7.31.2018

The Democratic Class of 2020

Eric Garcetti

Bernie Sanders

Kamala Harris

Kirsten Gillibrand


Joe Biden

Seth Moulton

Tulsi Gabbard



The 2020 Dem Class Is Already Frantically Making Moves Behind the Scenes

Excerpt:

The first Democratic primary contest won’t be held for another 18 months. But the campaign for the attention of prospective Democratic primary voters, as exemplified by the Garcetti flirtation offensive (he also, a source said, has held at least one private meeting with members of a top, Democratic-leaning D.C. law firm), is well underway.

Already, a slew of those likely to populate a very crowded Democratic primary field have taken the time-honored step of writing a book that reflects their biography and world view while also allowing them to go on tour to test drive a message to voters.

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have books scheduled to be published almost immediately after the 2018 midterm elections. Former Vice President Joe Biden has spent the better part of this year on a nationwide book tour. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) announced that his book about his military service in Iraq that will be released in early April 2019. A few weeks before that, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is set to release her political memoir, according to one person familiar with the book.

.... Since early June, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has appeared on CNN and MSNBC over a dozen times to discuss everything from issues of the day to the broader state of the Democratic party. Booker did just four cable news interviews during this same part of last year.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who for years refused to answer questions from reporters in the halls of congress, has begun appearing regularly on MSNBC during primetime and even daytime hours. And on three separate occasions this year, the Massachusetts Democrat sat for interviews on Trump’s favorite television network, Fox News. The hits were ostensibly to talk about major topics of interest (the scandal at Equifax and marijuana law reform), but they had the secondary effect of softening her image within a hostile crowd.
Comment: Too early? Images grabbed from the Internet. Anyone care to handicap them? Meanwhile in the NY Times:


How Trump Won Re-election in 2020 - A sneak peek at the Times’s news analysis from Nov. 4, 2020.
Donald J. Trump has been decisively re-elected as president of the United States, winning every state he carried in 2016 and adding Nevada, even as he once again failed, albeit narrowly, to gain a majority of the popular vote. Extraordinary turnout in California, New York, Illinois and other Democratic bastions could not compensate for the president’s abiding popularity in the states that still decide who gets to live in the White House: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Yet, unlike 2016, last night’s outcome came neither as a political upset nor as a global shock. Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have consistently polled ahead of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and her running mate, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, since July. The New York Times correctly predicted the outcome of the race in every state, another marked change from 2016.
How Trump Lost Re-election in 2020 - A sneak peek at The Times’s news analysis from Nov. 4, 2020.
Exit polls showed disillusionment across the swing states that Trump won four years ago and lost this year, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In a sign of the country’s changing political map, he held on to Ohio and Iowa, two relatively old and white states — but became the first Republican since 1992 to lose Georgia.

Huge margins among women were central to the victory of Warren, who will become the country’s first female president. “I’m just tired of him,” said Jennifer Diaz, a 47-year-old from Cobb County, Ga., outside Atlanta.

Heading into the campaign, Trump’s advisers believed they had two major advantages: the economic growth of the past four years and the undeniable liberalism of Warren and her running mate, former Attorney General Eric Holder. Neither panned out as the Trump campaign had hoped.

For one thing, solid G.D.P. growth — similar to the rate during Obama’s second term — has not translated into middle-class income gains. Average income growth, post-inflation, has hovered near zero since early 2018.

Warren’s liberalism, meanwhile, did make some voters anxious, exit polls showed. But most swing voters do not follow the minutiae of policy debates, and many simply decided that she understood their problems better than Trump.

She and Holder consciously borrowed from the populist strategy of Obama’s 2012 campaign against Mitt Romney. Rather than emphasize Trump’s personal behavior, as the 2016 Clinton campaign did, they cast him as a greedy billionaire who corruptly used the presidency to enrich himself further. They also largely ignored Trump’s repeated criticisms of the ongoing N.F.L. national anthem protests
My take: Joe Biden! (I know it is way too early) And Biden beats Trump! If it's "It's the Economy Stupid!" ... then Trump!

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/31/2018 02:37:00 PM 0 comments

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Racism and other "ism's"



Undoing the Dis-Education of Millennials

Excerpt:

We will have to pull out all of the weeds in your mind as we come across them. Unfortunately, your mind is full of weeds, and this will be a very painful experience. But it is strictly necessary if anything useful, good, and fruitful is to be planted in your head.

There is no formula for this. Each of you has different weeds, and so we will need to take this on the case-by-case basis. But there are a few weeds that infect nearly all of your brains. So I am going to pull them out now.

First, except when describing an ideology, you are not to use a word that ends in “ism.” Communism, socialism, Nazism, and capitalism are established concepts in history and the social sciences, and those terms can often be used fruitfully to gain knowledge and promote understanding. “Classism,” “sexism,” “materialism,” “cisgenderism,” and (yes) even racism are generally not used as meaningful or productive terms, at least as you have been taught to use them. Most of the time, they do not promote understanding.

In fact, “isms” prevent you from learning. You have been taught to slap an “ism” on things that you do not understand, or that make you feel uncomfortable, or that make you uncomfortable because you do not understand them. But slapping a label on the box without first opening the box and examining its contents is a form of cheating. Worse, it prevents you from discovering the treasures hidden inside the box. For example, when we discussed the Code of Hammurabi, some of you wanted to slap labels on what you read which enabled you to convince yourself that you had nothing to learn from ancient Babylonians. But when we peeled off the labels and looked carefully inside the box, we discovered several surprising truths. In fact, we discovered that Hammurabi still has a lot to teach us today.

One of the falsehoods that has been stuffed into your brain and pounded into place is that moral knowledge progresses inevitably, such that later generations are morally and intellectually superior to earlier generations, and that the older the source the more morally suspect that source is. There is a term for that. It is called chronological snobbery. Or, to use a term that you might understand more easily, “ageism.”

Second, you have been taught to resort to two moral values above all others, diversity and equality. These are important values if properly understood. But the way most of you have been taught to understand them makes you irrational, unreasoning. For you have been taught that we must have as much diversity as possible and that equality means that everyone must be made equal. But equal simply means the same. To say that 2+2 equals 4 is to say that 2+2 is numerically the same as four. And diversity simply means difference. So when you say that we should have diversity and equality you are saying we should have difference and sameness. That is incoherent, by itself. Two things cannot be different and the same at the same time in the same way.

Furthermore, diversity and equality are not the most important values. In fact, neither diversity nor equality is valuable at all in its own right. Some diversity is bad. For example, if slavery is inherently wrong, as I suspect we all think it is, then a diversity of views about the morality of slavery is worse than complete agreement that slavery is wrong.

Similarly, equality is not to be desired for its own sake. Nobody is equal in all respects. We are all different, which is to say that we are all not the same, which is to say that we are unequal in many ways. And that is generally a good thing. But it is not always a good thing (see the previous remarks about diversity).

Related to this: You do you not know what the word “fair” means. It does not just mean equality. Nor does it mean something you do not like. For now, you will have to take my word for this. But we will examine fairness from time to time throughout this semester.

Third, you should not bother to tell us how you feel about a topic. Tell us what you think about it. If you can’t think yet, that’s O.K.. Tell us what Aristotle thinks, or Hammurabi thinks, or H.L.A. Hart thinks. Borrow opinions from those whose opinions are worth considering. As Aristotle teaches us in the reading for today, men and women who are enslaved to the passions, who never rise above their animal natures by practicing the virtues, do not have worthwhile opinions. Only the person who exercises practical reason and attains practical wisdom knows how first to live his life, then to order his household, and finally, when he is sufficiently wise and mature, to venture opinions on how to bring order to the political community.

One of my goals for you this semester is that each of you will encounter at least one idea that you find disagreeable and that you will achieve genuine disagreement with that idea. I need to explain what I mean by that because many of you have never been taught how to disagree.

Disagreement is not expressing one’s disapproval of something or expressing that something makes you feel bad or icky. To really disagree with someone’s idea or opinion, you must first understand that idea or opinion. When Socrates tells you that a good life is better than a life in exile you can neither agree nor disagree with that claim without first understanding what he means by “good life” and why he thinks running away from Athens would be unjust. Similarly, if someone expresses a view about abortion, and you do not first take the time to understand what the view is and why the person thinks the view is true, then you cannot disagree with the view, much less reason with that person. You might take offense. You might feel bad that someone holds that view. But you are not reasoning unless you are engaging the merits of the argument, just as Socrates engaged with Crito’s argument that he should flee from Athens.xxx So, here are three ground rules for the rest of the semester.
  1. The only “ism” I ever want to come out your mouth is a syllogism. If I catch you using an “ism” or its analogous “ist” — racist, classist, etc. — then you will not be permitted to continue speaking until you have first identified which “ism” you are guilty of at that very moment. You are not allowed to fault others for being biased or privileged until you have first identified and examined your own biases and privileges.
  2. If I catch you this semester using the words “fair,” “diversity,” or “equality,” or a variation on those terms, and you do not stop immediately to explain what you mean, you will lose your privilege to express any further opinions in class until you first demonstrate that you understand three things about the view that you are criticizing.
  3. If you ever begin a statement with the words “I feel,” before continuing you must cluck like a chicken or make some other suitable animal sound.
Comment: I've been called a racist ... just today for example (below). Several years ago for supporting the policeman in the Ferguson case (that has been thoroughly investigated, by the way). Today (and yesterday) for supporting the police in the Blevins case (see below):



As an aside - my family shed blood to end slavery!

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/31/2018 10:04:00 AM 0 comments

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7.29.2018

Come from behind Win!


Comment: I lost my Queen early. Look at the material on the board: Black is ahead on Pawns (7 to 5) and, equal with Rooks (1 to 1) has a Queen to my Knight. I don't recall ever coming from behind to win (or at least this far behind)! A war of attrition wouldn't have worked for me!

Note similarity to this earlier win 

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/29/2018 09:43:00 PM 0 comments

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Reality Check: Medicare for all is a socialist’s dream





Medicare for all is a socialist’s dream — and an American Nightmare

Excerpt:

we know exactly what Medicare for All would look like.

First, it would be unfair. Forty-four million Americans paid for their Medicare benefits by contributing for 40 years or more into the Medicare Trust. The rest of the American public did not contribute their fair share, so why should they be given for free what others paid dearly for?

Second, even in its present form, Medicare isn’t sustainable. The Congressional Research Service reports the Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent in less than 10 years. When that happens, Medicare will be broke and seniors will not get the care they need. Why would anyone want to extend the problem of no-care to everyone?

Maybe when candidates such as Ocasio-Cortez promote Medicare-for-All, they’re looking for a system where the government provides health insurance to all for no charge. But wait! We already have such a system. It’s called Medicaid. Maybe supporters of Medicare-for-All are really advocating Medicaid-for-All.

Medicaid is a failure. Because mandates from Washington dictate how the states spend their money, states are not in control of the largest single item in their budgets. And because Medicaid spending comes first, other state priorities must accept the leftovers. Worst of all, Medicaid provides inadequate access to care and instead of making people healthy, Medicaid has caused unnecessary suffering and even death.

Let’s face it, Medicare-for-All is really code for government controlled, single-payer healthcare. After all, England and Canada appear to have successful single-payer systems. Why shouldn’t it work here? 

It all depends on how you define success. The British and the Canadians pay a very high cost for their systems, and not only in monetary terms. Single-payer health care systems take away individual choice, they discourage life-saving research and innovations, and they exchange quality of care for a balanced budget

And there are heart-breaking cases such as Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard — babies in Great Britain who were left to die at the behest of the government. In the National Health Service, the government has the final say in all medical decisions — not patients or their families.

Americans, even those who respond favorably to polls about a vague Medicare-for-All system, would never stand for that.

There is death-by-queueing in single payer systems, where sick persons die from treatable conditions because they could not get care in time and succumb “waiting in line” for care. You don’t even have to go outside the U.S. to see these avoidable deaths. In our own single payer or Medicare-for-All system, the VA, “307,000 veterans may have died waiting for medical care.” 

Medicare-for-All, aka government-controlled healthcare, is precisely what we don’t want. It will either deny us the care we need or land our nation in bankruptcy court. Most people thought the cost of Obamacare, $1.34 trillion, was excessive, but that’s peanuts compared to the $18 trillion price tag for Bernie Sanders’ — and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s — Medicare-for-All.

Instead of government-controlled, insurance-dominated healthcare, we need to return to our roots, to what made our country great: the free market. In 2017, the U.S. spent $3.4 trillion on healthcare for 323 million Americans, or $10,526 for every man, woman and child. Imagine if every family of four put $42,105 in an HSA every year! and simply shopped for and paid for their health care. No government stealing our money to pay its bureaucracy. No insurance company delaying or denying care. Just the old but right doctor-patient relationship with no one and nothing in between.
Comment: We are on Medicare. Fact ... if you don't have Medicare supplement plan, your out of pocket would sink you!

Contrarian view:
Another view:


Posted by Jim Peet at 7/29/2018 02:42:00 PM 0 comments

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7.28.2018

Discovered Check by King and Mate



The "Discovered Attack"

Note handy tool = Animated GIF maker

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/28/2018 02:33:00 PM 0 comments

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China: a Trade War is "like a drinking contest at a fraternity"



Excerpt:

China is beginning to realize that trade war isn’t really war. It’s more like a drinking contest at a fraternity: the game is less inflicting harm on your opponent than inflicting it on yourself, turn by turn. In trade wars, nations impose burdensome import tariffs on themselves in the hope that they’ll be able to stomach the pain longer than their competitor.

Why play such a game? Because a carefully chosen act of self-harm can be an investment toward a worthy goal. For example, President Reagan’s arms race against the Soviet Union in the 1980s was in some sense a costly self-imposed tax. But it turned out the U.S. could bear the burden better than the Soviets could—Uncle Sam eventually out-drank the Russian bear and won the Cold War.

The U.S. will win the trade war with China in the same way. The PBOC’s statements show that the Chinese understand they are too vulnerable to take very many more drinks. The only question is what they will be willing to offer Mr. Trump to get him to take yes for an answer. No wonder Beijing has ordered its state-influenced media to stop demonizing Mr. Trump—officials are desperate to minimize the pain when President Xi Jinping has to cut the inevitable deal.

The drinking-contest metaphor takes us only so far. The wonderful thing about reciprocal trade is that it is a positive-sum game in which all contestants are made better off. If the conflict forces China to accept more foreign investors and goods, comply with World Trade Organization rules, and respect foreign intellectual property, it may feel it has lost but will in fact be better off. With this openness, both economic and political, China could spur a decades long second wave of growth that would bring hundreds of millions still living in rural poverty into glittering new cities.It took Nixon to go to China and show it the way to the 20th century. Now, through the unlikely method of trade war, Donald Trump is ushering China into the 21st century.
Comment: Images: Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark - in that character's own drinking contest!


Posted by Jim Peet at 7/28/2018 12:23:00 PM 0 comments

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34 Ethical Issues All Christians Should Know



34 Ethical Issues All Christians Should Know


Comment: Helpful. Image source

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/28/2018 10:02:00 AM 0 comments

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7.27.2018

"I just saved a bunch of money by switching genders."


By Navigator84 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link


Excerpt:

A man in Alberta, Canada, tells the CBC that he wanted to buy a new Chevy Cruze, but being a male and in his early 20s, and with a less-than-perfect driving record, he was shocked at the cost of insurance — he was quoted $4,500 a year.

So he became a woman.

OK, biologically he remains a man. There were no surgeries and he doesn't literally identify as female. But the man, named by the broadcaster only as David, says he changed his gender to female on his government-issued identification. Wait, how's that? "I have taken advantage of a loophole," he says. More on that in a moment.

He got the idea when, stunned by that $4,500 quote, he asked the insurance agent what coverage would cost if he were a woman. The answer: $3,400.

"I was pretty angry about that. And I didn't feel like getting screwed over any more," he said. "So I asked them to change my gender on my auto policy, and she's like, we can't do that."

So he found another way. Alberta is one of several Canadian provinces where residents can legally change the sex on their birth certificates by just checking a different box. You simply need a note from a doctor or psychologist saying you identify as a different gender.

"It was pretty simple. I just basically asked for it and told (the doctor) that I identify as a woman, or I'd like to identify as a woman, and he wrote me the letter I wanted," David told CBC. It was a lie, of course, but once you've gotten your birth certificate amended, it's a snap to get your driver's license changed, and then bring on those sweet savings in that sweet, sweet Chevy Cruze. Worth it, right?

David thinks so. "I am now a woman ... I now pay $1,100 less for auto insurance. I won. The end," he wrote on Reddit.
Comment: 2nd image is screen grab from article.

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/27/2018 06:28:00 PM 0 comments

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7.26.2018

Chess: Quick win!

Comment: Not overpowering until the end. Played out in less than 5 minutes

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/26/2018 06:05:00 PM 0 comments

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Revisiting FANG in the wake of ‘Chief Buzzkill’





Facebook’s ‘Chief Buzzkill’ Strikes Again

Excerpt:

Finance chiefs are often the bearers of bad news during earnings calls, with share prices reaping the consequences. That’s why many -- particularly in the tech industry -- shy away from giving precise outlook figures.

Dave Wehner learned that lesson the hard way. Shares of Facebook Inc. fell as much as 20% this morning following the CFO’s sober forecast for revenue growth this year after the market closed Wednesday. The stock is down 19% in recent trading. Mr. Wehner also said new advertising formats were less profitable than expected.

With investors used to getting record-breaking results quarter after quarter, finance chiefs at technology companies, especially at heavyweights like Facebook, Alphabet Inc. or Amazon.com Inc., must be adept at managing the company’s message and expectations when the news is grim. A sharp, reactionary swing in share price following a quarterly report dramatically raises the stakes for the next quarter.
Comment: Below is my missed FANG investment.



Compare with 2½ years ago


So yeah it was a missed opportunity! Of the FANG stocks ... 1.) I have none: 2.) AMZN, GOOG, and NFLX have value to me.

Related: Other news ... today!

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/26/2018 03:00:00 PM 0 comments

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Papa John's and the Poison Pill





Papa John’s Adopts ‘Poison Pill’ Defense Against John Schnatter

Excerpt:

Papa John’s is preparing for a fight against John Schnatter, the pizza chain’s founder and former chairman, by adopting a so-called poison pill defense to protect itself against a hostile takeover attempt.

The plan, announced late Sunday by the company’s board, is meant to prevent any shareholder from amassing a controlling interest in Papa John’s. Mr. Schnatter, who resigned as chairman this month after a report that he had used a racial slur in a comment about black people, owns 30 percent of the company’s stock, making him its largest shareholder.

Mr. Schnatter has said since stepping down that doing so “was a mistake” and that he was pressured to leave by board members acting on “rumor and innuendo.”

The poison pill strategy — which has been used by, among others, Avis, Netflix and Sotheby’s, and in a battle between Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank — is typically employed to fend off takeover efforts by activist investors and acquisitive rivals. It has rarely been used to preemptively rebuff a company founder, one notable exception being the poison pill that American Apparel adopted in 2014 amid an acrimonious split with its founder, Dov Charney.

.... Ms. Glaser declined to comment on the poison pill move by Papa John’s, which would take effect if Mr. Schnatter and his affiliates raised their combined stake in the company to 31 percent or if anyone were to buy 15 percent of the common stock without the board’s approval.
Don’t Eat the Poison Pill By Mistake

Excerpt:

The pill “will prohibit Schnatter from acquiring more than 31 percent of the stock,” I wrote, but I was cheating. That was a shorthand description. That’s not how poison pills actually work. It’s not like you go to the stock exchange and put in an order for 100 shares and it bounces back with an error message saying “that would put you over 31 percent.”

Instead, the way poison pills work is … just sort of unbelievable. Basically, if anyone triggers the pill — if they go over 10 or 20 or 31 percent of the stock or whatever the trigger is — then every other shareholder of the company gets offered the right to buy a ton of the company’s stock at a big discount. If people exercise these rights — and they should because they offer the chance to buy stock at a big discount—then many more shares are issued and the triggering shareholder is massively diluted.

It just sort of seems like this shouldn’t be allowed, that companies shouldn’t be able to give massively discounted shares to all of their shareholders except the one they don’t like. But it is allowed; there is a famous case. I used to work at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the law firm that invented the poison pill, and the pill document — here is Papa John’s, if you want to read one — is sort of scripture at that firm. I remember having this distinct sense that we had collectively gotten away with something, that we were all living off of some deep black magic that the firm’s elders had done back in the ’80s, that somewhere in a basement closet the notion of shareholder ownership was being tortured as the price for our success.

A big rights issue is a big corporate event, and exercising the rights requires cash, and if this happened a lot you could imagine an industry springing up around it. There’d be poison-pill arbitrageurs who’d buy poison-pill rights to get the new shares, and prime brokers would finance the purchase price, and it’d be a whole thing. But it isn’t, because poison pills are never triggered. The point of a poison pill is not to do this stuff; doing it would be super annoying and complicated. The point of the poison pill is that it convincingly threatens an acquirer with massive dilution, so potential acquirers are deterred from triggering poison pills. And it works.

Modern pills have a simpler alternative to the rights-exercise stuff, by the way, which is that the company can just give each shareholder (other than the triggering shareholder) one extra share of common stock for each share they already own. (See section 24 of the Papa John’s pill, if you’re curious.) This also dilutes the triggering shareholder — everyone else has twice as many shares, and the triggering shareholder doesn’t — but doesn’t require the rest of the shareholders to come up with money or, um, figure out what is going on. It’s just a 2-for-1 stock split, but a selective stock split that excludes the triggering shareholder. Again it just seems like that shouldn’t be a thing, but once you’re on board with the general idea of a poison pill, why not?
The SEC filing



The Onion


Comment: Not often seen ... not easily understood ... rarely triggered. As an aside Papa Murphy's is my pizza place. I don't own PZZA and don't intend to invest in it.




Doubt it:

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/26/2018 08:12:00 AM 0 comments

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7.19.2018

Before you vote for Keith Ellison for Minnesota Attorney General ...



Rep. Keith Ellison draws fire for tweet about Antifa handbook 


Excerpt:

Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison is drawing criticism for calling attention to a book that critics say condones a left-leaning group using violence in clashes with white supremacists. Ellison, the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, posted a photo on Twitter Wednesday of himself posing with the book "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook." The book calls violence during counter-protests "a small though vital sliver of anti-fascist activity."
Comment: His campaign website


Posted by Jim Peet at 7/19/2018 01:42:00 PM 1 comments

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7.16.2018

The DEC RP06 disk drive


My largest computer sale of all time was dozens of RP06s to Thrift Drug in Pittsburgh. It was the last week of December in 1977 (I think December 30th.) The total sale was $ 1,800,000. That's about $ 7M in 2018 dollars. It was a very big deal. Corporate had me fax the contract to them b/c it was quarter end. Because our office did not have a fax, Kathee and I drove to downtown Pittsburgh to a speciality center that did business faxes. Then I took her out to an expensive dinner. I made my quota for the year and the year (DEC's fiscal year) was only half over. In my hand (received today) is a 2 terabyte WD drive (about $ 100 with shipping and tax).

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/16/2018 01:55:00 PM 0 comments

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7.15.2018

Surprise win!


I didn't think I would win this! Note even material. Often times I get out-smarted in the end game with material like this. 

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/15/2018 08:32:00 PM 0 comments

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Jim Salomon obituary


Jim Salomon obituary
Jim Salomon, 84, of The Villages, FL, passed away on Sunday, July 8th at his residence. Born on December 27, 1933 in Pittsburgh, PA to Erwin K. and Frida (Huonker) Salomon, Jim was a child of God and a faithful servant of Christ. He was a retired electrical designer and engineer for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Pittsburgh and a U.S. Army veteran. Before moving to The Villages in 1993, he was a season ticket holder for over 20 years with the best team in football, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Most importantly, Jim was known to be a “soul winner,” someone who loved to reach out to people and spread the Word of God. Survivors include his beloved wife, Mildred Fewless Salomon; his son, Jeffrey (Ginny) Salomon; his daughters: Janice (Bruce) Snyder and Jane (Dean) Cathcart; 7 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren; a younger brother and sister: Ronald (Barbara) Salomon and Sandra Salomon; along with his stepsons: Robert (Carol) Fewless, Terry (Amy) Fewless, Michael (Laurie) Fewless, Timothy (Angela) Fewless; his stepdaughters: Nancy (Jon) Fitzgerald and Kathy (John) Tytla; along with 18 step grandchildren, 23 great step grandchildren and 1 great great step granddaughter. Jim was preceded in death by his parents, his first wife of 46 years, Hermine (Miller) Salomon (2002), an older brother and sister, Milton Salomon and Elsie Collum.

A Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 11:00 am at Tri County Baptist Church, 38405 Rolling Acres Road, Lady Lake, FL. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Jim’s honor to Cornerstone Hospice @ cshospice.org. or Tri County Baptist Church, 38405 Rolling Acres Road, Lady Lake FL 32159.

Acts 16:31 – “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” was Jim’s life verse. He would ask each of you reading this “If you died today, are you certain you would go to Heaven?”
Comment: A friend. He loved the Lord. And he loved the Steelers!



Posted by Jim Peet at 7/15/2018 09:16:00 AM 0 comments

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7.14.2018

My Great-Grandfather Charles Bingham Peet


Served in Union Army


Back of card


Front of card


Tombstone


Tombstone of Great Grandmother

Ohio. Roster Commission., . (18861895). Official roster of the soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866. Akron: Werner Co..




Update on 9/25. Pics from 9/23/19 visit





Posted by Jim Peet at 7/14/2018 04:39:00 PM 0 comments

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7.11.2018

Cornered and Checkmate


I got up at 5am this morning. Started this game at 9:00 pm ... so tired I am barely awake. Somehow won by perfect play and the strategy I often employ .. protect the left flank ... open the right flank!


Posted by Jim Peet at 7/11/2018 09:10:00 PM 0 comments

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White outplayed Black with Pawns




  • Protected the left flank
  • Opened the right flank
  • Leveraged the White King
  • Defeated Black Pawn promotion (was able to promote to Queen which was immediately captured by White Rook!)
  • Promoted White Pawn 
  • The rest was history 

Posted by Jim Peet at 7/11/2018 06:51:00 AM 0 comments

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7.09.2018

Dr Pepper Snapple Group closes its run







Dr Pepper & Keurig Merger Nears Completion, Forms Board
Excerpt:

Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. DPS and Keurig Green Mountain have announced the board of directors of the new company - Keurig Dr Pepper - after the shareholders of Dr Pepper unanimously voted in favor of the merger deal on Jun 29. With other necessary regulatory approvals for the deal already obtained in the United States and Canada, the companies are on track to close the transaction on Jul 9. Moreover, on Jul 10, Keurig Dr Pepper will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange, under the new ticker symbol - "KDP".

This merger announcement dates back to January 2018 when the leading coffee maker, Keurig Green Mountain, Inc., agreed to buy Dr Pepper Snapple. Under the terms of the deal, the company's shareholders will receive a special cash dividend of $103.75 per share, making the deal worth $18.7 billion. Dr Pepper Snapple's shareholders will retain 13% ownership of the combined entity while Keurig shareholders will own 87%.

Previously, it was revealed that European investment fund JAB Holding will make a $9-billion equity investment to finance the transaction. Also, Mondelez International, Inc. MDLZ , JAB Holding's partner in Keurig, was about to have 13-14% stake in the merged entity.

The combined company, Keurig Dr Pepper, will have $11 billion in combined pro forma revenues and will realize $600 million in synergies on an annualized basis by 2021. This will make it the seventh-largest company in the U.S. food and beverage sector, and the third-largest non-alcoholic beverage company. The company's portfolio will contain a number of iconic brands, including Dr Pepper, 7UP, Snapple, A&W, Mott's, Canada Dry and Clamato, among others. The merged entity is likely to gain from Dr Pepper Snapple's distribution network while Keurig's online presence will boost sales through digital platforms like Amazon.com, Inc.  In fact, analysts are of opinion that the combined company can pose tough competition to beverage giants, including The Coca-Cola Company .
Comment: Purchased a lot back in March 2012 for $ 38.91. The merger just completed
If I understand this correctly, tomorrow I will have 100 shares of KDP which will trade at approx. $ 19.91. New website
8:05am Central update
Good enough for Forrest!



Posted by Jim Peet at 7/09/2018 06:27:00 PM 0 comments

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