• WHYARE AMERICA’S ROADS, BRIDGES AND OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE CRUMBLING? Mostly absurd costs stemming from “mandated wage levels for workers, strict union agreements, mysteriously high administrative costs, and torturous regulatory & bureaucratic hurdles.” A recent New York City subway extension cost $1.3 billion per kilometer – more than 7.5 times that for a comparable line in Denmark; the train station at World Trade Center cost over $4 billion. “Conservative distrust of government spending” is true, but hardly deserving of the blame it gets for this problem. [THE WEEK – Dec 26, 14]
  • ELECTRIC CARS ARE CLEANER THAN THOSE RELYING ON INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES – but only if the power used to charge them is also clean… which depends mainly on where they are driven.” E.g., China produces 80% of its electricity from coal, which “is likely to cause more than three times as many deaths from pollution as a conventional petrol vehicle; even a battery car running on the average mix of electrical power generated in America is much more hazardous than the conventional alternative.” A University of Minnesota study on the “life cycle of car emissions – from mining of materials for batteries, to production of fuel & generation of electricity, to the muck that actually comes out of the exhaust” – found that electric cars may be much dirtier and do not necessarily “confer a badge of greenery.” [THE ECONOMIST – Dec 20, 14]
  • THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA INDUSTRY IS ALMOST OUT OF THE CLOSET. Notwithstanding D.E.A. continuing categorization of pot in “the most dangerous category of narcotics with no accepted medical use,” Congress included a provision in the recent spending bill which now prohibits federal agents from raiding retail dispensaries in the 32 states which have “legalized pot or its ingredients to treat ailments.”  However, since the law is still on the books, some 2,000 of those businesses still have a major problem: most banks aren’t willing to handle their accounts, unwilling to risk changes in the political winds which could subject them to risk of prosecution and loss of their Charter. The result is that multi-billion dollars of businesses are necessarily run on a cash-basis, without banking or credit cards, which complicates their basic accounting, tax reporting, employee and vendor payment, along with risk from theft.  What a system!   [LOS ANGELES TIMES – Dec 16, 14]    For a reality-based TED presentation on the absurdity of the federal ‘War on Drugs, check out  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWfLwKH_Eko&feature=em-share_video_user
  • THE LAST WEEK OF 2014 ENDS WITH ‘KWANZAA’ – a holiday “celebrated exclusively by white liberals…since its fake invention in 1966 by a black radical/FBI stooge named Ron Karenga who founded “United Slaves.” With FBI support, this group served as a “violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers…in order to discredit and split the left.” After killing two Panthers on the UCLA campus, Karenga served time – “a useful stepping stone for his current position as a black studies professor at Cal State University – Long Beach… The United Slaves were proto-fascists who adopted invented ‘African’ names… It’s as if David Duke invented a holiday called ‘Anglika’ which he based on the philosophy of Mein Kampf, and clueless public school teachers began celebrating the made-up racist holiday.”  [HUMAN EVENTS – Dec 23, 14]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR :   “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift.  That’s why it’s called the present.”

“When things are bad, we take a bit of comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.” – Malcolm Forbes                

      AND FOR YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION:

The here and now is where we’re at; the Moment is the deal. The why or how or if or when not relevant, not real.   /     When one confronts the issue of “the Purpose of it all,” what more than any Moment could one sensibly recall   /     as having been the means and end to pleasure or to pain? What more or less could one expect to accomplish or to gain?       /       A  Moment passes hastily; it’s so easy to miss its beauty or its wonder, its majesty or bliss.     /     And yet, we’ll let a Moment all too often pass us by. We’ll sit and wait and watch and wince ’till it’s too late to try.      /      Conclusion? Sure! It’s clear enough that all one ought to do is recognize and appreciate each Moment’s splendid hue.        /        So why don’t you?     

  DCG: PROVIDING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE FOR OPTIMAL STRATEGIC, FINANCIAL, OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT