This
year we celebrate one hundred fifty years of what was once called Decoration
Day and now called Memorial Day.
MOST
Americans know that Memorial Day is about honoring the nation’s war dead. It is
also a holiday devoted to department store sales, half-marathons, picnics,
baseball and auto racing. But where did it begin, who created it, and why?
At
the end of the Civil War, Americans faced a formidable challenge: how to
memorialize 625,000 dead soldiers, Northern and Southern. As Walt Whitman
mused, it was “the dead, the dead, the dead — our dead — or South or North,
ours all” that preoccupied the country. After all, if the same number of
Americans per capita had died in Vietnam as died in the Civil War, four million
names would be on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, instead of 58,000.
Officially,
in the North, Memorial Day emerged in 1868 when the Grand Army of the Republic,
the Union veterans’ organization, called on communities to conduct
grave-decorating ceremonies. On May 30, funereal events attracted thousands of
people at hundreds of cemeteries in countless towns, cities and mere
crossroads. By the 1870s, one could not live in an American town, North or
South, and be unaware of the spring ritual.
But
the practice of decorating graves — which gave rise to an alternative name,
Decoration Day — didn’t start with the 1868 events, nor was it an exclusively
Northern practice. In 1866 the Ladies’ Memorial Association of Columbus, Ga.,
chose April 26, the anniversary of Gen. Joseph Johnston’s final surrender to
Gen. William T. Sherman, to commemorate fallen Confederate soldiers. Later,
both May 10, the anniversary of Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s death, and June 3, the
birthday of Jefferson Davis, were designated Confederate Memorial Day in
different states.
Memorial
Days were initially occasions of sacred bereavement, and from the war’s end to
the early 20th century they helped forge national reconciliation around
soldierly sacrifice, regardless of cause. In North and South, orators and
participants frequently called Memorial Day an “American All Saints Day,” likening
it to the European Catholic tradition of whole towns marching to churchyards to
honor dead loved ones.
In
a grand ceremony on Nov. 11, 1920, an unknown French soldier from World War I
was buried beneath the Arc de Triomphe. That same day, the British entombed
their own unknown soldier with similar honors in Westminster Abbey.
Other
European nations followed, but the United States, having lost 116,516 men in 19
months of fighting—and with more than 2,000 unidentified Americans still buried
in France—had no plans for the same.
It
was not until the next month that Hamilton Fish, a New York congressman who had
served in combat on the Western Front, introduced a bill providing for the
repatriation of “a body of an unknown American killed on the battlefields of
France, and for burial of the remains with appropriate ceremonies.” Congress
passed Fish’s Public Resolution 67, and on his last day in office President
Woodrow Wilson signed it.
Sgt.
Edward Younger, who on the morning of Oct. 24, 1921, in the town hall of
Châlons-sur-Marne, France, was given the honor of selecting the Unknown Soldier
from four caskets of unidentified remains recently exhumed from American
cemeteries in France. “I had gone over the top many times, had known the agony
of waiting for the charge,” the twice-wounded combat veteran later recounted.
But he felt almost “paralyzed” as he selected the remains by placing white
roses on one flag-draped casket.
The
body chosen by Sgt. Younger was buried with full military honors in Arlington
National Cemetery on Armistice Day 1921. After the ceremony, Gen. James
Harbord, who had commanded thousands of American soldiers and Marines in
combat, remarked: “Whether an anonymous hero who died, we know not how, is more
fitting for commemoration than those whose names we have and whose gallant
deaths we can describe, may be a question.”
6,940 - Today is the
17th Memorial Day since 9/11. Since then, 6,940 U.S. military service members
have died for America.
Every
part of the country has lost soldiers to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Average
age: 26½.
Some
counties in the Mountain West also have very high death rates, but that's a
function of very small populations that skew the data.
Several
parishes in southern Louisiana have suffered a disproportionate number of
soldiers lost. Of the five places with the most military deaths per population,
three — Tangipahoa Parish, East Baton Rouge Parish, and Calcasieu Parish — are
in Louisiana. (The others are Mineral County, Colo, and Garfield County, Mont.)
Many
of the dead came from big cities, including 167 from Los Angeles County, the
most of any county.
Of
all U.S. counties, remote Mineral County, Colo., had the highest rate of
service members killed in proportion to population — one. The Rocky Mountain
county was home to Sgt. Clinton Wayne Ahlquist, who was killed in Ramadi, Iraq,
on Feb. 20, 2007, at age 23.
The
state with the highest rate of service members killed was Vermont — the state
lost 26 troops out of a population of about 624,000. The state with the lowest
rate was nearby Connecticut.
Most
of the fallen — 5,019 men and women — served in the Army. 1,484 were in the
Marines, 248 were in the Navy, and 189 were in the Air Force.
98%
of the fallen were men: 6,772, with 168 women.
You
all are not forgotten.
POTUS WEEK - Monday:
Trump will go to Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony and a
Memorial Day event. Tuesday: The president will eat lunch with VP Mike Pence
and HUD Secretary Ben Carson. He also plans to meet with HHS Secretary Alex
Azar and NIH Director Francis Collins. He then will travel to Nashville....
...
Wednesday: Trump will meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and he'll
participate in a White House Sports and Fitness Day event. Thursday: Trump will
go to Houston and Dallas. Friday: Trump will meet with Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo.
Day
494 of President Trump (966 days left in this term):
CHINA 101 - Two
decades ago, China's gross exports were on par with the Netherlands. Only North
Korea relied on the world's most populous country as its primary source of
imports.
Now,
China exports far more than any country on earth, and is the top supplier of
countries in every corner of the world.
Relative global power is a zero-sum game. Even though the U.S. is
growing alongside China, the younger power's newfound influence will impact the
U.S. role on the international stage.
China's
Artificial Intelligence (AI) plan is part of the Chinese government's blueprint
for becoming a superpower and achieving "the great rejuvenation of the
Chinese nation," while maintaining Communist Party control.
Kai-Fu
Lee, founder of Sinovation Ventures and a world-renowned AI researcher, and
Paul Triolo, head of Eurasia Group's Geo-technology practice, argue that China
and the U.S. are already in a global AI duopoly.
In
January, Amazon attracted intense attention when it opened Go, its cashless
convenience store in Seattle. But that still leaves the e-commerce giant far
behind its Chinese rivals, which are already staking out new ground in retail.
The future of retail in the world's leading economies is
increasingly expected to be not online shopping, but a melding of e-commerce
and physical stores. Chinese Big Tech appears to be in the vanguard of how to
pull this off.
Chinese
internet giants led by Alibaba are becoming online-offline behemoths, investing
in or acquiring some 30 physical retailers in the nation since the fall.
It
would be like Amazon buying a stake in every major offline retailer in the U.S.
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEK
– Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Greg Ball ….famous amateur golfer;
Reggie Jackson (72) Scottsdale, AZ.;
Ron Reagan (60) San Diego, CA.;
George Strait (66) Garland, TX; David
Yoshida …still my RA.
COLLEGE
CHRONICLES
– Congratulations to Rink Rat reader Dr. Gail Tang, Assistant Professor of
Mathematics, for being selected to the Fulbright Scholar Program. The program
will aid Dr. Tang in her studies in Burma next Spring 2019.
SMARTPHONE
THE NEW DESKTOP COMPUTER? - What’s the difference
between your phone and a computer? Seriously, look at your phone, and at your
laptop. What separates them? You’re probably thinking about power, memory and
all the Serious Stuff phones can’t do.
For
years, that was right. Phones were painfully slow next to desktops and laptops.
Now, though, the iPhone’s processor bests the MacBook’s in many benchmarking
tests.
Most
recent handsets can handle video editing and intense games, plus Word and
Excel. A few even have docks or software that adapts to the big screen to serve
up an experience virtually identical to a traditional PC.
The
phone has unique advantages, too: It’s likely the device you use most and carry
with you always. It can access your most important files and personal data. You
understand the interface. In many ways, your phone might be a better computer
than your computer. If you’re going to pay as much as $1,000 for it, it better
be.
Using
a phone as your primary computer isn’t always easy: Apple ’s iOS and Google’s
Android software weren’t designed with desktop multitasking in mind. The idea
works, though.
Over
the years, lots of companies have devised ways to bridge the gap between phone
and PC. In 2011, there was Motorola’s Lapdock, an otherwise-useless clamshell
powered by its Atrix 4G phone. Asus built an elaborate system where you’d dock
your phone into a tablet like an X-Wing entering a space frigate. Most
recently, Razer ’s Project Linda advances the idea that a phone could slot into
a laptop’s palmrest to double as a trackpad. Apple patented a similar idea in
2017.
For
now, it’s best to go a simpler route, with a Bluetooth keyboard and a display
connection. I’ve come to like Logitech ’s Keys-To-Go ($70 at Apple.com, bundled
with an iPhone stand). It’s light and durable enough to stay in my bag all the
time.
To
connect an iPhone to a display, you’ll need an HDMI cable, which works with
nearly any modern television or monitor, plus Apple’s $50 Lightning Digital AV
Adapter. Many Android phones will work with a single USB-to-HDMI cable. (You
can use an Apple TV or Chromecast to connect wirelessly to a big screen, but
it’s a bit more hassle.)
These
accessories have completely changed the way I think about my phone. Not
everyone believes in this one-computer-to-rule-them-all future. Every device
could be equally smart as processors and memory chips become less expensive and
more plentiful, bandwidth gets faster and less costly, and more data and
computing move into the cloud.
Microsoft,
Apple and Google all have services that let you carry activity from one device
to another. But to build a truly cross-platform computing system, they’d all
have to put down their swords and work together. I’m not holding my breath.
I
like the idea of having one device that contains my whole computing life. I
could focus my money on one great machine. That device would have all my
settings and data, kept in apps I know how to use. It would also feel safer to
me, not to be logged in on a bunch of machines. My phone is probably harder to
steal than my Google password. I’d just be in big trouble if I lost it.
MARKET WEEK –
Netflix has
become as valuable as Walt Disney and Comcast, the latest sign that investors
remain faithful to the handful of technology and internet firms that have long
powered the broader market.
The
streaming company on Friday closed with a market value of $151.8 billion, after
earlier in the session passing Disney for the first time a day after it
eclipsed Comcast. Disney is valued at $151.2 billion and Comcast $145.5
billion. The milestone for Netflix highlights investors’ interest in shares of
rapidly growing firms they think will disrupt industries, a trend also seen
with Amazon.com and the retail sector.
Worries
about the high concentration of gains—namely in the popular FAANG stocks of
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet—have continued,
with some analysts hoping for returns to be spread more evenly as the nine-year
old bull market matures. Some are encouraged by the recent surge in small-cap
stocks, but for the most part, the S&P 500’s leaders remain the same.
“It’s
just evidence of way too much popularity in concentrated bets being made by the
masses, which historically has always been an indication of risk,” said Jim
Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group.
Netflix
has a price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 97 based on projections for profits in
the next 12 months, according to FactSet, compared with 14 for Disney and 12
for Comcast. The S&P 500 trades at a multiple of 16.
Netflix
shares have added 7.8% this week after the firm signed former U.S. President
Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama to a multiyear deal to
produce content. The stock is now up 82% in 2018, making it by far the best
performer in the S&P 500. The next best performer, XL Group, has added 58%.
Meanwhile,
shares of Disney and Comcast have fallen this week with Comcast escalating its
threat to disrupt Disney’s megadeal to buy the bulk of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment
assets.
Despite
worries about higher regulation and lofty valuations, the market’s favorite
names have recovered from a recent period of turbulence. Even with Facebook
dealing with fake-news and privacy scandals, shares have added 16% in the past
month. Apple is up 15% and Amazon has climbed 9.8%.
CAREER
SERVICES - Most companies that pay six figures to the majority of their
workers aren’t finance jobs in big banks or money managers, but biotech firms
that rely on medical
researchers,
and energy and technology companies with a large number of engineers and
technical staff.
More
than 100 companies in the S&P 500 routinely awarded employees $100,000 or
more in 2017, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nearly half of those were in the energy industry, including oil and gas
drillers, refiners and electric utilities. Together, the energy companies
employ more than 600,000 people, according to an analysis by The Wall Street
Journal of federal filings and company-employment data from S&P Global
Market Intelligence Capital IQ.
Public
companies in the U.S. are offering a first-ever glimpse into how they
compensate rank-and-file employees, thanks to disclosure requirements under the
federal Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 that took effect this year. The disclosures show
total compensation for the median employee at each company; until this spring
companies were only required to detail the millions that top executives often
take home in bonuses and stock.
The
data reveal the types of firms where lucrative jobs are the norm rather than
the exception. Some of the highest reported median wages were paid by
pharmaceutical companies. Four firms in the S&P 500 paid workers in the
middle of their payrolls more than $200,000. Facebook Inc. was one of them; the
other three are developing drugs to fight everything from cancer to psoriasis.
At Incyte Corp. , Celgene Corp. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., the middle
earners last year made $253,000, $213,000 and $211,500, respectively.
One
financial firm ranked in the top 25 for highest median earnings: At boutique
asset manager Affiliated Managers Group Inc. last year, the typical pay package
was $157,384. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. came in 46th, with $135,165, the
midpoint among roughly 34,000 employees at the bank.
Several
big tech and oil companies disclosed larger median pay packages. Exxon Mobil
Corp. ranked 20th, with its typical worker earning $161,562. Salesforce.com
Inc. ranked 28th, with a median pay of $155,284.
Ten
of the 25 highest median salaries last year were found at companies based in
the Midwest or South, where $150,000 stretches farther than it would in many
cities on the coasts.
The
average overall compensation figure for the roughly 400 companies in the
S&P 500 that have reported median pay so far is $78,830. The median for all
U.S. workers was just under $38,000 last year, according to data from the
federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
ON THIS DATE
- Marks Sixty
Five years since the first public television station began broadcasting — KUHT,
right from the campus of the University of Houston.
WHAT’S ON
THE iPHONE? – five songs we are listening to this holiday weekend:
1).
“El Paso”, 1959 – Marty Robbins
2).
“Somebody’s Been Sleeping In My Bed”, 1970 – 100 Proof Aged In Soul
3).
“Just One Of Those Things”, 1969 – Frank Sinatra
4).
“Question”, 1970 – Moody Blues
5).
“Peer Gynt Suite #1 Opera 46”, 1867 – Edvard Grieg
SWAMI’S WEEK
TOP PICKS
–
MLB Game of
the Week – Saturday June 2; Boston Red Sox (36-17) vs. Houston Astros
(34-20), Major League Baseball’s top teams, Astros win 6 – 5.
STANLEY CUP
FINALS – Though
The Swami picked Nashville and Pittsburgh to be in the Stanley Cup Final, we
now select the Washington Capitals to win in five games over the Vegas Golden
Knights (too much like Clarkson).
NBA FINALS –
We are
sticking to our original picks of Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors
Final. With The Warriors winning in six games.
Season to Date
(15 - 9)
DRIVING THE
WEEK – With
the scandals of management at Michigan State, University of Southern California, and other higher education
institutions, this should be an interesting week as finally the attention is
being paid to inactive Boards of Trustees who during their watch have done
nothing to monitor or correct poor management.
Next Blog: I have a
problem and Summer Reading.
Until
next time, Adios
Claremont,
California
May
28, 2018
#VIII-28-370
CARTOON OF
THE WEEK – The New
Yorker
