2018 Done

2018 is done, some ups and downs in the past year but we are still trying to get it right.

We lost some fine people this past year and they are in my thoughts this New Years eve. We welcomed some new friends this past year and I look forward to their friendship in the New Year.

I have always been an optimistic person, so every New Year I look forward to the challenges ahead: no reply all emails, every driver use their turn signals, better management of our environment, the strategy of compromise back into government, a decent power play for the Detroit Red Wings, students not egos first in higher education, a $400 million lottery winning ticket, and a year without one death caused by a gun.

Tall order but I believe it all can be done, well except for the $400 million lottery ticket.

Move forward.

TOP STORIES - A global heat wave. Extreme rainstorms. Severe droughts. Rapidly intensifying Gulf Coast storms. The deadliest wildfire in California history. And a presidential administration that’s trying to make the problem worse.

There were more obvious big news stories than climate change in 2018. But there weren’t any more important stories, in my view. That’s why it is my choice for the top story of the year. It’s the one most likely to affect the lives of future generations.

Nothing else measures up to the rising toll and enormous dangers of climate change. I worry that our children and grandchildren will one day ask us, bitterly, why we spent so much time distracted by lesser matters.

Public opinion is changing, and the weather seems to be a factor. The growing number of extreme events — wildfires, storms, floods ... — are hard to ignore.

There was also Brexit; family separations at the border; Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation; the continuing #MeToo fallout; the increasing assertiveness of China; the departure of Trump aides who constrained the president; and the tentative signs of an economic slowdown.

THE NINTH DAY - The ninth day of the federal government’s partial shutdown brought us no closer to an end to the impasse that has affected 800,000 federal workers and shuttered parts of nine cabinet-level departments.

President Trump has repeatedly called allies to reassure them that he will not back away from the promise of a border wall he’s made in rally after rally — though his outgoing chief of staff, John Kelly, said in an interview published Sunday that the administration had backed away from the idea of a solid concrete wall long ago.

Democrats were preparing to pass a bill to fund the parts of the government that are not part of the Department of Homeland Security. The House is expected to vote on the package of six bills on Thursday, after the new Congress convenes with Democrats in control and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California is sworn in as speaker.

SCIENCE - At 12:33 a.m. Eastern( January 1, 2019), NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will pass within about 2,200 miles of a mysterious icy world called Ultima Thule. It’s believed to be a pristine fragment from the earliest days of the solar system, and it will be the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft.

If you’re up, coverage of the flyby will be broadcast on the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab’s website and YouTube channel as well as NASA TV. On Twitter, updates will appear on @NewHorizons2015 and @NASANewHorizons.

Scientists believe that Ultima Thule has been frozen in time since the solar system first formed about 4.6 billion years ago.

The Kuiper Belt, where Ultima Thule is located, is a region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune that are thought to be leftovers from the solar system's early days.

There are thought to be hundreds of thousands of objects like Ultima Thule in the Kuiper Belt, and the spacecraft will attempt to gather data on others to learn more about them, and how Ultima Thule might differ from them.

POTUS - Trump averaged 15 false claims a day in 2018," per WashPost Fact Checker Glenn Kessler: "By the end of the year, Trump had accumulated more than 7,600 untruths during his presidency — averaging more than 15 erroneous claims a day during 2018, almost triple the rate from the year before."

COLLEGE CHRONICLES – Top read for 2018: “Higher Education Is Drowning in BS”

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Higher-Education-Is-Drowning/242195/#.XCrJ4MnXE30.email

MARKET WEEK - U.S. stocks rose on the final trading day of 2018, although punishing losses from recent months pushed major indexes to their steepest annual declines since 2008.

For the year, the Dow industrials fell 5.6% and the S&P 500 declined 6.2%. Global stocks also were mostly lower in 2018, with indexes in Europe, Shanghai and South Korea also closing out their worst year since 2008.

Stock markets elsewhere around the world fared even worse. The Stoxx Europe 600 shed 13% in 2018, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 declined 13% and Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 12%.

The volatility spared few asset classes. Oil prices hit multiyear highs in October, only to tumble in the fourth quarter as investors grew increasingly worried about a potential supply glut. U.S. crude for February delivery rose 0.2% to $45.41 a barrel Monday, although oil prices ended the year down 25% for their first yearly loss since 2015.

ON THIS DATE - On this day in 2008, in the depths of the financial crisis, the Dow ended the year down 34%, the largest annual percentage drop since 1931.

TECH TITANS - While many multibillion-dollar companies vied for attention of investors and customers alike, four stood out for their sheer size, reach, momentum—and stumbles. As the tech titans tiptoe toward monopoly, they’re drawing attention and criticism from those who believe Big Tech can no longer police itself.

Here is how their four tales unfurled in 2018:

Amazon: Amazon Picked HQ2 and Jilted 236 Cities, for months, cities vied for Amazon’s second headquarters while some executives were realizing that no single place would fulfill its requirements.

Facebook: The Big Loophole That Helped Russia Exploit Facebook, the tech company’s filters can’t adequately detect misinformation distributed through altered images.

Google: Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public, Google opted not to disclose to users its discovery of a bug that gave outside developers access to private data. It found no evidence of misuse.

Apple: Tim Cook Stumbles at His Specialty, Shipping Apple Products on Time, under the CEO, the technology giant has been late delivering new devices.

CHEECH & CHONG - The legal marijuana industry had a banner year in 2018, as the global market exploded and cannabis pushed its way into the financial and cultural mainstream.

Liberal California became the largest legal U.S. marketplace, conservative Utah and Oklahoma embraced medical marijuana, and the U.S. East Coast got its first commercial pot shops" in Massachusetts in November.

Canada ushered in broad legalization, and Mexico's Supreme Court set the stage for that country to follow.

U.S. drug regulators approved the first marijuana-based pharmaceutical to treat kids with a form of epilepsy, and billions of investment dollars poured into cannabis companies. Even main street brands like Coca-Cola said they are considering joining the party.

A majority of U.S. states have legalized marijuana to varying degrees, and U.S. companies are scrambling to get in on the action. Both the NYSE and Nasdaq saw their first purely cannabis companies list shares in 2018. But stocks in the companies that produce and sell marijuana have largely under performed the overall market this year.

An exception to the trend, New Hampshire’s libertarian streak has long been a source of pride for residents, but for cannabis users, that self-image isn’t living up to reality. With pot legalization sweeping through New England, New Hampshire is now an island of prohibition.

Unlike Rhode Island, whose governor recently said the tiny state could be driven by peer pressure into legalizing the drug soon, [the Granite State] wants to hold out against the rising political tide.

New Hampshire is surrounded by Vermont, Canada, Maine, and Massachusetts — all of which have legalized marijuana.

“Dave’s not here.”

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Anthony Hopkins (81); Bill Reid …St. Lawrence ’76; Denzel Washington (64); Tiger Woods (43)

TOP FIVE MOVIES OF 2018 –

“Pow Wow” (Robinson Devor)

This documentary, about residents of the Coachella Valley and its history, offers as much cinematic style as it does investigative content.

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)

A six-part Western anthology, centered upon a common theme: the Wild West’s relentless cruelty, wanton violence, deadly recklessness, and cavalier abuses of unchecked power.

“The Old Man & the Gun” (David Lowery)

Robert Redford delivers a glorious, sly performance in a movie that masks its idiosyncrasy in brisk and breezy storytelling.

“BlacKkKlansman” (Spike Lee)

This drama, based on the true story of two police officers in Colorado Springs who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, is among Lee’s most politically passionate films.

“Zama” (Lucrecia Martel)

The bureaucratic and intimate frustrations of a Spanish magistrate in a remote Argentine outpost in the eighteenth century inspire rarefied passions and a highly original style to match.

TOP PODCAST 2018 –

“Trump, Inc.”

Trump, Inc., from WNYC and ProPublica, goes a long way toward helping us understand this dizzying Presidency by asking basic, specific questions about Trump’s business dealings and resulting political conflicts; investigating them; and encouraging listeners and fellow-journalists to pitch in. It features several personable, savvy reporters: Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, of WNYC, and Jesse Eisinger and Heather Vogell, of ProPublica. The first season, which came out in the spring, began with the surreal first press conference of the transition, on January 11, 2017—the one with the table covered with big, fat manila folders, meant to demonstrate Trump’s “no-conflict situation”—and took us through his world of casinos, money-laundering-rules violations, taxi dispatchers, disbarred attorneys, diamond magnates, Mob associates, mystifying Inauguration spending, and beyond. The second season started this fall, and it provides invaluable perspective on such current matters as Trump’s involvement with Saudi Arabia, Rudy Giuliani, and confidentiality agreements. The series has the effect of transforming headache-inducing news into vivid, riveting narratives, and I’m grateful for that; this week is a good time to revisit Season 1’s Michael Cohen episode, which you won’t soon forget.

TOP TELEVISION FOR 2018 –

“Succession” (HBO)

A nasty and delicious dark comedy about a Murdoch-ish, Trump-like, Mercer-esque family of powermongers, but also the rare drama that improved throughout Season 1, then nailed the landing. Yes, I know you’re not in the mood for more terrible men, but what if the performances were great and the show were paced perfectly and exactly the right length? Then you would watch.

“BoJack Horseman” (Netflix)

Each season since the first has been impressive, but the fifth was one of the best commentaries that I’ve ever seen on the #MeToo movement (and I mean that as a compliment, not as a warning). Somehow both outrageously silly and bleak at once, it’s a show I binge as soon as it drops. Bonus points for the incredible funeral episode, if I gave points, which I don’t.

“Jane the Virgin” (The CW)

One of the loveliest, most consistently satisfying series on television. A telenovela pastiche that doubles as a celebration of feminine artistic genres in general, it’s beautiful and humane, witty, well performed—the works. It has Rogelio de la Vega. This season ended with a gasp-inducing twist, which I won’t spoil. I’ll just trust you to catch up on the whole thing so that you can watch the final season, which premières next Spring. Do this instead of watching “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which is very overrated.

BEST BOOK 2018 –

 “Immigrant, Montana,” by Amitava Kumar

This is a discovery of country through the discovery of that country’s women. But Kumar’s “nonfiction novel,” about an Indian student who comes to the United States to study literature, is tentative, funny, and self-critical.

OUT AND ABOUT – We are looking forward to St. Lawrence University men’s hockey visiting Las Vegas January 4 and 5 to play in the Las Vegas Invitational:

UConn vs. Western Michigan – 5 p.m.

Air Force vs. St. Lawrence – 8:30 p.m.

Rink Rats will be on the scene.

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

NFL Football Pick of the Week – Saturday 1/5 8:15 PM ET, FOX: Seattle Seahawks (10-6) vs. Dallas Cowboys (10-6). Jason Garrets last game as coach of the Cowboys, Seattle wins in Big D 35 – 17.   (Season to date 10-6)

NHL Game of the Week – Tuesday 1/1: 1:00 PM ET NBC: Boston Bruins (21-14-4) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (15-20-6), the annual New Year’s Day Classic at Notre Dame Stadium, Bruins win 5 - 3. (Season to date 6-2)

College Hockey Game of the Week – Friday 1/4 4:30 PM ET: Three Rivers Classic, Pittsburgh, PA. #! St. Cloud State Huskies (13-1-2) vs. #14 Union College Dutchmen (8-4-3). A fine holiday tournament match-up, east vs. west. Huskies win 6 – 5.

Season to Date (59 – 35)

Next Blog: January 7, 2019 - 2019 go ahead.

Until next time, Adios

Claremont, California

December 31, 2018

#IX-16-384

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – William Hamilton

RINK RATS POLL –

2019 I am….

____ Optimistic

____ Pessimistic

____ Scared

____ Anxious

____ Bring it on

QUOTE OF THE MONTH – “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” -  Benjamin Franklin