Equifax's Trifecta of Shame

Equifax Pulls a Trifecta. Equifax announced last Thursday that it had discovered on July 29 that it had been hacked. Up to 143 million personal files may have been accessed: social security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and perhaps driver licenses. About 55% of the American adult population is now at risk. It was the third known hack of the year for Equifax. A bad day for Equifax is potentially a calamity for 143 million people. The second leg of the trifecta was Equifax’s response. Three executives, including John Gamble, the chief financial officer, sold $1.8 million in Equifax shares within four days of the breach. That’s insider trading. The trio are looking at criminal and civil penalties and disgorgement. Equifax’s claim is that they were unaware of the breach. Hence, it’s just a coincidence. That might work if the sales were pursuant to a routine, planned sale, but it’s not. Equifax did not notify the public of the July breach until July 7, almost six weeks after the breech. The company has some explaining to do. The third leg of the trifecta compounds Equifax’s public relations disaster. It offered a free one year-credit monitoring, but the fine print included a waiver of any legal claims against Equifax. The company is about to run through a gauntlet of litigation. Two class action suits were filed against it Friday, with more to follow. It will also face Congressional hearings, state attorney generals, and regulatory agencies. Legal costs and settlements will claim a big percent of its annual sales of $3.1 billion. Shareholders can forget about dividends and capital appreciation for years. Equifax should have learned a lesson from Target about the dangers of a computer breach. Target was hacked December 2013 the week before Christmas. 40 million credit and debit cards were compromised. Target incurred costs of $292 million in resolving the claims. About $90 million was covered by a cypher insurance policy, leaving Target’s cost of $202 million. Equifax has a checkered history. It was earlier known as Retail Credit Company of America. Its practices and mistakes, along with its creditors, led to Congressional enactment in 1970 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The problem for us as consumers is that we cannot boycott Equifax. We are not its customers because we do not deal directly with it. Its customers are banks, retailers et al who seek credit reports on companies and individuals will have to shift their business to Equifax’s competitors.

Memo to Senator McConnell, Speaker Ryan and Congressional Republicans: President Trump's "Art of the Deal" is a Deal, Even with Democrats if necessary.

Donald J. Trump ran for President as a Republican. Americans elected President Trump to get thing done in Washington. He’s tried working with the Congressional Republicans. They failed him and the American people on ObamaCare. They claimed to have repeal and replace in place after seven years of running against ObamaCare. They failed. They claimed to have a tax reform bill in place for a quick introduction in Congress. We still haven’t seen it after eight months. They were dithering over raising the debt limit. They couldn’t get budget bills through. The Senate is slow-walking his appointments. Senate Majority Leader McConnell, Speaker Ryan, and other prominent Republicans join the media chorus and Democrats in trashing the President. Enough is enough! President Trump is a man of action. He is not a traditional American politician. Indeed, he was a Democrat much of his adult life. He represents traditional American values. The relationship between President Trump and the Congressional Republicans is not one of mutual loyalty and respect, but of a forced marriage in which neither party is free to leave, but both can stray. He pledged to “Drain the Swamp.” The Washington Swamp, including Republicans, has proven to be deeper with a more glutinous viscosity than expected. He sent a message to the Congressional Republicans with DACA and the debt ceiling. If they can’t get it done, then he will work with Democrats. Some Congressional Republicans are seething over the Trump “betrayal.” They have only themselves to blame. The agreement between the President and Congressional Democrats lifted the debt ceiling for three months, and provided a continuing resolution for funding the government, all of which is attached to a $15 billion relief bill for Hurricane Harvey. The Republicans need to understand that when the President deals with Senator Schumer and Representative Pelosi the Republicans are going to be very unhappy with the results. They will not get as much as they could have working with the President. Nor should they. President Trump gave Congress six months to fix DACA. The Republicans can legislate relief to the Dreamers with border security, probably not a continuous wall, or watch the President and Democrats enact DACA, perhaps amnesty, with little border security. They can work with the President on meaningful, economy boosting tax relief, or watch the Democrats muck it up with President Trump. Many of them can also watch themselves be voted out of office in 2018, either in the primaries or the general election.

Michigan Wolverines 2017 Football Predictions

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities It is the best of times with Jim Harbaugh as head coach. It may be the worse year yet under Jim Harbaugh after two 10-3 seasons. Much is expected of Team 138. Much is fretful of Team 138. I started at Michigan in 1970. This is the first year when I am clueless about the team. We don’t know yet if Michigan has reached the ability of Nick Saban at Alabama and Urban Meyer at Ohio State to reload every year. I quickly learned in in the early years of the great Bo Schembechler that the Wolverines would lose the last game of the season – either to Ohio State or in a bowl game. But hope always sprang eternal. Then Michigan might win the last game, but would have lost a midseason game to an unranked Big ten team. It all came together in the 1997 season when the Wolverines went undefeated during the season, beat Washington State in the Rose Bowl, and claimed a share of the national title. Then back to normal. Great winning seasons, but always a setback. Michigan was 10-2-1 against Ohio State. Ohio State’s great coaches, Jim Tressel and Urban Myer, have flipped that number. Michigan has only defeated the Buckeyes once in the past 14 games. Lloyd Carr’s last season, 1997, was the turning point. The slide began with the opening game exactly 10 years ago on September 1, 1997. Michigan lost at home 34-32 to Appalachian State, and was then blown out the next week at home by Oregon. The team went on a winning streak, but lost the last two season games to Wisconsin and Ohio State. The team redeemed itself by defeating Florida and Urban Meyer 41-35 in the Citrus Bowl. Goodbye Lloyd; Hello Rich Rod, a good coach, but the wrong coach at the wrong school at the wrong time. 3-9, 5-7, 7-6. Goodbye Rich Rod. Hello Brady Hoke. 11-2 with a win over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. Michigan was back. Or not 8-5 7-6 5-7 Goodbye Brady, a good coach, wonderful person, but not tough enough on the players. Hello Harbaugh, the true successor to Bo and Woody. Every player has to learn his position, especially as a starter, at all times. 10-3, blowing out Florida 41-7 in the Citrus Bowl, Last year, great promise, with a 9-0 start, but then three losses in the final four games by a total of five points. The problem this year is in the dozens. 19 players from last year have signed pro contracts. Only 5 starters return, just on defense. The best defensive backfield in college last season – gone. The receiver corps – gone. The offensive line – mostly gone. Youth and inexperience can jell by the end of the season. Michigan has four difficult games on its schedule: Florida, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. The big unknown is the first game against Florida on Saturday, September 2. If the Wolverines defeat the Gators, then they are on the road a great record. If not, it may be a long season. The problem with the Florida game is that it is the first game of the college season. This is the game players show their inexperience and lack of cohesion by making stupid plays and penalties. Michigan has inexperience. Florida has ten players on indefinite suspension, including the star receiver and starting running back. Mistakes may decide the game. Michigan’s consistent problem over the past decade is winning on the road. Penn State and Wisconsin are away games. Wisconsin is the week before Ohio State, which means, win or lose, the wolverines will be banged up when they play Ohio State. A great season will be 3-1 against Florida, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. A really good season will be a win against The Ohio State University. They could also lose all four, making for a dreadful season. Injuries can also make a difference. Too many Michigan quarterbacks played Ohio State with limited passing ability because of injuries. For example, Michigan’s Wilton Speight suffered a shoulder injury in the Iowa game last year and lost his effectiveness over the remaining three games, including losses to Ohio State and Florida State. Injuries to quarterbacks and running backs are also caused by Michigan’s inconsistent offensive lines over the past decade. Coach Harbaugh is Old School. He loves a power running game with tight ends and fullbacks. He did it at Stanford. He’s still not there at Michigan. My prediction: 10-2 in the regular season. My optimistic fantasy: 15-0.

The Kalich-Hickenlooper Marijuana-Medicaid Unity Ticket

Governor John Kasich is eyeing the White House. The Never-Trumper is appalled by the tone emanating from the White House. He sees a polarizing electorate. He visualizes the ultimate voter turnoff in 2020 – Trump v. Warren in the Presidential race. He senses the need for a new tone in American politics; a mellow tone. Governor Kasich wants to offer the American people a third way. He thus sent out a trial balloon last week for a unity, bi-partisan Kasich/Hickenlooper Ticket in 2020. The young John Kasich was a Reagan Republican when he served in Congress from 1983-2001. He was a budget hawk, balancing both the federal budget and later the Ohio budget when he became Governor of Ohio. Congress. Today he is a compassionate Republican who did not connect with the base of the Republican Party in a 2016 campaign for the Presidency. He won his home state of Ohio in the primary season and one electoral vote in January. Governor Kasich’s platform will be “Medicaid for All,” building on his record in Ohio, accepting the Medicaid Extension of ObamaCare over the objections of the Ohio Legislature. He won reelection in 2014 as Governor two years ago by 30 points, unlike Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado who barely won reelection by an underwhelming 49-46%. Governor Kasich is popular in Ohio, riding a ‘high.” That brings us to his choice as his VEEP partner, the Democratic Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, Governor Hickenlooper’s platform will be “A Colorado Rocky Mountain High for All.” Free marijuana for all; no longer will Mary Jane be grown as a weed in Ohio. It’s a perfect ticket: Marijuana and Medicaid. Medicaid for all resolves the inequality in today’s America. All Americans will have equal access to medical care under Medicaid, which means an equal lack of access to medical care under Medicaid. It’s the perfect entitlement – perfectly equal. Promise it to everyone! That’s the beauty of free dope. Get high; stay stoned, mellow out, and you’ll never feel the pain of your medical ailments. You won’t notice, or care, about the lack of medical care. Just toke up. A side benefit to the government is that cannabis contains carcinogens, thereby perhaps prompting earlier mortality, reducing social security benefits. From Colorado to Ohio, the Great Plains will be covered with amber waves of grass. Plant the vast plains of Detroit. Grow it and tax it. The Unity Ticket will have to run as independents. Neither Party will want them. Their new political party will be The Toker Party. The motto: “Free Dope for All Your Medical Needs.” The biggest obstacles are the voters. The Kasich/Hickenlooper Unity voters will be too strung out to vote. Free dope for the dopes who support the Unity Ticket.

Why the Media's Outrage Over the Trump-Arpaio Pardon, but not the Obama Pardons and Commutations

Once again the media shows its bias and double-standard between Democrats and Republicans. President Trump pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Jos Arpaio yesterday, as promised. The Sheriff was found guilty in June of a misdemeanor contempt of court by a judge for violating a judicial order Sheriff Arpaio was defeated for reelection last November two weeks after the Obama Justice formally filed charges against him in a clear political charged prosecution. The media is outraged at the pardon of the "old school” sheriff, who was stridently anti- illegal immigration. You might think President Trump pardoned a traitor, terrorist, or drug dealer, which President Obama had done. “America’s sheriff made many enemies, especially civil liberty advocates, in his 24 years as Maricopa County Sheriff. The media is again hurling charges of racism against President Trump. They were quiescent last year when President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the previous Bradley Manning who betrayed the United States in 2010 by leaking 750,000, often confidential, files to Wikileaks, which quickly published them. They were equally quiet when President Obama on January 17, 2017 commuted the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, an unrepentant Puerto Rican terrorist, who admitted to many acts of terrorism and violence in seeking Puerto Rican independence. President Obama freed a traitor and a terrorist without a murmur by the media. President Obama also released 201 GITMO detainees, Islamic terrorists, during his eight years in office. The media had no problem in President Obama freeing them to return to terrorism. Also on January 17, 2017 in one of his last official acts, President Obama released 330 drug dealers from federal prison. He called them low level dealers, but some were major dealers and kingpins in the drug trade. The media displayed no outrage when President Obama freed a traitor, domestic terrorist, Islamic terrorists, and drug dealers.

An Essay on Charlottesville, Statues, Monuments and Nihilism

It’s hard to come up with anything good to say about the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists. I can’t, except to say they have the First Amendment right to peacefully demonstrate and protest. The American Civil Liberties Committee (ACLU) and Los Angeles Times share that view. The City of Charlottesville attempted to move the permitted march to another location away from the Robert E. Lee Statue. The ACLU represented the organizations in defending their First Amendment rights. It’s easy to condemn the KKK, neo-Nazis and White Supremacists with their history of hatred and violence and blame the violence in Charlottesville on them. Yet Antifa in its short life has engaged in several violent demonstrations as they believe they have the right to confront “violent” organizations with violence even if the demonstrators are acting peacefully. And yet the police stood back as the violence unfolded. I don’t care what phrase the South uses for the Civil War. They can refer to it as the War Between the States, That Recent Unpleasantness, The War of Northern Aggression, The Lost Cause, The Noble Cause; it doesn’t matter. They lost. The slaves were freed, at least from slavery, but they had to wait another century for freedom. That came when a supposed racist Congressman and Senator from Texes, LBJ, became President of the United States and pushed through Congress over the objections of the South the Civil Right Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A united United States emerged from the Civil War. And now comes the nihilists and snowflakes of the Removal Movement. The Centennial School District in the Portland, Oregon area announced it was changing the names of Lynch Wood and Lynch Meadows Elementary Schools because of complaints about the name “Lynch.” The schools were named for Patrick Lynch who donated land in the late 1800’s. The only historic lynchings in Oregon were of whites. Saphia Jackson, Co-Director of the University of Southern California Black Student Assembly, has asked USC to rename its mascot horse “Traveler” because General Robert E. Lee had a horse named “Traveller.” Robert Saulko purchased the horse in 1958, which had been named Traveler by its prior owner. Saulko rode Traveler I across the LA Coliseum during a USC football game in 1958. The one-time act became a USC tradition. USC is now on Traveler VII. USC’s Traveler has nothing to do with General Lee’s two “L” Traveller, but such is the craziness sweeping the country today. One view is that nothing should be named for slave owners. By this reasoning, Stone Mountain with its carvings of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis should be blown up. Two of the four figures on Mount Rushmore, those of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, must be carved out of the mountain. That would send a message to the world of how far America has descended. The American people would have stooped to the levels of the Taliban at the Bamiyan Buddhas and ISIS in Palmya in destroying the world’s cultural heritage. On the other hand, the National Park Service said the Confederate monuments at Gettysburg shall remain just as those of the Union statues and monuments. Gettysburg is the history of the North and South. Ten Presidents of the United States owned slaves, some while President. The slave owners include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachery Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and even Ulysses S. Grant. Benjamin Franklin owned two slaves before he became an abolitionist. Francis Scott Key, who penned the Star-Spangled Banner National Anthem, owned slaves, represented slave owners seeking return of fugitive slaves, and as United States Attorney in Washington, D.C. prosecuted abolitionists. He also though represented slaves and favored shipping ex-slaves to Liberia. President Trump was derided for asking what’s next? George Washington? Thomas Jefferson? A Chicago pastor asked Mayor Rahm Emanuel to rename two parks; i.e. strip the names of President George Washington and Andrew Jackson off two Chicago parks. He suggested perhaps renaming them Harold Washington and Jesse Jackson Parks. The Reverend Al Sharpton, of Tawana Brawley fraudulent rape claim, has said it’s time to level the Jefferson Memorial. It doesn’t end going back to 1860 and secession. Nihilists in Baltimore last night trashed a 1792, 44’ obelisk of Christopher Columbus. Columbus Day is under attack in parts of the country on the grounds that Christopher Columbus unleashed the white European invasion of the Americas, subjugating and enslaving the Natives. Fr. Junipero Serra is similarly on precarious grounds. Fr. Serra, who died in 1784 is one of California’s two statues in Congress’ Statuary Hall. The Franciscan missionary founded 12 missions in California, including Carmel, Monterey, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Clara, and San Francisco. He is also accused of unleashing the Spanish mistreatment of the Native Californians. A paper was recently published seeking the renaming of Stanford University. Governor Leland Stanford, Sr. is accused of participating in the genocidal shootings of Native Californians. Of course, Stanford University is technically the Leland Stanford, Jr. University, named in memory of the son – not the father. Governor Stanford kept California in the Union during the Civil War despite a large Southern sympathy in the state. Stanford is no more likely to change its name than Brown University, which was founded/funded with slave trade revenues. Statues and monuments are falling throughout the South, and even elsewhere in the country. The key is identifying where. It is in primarily African American cities and in states like Virginia with a Democratic Governor. Many of these cities are plagued by high crime rates, high Black unemployment, poor educational systems, high drug rates, and lack of opportunity. Baltimore is a prime example. Its homicide rate is reaching astronomical levels. Confederate monuments are neither its problem nor solution. Nor is police violence the largest criminal problem in these cities. It’s easier for the politicians to demagogue the Confederacy rather than address jobs, crime, drugs, and education. However, if the citizens of these cities wish the removal of the statues and monuments, then that should be their choice. Parts of the North are seized by the paroxysm. We don’t have buildings, cities, even states, named for the nation’s founders because they owned slaves. Nor do we have monuments and statues erected for them because they owned slaves. We honor the Presidents and Generals, such as Washington, Jackson and Grant, because of their contributions to the American nation, which they created, built, and preserved. We are here today because of them. The statues and monuments to purely fighters for the South, such as many generals, including Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the KKK, are different. Their contributions were fighting for the Lost Cause. General Robert E. Lee is respected as a great military leader, but his contribution to the United States is great. The Civil War was lost by the South. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. The defeated general then preached peace and reconciliation. He did not carry on the fight. He served as an example to many Southerners to move on and rebuild. Obviously not all did. General Nathan Bedford Forrest became the national leader of the KKK. President Andrew Jackson could be doubly damned, first for being a slave owner and second for the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of Native Americans from the Southeast to the Oklahoma Territory. California’s Attorney General Earl Warren was one of the two movers of placing the Japanese Americans in concentration camps in World War II. He never apologized for his actions. A statue of President Clinton is in Rapid City, South Dakota. Juanita Broaddick and Paula Jones, two of his victims, are demanding the statue of the accused rapist be removed. Ten Army bases are named for Confederate Officers: Camp Beauregard, and Forts Benning, Bragg. Gordon, A.P. Hill, Hood, Lee, Pickett, Polk and Rucker. Two of our aircraft carriers are named for segregationist legislators, The John B. Stennis and Carl Vinson, made famous in the Osama Bin Laden raid. A third carrier is named for President George Washington. Once unleashed the frenzied fury of radical revolutionaries becomes uncontrollable, such as the French and Russian Revolutions. I see Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and Chairman Mao unleashing the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. I hope we show more sense if choosing what part of the nation’s cultural heritage to remove and retain. Statues and monuments serve as a symbol. Southerners do not aspire to the recreation of the old slave owning South. They don’t see them as a repression of African Americans. The Confederate statues and monuments represent the Southern cultural repudiation of Washington D.C. and the progressive agenda. The demolition of history does not erase history. Attempts to rewrite or obliterate history to fit a currently popular norm simply increases the ignorance level of our campus snowflakes and fragility of the “victimhood.” We see it all now – Confederate statues and monuments, Washington and Jefferson, Christopher Columbus and Fr. Serra – the obliteration of a half millennium of the history of the American people. Suddenly, revered figures become George Orwell’s “unpersons.” It’s easy to destroy; hard to build. Centuries can be erased in seconds by nihilists. George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” also phrased as “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”

Thoughts on the Charlottesville Violence

I have nothing good to say about the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and their ilk, but they have every right to demonstrate and protest. As long as they are non-violent. Antifa has every right to demonstrate and protest. As long as they are non-violent. Protesters and counter-protesters have the same rights. As long as they are non-violent. Every protester and counter-protester has a right of self-defense when attacked. Who physically started yesterday’s melee is still unclear, but self-defense does not give James Alex Fields, Jr. any right to mow down protesters with his car. I have no idea what he was thinking, but he will have plenty of time for reflection in his life in prison, quite possibly on Death Row. Reports have also surfaced about his possible insanity. The scary thing about the Charlottesville violence is that it is becoming more common in the United States with the decline of civil discourse. More often it’s the left resorting to violence, be it at Berkeley, Chicago, Claremont McKenna, Davis, Evergreen State, Middlebury College, or Missouri. A pro-trump rally in Anaheim was attacked by anti-Trump protestors on May 25, 2016. Provocateurs were hired to disrupt Trump rallies last year. A Bernie Sanders supporter tried to assassinate Republican members of Congress in Alexandria, Virginia at a baseball practice on June 14, 2017. President Obama never referred to Radical Islam Terrorism, even calling the Fort Hood shootings “workplace violence.” Yet the media is throwing a hissy-fit because President Trump initially decried all acts of violence in Charlottesville rather than singling out the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists. The failure in Charlottesville was the extreme pacificity, at least initially, by law enforcement. By way of comparison, the Seattle Police interposed themselves between the protesters and counter-protesters yesterday, reducing the risk of violence. Police forces should have learned from Berkeley, Baltimore, and Ferguson that failure to act decisively at the beginning leads to greater violence in these incidents. The city vehemently claims that no order was issued to the Charlottesville police to stand down. If so, they were poorly led, poorly prepared or poorly trained. The President of the University of Virginia, Mayor of Charlottesville, and Governor of Virginia all condemned the rally before it began, adding to the poisoned atmosphere in the city. The Mayor afterwards accused President Trump of being responsible for the violence.