My Pinterest dump

Some things I've found that interest me....

Cool Cars 

Stairs

 

  

Girls and Guns

Guns 

Marshallers 

Rockies

 

Cool Jeeps 

Interesting

 

Dogs

 

Small Houses

 

 Scotland (my peeps!)

Sidewalk Cafes

 

Rugby

Everyone has an agenda

Our national attention span seems to last only few days at a time.  The media reports one thing, President Trump says another, and it's into the pit we go for another round of mud wrestling.  Then the next week we're on to something else.

Our most recent bout with dysfunction resolves around whether the FBI used the infamous Steele dossier (written by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele) as the basis for obtaining a FISA court order allowing eavesdropping on the Trump campaign in 2016.  

Republicans say that Mr Steele was working for the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was in turn being paid by the Democratic National Committee, and that his dossier should therefore automatically be considered biased and invalid.  "No Steele dossier, no FISA court order, no FBI spying, case dismissed" they say.  The Democrats....wait for it....disagree!  *BIG shock*

Brief background:  The investigation by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS on Donald Trump was initially funded by a conservative political website, and was later picked up and funded by the Democrats after Trump emerged as the probable Republican nominee.  Fusion GPS contracted with Steele, asking him to use his foreign connections to investigate Trump.  Following Trump's election funding from the Democrats ceased, but Steele continued working on the report, with financing coming directly from Fusion GPS principal Glen Simpson. 

Lost in all this "yes he did...no he didn't" BS is this:  Is the information contained in the dossier true?  If the collection of 17 memos, aka "the dossier", written by Steele between June and December 2016 are accurate, then I personally don't care who paid for it.  I don't want Russia worming their way into our election system, and possibly into a position where they can blackmail a candidate they helped.   

We're not talking about a friendly Australia or Canada or even Spain here folks....but RUSSIA!  Russia is NOT our friend.  Vladimir Putin longs to see Russia elevated back to the level of power and prestige enjoyed by the old Soviet Union.  Contrary to popular myth, Russia in NOT a great  economic power today.  In fact, Russia's GDP is roughly equal to that of the state of California.  Their ace card, of course, is that they still possess a massive nuclear arsenal, and they are rapidly modernizing their conventional military forces as well.

Putin alone controls Russia.  The billionaire business oligarchs inside Russia operate with the approval and support of Vladimir Putin, and they in turn know that when Putin calls, they respond.  Nobody crosses him.  (The few that have tried have found themselves charged with "tax evasion" and locked up, or worse.)  Think of it as an old-school organized crime family.  Russia's objective is to weaken (mainly) the United States, NATO, and the European Union any way possible.  If the West bickers and fractures, Russia benefits.

This is a serious position we're in today.  Much is at stake.  Anyone who doesn't understand this and blindly tries to stymie Special Counsel Muller's investigation are potentially doing the United States great harm. Let Mueller do his job, and if there has been Russian collusion, say so and put away the guilty.  And if not, tell us that, too, and lets move on.

S

Oh my, the internet is on FIRE today.  Nasty political name calling is rampant.   It seems like we're on the verge of a coast-to-coast cage match.

From a slightly different perspective, let me ask you this:  Eventually Special Counsel Robert Mueller will come back with the findings of his year-long investigation.  If you're a PRO-Trumper, and the news comes back saying there WAS collusion between the Trump camp and Russia, will you accept the findings, after a trial by jury?  And if you're an ANTI-Trumper, and the news comes back saying there was NO collusion between the Trump camp and Russia, will you accept the findings?

Regardless of your preference, if you say you will NOT accept the findings of a thorough investigation (pending a proper trial if applicable) if it goes against your preferred outcome, then I contend you're an ANARCHIST.  You're not a patriot, or a loyal American, but a traitor to the principles our country was founded on. You're an ANARCHIST.  

Of course you can have an opinion, and you can bemoan a decision that goes against how you personally believe.  But if enough of you no longer care about democracy and the rule of law, then America is finished.   FINIS!  Turn out the lights....

So then what?  Is it every man for himself?  Do our AR-15's suddenly become useful for more than just "recreation"? And if the United States of America someday disintegrates, who's the big winner?  Who will be the world's BIG DOG still standing?  Think about that.

I say we'd best come back to reality, take a deep breath, and work together for the good of the country.  

Country over politics!

S

Life is easy again

My friend Joe Hagy recently posted an entry on his blog (you can read it here), the gest being that things that might have interested you when you were younger no longer seemed important when you got older.  Your grand plans when you were 25 become just meh when you're 65.

Joe, being a few years older than me, and therefore probably a few years wiser, really nailed it.  It's probably just human nature to aspire to have "more better" stuff.  First you buy a "starter" home, then a "move-up" home, and eventually a "luxury" home.  You buy your first new car, lets say a Chevy or Ford, then you move up to something with a more impressive nameplate (Caddy, etc) and finally to a Lexus or Mercedes or such.  Your Seiko might work just fine, but you have your eye on a Rolex or an Omega.  Then, speaking for myself, and apparently Joe, too, you reach an age where you realize all that is pretty much meaningless.

I had my first home when I was 23.  It was larger than I needed and had a HUGE yard.  I was suddenly a member of the landed gentry!  Then later, with a family of five, we moved into a larger, nicer home, on par with what our friends also had.  (Ahhh...the joys of peer pressure.)  Eventually I had an even larger home, still on a BIG city lot, but now just for the new Mrs and I.  (Have I mentioned how much I hate yard work?)  Eventually I hit that inflection point in my life when that big home seemed more a liability than an asset.  By then I didn't care about impressing anyone, I just knew I was tired of messing with it, so I sold it.  Now we have a small but comfortable maintenance-free apartment.  Life is easy again.

I once wanted a fancy sports car so much I lost sleep thinking about it.  A Porsche 911 to be specific.  I almost bought a new one in 1972 ($9,500 back then), but chickened out when I learned how much it cost to maintain.  Later, with three kiddlettes, I moved on to fancy American land yachts.  Now that I might (?) be able to afford the kind of car I dreamed of as a young man, I don't want one.  I couldn't enjoy going out for dinner or popping into Target for a few things without worrying what a$$hole was parking his klunker next to me and was right then banging his car door into mine.  *the horror!* Now I just drive my modest little Mazda to the car shows and take pictures of all those exotic cars other people are having to pamper and worry over.  Life is easy again.

I once wanted an expensive watch.  I worked my way up through Bulova's and Seiko's and got as far as a TAG Heuer when I learned a dirty little secret about luxury watches:  They don't keep very good time.  They make a great "statement", but they don't keep very good time.  Mine were always needing adjustment every few weeks because they had lost a few minutes.  To a punctual-aholic like me, that was tantamount to a Cardinal Sin.  And, as with my cars, I was always paranoid about bumping into something and scratching my precious "statement".  "Screw it" I finally said.  I still have that TAG in a drawer somewhere, but now I wear a cheap, solar powered Casio that receives a magic signal every day from an atomic clock in Colorado and is guaranteed accurate to within .00001 seconds per century*.  I can live with that.  *wink*  Life is easy again.

At some point in your life, if you're like me at least, you might realize that living easy is more important than living large.  If people aren't impressed with me, living in an apartment, driving a Mazda, showing up on time thanks to my cheap Casio watch, dressed in my retirement wardrobe (jeans and a T-shirt), then I don't need 'em.  My dog seems to like our lifestyle just fine, and he's more important to me than those people are anyway.  :)

S

*slight exaggeration

Jeeves, call and have them gas up the jet....

Today let's look into the world of mega-real estate developers.  Their's is a capital (cash) intensive business if there ever was one, with projects regularly requiring BILLIONS of dollars.  Unlike you and I, commercial developers don't go online to Lendingtree to see their four best offers.  These wheeler dealers are constantly on the lookout for new financing as, unlike our 30-year mortgages, they usually can only borrow money for five years at a time.  After five years their bankers can either renew their loans for another five years or demand their loans be paid back in full.  *Yikes!*  Hence developers are always networking, hoping to have new lenders at the ready if need be.

This is the world Donald Trump the developer dealt with every day.  That world nearly crashed and burned back in 1991 when his Atlantic City Taj Mahal casino failed, putting him $4B in debt.  After that debacle the major Wall Street banks declared Donald Trump persona non grata and declined to finance him any longer.  Enter billionaire financier Wilbur Ross, then an investment banker working for Rothschild, Inc.  He negotiated a deal that saved Trump, and the two have remained good friends to this day.  (Wilbur Ross is currently President Trump's Secretary of Commerce.)

In 2014, Ross, who personally made billions buying failing companies, turning them around, and then selling them for a handsome profit, turned his interests to the troubled Bank of Cyprus, on the small island nation in the eastern Mediterranean.  Injecting $400M, he became the bank's Co-Vice Chairman, along with Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, referred to in Russian media as a former KGB official and President Vladimir Putin ally.  (The bank had long been a favorite depository for Russian oligarch wealth.)

One of Ross’s first big decisions at the bank was the appointment of former Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann as chairman.  Ackermann’s ties to Russia were especially strong, including a warm relationship with President Putin.  Cyprus was one of the places the Obama administration was worried about because it was seen as a place that could help Russian entities evade US sanctions imposed after its seizure of the Crimea.  

The FBI has since requested from the Central Bank of Cyprus information connected to special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who was indicted in October, and money that flowed between former Soviet states and the US through Cypriot banks.

It was with Deutsche Bank that Donald Trump began borrowing in 1998, and who he (his company) owes $360M+/-.  In 2016 Deutsche Bank was under investigation by the Justice Department for both its role in a "mirror trading" scheme with Russian oligarchs that allowed them to launder cash out of Russia in the face of US sanctions, and for its mortgage practices amid the financial crisis, for which regulators sought a $14B fine.   (They settled for a $7.2B fine.)  Deutsche Bank is also a major lender to Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's family business.

In July 2016, it was reported US banking regulators as well as special counsel Robert Mueller were reviewing hundreds of millions of dollars in loans Deutsche Bank made to Trump over the past two decades. 

Besides building and owning properties, the Trump organization also "brands" projects, meaning he puts his prestigious name on buildings owned by others in exchange for an equity interest.  One of those was the Trump Soho in NYC.  It seems the building was owned by Bayrock, which was sued by former Bayrock partner Jody Kriss with it alleged that "for most of its existence Bayrock was substantially and covertly mob-owned and operated," engaging "in a pattern of continuous, related crimes, including mail, wire, and bank fraud; tax evasion; money laundering; conspiracy; bribery; extortion; and embezzlement."  

One of Bayrock's founders was Russian-born Felix Sater, a two-time convicted felon.  When publicly exposed, Trump de-branded the project saying he caught none of this while doing his "due diligence".  Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking at this, too.

Whew....this is dizzying!  Anyway, now Donald Trump is President, now Mr. Mueller is investigating, and we're here wondering what, if anything, is going on.  It might possibly come out that the election of 2016 wasn't Donald Trump's first time to receive help from the Russians.  Who knows?

Oh yeah, the LifeSTYLE of The Rich And Famous:

It's pretty sweet!

S

Now hiring...no interview necessary...just show up

I have an honest question for you, a question that I don't have the answer to.  I'm hoping you do.

Thankfully our economy is flying high.  Our official unemployment rate is around 4%, which I've always heard was considered "full employment".  Those final 4% who weren't employed (and perhaps that many more who weren't even looking) were often said to prefer welfare to a minimum wage job, couldn't pass a drug test, had a violent criminal history, etc, which made them "unemployable".

In my area (Dallas) there are "help wanted" signs everywhere you turn, especially in food service and retail.  In the construction field additional plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc, are desperately needed.  The same goes for the health care industry, too.

Now Congress has passed and the President has signed a tax cut bill hoping that many companies will plan major expansions and create millions of new jobs.  So far there have already been announcements by Intel, Apple, Amazon, and many more that they are now hiring.  Right now Amazon is looking for a location to build a second headquarters (what exactly is a second headquarters?) promising 50,000 jobs to the winning city....on and on.

The Trump administration is threatening to deport the "dreamers", kids who were brought here by their parents who entered the US illegally.  They say there are 800,000 dreamers who are here now in school, in the military, and working.  If those who are now employed are deported, that will mean even more job vacancies.

My question is now obvious.  Where are we going to find quality candidates to fill all the positions we already have, plus the new jobs being created, plus the vacancies created by dreamers (and others) leaving, plus normal job attrition?  

It sounds like we're already scraping the bottom of the employment pool barrel right now.  Isn't this likely to mean a wild bidding spree by employers, driving up wages and salaries for those willing to change jobs?  Good for employees, sure, but won't that also create serious inflationary pressures?

This reminds me of the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for."  It's truly a blessing to have this "problem", but please tell me, where are all these new workers going to come from?

S

Just the facts, ma'am

There was a popular cops-and-robbers TV show back in the fifties, Dragnet, where Sgt. Joe Friday was famous for saying,  "...the facts ma'am.  Just the facts."  He wasn't interested in hearing opinions or innuendo, just the facts.

Fast forward 60 years and we seem to have forgotten Sgt. Joe's mantra.  Today President Trump has made "fake news" his mantra.  He implies that everything that comes out of the news media, especially ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post...virtually everyone except his favorite, FOX News...is "fake", not true, a lie.  Dismissing the press en masse like this is dangerous.

The true problem lies between our own ears.  We hear factual news and the accompanying editorial and believe it all or not at all.  We have become such shallow thinkers we don't know how to separate the wheat from the chaff.  And to make things worse, most of us only read/listen to whatever reinforces what we want to believe.  Opposing views are not tolerated.

For example, the news might report that John Smith was caught on surveillance video robbing a convenience store and is now in custody.   The police have video and the eyewitness account of the clerk who was robbed, and the perp is indeed behind bars.  So far, this is a fact.   But then a conservative news outlet might add "...and now this vicious predator is off the streets" while a liberal outlet might say "...he looked to be homeless and hungry".  

If you've ever been on a jury panel you'll remember the judge asking if you've seen news coverage of the alleged crime and have a pre-conceived opinion of guilt or innocence.  This is how our inability to separate fact from opinion can skew justice.

The truth is, most serious investigative journalism today seems to originate from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and just a few others.  The facts they uncover and print or put on the air must be corroborated or else they're setting themselves up for a massive libel suit.  Unless their facts can be credibly refuted with real, conflicting evidence, they should be believed.  What they write on their editorial page is just for entertainment value.  

If we can't learn this difference, our long-term democracy is in jeopardy.  Wise up people, or get run over!

S