Yet Another Monday

Monday, yet again.

      Good Morning America, as always, provided ample subject matter for the first rant of the week.

       Let's start with the phoniest.  A new Trump commercial has daughter Ivana, shilling for her father. Apparently oblivious to the train wrecks of her father's three marriages and numerous adulterous dalliances,  she attempts to portray him as a gentle man concerned with family and in tune with "working class values,"  whatever in the world they may be. Of the several things Trump promises, the bulk  are issues that progressives have lobbied for over the years only to be thwarted by GOP resistance, such as guaranteed maternity leave, etc. The one which stood out to me was the proposal to allow "Child care savings accounts" for parents. 

        Most families with two working parents already pay childcare expenses directly, if they can afford to, and for those with more limited means the term "savings account" is a foreign term, whether for child care, medical expense or general savings, such as retirement. This sop, proffered to the working poor is meaningless in reality. But then, as I reflect, so is the entire Trump campaign.

       Medical savings accounts and child care savings accounts are  only of use if a family can afford to save. Latest figures show that the "average" American saves less than 4%  of their income  annually. The problem with that is that it is derived from averaging the destitute with the fabulously wealthy. In truth, the lowest third of Americans save zero per cent annually!  This same third will have no retirement savings whatsoever. An equally sobering statistic reveals that the average American family has only about $5,000 saved for retirement at age 65!  You want to make this better?  The hell with child care savings accounts - provide it free. Do the same with universal health care. Oh never mind; Big Pharma would never allow that to happen.    

        Another emerging issue was Ginger Zee's weather report detailing the impending impact of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, followed by Robin Robert's (accurate) statement regarding the thousands of Haitians still living in makeshift tent cities as a result of the earthquake of  2010. What is as troubling in some ways as the continued human  suffering as a result of the quake itself, is the deceptive  efforts of the American Red Cross to portray themselves as great humanitarians who simply need more money to do their good works.

       When the  devastating earthquake leveled Haiti in 2010, millions of people donated to the American Red Cross. The charity raised almost half a billion dollars. It was one of its most successful fundraising efforts ever. The problem is that in the face of claims to have provided far  more  permanent residences than are to be found there today, the Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people, but the number of permanent homes the charity has built is six. I reiterate - 6! Meanwhile temporary housing facilities with an planned three year lifespan are, predictably, 6 years out - failing. Where did the money go? It's extremely hard to tell, largely due to  Red Cross obfuscation and general unwillingness to open the books. What is known however, is that as much as a third or more of the funds were diverted to "administrative" costs, including generous compensation to expatriate Haitians hired to "coordinate" on the ground.  

        According to an internal Red Cross budgeting document for the project in Campeche, the project manager — a position reserved for an expatriate – was entitled to allowances for housing, food and other expenses, home leave trips, R&R four times a year, and relocation expenses. In all, including salary, it added up to $140,000.

        The American Red Cross has a rating of 3 of 4 stars, largely based on average financial transparency, which includes detailing what percentage of funds collected actually goes to Program needs. Organizations like Doctors Without Borders, United Methodist Committee on relief, The Clinton Foundation,  Direct Aid International and others are more highly rated and far more financially transparent.   

       And, just because it's election season, the Trump Foundation, while not rated by Charity Navigator, based solely on what I can prove that they donated to, has done much worse than most "charities" in America.  Another Post report earlier this week claimed Trump spent $258,000 from his foundation to settle lawsuits that involved his businesses – an apparent violation of laws against “self-dealing,” which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves.

       Of course, the Trump Foundation has adopted a very charitable definition for its charitable giving, which included a $25,000 campaign donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi just four days before her office decided not to participate in a lawsuit against Trump University, two portraits of Trump, and a signed Manning football helmet.  In 2010, the Trump Foundation gave $10,000 to Jenny McCarthy’s Generation Rescue, a nonprofit group whose primary goal is to promote false links between vaccinations and autism.

        Next up, a short piece on developments in the fight against breast cancer. This is a worthy cause, but what left me curious was the lead in to the article trumpeting that the expert weighing in would be "Angelina Jolie's breast cancer doctor."  Now, I'm relatively sure that he's a pretty good  specialist, but is it the fact that he's experienced with a star's mammaries that makes him newsworthy?  Would he be any less credible if he was merely a cutting edge medical researcher than boob fondler to the stars?

        And, finally, how stupid does one have to be to take $10 million in diamonds on vacation? Apparently the poster child for "big butt, empty head" - Kim Kardashian-West did just this for a trip to Paris. Unfortunately the five masked robbers who took the jewelry, and held her at gunpoint while doing so, knew just precisely how stupid one would have to be and correctly decided she was "that stupid." Never fear, hubby Kanye  left in the middle of a concert  in the US, hopped a plane  to Paris, but apparently the robbers had decided that 7 hours was just too f*****g long to wait to hear what would surely be just another mindless rant from the self proclaimed master of the genre.