Decoration Day

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