I am listing to the radio more these days; I find it
soothing, less busy, and television programming stinks.
My Radio Day begins at 5:25 a.m. – NPR Morning Edition: yes
NPR can at times be a tad to the left in political commentary, I find the morning
news and stories informative.
6:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. – I listen to KUSC 91.5 with Dennis
Bartel, a wonderful and entertaining time of the day for radio. The classical
music is a nice escape from freeway traffic.
Noon – 3:00 p.m. – It is sports talk time with Christopher
Russo, Sirius satellite radio channel 82, the “Mad Dog” has by far the best
sports talk. Where most sports talk shows concentrate on the main sport of the
day: NBA, NFL, that’s about it. Mr. Russo talks about golf, tennis, hockey, good
books, as well as the main sports like MLB, NFL, and NBA.
3:00 – 6:00 p.m. – We end our radio day with KJAZZ 88.1, the
Steve Tyrell show at 5:00 p.m. is great cocktail hour listening. The jazz and
blues offer a nice end of the day atmosphere at the end of a hectic day.
A great radio channel to listen while traveling on long road
trips is Sirius Satellite channel 148, Classic Radio. Half hour segments of
great shows from the 1940’s and 50’s like Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope,
The Shadow, Sam Spade: big time old school and it is wonderful.
FORTY
FIFTH PRESIDENT THE FIRST 100 DAYS - Hits:
Winning confirmation of Justice Gorsuch: Trump did it fast,
with little drama and huge consequence. The win tipped the Court, invigorated
conservatives, and bought him credibility with the establishment. It's the
president's one achievement so far that will outlast him, regardless of what
else unfolds.
Pro-business executive orders and regulatory changes:
Nothing lifts a presidency (or increases the chance of reelection) more than a
rising economy. Trump's early pro-business rhetoric and assault on regulations
has boosted many industries. And the market "Trump bump" has given
business a new spring in its step.
Encouraging CEOs to think more systematically about American
jobs: Businesses talk openly about trying to "bait" a positive tweet
from Trump (or insulate themselves from assault) by announcing factory openings
or job expansions. These overtures aren't always all that they seem: Some were
already in the pipeline, or may never come to fruition. But he has forced huge
companies to reckon with the issue.
Operation Normal I: Installing experienced national-security
and economic teams, obviating the fears of some Republicans that a Trump
Cabinet would have a bit of a clown-car aura.
Operation Normal II: Post-Flynn, establishing a
national-security decision-making process that has produced well-executed
policies that have been regarded as sensible by mainstream Republicans. This
includes the Syria strike, the embrace of NATO and the China state visit.
Misses:
No significant new laws: He has full Republican control of
Washington — and little to show for it. In retrospect, some White House aides
think they screwed up by rushing into health care, and wish they had plunged
into tax reform or an infrastructure package.
Little personal growth in office: His loose style,
resistance to structure and amorphous views (and loyalties) leave White House
aides insecure, and create internal inefficiencies and blind spots. This chaos
contributed to the health-care debacle, provoking weeks of public butt-covering
and finger-pointing. To this day, many aides tell us the West Wing reality is
even worse than is publicly portrayed.
Failure to articulate a theory of the case, foreign or
domestic: International allies and Congressional Republicans are left uncertain
of what he believes, and opponents have an opening to define the vacuum on
their terms.
Inability to get over it: The president hasn't kicked any of
his bad campaign habits, all of which complicate governance — score-settling,
name-calling, reckless tweeting, petty grievances, and unnecessary shots at
allies and others he will one day need to succeed.
Resistance to reaching out to the 54% of 2016 voters who
voted for someone else: Trump's low approval ratings make it harder for
Democratic leaders on the Hill to make deals with him. Ditto his continued
incitement of the Democratic base.
POTUS
PLAN B? - President Trump brought his chaos-and-loyalty theory of
management into the White House, relying on competing factions, balanced by
trusted family members, with himself perched atop as the gut-instinct decider.
He now realizes this approach has flopped, and feels baffled and paralyzed by
how to fix it.
The chaos dimension has created far more chaos than
anticipated. Come nightfall, Trump is often on the phone with billionaire,
decades-long friends, commiserating and critiquing his own staff. His most
important advisers are often working the phone themselves, trashing colleagues
and either spreading or beating down rumors of turmoil and imminent changes.
This has created a toxic culture of intense suspicion and
insecurity. The drama is worse than what you read.
POTUS
WEEK
- MONDAY: The president will sign a
"Law Day" proclamation, drop by a meeting of the Independent
Community Bankers Association and have lunch with VP Mike Pence, Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He's also meeting
privately with Tillerson.
TUESDAY: The president will present the Commander in Chief Trophy
to the Air Force Academy.
WEDNESDAY: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be at
the White House.
THURSDAY: Trump will return to New York for the first time
in his presidency, and will give
"remarks commemorating the 75th
Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea.
SOMETHING
TO WATCH -- Will Trump Release the Missing JFK Files? Unless the
president intervenes, we'll soon know more secrets about the Kennedy
assassination. The nation's conspiracy-theorist-in-chief is facing a momentous
decision. Will President Donald Trump allow the public to see a trove of
thousands of long-secret government files about the event that, more than any
other in modern American history, has fueled conspiracy theories - the 1963
assassination of President John F. Kennedy? The answer must come within months.
And, according to a new timeline offered by the National Archives, it could
come within weeks. Under the deadline set by a 1992 law, Trump has six months
left to decide whether he will block the release of an estimated 3,600 files
related to the assassination that are still under seal at the Archives.
WHERE
EAGLES DARE - Air Force launches test missile off Central
California coast to show nuclear deterrent capability: An unarmed
intercontinental ballistic missile was launched just after midnight Wednesday
April 26 from Vandenberg Air Force Base as part of an operational test to show
the country's nuclear deterrent capability, according to the U.S. Air Force.
COLLEGE
CHRONICLES – Private Turned
Public
Purdue University, a flagship public institution in Indiana,
is jumping into online education by buying for-profit Kaplan University with
the aim of creating a new, public online university. The highly unusual
acquisition will extend Purdue’s reach to more working adults while building an
additional revenue stream at a time when state funding is uncertain. Purdue
President Mitch Daniels said the school wanted to stay true to its land-grant
mission of educating as many people as possible, but he recognized it couldn’t
build an online presence alone. The venture highlights the shifting
higher-education market as public funding declines, tuitions rise and college
students grow older, busier and more indebted. Purdue said it plans to acquire
Kaplan University’s 32,000 students, 3,000 employees and 15 bricks-and-mortar
campuses and learning centers from Graham Holdings, which will maintain
Kaplan’s international, professional and test-prep businesses.
TOP
ALUMNI NETWORKS - College Rank, a website dedicated to evaluating
and ranking college programs and experiences, has released its list of the Top
25 Best College Alumni Networks:
1). Colgate University
2). Stanford University
3). Gettysburg College
4). Texas A&M University
5). Virginia Polytechnic & State University
Notables: 12) St. Lawrence University
16). Claremont-McKenna College
Two words: “Hoot Owl”.
CAREER
SERVICES 101 – Advice for new college graduates: The first
would be to treat everybody with respect. The second thing is that it’s not a
race. You cannot be CEO overnight. It takes a long time and part of that
journey is fun. You have to enjoy the ride.
So don’t be aggressive. You can be assertive, but if you’re
overly aggressive, you’re going to ruin your opportunities. Sometimes you
have to let the organization pull you.
Some of the best jobs were given to me that I didn’t even
realize were coming. Some of the worst jobs I’ve had were when I pushed for
them, and I discovered that I wasn’t ready for the job.
FUTURE
VALUE - This chart explains why Tesla's stock price is entering
insane territory: With a total value of $48 billion, versus $51 billion for GM,
Tesla is still considered by Wall Street the number two US automaker — Ford is
at $45 billion.
The takeaway: When it comes to the whole
massive-market-cap-thing, however, we have been reminded that Tesla sells a
remarkably small number of vehicles, relative to the traditional US Big Three:
GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Get smart fast: Tesla bulls argue that Elon Musk's
enterprise will be legitimately bigger than GM's and Ford's in the future
because electric transportation will displace gas-powered mobility over the
next few decades and Tesla has the best brand and largest head start.
Why it matters: A market cap at Tesla's level signals an
immense level of investor confidence in Tesla's future execution.
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Chris Krich ...famous golf swing and leader; Daniel
Day-Lewis (60) Travis City, Michigan; Al
Pacino (77) Southampton, N.Y.; Jerry
Seinfeld (63) Manhattan, N.Y.
HISTORY
IN PICTURES - Ralph Lincoln: 11th Generation Lincoln (creepy).
A
SHULTZ HOUR - When George Shultz was secretary of state in
the 1980s, he liked to carve out one hour each week for quiet reflection. He
sat down in his office with a pad of paper and pen, closed the door and told
his secretary to interrupt him only if one of two people called: "My wife
or the president," Shultz recalled.
Shultz, who's now 96, says that his hour of solitude was the
only way he could find time to think about the strategic aspects of his job.
... And the only way to do great work, in any field, is to find time to
consider the larger questions.
THE
SUMMER WHITE HOUSE -- Goodbye, Mar-a-Lago, hello, Bedminster:
President Donald Trump's repeated weekend jaunts away from Washington have
caused nonstop headaches for his South Florida neighbors this winter. But once
his exclusive seaside retreat at Mar-a-Lago closes for the season, Trump is
expected to shift his weekend plans north, to his Trump National Golf Club in
Bedminster, New Jersey - and bring with him all the chaos that comes with being
a preferred presidential destination.
RINK
RATS AT THE MOVIES - A surprisingly fascinating documentary,
"Obit," which last week began a two-week run in New York, calls
artful death notices "a once-only chance to make the dead live again.
A review in the N.Y. Times, "Commemorating the Dead
With Humanity and Delicacy": "We keep nervous, vigilant watch over
our mortality and an expedient means for us to mark time is to keep up on who
among the prominent, or even casually known, has checked out for good."
"'Obit' shapes the tension and tedium of the writing
process itself into engaging narrative drama as it lets us watch the veteran
writer Bruce Weber assemble a 2014 obituary of William P. Wilson, a media
consultant who provided vital cosmetic and staging tips to the 1960 Democratic
presidential candidate John F. Kennedy before his first televised debate with
Richard M. Nixon."
BASEBALL
PAYROLLS - The Los Angeles Dodgers topped the major leagues for the
fourth straight Opening Day but dropped to $225 million, according to a study
by The Associated Press. That’s the Dodgers’ lowest payroll since 2013.
Detroit Tigers are second at $199.75 million and the New
York Yankees, in the midst of a turn toward youth, third at $195 million. The
Yankees had not been outside the top two since 1993, and their Opening-Day
payroll had not dropped this low since 2007, according to the AP’s calculations.
New York topped Opening-Day payrolls from 1999-2013 before falling behind the
Dodgers each year since 2014.
KEEPING
SCORE - World Golf Rankings as of
April 27, 2017...
This week / Last week
/ End 2016
/ End 2015
# 1 / 1/ 3 / 8
Dustin Johnson, USA
# 2 / 2 / 2 / 3
Rory McIlroy, N. Ireland
# 3 / 2 / 1 / 2
Jason Day, Australia
# 4 / 4 / 6 / 15
Hideki Matsuyama, Japan
# 5/ 5 / 5/ 1
Jordan Spieth, USA
THE
SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –
NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO:
ANA 4 EDM 2
STL 4 NSH 2
PIT 4 WSH 3
OTT 4 NYR 3
MLB Game of the Week (May 6) – Houston Astros (16-9) at Los
Angeles Angels (14-13), top two teams in the American League West, Angels win 5 – 4.
SCIAC Game of the Week (May 5) – SCIAC Softball tournament,
round 1: Chapman University Panthers (20-18) at University of La Verne Leopards
(27-11), regular season champs La Verne prevails 6 – 4.
Season
to Date (30 - 16)
MARKET
WEEK – On the first day of May today, the stock market is coming
off strong monthly gains. In fact, the Dow and S&P were higher for the
fifth month out six in April. The Nasdaq logged its sixth consecutive monthly
advance.
Investors are hoping the old Wall Street cliche "sell
in May and go away" won't apply this year. In fact, the Dow, S&P 500,
and Nasdaq have not fallen in May since 2012.
In advance of Friday's March jobs report, the new month
kicks off with March personal income and spending at 8:30 a.m. ET. The ISM's
April manufacturing index and the government's March construction spending are
out at 10 a.m. ET.
The Fed holds its two-day May policy meeting starting
tomorrow. The market does not expect an interest rate hike this month, but the
probability for a move at the June meeting is about 63 percent.
DRIVING
THE WEEK - Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speaks this
morning at Milken at 10:45 a.m. EST ... Trump drops by the ICBA meeting today
at 11:00 a.m. ... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visits the White House on
Wednesday ... Trump returns to New York for the first time in his presidency on
Thursday and will give "remarks commemorating the 75thAnniversary of the
Battle of the Coral Sea."
House Ways and Means Committee Republicans today continue
their two-day policy meeting in the Longworth House office building on Capitol
Hill on tax reform ... Senate Banking has a hearing Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. on
"Examining the U.S.-EU Covered Agreements" ... Senate Budget
Committee has a hearing at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday on the economy ... House
Financial Services expected to mark-up the CHOICE Act on Tuesday ...
FOMC announcement Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. not expected to
include any changes ... April jobs report Friday at 8:30 a.m. expected to show
a gain of 190K with unemployment at 4.6 percent and wages up 0.3 percent .
Next
Blog: Jack Ass of the Month, Words of the Month, Dear Rink Rats.
Until next time, Adios
Claremont, California
May 1, 2017
#VII-40-342
CARTOON
OF THE WEEK –Paul
Noth, The New Yorker
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