Is It Just Me or Is It Just Sunday?

Lake Harriet, West Shoreline, Late Spring 2011.

Everything is awfully quiet.  Even the around-the-clock news coverage of Hurricane Irene has lost a lot of its hype.  Yes, I know that’s a big storm and a big deal, but there’s only so much a person needs to know and storms have a way of passing quickly.  Unless that storm goes by the name Gadaffi, that sort of trouble can linger a bit.  Everything else, however, is rather calm and quiet newswise.  Even the idiots on the right are staying quiet today.

So I took myself for a nice long walk.  I will need to learn how to share my GPS tracks — with photos would be great — but until that happens you’ll just have to trust that my walk was a pleasant meandering wander.  (I also need to figure out how to fix Zemanta on WordPress!)

I walked along the west side of Lake Harriet, past the very active bandshell and Bread and Pickle, then back to the Roberts Bird Sanctuary.  Plenty to see.  Muskrats, deer, and many butterflies and birds.  Out the other side of the bird sanctuary I then roamed into the Lyndale Park Rose Garden, a much-underappreciated park, in my opinion.  With its large fountains and well-maintained grounds it feels like what I imagine a real urban park of years ago would have been.

Then I wandered back toward home where I found an interesting sign describing a project to study urban trees.  A lot to read there.  I’ll have to go back.  And I met and finally talked to a woman I see in the neighborhood quite often.  Her name is Marie and she’s an older woman from — I am guessing — South America.  Her English is difficult to follow, but I understand she is trying to get a Minnesota nursing license so she can get back to work.  It sounds like a tedious and costly endeavor.  I’m not sure why she let her license lapse, but that seems to be an issue complicating things.

A Man, A Dog, and A Banjo.

The beach on the north side of the lake wasn’t as busy as it is on the hotter midsummer days, but plenty of people were there enjoying one of the last days of summer.  An even larger crowd gathered down at the bandshell.  A band was set up for the afternoon.  I have no time for that, however.  I continued home.

And that’s about it.  Nothing really to report or write about today.  Not doing much more than sitting, reading, and watching old films.  Tomorrow starts another busy week.  A lot to do then so now enjoying today.

One last thing…don’t forget your summer dinners.  I’m doing old-style hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, and sliced tomatoes.  Wish I had potato salad.  (Do the worries really need to start again tomorrow?)

 

A Woman Collapses on the Sidewalk. What Do You Do?

You hear these stories, but I never thought I would see it in my own fair city.

Yesterday while driving southbound on Hennepin Avenue in Uptown, I saw a woman sprawled out on the sidewalk in front of the YWCA.  Two people stopped and looked at her, but kept walking; a young man on a bike at least swerved around her rather than ride over her.  But it didn’t look like anyone was stopping to help.

I found a place to park and ran back to her and by this time a pair of young women were coming from across the street.  Eventually a small crowd gathered, including some staff called from the Y.

But what the hell?!  What were the knobs who kept walking thinking?  Come on people…stop and see what is going on!  Not stopping is simply…wrong.  Idiots.

Now I might have self-preservation in mind as I have been known to fall over from time to time, but usually for reasons for which I have no one to blame other than myself.  (You know my fondness for Brunello.)  I remain hopeful that should I fall to the ground in a busy urban area like Uptown Minneapolis, someone might at least stop to see I am a still alive.  Wouldn’t you?

The woman who fell over, by the way, seemed to slowly come back from her black out.  She looked fine, but was a little incoherent.  She didn’t seem to have the flush sick look of heat stroke, she had her eyes open, and could follow motions, but wouldn’t get up and didn’t really seem to be with it.  My thought was stroke.  A reasonable assessment or no? 

Eventually she sat up and responded more coherently to questions.  That’s when someone with first aid and water showed up from the gym.

At this point, of course, a crowd begins to form and the poor woman has help and probably needs privacy more than attention.  Someone had called an ambulance and soon there would be even more activity.  I choose to leave.

So here’s my take away.  First…be the good Samaritan and stop when you see people in trouble.  Second, if you’re uncomfortable doing so because you’re not sure what you would do — doing anything helpful is better than leaving someone for the vultures — learn some first aid.  The American Red Cross offers courses and you can even learn some basics online.   Or look here.  And doesn’t everyone have a cell phone today?

Do something good for someone.  You might need help for yourself someday.

Why Sarah Palin Won’t Run

In today’s New York Times (August 24, 2011) and elsewhere there is talk once again that Sarah Palin might join the Republican race for the party’s presidential nomination.  Perhaps she see’s what the rest of us see, an ensemble of embarrassing partisan extremists and intellectual light weights.  This would seem to suit Palin well.

As much fun as it would be to see Palin add yet another layer of absurdity to the race, it isn’t likely to happen.

First of all, I believe Palin is smart enough about her best interests to steer clear of this year’s race.  She has more to lose than gain.  Her popularity is already waning.  More exposure, especially in the “lame-stream” press, will only highlight her ineptness and flaws.  More public scrutiny would only further tarnish the Palin brand.

Palin sucks up trends and profits from them more than she establishes a lead role.  Her rhetoric distills a mix of angry conservative soundbites and complaints without offering much in the way of ideas and solutions.  And this has proven to be very profitable financially for Palin.  It has made her a political celebrity.  She enjoys this.  Real politics?  Probably not so much…she quit her most important political job midstream, as everyone remembers.

Palin will avoid a serious political race simply because it is what it is:  A lot of risk and a lot of hard work.  This one-time short-term governor isn’t up to the task.  Sarah is a better whiner and complainer than campaigner.  She does not enjoy the fight.  She struggles with interviews, slips up with facts, stands glassy-eyed in debates…and does none of it with any hint of polish as her Tea Party twin, Bachmann, seems to do.  Sarah Palin wants things her way and on her schedule.  That’s it.  A race for the Republican nomination won’t cater to her comfort well.

Plus the GOP already has a whole lot of out-of-touch crazy in the race.  Backwardness is the GOP theme in recent years and with people sharing Palin’s credentials like Perry and Bachmann already enjoying a headstart…well, it just wouldn’t be that much fun for Sarah.  She might get the spotlight for a few days, but couldn’t count on much more after that.  That is not the Palin way.  She expects and demands to win popularity contests.  She prefers to choose where she will be most popular.

And don’t forget the money.  Palin’s got all she can expect with Fox News, speaking fees, and book deals.  It is hard to see her giving up that golden goose even for a short time.

The realities of a campaign for the GOP nomination won’t cater to Palin’s needs.  She’ll need to compete and — even more importantly — she’ll need to compete with competence and success.  Again, Palin isn’t up to the task.

Perhaps the most obvious reason Palin won’t go after the GOP nomination is a reason Palin understands well enough instinctively.  Very simply, she isn’t qualified to be the nominee, let alone occupy the White House.  People like Palin — e.g., Bachmann, Perry, et al — have personalities and propensities that should make anyone looking for serious leadership look elsewhere.  These are not leaders, these are self-serving opportunists.  When it comes to an intelligent grasp of serious ideas and debate, these people are flat and shallow.  Few people represent this shortcoming as well as Sarah Palin and she might be just smart enough to understand this.

Finally, if Palin were planning to run, we’d probably see more of her now.  I think we would certainly hear more about her now.  There’s no talk of a campaign staff being organized, for example.  Nothing is happening and worse for Sarah fewer people are talking about her; as her party searches for a strong and popular candidate, Chris Christie was the guy GOP leaders wanted, not Palin.

In short, a presidential race is way over Sarah Palin’s head and her abilities.  She would not stand up to the scrutiny that comes with a campaign.  Personally this would cut into her profitable personal enterprise of being Sarah Palin.  Moreover, her party doesn’t want her anyway.  Sarah won’t run.

Why not just nominate Romney and be done with it?  The debates are too predictable anyway.

Related articles

• 5 Reasons Sarah Palin Needs to Join 2012 GOP Race Now (usnews.com)
• Sarah Palin Shall Not Be Shackled [Video] (gawker.com)
• Time to bring in Sarah Palin (thehill.com)
• Sarah Palin, second-tier candidate (telegraph.co.uk)

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Not Me.

No doubt America is on the road to perdition.  Today’s east coast earthquake proves that.  But sometimes I feel I might be heading the same way and wonder what the fuss is all about.

When I am not out boozing and insulting women, I am wasting my time watching old movies.  It really isn’t an unpleasant way to avoid more noble pursuits.  Like this blog, for instance.  (More on that in a moment.)  Some people might even think staying in with a good movie is a smart way to spend the evening.

I have my doubts.

I don’t want to advertise for Netflix, however I have been devouring films and old television shows like never before in my life.  I haven’t had cable television for years in large part because I watch so little television, but now I am watching films and television whenever I get a chance.  It is film noir now.  Earlier this month it was old science fiction.  In July I enjoyed old French cinema.  Sprinkled with these little film festivals I have watched plenty of old television…Andy Griffith, Star Trek, Sponge Bob, Julia Child…each educational in its own way.

Unfortunately, I am not getting anything done.  Nothing.  I do have a new blog in the works, but saying that only sounds empty.  Whoopee.  A new blog.  Where is it?  In fact this post is only here so I can look at today and say that I at least posted something on A Little Tour in Yellow.  (This post is a space holder.  A writing exercise.  A mere formality.)

So let’s get back on it.  Like America, I need to find my way.  Let’s see who gets on track first.  Me…or the United States of America!

First, I need a passion…

 

 

Death and Salesmen

Don’t think that sales is an innocent and sterile practice conducted in friendly shops and clean offices in towns and cities.  Oh no…beware, future salesmen…it is indeed a jungle out there.

In fact I seem to be stumbling upon death with uncomfortable frequency recently.  On my little walks — I take walks frequently throughout the day as a way of finding balance in my being — I have been coming across piles of bones and things.  Perhaps after discovering one or two, I have been focused more on looking down at the path than up in the trees and so seeing more of what has always been there anyway.  I don’t know, but I do know that my walks have taken more time lately has I have had to stop and investigate a the remains of fur and bone.

Occasionally a frog or a bird, too.

I think I am seeing mostly raccoon or possum carcases.  The bones are the right size.  The fur dirty grey and brown.  It is hard to tell and I don’t really want to pick at them.  But I can’t help asking myself things like, why here?  Why now?  Why is this pile of dog-sized bones here just to the side of this trail?

Last week near the Carlos Avery Wildlife Area in Anoka County I found what must have been the broken skeleton of a very young deer at the base of a large red pine.  I went to that pine, incidentally, to see if I could detect any remains of a dead eagle I found in that same spot a year ago.  That tree is seeing at least a death a year at that pace.  Some bad luck for the tree.

I have been taking pictures of some of these, but decided that they all look alike and I stopped after finding a young rabbit two weeks ago.  The rabbit might have been a couple weeks old and was stretched out calmly on patch of washed-out asphalt near the river in Mendota.  A picture seemed disrespectful even though the rabbit was the most intact specimen I had found.  He looked clean and relaxed, but dead of course.  I wished him well wherever he might be now eating lettuce and hopping about.

And sometimes you don’t get a chance to take pictures anyway.  A couple days ago a yellow finch darted out a bit too confidently in front of my car and died with a soft tap my bumper.  I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointing that feels.  Such a silly accident, one that finches are prepared to understand.

I have even pulled people from lakes who didn’t make it…yes, true, I wasn’t on a sales call, but when you’re in sales you’re always on a call.  (Remember that.)

So now, to balance things a little, I am going for a walk.  I know a place where I can almost always count on seeing a deer or two.  Mostly I see a doe and her lightly-speckled fawn.  Seems late in the year for such a young fawn.  I worry about these deer anyway.  They don’t seem to have much common sense in a deer kind of way.  The fawn is just a little too trusting and curious.  I will feel quite sick if I find it dead along the trail one day.  But I guess that’s the way it goes.  No need to get philosophical about things as real as that.

David Axelrod Reaffirms It

David Axelrod

On ABC News This Week, David Axelrod, former advisor to President Obama, reiterated the myth that solving our nation’s deficit is the immediate economic problem.  He also tried to frame it in a bi-partisan way and called for a “balanced” solution.

Wrong and wrong.

It has been said over and over and over again.  The deficit is not the immediate problem.  We are in a demand-starved economy.  We need economic growth and until we move money in the economy that is not going to happen.  Cutting spending — reducing the deficit — will work against recovery, not help it.  A slower recovery means delayed growth.  This is obvious.  But Americans confuse politicians and pundits for economists.  Until this changes…we’re sunk.

We might be in trouble anyway.  The anti-government Republicans have defined the economic debate in this country.  When Axelrod calls for a “balanced” solution to a Republican priority he only reaffirms that this country does not have a practical solution to the bad ideas dominating Washington today.  This is ridiculous.

Somebody needs to be reframing this debate in a better terms.  We need an aggressive, game-changing message behind a job-growing, government spending plan, not some namby-pampy attempt at compromise that will never happen.

Democrats need to be smarter than they have been.  Republicans are not colleagues, are not interested in working with Democrats.  Stop trying to placate them.  Bowl over them.  At least get a message that offers a real alternative to their failed ideas.

Time to Think Buy?

You have to be awfully pessimistic about long-term economic prospects not to think there are some great values in the equity markets right now.  The markets are undervalued and appear to be set to discount even further.  So — surprise, surprise — it might be a good time to be rich…or even to have a little extra cash and time.  It could be a nice time to buy.

Why buy now?  Sure, the markets might drop further and give you some slightly better prices, but why deal with the stress.  Play it cool.  With almost Zen-like calmness a person could cherry pick a handful of investments with confidence and optimism.  No sweat.  There’s too much stress in the markets now already.

Consider these simple facts.

First, after the first global recession, many Fortune 500 companies did ok.  In fact some seemed to thrive.  They accumulated assets, like cash, and expanded in the global market.  They might not be peaking out, but they will be ready to do so when the global markets do come back online.

You might look at practical commodities like oil, which will fly through the roof when the market recovers.  (Glenn Beck is hawking gold…reason enough to be wary of that bubble.)  Even in the current economic malaise, places like China continue to demand more from economic standards where a middle class is emerging.  Industry is growing in these places, too.  The recession is simply a little speed bump in the quickening global demand for oil

(Kind of a corollary to the idea that oil might be a decent investment is the fact that green technology will make sense.  We won’t “Drill, baby, drill” our way out of this one.  Unless the United States can produce 100% of its oil needs, it is beholden to the global market.  Sadly much of the world sees this opportunity more so than the stubbornly reactionary American market, so you might end up investing in Europe or Korea, but green technology makes some sense — possibly — too.  It will be harder to know who the winners will be here in the long term.  But hey!  Have fun.)

Most importantly, there are some great P/E stocks out there.  You can do well both in the short term and the long term if you look here.  There’s a lot of cash in many corporations now, too.

A lot of the pessimism in the markets is psychological, fueled by people who really don’t have a lot of experience in markets like these.  Listening to so-called financial experts from brokerages and banks will not cheer you up.  They see nothing but darkness.  It might be time to invest like a woman!  Or like Warren Buffett.  The stories have been playing in the news recently and they have been fun to read.  I think there’s something to it.

Cash and time mixed with patience and reason will win the day and now might be a great time to set up and win.  I hope.  And going forward…STOP VOTING FOR REPUBLICANS!  Save the future…and your investments.

Opportunity Missed

We had an opportunity to set our economy on a stronger recovery course, but folksy ignorance and partisan petulance reigned instead.  So now it appears more and more likely that our bad situation is going to get even worse.  Double dip?  Seems that way.  The time wasted ignoring science, facts, and experts has run its dangerous course.  We need better leaders, smarter leaders, and a more engaged and better informed public loudly demanding solutions that will work, not half-baked opinions drawn on political lines.

Don’t look at Asia right now unless you have a strong stomach.

Warren Buffett’s Taxes

Last Sunday the New York Times published an essay from Warren Buffett in which he explained how unbalanced tax policy has become in United States pointing out that his tax rate is lower than that of people earning far less than he earns each year.

Forbes Magazine answered that essay with one of its own.  In essence the author, Tim Worstall, argues that Forbes argument is incomplete because he does not take into account corporate taxes in the United States. When you factor the corporate rate — which may or may not be paid at the often-cited 28% — and the individual rate, the government collects more of the corporate profits than the 17.4% that Buffet says he pays.  The real rate is closer to 50%, according to the article.

So is Buffett’s tax argument “strange” as Forbes as it is?  First of all, the arguement in Forbes assumes that dividends are paid by the corporation and are the source of income for Buffet and others in similar situations.  The fact is not all compensation of the very fortunate is dividend income, not all profits are paid in dividends, and so on.

Secondly, one does not need to garner high incomes in a corporate or dividend market to receive favorable tax rates.  Buffet is talking about his personal income tax obligation in his essay and what he says about his rate is true.  It is what it is.  His average tax rate is lower than the rate of people earning working wages.

But people eager to coddle the fortunate — as Buffett describes it — or people who simple fail to understand basic qualities of fairness like to muddy the waters.  That’s exactly what the Forbes article does.  This plays well for unreasonable and inexplicable politics of the right, but there’s no reason to be distracted by these efforts to confuse the issue.

Keep things simple.  If the overall tax structure needs to be reworked, it needs to be reworked; that’s a subject for another debate, however.  Right before us is a easily understood clear and simple example of unbalanced tax policy favoring the most advantaged at the expense of those least able to pay.  THAT is the issue that Buffett correctly raises when he talks about his tax situation.

Arguments from the right that argue against Buffett are absurd and misleading because it unnecessarily and incorrectly complicates the tax argument.  You couldn’t have a more clear example of this than the muddled reasoning that appears in the Forbes response to Buffett.  Keep things simple.

Obama, Reid, Pelosi…I Feel Your Pain

A post that is at least somewhat related to sales is far overdue here at A Little Tour in Yellow.  I have been a chronic whiner and complainer (with plenty to whine and complain about, no denying that), and it is time to turn things around just a touch.  I won’t — as the title of this post suggests – abandon politics altogether, however, but I will instead relate my day-to-day struggles in the field as a salesman with the much more important struggles in Washington politics.

Here’s what’s up:  I can empathize — at least as much as my experience will allow — with the emotions and frustrations our good leaders (i.e., Democrats) must experience when they struggle with unsophisticated, perhaps ignorant (or at least uninformed) people who hold a recklessly high opinion of themselves despite their backwardness (i.e., most Republicans).

John Boehner.

Trust me, I have seen the blank Dumbo stare that Pelosi or Obama must see when they try to get through to John Boehner.  There are people who simply do not have the personality, intelligence, or maybe the sophistication to understand rational thought; they fail to recognize their own best interests and conclude that anything they are responsible for doing is a good thing, regardless of how harmful it is.  These people act as if they have no connection with reality and harbor a secret death drive that causes them to act so inauthentically.    (I wonder what Spinoza–I think– would say about this morality, or Nietzsche.  Is deliberate abuse or irresponsible intellect entitled to a serious question of morality…or are these people simply bad?  Sorry.)

In my line of work I deal with people unable to think strategically about costs, investments, and profits, but they only sink their ventures.  Today we have been electing too many people cut from the very same mold — so-callled job creators like Michele Bachman — and when they sink, we all sink.

Guiding a business owner through concepts like return on investment is a favorite example of how people might not get it.  It sometimes gets to the point where I can say to a client:  So you don’t think making a return in profits that multiplies your investment is a good idea for your business?  And they’ll answer “No.”

It isn’t about the profits, they’ll say.  It is about the expense.  “Sure, I would love to make an extra $100,000 next quarter, but I have to cut my expenses.  I can’t keep paying you $10,000.”

Today’s Republican leaders seem to think the same way, but with spite.  They would rather cut and run leaving future “profits” in the form of economic gain suffer in the interest of what they think is a short-term gain.  I’m sure Obama and the rest sit across the table and spell it all out with all the easily understood facts a reasonably intelligent person would need to make a smart decision, but then…you get that dumpy Dumbo stare.  Is he going to cry, laugh, spit up?  Is he awake?

That’s where I think today’s GOP betrays the United States.  They understand the stakes and don’t care.  They will gladly let everything go to hell in a handbasket.  Frankly, it wouldn’t hurt them much politically if it did anyway.  They are skilled at blaming everyone else for the problems they cause.  And short term survival matters more than long term gains anyway.  Very irresponsible.

We see this in sales all the time.  You can have the best product or service and present it flawlessly, but the person you are trying to do business with isn’t there.  They don’t grasp a thing.  Or maybe there is a certain inexplicable stubbornness that can’t be sorted out.  Who knows?   A salesman can only do so much and a smart salesman cuts his losses and moves on.

In politics, however, especially with the almost intentionally destructive tenor of politics today, a strategy of cutting of losses isn’t all that smart in the winner take all game that’s being played now.

So like a good salesman with a valuable product to sell, our politicians can roll out there best stuff…but sometimes there’s no one at the other end to buy.  There’s only a blank dumb stare.  Our Democratic leaders have much more at stake than a commission.  They, at least, realize they have a responsibility to all of us.  If it is hard to walk away from a smart deal in sales, imagine what it must be like if you are tethered to an impossible task that you can’t walk away from, cannot afford to lose and yet cannot win.

Stubborn self-serving stupidity is ruining this country.