Speaking of Donald Trump and his troubled and disastrous two years in office, the question is what has been really accomplished. Well, he was able to appoint two Justices to the Supreme Court who will probably sustain his anti-environment, misogynist, anti-Choice, and anti-union policies. The other triumph of his first term was his tax cut, which was economically skewed to the top income brackets, the corporations and away from the Blue States which contribute the largest amount of money into the US Treasury. In 2016, American corporations paid the lowest percentage of revenue to the US Treasury in the 105 year history of the graduated income tax, enabled by the 16^th Amendment to the Constitution. Within a year of the Trump tax cut, corporate contributions, already at their lowest level in that 105 year period, dropped another 40%. What then was the result of the tax cut?  Yes, there were jobs created, but interestingly, there were fewer jobs created in 2017 and 2018 than in 2015 and 2016. In the first three months of 2018, the average jobs that were created were 220,000. This year, that average fell to 180,000. A drop of 18%. By the way, during the Obama years, unemployment which hit 10.6% as a result of the Great Recession, authored by his predecessor, declined to 4.7%. Thus during the Obama eight years, there were over 15 million jobs clawed back, a net gain of 11 million and the DJIA, which bottomed in June of 2009 at 6600, reached 20,000.

The promised growth rate, of anywhere from 4 to 6%, grew at 2.9% and the annual deficit went from $585 billion in 2016 to an estimated $984 in 2019. How did those deficits effect the National Debt? It soared $2.4 trillion! Along with the growing deficits, where was the repatriation of trillions of US Dollars parked overseas? What happened to those “tax-sheltered” monies? Meanwhile, the Treasury Department said this week,(March 4^th)  that the U.S. government’s deficit for the first four months of this budget year rose to $310.3 billion — a full $134.6 billion dollars more than the deficit during the same period last year. This is in spite of the government reporting a budget surplus amounting to $8.7 billion in January.

Experts say the higher deficit indicates increased public expenditures for social security, defense and the national debt as the government grapples with the consequences of the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The law, which Congress approved in 2017, reduced taxes for individuals and corporations by a massive $1.5 trillion.

But, what of trade and the tariff war that Trump promised? So with that strategy in mind, what happened to our international balance of trade deficit? The U.S. trade deficit surged to a 10-year high in 2018, with the politically sensitive shortfall with China hitting a record peak, despite the Trump administration slapping tariffs on a range of imported goods in an effort to shrink the gap.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that an 18.8 percent jump in the trade deficit in December had contributed to the $621.0 billion shortfall last year. The 2018 deficit was the largest since 2008 and followed a $552.3 billion gap in 2017. The trade deficit has deteriorated despite the White House’s protectionist trade policy, which President Donald Trump said is needed to shield U.S. manufacturers from what he says is unfair foreign competition. In February, 2019, we had the largest trade deficit in one month in our history, $234 billion. In fact, during the first five months of the 2019 fiscal year (starting in October, 2018) the deficit hit $544 billion, up 40% form the same period of the 2018 fiscal year.

President Trump’s supporters would point to the quarterly figures on gross domestic product and crow about how his brilliant economic leadership had fulfilled his promise of growth of 3.5% or more. In February, the government released its preliminary GDP figure for 2018. It’s not 3.5% or more. It’s 2.9%. That may seem like much of a shortfall, but it points to the difficulty Trump has faced in reaching his promised goal on a sustained basis.

Moreover, the 2018 growth figure is beginning to look like a high point for his presidency. Growth for the fourth quarter came in at an annualized 2.6%, a sharp retreat from the 3.4% in the third quarter. (The figures are inflation-adjusted.) In fact, with all the growth of the GDP, 2017’s growth was 2.2%. But, let us understand that the comparison that Trump made is somewhat misleading. President Trump compared annual GDP growth in the Obama era to quarterly GDP growth in a three month period. And quarterly GDP often isn’t a good indicator for how much an economy will produce over the year, with quarterly GDP growth often differing significantly from the year’s overall GDP growth.

Take the Obama era for example. Between 2009 and 2016, GDP growth reached at or above 3% on a quarterly basis about eight times. But, let us not forget, that the first 2 years of the Obama Administration, unemployment had to come down from 10.5% in June of 2009, as a result of the effects of the Great Recession. Also, let us not forget, that every recovery from Recessions, after WWII, were led by housing. This one was caused by housing, which as a result, left millions of homes unsold.

The United States last year imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods imported from China, with Beijing hitting back with tariffs on $110 billion worth of American products, including soybeans and other commodities. Trump has delayed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as negotiations to resolve the eight-month trade war continue. The United States has also slapped duties on imported steel, aluminum, solar panels and washing machines. The goods trade deficit with China increased 11.6 percent to an all-time high of $419.2 billion in 2018. The bottom line, is that with this tariff effort, the export of agricultural products (our largest export commodity) has declined and the American government is subsidizing soy bean farmers to the tune of billions. The government faces three high-cost years for farm subsidies, beginning with $5.8 billion for this year, says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), as low commodity prices drive up the cost of programs that stabilize crop revenue. In its latest budget baseline, CBO forecasts that crop subsidies will cost a total of $22 billion for fiscal 2016, 2017, and 2018. That’s a 9% increase from the estimate it made a year ago of $20.1 billion for the period.

Trump has the dubious distinction of being the first leader among the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, U.K., US.) to see the deficit widen on his watch as a percentage of gross domestic product during a synchronized global expansion. It ballooned from 2.2 percent in February 2016 to 4.3 percent in November 2018, the most precipitous deterioration since 2008 when the financial crisis triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression. This measure, which tracks the relationship of deficits and growth, had improved more under Obama than any president since 1980, and only Clinton saw perennial deficits transformed into annual surpluses. Under Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cuts — the biggest rewrite of the Internal Revenue Service code in 30 years by the Republican Congress — the trend is reversing amid lower-than-forecast tax receipts, less-than-anticipated wage gains, a declining birth rate and an aging workforce. During the past year, when gross domestic product growth accelerated and unemployment reached an 18-year low — an achievement unmatched in the slower-growing G7 — federal revenues from corporate, payroll and personal income taxes fell by 2.7 percent, or $83 billion, from 2017. The last time U.S. growth approached 3 percent, in 2015, tax revenues increased 7 percent. If growth falters, as many economists predict, Trump will be the first president to preside over perennial deficits exceeding $1 trillion.

Now, let’s talk about wages, the official numbers aren’t out for 2018 yet, but the Census Bureau’s surveys show that real median household income increased by about 1.8 percent from 2016 to 2017. That’s not nothing, but it’s not particularly rapid, especially given the robust overall expansion of the economy in that year, and the fact that income only recently caught up to the level that prevailed before the Great Recession. Private surveys, meanwhile, show continued small increases in the first half of 2018. So it appears that while Trump’s presidency has continued to benefit from the economic expansion that began under his predecessor, the benefits to average American households have been modest. And since this data became available, Trump has ramped up his trade wars and forced a lengthy government shutdown — delaying paychecks — while the corporate bond market has begun to look shaky. So even those modest gains may now be in danger.

Trump promised an economic turnaround in the four Rust Belt states that flipped red in 2016 — Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It hasn’t materialized. The unemployment rate in all four states was already low; it has since fallen somewhat, just as it has for the country as a whole. Yet there are still no signs of a pickup in the labor force, with the combined labor force in all four states only up slightly over the past two years.  While we don’t have the data at the state level, for the country as a whole whatever pickup in labor force growth we’ve seen seems more concentrated with women than men. The cyclical improvement in the labor market that began under Obama have continued in the first two years of the Trump administration, and that’s welcome news. But Trump supporters had hoped for more than a continuation of the Obama recovery. It’s still hard to find evidence of that in the data.

Trump vowed to get U.S. multinational corporations to bring back their foreign cash piles. That was one of the goals of his tax reform package. But, as is his wont, Trump wildly exaggerated the amount of cash the reform would bring back by allowing companies to pay a one-time, 15.5 percent tax on profits they’d hoarded overseas. “We expect to have in excess of $4 trillion brought back very shortly,” he said in August. There was never so much to start with. The overseas cash pile of U.S. public corporations was estimated at $1.4 trillion at the end of 2017. Even adding in non-cash assets purchased with the overseas profits, $2.5 trillion would have been a more plausible number. Even less money than that has come back — a total of $557.1 billion in the first three quarters of 2018.Data for the fourth quarter aren’t available yet, but the negative trend shows that companies are gradually running out of cash they’d like to repatriate. Their foreign subsidiaries need cash, too — and certain jurisdictions and schemes still offer companies better terms than Trump’s tax reform. Besides, companies have been having trouble getting refunds from the government on repatriation taxes they’ve overpaid.

Let us review the foreign policy accomplishments in the first two years and into 2019. After a number of months of saber-rattling with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Trump announced that after 75+ years, of many earlier administrations’ inability to solve the regional crisis involving the Korean Peninsula, Trump had found the magic formula. He announced that he would meet with Kim, end the Korean War, de-nuclearize the Korean Peninsula, and remove the threat of North Korean intercontinental missiles.  But, after promising Kim the lifting of sanctions, the growth of tourism through first class hotels, and the development of his beaches, Kim said, “No deal,” and is now re-building his missile launching sites. What happened? Of course, in between this glorious triumph and tragedy with Kim, who denied the responsibility of causing the eventual death of Otto Warmbier.

Aside from tariff wars with China, a love fest with Kim and Putin,  Trump went on a campaign to not only criticize our Western allies, but to undercut the mission of NATO and to accept Putin’s excuses regarding Russian interference with our elections and cyberspace hacking. Aside from that, Trump basically ignored the death of the Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi at the probably hands of Saudi’s real strongman, Mohammed bin Salmon. Again, even after our Intelligence Agencies basically stated that MBS, as he is known, was responsible, Trump ignored their evaluation. Of course, this has been a pattern of Trump ignoring our own intelligence agencies and taking the word of Putin, Kim and Mohammed bin Salmon.

Then again, Trump has been disregarding the independent advice of everyone in, and out, of his government, including our generals, admirals and the Joint Chiefs. Without consultation with the Defense Department, Trump announced, unilaterally, the withdrawal of our troops from Syria and Iraq. Of course, this action would undermine our Kurdish allies and the Syrian Opposition forces aligned against the Syrian strong \man, Bashir Assad. Of course, he inevitably had to walk back on that promise, and now that announced policy change has been completely reversed.

Now, let us look at our policies in our own hemisphere. We seem to be under pressure regarding regimes in Central America, which are causing massive migration to our southern border. What has been done with regards to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador? Do we have a diplomatic presence there? Are we dealing with those governments? Shouldn’t someone ask? But it seems that Trump’s vision of a resurgent America apparently excludes some of our closest neighbors. Instead of erecting bridges, he seems intent on erecting walls—not only against Mexico, but now against Cuba, Puerto Rico and possibly Central America as well. Are we going back to Gunboat Diplomacy?  So Trump is now being rejected by Congress regarding his call for a huge, incredibly expensive wall. Aside from the boondoggle wall, what has this administration done about its policy of separating and kidnapping children from their parents, who are seeking asylum from the threats from Central American gangs?

Of course, there are all sorts of debates on how to handle immigration, but what has he done about the close to 700,000 DACA children?  Does he really want to deport these children who know no other life but America? In other words, he has no real plan, except to use these children as pawns!

Aside from foreign policy and the border, what about problems here in America which transcend the 3% of our population who are considered illegal residents? What has he done about the Affordable Act (ACA-Obamacare) which he promised to dismantle? He called it a disaster, but where is its replacement? He had promised a much better plan, which would be less expensive and do all the things that the ACA cannot accomplish? Where are his promises to Veterans? His Mission Act is basically the enabling legislation to cut the VA Budget and work to privatize it. How is that to help the veterans and deal with the growing crisis of CTE and PSTD? What has he done about the Opioid Crisis? What has he done about our infrastructure and the growing income inequality in America over the past two years? What has he done about an epidemic of mass shootings?

Of course, the Trump Administration is big on Executive Orders, which he, of course, decried about the Obama Administration? With that in mind, what has his record been on the environment, regarding clean air and water? It’s been a disaster! What has it been on fracking, deregulation, regarding the coal industry polluters, off-shore drilling, which is opposed by almost every single coastal state governor? His proposed policies have been the worst for the environment in decades! What is his position renewable energy?  Even though it has been growing remarkably in America.  It is very clear, the Trump administration was poised in 2019 to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs/ This action has thus far generated less outrage than the White House’s abandonment of the Paris Climate Treaty, but has the potential to be far more damaging to efforts to respond to climate change. In fact, all of his vocal and incendiary rhetoric is focused on denying Climate Change, against the advice of 99% of the world’s scientists and climatologists.

According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, the White House is seeking to slash the budgets by 72% in fiscal year 2019, which would cut research in fuel efficient vehicles by 82%, bioenergy technologies by 82%, advanced manufacturing by 75%, and solar energy technology by 78%.

Let’s discuss health care in America! There was a fairly long list of reasons to overhaul the nation’s health care system, but the principal goal of the Affordable Care Act’s advocates was to bring down the nation’s uninsured rate. On this front, the law’s proponents have been able to brag about the ACA’s results: in the years following the implementation of “Obamacare,” the United States’ uninsured rate dropped to the lowest point on record. Over the last couple of years, that rate has moved in a discouraging direction. Gallup reported this morning:

The U.S. adult uninsured rate stood at 13.7% in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to Americans’ reports of their own health insurance coverage, its highest level since the first quarter of 2014. While still below the 18% high point recorded before implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance mandate in 2014, today’s level is the highest in more than four years, and well above the low point of 10.9% reached in 2016. The 2.8-percentage-point increase since that low represents a net increase of about seven million adults without health insurance. At a certain level, an increase of 2.8% may seem quite minor. But as we discussed a year ago, if you or people close to you are among those who’ve lost coverage, the uptick in the uninsured rate probably doesn’t look that small.

During the first few years of Obamacare, premium increases mainly were the result of health insurance companies underestimating the costs their new customers would generate. The companies made up for this by charging more in subsequent years. The market began to stabilize in 2015 and 2016, even though prices remained high, and it appeared that large annual rate hikes might cease.

Instead, the Trump administration has taken a number of steps that have had the effect of further driving up premiums for exchange customers and those who buy policies directly from insurers or through brokers…. Since his first day in office, Trump has directed and overseen policies that undermine the health insurance exchanges.

While the market has consistently gained under Trump, the gains (over the first 10 months) haven’t been record-setting. From inauguration day on January 20 through October 27, the S&P 500 shows a 15.38% annualized rate of return. That’s less than the annualized percentages achieved under five other presidents.

Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all did better over the course of their terms. The top returns were achieved under a pair a pair of Democrats for whom Trump has expressed disdain–Bill Clinton at a 17.49% total return per year and Barack Obama at 16.25%.

Dow Jones Gains Since FDR:

Dow Jones Gains Since FDR:

Clinton 229%

FDR 199%

Obama 148%

Reagan 147%

Eisenhower 121%

Truman 72%

Bush 41 41%

Ford 41%

LBJ 26%

Trump 19% (23 months)

JFK 16%

Nixon -28%

Bush 43 -24%

Carter 0.7%

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5,632.09 points, or 42.78 percent, during Obama’s first 741 days in office. Trump: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 7,219.45 points or 28 percent during Trump’s first 741 days in office.

Recessions in the past have com about for different and varied reasons, often dependent on the micro and the macroeconomic picture abroad and here in the States, along with the consequences of political disruptions that could have global impacts: wars, oil embargoes, and prolonged terrorism. It could be a result of over-heated markets, a glut in housing, and over-expansion in demand, resulting in an inflationary bubble and a pullback resulting in an economic contraction.

Today, the United States is literally entering uncharted financial territory. Rather than help the middle and lower classes put more money in their bank accounts, fueling the economy with more spending across the board, the tax cuts have added leverage mostly to stock prices. Meanwhile, they added to annual federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion and raised the National Debt over $23 trillion.  Administration promises of 4-6% growth and an infusion of revenues from business expansion and repatriation of overseas dollars is and was a “pipe dream!” This added debt has put pressure on government spending.

One critical element is business investment, which could be curtailed by problems associated with international trade. Currently the economics of China and the Pacific Rim countries are slowing because of the Trump trade war, which seems to have little continuity, direction. or even logic. The giant Asian economy appears to have slowed in no small part due to stiff tariffs imposed by the U.S. in an ongoing dispute over trade rules.

Yet, the Trump White House still needs to be careful to avoid shooting itself in the foot, economists say. Although the U.S. is less reliant on trade than most other nations, imports and exports represented 34% of the economy in 2018 — up from 22% two decades earlier.

We have had tariffs on Chinese imports for over a year now, but earlier this month, Trump raised the tariff rate on a broad list of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent. He’s also threatening to nearly double the list of goods subject to the elevated tariff. That means the punitive China tariffs may soon be five times as large as they were during their first year. Already with warnings from Wall Street, Trump rolled back his threat to raise tariffs in September, and theoretically pushed it back into December. A two thousand point drop in the DJIA has a way of even catching his limited attention.

The critical element is business investment which could be curtailed by problems with a disruption in international trade. Currently with the economic slowdown in Asia, the long-term economic malaise in Europe, and the growing problem that Britain faces with no exit deal from the European Union, there could be storm clouds and choppy waters ahead.

One key indicator that has slumped last quarter is fixed, non-residential investment. As for the nation’s factories they have slowed for five consecutive months, and the July reading was the lowest since July, 2016.

As recorded by the US Labor Department, job growth the first six months of 2018, was 196,000 per month. This year, the first six months it was 172,000 per month, down 13% from 2018. In the last six months of 2016, (the Obama Administration) job growth, 209,000 per month.

There are two versions of the unemployment rate — one that’s seasonally adjusted (that’s the one that gets all the headlines) and one that’s not. The Bureau of Labor Statistics highlights the former in its communications with the press because seasonal adjustment is what allows us to compare the rate from month to month. Adjusting smooths out the predictable peaks and valleys that happen each year (such as the boom in retail employment ahead of the holidays). But if you’re not looking at change over time, the non-adjusted number can be considered a more true-to-life snapshot of unemployment in the previous month. For July it was really 4.0%

The promised Trump growth rate, of anywhere from 4 to 6%, grew at only 2.3% the last four quarters. Since 1947 through 2019 the growth rate grew at 3.21%. Of course, that factored in the great post war growth rates, along with the -10 in GDP in the last Eisenhower Recession of 1958.

Our annual deficit, with the Trump tax cut went from $585 billion in 2016 to an estimated $984 in 2019. How did those deficits effect the National Debt? It soared $2.4 trillion! Along with the growing deficits, where was the repatriation of trillions of US Dollars parked overseas? What happened to those “tax-sheltered” monies? Meanwhile, the Treasury Department said in March that the U.S. government’s deficit for the first four months of this budget year rose to $310.3 billion — a full $134.6 billion dollars more than the deficit during the same period last year. This is in spite of the government reporting a budget surplus amounting to $8.7 billion in January.

Similarly, another potential problem is the inability of corporations to make significant investments when the Federal government has an incoherent, confused, and inconstant problem regarding trade, basic economics, and budgetary excesses. In simpler terms, corporations have no clue what direction this administration is going. One day there was the threat of a 25% tariff on China, which was to go into effect in September and then in the wake of an 8% correction in one week of the market, and a 3% fall of 800 points in one day, it was pushed back to December.

Other significant problems are huge corporate debt, taken in an era of low interest rates. Today, interest rates are a shade over 2% and thus there is little room for the Federal Reserve to lower rates in case of an economic slide. In 2007, the rate was over 5%, enabling the lowering of rates to re-stimulate the economy! Right now, an elongated trade war could lead to an increase in bankruptcies that could increase unemployment and elevate a mild slowdown onto a larger contraction.

Right now, there is pressure on the retail sector. With the over-expansion of outlets, reflective of low borrowing rates, despite the middle class continuing to shrink, there is way too much dependence on low end service jobs. The tax cut increased the overall cost to all Americans  of over  $90 billion. With the beneficiary of the tax cut going to the upper income classes, the normal American actually paid much more than that increase.

As for the corporate tax cut, their share of the revenues into the US Treasury was previously at the lowest percentage in the past 100 years. After the full impact of the Trump tax rate cut from 35% to 21%, their contribution dropped 40%.

The last factor which could turn a mild, cyclical, slowdown into a recession is the gridlock in Washington. In 2008, Democrats approved a huge Bush Administration recovery package. This in reality, contributed to a large part of the debt accumulated in the early Obama Administration. Does anyone really believe that the democrats will bail out the trump Administration in an election year?  If you do, you may also believe in the tooth fairy!

Of course, a few years ago, a “huge” audience 28 million watched the annual Alabama-Clemson game, which is about 11% of the 247 million over the age of 18 in the US of A. Hooray for the NCAA! But, it seems there are a lot of fans that are unhappy! The games is getting stale! The price of tickets is slumping!

So, ticket prices on the secondary market for Monday’s college football national title game are cratering – get-in prices hit $150 Tuesday on StubHub and experts say it should continue to drop. By comparison, last year’s get-in price peaked at about $1,700. There are only 612 billionaires in America. Maybe we need more. But, of course, there are plenty of people worth $20 million and above. They all love a football game and would surely want to travel to San Jose and pay another $5k for their flights and rooms, plus “eats!”

Has the country really gone mad? Who in heaven’s name cares what the price of these tickets are? The real question is why are these schools in the Pro Football business and why are their coaches getting paid multi-millions? Are these “bread and circus” games indicative of a society which has no clue over priorities? It doesn’t!

So, the game is not that interesting. “Prices are trending lower than we have ever seen before,” SeatGeek.com’s Chris Leyden told Yahoo Sports. “Demand is down.” And that’s just part of it. The semifinal games weren’t competitive and delivered comparatively low television ratings. About the only thing that remained steady was complaints about the selection committee.

A year ago Alabama and Georgia conveniently met in Atlanta and the average ticket price on SeatGeek hit a whopping $3,046, nearly two-and-a-half times the $1,262 average the year before for Alabama-Clemson in Tampa, Florida.

Proximity to the fan bases was everything. Any money not spent on travel can be spent on tickets. If Atlanta hosted again this year, ticket prices would be high. This year’s current average, as of Tuesday afternoon, was a respectable $1,043, but that won’t last as prices are plummeting. “Tickets sold in the past 24 hours have gone for an average of just $533 each,” Leyden said.

Levi’s Stadium happens to sit on the other side of the country from the participating clubs. Travel costs just to get to San Jose are considerable – $1,000 flights are the minimum from the Southeast. It doesn’t help that neither Alabama nor South Carolina have major airports – the old joke in Alabama is you can’t even get to heaven without connecting through Atlanta.

So who are people paying these kind of “bucks” for this game? Why should these athletes be playing 14-15 games per year, getting nothing out of their so-called education and hardly learning anything? How can these folks even hope to have the energy to go to class? All they do is eat in athlete’s dormitory and go to the weight room. And, if they get a degree? Is it worth the paper it is written on? But, of course, they are not at these Division I schools for education, not in the least. They are in the NFL’s minor league, and they hope to survive 4-5 (red shirted) years in college and get a chance at the so-called millions in the NFL. Does anyone care that injured players have, in most cases, lose their scholarships, and in the NFL, few contracts are guaranteed! Let the good times roll until, if they survive 5-6 years in the NFL, and get to age 55 or so, CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) starts to affect their future. Of course to many this is a myth, like “Climate Change,” but in hundreds of layers affected, who have died and had their brains diagnosed, only 99% had CTE.

Just remember, the Poobahs of College football, the networks, the conferences, the uniform and sneaker companies, know the cure! It is an easy solution. Their answer is expand the playoffs from 4 to 8 teams. And, if that doesn’t work include all the conference champions. Maybe 16 teams should be in the field. That would mean instead of three games, fifteen games. So the teams in the finals would play into February. So what! They don’t go to classes anyway! Let the good times roll.

Another explosive story reflecting the endemic corruption of big-time college sports in America. It goes on and on, with compromises on standards, cheating, cover-ups and it cuts across all levels of football and basketball. it isn’t only Rick Pitino and his whores used to recruit talent, or John Calipari, and his “one and done” educational standards and the programs he has left in ruins, or now the sanctimonious Urban Meyer, but even the revered Joe Paterno. Ignorance isn’t excuse in the least. These people have been turning a blind eye to all sorts of violations since Knute Rockne ignored the criminal conduct of George “the Gipper” Gipp, of Ronald Reagan fame. But what of the outrageous salaries and the bidding wars for talent? Meyer earns $7.6 million (minimum!).

Ohio State fired wide receivers coach Zach Smith on July 23, after a history of domestic violence allegations surfaced — and three days after Smith’s ex-wife filed a domestic violence protection order. The following day, Meyer denied knowing Smith was accused of domestic violence in 2015, saying, “I was never told about anything.” That’s like saying I didn’t know the sun comes up every morning!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/ohio-state-appoints-panel-to-oversee-urban-meyer-investigation/ar-BBLqnWz?OCID=ansmsnnews11

College big-time, football and basketball programs are completely corrupt. Money controls it from almost Pop Warner football and JHS level traveling teams in basketball, through the sneaker companies, to the JHS feeders to high schools and then on to college. Players move into my hometown of Mount Vernon, NY to eventually play on a nationally ranked team. Others, who know they won’t be starters are recruited by private and parochial schools or just move. Making a college team is big business, with theoretical large rewards at the end of the rainbow.

There is stream of “dark” money that goes all the way to the top. When I brought this up to Bruce Fabricant, AB Davis ’60 (Mount Vernon) who was the sports editor at Michigan State and made a living with sports advertising and promotion, his answer was, he didn’t care, just likes to turn the boob tube on and be entertained. This is a person who has values, is not a flat-earth troglodyte, and is not oblivious to the news or reality. He just doesn’t care. So be it. As long as the public couldn’t care less. Nothing will ever change.

The answer is to adopt the Ivy League or Division III standards. If a player cannot do college work, that player doesn’t belong in college. Both the NBA and the NFL should finance Minor Leagues with their billions. Of course, as long as they have a ‘free” system with Division I College sports, they won’t.

In the words of the late, do nothing President, one Calvin Coolidge, “The business of America is business.” What else is new? Big-time sports is too large, and for sure, too large to fail. Too much legitimate money is added to the GNP and nothing will alter that reality. But, without “minor league” players, who go like most baseball players to the “pros,” college football and basketball still will draw crowds with a new level of student-athletes, playing for pride, with zero intent of professional sports, unless after graduation they feel their skills are good enough. By the way, the reason the Ivies don’t draw, is because they are compared with the Big Conferences. Once the playing field between Division I and II is more level, interest will still be there.

I wrote this on November 10, 2011

The pathetic appearance of Joe Paterno greeting his well-wishers on his lawn; reflected how aged he is and how he is way past his prime. Years ago, university officials tried to remove him, but his power and his influential supporters rebuffed their efforts. Being in control of an important program for 46 years is too, too long. Yes, he had become an iconic institution, but have his supporters read the Grand Jury testimony? Have they forgotten the old adage by Harry Truman, that, “The buck stops here?” Well it was passed by Paterno to others, who believed that “sweeping the dirt under the rug,” would make it go away forever.

In football, as other institutions, the “Old Boy Network,” has a tendency to cover its own and ignore the victim. The reality is that if Sandusky was reported to the police, a great deal of angst would have been avoided, and a great many lives would have been spared the trauma he promulgated. There are too many people who live lives of rationalization and conveniently forget to do the right thing. We often forget that the most pious amongst us seem to forget that to do “the talk, they also must do the walk.”

College sports have been way out of control for decades. The recruiting, the phony transcripts, the unacceptable drop out rates, the overpaid coaches ($2-5 million per year at many state schools) the unseemly influence of boosters, the payoffs,  the excessive travel, the Bowl Game farces, the conference jumping and most of all the poor education that big-time college athletes receive are all the legacy of big money controlling these colleges. Penn State was known as a squeaky clean program as was Notre Dame. A few years ago, the football coach at University of Cincinnati, one Brian Kelly was lured to ND, and they fired their then current coach Charley Wise and were forced to pay off the $15 million owed to him on his long-term contract. This is all too common and all of theses institutions are tax-exempt and many are state institutions. Penn State made $53 million from their football program last year. The ticket line remains long each year to pay the inflated prices of their football games and their cash registers continue to ring loudly and often. So as Calvin Coolidge once said, “The business of America is business,” and the business of amateur football is big business.

eople get what they deserve and the abuses of Sandusky and the cover-up by the PSU Athletic Department along with the lack of true oversight by the staff and the office of the Presidency have come back to haunt them all. I feel no sympathy for PSU, Paterno and all of the other hypocrites who talk out of both sides of their mouths. Maybe the students should wise up, stop looking at their idols through tinted glasses, and start studying. Maybe then they’ll get some value out of the $100-200 grand their parents are laying out for their education.

An Update on College Sports

2-3-18

Richard J. Garfunkel

Of course, this is nothing new. Even before the huge cheating scandals of the late 1940s which culminated with the CCNY scandal of 1950, the fixing of games all up and down the East Coast and into the Midwest, cheating had been going on for decades. These scandals were repeated again in the early 1960s with NYU and other schools. Ringers were brought in to play in specific games under phony names, and even the great, and legendary, George Gipp, made famous by Ronald Reagan in the classic film “Knute Rockne, All-American,” was a fraud. He was a 25 year old gambler, never attended classes, had been in and out of school, lived in an expensive hotel off-campus, and was 25 when he died of pneumonia trying to get back to the dorm while he was very possibly drunk or high. His conduct was conveniently ignored by both Notre Dame and Knute Rockne. There were all sorts of Hollywood films, made in 1930s, about the farce of college football and the big dummies that never went to class. Nobody paid attention to basketball in those days.

Getting back to the heart of the point-shaving era that plagued college and pro basketball in the post war years, the scandal had reached a white-hot meltdown proportion with Manhattan DA Frank Hogan’s investigation of the local colleges. It started with a Manhattan College player named Junius Kellogg, who said he had been offered $1000 to “shave” points. Eventually, this investigative dragnet, would envelope and ensnare the whole starting five of the CCNY team. The fabled Kangeroos of CCNY, under the coaching tutelage of venerable, legendary and scrupulously honest Nat Holman, had won both the NCAA and NIT Tourneys in 1950. Eventually players from LIU and NYU were also caught in the ever-spreading net. The scandal eventually ruined the careers of  Holman (1896-1995,) who coached for 37 years with a record of 421-190.(He later came back to CCNY and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.) and the brilliant Claire Bee (1896-1979, the author of the “Chip Hilton” books) the longtime coach of LIU. It was said by one influential columnist that “basketball as a big-time sport was dead.”

Professor Yale Kamisar, the Clarence Darrow Distinguished University Professor of Law Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Michigan Law School as well as a tenured professor at the University of San Diego School of Law was a graduate of NYU (1951) and the Columbia Law School. He was the Sport’s Editor of the NYU newspaper, and he told me of his personal knowledge of the widely known scandal and the fact that DA Hogan specifically ignored the local Catholic colleges (St. Johns, Manhattan and Fordham) and went after the schools that primarily depended on Black and Jewish players. According to books on Molinas, CCNY and the basketball of that era, the point-shaving practice was conventionally done everywhere. This wasn’t limited to the Metropolitan area schools, because the Kentucky super championship teams of 1948 and 1949, under the legendary Baron Adolph Rupp were also implicated. Alex Groza, their great star, was banned form the NBA for life in 1951.

Because of the collapse of college basketball at the Garden, pro basketball was able to prosper as it filled in the vacuum created by the scandal and the cancelled college schedule. Scandals did not end in the early 1950’s and the NBA was not immune to such criminality. The Fort Wayne Pistons, under the ownership of Fred Zolner, were up to their neck in point-shaving. The basic reason was their young star, Jack Molinas, who throughout his playing career at Columbia and in the NBA, shaved points and dumped games.  The relatively huge contract Jack Molinas received when he signed with the Fort Wayne Pistons ($10,000) was dwarfed by the small fortune of around $200,000 he had already earned through his various nefarious activities while at Columbia.  His NBA contract was just pocket change; a demonstration of the respect due to Molinas, while he continued to earn his real salary from bookmakers.

Today, the big money isn’t really with point-shaving and betting, but the multi-millions paid for by the networks who get contracts with conferences like; The Big Ten, the SEC, the ACC, etc. This involves ESPN, Fox Sports and other broadcast entities. Players are getting signing bonuses in cash, of over $100,000! They are recruited as young as 13 years old, are nurtured and supported by agents (recruiters), who are conduits to big time high school programs, and then their coaches often steer, for a “consideration” (bribe, fee), them to the highest college bidder. Along the way, the sports networks pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the conferences. Does anyone really care that these players attend class, or even graduate? Coach John Calipari, of Kentucky, doesn’t. He is famous for the “one and done” player, who is recruited from high school, is expected to play one season and jumps to pro basketball here in the NBA, or somewhere else around the world to play. Calipari routinely recruits a whole “class” of Freshman, that are expect to play and replace the upper classmen who are the “holdovers” from the season before. Does he care? Of course not. That’s why he makes over $7 million per year, and is worth over $30 million. Nice work if you can get it.

There are few cures to this chicanery, fraud, tax-evasion, and outright corruption. Some sports’ wags, say the answer is that amateurism is and was a fraud, pay the players and that will be the end to this recruiting chain. That solution is farcical on its face. How much, would players be paid? Who gets paid more on the team? What about the smaller schools? Will there be an “auction block” and a bidding war for talent? Will players get signing bonuses and will they have to go to class, no less stay and play for the full four years? What happens if they get cut and are off the team? By the way, does anyone really care? That’s the rub!

By the way, the firing of Rick Pitino of Louisville is just one case in many. How many times has the NCAA, and its miniscule enforcement division, ignored John Calipari of Kentucky? Why has his nefarious career been allowed to proceed? By the way, back in 2014 when I wrote an article on the scandal at North Carolina, where players hardly attended class, and there was even a phony and phantom department, In 2013, the UNC head football coach, Larry Fedora was paid $1.7+ million and his staff over $2 million. He is ranked 58^th highest paid in the Nation! As for their  basketball program, in the highly competitive ACC conference, Head Coach Roy Williams is paid $1.8 million, while the number one and two salaries in the nation; Mike Krzyzewski, of Duke and Rick Pitino, of Louisville, both head coaches in the ACC, are paid, respectively: $9.7 and $5.8 million apiece. That’s real money!

Last year, on May 25, 2017, Major League Baseball was down over 206,000 in attendance. It looked like a trend was going to continue. As it turned out the shrinkage in attendance abated a bit and by October 2, at the end of the regular season, I wrote the following:

The regular Major League Baseball season was finished yesterday and the won and lost records have been published in the newspapers. The Division winners and the Wild Card teams will begin the post season tomorrow. But, how is baseball doing at the turnstiles? This season ML Baseball drew 72,670,423 fans, 489,251 less than 2016.

Other than four teams: Atlanta, Cleveland, Colorado. Milwaukee which drew over 1,535,413, the rest of the other 26 teams lost over 2 million fans. Basically 17 out of 30 teams had lower attendance. The Yankees drew 83,561 more fans and grew last year’s attendance to 3,146,966. Their cross-town rivals, the Mets attendance lost 329,000. The Pirates and the Royals, showed drops of 329,000 and 337,000 fans. Last year, the difference between the Yanks and the Mets narrowed to 274,000 fans, the narrowest margin in years. But, with the strong run by the Yanks and the collapse of the Mets, the difference between them grew to 686,344.

Baseball attendance has actually been dropping for years, and this year’s attendance, after 672 games, or 27% of the season is down an alarming 7% or 1,437,971 fans. At this time, last year the attendance was 19.5 million and yesterday it was 18.1 million. If this trend continues, baseball could lose over 5 million fans in 2018. In actuality, 11 teams are up in game attendance and 19 are down. Those 11 teams account for an increase of 653, 000 and the other 19 have lost over 2 million.

The all-time major league record for attendance was 76 million in 2006, which was 5% higher than 2017. If the early season 2018 trend continues, MLB will draw 65.5 million or 11 million less than 2006, a significant drop of 15%. But, as the season moved into better weather, that trend reversed and baseball was only off 3 million or 4%. But, four teams: Astros, the Yankees, Phillies and the Brewers raised their attendance over 1,380,736. Therefore, the other 26 teams lost 4.3 million in attendance, or not good news. Of the 30 ML baseball teams, 17 lost attendance and of the 13 which gained fans, two only gained by tiny amounts.

What are the reasons? Well, this season has been plagued by horrible weather and as the season goes by, with make-ups, double-headers, or day-night games, attendance will drop for teams who are struggling. Ticket prices remain high because of very high payrolls, reflective of moronic, long-term contracts, which are guaranteed.  Baseball is investing billions into contracts that are indefensible. Games are way too long, but that innately is not the problem. The rise in strike outs, the multiple pitcher changes and the infield shift is ruining the game.

For the 12th consecutive season, Major League Baseball is going to set a record for strikeouts. The new marks are not simply incremental, either. In 2008, hitters struck out 32,884 times. In 2018 the strikeout pace continued and at the end of 2018 the total was 41,207 times, which again broke the record of 40,104 set last year. This is a game careening toward a reckoning borne of inaction, and when nearly 23 percent of plate appearances end with a third strike, the culprit is clear.

It is no surprise, with MLB’s laissez-faire approach to strikeouts that the MLB batting average has cratered to .248. The only two worse seasons in the game’s history were 1908, in the heart of the Dead Ball Era, and 1968, a year so disquieting it prompted the league to lower the mound from 15 inches to 10. Certainly this could be mildly anomalous, a function of the horrid weather, but over the last decade, the most a batting average has risen from April over the rest of the year was 8 points and the most a strikeout rate has dipped was .40 percent. April is no perfect indicator, but it does forecast trends quite well. This year was no different. Throughout the first two months the average was an anemic 241, and it did bounce back a bit.

Because, of multiple relief pitchers, throwing harder and faster than ever, hitting for average as continued to drop as players are thus swinging for the fences. This season is no different, strikeouts and walks are on a record pace, but homeruns, which set a major league record of 6105, are actually down significantly, to 5585 from a very aggressive pace for the first few weeks of the season. Part of the hitting decline is the infield shift, based on computer statistics, relating to each players proclivity to hit to a specific field. In 2011 there were 2357 shifts and last year it had grown to 26,705. In fact, it works. There was a slight decline in shifts from 2016, but that could be attributed to less ground balls.

Baseball is also facing another existential threat. In all of major league sports, corporations and partnerships pay own 60% of the season tickets, or weekend packages of games. As long as all these tickets are used by someone, baseball is happy. The reams would rather have a fan, who is given a “free” set of seats (compt) than have a regular customer. The fan, in a seat he has not paid for, is much more willing to buy food, programs, yearbooks and souvenirs. But, as these corporate seats decline, because they are unable to give them away to their customers or their clients, there are less “free” tickets available. Why should any corporation spend money on expensive tickets to have to have them go unused or to give them to the workers in their office or the maintenance people? Aside from that, many people are now buying 55-70+ inch televisions and watching their local team or buying the Major League Baseball package and staying at home. Why pay $200 to see a game with your family, along with; $25-50 to park, and expensive hot dogs and beer?

Therefore, what can baseball do? Here are some possible solutions; limit the amount of pitchers to ten on the staff from 13 or 14, shrink the strike zone and lower the mound like MLB did after 1968, and limit the shift to 5 times per game. There too many pitching changes per game, there are too many questionable strikes and limit the shift. Those changes can help to amend some of the imbalances on the field and at bat. As for free agency, arbitration and a very powerful baseball union, they are probably here to stay. MLB should make the salary “cap” on team payroll lower, make the penalties for exceeding the cap higher, and not offer contracts longer than five years. This will limit team losses on terrible contracts! With guaranteed, almost life-time contracts, what incentive is therefore for a player to really produce? There should be more “affordable” day games to attract younger fans and families. There are other reasons, especially the proliferation of foreign ballplayers, who many fans do not relate to. That is a very thorny issue, which can raise issues of racism of nativism. But, with all the tens of millions of American-bred players, MLB has a record of 27% foreign born athletes. All these are factors in the decline of a sport, which is very expensive to attend, even though there are 81 home games to attend, and almost every “home” team can be viewed on local or cable television!

May 20, 2018 Baseball attendance after   672 games down     1,437,971-   2,140 per game

Ma

October 2, 2018                                     2,430                          3,007,525    1,235

Major League Baseball attendance dropped 4 percent this year, continuing a steady decline for “America’s Pastime.” It’s the lowest league-wide attendance since 2003 and the largest single-season drop in a decade.

What does that mean for a team’s bottom line? Bloomberg News crunched some numbers to get a better understanding. While some clubs saw a jump in attendance, 17 of the 30 franchises sold fewer tickets than they did last year. Using average ticket prices from Team Marketing Report  that comes to about $93.7 million in lost ticket revenue in 2018.

The Yankees led the AL in attendance with 3,482,805 and the Dodgers, the NL with 3,857,500. As for the Yankee attendance, it went up 327,817, while the Met attendance slumped by 235,627. In 2016 after lagging the Yankee attendance by over 1 million in 2013, the gap in 2016 narrowed to 273,803, the closest in many years. But this year the gap widened again to 1,257,860.

Some of the old-timers, who were familiar with Boston in the post war era, knew of Peter Fuller, the dynamic owner of Dancer’s Image. He was a great boxing enthusiast, the son of the former famous Massachusetts’s Governor, Alvin T. Fuller and the owner of the large Cadillac Agency on Commonwealth Avenue, in Back Bay, Boston, which is now owned by Boston University. Governor Fuller, also had a wonderful summer estate in North Hampton, New Hampshire. The mansion is gone, but the wonderful still gardens remain. We were there a number of years ago!

Fuller loved horses, and he owned Dancer’s Image, a gray horse trained by Lou Cavalaris Jr. and ridden in the Derby by the great jockey Bobby Ussery. Dancer’s Image’s father was Native Dancer, who won the Preakness Stakes, the Belmont Stakes, and was voted the United States Horse of the Year for 1954 and who, in turn, was a son of the 1945 Preakness Stakes winner, Polynesian. Native Dancer, was unquestionably, one of the greatest thoroughbreds ever to run. He was only beaten once in the Kentucky Derby and had a most (if not the greatest post WWII record) remarkable career at stud.

Dancer’s Image was plagued by sore ankles during his career. On the Sunday prior to the 1968 Kentucky Derby, his handlers had a veterinarian give him a dose of phenylbutazone, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) commonly used to relieve inflammation of the joints. At the time, it was illegal for phenylbutazone to be in a horse’s system on race day at Churchill Downs; however, Dancer’s Image’s veterinarian and handlers believed the medication would clear his system in time for the Derby.

On Saturday, May 4, Dancer’s Image won the Kentucky Derby, but was disqualified after traces of phenylbutazone were discovered in the mandatory post-race urinalysis. The disqualification was announced on Tuesday,

Three days after the horse surged from 14 lengths back, weaving through 13 rivals, to win by a length and a half, Churchill Downs ruled that his owner must return the winner’s purse of $122,600. The painkiller Phenylbutazone had been found in the horse’s urine, at a time when Kentucky banned its use on race days. It was the first and only time that a winner has been disqualified from America’s premier horse race.

The story quickly became bigger than even that. Mr. Fuller, a New Englander, and others maintained that he had been singled out for punishment by resentful white Southerners over his support for civil rights. He had recently donated a Dancer’s Image winner’s purse of $77,415 to Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had been assassinated a month earlier. The year before, Dr. King had disrupted Derby events by demonstrating against housing discrimination in Louisville, the home of Churchill Downs. Mr. Fuller received death threats, Dancer’s Image was derided with a racial epithet around Louisville, and one of the Fuller stables was set on fire. Sports Illustrated termed the episode the year’s biggest sports story.

Dancer’s Image ran in the 1968 Preakness Stakes, finishing third to Forward Pass. However, he was disqualified again and set back to eighth place, this time for bumping the horse Martins Jig. Continued ankle problems resulted in Dancer’s Image being retired after the race.

Fuller and the horse’s handlers filed an appeal of the disqualification, as they believed someone else may have been motivated to give the colt another dose of phenylbutazone. The Kentucky State Racing Commission examined the matter and ordered distribution of the purse with first money to Forward Pass. Fuller took legal action, and in December 1970 a Kentucky Court awarded first-place money to Dancer’s Image. That decision was overturned on appeal in April 1972 by Kentucky’s highest court in Kentucky State Racing Comm’n v. Fuller, 481 S.W.2d 298 (Ky. 1972).

Controversy and speculation still surround the incident, and in 2008 The New York Times called it “the most controversial Kentucky Derby ever”. Forty years after the disqualification, owner Peter Fuller still believed he was a victim of a set-up, due to his being a wealthy civil rights sympathizer from Boston who offended the Kentucky racing aristocracy by donating Dancer’s Image’s $62,000 prize for a previous victory to Coretta Scott King two days after her husband’s murder. Fuller said he had anticipated that someone might interfere with his colt and asked Churchill Downs officials to provide extra security before the race, but they denied the request. As of 2008, the Churchill Downs media guide for the Derby still included the official chart showing Dancer’s Image as the winner.

Legalized in 1974 by the Kentucky Racing Commission, phenylbutazone was so commonly used by 1986 that thirteen of the sixteen entrants in that year’s Kentucky Derby were running on the medication.

America is undergoing its latest chapter of the “Culture and Economic War,” between the lower middle class whites and the poorer minorities, which began under the un-enlightened Reagan Era of anti-government, low taxes on the rich, de-regulation, and the revival of  the fanciful mid 1840’s idea of “American Exceptionalism” and Reagan’s fantasized concept of the “Shining City on the Hill!” Throughout his eight years in the Oval Office, Reagan created this Hollywood illusion of a “renewed sense of optimism” to a so-called, beleaguered nation disillusioned by war and scandal. He repeatedly described America as the “shining city upon a hill.” In his 1989 farewell address, Reagan said:

“…in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”

Of course, that was his idealized view of what we were really about, what our history was and his distorted view of the future. In fact, his administration was fraught with scandals regarding Iran-Contra and eventually would blow-up with the Savings & Loan disaster that cost the country $1 trillion. He came into office not after a war, but picked up the problems of the Carter Administration which was the victim of the 2^nd OPEC Oil Embargo, which Nixon had never really resolved. So after his eight years, what did we have in America? The beginning of the end to the Middle Class in America. On the surface, in the Reagan Years, 16 million jobs were created, more than the eight years of Eisenhower, the almost fourteen years of both Bushes and Ford (in Nixon’s five years, 9.4 million jobs were created) combined. Ironically, there were 10.5 million jobs created in Carter’s four years, and since Truman, the Democratic Administrations have created more than 2.5 times as many jobs as the Republicans.

But, what of Reagan’s legacy? Much of those 16 million jobs were connected to the Defense Industry which included his ill-fated Star Wars Program and his 600 ship US Navy, which lasted about two weeks until more older and obsolete ships were de-commissioned. Unemployment, which was 7.5% on January 20, 1981 would rise back to 7.3%, by the time his successor, George HW Bush (#41) left office on January 20, 1993. In between, the National Debt had quadrupled. By the way, at the end of the Gulf War, his Bush #41’s job approval was at 90%. On November 3, 1992, he received 37.45% of the vote, the second lowest percentage for an incumbent president seeking re-election in our history (William Howard Taft received 23.17%).

In between, because of Reagan’s tax cuts and excessive spending, we experienced a growth in the billionaire class. There had been between 10-12 billionaires for decades. Within four years this number grew to 49. That pace has continued to accelerate. By 1992, it had grown to 100 and now there are almost 600. In between, we have seen the exporting of jobs, the growth of the big box stores, and the real beginning of the next chapter of America’s emerging “Cultural and Economic War.” As the Middle Class shrunk with the growth of the upper and lower middle classes, fringe and impact neighbors expanded. That is the legacy of Reagan, whose administration started the country on its downward path of “starving” the government. What has been the result, declining infrastructure, greater deficits, the Crash of 2008 as a result of deregulation and the Deriviative Bubble, and expensive foreign adventurism. Much of today’s National Debt can be attributed to the ill-fated, Bush #43 policy of “guns and butter.”  Tax cuts during wartime is indicative of the Voodoo Economics under Reagan. Add on to that the non-financed Part D (Drug) Medicare Plan, and the crash of 2008, our worst economic setback since the Great Depression! What was the result of that, by June of 2009, the DJIA at 6600 and unemployment ay 10.5 %. So much for Reagan and the two Bush presidencies.

The dominance of the white, Protestant, male hegemony that reached its peak on VJ Day, September 2, 1945, began to erode. On that day, over 98% of all the Senate and House seats were held by Protestant white males. The same could be said for every Flag Rank officer in the America Armed Forces, every Governor of every state, the CEO of every Fortune 500 Company, the head of every hospital, every university and college (aside women’s schools), every prestigious law firm, and almost every police department. The American, Protestant male, was now the most powerful group of people in the history of the World.

Since that day, what has happened? Well this ultimate and unprecedented American and World power began to erode. First it was Catholics, and then Jews. Next it was women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and even Gays. In fact, it was addition to some by subtraction from others. As Jim Crow started to abate in the 15 to 20 years after the end of WW II, women also sought their place in the sun. As these various religious and ethnic groups, with America’s women started to gain power, who lost it? The answer is obvious. Well, White Protestant America and its new Eurocentric allies has invested in the most corrupt human who has ever been elected to office in a Western government since the end of WWII. In the words of cartoonist Walt Kelly’s character, Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and it is us!”

America is undergoing its latest chapter of the “Culture and Economic War,” between the lower middle class whites and the poorer minorities, which began under the un-enlightened Reagan Era of anti-government, low taxes on the rich, de-regulation, and the revival of the fanciful mid 1840’s idea of “American Exceptionalism” and Reagan’s fantasized concept of the “Shining City on the Hill!” Throughout his eight years in the Oval Office, Reagan created this Hollywood illusion of a “renewed sense of optimism” to a so-called, beleaguered nation disillusioned by war and scandal. He repeatedly described America as the “shining city upon a hill.” In his 1989 farewell address, Reagan said: “…in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”

Of course, that was his idealized view of what we were really about, what our history was and his distorted view of the future. In fact, his administration was fraught with scandals regarding Iran-Contra and eventually would blow-up with the Savings & Loan disaster that cost the country $1 trillion. He came into office not after a war, but picked up the problems of the Carter Administration which was the victim of the 2nd OPEC Oil Embargo, which Nixon had never really resolved. So after his eight years, what did we have in America? The beginning of the end to the Middle Class in America. On the surface, in the Reagan Years, 16 million jobs were created, more than the eight years of Eisenhower, the almost fourteen years of both Bushes and Ford (in Nixon’s five years, 9.4 million jobs were created) combined. Ironically, there were 10.5 million jobs created in Carter’s four years, and since Truman, the Democratic Administrations have created more than 2.5 times as many jobs as the Republicans.

But, what of Reagan’s legacy? Much of those 16 million jobs were connected to the Defense Industry which included his ill-fated Star Wars Program and his 600 ship US Navy, which lasted about two weeks until more older and obsolete ships were de-commissioned. Unemployment, which was 7.5% on January 20, 1981 would rise back to 7.3%, by the time his successor, George HW Bush (#41) left office on January 20, 1993. In between, the National Debt had quadrupled. By the way, at the end of the Gulf War, his Bush #41’s job approval was at 90%. On November
3, 1992, he received 37.45% of the vote, the second lowest percentage for an incumbent president seeking re-election in our history (William Howard Taft received 23.17%).

In between, because of Reagan’s tax cuts and excessive spending, we experienced a growth in the billionaire class. There had been between 10-12 billionaires for decades. Within four years this number grew to 49. That pace has continued to accelerate. By 1992, it had grown to 100 and now there are almost 600. In between, we have seen the exporting of jobs, the growth of the big box stores, and the real beginning of the next chapter of America’s emerging “Cultural and Economic War.” As the Middle Class shrunk with the growth of the upper and lower middle classes, fringe and impact neighbors expanded. That is the legacy of Reagan, whose administration started the country on its downward path of “starving” the government. What has been the result, declining infrastructure, greater deficits, the Crash of 2008 as a result of deregulation and the Deriviative Bubble, and expensive foreign adventurism. Much of today’s National Debt can be attributed to the ill-fated, Bush #43 policy of “guns and butter.” Tax cuts during wartime is indicative of the Voodoo Economics under Reagan. Add on to that the non-financed Part D (Drug) Medicare Plan, and the crash of 2008, our worst economic setback since the Great Depression! What was the result of that, by June of 2009, the DJIA at 6600 and unemployment ay 10.5 %. So much for Reagan and the two Bush presidencies.

The dominance of the white, Protestant, male hegemony that reached its peak on VJ Day, September 2, 1945, began to erode. On that day, over 98% of all the Senate and House seats were held by Protestant white males. The same could be said for every Flag Rank officer in the America Armed Forces, every Governor of every state, the CEO of every Fortune 500 Company, the head of every hospital, every university and college (aside women’s colleges, traditionally black colleges, and Catholic colleges and universities), every prestigious law firm, and almost every police department. The American, Protestant male, was now the most powerful group of people in the history of the World.

Since that day, what has happened? Well this ultimate and unprecedented American and World power began to erode. First it was Catholics, and then Jews. Next it was women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Gays. In fact, it was addition to some by subtraction from others. As Jim Crow started to abate in the 15 to 20 years after the end of WW II, women also sought their place in the sun. As these various religious and ethnic groups, with America’s women started to gain power, who lost it? The answer is obvious. Well, White Protestant America and its new Eurocentric allies has invested in the most corrupt human who has ever been elected to office in a Western government since the end of WWII. In the words of cartoonist Walt Kelly’s character, Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and it is us!”

I have posted this before from the words of Aristotle, born in the 4 the Century BCE. It is as valid today as 2500 years ago. It is about the desire to have a middle class society. Who has destroyed the middle class, the rich or the poor?

“The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes. When there is no middle class, and the poor greatly exceed in number, troubles arise, and the state soon comes to an end. A government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government.

Democracy appears to be safer and less liable to revolution than oligarchy. For in oligarchies there is the double danger of the oligarchs falling out among themselves and also with the people; but in democracies there is only the danger of a quarrel with the oligarchs. No dissension worth mentioning arises among the people themselves. And we may further remark that a government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government.

The most perfect political community must be amongst those who are in the middle rank, and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate.

No state will be well administered unless the middle class holds sway.”

Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest captains in history, was defeated in Saxony, at the Battle of Leipzig, on this day in 1813, 205 years ago. That battle led to his abdication and his first exile on the Island of Elba.  He eventually died on Saint Helena, May of 1821.

In July 1793, Bonaparte published a pro-republican pamphlet entitled Le souper de Beaucaire (Supper at Beaucaire) which gained him the support of Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximillian Robespierre. With the help of his fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe Saliceti, Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the republican forces at the Siege of Toulon. His unparalleled career started with the siege of Toulon and his remarkable effort to bring artillery into position to bombard the British fleet. He adopted a plan to capture a hill where republican guns could dominate the city’s harbor and force the British to evacuate. The assault on the position led to the capture of the city, but during it Bonaparte was wounded in the thigh. He was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 24. Catching the attention of the Committee of Public Safety, he was put in charge of the artillery of France’s Army of Italy. What is often forgotten are the progressive reforms of Napoleon, the end to the bloodshed in France promulgated by the Revolution, the Code Napoleon and the idea of a unified Europe! He was one of the most brilliant commanders in history.

Napoleon has become a worldwide cultural icon who symbolizes military genius and political power. Martin van Creveld described him as “the most competent human being who ever lived.” Since his death, many towns, streets, ships, and even cartoon characters have been named after him. He has been portrayed in hundreds of films and discussed in hundreds of thousands of books and articles Napoleon instituted various reforms, such as higher education, a tax code, road and sewer systems, and established the Banque de France, the first central bank in French history. He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church, which sought to reconcile the mostly Catholic population to his regime. It was presented alongside the Organic Articles, which regulated public worship in France. He dissolved the Holy Roman Empire prior to German Unification later in the 19th century. The sale of the Louisiana Territory to the United States doubled the size of the United States.

In May 1802, he instituted the Legion of Honor, a substitute for the old royalist decorations and orders of chivalry, to encourage civilian and military achievements; the order is still the highest decoration in France. Napoleon’s set of civil laws, the Code Civil—now often known as the Napoleonic Code—was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, the Second Consul. Napoleon participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. The development of the code was a fundamental change in the nature of the civil law legal system with its stress on clearly written and accessible law. Other codes (“Les cinq codes”) were commissioned by Napoleon to codify criminal and commerce law; a Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which enacted rules of due process. The Napoleonic code was adopted throughout much of Continental Europe, though only in the lands he conquered, and remained in force after Napoleon’s defeat. Napoleon said: “My true glory is not to have won forty battles … Waterloo will erase the memory of so many victories. … But … what will live forever, is my Civil Code”. The Code influences a quarter of the world’s jurisdictions such as that of in Continental Europe, the Americas and Africa.

Probably without the leadership of Horatio Nelson, the Napoleonic domination of Europe would have been complete!  Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, was one of the greatest “Captains” in history. At his death, at age 47, in 1805, he was 1st Viscount Nelson and the 1st Duke of Bronté KB. As one of the greatest British flag officers. in the history of the Royal Navy, he was noted for his inspirational leadership, superb grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics, which together resulted in a number of decisive naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was wounded several times in combat, losing the sight in one eye in Corsica and most of one arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife. He was shot and killed during his final victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. There is a wonderful book in my library, entitled “Trafalgar: The Nelson Touch,” by David Howarth. Of course his famous command, many times repeated was, his signal to the Fleet, “England expects every man to do his duty!” One can also view on Turner Classic Movies, the wonderful film, about Nelson, “That Hamilton Women” with the great Laurence Olivier and the beautiful and vivacious actress, Vivien Leigh. I was able to finally get a great porcelain bust of Nelson for my collection. It is pictured below!

“The Forgotten 500,” was a very interesting read, and quite reflective of many stories. It was a remarkable story of courage, the dangerous life of a an American bomber crew, flying B-24s, B-17s and some A-20s, flying from Bari, Italy to bomb the oil refineries located at Ploesti, Romania,  their ultimate ,rescue, and the internecine politics of WW II.

Certainly, the focus of the story started with the OSS and the inspired leadership of General William “Wild Bill Donovan,” of the OSS, an agency created by the enlightened and unparalleled leadership of the late president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Donovan, the legendary head of the OSS, during the 2^nd World War and a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at the Argonne Forest. He was awarded the Medal of Honor while serving as an officer with the 165^th Infantry, formerly known as the Fighting 69^th, which of course was part of the famous Rainbow Division. It was nicknamed the “Rainbow Division”, because it was the first division composed of men from all over the United States. This division was home to the famous fighting Tennessean, Sgt. Alvin C. York, who captured and knocked out 20+ German machine gun nests, single-handedly and captured over 130 of the enemy himself.

The mission of the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, was to replicate, in a way, the actions of Britain’s SOE, and in a real sense it was quite successful. Like the SOE (Special Operations Executive), it was designed to operate overseas and behind the lines in Axis-occupied territory. Some of its main recruits, not unlike their British opposites, were first generation Americans and foreign-born young men and women who could infiltrate into enemy territory, find the indigenous resistance elements, communicate in the language of the region, and bring communications equipment, arms and expertise when it came to sabotage. In the “Forgotten 500,” the contribution of these remarkable and heroic men is inestimable. Their bravery and commitment was second to none. The key operatives were basically Yugoslavian-Americans, who were either emigres or were the children of immigrants. They created the mechanism that would eventually rescue over 500 downed American pilots and crew who had been shot down on their return flights from Ploesti, the most heavily protected site in the history of air warfare.

The courage and sacrifice of the Serbian people, and their love for the Americans, was quite apparent throughout the book. In fact, the Serbia part of greater Yugoslavia, lost a higher percentage of their people than any other national group in WW II. The brutality they faced from the Ustashi. was almost unprecedented. The Ustaše (also called Ustashas or Ustashi) was a Croatian racist, terrorist, and Nazi-like movement. It was engaged in terrorist activities before World War II. Under the protection of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the Ustaše ruled a part of Yugoslavia, after Yugoslavia was occupied by Italy and Germany. At the end of World War II, the Ustaše were defeated and expelled by the Yugoslav Partisans. Their leaders were executed. It is said, they made the Nazis look like Boy Scouts.

Of course, some of the subplots involving Tony Orsini, Arthur Jibilian, George Vujnovich, brought the remarkable Operation Halyard to fruition were riviting. Nick Lalich, Clare Musgrove and George Musulin added to the the drama of the whole effort. The escape of George Vujnovich and his new bride Mirjana Lazic, from Yugoslavia to Bulgaria to Cairo to North Africa, was worthy of an historical novel on its own. The recollection of Mirjana being under the protection of Magda Goebbels when she flew eventually to Sofia, Bulgaria was priceless. Here she was with a price on her head, with the papers that hardly would protect her from the Gestapo, and she is inadvertently protected as the First Lady of the 3^rd Reich. What irony!   Their whole romance, marriage, and escape is what fairy tales are made of! At every twist, and turn of their harrowing exodus, one expected imminent disaster. But, the commitment of these diverse and remarkable men to take on the exquisite challenge of rescuing these air crews is almost unprecedented. The ability to land C-47 Skytrains (the civilian DC-3) in enemy territory, under the eyes and ears of the Germans and their Utashi allies was also beyond comprehension. Of course, without the help and protection of the Chetniks and their heroic leader, General Mihailovich’s cooperation, along with the hospitality and sacrifice the Serbia community of Pranjane, none of this could have been actuated. Mihailovich is the real, forgotten hero of the resistance effort against the German occupiers.

The last piece of the puzzle that makes up this incredible saga, was staged against the backdrop of the civil war between the pro-Western Chetniks, led by Mihailovich and the Communist forces, the Partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito. This struggle had been part of the strife that had been part of the Balkans since time Romans and the Turks. Yugoslavia had been an amalgam country, carved out of parts of the old Austro-Hungary Empire after WW II. It contained many peoples, who were ancient rivals, which included the majority Serbs, the Croats, the Bosnian-Herzegovinas, the Muslims, Macedonians, Slovenians and Montenegrins. Basically it was most probably a struggle between the Serbs who were East Orthodox Christians and Croatians, who were Catholics. Much of the crimes of the Croats, who were often part of the Ustashi were excused or rationalized by Pope Pius XII and the Roman Catholic Church, As, I had said earlier, their barbarity was almost unprecedented.

Thus, with this age-old, racial and religious conflict as a background, along with the labeling of Draza Mihailovich as a collaborator with the Germans and Italians by the British, the American Command was confused, misinformed and helplessly divided. The British wanted a post-war, hegemony in Southern Europe, especially regarding their control over Crete and Cyprus, along with their long-time relationship with Greece. The British High Command were greatly influenced by the Soviet mole, the intellectual and rabid communist, Paul Klugmann, who was part of the Cambridge Spy Ring, at Cambridge University (members of the Cambridge Apostles, a secret debating society, which included Philby, Burgess, Blunt, Maclean and Cairncross). It was Klugmann who greatly influenced British antipathy towards Mihailovich with falsified information. It would take decades to recognize his duplicity.

This influence which steered the British government towards Tito would condemn a nation of 15 million to be under the yoke of communist rule until the death of Tito in 1980, and the eventual dismemberment of Yugoslavia.

Thus, with this Soviet-Partisan activity, the Americans were unduly influenced and marginalized. These actions would eventually bring about the victory and post-war ascendency of Tito, the influence in Yugoslavia of the Soviets under Stalin and the brutalization of the Chetniks and the death of Mihailovich, a true friend of America and a foe of communism.

Eventually, despite the delaying tactics of the British, along with their support of Tito, and their efforts to practically thwart the rescue of this growing number of American air crews, the American minds were changed. This policy change brought on the direct action taken by American OSS operatives, to get the rescue mission started. George Musulin, who was incredibly frustrated by the British, finally got to George Vujnovich’s door and said that an All-American team was going back into Yugoslavia and would actuate the rescue, one way or another. Vujnovich, was happy to comply.

Of course, together with the penetration of the OSS agents into region, the Chetniks, under the command and protection of General Mihailovich, the indigenous Serbs of Pranjane and the American air crews, the effort to make a landing strip adequate enough to accommodate the C-47s commenced. In fact, they did it quite well. Eventually, the first wave of C-47s made a night landing. Initially, only 4 out of 6, C-47s were able to fly in, and out at night onto the small airstrip. But, within a short time, a vast armada of C-47s flew in during daytime, backed up by a combat air patrol of P-51 Mustangs and P-38 Lightnings (called the Forked Devils by the Germans). The fighters attacked German bases within 50 miles circumference of Pranjane, and there was no resistance at all regarding the multiple landings of the C-47s. These planes usually could hold 25 passengers, but because of the short takeoff length, afforded by the makeshift airstrip, they had to limit their human cargo to 12 or 15 passengers, to insure they would be able to climb above the bordering trees and surrounding mountains. In the end, with multiple sorties, over 347 men were to be rescued and eventually another 150 or so, were later picked up and rescued, without the loss of life. Once in the air, and with fighter escort, reflective of Allied air supremacy, the flights were uneventful.

Of course, the secrecy of this operation had to be maintained for several obvious reasons. The first was that there would be other downed pilots and crew who would need the same escape pipeline, and the second was to protect the heroic Serbs of Pranjane from retribution from the occupying Germans.

Of course, as we all know, the war ended, the fliers were all rescued, the Germans were driven out of Yugoslavia, and with the help of the Allies, Tito and his Red-Star hatted Communists were triumphant as the Chetniks were defeated and Mihailovich became a hunted man, with a price on his head.  The Allies soon recognized their colossal error, with regards to Tito, but the main burden for that failed policy fell into the laps of the British. Churchill was voted out of office in an historic landslide, and he later admitted it was his greatest mistake. Frankly, he made many mistakes.

The American were never part of the ongoing operations in the Balkans, except to help their shot down, air crews, who had bailed out over Balkan territory. Eventually after 18 months or so, on the run, Draza Mihailovich was captured. He had many opportunities to escape, but seemed to be resigned to his fate. Maybe he felt that as long as he remained at-large in Yugoslavia, there was resistance to the Communists. Eventually he was captured, indicted and tried for treason. When news of his show trial reached the West, the former OSS men, who had a great deal of experience with him and the American air crews, who were rescued, fed and protected by the Chetniks and General Mihailovich, protested, almost in vain, to the American government. But, that was a hopeless journey and Mihailovich was convicted and in July, of 1946, not long after his conviction he was executed by a firing squad.

Eventually, as the real story penetrated the Truman Administration, through Secretary of State Dean Acheson, a new reality about the Chetniks, his leadership, and help for the American crews emerged. He was awarded one of America’s highest decorations, the Legion of Merit. But, in the climate of Cold War power politics, the awarding of the medal was kept a deep, dark, secret. Despite the continual protestations of the former OSS men and the grateful surviving American crewmen, the American government’s effort to trying to keep Tito out of Stalin’s immediate orbit was in full force. Justice for the Chetniks was eventually forgotten, as time moved, and the men, who were closely involved, had other “fish to fry,” Eventually they had to get on with their lives. Eventually, the “secret” about Mihailovich was exposed to the general public about the rescue, his loyalty to the American cause, his fight against communism, and the mistake in policy that abandoned Yugoslavia to the communists and Stalin. Mihailovich and the Chetniks became unwitting pawns in post-war, high-level politics.