Tom Faranda's Folly

Suicide rates continue to rise

Tragic. But why should this be a surprise? How many states now allow assisted suicide, or have (like NY State) pending legislation. Another manifestation of the Culture of Death.   A good video embedded, if you hit the link.

In a report that examines trends in suicide at the state level from 1999 to 2016, the CDC says suicide rates have increased in nearly every state. In half the states, the agency found the rate rose more than 30 percent.

In releasing the report — the same week fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead by suicide — CDC officials noted that more than half of those who died by suicide — 54 percent — did not have a known diagnosed mental health condition.

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In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans 10 or older died by suicide....

 

Opioids were present in 31 percent of those who died by suicide. While Stone acknowledged that a person’s intentions are not always clear when drugs are present, these were deemed to be suicides by self-inflicted poisoning.

In a 2016 report, the CDC found that U.S. suicide rates jumped 24 percent from 1999 to 2014. That rise was driven by stark increases in suicides by white women and Native Americans.

In the age group of greatest vulnerability to suicide — 45 to 64 — that report found rates among women in 2014 vaulted 80 percent over 1999’s rates. The trend has begun to close a longstanding gender gap in suicide, in which men were far more likely to take their own lives.

Dr. Steven H. Woolf, a Virginia Commonwealth University physician who has studied suicide in the U.S., says the trend of rising self-harm is now well established.

Prime Minister of Japan comments on Donald Trump

Shinzo Abe. For all you Trump-haters... of either Party.

Aaron Judge's recent baseball record

A dubious one. Striking out eight times over the course of a doubleheader.

Aaron Judge struck out 8 times Monday, setting new MLB record

 

Rudy Giuliani's stupid comment

What's the point of this? The North Korean leaders hate to be snubbed and this is just the sort of comment to make them more intransigent. Really, really dumb.

 

Article on "The World as it Is" - about Barack Obama

I just read a really good political book Chasing Hillary by Amy Chozick, the NY Times reporter who followed Clinton for her past two campaigns - almost ten years. Only the third politics book I can ever remember reading (Others were Man of the House by Tip O'Neill and What I Saw at the Revolution by Peggy Noonan) and I won't be reading this one. But the article below about this book The World as it Is, is pretty right on.

Thanks to Maria for sending the article to me. The guy who wrote the book - Ben Rhodes - was a Deputy National Security Advisor. Excerpts below the link - the total article is 12 paragraphs.

Barack Obama’s revealing reaction to Trump’s 2016 victory

“In the weeks after Mr. Trump’s election,” Baker reports, “Mr. Obama went through multiple emotional stages,” including flashes of “anger,” “rare self-doubt,” and taking “the long view.” Do not think, however, that during the final weeks of his presidency Barack Obama was withdrawn or more self-obsessed than usual. People needed him. The day after the election, Baker continues, “Mr. Obama focused on cheering up his despondent staff.”

For example — and here is the line that confuses me — “he sent a message to Mr. Rhodes saying, ‘There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.'”

Say What? ...

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Obama’s words once again revealed his colossal lack of self-awareness. The passages of The World As It Is that Baker quotes in his piece reinforce the widespread impression of our 44th president as an aloof, smug, vainglorious chief executive totally divorced from political reality. The shock, disgust, confusion, and horror with which Obama and his team greeted the election results exemplified the very attitudes toward democratic procedure and populist conservatism that fueled Trump’s rise. The only lesson Barack Obama drew from the election was confirmation of his own moral superiority.

Even the former president’s moments of “self-doubt” were framed as opportunities for lackeys to remind him of his greatness. Rhodes describes a ride in the presidential limousine during which Obama asked, “What if we were wrong?” A leading question no matter the situation, particularly when the man posing it is president of the United States. What did Obama expect Rhodes to say — “Yes, Mr. President, we royally screwed the pooch?”

... “Maybe we pushed too far,” he mused. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.” No question his fellow passengers that day reassured him that no, no, he did everything he could to bend the arc of history a little more toward justice. It’s not your fault, Mr. President. You didn’t push too far. All you did was troll Donald Trump into running for president in the first place, stand by while Ferguson and Baltimore rioted and burned, give Iran billions in exchange for empty promises, allow Russia to establish a beachhead in the Middle East for the first time in half a century, browbeat Israel at every opportunity, ram through Obamacare after Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts, preside over the mass migration of children across the southern border in 2014, expand the DACA amnesty despite saying 22 times you lacked authority to do so, use the permanent structure of government to devastate the Appalachian economy, convince half of America that liberals were ready to take their guns (this wasn’t hard to do), have your Education Department issue orders that led to the campus-assault craze and the deterioration of classroom discipline and that, months before a presidential election, mandated trans-bathrooms in schools, have your Justice Department preside over a sloppy (I’m being charitable) investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server that included, at one point, your attorney general secretly meeting with the husband of the subject of the investigation on an airport tarmac, muscle out Joe Biden, who might have won, from the race, and hand the party back to the less likable half of America’s most polarizing and corrupt political couple. Not to mention the eight years of lecturing. Oh, the lecturing.

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... “Sometimes I wonder whether I was ten or 20 years too early,” he says in the book. What was he early for? “Fundamentally transforming America”? “The moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow”? For the death of the olds who stood in his way?

Imagine carrying the burden of Barack Obama, of being too enlightened, sophisticated, mature for his time. In his conceit that historical progress is assured and irreversible, and that challenges to such progress are reducible to irrational prejudice, Obama is a paradigmatic liberal. Yet America’s frequent elections, tendency to rotate offices, decentralization of power, avenues for the expression of popular discontent, and multiple veto points continually frustrated his desires. By the end of his second term, he was expending a great deal of energy working around the constitutional structure established in 1789 and amended 27 times since.

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Last year, it was Merkel’s turn for electoral repudiation. Then Italians repudiated their elites last March. Unlike their American counterparts, however, the undemocratic liberals of Europe have sophisticated ways of bypassing popular sentiment. Obama must be envious. No third term for him, either literally or figuratively. Instead Hillary is out, Angela is alone, and Obama is left with his $65 million book deal, his “high-eight-figure” Netflix deal, and, above all, his vanity intact.

Never gets old - Essex RFC: "The Story of '76"

Third year in a row I've posted this. It never gets old! Now 42 years ago...

Ahhh, 40 years ago - June fifth, 1976. In Downing Stadium, a Rugby Festival with four games. After three New York teams all get steamrolled by English sides, the England Champions Gosforth take on the NY champions - and my club - Essex. Along with Colin Kiley, I was co-captain of the team - in those days there were two captains, one for the backs and one for the forwards. We had won the NY Championship by going 5-0 in the first division.

The final score, Gosforth 17, Essex 8.

The following is excerpted from the Essex Rugby Club 1978 brochure - thanks to Brigid for scanning in the pictures and for my friend and business associate Judy for typing in the text.

 

The Story of ‘76

Training for the Spring, 1976 Season was hampered by late winter snow. The March 13^th opener against Manhattan was delayed one hour while players waited out a fierce hailstorm which left the field wet in some spots and ice-covered in others. This was not the type of weather in which to take on the seasoned Manhattan Pack. To make matters worse, U.S. Eagle Tom Selfridge had been installed in the back row by Manhattan and both experienced Essex fly-halves were unavailable for the match. Both sides felt each other out until the fifteenth minute when Mike Kenefick and newcomer Bill Gardner combined for a try in the corner. Early in the second-half Bruce Corrigan stole an errant Manhattan pass and raced fifty yards to score under the posts with Krenn converting for a 10-0 lead. From that point Essex held on for a 10-8 victory and the club’s first ever “big game” win.

Essex continued to improve as the season progressed to the point where it had won eight of its first nine matches and was looking ahead toward a showdown with Old Blue to determine the Met Union Championship. The new, young players were providing speed and enthusiasm and were meshing nicely with several of the more experienced originals who by now had developed some sense of what the game was all about. As the match which would determine the championship drew near, Essex was thinking and playing confidently.

Prior to May 8, 1976 Essex had never beaten Old Blue’s first XV. No sooner had the game begun than Essex spotted the opposition to a 0-6 lead and it looked as though they might never beat them. Winger Bob Piazza dummied two defenders and went in for a try from the weak side to get Essex rolling and the ever present Peter Cozens blocked a kick, scooped up the loose ball and turned it into four points as Essex rolled up 17 points before Old Blue was able to strike again. The 17-14 final victory assured the Essex Rugby Club of the 1976 Metropolitan New York Rugby Union Championship and some long awaited recognition. It also won for Essex the right to be the final opponent for England’s touring John Player Cup Champions, the Gosforth Football Club.

With one week to prepare for England’s finest club side, severe anxiety set in. Reports of the rugged Gosforth pack anchored by Irish and British Lion prop Ray McLoughlin filtered down from Boston where the tourists were manhandling some of the finest American club and select sides. In addition to hosting the party loving Englishmen for two days prior to the match, Essex had to witness a Fylde massacre of Old Maroon only minutes before taking the field. The eighty minutes that followed have to be considered the club’s finest hour. The Essex forwards contested the much heavier, veteran Gosforth pack at every turn. Tom Faranda was nothing less than outstanding in checking his opposite number, Steve Smith of Sale and England. Corrigan, Kiley, McDonough and Cozens covered by field. Mike Kenefick and Tom Crowley in the centers stopped every Gosforth rush, often well behind the line and penetrated the English defenses on any number of occasions. Bill Gardner and Peter Ferrara scored unconverted trys, the latter of which saw at least nine Essex players handling the ball. The 8-17 victory for Gosforth was the closest call that they had on their tour and unquestionably a victory for the Essex Rugby Club and the 2,000 or so New York area spectators.

Forty years later, thinking about why we didn't get blown out:

1. We were motivated to do well
2. We had good players at every position and a good bench - no weaknesses
3. Gosforth had been on tour for almost two weeks and this was their last game - and it was hot out!

My recollection is that the post-match party was pretty good!

Pope Francis says no to German intercommunion proposal

This is an interesting article which goes a long way in presenting Catholic teaching on reception of the Eucharist.

One month after Vatican and German delegates met in Rome to discuss a proposal put forward by German bishops to allow Protestant spouses in inter-denominational marriages to receive the Eucharist in certain circumstances, Pope Francis has rejected it.

In a letter dated May 25 and addressed to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and president of the German bishops conference, Cardinal-elect Luis Ladaria SJ, the Vatican’s top authority on matters of doctrine, said the text of the German proposal “raises a series of problems of considerable importance.”

The letter was published June 4 on the blog of veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister.

The Holy See press office has confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which was also sent to members of the German delegation who attended a May 3 meeting between German prelates and Vatican official on the topic in Rome, including Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne; Bishop Felix Genn of Münster; Bishop Karl-Heinz Wieseman of Speyer; Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg and Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg.

After speaking with Pope Francis about the matter in light of the May 3 discussion, Ladaria said the pope “came to the conclusion that the document is not mature enough to be published,” and cited three main reasons for the decision.

First, Ladaria stressed that admission to Communion of Protestant spouses in inter-confessional marriages “is a topic that touches the faith of the Church and has relevance for the universal Church.”

Allowing non-Catholics to receive the Eucharist, even in certain limited conditions, would also have an impact on ecumenical relations with other Churches and ecclesial communities “which should not be underestimated.”

Finally, he said the question of Communion is a matter of Church law, and cited canon 844 of the Code of Canon Law, which deals with access to the Sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Specifically, canon 844 states that “Catholic ministers administer the sacraments licitly to Catholic members of the Christian faithful alone, who likewise receive them licitly from Catholic ministers alone,” apart from a number of exceptions spelled out in the canon.

These exceptions include allowing non-Catholic Christians to receive the sacraments of Confession, the Eucharist, and the Anointing of the Sick by non-Catholic ministers in churches where these sacraments are valid “whenever necessity requires it or true spiritual advantage suggests it, and provided that danger of error or of indifferentism is avoided.”

More if you hit the link above.

Supreme Court rules baker doesn't have to bake wedding cake for gay couple

UPDATE: According to the WSJ, this sets no precedent: SC "ducked a decision on whether religious merchants can deny service to gay people, finding that a Christian baker didn’t get a fair hearing before a state civil-rights commission but issuing no broader precedent."

Vote is 7-2.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor cast the lone dissenting votes, splitting from their liberal colleagues Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, who voted with the majority. Phillips’ attorneys argued that he would never refuse general service to a gay person, but stipulated that his religious beliefs prevented him from creating custom wedding cakes for same-sex celebration.

The ruling does not broadly empower merchants to deny service based on sexual orientation but rather narrowly addresses the question of whether the Colorado Civil Rights Commission demonstrated hostility toward Phillips’ religious views in ruling against him.

In defending the majority opinion, Kennedy cited Colorado state law, which at the time held that merchants were entitled to decline to print specific messages demeaning gay people and other groups.

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The ruling represents a widely-anticipated follow up the Supreme Court’s 2015 nationwide extension of gay marriage. Kennedy seemed to signal his future support for religious conservatives in authoring that landmark opinion.

 

“It must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned,” Kennedy wrote at the time.

 

Rugby: "My son the back"

Of course you have to understand rugby; and if you do you'll find this amusing. Thanks to my friend John out in Australia. Historically the Cayman Island's best flyhalf.

 

Bill Clinton on his current life and new novel (with author James Patterson)

A short and interesting video. You can see the new book here. #1 on amazon on pre-order.

He does look older than his 71 years. 

And here's a little bonus about the book.

 

NYT's Maureen Dowd crushes Obama - "Just Too Good For Us"

Wow. A devastating column. Column based on the new book coming out about Obama by his advisor Ben Rhodes “The World as It Is,”

WASHINGTON — It was a moment of peak Spock. Hours after the globe-rattling election of a man whom Barack Obama has total disdain for, a toon who would take a chain saw to the former president’s legacy on policy and decency, Obama sent a message to his adviser Ben Rhodes: “There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.”

Perhaps Obama should have used a different line with a celestial theme by Shakespeare: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

As president, Obama always found us wanting. We were constantly disappointing him. He would tell us the right thing to do and then sigh and purse his lips when his instructions were not followed.

Shortly after Donald Trump was elected, Rhodes writes in his new book, “The World as It Is,” Obama asked his aides, “What if we were wrong?”

But in his next breath, the president made it clear that what he meant was: What if we were wrong in being so right? What if we were too good for these people?

“Maybe we pushed too far,” the president continued. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.”

So really, he’s not acknowledging any flaws but simply wondering if we were even more benighted than he thought. He’s saying that, sadly, we were not enlightened enough for the momentous changes wrought by the smartest people in the world — or even evolved enough for the first African-American president.

“Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early,” Obama mused to aides.

We just weren’t ready for his amazing awesomeness.

It is stunning to me, having been on the road with Barack Obama in the giddy, evanescent days of 2008, that he does not understand his own historic rise to power, how he defied impossible odds and gracefully leapt over obstacles.

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... by the end of his second term, he had lost the narrative about lifting up people, about buoying them on economic issues and soothing their jitters about globalization. They needed to know, what’s in it for them?

He pushed aside his loyal vice president, who was considered an unguided missile, and backed a woman who had no economic message and who almost used the slogan, “Because It’s Her Turn.” Then he put his own reputation for rectitude at risk by pre-emptively exonerating Hillary Clinton on the email issue, infuriating federal agents who were still investigating the case.

The hunger for revolutionary change, the fear that some people were being left behind in America and that no one in Washington cared, was an animating force at the boisterous rallies for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Yet Obama, who had surfed a boisterous wave into the Oval, ignored the restiveness — here and around the world. He threw his weight behind the most status quo, elitist candidate.

Hit the link above for the whole thing.

Michael Moore contacts me; Suggests Trump-Roseanne 2020 ticket

I guess to run against a Michael Moore-Samantha Bee ticket?

Here is a 30 second video on Moore's facebook page (1998 as he is with Trump and Roseanne)

https://www.facebook.com/mmflint/videos/10155310005541857/

And here's the text of his long, somewhat very tedious letter - I'm on his mailing list -

I have known Roseanne Barr for over 25 years. I've known her as Roseanne Barr, Roseanne Arnold, just "Roseanne", then back to Roseanne Barr. I've spent time in her home, criss-crossed the country with her to help remove George W. Bush from the White House, appeared on her shows, been there for her when she needed something, and connected her with one of my producers who did an insightful, one-of-a-kind documentary into the genius and the tragedy that is Roseanne Barr.

On Tuesday Roseanne posted hateful, slanderous tweets directed at four people: George Soros, Valerie Jarrett, Chelsea Clinton and me. A few hours later, she was fired by ABC.

For the past few years, Roseanne has been posting the craziest stuff on Twitter, like claiming Hillary was part of a child sex abuse ring being run out of a DC pizza place. She's claimed that the Clintons have murdered people. And anyone who criticizes Benjamin Netanyahu is a "nazi."

Roseanne seems to be suffering from some sort of madness. It's more than just saying she's a racist. She operates in the same sewer of lies, conspiracy theories and bigotry that's been rising in America for years and that has now succeeded in electing our current president. Totally nuts.

Here's who's not crazy: Donald J. Trump.

Trump, though he shows all the signs of being absolutely bonkers, is not insane. He's the real deal. His racism and hate is real, it's well thought-out, he's the true master of manipulation, a brilliant performance artist, and an evil genius. He outsmarted a nation of liberals and Democrats and won the White House by losing the actual vote of the people. He neutered and then destroyed the Grand Old Republican Party. He knows exactly what he is doing.

Roseanne, on the other hand, is a person who long ago broke through and brought an authentic voice of working women and men to television via one of the greatest TV series of all time. It was groundbreaking because the TV industry had historically either ignored, ridiculed or patronized those of us who grew up in the working class. Roseanne changed that.

But she is also a damaged soul. Most people don't know that she has suffered her entire life from a massive head injury she received during a serious car accident when she was a child. Her brain injuries were immense and she spent months in the hospital struggling to recover.

I also have no idea what it was like to grow up, as she did, as a Jewish girl in Salt Lake City. Not a tolerant state, to be sure. She told me how her parents, who owned an apartment building, were asked by the U.S. government after World War II if they would be willing to house Holocaust survivors who had come to the U.S. as refugees. Her parents took dozens in, and Roseanne's childhood was spent with these survivors as her "family." "The stories they told me," she said, "were filled with unimaginable horror. I've always wondered what effect that had on me as a little girl."

Now, sadly, for the past few years, Roseanne has been in a downward spiral, ranting like crazy on Twitter, spreading conspiracy theories, attacking the people she used to love, supporting Trump, and being just an outright hateful and racist person. It has been a difficult decline to witness. She has repeatedly attacked me, and on Tuesday, after calling George Soros a "Nazi" (he's a Jew and a Holocaust survivor), Valerie Jarrett an offspring "of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes," and saying that Chelsea was "married to" a Nazi relative of George Soros, she then retweeted a disgusting new word for me because I have spoken out against the Netanyahu government and its killing of Palestinians -- "#JewHater". Nonstop insanity and sickness.

I guess there might be 20 million Americans (out of 320 million) who probably agree with her. She has thrown down with the lowest of the low, and who knows if she’ll ever recover from this descent into her own personal hell.

To close, I want to say just how great the new Roseanne show was. It was funny but brutal to watch because it showed how our system of greed has hurt millions of families like the Connors of Illinois. On the final episode last week, Roseanne was addicted to opioids because she couldn't afford the knee surgery she needed, so she suffered along in agonizing pain. Dan, her husband, in order to raise money for her surgery, decided to take a non-union job -- and Roseanne berates him for doing so and letting his union brothers and sisters down. There are a couple quick knocks on Trump, making it clear that the real Roseanne was not writing or running this show. For the past 9 weeks, the new Roseanne show has shined a powerful and necessary light on what it means to be working class in 2018. Her blended family on this new series was white and black and LGBTQ, and her generous neighbors next door were Muslims who forced her to confront her own bigotry.

If only her art could have helped her in her real life.

(Also, let me say this: There's no reason the show has to go just because she's gone. Over the years, TV has found ways to bring Bobby Ewing back from the dead on “Dallas”, forced us to accept the two Darrins on “Bewitched”, and found ways for hit shows to survive when their stars bolted after a year or two [David Caruso on "NYPD Blue", Pernell Roberts on "Bonanza"]. The smart people who were writing this Roseanne series can surely find a way to let the non-bigoted portion of the America's working class [which I can tell you is the VAST majority] have their voice heard on network television. Why should it be silenced by one lost soul?)

 

 

NY Times on NY State spending $15 million to build a film studio - and then selling it for 1 dollar.

That's a 1 with no zeroes.

A $15 million state-built film studio outside Syracuse, which promised to produce hundreds of jobs and bring Hollywood’s glitter to Central New York, hit an inglorious milestone on Friday with its sale to a new corporation set up by Onondaga County to manage it. The price? $1. The flop of the Central New York Film Hub, built by frequent and generous donors to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo who are facing federal corruption charges, had been presaged almost since its announcement in 2014, when the governor wondered aloud the miracle of the concept. “Who would have ever figured: Hollywood comes to Onondaga, right?” Mr. Cuomo said. “You would have never guessed. But it has.” It actually never did.

I guess we deserve Andrew Cuomo.

Economy is booming -

Here's what I posted yesterday -Good news: "A Record Month for Raises"

And here are other headlines and a CNN business report.

CNBC - The US economy suddenly looks like it's unstoppable

Washington Examiner - Black unemployment rate hits new record low in May

Breitbart - Atlanta Fed Boosts Second Quarter GDP Forecast to 4.8%

All good news - although Mrs. Pelosi doesn't think so.

Here is CNN - a pretty good several minute video on the economy -

 

Funny: German tennis player can't understand Yorkshire reporter's accent...

And Brigid is a good Yorkshirewoman - but she has what's called a "Public School" or "BBC" accent. With the term public school meaning private school. Sent to me by Brigid's neice June, who is down under in Australia.

Good news: "A Record Month for Raises"

From the WSJ -

The highest number of companies lifting wages in the history of the NFIB survey.

The number of small companies raising wages hit a record high in the U.S. this month. That’s according to the latest National Federation of Independent Business employment survey, due out later today. A full 35% of owners of small firms report increasing labor compensation, the highest percentage since NFIB started asking about it in 1986.

Companies have been looking to increase hiring and are paying more to attract scarce workers. “Reports of employment gains remain strong among small businesses. Owners reported adding a net 0.20 workers per firm on average, slower than earlier in the year but strong. The availability of qualified workers is impeding the growth in employment. Job openings are at record high levels,& rdquo; adds NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg.

NFIB also finds that 23% of business owners now cite the difficulty of finding qualified workers as their “single most important business problem.” This is just one percentage point below the record high set in 2000. The labor shortage is most acute in the construction industry, with 57% of such firms reporting current job openings. Other industries where wages are also rising to attract workers include transportation, travel, communication, utilities and manufacturing.

“Labor markets are very tight, for both skilled and unskilled workers,” adds Mr. Dunkel berg, who is expecting a further decline in the unemployment rate when the Labor Department on Friday issues its monthly report on the broader U.S. economy. The NFIB economist is expecting the government will report “job creation around 170,000, absent a surprise increase in the labor force participation rate.”

Such a surprise would be most welcome. It would likely signal that discouraged workers who left the job market during the recent era of sluggish economic growth are rejoining the workforce to seize new opportunities.