Non Coronavirus news 3/16/2020

                     Non Coronavirus News, 3/16

Lots going on. Many of these occurrences are the kind of things that make one scratch their head.

        Amidst all the Trump bravado and self-aggrandizing rhetoric re: “The world’s strongest economy” is this sobering fact: According to Bankrate, an NYC financial services company, about 60% of US adults are unable to afford an unexpected $1000 debt, such as auto repair, an ER visit, or any other of the myriad financial “gotchas” which we all know exist.

        Is this due to “too low” minimum wages? Certainly, this is valid in many cases, yes. However, the article which brings this to the fore goes on to deal with the fact that many younger adults are “coping” with this unexpected (or unplanned for) debt by ….wait for it… selling their sneaker collections. If you have no liquid savings but do have 25 pairs of “vintage” sneakers, then you also have financial priorities issues.

       The article details the tribulations of one LA hair stylist who “unexpectedly” (riiight) found that she owed $9,000 in unpaid back taxes. Am I the only one who thinks she was scamming the IRS and got caught? Can you say "undeclared tips?" 

       She dealt with the issue by selling 12 pairs of sneakers which, apparently were worth enough to cover the entire bill. It seems that some of these pairs of kicks, all with around $15.00 worth of material contained in them, have fans who have lost all sense of proportion and will pay lots of scratch for them. One pair of this young lady’s canvas and rubber wonders, a pair of “Nike Air Force 1 Low Off-White MCA University Blues” which originally retailed at a merely outrageous $150, are now selling on some secondary market sites at a ludicrous $1500! 

       More pathetic is that the actual cost of these shoes today, covering Chinese labor at 25 cents per hour, materials (much of it now recycled), and most of all shipping, is about $27.00. For the math challenged this is equates to a 550% profit at point of sale! Of course, this is before they become “collectable” and the price skyrockets.   In summary, yes, it’s a systemic and societal problem when most of us have little or no savings. It’s simply sheer stupidity when the reason you don’t is sneaker addiction.

        Another piece of good news today it the passage of a bill in Arizona, hardly a bastion of environmental concern, which allows an individual to keep totally private any information related to endangered species on their private property. This means not even the EPA or any other government agency, can protect an unreported endangered population on their property. In simpler terms this means that if an Arizona rancher discovers a Jaguar on his largely empty 2000 acres, he can shoot it for that rug he always wanted for the bedroom

       Meanwhile, halfway around the globe, The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, who basked in the praise of Donald Trump in late February, continues turning a relatively blind eye to religious persecution by his Hindu majority of, not only Muslims, but steadily intensifying violence toward nominally Hindu journalists, truthfully reporting on said sectarian violence. 

       For about the last 15 years, reporters in India have become more and more characterized and demonized by Hindu nationalists as “the enemy” for what has been factual reporting on steadily increasing sectarian violence. Mohandas Gandhi, father of Indian independence and prototypical non-violence advocate would be shamed by what his co-religionists have become. What does Donald Trump, also a media critic, have to say?

        "India gives hope to all of humanity. It is one of the most amazing nations anywhere in the world. It has become an economic power in the past 70 years. It will soon be home to the biggest middle class anywhere in the world and its potential is extreme."

        "It (India's growth) is more important because you have done it as a democratic, peaceful and tolerant country," (really?) President Trump said. He said, "There is a difference between a nation that rises by coercion and one that rises by setting its people free -- that is India."

        One can barely wait for a Modi speech to cite “The Fake News” as bearing responsibility for attacks on Muslims and Hindu reporters.

       Nationally, a vigilant Salem Oregon, Girl Scout is responsible for the nabbing of a hapless, and apparently not very capable, counterfeiter. When the man paid for his box of “Tagalongs” with a $20 bill, the young lady noticed that not only the color tint was “off,” but the bill was smaller than other 20s and the paper “felt funny.” Her mother agreed and called the police who, subsequently,  arrested the man who had gone on into the Walmart (where else?)

       This isn’t from today’s paper, but was reported in late January (yeah, I just missed it). Here’s the January 10, 2020 Trump quote: “AOC knows nothing. Poor student, poor everything, and then she comes, and she talks about the Green New Deal and all these poor fools say, 'Oh, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful?'”

        While there are issues, which I have previously addressed, on the Green New Deal, and on which I diametrically disagree with Miss Ocasio-Cortez, her academic creds aren’t among them.  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not a "poor" student. She graduated Cum Laude from Boston University in 2011 with a double major in international relations and economics, placing her in the top 30 percent of her graduating class. Note that this is much better than the Trump bachelor’s in economics which is devoid of any distinction. 

         As a high school student, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez won second place in the microbiology category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. At the same point in his life, Trump was in an elite military school playing sports, bullying classmates and courageously dealing with imaginary bone spurs.