Memorial Day and remembering the fallen

At the beginning of the 2004 film Troy, the mighty warrior Achilles makes it clear he fights because he wants his name to be remembered forever.  That may be good movie making but it is not why the men and women we honor on Memorial Day made the ultimate sacrifice.

During the almost 300 rescue missions that Airman First Class William Pitsenbarger, a pararescueman took part in during the Vietnam War, he didn't worry about glory or being remembered.  He wanted to save lives and he did.  Here is the citation for the Medal of Honor he received, posthumously.

Airman First Class Pitsenbarger distinguished himself by extreme valor on April 11, 1966 near Cam My, Republic of Vietnam, while assigned as a Pararescue Crew Member, Detachment 6, 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron. On that date, Airman Pitsenbarger was aboard a rescue helicopter responding to a call for evacuation of casualties incurred in an on-going firefight between elements of the United States Army's 1st Infantry Division and a sizable enemy force approximately 35 miles east of Saigon. With complete disregard for personal safety, Airman Pitsenbarger volunteered to ride a hoist more than one hundred feet through the jungle, to the ground. On the ground, he organized and coordinated rescue efforts, cared for the wounded, prepared casualties for evacuation, and insured that the recovery operation continued in a smooth and orderly fashion. Through his personal efforts, the evacuation of the wounded was greatly expedited. As each of the nine casualties evacuated that day were recovered, Pitsenbarger refused evacuation in order to get one more wounded soldier to safety. After several pick-ups, one of the two rescue helicopters involved in the evacuation was struck by heavy enemy ground fire and was forced to leave the scene for an emergency landing. Airman Pitsenbarger stayed behind, on the ground, to perform medical duties. Shortly thereafter, the area came under sniper and mortar fire. During a subsequent attempt to evacuate the site, American forces came under heavy assault by a large Viet Cong force. When the enemy launched the assault, the evacuation was called off and Airman Pitsenbarger took up arms with the besieged infantrymen. He courageously resisted the enemy, braving intense gunfire to gather and distribute vital ammunition to American defenders. As the battle raged on, he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to care for the wounded, pull them out of the line of fire, and return fire whenever he could, during which time, he was wounded three times. Despite his wounds, he valiantly fought on, simultaneously treating as many wounded as possible. In the vicious fighting which followed, the American forces suffered 80 percent casualties as their perimeter was breached, and airman Pitsenbarger was finally fatally wounded. Airman Pitsenbarger exposed himself to almost certain death by staying on the ground, and perished while saving the lives of wounded infantrymen. His bravery and determination exemplify the highest professional standards and traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Air Force.

While he did not survive this combat action, nine other men did, at least partly due to his heroism.

In November of 1941, before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Sadao Munemori volunteered to serve in the U. S. Army.   At the time he was 19 and a U. S. citizen by birth.  He was removed from combat training and assigned to menial labor while his parents were interned at Manzanar.  He volunteered again in March of 1943 when Japanese-Americans were allowed to enlist.  His Medal of Honor citation also shows ho he saved the lives of others.

He fought with great gallantry and intrepidity near Seravezza, Italy. When his unit was pinned down by grazing fire from the enemy's strong mountain defense and command of the squad devolved on him with the wounding of its regular leader, he made frontal, l-man attacks through direct fire and knocked out 2 machineguns with grenades Withdrawing under murderous fire and showers of grenades from other enemy emplacements, he had nearly reached a shell crater occupied by 2 of his men when an unexploded grenade bounced on his helmet and rolled toward his helpless comrades. He arose into the withering fire, dived for the missile and smothered its blast with his body. By his swift, supremely heroic action Pfc. Munemori saved 2 of his men at the cost of his own life and did much to clear the path for his company's victorious advance.

But Memorial Day is not a holiday for only those whose exploits on the battlefield were recognized like those of A1C Pitsenbarger and PFC Munemori.  On this day we recognize every man and woman who died while serving in our Armed Forces.  Including those of Richard Fitzgibbon, Jr., Charles McMahon and Darwin Lee Judge; the first and last casualties of the Vietnam War (McMahon and Judge were both killed on 4/29/1975 in a rocket attack).

It is the for the 220 Marines, 18 sailors and 3 soldiers killed in Beirut in the 1983 bombing.  The 248 members of the 101st Airborne Division who died in a plane crash at Gander.  The six members of the crew of Swan 38, a WC-130 aircraft that was lost while on a weather reconnaissance mission in 1974.  Their plane disappeared as it flew into the eye of Typhoon Bess.

 

 

 

 There are too many such incidents to list.  To every man and woman who made that ultimate sacrifice, I thank you.  You did not die in vain.

No one is talking about this political issue

Donald Trump took President Obama to task for not making mention of Pearl Harbor during the president's trip to Japan and visit to Hiroshima.  He's talking about banning Muslims from entering the U. S. and building a wall along our border with Mexico.

Hillary Clinton is talking about anything and everything except the email scandal which seems to be growing in the wake of the release of the independent IG report.

Bernie Sanders is talking about the system being rigged against him and how we must provide free college for everyone.

But no one is talking about the national debt.  The numbers are even more frightening when viewed this way (in billions of dollars):

1965	$317,274
1970	$370.919
1975	$533.189
1980	$907.701
1985	$1,823,103
1990	$3,233,313
1995	$4,973,983
2000	$5,674,178
2005	$7,932,710
2010	$13,561,623
2015	$18,150,604

It has increased nearly sixfold during the last five decades.  Let's look at the population growth during the same period (in millions of people)

1965		199.4
1970		209.5
1975		219
1980		230
1985		240.6
1990		252.8
1995		266.3
2000		282.9
2005		296.1
2010		309.9
2015		321.8

So during a time when our national debt increased nearly sixfold, our population didn't even double.  So how much does each of us owe, if we were to be held individually responsible for this debt?  As of September 30, 2015 every man, woman and child would have to write a check for $56,403.37.  Back in 1965, our individual responsibility for that debt would have been only $1,591.14.

I hear some of you saying, "wait a minute, you have to adjust that 1965 amount for inflation.  Fair enough.  Adjusted for inflation, $1,591.14 in 1965 would be $11,972.79 in 2015.  So even adjusting for inflation, our individual share of the national debt is nearly five times as much as it was in 1965.

I want to focus on something a little easier to deal with.  Every single one of us has a program or programs we think deserves more funding (and many programs we feel should get less funding).  Well, what if over $400 billion was suddenly freed up in the federal budget to spend on other things.  A pipe dream? Probably.  But that's how much we are spending annually to pay the interest on the national debt.  Since 1990, the annual expense to finance the national debt has grown from $264.5 billion to $402.4 billion in 2015.  These numbers come directly from the U. S. Treasury's website.

Donald Trump did make one comment about the national debt, although not the cost of financing it.  He suggested we negotiate it down by the U.S. filing for bankruptcy.  That's a non-starter as previously mentioned.  But none of the campaign's focus has been on the debt crisis.  I won't even get started on how we're in a much bigger hole due to unfunded future liabilities for government employee pensions and healthcare benefits at every level.

I don't have an answer.  But ignoring this looming problem is certainly not the best strategy.  Nor is kicking the can further down the road for future generations to deal with.  Next time why our growing national debt is a much bigger problem than ever before, thanks to three letters (GDP).







 
   

Does it really matter?

The fact that the late Chris Kyle, author of American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History was a hero is not in question.  However, documents that have been uncovered concerning his military record and they make it appear that Chief Kyle may have distorted his military record in that autobiography.

That is the Silver Star Medal.  Official Navy records show that Chief Kyle was awarded one Silver Star during his distinguished ten year military career.  He claimed to have been awarded two in his autobiography.

That is the Bronze Star Medal.  The V device on it designates it was awarded for Valor in combat.  Chief Kyle received three Bronze Stars with the V device during his career, again according to official Navy records.  His autobiography claims he received this award on five separate occasions.

That's what the official Navy personnel files show.  But every person who serves in the military receives a Department of Defense (DD) Form 214 when they leave the service.  The one issued to Chief Kyle agrees with the medal totals that appear in his autobiography.  So there is a discrepancy somewhere.

But the news media/blogosphere is filled with articles claiming Chief Kyle lied in his book.  Maybe he did.  Maybe he didn't.  We will hopefully learn the truth in the end, but it doesn't really matter in my mind.  It doesn't change how he served, how many lives he saved or anything else.

Stolen Valor is a phrase used when people claim to have received military decorations that they did not earn.  But it should only be applied to people who make claims that are completely and totally false.  Like this guy.

That is a photo of Xavier Alvarez and he will remain a footnote in our nation's history forever.  Thanks to a decision by the U. S. Supreme Court in the case United States v Alvarez, this gentleman escaped prosecution for falsely claiming he'd been awarded the Medal of Honor.  The Stolen Valor Act, of which Mr. Alvarez was accused of violating was determined to be unconstitutional.  Put more simply, it is not a crime to lie about one's military exploits.

Even if Chief Kyle did embellish his military record, he didn't do what Mr. Alvarez did.  Or what others have done. The man was murdered.  He was a hero.  Let him rest in peace.

The 83 page report is in

The report from the independent investigation into handling of emails by the Secretaries of State from Madeleine Albright through Hillary Clinton has been issued.  It is 83 pages of dry reading.  But it confirms that any comparison between how Secretary Clinton and any of her predecessors handled their emails is a false equivalency.

On Secretary Albright, the report says that there were no records found to indicate that she used either State Department or personal email accounts to conduct official business.

Regarding Secretary Powell, the report says that he did not use an official State Department email account, but instead installed a personal laptop on his office desk.  He used a personal email account.  He did NOT use a private server located in his residence or anywhere else that was under his sole control.

In the case of Secretary Rice, the report says no evidence was found that she used email, official or personal, to conduct official business.

When it comes to Secretary Clinton the first thing that leaps out is that she was the only former Secretary of State who declined to be interviewed by the investigators examining this issue.  In fact, of the 26 former members of her staff all but five refused to be interviewed or respond to requests for information.

So the takeaways are:

Clinton has been less than forthright and open about what's gone on.

Two members of her staff raised the issue that the use of the private server was improper and they were both admonished to never speak of the issue again.

She claimed that her use of the private server had been put through a legal review, a claim that appears to be baseless according to the report.

Did she do anything criminal?  I suspect that the Federal Records Management Act was violated, and it was done knowingly.  Is that a criminal act?  Probably.  Will she be prosecuted?  Not while President Obama is in office.

All this being said, I will still vote for her over Donald Trump in November.  She is clearly the lesser of the two evils we must choose between.

Who will be the next James Bond?

 

 

"My name is Bond.  James Bond."  In the 54 years since we were introduced to the secret agent created by Ian Fleming, he's come a long way.  There will be a 25th James Bond movie but what is not yet clear is whether or not Daniel Craig will once again portray 007.  A number of names are being bandied about as potential replacements.  Most speculation has centered on Idris Elba and Tom Hiddleston but now the name of the woman known best as Agent  Dana Scully has entered the mix.  Gillian Anderson says she's up for the challenge and that she love a poster made by an anonymous fan.

 

Just to be thorough, here is a list of the actors who have played Bond in the official franchise films:

Sean Connery

George Lazenby

Roger Moore

Timothy Dalton

Pierce Brosnan 

Daniel Craig

In case you did not know it, I'm a major Bondophile.  I've read all of the Ian Fleming books and seen all of the films.  A decade ago when Pierce Brosnan decided he wouldn't play Bond again, my choice was not Daniel Craig.  I wanted Clive Owen to take on the role.  I still think he would have been an excellent Bond.  But he isn't the right choice to take over for Daniel Craig.  Any of the other names being discussed as potential Bonds are good picks but I think the perfect choice is this guy:

No, not George Clooney.  The guy in front of him from a scene in Money Monster.  Jack O'Connell.  He's younger than most of the choices and if I'm casting a new Bond I'd want him to be able to play the role five or six times over the next 10 to 15 years.  He's got the chops and he would be a great Bond.

Who would you cast in the role?

Headlines and thoughts on them

A story from Foxnews.com is claiming a high school in Illinois is "coming under fire because the school refused to allow a senior to take part in graduation.

"An Illinois high school has come under fire after officials refused to let a graduate, who is also a U.S. Marine, walk across the stage Thursday in her blues."

"But when she returned to the school to join her classmates at graduation, she wasn’t allowed to walk with her class."

But then the story quotes the woman herself.  USMC Private Megan Howerton said "I do not want the controversy that is saturating social media, and I do not want to draw attention away from the class of 2016," Howerton stated. "That being said, it was my choice not to participate in the graduation."

Reporter's Note:  This is a non-story where the very conservative-leaning Fox News wants to be critical of educators for allegedly "dissing" the military.  The woman could have walked the stage if she'd put the cap and gown on over her dress blue uniform.  She voluntarily chose not to.  End of story.

* * *

A man is in critical condition in Chile after he entered the lion enclosure at a zoo.  According to the Huffington Post piece he may have been attempting to commit suicide.  The result was that two African lions who were mauling him were killed by zookeepers.  People on social media are calling the action of the zookeepers into question, saying the lions shouldn't have been killed.

Reporter's Note:  The zookeepers did the right thing IMHO.  They didn't know this man was attempting to take his own life, if that was his intention.  It is a very sad thing that two animals who did nothing wrong died because this guy couldn't think of an easier way to kill himself  But you can't fault people who were trying to save a human life.

* * *

Noah David Lein is an Honors English Teacher in Florida.  At 32, he's been teaching since 2007.  His starting salary that year was $37,000.  Now he's earning a salary of $40,300 and his teaching career is coming to an end.  This in spite of the fact he was named one of the "Best and Brightest" teacher in his region.  According to the column in the Orlando Sentinel, 40% of Florida's new teachers quit within the first five years of their teaching careers in the state.

Reporter's note:  Why do we as a society value teachers and the primary/secondary education system so poorly?  We entrust them with our most precious resource, our children and yet we don't pay or treat them in a way they deserve.

* * *

That's video of a contractor attacking two dogs with a wrench.  Now one of the dogs had died of injuries as a result of the attack.  The contractor is on the hook for the vet bills.

Reporter's note:  This is a criminal attack.  This man needs to be held to answer for this.

* * *

That is video of the graduates of West Point marching this past weekend as part of their last moments as cadets.  And yes, that is apparently one cadet who apparently never fully grasped the concept that marching is done at the position of attention unless the command of "Route Step March" is given in place of the command "Forward March."   Many have commented on this video which is closing in on one million views as this blog is written.  Mostly negative.

Reporter's note:  Whatever the reason, this could have waited.  One doesn't want to begin a military career where the cadet will forever be known as the "texting marcher."

Not a bucket list but...

A friend posted a list on Facebook and for whatever reason I decided to take the "challenge" and complete it myself.  Another friend saw my responses and  commented that I'd had a "full life."  Here is the list and my responses but this time with more details:


Ok, I'll play along...

Bucket List - please play along

You'll be surprised at the responses. Put a X if you have done it then just copy and paste to your timeline and amend...

Fired a gun X (my dad took me to the range long before the military trained me to shoot)

Gone on a blind date X (after my second divorce I actually went on more than 100 blind dates in a year)

Skipped school X (way too many times)

Watched someone give birth

Watched someone die X (twice I was performing CPR but the person died)

Visited Canada X (first time when I was 17, just before going to basic training)

Visited Hawaii X (several times while stationed in the Pacific)

Visited Europe

Visited Las Vegas X (my parents took my sister and I when we were very young.  Dad had talked about winning a jackpot on a slot machine on a prior visit so my sister and I each gave him a dollar and he played a roll of nickels until they were all gone.  My mom said the look on our faces when he busted out was priceless)

Visited Asia X (a year in Korea and other places during my military service.  Never as a civilian though)

Visited Africa X (can't be more specific than that)

Visited Florida X (stationed south of Miami from 1977 through 1980)

Visited Mexico X (several trips to TJ)

Visited Australia X (we were on a military base there but not allowed to go off-base)

Seen the Grand Canyon in person X (I made a side trip there in 1980 on my way home from my Florida assignment)

Flown in a helicopter X (the most memorable time was when an Army CH-47 was used to lift some of our Air Force equipment during an exercise in 1985.  We were setting up a microwave relay station on the side of a mountain, 2,000 feet up)

Served on a jury X (Twice. Once for a murder trial and once for a stupid misdemeanor trial.  Was foreman of the jury both times)

Visited L.A. X (hard not to do when you grow up here)

Been to New York City X (was there in 1997 to deliver a presentation at the National Association of Independent Schools' Annual Conference)

Cried yourself to sleep
Recently colored with pencils

Sang karaoke X (used to go every Thursday night to a hotel in Carson to do that)

Paid for a meal with coins only X (when I was a kid, numerous times)

Made prank phone calls X (way too many of those when I was a kid)

Laughed so much you cried X (at a comedy club one night)

Caught Snowflakes on tongue X (first time I ever saw snow I had to do that)

Had children
 
Had a pet X (Scooter being the most memorable, even a decade after I had to let him go)

Been skinny dipping X (only once.  At Tarague Beach which was on the grounds of Anderson Air Base, Guam.  My date and I were there long after closing time and I was more than moderately inebriated)

Repelled down a building/cliff X (a military thing)

Been downhill skiing X (only a couple times when my father owned a condo in Colorado)

Been water skiing X (only once.  it was enough)

Been camping in a tent X (too many times while I was on active duty)

Driven a motorcycle X (on a friend's while on Guam)

Jumped out of a plane

Gone to a drive-in movie X (many times)

Done something that could have killed you X (ate fugu. drove drunk)

Done something that you will regret for the rest of your life X (let my health go)

Rode an elephant X (at a circus)

Rode a camel X (during that Africa thing)

Eaten just cookies or cake or ice cream for dinner X (while I was stationed in Florida)

Been on tv X (appeared on Shop Til You Drop and that wasn't the only time)

Been in newspapers X (a bunch of times during my military career, both as the writer/photographer of an article, and as part of the people being written about)

Stolen any traffic signs X (There were several hanging in my bedroom when I was stationed in Mississippi)

Been in a car accident X (at least four I can remember)

Stayed in Hospital X (spent a year there once)

Donated blood X (not for a long time, but regularly when I was stationed in South Florida)

Paid a fine in the past 12 months

Gotten a piercing X (an ear)

Gotten a Tattoo

Driven a standard car X (I owned a manual transmission car from 1982 through 1988)

Ever owned your dream car

Been Married X (twice and both times it was a mistake)

Been divorced X (twice and both times I'm glad I got divorced)

Fell in love X (way too many times)

Paid for a stranger's meal X (the instance of this I remember best was in South Florida when I saw a homeless person panhandling outside a Lum's and I took him inside and bought him dinner)

Driven over 100mph X (the first time was when the first section of the 118 opened in the San Fernando Valley)

Worked in a pub

Been scuba diving

Found a dead body X (found the body of a friend who had killed himself in a very ugly way)

Lived on your own X (my first place that was mine was when I rented a duplex in Mississippi)

Swam with the Dolphins

Parasailing X (water survival school)

Snorkeling X (while visiting the Bahamas)

Flown over Volcanoes X (a tour in Hawaii)

Visited Alaska X (a deployment for a military exercise)

Visited the Bahamas X (see snorkeling)

Visited Mount Rushmore X (my father took me.  we also visited The Badlands and Custer State Park)

Visited Yellowstone X (dad took me there twice)

Driven A Sled Dog Team

Rode a Horse X (lots of times)

Driven a Horse team

I think there are a lot of things I never did that I would like to.  Maybe I'll list those sometime.

Tripper Harrison explains the appeal of Donald Trump

Donald Trump tells lies, flip-flops more than a fish on a dock and says incredibly incendiary things about others; and yet his supporters ignore all of that.  The question is why and the answer can be found in a scene from a 1979 movie.

The 1979 film Meatballs starred a very young Bill Murray in his first lead role.  He portrayed Tripper Harrison and in the following clip he explains why nothing Trump says or does won't erode the fanatical support he is enjoying:

It just doesn't matter.  But the question is, why is it that it just doesn't matter.  The answer is easy.  The people who are supporting Trump aren't that invested in building walls or excluding all Muslims from the U.S.  What they want is something different than our federal government has been giving us for the last seven decades.

Trump is a womanizer and no one cares.  That's because philandering and sexual harassment/abuse of women has been a problem in the federal government for a long, long time.  George H. W. Bush and his appointments assistant Jennifer Fitzgerald had an affair according to former U.S. Ambassador Louis Field in his book The Power House.  JFK has several mistresses.   LBJ and Alice Glass.  FDR and Lucy Mercer.

Political infidelities aren't limited to the White House.  The Washington Post published a list of political sex scandals a few years ago.  In the years 2010 and 2011, four members of Congress resigned due to sex scandals.  It took three years to force Bob Packwood from office over his sexual harassment of female staff members.

So Trump represents nothing new in this area.   Yeah, he has filed for bankruptcy protection four times for businesses he controlled. So what?  Remember the Congressional check-kiting scandal?  California voters didn't hold that against then Representative Barbara Boxer as she successfully ran for the U. S. Senate.  This in spite of her Republican opponent referring to her as "Barbara Bouncer."   Those who keep sending their incumbent representatives back to D.C. just don't care about the personal financial malfeasance of those they vote for..  Representative Charles Rangel of NY has been reelected multiple times since he was convicted of 11 ethics violations involving tax schemes.  He claimed not to have paid taxes on rental income he received from property in the Dominican Republic, because he didn't speak Spanish?  At the time he was Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the folks who write the tax codes.

It just doesn't matter.  We keep sending the crooks back.  People are tired of this.  That's the only appeal of Donald Trump that I can see, that he isn't a career politician.

Movie Ratings - Mine on IMDB

I actually thought I'd rated over 4,000 films on IMDB.com but the actual total is just under 3,650.  The question posed to me last night by a good friend was "how many have you given a rating of 10?"

So I checked.  Here is the list:

To Live (1994)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
(funny how the first three the site listed as my top rated films were all from one year)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Star Wars (1977)
The Godfather (1972)
Leon: The Professional (1994)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Casablanca (1942)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

That was it.  At the time I was asked, I estimated that I'd given out between 20 and 30 ratings of 10.  Guess I was overestimating.  But the problem with this kind of rating system is why the top rated film on IMDB remains The Shawshank Redemption.  Is that the best movie ever?  Apparently in the minds of the total IMDB registered user base, it is.  How can that be?

You tell me.

Contributions to a Wednesday Hashtag

The hashtag #RemoveALetterSpoilABook was trending yesterday so I threw out a few revised titles.  Feel free to share your own ideas.

The World According to Gap
That Was Then, This is No
Mob Dick
All the President's Me
The Princess Ride
The Executioner's Son
Around the World in 8 Days
The Oy of Sex (BTDT)
God's Little Ace
Ear of Flying
The Women's Rom
Anne of Green Gales
Kane and Abe
The Huger Games
Lack Beauty
The Great Gasby
And Then There Were One
The DaVinci Ode
The Glitter Dom

Rag

Friday Nigh Lights
50 Shads of Gray
The Ion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Men are from Mar, Women are from Venus
For Your Eye Only
Oldfinger
The Right Tuff
Cacher in the Rye
Gone With the Win
The Hun for Red October


Clearly I have too much time on my hands.  Enjoy!

Trump's Tax Returns and Other Stuff

I wrote about the Trump Tax returns issue in February.  It's back in the news this week as he has announced he probably won't be releasing copies of his tax returns until after the November tradition.  That would break a tradition that goes back to the early 1970s that presidential candidates release copies of at least some recent tax returns.  At the time his campaign released a letter from his tax attorneys:

I know this is difficult to read but you can see a full-sized .PDF of the letter here.

The letter points out that all of Donald Trump's tax returns from 2009 forward are currently being audited.  Considering that less than 1% of all tax returns are audited by the IRS, on the surface this would seem highly unlikely.  But it isn't.  Money Magazine ran an article last year that pointed out that for tax year 2014 the returns where the taxpayer reported income of more than $10 million, that those returns made up 0.01% of the total number of returns filed.  But the chances of an IRS audit are highest for two groups. Those who have no adjusted gross income (AGI) and those whose adjusted gross income is above $10 million.  5.86% of returns with no AGI (or whose AGI is below zero due to something called a Net Operating Loss) and 16.22% of returns filed by those whose AGI is above $10 million level.

The question is, why would these current audits have anything to do with the now closed audits on Mr. Trump's tax returns for years prior to the oldest return being audited at the moment, the 2009 return?  The answer is they would not.  The prior audits are closed.  The claim that "...the pending examinations are continued examinations of prior closed examinations" is phrased to make it seem there is a connection between the current audits and those that were completed.  This is false.  The IRS has seen these returns and is through with them.  Nothing in them will alter the current, ongoing audits.

The Donald is also claiming that we won't learn anything new from the release of his tax returns.  Rather than take my word, as a professional tax preparer with over 20 years of experience, let's ask someone more qualified.  Kelly Phillips Erb is a tax attorney and write a column on tax issues for Forbes.  In February she wrote a piece on this very issue.  Here's an excerpt from that pieceL

"Despite Trump’s claims, you can learn a lot from a tax return and Trump understands this. It’s likely the reason he’s been so guarded with his returns and not only with respect to the presidential campaign. He previously refused to provide his returns in a libel case filed against Timothy O’Brien, a reporter for The New York Times. Trump unsuccessfully sued O’Brien for $5 billion after O’Brien claimed Trump’s wealth was $150 million to $250 million, not the billions that Trump claimed. The case went on for several years, O’Brien claimed, “because he wouldn’t comply with discovery requests” including the fact that “he wouldn’t turn over the tax returns, then the tax returns came in almost so completely redacted as to be useless."

 I've already written about the Donald's foundation being less charitable than one would expect from someone of his claimed wealth so no need to revisit that.  But I'm of the opinion that it is the amount of charitable contributions claimed on his tax returns prior to 2009.  He has nothing to lose by releasing those returns.  Unless of course there is something new we will learn from seeing them.

Saw a hashtag today

Saw the hashtag #PresidentTrumpsCabinet and decided I'd take a shot at creating his cabinet.

Vice President - TBD
Secretary of State - Ben Carson
Secretary of Gluttony - Chris Christie
Secretary of Defense - Robert "B1-Bob" Dornan
Secretary of the Treasury - Bernie Madoff
Secretary of Commerce - Mark Hughes (current CEO of Herbalife)
Attorney General Larry H. Parker

Secretary of the Interior - Ted Nugent
Secretary of Agriculture - Juan Luciano (currently president and CEO of Archer Daniels Midland)
Secretary of Labor (he's vacillating between Cable Guy Larry and Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs)
Secretary of Health and Human Services - since Jack Kevorkian wasn't available due to his death, Trump is going with Dr. Donna Harrison, executive director of a group of anti-abortion doctors.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - Ted Hayes
Secretary of Transportation - Garrett Camp (co-founder of Uber)
Secretary of Energy - Electro

Secretary of Veteran Affairs - Rush Limbaugh (allegedly dodged the draft due to a pilonidal cyst)


Special Assistant for Women's Issues - Carly Fiorina
EEOC Director - Will Quigg, Grand Dragon of the California KKK

Monday Musings in May

The Los Angeles Times printed (I wonder if more people read it online rather than on paper) a story about how the city of Palos Verdes Estates is dealing with the so-called "Bay Boys."  The story claims that officials of the city have dismissed the allegations contained in a lawsuit filed by an El Segundo Police officer.  They describe them as urban legends.

I've never been a surfer but I spent two decades living in the South Bay.  I know these things are not urban legends.  Many surfers up and down the coast (but not all of course) have that "locals only" attitude.  But nowhere is it as bad as it is at Lunada Bay.  The city needs to take action before the Coastal Commission and the courts force them to act; perhaps more harshly than they want to.

* * *

I'm switching back and forth between a police procedural re-run and a 1977 episode of Battle of the Network Stars.  One of Howard Cosell's co-hosts in this episode was Bruce Jenner, prior to her decision to become Caitlyn Jenner.  It raised a question in my mind that a family member prompted awhile ago.  With the announcement that Caitlyn Jenner will pose for the cover of Sports Illustrated wearing just her Olympic Gold medal and an American flag, is it really her medal?  After all, it was Bruce who earned it was pointed out to me.

I don't agree.  A person's prior achievements do not disappear because they make the difficult choice to transition to their true gender identity.  More than four decades have passed since the noted author Jan Morris made the transition from being James.  She had to travel from her native United Kingdom to Morocco because surgeons in the UK would not perform reassignment surgery while Morris was still married to her wife.

Did her bibliography prior to the transition simply cease to exist?  No.  Whatever a person achieves in life is their achievement.  The person someone was before the transition is one and the same as they are during that transition and when they decide their transition is complete.  A person is a person, regardless of their gender identity.  We've come a long way in those four plus decades.  But not far enough if the right of the winner of an Olympic medal is questioned because they decided to live as they believe themselves to be.

* * *

There are only a few reality TV shows that I watch.  One is Parking Wars, which is no longer in production.  I'm also a fan of Storage Wars although not so much now that Barry is not on the program.

I watch a lot of reruns and original programming on the USA network and as a result I'm inundated with commercials for a reality show titled Chrisley Knows Best.  I had to look up just who Todd Chrisley is apparently a self-made millionaire who now lives in Beverly Hills where his show is filmed even though the show ostensibly takes place in Georgia (or so it seems).

Competition shows have some appeal to me, depending on the competition.  But these new reality shows that are about the ordinary lives of people who have found their way into the spotlight just don't interest me at all.

I think the huge ratings that shows like this, Duck Dynasty and Keeping up with the Kardashians (I really wanted to write Kartrashians) prove nothing more than we live in a world where our ordinary lives are so unsatisfying we need even more opportunities to escape the reality of those lives than ever.

* * *

Just saw a news item where voters approved a bond issue that will fund construction of a football stadium that will cost over $60 million.  Where?  In Texas of course.  McKinney, Texas.  Less than ten miles from another high school stadium that is currently the most expensive to date.  That one cost $60 million.

When I first saw the 1994 film Friday Night Lights, I had to run out and buy the book it was based on.  That was when I learned that the 19,000 seat stadium that is home to the Permian Panthers cost $5.6 million when it was built in 1982.

So which is more egregious?  I'll let you decide, but consider this in your decision making process.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI calculator, what cost $5.6 million in 1982 would cost $13.8 billion in 2016.

* * *

I suspect that KISS member Gene Simmons is being honest when he says he's never been high on drugs.  He's certainly not the only one.  But his comments about the death of Prince being "a choice" are irresponsible.  They also ignore the reality that addiction is not a choice for people who develop addictions to pain medications after being injured.  I was so afraid I would become addicted to the pain medications I had pumped into me after I awoke from that nine week coma.  I am fortunate that I didn't, probably thanks to excellent medical care at UCLA Medical Center.

Mr. Simmons is entitled to his opinion, no matter how insulting and ignorant of reality it is.

How to know if it IS the IRS calling

People have been impersonating IRS employees for quite some time, attempting to scam unsuspecting people by claiming they are in debt to the IRS.  The message to try to cut down on these scams has been to point out that the IRS doesn't make phone calls to taxpayers.  Now it turns out that the IRS is calling people.

An article published by Forbes contains an admission by Nina Olson that the IRS's Internal Revenue Manual says the preferred method for initiating contact for a taxpayer audit is by phone.  Ms Olson is the official Taxpayer Advocate at IRS headquarters.  She's on the side of the taxpayer, protecting us from IRS abuses.

So how is the unsuspecting person to know that the person calling them and claiming to be from the IRS is or isn't a scam artist?  Here are some simple rules to follow:

1.  An IRS employee calling to set up an audit will state that the purpose of the phone call is to do just that.

2.  If the caller says the IRS has or will issue an arrest warrant for you, it is a scam.

3.  If the caller says the IRS has or will file a lawsuit against you, it is a scam.

4.  If the caller directs you to make payment over the phone, it is a scam.  FYI, the IRS does not accept credit card payments directly. 

5.  Ask the caller for their IRS badge number.

6.  Never give out your social security number on the phone or via email.

Random Ponderings

I may have mentioned some of these before, but here are some interesting business names I've driven by lately.

I Love Lucite
Age of Aquariams
Hogan's Heroes (yes, it's a sandwich shop)

Those led me to look up some others.

The Codfather (a fish and chips shop)
Wok and Roll
Hairanoia (yes, a hair salon)
Many Happy Returns (a tax preparation company)
Budget Burials (their slogan is "cheaper and deeper")

This next one might have been inspired by a shot from the Blues Brothers movie in 1980

Here's the movie image:

Wok This Way
Indiana Bones - Temple of Groom

* * *

Roy Moore is the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.  Now he's been suspended for allegedly exceeding his authority by attempting to keep the state's same-sex marriage ban in place in spite of the U. S. Supreme Court ruling that made such state-level bans unconstitutional.

Maybe he should get Kim Davis to divorce her current husband and marry him instead.  They'd make a really disgusting couple.

* * *

A story in the San Francisco Examiner makes it clear that administrators at Raoul Wallenberg High School in San Francisco attempted to entice a Caucasian student with a Hispanic surname to step in and replace an Asian student in a student government post; "...in the name of diversity."

I find this extremely unsettling.  Doing away with student elections and then trying to twist the arm of a student is just wrong.

* * *

Why in the world does Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker want to drug test recipients of unemployment and food stamps, when such testing is prohibited by Congress?  To send a message?  To make a point, aside from the one atop his noggin?

It is part of the conservative agenda to find any way possible to prevent those in need from receiving help from government coffers.  That's why.  Fortunately the courts will shut him down.

Any employer who furnishes drug test results on former employees to Wisconsin to aid Governor Walker in his efforts should be publicly scorned and boycotted.

* * *

For the 4th time in the history of modern paintball, a player has suffered damage to a major organ.  A teen playing for the very first time took two shots to the abdomen.  No bruises were left.  Two days he was rushed to a hospital with what appeared to be appendicitis.  But it turned out he was bleeding from his liver.  Weeks later he is making a full recovery.

Paintball seems really safe.  It is.  So is riding on a roller coaster and yet someone just died doing that.  Guess nothing is ever completely safe.  Heck, I almost fell out of bed this morning trying to reach down and turn off my CPAP machine.

* * *

If a business is giving money and/or services to a candidate involved in an election; and that candidate is in a current elected office where they will vote on an issue impacting that business, is that proper?  I sure don't believe it to be.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander is running for L. A. County Supervisor and because the incumbent, Michael Antonovich is termed out, someone will replace him after the election.  A commercial billboard company has posted ads supporting Englander's bid, although not in coordination with his campaign.

Totally inappropriate.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz is clueless

While I may refer to Donald Trump as the Trumperor or the Toupeed one, I've tried to reduce the use of name-calling in my blog.  But this is an instance where the label of clueless is very appropriate.  Jason Chaffetz is the Utah Republican member of the House who is the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 

Thus far in his four terms in the House he has:

Announced he'd lost all respect for the Nobel Peace Prize after it was awarded to President Obama.
Criticized the handling of the attack on the Benghazi Compound in spite of the fact he voted to cut funding for embassy security.
Threatened to put the Mayor of Washington, D.C. in jail if she implemented the legalization of possession of small amounts of pot in the D.C. area.
Claimed a chart he used to criticize the salary of Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards was from the Planned Parenthood annual report.  It was in fact data from the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life.  The chart used highly questionable data analysis methodology and was described by experts in data analysis as "...an egregious example of using a chart to mislead."

But now he's really gone over the top.  He wants the IRS to explain how in the world they've found the money to hire 600 to 700 revenue agents.  IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has already explained that the resources to make these hires comes from a high level of attrition and increased efficiency.  Given that the Congress has reduced the IRS' annual budget by nearly $1 billion since 2010, it may seem a valid question.

The question is though, why question the IRS doing this, unless you're against making a dent in the estimated $458 billion in taxes that doesn't get paid.  As the number of IRS employees has been reduced since 2010, the number of audits has also decreased.  Any analysis of how IRS budget cuts increase the "tax gap" shows that spending more on the IRS generates much more in tax revenue than the amount of increased spending involved.  But Congressman Chaffetz has decided it is more important to cut IRS funding and attempt to get rid of Commissioner Koskinen than to try to cut the budget deficit.  This in spite of the fact he made a point of promising to sleep on a cot in his office to save money when he was first elected to Congress.

In the mode of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, I hereby dub this member of Congress, Clueless Chaffetz.

Something on a lighter note

I saw a post on a message board on IMDB and it got me to thinking.  The post was critical of the NCIS franchise for casting Zoe McLellan on NCIS: New Orleans when she'd been a regular on JAG, the show NCIS was spun off from.  Ms McLellan portrayed Petty Officer Jennifer Coates for three seasons on JAG and has been on every episode of the first two seasons of NCIS: New Orleans.

Was it wrong for the people behind the scenes to make this choice?  The two characters have little in common other than they are being portrayed by the same person.  I don't see the problem.  It isn't unprecedented.  Back in the late 1960s I was tuned in to every single episode of Star Trek (TOS).  Now it is true that Leonard Nimoy did reprise his role as Spock on Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG) several times.  DeForest Kelley did the same for one episode as Dr. Leonard McCoy.  I can't imagine them portraying any other character in any program in the Star Trek "universe."  Same for Leonard Shatner.  However, I have never heard anyone complain about the casting of the late Majel Barrett on ST:TNG as Lwaxana Troi after she spent three seasons on TOS as Nurse Christine Chapel. 

Moving back to the JAG/NCIS universe, Sean Murray has been on NCIS since the first season.  But he did a five episode arc on JAG as one character and played a different guest character in one episode of that show. 

What about shows who bring back people in multiple roles as one-off characters?  I doubt anyone really noticed that John Di Benedetto appeared in six different episodes of Law & Order as six different characters.  But I sure noticed Dan Lauria playing four different characters in episodes of Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  Noticed, but wasn't bothered by it.  He's a very talented actor.

Then there's the situation when an actor does a one-off guest appearance on a show and then becomes a regular on that same show.  Diane Neal was excellent in one episode of Law & Order: SVU as Amelia Chase, a woman who was involved in the rape of a male stripper at a bachelorette party.  Then two years later she was cast as series regular ADA Casey Novak.  Didn't bother me or anyone else apparently.  Jeremy Sisto did the same on the original Law & Order, doing a one off and then being cast as series regular Cyrus Lupo.

In the final analysis, as long as an actor cast as two different characters in the same movie or TV franchise does their job well, no one should care.

California's tax system and some interesting numbers

George Skelton is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and he's been covering politics and government issues for more than five decades.  He recently wrote a column about California's tax system.  It points out the following:

The top 1% in CA pay 48% of the income taxes
The top 10% in CA pay 79% of the income taxes
The bottom 60% in CA pay only 2% of the income taxes
To be in that top 1% you have to have an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $556,638
To be in that top 10% you have to have an AGI of around $149,000

In the upcoming CA fiscal year income taxes will be around 70% of the total revenue.
In CA in 1950 income taxes provided only 10% of the total revenue.
In that upcoming CA fiscal year, sales taxes will provide 22% of the total revenue.
In CA in 1950, sales taxes provided 60% of the total revenue.

* * *

Now before I launch into my analysis of those numbers, I want to point out that in the entire column penned by Mr. Skelton there are absolutely no mentions of the third rail of California politics.  That is of course, Proposition 13.  To be fair, he does mention that the commercial property tax is sacrosanct.  It may be but it is nowhere near as sacred as is the Proposition 13 limitation on personal residence property taxes.

To better understand the property tax, the CA Legislative Analyst's Office prepared a primer on the subject.  This excerpt gives credence to Mr. Skelton's comment about the commercial property tax being both sacrosanct and a problem in terms of how much/little revenue is generated from it:

"Has the Distribution of the Property Tax Base Changed Over Time?

There is little statewide information regarding the composition of California’s property tax base over time. Based on the available information, however, it appears that homeowners may be paying a larger percentage of total property taxes today than they did decades ago. We note, for example, that the assessed value of owner–occupied homes has increased from a low of 32 percent of statewide assessed valuation in 1986–87 to a high of 39 percent in 2005–06. (The share was 36 percent in 2011–12.) It also appears likely that owners of commercial property are paying a smaller percentage of property taxes than they did decades ago. For example, Los Angeles County reports that the share of total assessed value represented by commercial property in the county declined from 40 percent in 1985 to 30 percent in 2012. In addition, the assessed value of commercial property in Santa Clara County has declined (as a share of the county total) from 29 percent to 24 percent since 1999–00."

Why in the world are personal residence property tax value assessments increasing while those of commercial properties decreasing?? 

* * *

Mr. Skelton points out that the state portion of the sales tax rate in 1950 was 3%.  In case you did not know the current rate for the state portion, it is 6.25% and there is a mandatory local rate of 1.25%.  Now some of you who live in CA are saying "wait a minute, my sales tax rate is higher."  True.  In many locations the sales tax rate is much higher.  If I'm in Culver City, the local rate is 9.5%.  However if I'm in the Crenshaw district of the city of Los Angeles, it is only 9%.  If I drive over to Cypress in Orange County, it drops to 8%.  In Camarillo in Ventura County, down to 7.5%.

Does this matter a lot, the differences in local sales tax?  Well, if you live in Los Angeles County and you're planning to buy a new car that will cost $40,000, you're going to pay the county sales tax rate of 9%.  $3,600.  But if you buy it in Orange County instead you pay only 8% and save $360.  If you want to drive to Ventura County, you save another 1/2% and save $540.  Now if you can afford that much for a car, you may not care about saving $500.  But if it was a $20,000 new car then $250 would be a big deal to you and you might make that drive.

What people do not recognize at first glance just how regressive the sales tax is.  We pay sales tax on gasoline, fast food, non-food items in grocery stores. and non-food and prescription drug purchases in drug stores.  The percentage of a family income that goes to sales tax is much higher among the lowest earning families.

What are not taxed are services.  Get your car repaired and you'll pay sales tax on the parts but no sales tax on the labor.  Pay a doctor, no sales tax.  Same for lawyers and yes, tax preparation services.  Why not?

So why is all of this so critically important?  Because of a man named David Tepper.  He's a hedge-fund billionaire who lived in New Jersey for decades.  Now he has moved to Florida.  According to a Fortune.com article, 40% of New Jersey's gross revenues come from personal income taxes.  One-third of that tax revenue comes from less than 1% of taxpayers.  One man moving is going to cost New Jersey tens of millions in annual tax revenue.  Compare these numbers for NJ to those for CA above and you can see the problem.

California needs to become less dependent on income tax revenues and build revenues coming in from other taxes.  Sales tax on services, even at a lower rate than the current sales tax rate is one possible answer.  Another would be to cut spending but that's never going to happen in this state.

2016 is not 1950.  But in 1950 the state cut spending on social welfare by more than 75% over the prior year spending level.  In 1950 the roughly $1.6 million being spent on social welfare represented less than two-tenths of the total budget.  Conversely, the 2014-15 CA budget included $9.9 billion which was a 2.5% cut over the prior year.  However, social welfare spending in CA represented 6.5% of the total budget.

Times have changed and I am not advocating cuts in social welfare spending.  I'm pointing out that comparisons of today's spending to that of 1950 provide little perspective unless they are included in an overall comparison of the differences in revenues, spending and the entire socio-economic picture of the state.  And that as long as California is too reliant on that 1%'s income for state spending, the risk is extreme if another economic downturn takes place.

A new word for Donald Trump's vocabulary

I've been known to bang my head against a wall (figuratively at least) but I'm not dumb enough to think I could do anything to add the words "humble" or "polite" to the vocabulary of the man who now calls himself the "presumptive Republican nominee."  But it's that presumption that is an indicator he needs to learn a new word.  That along with his claim that Ted Cruz and John Kasich should quit the race because neither of them can win enough delegates to be a first round nominee.  The word is "spoiler."

Let's be clear.  Of the 25 million primary votes cast in the Republican primaries thus far, Donald Trump has received the most of any single candidate.  This is true.  What is also true is that 15 million of those 25 million votes were cast for someone other than Donald Trump.  That's a plurality, not a majority.  So if Kasich and or Cruz want to stay in the race to try to prevent Trump from turning his plurality of votes into the majority of delegates, they have every right to.

The lesson to be learned here is from the 1980 general election.  Actually there are two lessons to be learned.  The first is that you don't quit before the race is over.  Had President Carter waited until after the California polls were closed to deliver his concession speech, some of the congressional races on the West Coast might have ended differently.  Bobbi Fiedler, who defeated a ten-term Democrat in winning election to the House of Representatives in 1980 would have almost certainly lost has Carter not conceded early.  She's not the only one.

But there's something more important to glean from the Carter presidency than just his early concession speech.  In Douglas Brinkley's excellent book on the Carter presidency, The Unfinished Presidency:  Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House, Professor Brinkley writes about a survey that a politics buff named Kenneth Kline did after the 1980 election.  Mr. Kline sent a questionnaire to 200 prominent people, asking questions about why President Carter had lost.  The following is excerpted from Professor Brinkley's book:

"Kline's cover letter pointed out that it had been only four years since Carter had been anointed the perfect elixir to as suage the political ills during the 1970s, when Americans still raw from the trauma of Vietnam sat transfixed before their television sets watching the Nixon administration unravel. By 1976, America's bicentennial year, a nation disheartened by political corruption capped by a suspicious presidential pardon wanted to believe in something--and there was Jimmy Carter, a devout evangelical Christian who promised "to make government as good as its people." So what happened?
    Nearly every U.S. senator Kline polled, from William Proxmire on the left to Barry Goldwater on the right, attributed the Carter presidency's implosion to the prolonged Iran hostage crisis and the stagnant U.S. economy. Republican senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina put it in grander terms, boasting that Carter's defeat was part of a paradigm shift that "marked the decline and fall of the public's faith in statist liberalism ... the idea that the solution to all our problems as a nation and as individuals is to be found in some sort of intervention by [the] federal government."
    Even those who were not overtly hostile were melancholy over what might have been. Responding to Kline's survey, Father Hesburgh wrote, "I have always had the feeling that [Carter] is a good man, but somehow was not able to bring his vision to reality. That is not unusual on this earth." This benign assessment was shared by many, including Jesse Jackson and Billy Graham. Veteran NBC News commentator David Brinkley summed the matter up crisply in 1981:

* He had no base in the Democratic party and few friends in the federal government, making it difficult for him to achieve his purposes.

* Despite his intelligence, he had a vindictive streak, a mean streak, that surfaced frequently and antagonized people,

* He became so absorbed in detail he never was able to articulate a coherent public policy, foreign or domestic.

* Several failures during his term were not his fault, but nevertheless hurt him politically: inflation, the hostages, the blundered rescue attempt....

* The extravagant promises in his campaign generally were not kept. Many could not have been kept and he should never have made them.

* And [he exhibited some] examples of excruciatingly bad taste, such as telling an insulting and unfunny joke [about Montezuma's revenge] at a dinner in Mexico City."

Several of those bullet points describe Trump to a T.  Bad taste.  Vindictive and mean streaks.  Inability to articulate a coherent foreign policy, although it is for a reason that is exactly opposite to that of Carter; as Trump has no details rather than an absorption in detail.

The Los Angeles Times published an editorial calling Donald Trump unfit to be president.  Like any individual they are entitled to that opinion.  I happen to agree with it.  The big unanswered question is, why do people support the Donald in the face of the fact that Trump does lack the experience and temperament to be a president?