These are the best of times for the richest 1% and the worst of times for the lower 40%. Across the mid-section of America we go about our daily chores and at the end of the week, (TGIF), we pick up a a six-pack of beer or Pepsi and some deli food at the local Safeway or Albertsons.
Sure, we are vaguely aware of the mega-rich,The Koch Brothers, Donald Trump and Warren Buffet, but they are for the most part remote to our trip to the grocery store. However as of 2015, you probably have heard that Safeway and Albertsons are now, Albertsons-Safeway funded by Cerebus Capital Management.
As noted above, Cerebus is the three headed dog that guards the gates of Hades, (underworld). It keeps the dead from escaping and the undead from entering. This mythological creature will probably not be pictured on your favorite brand of dog food.
On the other hand, Cerebus Capital Management is a capital management firm worth some $25 billion that buys distressed assets and property and makes money for its investors. If you have ever wondered what happened to former Vice President Dan Quayle and Treasury Secretary, John Snow, they take turns walking a three-headed dog--Cerebus.
Does it matter? If your local Safeway or Albertsons gets sold and your neighbors lose their job, it may make a difference. On the flip side, if you as a consumer get lower prices at the check out stand--maybe not. The end game in this intriguing story of big fish eat little fish in the 21st Century is that the pond world-wide has become an exclusive hot tub. This is a game of multi-billionaires versus mega-billionaires.
In short, Safeway-Albertsons is suiting up to compete against Cosco and Walmart for buying power and survival at the checkout stand. The three-headed dog, Cerebus creeps me out, but a brand is a brand, is a brand.
A juvenile chimpanzee in Gombe Stream National Park in July 2014. (Photo: Michael Christopher Brown/Magnum Photos)
Deforestation around the world has wreaked havoc to humans, wildlife and contributed to climate change. Across rural Africa, trees are harvested to use for cooking and sold in bundles. The result of open burning and harvesting trees by villagers is pollution and profound damage to the ecosystem.
It's one thing to point out the environmental impact from afar, but real change comes from within a culture. The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) recognizing the economic realities of the impoverished people of Africa offers scholarships, medical care and sustenance to villagers in exchange for adopting conservation strategies at the village level.
In 2006, JGI embarked on a 30-year regional conservation plan utilizing satellite imagery which produces maps and photos to villages enabling them to see the devastation and its impact. Thus, enabling them to create their own land-use plan. The key is that stakeholders or those affected by the land-use plan at the local level are the decision makers and policy makers for enforcement. The village is in charge of its destiny.
According to Paul Tullis,Take Part feature editor, Google has developed an online tool that will allow anyone with a handheld device to monitor forests and receive alerts if deforestation is taking place.
TakePart.com is an informative resource for people interested in the environment. The website has an action center for readers to express their views to policy makers.
By now, most everyone has heard about Jeb Bush's 1995 revival of societal shaming for unwed parents and their off springs. His clarification reported by Politico says he has evolved and now shifts the blame shame to fathers. He doesn't retract the statement. In all fairness his clarification may be more harmful to him politically because babies don't vote.
Unfortunately for all, most politicians don't understand or don't want to hear what the Congressional Budget Office and other number crunchers have been telling them since the 1990s. Pre-natal care, well baby and routine vaccinations and care for mother and child is a drop in the bucket compared to chronic disease and genetic disorders on each end of the age spectrum.
We have a looming, torrential storm of aging Boomers whose health care needs will surpass all previous records for utilization. To date, no one has put forth a plan that contains costs. The Affordable Health Care Act and its exchanges, if left in tact by the Supreme Court and Congress will see significant rate increases to keep up with the costs of care. The chronically ill cannot be denied coverage for preexisting conditions and the sky is the limit for coverage.
I recommend USA Today's article, written by Meghan Hoyer on the harsh and heartbreaking realities of the sick caring for the sicker. This is the real takeaway for the blame game being tossed around since the 1990s and it's hitting home now.
Afterthought:
In all fairness to all the politicians running for local, state and federal offices, the above subject is a political hot potato. According to USA Today, "More than 4 million (seniors)— about 15% — have at least six long-term ailments.
Those sickest seniors account for more than 41% of the $324 billion
spent on traditional Medicare."
Editorial
One government fund (Medicaid) or another will and does pick up the tab after the chronically ill senior exhaustshis/her personal resources. At the rate of $100 thousand per year to care for Alzheimer, Parkinson, end-stage renal failure, some cancer and the complications of diabetes and heart disease, most personal funds are depleted very quickly. Medicare does not cover extended long term care in a nursing home. In a nutshell, 15 to 27% of the population will always account for the lion's share of health care spending. This is an immutable factor that no private sector insurance can deal with. So, unless policy makers want to revisit the "Death Panel" shock headlines by trying to parse out medical care--the government will have to deal with it.
Melissa McCarthy is back in a big way in SPY If you liked her in Bridesmaid--you will love her in Spy. The common thread between both films is writer/director Paul Feig. He crafts comedy films like a symphony composer. This genre of film is the toughest to write as McCarthy learned in last year's Tammy. You can assemble brilliant stars, offer an interesting storyline, get some laughs, but 120 minutes is a long time to keep the attention of movie goers. Bridesmaids did it and so does SPY.
Melissa McCarthy plays an unglamorous CIA mission control agent hidden in a dilapidated basement whose job it is to remotely act as the eyes and ears for the Bond-like character played by Jude Law. The tables turn and McCarthy and her gal pal played by Miranda Hart show the funny side of beauty is only skin deep and smart girls finish first.
As I watched the film, I kept thinking who is that femme fatale playing Rayna Boyanov, keeper of the somewhat portable nuke. Alas, I came home and checked IMBD list of characters and other fun facts and it's Ellen Parsons from "Damages" played by Rose Byrne.
SPY is filled with actors and actresses you will recognize and best of all they have dialogue and a story to match their talent. Spy will keep you laughing from beginning to end. My only criticism for Paul Feig is his overuse of the F-word. A professor once told me; use the f-word sparingly for the utmost impact. The gratuitous overuse of fuck this, fucking that, fuck you, becomes a distraction of an otherwise brilliant script. I'd say cut about 30%.
I am not going to give away any spoilers because you deserve a fun and relaxing couple of hours away from it all. Check out the trailer below. You will love it.
Cern's Large Hadron Collider had a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious June 3, 2015. The physics geek world is in a twitter after the successful re-launch of the experiments made famous in the documentary Particle Fever.
The Cern live blog feed in Switzerland began a little after midnight in my time zone. A few hiccups along the way and presto the Hadron Collider was back in business at record speed and a solid beam. On my end the transmission feed leveled out and was solid around 7:30 this morning. What a nice day. This is a huge day with more to come in the theoretical and experimental world of Physics and for all of us.
Sometimes, you wonder who decides what is "news". Call me crazy, but this is the biggest news story of the millennium. Blatter comes--Blatter goes. Jenner goes--Caitlyn comes and a new reality show is on its way. Last night when I picked up my allergy Rx at Walmart I ran into a guy with this T-Shirt on.
The #WearOrange movement was started by the friends and family of Hadiya Pendleton, an honor student who would have celebrated her 18th birthday on June 2, 2015, but for the senseless discharge of a firearm that cut her brilliant future short. Today, Everytown for Gun Safety is organized as a non-profit and has grown to 2.5 million people in all walks of life.
#Wear Orange Motto: NOT ONE MORE
To state the obvious, the right to own a gun in the United States, the most heavily armed population in the world is a political powder keg laced with ambiguity. The NRA slogan, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." as Dr. Johnson points out contains obvious over simplification and fallacious reasoning or as Bart Simpson might say, "Doh".
The reality is that both the solution and the problem is political in all levels of government. Competing interests such as the right of privacy, right to bear arms, free speech, inadequate mental health funds; tools and screening, privileged communications, federal enforcement and local law enforcement collide in treacherous whitewater rapids for lack of a pilot at the helm. In many states and locales there is no discussion because it is deemed political suicide. If you would like to know more about legal solutions to prevent gun violence check out Smart Gun Laws.
A Duty to Protect--Who
Many moons ago, a therapist was deemed to have a duty to warn potential victims of viable threats by their patients in a California case Tarasoff vs The Regents of The University of California. I became aware of this case while studying at the University of California, Irvine and performing field work involving high risk teens under the supervision of licensed professionals. Over the years, some states have adopted a Tarasoff Duty to Warn or Protect, but at the same time courts across the nation have qualified the duty to protect third parties citing patient confidentiality and foreseeability issues.
Some courts have gone so far as to relieve treating professionals of any duty to the public regardless of the threat by their patients. In part because the science is inexact in determining what is insanity at any given point and what to do about it. Additionally, therapists who are the only professionals with the expertise to determine if a person in their care is insane are not required to predict whether a patient's rants and raves may result in a Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, Aurora Colorado Movie Massacre or the Safeway Massacre in Tuscon, Arizona involving Representative Gabby Gifford.
The Duty to Decide--Sorting Out Ambiguities
As recent as today, The United States Supreme Court in Elonis vs The United States of America, June 1, 2015 decided that Facebook posts and violations of protective orders in the form of Rap lyrics by Mr. Elonis did not violate a federal criminal law 18 U.S.C. section 875 (c) which prohibits the transmission in interstate commerce "any communication containing any threat to injure the person of another. In Mr. Elonis's own words:
Federal
“Hi, I’m Tone Elonis.
Did you know that it’s illegal for me to say I want to
kill my wife? . . .
It’s one of the only sentences that I’m not allowed to
say. . . .
Now it was okay for me to say it right then because I
was just telling you that it’s illegal for me to say I
want to kill my wife. . . .
Um, but what’s interesting is that it’s very illegal to
say I really, really think someone out there should kill
my wife. . . .
But not illegal to say with a mortar launcher...
The statements over time escalated involving schools within a ten mile radius, FBI agents, police, and park employees.
"That’s it, I’ve had about enough
I’m checking out and making a name for myself
Enough elementary schools in a ten mile radius
to initiate the most heinous school shooting ever imagined
And hell hath no fury like a crazy man in a Kindergarten class
The only question is . . . which one?”
The court found that the jury instruction in the lower court specifying the objective fear of persons receiving the threats was not the issue. Instead, in order to be convicted of the crime the government must prove Mr. Elonis intended to convey a "threat" by his words and statements. It sure seems like a lot of work to end up blowing it on a jury instruction.
“We are a nation of laws and not of men.”
I will be #wearingorange on June 2nd because to do nothing is to say current gun violence is OK and it isn't okay.
