The Constitution

GREAT READ - By Jill Lepore

“It is written in an elegant, clerical hand, on four sheets of parchment, each two feet wide and a bit more than two feet high, about the size of an eighteenth-century newspaper but finer, and made not from the pulp of plants but from the hide of an animal. Some of the ideas it contains reach across ages and oceans, to antiquity; more were, at the time, newfangled. “We the People,” the first three words of the preamble, are giant and Gothic: they slant left, and, because most of the rest of the words slant right, the writing zigzags. It took four months to debate and to draft, including two weeks to polish the prose, neat work done by a committee of style. By Monday, September 17, 1787, it was ready. That afternoon, the Constitution of the United States of America was read out loud in a chamber on the first floor of Pennsylvania’s State House, where the delegates to the Federal Convention had assembled to subscribe their names to a new system of government, “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Then Benjamin Franklin rose from his chair, wishing to be heard. At eighty-one, he was too tired to make another speech, but he had written down what he wanted to say, and James Wilson, decades Franklin’s junior, read his remarks, which were addressed to George Washington, presiding. “Mr. President,” he began, “I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them.” Franklin liked to swaddle argument with affability, as if an argument were a colicky baby; the more forceful his argument, the more tightly he swaddled it. What he offered was a well-bundled statement about changeability. I find that there are errors here, he explained, but, who knows, someday I might change my mind; I often do. “For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better Information, or fuller Consideration, to change Opinions even on important Subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.” That people so often believe themselves to be right is no proof that they are; the only difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of England is that the former is infallible while the latter is never wrong. He hoped “that every member of the Convention who may still have Objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own Infallibility, and to make manifest our Unanimity, put his name to this Instrument.” Although the document had its faults, he doubted that any other assembly would, at just that moment, have been able to draft a better one. “Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best.”

Three delegates refused to sign, but at the bottom of the fourth page appear the signatures of the rest. What was written on parchment was then made public, printed in newspapers and broadsheets, often with “We the People” set off in extra-large type. Meanwhile, the secretary of the convention carried the original to New York to present it to Congress, which met, at the time, at City Hall. Without either endorsing or opposing it, Congress agreed to forward the Constitution to the states, for ratification. The original Constitution was simply filed away and, later, shuffled from one place to another. When City Hall underwent renovations, the Constitution was transferred to the Department of State. The following year, it moved with Congress to Philadelphia and, in 1800, to Washington, where it was stored at the Treasury Department until it was shifted to the War Office. In 1814, three clerks stuffed it into a linen sack and carried it to a gristmill in Virginia, which was fortunate, because the British burned Washington down. In the eighteen-twenties, when someone asked James Madison where it was, he had no idea.

In 1875, the Constitution found a home in a tin box in the bottom of a closet in a new building that housed the Departments of State, War, and Navy. In 1894, it was sealed between glass plates and locked in a safe in the basement. In 1921, Herbert Putnam, a librarian, drove it across town in his Model T. In 1924, it was put on display in the Library of Congress, for the first time ever. Before then, no one had thought of that. It spent the Second World War at Fort Knox. In 1952, it was driven in an armored tank under military guard to the National Archives, where it remains, in a shrine in the rotunda, alongside the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

Ours is one of the oldest written constitutions in the world and the first, anywhere, to be submitted to the people for their approval. As Madison explained, the Constitution is “of no more consequence than the paper on which it is written, unless it be stamped with the approbation of those to whom it is addressed . . . the people themselves.” Lately, some say, it’s been thrown in the trash. “Stop Shredding Our Constitution!” Tea Party signs read. “Found in a dumpster behind the Capitol,” read another, on which was pasted the kind of faux-parchment Constitution you can buy in the souvenir shop at any history-for-profit heritage site. I bought mine at Bunker Hill years back. It is printed on a single sheet of foolscap, and the writing is so small that it’s illegible; then again, the knickknack Constitution isn’t meant to be read. The National Archives sells a poster-size scroll, twenty-two inches by twenty-nine inches, that is a readable facsimile of the first page, for twelve dollars and ninety-five cents. This item is currently out of stock.

Parchment is beautiful. As an object, the Constitution has more in common with the Dead Sea Scrolls than with what we now think of as writing: pixels floating on a screen, words suspended in a digital cloud, bubbles of text. R we the ppl? Our words are vaporous. Not so the Constitution. “I have this crazy idea that the Constitution actually means something,” one bumper sticker reads. Ye olde parchment serves as shorthand for everything old, real, durable, American, and true—a talisman held up against the uncertainties and abstractions of a meaningless, changeable, paperless age.

You can keep a constitution in your pocket, as Thomas Paine once pointed out. Pocket constitutions have been around since the seventeen-nineties. The Cato Institute prints a handsome Constitution, the size and appearance of a passport, available for four dollars and ninety-five cents. The National Center for Constitutional Studies, founded by W. Cleon Skousen, a rogue Mormon, John Bircher, and all-purpose conspiracy theorist, prints a stapled paper version, the dimensions of a datebook, thirty cents if you order a gross. I got mine, free, at a Tea Party meeting in Boston. Andrew Johnson, our first impeached President, was said to have waved around his pocket constitution so often that he resembled a newsboy hawking the daily paper. Crying constitution is a minor American art form. “This is my copy of the Constitution,” John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, said at a Tea Party rally in Ohio last year, holding up a pocket-size pamphlet. “And I’m going to stand here with the Founding Fathers, who wrote in the preamble, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ ” Not to nitpick, but this is not the preamble to the Constitution. It is the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence.

At some forty-four hundred words, not counting amendments, our Constitution is one of the shortest in the world, but few Americans have read it. A national survey taken this summer reported that seventy-two per cent of about a thousand people polled had never once read all forty-four hundred words. This proves no obstacle to cherishing it; eighty-six per cent of respondents said that the Constitution has “an impact on their daily lives.” The point of such surveys is that if more of us read the Constitution all of us would be better off, because we would demand that our elected officials abide by it, and we’d be able to tell when they weren’t doing so and punish them accordingly.

Pop quiz, from a test administered by the Hearst Corporation.

True or False: The following phrases are found in the U.S. Constitution:

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

“The consent of the governed.”

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“All men are created equal.”

“Of the people, by the people, for the people.”

This is what’s known as a trick question. None of these phrases are in the Constitution. Eight in ten Americans believed, like Boehner, that “all men are created equal” was in the Constitution. Even more thought that “of the people, by the people, for the people” was in the Constitution. (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, 1863.) Nearly five in ten thought “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” was written in Philadelphia in 1787. (Karl Marx, 1875.)

About a quarter of American voters are what political scientists call, impoliticly, “know nothings,” meaning that they possess almost no general knowledge of the workings of their government, at least according to studies conducted by the American National Election Survey since 1948, during which time the know-nothing rate has barely budged.

The Constitution is ink on parchment. It is forty-four hundred words. And it is, too, the accreted set of meanings that have been made of those words, the amendments, the failed amendments, the struggles, the debates—the course of events—over more than two centuries. It is not easy, but it is everyone’s. It is the rule of law, the opinions of the Court, the stripes on William Grimes’s back, a shrine in the National Archives, a sign carried on the Washington Mall, and the noise all of us make when we disagree. If the Constitution is a fiddle, it is also all the music that has ever been played on it. Some of that music is beautiful; much of it is humdrum; some of it sounds like hell.”

Jill Lepore is a professor of history at Harvard. “The Secret History of Wonder Woman” is her latest book.

HAPPY 241 BIRTHDAY - Last night, these fireworks exploded as the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra played its annual patriotic celebration at Conner Prairie Amphitheater in Fishers, Ind.

2018 WATCH: Republicans have again found their boogeyman: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Congressional Leadership Fund, which is aligned with Speaker Paul Ryan, is out with new polling from 11 Congressional districts showing Pelosi's popularity is underwater. The lesson: Expect Republicans to employ the same tactic they have been using since 2010: make Pelosi a key issue in ads in states like California, Florida, Montana and Nebraska.

Days until the 2017 election: 127.

Days until the 2018 election: 491.

JULY 1 - Gov. Jerry Brown stripped California's tax collector of most of its power last week, in what The Los Angeles Times called "the most dramatic shake-up of the California Board of Equalization in its 138-year history." It doesn't get any easier from here, either. State officials are trying to get a replacement agency up and running by July 1 - also known as Saturday. The California Justice Department has been investigating staff and members of the elected Board of Equalization, for matters like putting $350 million in sales tax revenue into the wrong accounts. "The governor signed a bill that pares the state board from an agency with 4,800 workers to one of 400 employees, shifting the other staff engaged in the collection of sales and excise taxes to a new California Department of Tax and Fee Administration."

The Tax Foundation lays out the seven states implementing tax changes on July 1, which is the traditional start of their fiscal years. Among the highlights: Indiana's corporate tax ticks down to 6 percent, Colorado hikes its tax on recreational marijuana to 15 percent, Tennessee decreases its sales tax on groceries by a penny a dollar and five states watch gas tax increases go into effect.

POTUS - Days to hit a 60% disapproval rating:

Carter: Never

Reagan: Never

H.W. Bush: Never

Clinton: Never

W. Bush: 1,756

Obama: Never

Trump: 144

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Dan Aykroyd (65) Oakville, Ontario, Canada; Lisa Looney ….famous Blackboard scholar; Olivia Munn (37) Malibu, CA.; Ross Perot (87) Houston, TX.

B OF A PAY DAY - Because of an astute investment made in Bank of America six years ago while the bank was struggling, Warren Buffett is about to make a quick $12 billion and become the financial institution's largest shareholder.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway will exercise warrants in Bank of America allowing it to acquire 700 million common shares at an exercise price of $7.14 each, or about $5 billion.

At Monday's closing price, that stake is worth more than $17 billion.

Berkshire will also become the bank's largest shareholder.

SECOND QUARTER MARKET - The Nasdaq was up nearly 4 percent second-quarter gain. The Dow was up 3 percent and the S&P was up 2.4 percent for the quarter. On the eve of the start of the third quarter, all three measures were sharply higher in the first six months of 2017.

MEXICAN PESO ON THE RISE - The Mexican peso rose to its highest level in more than a year against the dollar Monday, leading this year's rally in emerging-markets currencies that had fallen around the time of U.S. presidential election.

The peso rose 0.7 percent against the dollar on Monday, with little in the way of news to drive the move. It was the latest leg of the peso's 16 percent rally against the greenback in 2017. One dollar bought 17.87 pesos.

SUMMER TREAT - Strawberry "Cool Brûlée

This deceptively good, summer-easy dessert has a topping of yogurt and whipped cream with raw sugar that looks like creme brulee, but requires no cooking.

Ingredients

2 cups sliced strawberries

8 teaspoons demarara or turbinado sugar (raw sugar), divided

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt

Directions

Divide strawberries among four 8-ounce dessert dishes. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon demarara sugar over strawberries in each dish.

With electric mixer, whip cream to soft peaks. Fold in yogurt and spread evenly over strawberries.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the remaining demerara sugar over each. Cover and chill for 2 to 6 hours.

Makes: 4 servings - Hands On 20 mins - Total Time 2 hrs

AMERICA’S CUP - America's Cup Back to the Kiwis: With a mixture of ingenuity and national pride, Emirates Team New Zealand got back up after a gut punch for the ages and came to the Bermuda Triangle and ripped the America's Cup right out of tech tycoon Larry Ellison's hands.

Ellison, the Silicon Valley maverick worth an estimated $62 billion, watched the humbling defeat from a chase boat and later shook hands with his crew. He was joined by New Zealander Russell Coutts, the CEO of Oracle Team USA who suffered his first defeat in six Americas Cup finals. It was Coutts who first won the America’s Cup for the small sailing-mad island nation, skippering Team New Zealand to a five-race sweep of Dennis Conner off San Diego in 1995.

POWER FIVE – We are at the half way point of the major league baseball season, here are our top five clubs through 81 games:

1). Los Angeles Dodgers (55-29) Rink Rats preseason pick

2). Houston Astros (56-27) Rink Rats preseason pick

3). Washington Nationals (48-34)

4). Arizona Diamondbacks (52-13)

5). Boston Red Sox (47-35) Rink Rats preseason pick

SEASON IS OVER FIVE – We are at the half way point of the major league baseball season, here are our bottom five clubs through 81 games:

5). Detroit Tigers (36-45) Rink Rats preseason pick, to win it all!  L

4). Oakland Athletics (35-47)

3). San Francisco Giants (33-51) Rink Rats preseason pick

2). San Diego Padres (34-48)

1). Philadelphia Phillies (27-53)

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

MLB Game of the Week (July 8) – Milwaukee Brewers (45 – 40) at the New York Yankees (44 – 37). As we head into All Star week the Brew Crew is in first place in the National League Central, but, Yanks are tough at home, they win this one 5 – 2.

Season to Date (44 - 21)

ON THIS DATE – McDonald’s menu July 1971

MARKET WEEK - The stock market has been on a tear this year and more gains may be ahead, according to what some say is the oldest market indicator on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial and transportation averages hit all-time highs on Monday, confirming each other's upside trends and triggering a "buy" signal in the market, according to the "Dow theory."

The theory was created by Charles Dow in the early 20th century (after whom the two indexes above are named after) and it examines the relationship between the transports and industrial averages. Simply put, it states that major trends must be confirmed by both the transports and industrials indexes. Confirmation of a trend higher sends a "buy" signal in the market; one of a trend lower sends a "sell" signal in the market.

The fundamental basis for the theory is that transports stocks are considered the backbone of the economy and so if they are doing well, then the whole economy must be doing well, the thinking goes.

DRIVING THE WEEK – After celebrating July Fourth, President Trump leaves Wednesday for the second foreign trip of his administration. He heads first to Warsaw, Poland, then to Germany for the G-20 meetings with the world's most powerful leaders. 

Progressive activists are preparing to carpet bomb Republican senators in their home states with health care protests this week. The Left sees the July 4 recess as an urgent opportunity to kill the GOP repeal-and-replace effort, which is floundering in the Senate.

Tonight at 7 on HBO, from director Alexandra Pelosi, HBO Documentary Films presents ... "The Words That Built America" — passages of the Constitution read on-camera by ...

... every living president (Trump, both Bushes, Carter, Bill Clinton, Obama), 50 senators (including McConnell and Schumer), three Supreme Court justices (Roberts, Kennedy, Breyer), six vice presidents (Pence, Biden, Cheney, Gore, Mondale, Quayle) and 11 House members (including Speaker Ryan, John Lewis and Leader Pelosi, the director's Mom). Plus Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger and more.

On top of that, Hollywood and media stars of both parties read the Declaration of Independence (Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hannity, Caitlyn Jenner, The Rock, Megyn Kelly, Rosie O'Donnell, Kid Rock, etc.), and grade-school students read the Bill of Rights. David McCullough narrates.

Next Blog: Relax harder.

See you on July 10, Adios.

Claremont, California

July 4, 2017

#VIII-7-349

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – Chris Christie: From Here to Eternity

"C's"

Character and Communication: define an institution’s culture. This has been a central theme to many institutions undergoing changes in their management structure these recent weeks. Organizations like Ford, Uber, Harvard University, Yahoo, and many more, are struggling to find that combination of character and communication to succeed in the marketplace, as well as internally.

FINANCE 101 – Five Cs of Credit:

The five C's of credit is a system used by lenders to gauge the creditworthiness of potential borrowers. The system weighs five characteristics of the borrower and conditions of the loan, attempting to estimate the chance of default. The five C's of credit are character, capacity, capital, collateral and conditions.

This method of evaluating a borrower incorporates both qualitative and quantitative measures. Lenders look at a borrower's credit reports, credit score, income statements and other documents relevant to the borrower's financial situation, and they also consider information about the loan itself.

Character

Sometimes called credit history, the first C refers to a borrower's reputation or track record for repaying debts. This information appears on the borrower's credit reports. Generated by the three major credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax – credit reports contain detailed information about how much an applicant has borrowed in the past and whether he has repaid his loans on time. These reports also contain information on collection accounts, judgments, liens and bankruptcies, and they retain most information for seven years. The Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) uses this information to create a credit score, a tool lenders use to get a quick snapshot of creditworthiness before looking at credit reports.

Capacity

Capacity measures a borrower's ability to repay a loan by comparing income against recurring debts and assessing the borrower's debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. In addition to examining income, lenders look at the length of time an applicant has been at his job and job stability.

Capital

Lenders also consider any capital the borrower puts toward a potential investment. A large contribution by the borrower decreases the chance of default. For example, borrowers who have a down payment for a home typically find it easier to get a mortgage. Even special mortgages designed to make homeownership accessible to more people, such as loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and the Veterans Administration (VA), require borrowers to put between 2 and 3.5% down on their homes. Down payments indicate the borrower's level of seriousness, which can make lenders more comfortable in extending credit.

Collateral

Collateral can help a borrower secure loans. It gives the lender the assurance that if the borrower defaults on the loan, the lender can repossess the collateral. For example, car loans are secured by cars, and mortgages are secured by homes.

Conditions

The conditions of the loan, such as its interest rate and amount of principal, influence the lender's desire to finance the borrower. Conditions refer to how a borrower intends to use the money. For example, if a borrower applies for a car loan or a home improvement loan, a lender may be more likely to approve those loans because of their specific purpose, rather than a signature loan that could be used for anything.

COLLEGE CHRONICLES - PORTRAIT OF A COLLEGE PRESIDENT: Despite efforts to diversify the field, the average college president is still a white male in his 60s, who spends most of his time fundraising, according to the latest annual snapshot of college leadership by the American Council on Education. Just 30 percent of college and university presidents were women in 2016, which was up four percentage points from 2011, when 26 percent of presidents were women. The percentage of minorities holding the top job was 17 percent in 2016, up four points from 13 percent in 2011, and from 7 percent in 1986. The average president was 62 years old - a decade older than when the ACE first published the presidential snapshot 30 years ago. Most presidents said fundraising and budget management were among their most time-consuming tasks. Nearly half of them also expect to see declines in federal and state funding over the next five years.

PAUL DRAKE - In keeping with its tradition of big-name and big-bucks investigations, the University of California will pay up to $210,000 for an independent look into allegations that President Janet Napolitano's office interfered with a recent state audit into its spending habits. UC will pay the law firm of Hueston Hennigan a 'blended' rate of $595 an hour for partners who work on the investigation and $395 an hour for associates. The tab will be capped at $165,000, unless the UC regents give the OK to spend more.

HISTORY 101 - Did you know Canada has its own Paul Revere-type figure from the War of 1812, who worked against the U.S.? Laura Secord, who was actually born in Massachusetts before moving to Canada and marrying a Loyalist, walked about 20 miles from territory controlled by the U.S. to warn the British of a looming attack on this week 204 years ago.

HAPPY 150th BIRTHDAY CANADA – We have many reader’s in Canada and we wish you all Happy Birthday this Canada Day July 1.

Canada celebrates its 150th year on July 1st with celebrations from coast to coast. Canada is an incredible, culturally diverse, and beautiful country. Canada is known for many things:  see below, also, an apparent need to apologize for things… and a very handsome and popular Prime Minister (Justin Trudeau).

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area.

Following several constitutional conferences, the 1867 Constitution Act officially proclaimed Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, initially with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where the Métis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had been united in 1866) joined the confederation in 1871, while Prince Edward Island joined in 1873.

Canada is known for: maple syrup, famous Canadian inventions include the games of ice hockey, sonar, canola oil, the snowmobile, snowblowers, poutine, walkie-talkies, the foghorn, the electron microscope, the pacemaker, the alkaline battery, garbage bags, the paint roller, plexiglass, peanut butter, the pager, the Java programming language, and the Blackberry. 

Also,  Canadian favourites include: Tim Horton’s “Double-Double”, Don Cherry, Molson and Labatt Breweries, Cat Morrison, a Loonie, Crown Royal, Canadian Bacon, Beaver Tails, Jacques Martin, Nova Scotia Lobster, Peter Blair,  Red Rose Tea, Bugsy Moran, and finally one of the best things about Canada is - Multiculturalism: The greatest single thing about living in Canada is the incredible mix of peoples and cultures they have and, specifically, the way people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds mingle freely, peacefully and happily throughout the country. At the core of all this is the continual arrival of new immigrants from all parts of the world and the cultural diversity and fine cuisine, among other things, that they bring with them. This is particularly apparent in places like Toronto and Vancouver, but you can also see it these days in smaller towns and cities as well.

The key word in the above paragraph is "peacefully". Anyone who knows anything about the horrific sectarian violence that is all too common in parts of Europe (particularly the Balkans) and especially India and Africa knows just how much we should cherish such peaceful coexistence.

So Happy 150^th Birthday to all our friends in Canada this week!

ADIOS – The demise this week of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who resigned/forced out, underscores that real jerks can eventually be found out in an institution.

Over the years, there was "a sense of shiftiness about Kalanick, a can't-quiet-put-your-finger-on-it untrustworthiness that would irk some who deal with him.

Ilya Hykinson, a Kalanick colleague at an earlier start-up, recalls: "He'd write a large dollar figure on the whiteboard, circling it and outlining it for effect, just in case somebody came by and saw it ... That's kind of a weird, sleazy move."

"Kalanick ... seemed incapable, in public or in private, of holding back ... His widely quoted whoppers sometimes had an intellectually defensible ring to them. Yet they suggested a shocking lack of empathy or, at the very least, an inability to know when to keep quiet."

MANAGEMENT 101 or THEY DON’T GET IT - The values you project, whether they're intentional or not, will quickly pollinate through your organization. Know what they are, and make sure they're what you want.

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Paula Abdul (55) Malibu, CA.; John Goodman (65) Chicago, IL.; Nicole Kidman (50) Nashville, TN.; Kris Kristofferson (81) Aspen, CO.; Carly Simon (72) Nantucket, MA,; Meryl Streep (68) Darien, CT.

HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY iPHONE - The decade’s statistics are pretty impressive: more than 1 billion phones sold, over 2 million apps written, more than 130 billion app downloads, $70 billion paid to app writers.

But the cultural effects are even more dramatic. With the iPhone (and Google’s imitator, Android), we became, for the first time, a society of people who were online continuously—wherever we went. Our communications blossomed from text messages to video calls, Snapchat, FaceTime, and Skype. Billion-dollar businesses like Uber, Snapchat, and Instagram sprang into existence. Distracted driving, distracted walking, distracted eating, distracted dating, and even distracted sex became things.

Steve Jobs had unveiled the iPhone onstage in January 2007, but the phone he displayed wasn’t anywhere near finished. His presentation followed a carefully scripted series of steps that had been programmed to work just for the demo. It took six more months for Apple to finish the phone—and to bring it to market on June 29.

IPHONE - Today, the iPhone is made at a number of different factories around China, but for years, as it became the bestselling product in the world, it was largely assembled at Foxconn's 1.4 square-mile flagship plant, just outside Shenzhen. The sprawling factory was once home to an estimated 450,000 workers," Brian Merchant writes in a  book excerpt published in The Guardian ."If you know of Foxconn, there's a good chance it's because you've heard of the suicides. In 2010, Longhua assembly-line workers began killing themselves. Worker after worker threw themselves off the towering dorm buildings, sometimes in broad daylight, in tragic displays of desperation - and in protest at the work conditions inside."

NEW iPAD PRO - It's definitely the best iPad and is excellent for all the things the iPad is already good at. That means browsing the Web, checking emails and gaming, but also plenty of "productivity" tasks, like drawing, sketching, and photo editing.

Software: The most important thing about the new iPad Pro is it's actually only partially being released this week. You can buy it, for sure, but the software designed to fundamentally transform the iPad into more of a serious work machine is iOS 11, which doesn't come out until the fall.

With the new iPad Pro, Apple is hoping to change the narrative around the iPad as much as the economics. Its big economic move was really the introduction of a cheaper base-model iPad earlier this year. The iPad Pro in general, and this model in particular, is Apple's effort to show that tablets are good for more than just watching movies, playing games and doing light e-mail and Web browsing. It is Apple's best iPad, not its best-selling one.

The new iPad Pro adds a bunch of nice improvements to the iPad, including faster scrolling, improved brightness and a faster processor. But the biggest improvement is fitting a larger 10.5-inch screen into the same size case. (There's also a 12.9-inch version, which I didn't review, but in a brief hands-on it felt big for anything I'd want to do on a tablet.)

As for helping take the new iPad into new echelons of productivity, that will largely have to wait for iOS 11, which is due out this fall. The free software update has some great new multitasking and drag-and-drop editing features that could make the iPad Pro a much more credible alternative to a laptop for some.

Who it's good for: Anyone in the market for a new iPad who is willing to pay top dollar for a top-notch tablet. It makes far better use of its size, filling more of its frame with screen.

Who it's not: The new iPad probably won't fully replace a laptop (at least not until iOS 11 arrives) and may be more tablet than a lot of people need if their main goal is to watch some videos and browse the Web.

The practicalities: The 10.5-inch model starts at $649 and a 12.9-inch version starts at $799. Cellular capability costs an extra $130 with 256GB and 512GB versions also available. All models are available now for pre-order and start shipping this week.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT - ... the first Watergate story by Woodward and Bernstein — on June 19, 1972. Richard Milhous Nixon announced his resignation 780 days later.

The burglars had been surprised at DNC HQ in the early morning hours of June 17, 1972.

The Post's first Watergate story, on June 18 ("5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats' Office Here"), was by The Post's legendary police reporter, Al Lewis, who had 15,000 bylines in 50 years.

The story was above the fold, but not the lead. That was: "Both Sides Claim Victory in N. Vietnam Offensive."

NCAA IN THE NHL DRAFT - Here's a look at the 60 players/recruits taken in the NHL Draft, sorted by NCAA team and round of each pick. No St. Lawrence University team members selected this year.

SPOTTED – At Roberta’s Village Grille in La Verne, California one morning last week, Joe Zanetta and incoming Univ. of La Verne freshman Johnny Clarizio: La Salle High School graduate, Clarizio, is planning his first year at La Verne.

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

MLB Game of the Week (July 1) – Cleveland Indians (39-35) at Detroit Tigers (33-42). A big holiday weekend four game series at Comerica, if the Bengals do not take three of four in this series, their season is history. Tigers win 6 – 5.

CFL (Canadian Football League) – begins their 59^th season this weekend (June 22 – November 4). We like to Edmonton Eskimos to win the western conference and the Ottawa Redblacks to win the eastern conference. We pick Edmonton to win their 20^th Grey Cup in November.

Season to Date (44 - 20)

ON THIS DATE – June 25, 1953 Al Kaline “Mr. Tiger” played his first major league game. 

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Al Kaline played his entire 22-year baseball career with the Detroit Tigers (1953 – 1974).  For most of his career, Kaline played in the outfield, mainly as a right fielder where he won ten Gold Gloves and was known for his strong throwing arm. He was selected to 18 All-Star Games and was selected as an All-Star each year between 1955 and 1967. A Career batting average of .297, 3,007 hits and 399 home runs. After hitting .294 in 1971, Kaline became the first Tiger to sign a $100,000 ($591,372 in today's dollars) contract.

Near the end of his career, Kaline also played as first baseman and, in his last season, was the Tigers' designated hitter. He retired not long after reaching the 3,000 hit milestone. Immediately after retiring from playing, he became the Tigers' TV color commentator, a position he held until 2002. Kaline still works for the Tigers as a front office official.

RINK RATS NEWS QUIZ – the answer to last week’s Rink Rats Quiz:

            Thanks in part to the rising popularity of cocktails, world-wide sales of hard alcohol

            rose 0.04% last year. Which of these, in contrast lost ground?

A.     Wine

B.     Beer

C.      Both

D.     Neither

MARKET WEEK - The Long Unwind - The Federal Reserve said last Wednesday it would raise short-term interest rates and spelled out in greater detail its plans to start slowly shrinking its $4.5 trillion portfolio of bonds and other assets this year. The moves mark the latest test of the economy’s ability to grow on its own, as the central bank dials back unprecedented stimulus measures. The quarter-percentage-point increase brings the Fed’s benchmark federal-funds rate to a range of 1% to 1.25%. The central bank has penciled in one more increase this year if the economy performs in line with its forecast. The rate decision and balance-sheet strategy signal confidence in the economic expansion, which has been unspectacular but is also the third-longest on record.

"Transformers: The Last Knight" scored a franchise-low domestic debut with an estimated $43.5 million this weekend. But the fifth installment in the series booked $123.4 million at the box office in China.

DRIVING THE WEEK – Welcome to ObamaCare Repeal Week - The policy itself is generally not in the MM wheelhouse (though it includes a large tax cut). But the resolution certainly matters for tax reform as well as the general trajectory of President Trump's first term and the backdrop for the 2018 midterm elections. It's quite possible that if the Senate passes their Obamacare repeal bill this week and the House approves it and Trump signs it, Republicans will be in significant trouble in 2018.

If anything close to the predictions for lost/no longer affordable or useful healthcare coverage come true, the party responsible for the policy will get punished. Of course Republicans will face blowback from their base if they fail on Obamacare repeal after promising for nearly a decade to get it done. And Trump will be furious. But the damage from success could turn out to be significantly worse.

On the banking front, CCAR results come out Wednesday giving banks over $50 billion an assets the signal on capital distribution plans President Trump on Monday meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House.

Senate Banking has a hearing Thursday at 10:00 a.m. on housing market finance reform House Financial Services subcommittee has a hearing at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday on equity market structure Senate Appropriations subcommittee has a hearing Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. on the SEC and CFTC budgets. House Financial Services subcommittee on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. has a hearing on "The Federal Reserve's Impact on Main Street, Retirees, and Savings" Case-Shiller home prices at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday expected to show a gain of 0.6%. Consumer Confidence at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday expected to dip to 115.0 from 117.9.

Next Blog: Summer holiday weekend.

See you on July 3, Adios.

Claremont, California

June 26, 2017

#VIII-6-348

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – Kim Warp, The New Yorker

Summer Reading

It is time to set up the night stand and the pool/beach tote with our summer reading selections.

"Creative Confidence," by Tom and David Kelley - Too often, companies and individuals assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of the "creative types." Especially if you have more than nine letters after your name.  But two of the leading experts in innovation, design, and creativity on the planet show us that each and every one of us is creative.  In an incredibly entertaining and inspiring narrative that draws on countless stories from their work at IDEO, the Stanford d.school, and with many of the world's top companies, David and Tom Kelley identify the principles and strategies that will allow us to tap into our creative potential in our work lives, and in our personal lives, and allow us to innovate in terms of how we approach and solve problems.

“American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House," by Jon Meacham. - Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson’s election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad. To tell the saga of Jackson’s presidency, acclaimed author Jon Meacham goes inside the Jackson White House. Drawing on newly discovered family letters and papers, he details the human drama–the family, the women, and the inner circle of advisers– that shaped Jackson’s private world through years of storm and victory.

“The Reporter Who Knew Too Much,” by Mark Shaw - Was What’s My Line TV Star, media icon, and crack investigative reporter and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen murdered for writing a tell-all book about the JFK assassination? If so, is the main suspect in her death still at large?

These questions and more are answered in former CNN, ESPN, and USA Today legal analyst Mark Shaw’s 25th book, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much. Through discovery of never-before-seen videotaped eyewitness interviews with those closest to Kilgallen and secret government documents, Shaw unfolds a “whodunit” murder mystery featuring suspects including Frank Sinatra, J. Edgar Hoover, Mafia Don Carlos Marcello and a "Mystery Man" who may have silenced Kilgallen. All while by presenting through Kilgallen's eyes the most compelling evidence about the JFK assassinations since the House Select Committee on Assassination’s investigation in the 1970s.

“Casey Stengel: Baseball's Greatest Character,” by Marty Appel - As a player, Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel's contemporaries included Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and Christy Mathewson . . . and he was the only person in history to wear the uniforms of all four New York teams: the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Mets. As a legendary manager, he formed indelible, complicated relationships with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Billy Martin. For more than five glorious decades, Stengel was the undisputed, quirky, hilarious, and beloved face of baseball--and along the way he revolutionized the role of manager while winning a spectacular ten pennants and seven World Series Championships. 

But for a man who spent so much of his life in the limelight--an astounding fifty-five years in professional baseball--Stengel remains an enigma. Acclaimed New York Yankees' historian and bestselling author Marty Appel digs into Casey Stengel's quirks and foibles, unearthing a tremendous trove of baseball stories, perspective, and history. Weaving in never-before-published family documents, Appel creates an intimate portrait of a private man who was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966 and named "Baseball's Greatest Character" by MLB Network's Prime 9. Casey Stengel is a biography that will be treasured by fans of our national pastime.

“Camino Island,” by John Grisham - A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, but Princeton has insured it for twenty-five million dollars.

Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts.

Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous offer of money convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Bruce Cable’s circle of literary friends, ideally getting close enough to him to learn his secrets. But eventually Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise.

“Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail,” by Melanie Radzicki McManus - In thirty-six thrilling days, Melanie Radzicki McManus hiked 1,100 miles around Wisconsin, landing her in the elite group of Ice Age Trail thru-hikers known as the Thousand-Milers. In prose that’s alternately harrowing and humorous, Thousand-Miler takes you with her through Wisconsin’s forests, prairies, wetlands, and farms, past the geologic wonders carved by long-ago glaciers, and into the neighborhood bars and gathering places of far-flung small towns. Follow along as she worries about wildlife encounters, wonders if her injured feet will ever recover, and searches for an elusive fellow hiker known as Papa Bear. Woven throughout her account are details of the history of the still-developing Ice Age Trail—one of just eleven National Scenic Trails—and helpful insight and strategies for undertaking a successful thru-hike.

“The Sun Also Rises,” by Ernest Hemingway - Hemingway’s first novel is at the top of my list because it reflects his reliance on his traditional Midwestern values as he encountered new experiences and values in post-World War I Europe. Using friends and acquaintances that populated the cafes along Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris, he reveals his concern about the valueless life of these Lost Generation characters and begins his personal and literary search for meaning in what appears to be a godless world. In the midst of their heavy drinking and meaningless revelry during a fiesta in Spain, Pedro Romero, the matador, becomes a hero. He conducts himself with honor and courage, and it is here we see the beginnings of what will become the Hemingway Code.

COLLEGE CHRONICLES - Harvard's president to step down next year: Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust, who shepherded the school through the turbulence of the economic recession and expanded its diversity, will step down in June 2018 after 11 years leading the 380-year-old institution.

Faust announced her pending departure in an e-mail to students, faculty, and staff Wednesday afternoon, igniting an instant buzz on campus and among alumni and the wider world of higher education.

The Boston Globe is floating Barack Obama as a possible next president of Harvard University. Drew Faust, who has led Harvard for a decade, announced this week she'll step down after one more school year. The Globe points out that Obama is a former law school professor and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, in 1990. Among the other names floated by the Globe: Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Rice University President David Leebron and Nitin Nohria, dean of the Harvard Business School since 2010.

Harvard had just 28 presidents in close to 400 years" ... There were 11 Harvard presidents before U.S. was a country.

MICHIGAN TO WAIVE TUITION FOR POOR STUDENTS: The University of Michigan will waive tuition for students from families making $65,000 or less, the school's president announced this week. Many elite universities, including some Ivy League schools, have similar policies aimed at boosting economic diversity on campus. "I've heard from far too many families throughout our state who don't pursue a UM education because they feel they can't afford it," Michigan President Mark Schlissel said at Thursday's Board of Regents meeting. "We now guarantee those with the most need can afford a University of Michigan education."

FORBES CELEBRITY 100 - Ranks the top-earning front-of-camera entertainers on the planet by pretax income from June 1, 2016 through June 1, 2017. Fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted.

HELLO…HELLO - Next year, U.S. smartphone data use will surpass fixed broadband use for the first time according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers' latest Media and Entertainment outlook. By 2021, mobile data consumption is expected to eat up nearly 38% of all digital data consumption in the U.S., while fixed broadband will take up 27%, roughly 4 percentage points less than it does today.

GREAT READS - "A Sociology of the Smartphone," by Adam Greenfield in Longreads, in an excerpt of "Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life": "Smartphones have altered the texture of everyday life, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals, and transforming others beyond recognition.    http://bit.ly/2roRRYA ..

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Jim Belushi (62) Chicago, IL.; Jeff Dillon ….pride of Renfrew, Ontario; Queen Elizabeth (91) London England; Sir Paul McCartney (75) Sussex, England; Hannah Storm (55) Malibu, CA.; President Donald J. Trump (71) Washington D.C.

SEINFELD STUFF - Soupman, a Staten Island-based company that licenses the name and recipes of the real-life inspiration for Senfeld's Soup Nazi, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday. Just hours later, New York AG Eric T. Schneiderman announced guilty pleas in a totally unrelated construction fraud case whose investigation code-name was Operation Vandelay Industries. Among the crooks? A purported architect whose last name was Newman.

POTUS WEEK -  MONDAY: Trump has Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela and his wife to the White House. He will participate in an American Technology Council roundtable at 5 p.m. WEDNESDAY: The president is going to Iowa. THURSDAY: The Congressional picnic.

BULLY BRANDING - Little Marco. Crooked Hillary. Crazy Bernie. Lyin' Ted. Low-energy Jeb. Goofy Elizabeth Warren. And now ... "The Witch Hunt."

Trump, forced into campaign mode by his own actions and indiscretions, has officially branded the investigation by his own Justice Department.

DAYS OF OUR LIVES – I  have never seen a Cabinet meeting like the one on Monday June 12. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, taking his turn to genuflect for a beaming Trump, said: "On behalf of the entire senior staff around you, Mr. President, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you've given us to serve your agenda and the American people." (N.Y. Times front-page headline: "Flatterers First, Then President Praises Himself'" ... CNN chyron: "TRUMP'S WEIRD CABINET MEETING.")

Going back to the Clintons, we have never seen a president and his family work so hard to promote or appear on a program like the Trumps' trumpet, "Fox & Friends." From yesterday's show: "Hey, look! It's Ivanka Trump." ... "I join you almost every morning, just not on the couch!" This came after Trump himself promoted the friendly show on Twitter, which he regularly does.

In 228 years of presidents, none has canned the FBI director, then allowed his own Justice Department to appoint a special counsel — who within weeks his friends and allies would openly muse about firing.

In modern presidential history, there is nothing comparable to the personal and public attacks on James Comey by the president and his eldest son. In the last few days alone, they have called Comey — a guy who most elected Republican officials in town like and trust — a liar, a coward, a criminal leaker, and "a dishonest man of bad character."

Remember that we're living through history that will be studied and debated until the end of time. Many Trump backers, both the eager and reluctant ones, enjoy the destruction of norms and bemoan the highly critical coverage of this presidency. But we should never lose sight that we are experiencing a daily display of unprecedented actions and behaviors.

FLIPPING THE SWITCH - General Electric Chief Executive Jeff Immelt will step aside this summer, ending a 16-year run atop a conglomerate that he significantly reshaped but whose shares have vastly underperformed the stock market during his tenure. GE said Monday that Mr. Immelt would be succeeded on Aug. 1 by John Flannery, the head of the company’s health-care business, and retire as chairman of the board on Dec. 31. Mr. Flannery, 55 years old, is a 30-year veteran of the company who spent much of his career in its once-sprawling financial business. The shuffle comes as GE has been under pressure by activist investor Trian Fund Management to slash costs and increase profit in the company’s core industrial business.

WORDS OF THE MONTH –

Pedagogy      \PED-uh-goh-jee, -goj-ee\

noun

1. the function or work of a teacher; teaching.

2. the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods.

Quotes: “It was the cold, pitiless glass heart of Professor March's approach to magical pedagogy. Every lecture, every exercise, every demonstration was concerned with how to manipulate and transform it using magic.”-- Lev Grossman, The Magicians, 2009

Flaco, adjective: thin, skinny

Flaco is one of those useful words you need to describe how people look.

“un hombre alto y flaco” - a tall, thin man

“piernas largas y flacas” - long, thin legs

In Latin America it’s often used as a nickname:

El Flaco Jiménez

Flaco Jiménez

People often use flaco in the phrase punto flaco, weak point.

“Pues cuida tu salud, es tu punto flaco estos días.” - So, look after your health, it’s your weak point these days.

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

MLB Game of the Week (June 24) – Colorado Rockies (46-26) at Los Angeles Dodgers (44-26). Time for the Dodgers to take control of the National League West, Dodgers win 5 – 4.

Season to Date (43 - 20)

RINK RATS NEWS QUIZ – the first to get this month’s quiz correct will receive a Rink Rats T-Shirt, please send entries to rick@rinkratshass.net

Thanks in part to the rising popularity of cocktails, world-wide sales of hard alcohol rose 0.04% last year. Which of these, in contrast lost ground?

A.     Wine

B.     Beer

C.      Both

D.     Neither

MARKET WEEK - Brexit talks formally kicked off in Brussels on Monday nearly a year after Britons voted to pull their country out of the European Union. The negotiations, which are expected to last two years, started with British Prime Minister Theresa May under pressure to soften her position after early elections she called hoping to give her a stronger mandate resulted in the loss of her Conservative Party's majority in Parliament. U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis called the debate over the terms of the country's withdrawal from the European trading bloc, and the new terms of its relationship with the EU, the "most complicated negotiation of all time." "We are starting this negotiation in a positive and constructive tone," Davis said. "There is more that unites us than divides us." EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the first session would focus on trying to "identify priorities and the timetable" to show "a constructive opening of negotiations."

Cars 3 led the domestic box office in its debut weekend as expected, but its $53.5 million haul was the weakest opening in the series' history. Cars made $60.1 million in its opening weekend, and Cars 2 made $66.1 million. The movie was far behind other Pixar blockbusters — Finding Dory brought in $135.1 million in its first weekend. Still, Cars 3 managed to knock Wonder Woman down to No. 2 in its third weekend. Smaller films, including the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me and the shark thriller 47 Meters Down also did well.

DRIVING THE WEEK – President Trump meets with tech CEOs at the White House on Monday ... Senate Finance has a hearing on the fiscal 2018 budget at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday ... American Bankers Assoc. holds a forum on payments on Thursday at 8:00 a.m. ... Senate Agriculture Committee holds a hearing at 9:30 a.m. Thursday on the nomination of J. Christopher Giancarlo to be chairman of the CFTC ... House Financial Services picks up the flood insurance debate on Wednesday ... Senate Banking Committee has a hearing at 10:00 a.m. Thursday on Economic Growth ... Chicago Fed President Charles Evans speaks at 7:00 p.m. in NYC on Monday ... Index of Leading Indicators on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. expected to rise 0.4 percent.

Next Blog: “C’s”

See you on June 26, Adios.

Claremont, California

June 19, 2017

#VIII-5-347

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – Harry Bliss, The New Yorker