but also a text book example on how not to do something big.


 

Urban Education

 

 

"Everything needed for success, resides between the ears..."

Last week we attended the graduation of our oldest daughter. She received a Masters Degree in Non-Profit Management from an urban college in the Twin Cities. One of the things I found interesting was the different degrees which were offered. One of the degrees was called "Urban Education". It was different from a regular Education Degree, as it was suppose to equip young teachers how to teach kids in an urban setting.

Wow! Have we come a long way since my wife and I graduated. My wife has an undergrad in Elementary Education as well as a Masters in Special Education. This entitles her to teach in any elementary classroom in Minnesota. We were both somewhat flummoxed by this term "Urban Education". It seems to fly in the face of E pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One).

To follow up with this confusion, in today's paper was a huge article by some substitute teacher who just did a job at an inner city school. The theme of the article was how different he was from the students, and to not recognize those differences made it tough to connect with the kids. What? This is the United States of America. We spend a lot, an awful lot of money of education. We spend even more in the inner city to ensure there is a "level playing field". After spending over $20k/student in North Minneapolis, kids still can't learn unless they "connect" with the teacher?

Not to sound too much like "old school", I need to say the following. When I was in school in the 50's and 60's, learning was incumbent on the student. If I did not learn, it was on me. If the entire class did not learn, they might look at the teacher. However, the connection back then was as follows - teachers taught, students learned. If a student did not understand, it was up to the student to raise his or her hand. If the student needed extra help, it was up to the student to ask the teacher for it. That was the connection. Plain and simple.

Our system is one of minimal expectations. We look for excuses for failure. Our kids today are every bit as smart as the kids from 40 or 50 years ago. Challenge them - they will rise to the occasion. If you give them excuses for not learning, they never will. Kids today are our future. Take off the kid gloves. Treat them like students, not experiments. They will do fine, urban, suburban or otherwise.

The Foo Fighters

 

 

 

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”  

Alice in Wonderland

          

Relax all you metal heads - this article is not about the band. I did however, use their logo to garner attention. No, this article is about another one of those strange, yet mostly untold stories of World War II. If it is real or not is up for discussion. It is real enough that many have come forward and said the Foo Fighters of World War II were "something".

The war was starting to wind down in Europe. The hand writing was on the wall that Hitler was not going to make it unless he was able to throw a "Hail Mary" - in other words, come up with a super weapon that could turn the tide for him. It was the worst kept secret in the world. The Allies knew that Hitler had his brain trust working on jet technology, guided as well as unguided rockets, and maybe even WMD.

This is where the story gets interesting. Many pilots in the 415th Night Fighter Squadron started seeing "something" when flying in the European theater. Starting in November 1944, these "something" sightings pilots witnessed were nicknamed Foo Fighters. It was a nonsensical name, as some believe the name "Foo" came from the underside of a oriental figurine. The name stuck, and anytime a pilot saw a glowing orb or a shiny disk doing things a plane should not be able to do, the pilot would file a Foo Fighter report.

These reports were very unsettling to the brass, as some in the higher reaches of our government thought the Nazis had come up with something really unbeatable. According to our pilots, the Foo Fighters could turn on a dime, fly many times faster than our best planes, and reach unobtainable altitudes. The real mystery however, was Foo Fighters never engaged our pilots. They just seemed to "tag along" for awhile and then disappear.

After the war was over, hostilities stopped, but not the sightings of the Foo Fighters. When the Cold War started, both Allied and Axis continued to see Foo Fighters from time to time. After 1947, a new name emerged - Flying Saucers. That lasted until some clear thinker decided they were just unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. 

Just like with Operation Paperclip, there are stories from World War II that are as fascinating as they are under reported. The next time the musical group Foo Fighters comes to your town to play a gig, think about the Foo Fighters from World War II. You probably will never again think the same about this group's name.

By the skin of our teeth...

 

 

 

"I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe"

 

Job 19:20

literal translation of the original Hebrew

 

 

What a crazy mixed up world we are living in right now. The market continues to ignore the "new reality" of unemployment and almost weekly sets a new record high. Our GDP growth continues to be stuck in the mud and we can't find the traction to get unstuck. The world is a keg of dynamite waiting for some crazy nut to light a match.

 

This morning on the seldom watched Morning Joe, Steve Ratner was one of the guests on the show. He had a segment on Europe - recession or depression. It was Ratner's opinion that Europe was now in a full stage depression and things could get even worse. The fact Europe's woes have not yet affected America is nothing more than "we are living by the skin of our teeth."

 

What I found interested about that segment, is Ratner is a huge (like most on MSNBC are) Obama supporter. Many times, he has used his verbal acumen to cover flaws of the President. However, on this issue he was resolute. It is bad in Europe - very, very bad.

 

The unemployment rate in both Greece and Spain is over 25%. That is a higher rate than what we had during our Great Depression. In addition, things are so bad, people who are working are afraid to retire. That means whatever jobs are available are still occupied by old folks. The net result?  The youth unemployment rate in both those countries is over 50%. That is a prescription for disaster. Europe is a powder keg for social unrest. All it would take is one country to start to teeter and contagion would likely result. The fire would spread quickly across the Atlantic and our once rosy stock market could be in the toilet over night.

 

I have said many times the metrics are all wrong for sustained growth in not only our country, but Europe as well. Debt is too high and productivity is too low. If our sock market reflected financial reality, it would be half or less what it is today. However, in the world of La La Land, everything appears to be just fine. Our long term investors have become nothing more than Day Traders, and the shorter the view, the better.

 

So as we continue to discuss immigration reform, gun control, carbon tax and so on, the national debt continues to climb. The Fed continues to print money and the party continues. As was said at the start of this piece, "living by the skin of your teeth" has biblical origins. I will conclude with another saying from the Bible - "Don't build your house on sand". And the sand under this "recovery" might even be quicksand.

The OTHER Achivement Gap

 

 

"I am really not that dumb - I just tend to act that way..."

 

I am sorry I have to rant about this once again. Quite often, I react to what I hear on the news. This morning I heard an alarming statistic - 42% of all Americans did not know that Obama Care was now the law of the land. 42%! You would have to be living under a rock not to have heard about this for the last four years. If that was not bad enough, 40% of the people asked did not know who the Vice President of the United States is!

 

I have said for many years now, our students are the victims of low expectations. The "hungry mind" generation has morphed into a group of "whatever" citizens. How in the world can someone not be interested, not be engaged in with today's issues? Many times when I ask someone a question, the answer I receive is "Oh, I don't know - I never watch the news." If you don't care about issues, don't care to be involved or informed, you will get "rolled" by any government which is voted in.

 

This has led me to a profound thought - we really have an achievement gap not of race, but of information. For people who want to learn, to stay informed, the menu of opportunities is staggering. For those who choose to "cocoon", it becomes harder all the time as the multi media sources constantly improve and expand. Somehow today, our public schools have become full of people who are not informed nor challenged. We created this, we can also stop it.

Another example which I found illustrative happened on the first of the year. That is the day the Payroll Tax relief expired. Many saw their checks go down and had absolutely no clue as to why. What was equally interesting, many people had no clue why the Payroll Tax was taken out of their check to start with. They also did not know their employer had to withhold an equal amount. Finally, even fewer knew this tax was the only way to fund the Social Security and Medicare funds. Don't you think that when most of these people will eventually collect some type of Social Security or Medicare, they should be informed? They should care?

A man I worked with years ago had a sign in his office which said "Life is hard. Life is harder when you are stupid". Okay - stupid is a harsh word. I will use "ignorant". I was told when I was growing up, if you don't understand what is being discussed, keep your mouth shut and ears open. That is the way you learn. Wake up. Pay attention. There are millions of people in this world who are paying attention, and they are just waiting to pass us up. It is hard to compete on the world stage when your mind is asleep and your competitors are not.

 

The NINJNA Effect

 

 

"Barney Frank and Chris Dodd may not be totally responsible for the financial fire of 2008, but they are the ones who lit the first match"

Do you ever get the feeling while sitting through a movie, you have seen it before? Is it that déjà vu thing? It is really tough when the movie is bad and has a terrible ending. You really don't want to sit through it one more time. Only this time it is not a movie, but our economy.

Well today, two of the worst actors in recent political history are gone, but not forgotten. However, the memories of what they did to our economy seems to be either fading or changing. Allow me to help refresh some memories with facts, not fiction. For the purpose of this narrative, I will focus mostly on Barney Frank.

The flamboyant former representative of MA, who was the Chair of the House Banking Committee, loved to wield (and abuse) his power with the banks. One of his "pet rocks" was expanding the Democratic voting base by getting more poor people into houses. A noble venture - however, a fool hardy one to boot if the poor people had no prayer of making the payments. To get poor people into houses, three critical things needed to be waived - a job, a qualifying income, some tangible assets. These are items the rest of us need on our life's "balance sheet" in order to buy a house.

Barney was able to convince (really strong arm) banks they should offer mortgage loans to poor people who do not have the qualifying criteria to buy a house. These loans became known as NINJNA (No Income, No Job, No Asset) loans. The banks, knowing these loans were highly risky, bundled them, sold them and traded them. Fannie and Freddie became involved. Soon they became known as toxic assets, as nobody wanted them. They were a part of a game of financial "hot potato" that large financial institutions became involved in. Many hands were dirty on this one - Frank, Dodd, Clinton, Bush, Fannie, Freddie, the large banks, and yes, us for not paying attention.

As shameful as this was, and how very close we all came to going over the cliff in 2008, the frosting on the cake came in the aftermath. The guys who lit the match that started the fire, managed to convince many not paying attention it was all the banks fault. Then under the first two years of the Obama Administration, when the Democrats owned the town, Dodd Frank was signed into law. The arsonists who started the fire where now masquerading as fire fighters.

Now we are set for a repeat of this mess all over again. The Obama Administration wants to relax lending criteria on poor folks so more can own a home. The problem is now as it was before 2008 - we are setting people up to fail if they can't make the payments. If the loans go "bust" someone will need to "own the paper". Bottom line - another round of toxic assets will be in the pipeline, and the game of "hot potato" will begin again. Dodd Frank, which was suppose to keep this from happening, will do nothing except over regulate the innocent.

My advice folks, is read between the lines this time. That advice is as much for me as anyone else. I too, got caught napping in 2008. This time I won't be such a push over. When I see the landscape start to look like it did prior to the crash, I will sound the trumpet. Please consider this the first toot on the horn...