Monday, July 14, 2014

Radio and More

Books

Hello Anyone. I'm reading a biography of Earl Warren, called "Chief Justice." It's a really good and interesting work by an author named Cray. Though Warren was an interesting guy, the biography is a medium to read a lot about American history, particularly that of California.

Warren was governor for three terms and had been Attorney General. He was so popular that - though a Republican - when running for re-election, he received the nominations of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

He was also friendly with most Republicans and most Democrats both during his political and judicial careers. Imagine that happening today. Good book.


Radio

For anyone who's interested, we've been off the air for a while now, but not for too much longer. Though I've written on my Facebook page (facebook.com/Jefferson.Bushman.radio) about this, GoingBeyondRadio.com has bitten the dust, so we had to find a new Internet network. We were trying 1000mikes.com and the tech support people are great, but the system's a bit klunky (guests and callers, for example, have to go to the website for the show, while it's on, register their number and THEN call in - sheesh!). So we're looking for (and think we've found) a new home. Watch this space (as well as Facebook and Twitter, if you'd care to follow us ; for Twitter, I'm @jeffbushman1 - the last character is the number one as a digit).

You Don't Have to Use Facebook or Twitter

I spend at least once a week on each of these services, and they're great. However, not everyone has either or wants to follow someone, so here's the deal. Beginning now, I'm going to be copying my entries to a word processing doc, then moving them to this blog.

So if you're already reading this (and I'm talking to both of you, now), you can continue to do so every week or so, and you won't have missed anything from the Facebook and Twitter feeds, except - sometimes - some of the context.

Speaking of Which....Trivia

A trivia question I gave to my Facebook friends was the following:

William Henry Harrison was the first U.S. president to die in office. His VP took over as provided for in the constitution. Who became John Tyler's Vice President? 

The answer's a bit further down, so you won't be tempted. Control yourself!!!

Sometimes, It Just Feels Good

The other day, in my process serving business (if you're in AZ, LighthouseAttorney.blogspot.com) I had a chance to do something honest and moral or to choose short-term economic self-interest. 

Since I'm telling the story, you know which I chose (please don't submit your guess; there's no prize), but because of having dealt with some people of questionable morality, for a long time, it felt good to do the right thing. As it turns out, it appears to have worked to my advantage, but it really didn't matter, since it felt so good to be able to make the right choice, before I knew it would help me. This doesn't make me a saint, just lucky.

And the reality is that before I knew the result, it just felt good to be straightforward. May I recommend that?


Citibank Pays $7 Billion

OK, Citibank paid the US government $7 billion to settle civil claims that would have been the subject of a suit by the Attorney General's office, for the bank's participation in fraudulent marketing of mortgage-backed securities that helped create the 2008 financial crisis.

The settlement tells us a couple of things.

First it suggests that Citibank is one of those institutions that needs to be broken up into smaller pieces. If it can afford to fork over $7 Billion, it's too big. The only reason it's TOO big is that it and the other "too big" banks could be part of the next financial crisis and the banks really are too big to be allowed to fail since that would severely damage the economy.

If banks were smaller, those with problems could be allowed to fail and not take the economy with them. It's happened already and the banks were bailed out by you and me, through our government. If they were broken up, that wouldn't be required to save the economy, as it was the last time.

The other thing the settlement suggests is that the bank feared the ultimate penalty could've been larger. That indicates they were really dirty in the mortgage crisis.

Trivia Answer

The answer is that John Tyler didn't have a VP. Until after JFK was killed and Johnson served without a vice president, no one gave serious consideration to the constitution's failure to fill such a vacancy. Then, a constitutional amendment was passed that provided for a new veep to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. The first one to be so appointed? Gerald Ford, but you already knew that.

Word From Sponsor

You may notice the Amazon banner at the top. If you already buy from Amazon, please click on that banner to shop. They won't charge you anymore, but if you buy something, they'll send us a few cents. Thanks.

And Finally....

We'll see you on the radio. I don't know quite when, but we will. Really.

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