There are several topics we want to cover today, so . . . one word just won’t do!
Let’s start with”responsible.”
This week JP Morgan Chase announced a little blunder that could amount to $4 Billion losses. As of this writing they are only talking about $2Billion in losses, but the CBS Evening News just announced that “. . . those stepping down will include the senior executive who oversaw the transactions and two upper traders.” Notice there was no mention of CEO Jamie Diamond — the captain of the ship — stepping down. Purportedly ” . . . the smartest guy in the room . . . ” but apparently, not his fault! Of course, the CBS interviewee — a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland — claimed that had the Dodd-Frank legislation been fully in place, the kinds of risky trades that caused the loss would have never happened. What a surprise that CBS would put someone on the air that supports more government!
Next, “debt.” Again, according to the CBS Evening News, student loans ” . . . are now the largest source of consumer debt, outpacing credit cards and car loans.” The student interviewed lamented that increasing college tuition is: ”Stopping people from going out and doing what they love to do!” OMG! People can’t do what they love to do . . . at someone else’s expense any more . . . with a federal debt at $15.7+ Trillion debt and growing every day? Is there no justice in the world? It’s just inimaginable that people might be expected to go into careers that pay — e.g. electrical or software engineering — vs. things they love to do like studying the sex life of the Tsetse fly! Oh by the way, again according to CBS News, the number of students borrowing to go to college has more than doubled (94% in 2012 compared to 45% in 1993), in less than a decade. And the rate of default within two years on student loans has doubled (1 in 20 in 2005 vs. 1 in 10 in 2009), in less than a decade.
And finally, our favorite — and most painful — Afghanistan. We continue to pour $s, and far more importantly, our young men’s and women’s lives into Afghanistan. A country with an obviously extremely corrupt government. This week, a very dear friend, former Green Beret and combat veteran sent an e-mail announcing the death of his s0n-in-law in Afghanistan. His daughter, also a member of the military, is now a widow — a few short months after her wedding. Did no one in the Bush 43 or Obama Administrations read any history? Were/are they not the least bit aware of what happened to our comrades/friends/sons/daughters/families in Southeast Asia?
We left Vietnam with our tail between our legs in 1975 because the politicians were too chicken-shit to pursue the enemy, but more importantly, more interested in being reelected than doing the right thing for the country. Why? Because they were fearful that the Chinese would enter the war as they had in Korea almost three decades earlier! Well, fist the Chinese didn’t like the Vietnamese — North, South or otherwise . And, second the geography between North Korea and North Vietnam is very different, meaning that the Chinese wouldn’t feel the same threat in the latter cast that they had/did in the former!
Jim Pinkerton, on Fox News Watch, said (and paraphrasing here), “America hasn’t won a war since the advent of Television.” meaning Vietnam.
How many young American women and men have to die — and the children of other nations — before we declare defeat?
I have a cousin who’s more like a sister. She has several wonderful daughters — among whom are a lawyer and an Air Force retiree. I doubt that any of the former would agree, but it’s time for America to emulate what Isreal’s position has been for many years — again paraphrasing. “We will do what is in our best interest. If you like it . . . fine. If not . . . we will have to learn to live with that.”
America can’t afford to borrow $.40+ of every $ it spends and still feed the world or be its policeman. We have a lot of weapons that we are paying to maintain. Maybe, it’s time to cut the maintenance costs and raise the body count of our enemies!
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