OOPS!

OOPS!

(Lloyd Borrett, Thor data, Russian Times, Historical Records Declassified Guide)

(R.L. Ashley, Edwin Bliss Munsell, Solomon H. Wasserman, Eric Schlosser, Frazer Chronicle)

 

There is an effort afoot to develop a data-base that will identify where every bomb was dropped during World War II.  Like many of you, I read a newspaper article about the United States Air Force dropping a hydrogen device on North Carolina back in 1961. Okay so maybe North Carolina isn’t the greatest state in the union, and their college sport teams are called TAR HEELS, but that’s really not a reason to nuke them.

 

The incident is simply further evidence that an unchecked military, devoid of rules and regulations that govern and control it can lead to human frailties and mistakes that can carry a huge impact on civilian life. It’s exactly one of the reasons that government never, ever must be more powerful then the country that it serves.

 

There are chronicled mistakes on the battle-field, excessive force, genocide type action, the unnecessary deaths of civilians, the less then amiable treatment of prisoners, and civilians. Every military force has a bloodied history of unnecessary military blunders that…..after careful inspection might have been intended…..without regard for human life.

 

In January 1961 a B-52 bomber carrying two hydrogen bombs departed for a routine flight along the eastern coast. Shortly after take-off the plane went into some sort of a tailspin, ejecting both devices, and according to reports, one of the devices actually deployed its parachute like a normal bomb run, and the only thing that kept the bombs from detonating was some sort of fail-safe switches onboard the bombs.

 

AND THE NUMBER IS

My question(s) has little to do with the near miss in North Carolina back in the day; rather I’d like to know how many other OOPS are out there. Is our military establishment running A-MUCK, and where we…..as concerned citizens get a record of these types of potential life taking mistakes, and incidents?

 

Are we simply pushing the envelope of the inevitable, when we are either in, or are reading about some bomb dropping, a ship shooting, or a drone making a (mistaken swoop) on some elementary school in Buckley, Wyoming? Where does military protection stop, and become more a threat then the perceived threat? It’s kind of like the friend of my enemy is my friend, is my…..,its about right here that the lines, (for me) gets blurred!

 

I figured that there had to be more than just one, two or three near disasters, and also that there had been a few accidents…..after all, we’re not talking about some simple chemical compound here, it is nuclear materials that can kill either in the blink of an eye, or a decade or two later…..but all the same, an abnormal nuclear does is a killer.

 

What I discovered during the course of my research kind of flabbergasted me; of course there was nothing before the 1940’s, unless Tunguska, Siberia, Russia could be counted as a nuclear accident. The criteria for listing a military accident or disaster was quite simple, (which I always like):

1. There must be well-attested and substantial health damage, property damage, or contamination.

2. The damage must be related directly to radioactive material, not merely (for example) at a nuclear power plant.

3. To qualify as a (military) accident, the nuclear operation/material must be principally for military purposes.

4. To qualify as an (accident/disaster) the damage should not be intentional, unlike in nuclear warfare.

 

The above four qualifiers really made my search simple except for the fact that the number of nuclear accidents, (NOT INCLUDING CIVILIAN ACCIDENTS, OR DISASTERS,) was actually almost overwhelming. Not surprisingly the major number of accidents occurred during the 1950’s and 1960’s when there were 21 in the 50’s, and another 20 in the 60’s. The numbers drop significantly in the 1970’s, 10, and the 1980’s, 7.

 

In the 1990’s, and early 2000’s there has been only one disaster, or an oops in each decade, in other words, technology was being refined, and predictably the number of accidents…..at least that have been reported have dropped.

 

Now I know what an oops means, a mistake, a goof-up, or not doing a job to the best of one’s effort, you do not want your doctor saying oops, your auto mechanic, or your plumber. Anybody with a title sounding official (I think plumber sounds official), you definitely do not want people handling nuclear weapons to have that word in their vocabulary.      

 

But these early accidents, actually pioneers of the atomic age of warfare were costly in loss of life, as an April 1950 accident resulted in the loss of 13 crewmen when a plane crashed with carrying a nuclear device and four detonators.

 

However worse than any accident or disaster in terms of human loss was probably the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands that was the site of 23 U.S. nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958. Bikini Atoll was inhabited for over 3000 years before the U.S.’s 1946 atomic program begin. The peaceful brown skinned islanders lived an idyllic life, producing marketable copra coconut oil, and fished for their lunch, and dinner.

 

HOWEVER THAT ALL CHANGED

The idyllic life of the islanders changed forever shortly after World War II when President Truman directed the Army and Navy officials to secure a site for testing the newest human destroying devise that the U.S. was playing with…..and yes, the military officials, the politicians, and the scientists were doing just that…..playing!

 

After each and every inhabitant of the tinny island was relocated, the world’s emerging leader in mass destruction began in earnest to develop and test their brand new and improved version of their Hiroshima and Nagasaki droppings.

 

The military was ecstatic, and many in the science community felt like they’d be locked in a candy store with access to every kind of chocolate on the face of the earth. Removing of the Micronesian inhabitants from the atoll proved a bit harder than expected, but after Navy Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, military governor of the Marshall Islands implored the islanders to relocate for “the good of mankind, and to end all world wars,” they did acquiesce, dissolving the last hurdle blocking the testing program.

 

Things that happened during the twelve odd years that testing was carried on reads like a Julies Vern futuristic novel. The Bikini Atoll lagoon was designated a ship graveyard by the United States Navy, as during the length of the testing there were 95 ships of all shapes and sizes brought into the waters of the lagoon. Carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, attack transports, landing ships and auxiliary vessels from across the world.

 

The proxy fleet would have made the sixth largest naval fleet in the world, at the time. All the ships in the proxy carried varying amounts of fuel, live ordnance; airplanes were positioned on the aircraft carriers, their wings loaded with ammo. Live animals including goats were positioned on the ships and shore to test for the impact of living creatures…..all in all a bizarre situation.

 

CODE NAME CASTLE BRAVO AND THE RUSKIES

Eight years into testing on the atoll the Castle series begin between February and May 1954, with five at the Bikini site. The Castle series introduced a different mechanism to fuel the bombs, from dry fuel, and a practical fusion weapon. Operation Bravo testing included four dry fuel designs, two wet bombs and a smaller device.

 

On March 1, 1954 a device codenamed Castle Bravo, the first test of a practical bomb, was detonated at dawn, and was the largest nuclear explosion ever created by the United States…..about 1000 times more powerful then each of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in World War II.

 

The scientists and military authorities in attendance at the test were first scared crapless, and then shocked by the size of the explosion. Many of the instruments that were stationed to evaluate the effectiveness of the device were destroyed during the initial detonation.

 

The fallout from the explosion spread traces of radioactive material as far as Australia, India and Japan, and even the United States and parts of Europe. Organized as a secret test, Castle Bravo quickly created an international incident, prompting calls for a ban on atmospheric testing of thermonuclear devices.

 

The good old United States always looking to set records, become the first to do things, and the nation willing to perform grandiose exhibitions did not let her citizens or the world community down. The U.S. became the first country to shun a world-wide call for a unilateral cessation of above ground nuclear testing. The United States detonated 60 additional atmospheric tests until the last detonation on July 22, 1958.

 

Do we need a cool hand at the throttle of our military might…..absolutely, just another in the long line of issues, people, and situations that we…..as Americans need to be aware of…..and be ready to take to the streets in collected protests about any invasions, or for God’s sake, any use of nuclear devices of any kind.

 

STAY VIGILANT MY FRIENDS

HAVE A NICE DAY!

NASA WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

NASA WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

(Huffington Post, Al Jazeera America)

(The Weekly Standard, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I’m sitting here in my warm house, secure in the fact that at least for the foreseeable future my wife and I won’t be bothered or threatened with unpaid bills, or where our next meal will be coming from. Our medical bills, life giving prescriptions and my cable T.V. are in no danger of being denied or turned off. Life at least for now is running along on a pretty even keel, and for that I am thankful.

 

However in our country, in our cities, inner cities, neighborhoods, villages, and in the hills and dales we are experiencing problems with people’s basic needs and status in their lives. Jobs are tight, money is, well…..hard to find, whether you’re looking for a job or you just want to rip somebody off. Pretty much, good luck on either search.

 

Did you ever wonder why people at food pantries or those folks who use food stamps at your local market are fat, look completely out of shape, are haggard, and have a forlorn look, an almost vacant stare? Do you, like me wonder why these people have three or four kids, who look unkempt, and always seem to be out of control, running hither and dither?

 

These types of people (a mixture at least here in Green Bay, Wisconsin), really know no exacting race or ethnic group of people. I’m sure in inner cities around the country; the demographics would dictate a majority of peoples of color, brown and black. However here in Green Bay the majority of recipients are white people, so the argument about lazy blacks or Hispanics, or Asians can’t be raised as an argument.

 

I’ve written about this malady in our country in the past, and if you’ve been paying attention, you know that I feel that there are a certain number of people, a small minority, that are going to need help from the womb to the grave…..it’s their plight in life, and really a disheartening, debilitating condition that just maybe, given the right direction, many of these people could be helped up to a better position, and a more productive life. Many of these people don’t want a hand out; they want a hand-up.

 

NASA DOESN’T HAVE A PROBLEM…..WE DO

The National Aeronautics Space Administration who always seems to be groping for taxpayer dollars is in a relatively safe place, like me and mine, they get by rather well…..thank you. I just used the heading today because I thought it sounded neat, and it was kind of a metaphor…..(although NASA doesn’t have trouble getting money, poor people do.)

 

The United States Department of Agriculture oversees the United States food stamp program, technically known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The program is operated by state governments under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Anybody can apply for SNAP, but you and others in your household must have meet minimum standards, and either must have, or will apply for a Social Security number and be either a U.S. citizen U.S. national or have status as a qualified alien.

 

There are a whole host of qualifying questions, conditions and residency issues that need to be addressed, meaning that there is a wide range of chances to fleece the program through all sorts of dubious activity. Conservatives scream about big government not functioning in a relevant fashion…..and at least in the case of SNAP, it simply isn’t true, the program structure itself is the problem, not the fed. If everybody dealt fairly and honestly, there would be no problem, trust by the fed never, ever works.

 

At the beginning of this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released new statistics regarding the SNAP program, and close to 48,000,000 people were listed as recipients and users of the program. Of course it didn’t break down which types of people used the program, like illegal aliens, college students, cheaters and those who were ineligible but still received help because they were ignorant to the eligibility, or more to the point ineligibility.

 

I’ll be damned if I’m going to get into why American citizens should be eligible for SNAP, it’s a tired argument and one that has been argued here before. All I’ll say is that Republicans seem to be like law enforcement, all perpetrators are guilty until they prove themselves innocent.

 

What I mean by that is that some people need assistance, just like the Pentagon, or the returning hero’s from the ravages of war…..or the National Aeronautics Space Administration. I simply do not care who wants, or needs, if some simple rules, and criteria are laid out, and are passed…..bam, assistance happens right now.

 

ISN’T IT FUNNY

Did you ever notice that whenever a public school runs into a bonding issue problem, no matter what the money is needed for…..if it’s not passed, there is a threat by school administrators to cut music, cut sports, and much of extracurricular…..the issue is held over the taxpayer every single time.

 

The Federal Government is quite the same as our local school systems, they threaten to cut off programs that our necessary for our people to at least maintain a semblance of a normal lifestyle. It’s flat-assed wrong, and by the short hairs of a Garthunk, we need to stop the action henceforth.

 

I can write or talk about this issue flippantly because the issues of homelessness or needing public assistance don’t really touch me…..at the present time. But for whatever reason conservatives seem to think that poor people have some sort of scheme concocted to rob their coffers dry…..and it’s simply not true.

 

Being born into poverty is not a choice, it’s simple a roll of life’s dice, and many, many people born into poverty do not escape this weighty condition…..it’s a fact of their lives. Want to hear a zinger about folks who are on the public dole…..try this one on for size, Texas lead the U.S. with 4,038,440 recipients drawing on SNAP programs.

 

Can’t believe it, well it’s true, on average, in 2012; Texas had one in every six Texans getting food stamp help. Washington D.C. which I believe is the site of our Federal Government’s workshop, with an estimated 617,996 population had 141,147 SNAP participants, roughly 23% of those living in D.C. of course no politicians or lobbyists allowed.

 

TALK ABOUT GOING TO BED WITHOUT SUPPER

A House bill aims to cut SNAP by some $4 billion dollars, or about 5% of the program, the vote was taken this past Thursday, September 19. Exactly what does this mean to American’s, well try one in every seven men, women, and children in the country. If the bill is passed it will strike a blow to the hungry and undernourished in our country.

 

Look whenever somebody goes to bed hungry in the United States of American…..arguably the greatest country in the history of countries on the face of the earth…..ever, it should be an embarrassment to each and every man, women, child, and lawmaker. There’s no reason for it to happen, we just need to prioritize our goals, wants, needs, and how we deal with not only our people, but the world at large.

 

Let’s just look at a few facts and figures that are unequivocally true; if there are just 10,000,000 people who need food stamps, if there are only 2,000,000 homeless, and if there are only 5,000,000 malnutrition kids, and there are only 5,000,000 people in need of medical treatment…..but do not have health insurance…..and we, as a nation don’t do anything to help…..we would be wrong spirited as a culture.

 

Now if you take the above figures and multiply them to maybe where sadly they are here today in the United States…..you then begin to see the folly of our elected legislatures that keep running out these insidious suggestions for fixing problems.

 

I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted about the rhetoric coming out of Washington and the quick fixes that really aren’t. I’m gonna take a nap…..I’m out.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

EXCESSIVE FORCE…..IT’S OKAY, COMPARISON CAN BE SCARY

EXCESSIVE FORCE…..IT’S OKAY, COMPARISON CAN BE SCARY

(Al Jazeera, Kimberly Johnson, Slate, Davenji)

(Chicago Sun Times, Chris Kirk, Dan Kols, Frazer Chronicle)

 

This year so far…..in Syria approximately 3,905 women have been killed and 6,561 children had perished in the civil war, that totals 10,466. Appalling is it not, 10,466 innocents meeting their demise at such a young and completely defenseless age, or position in life. The civil war in Syria was launched in 2011, and so far has claimed anywhere from 84,550 to 110,375, depending on which of the five different sources you sited.

 

Obviously there is mayhem, rape and murder every single day of the week in Syria, human rights are scattered asunder, personal possessions, business interests destroyed, it’s what is expected when two different factions clash, it’s the end result of human conflict.

 

It happens somewhere in the world (conflict or civil war) everyday of the week, and the result is that somebody dies…..if they’re lucky, because if you’re just wounded, you’ll need medical treatment and antibiotics which are kind of like finding a snowball in hell.

 

With little exception men are the perpetrators of the genocidal attacks and thinking, for a woman to act in such a manner would point to a hormonal imbalance, and she probably would be removed from office in a very short order.

 

Let’s get back to those despicable numbers for a moment, the articles that I’m using for reference list deaths in areas of Syria that I’ve never heard of, can’t spell, and sure as hell can’t pronounce. Places like Latakia, Idib, or As-Suwayda; these are cities where the civil war is raging, and where a considerable number of deaths of occurred.

 

There are forces at work in the Syrian revolution that we, as Americans, don’t know about and those we can’t understand. Really that is as it should be, the United States does not have a vested interest in the country, and it shouldn’t really matter which side wins, Syrians are different that Americans, again as it should be…..I’m sure they’ve never even heard of TRU-TV.

 

This is where the big misunderstanding lies between the United States and a country like Syria; we think that they are a warring society, and have been for hundreds of years. What Syria has been is a country occupied by many different regimes through its history, and there is evidence that human-kind of inhabited the country for thousands of years.

 

It’s funny how a foreign country’s struggles can mirror a situation right here in the United States, a struggle of racial equality, of human dignity and respect. There’s also a struggle within the struggle, as people who attempt to be heard can be shouted out by those officials that hold managerial positions.

 

Syria is a police state, not in its essence, but in the everyday activity of police and military personal, and some elected or appointed officials. Innocents are at peril whenever they venture from their homes to shop, to work, or to access services such as a doctor’s office, or for an appointment.

 

It must be simply awful to live under such circumstances, a normal routine that (I guess is essential to a well rounded healthy life) must be almost none existent in countries like Syria. Differing of opinions which lead to all sorts of confrontations do nothing but harm to those local populous that get in the way.

 

 

IS THE UNITED STATES A WAR ZONE

What a silly question, of course the United States isn’t a war zone, there’s not any kind of civil war going on here…..at least that I’m aware of. However if we take a closer look at what is going on, some people might come to a different conclusion, some might even consider that, yes, in certain areas, at the very least, there is danger after dark, or danger every day, and every night.

 

Let’s take Chicago, Illinois for instance, where recently four men were killed and 13 others were wounded throughout the city, all in one day. Kids were shot, women were shot, and a toddler got in the way of a bullet and died. However it’s nothing new for the Windy City, the four deaths just added to the number so far this year…..1,780.

 

Chicago and its citizenry aren’t new to shooting deaths, unless you can be insulated from some really sobering gun-shot deaths, 2,217 in 2011, or 2,670 in 2012. In 2013 Chicago seems to be (shooting) for another shooting death figure that might surpass the 2012 figure.

 

Through the middle of September, in the United States there have been 7,700 shooting deaths reported by SLATE partners with gun deaths. The figures that SLATE has used are hard to come by, naturally states don’t really want to report what some might consider an inept police force, unable to deal with an escalating number of gunshot deaths…..and hundreds of wounded as a result of the lawlessness.

 

So SLATE has had to resort to a 24 hour day surveillance in an effort to report accurate numbers of gunshot deaths. Without a doubt, many, many Americans have absolutely no idea of the number of shooting deaths that happen every day of the week, if they were aware, background checks, and stiffer regulations for how guns can be procured might go into effect within 30, or 60 days.

 

There also is a question about police brutality and the use of weapons, or Tasers in confrontations during the course of an automobile stop. I referee of course to an incident early on September 15 in a Charlotte, North Carolina suburb, early in the morning.

 

A woman called 911 to hysterically report the possibility of a break-in in progress, and when police arrived, the alleged break-in person rushed towards the cops and was shot 10 times by a responding officer.

 

There were two cops, one perpetrator, and…..well you do the math, two guns opposing one…..black man equals one dead n-----. It puts me in mind of the old Wild West American Cavalry, “the only good red-skin is a dead one” or “shoot um dead and we’ll sort out the bodies later.”

 

The illustration here is the quick and fatal reaction by the Charlotte police officer, in an atmosphere of racial unrest in this southern city. Of course I don’t have access to, but from his picture, which is worth “a thousand words” but he looks scared and a little confused. He doesn’t look like a man who had just shoot to death a 24 year old black man who was seeking assistance after he’d been in an auto accident.

 

That’s right, the cop put ten holes in a black man who was seeking help, and the cop actually had fired 12 times at the potential threat…..I guess. Now forever more the cop’s life and the dead man’s surviving family will forever be changed by a possible rash reaction to a possible threat…..pretty harsh if you ask me.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

A RUNAWAY TRAIN, STUDENT LOANS, A DEATH KNELL?

A RUNAWAY TRAIN, STUDENT LOANS, A DEATH KNELL?

(Al Jazeera, David Meyer, Alex Tabarrok)              

(National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys)

(Frazer Chronicle)

 

I touched on this student loan thing in a previous blog, but barely touched the surface, this issue of run-away educational loans so that young people can get an education is just another in a long list of what our way of government, our clamoring for the almighty dollar bill, and our life-style is doing to not only older people, but how it is wrecking our young people.

 

Talk about your disillusionment, hell I’m kicking the tires on 70 years of age, and I’m so damned disillusioned that I’ve been jumping to conclusions…..and I think that I’ve lived a pretty full life. But for a kid growing up in a middle class family, in a middle class society, and going to school in pretty much a middle class atmosphere…..going away to college can be what might be termed a culture shock.

 

I wonder if they (high schools) still have career days, you know, where military people have a spot, and several colleges can sit, pass out brochures, and give pennants, or buttons and a crap load of information on why kids should attend their school. I really hope that they don’t do that anymore, it touched so few students…..and come to find out much of the information was bogus as hell.

 

Maybe today college’s should simply bill prospective students and their parents, just to see if they are close to being able to apply and gain approval for student loans, and all the other cash that they’ll need for little Johnny’s education…..he’ll make Mom and Pop so proud.

 

It’s almost the initial cud of misinformation that both student and parent will have to swallow as their journey begins in Johnny’s pursuit of a degree that can be hung on an office wall by Johnny after his graduation.

 

It’ll be clear sailing for Johnny days after his graduation, once he’s secured that pie in the sky employment that his school councilor kept telling Johnny was just over the next financial hump. No funds, gee fella, call Ma and Pa, they’ll bail you out…..after all, they’ve got quite a vested interest in Johnny’s education by his junior or senior year…..and post graduate work…..PLEASE NO!

 

AFTER GRADUATION

First year freshmen at college can face a myriad of first time decisions to contemplate, and often times do not have the proper time to think about their decisions as college administrators push for answers. There is a bigger picture out there that most kids, yeah that’s right…..kids, these college students for the most part of just kids and need all kinds of advice, even when they think that they don’t

 

A key element of decision making is experience, and few kids possess the mentality to make rational decisions that will make a possibly poor situation better. Usually the choice involves money, and we’ve all made poor decisions with regards to money. But the pitch to young people, and make no mistake, credit cards and such are a pitch,  what the money will get you, where it might take you, and finally at the end of the sales presentation….. the numbing reality that you’ve gotta repay it. However the repaying factor is flossed over not dwelled upon…..and you soon forget the numbing of the pay-back reality.

 

Many graduates can command as much as a thousand dollars a week…..times 52 weeks…..$52,000 a year, not a bad figure for a 1^st year employee. Of course when you have accumulated school loans and credit debt in the amount of $2,000 per month, that $52,000 paycheck tends to cover only minimal living standards.

 

For some people, college graduates, smart young people, eager to tackle the world, and to fix what their parents and grandparents broke, reality is a sobering, kind of like a shock and awe experience. The same could be said for many parents of their graduating kids, they resign themselves to years of payments for their children’s educations, SAY IT AIN’T SO!

 

Yes actually it is so, and sadly I’m not kidding, I’ve had firsthand experience with student loans, granted it was some thirty years ago, but the premise was the same then as it is now…..get both the student and the parents on board with the idea that the most important part of college entrance is to pave the students college years with unfettered financial problems, and have all the concentration zeroed in on gaining that diploma.

 

What it is, is a many headed monster that, after college graduation attempts to gobble up every penny that it can to satisfy an unsatisfiable hunger. The myth is propagated not only by the loan companies, and the credit card people, oh no, the colleges get right into the act, and can be a bigger distraction to a student’s financial life than a loan company, or the credit card industry. They all end up in a feeding frenzy that is a student’s wallet or purse, and the parents as well…..no wallet or purse is safe.

 

A HUGE MISCONCEPTION

Student loans are never ever forgiven, the Federal Government will follow a person to his death, and attach whatever they can to settle a loan, and if the fed isn’t satisfied, they just might dig up the body. College loan rates need to come down, college tuition needs to be addressed, and the exploitation by banks and lending institutions needs to be better monitored by the fed.

 

It really pisses me off when I read about some sort of governmental action moving with the same viscosity as molasses in January moves. JPMorgan Chase announced that it was dropping out of the private student-loan market, leaving a smaller number of banks, Wells Fargo, Discover Financial Services and SLM Corporation still providing student loans to students beyond the four year limit of $31,000 for federal loans.

 

What makes me mad is the fact that JPMorgan Chase has for years gouged young college students as well as their parents with regards to loan practices and collection procedures that are at best thuggish. But it is the American way, this deficit spending, this attitude of “paying back later, for a hamburger today.”

 

The Federal Reserve Board of New York, reported in March 2012 that borrowers ages 30 and under carry $322 billion of the nations student loan debt; those 30 to 39 carry $321 billion, and those 40 and older, $323 billion, with 12.5 to 16.4 percent of the older group 90 plus days delinquent on their payments.

 

Only 37% of federal student-loan borrowers between 2004 and 2009 were able to pay off their loans without postponing payments or becoming delinquent. Borrowers who default on federal loans face the possibility of garnished wages, collection fees, and seizure of state and federal tax returns, Social Security and disability income as well as other consequences, big brother my friends is alive and well and living right here in the good old United States of America.

 

And ya wanna hear the kicker, according to Matt Taibbi, the United States Government…..over the next 10 years stands to collect an estimated $184 billion in new federal student-loan system. How you ask, hyper inflated tuition costs, fueled by a government-sponsored predatory-lending program that makes even the most ruthless private credit-card company seem like a “Save the Panda) charity.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

WHAT DO ZIMBABWE AND WALLIS AND FUTUNA HAVE IN COMMON WITH MLB?

WHAT DO ZIMBABWE AND WALLIS AND FUTUNA HAVE IN COMMON WITH MLB?

 (USA TODAY, This is the Planned Consolidated Budget)

(Melanie Hicken, Associated Press, Baseball Almanac)

(Cleveland Indians, MLB Report, Barry Petchesky)

(Casey Kelly, Tommy Layne, Frazer Chronicle)

 

The answer to the above poser is absolutely nothing, how could there be, the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox each has larger operating budget then either country. And both countries, (Wallis and Futuna are French islands in the South Pacific) with populations of  (Zimbabwe) 12,521,000, and Wallis-Futuna, 15,507 more than 16 times the number of Major League rostered players at the big league level.

 

What’s my point…..easy, yesterday in the USA TODAY sports section on the front page was an article by Bob Nightengale which detailed to some extent the plight of Cleveland, Oakland, and Tampa Bay’s battle to attract paying fans through their turnstiles in greater numbers. All three are in contention to either make the baseball playoffs, or win a division title outright.

 

In his article, Nightengale alluded to the fact that Monday night’s game, (9-16) Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers, (tied for the American League’s wild-card lead) drew a crowd of 10,724 paying fans at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay.

 

In Oakland, California, the A’s, fresh off a three game sweep of their closest rival, the Texas Rangers, drew 14,629 for the beginning of a series with the Los Angeles, Angles. Although the Angles have a losing record, they do have an exciting ball club, and several players who can knock the cover off the ball.

 

Although the Cleveland Indians are currently on the road in Kansas City, they are bottom feeders with regards to home attendance this year. Houston which has the worst won-lost record in Major League Baseball at 51-101, is drawing more than Tampa Bay, or Cleveland, and is drawing about three thousand less than Oakland.

 

Conversely the Milwaukee Brewers with a 69-83 record…..and completely out of any post season play is drawing more than 31,000 per home date. What’s wrong with Oakland, Cleveland and Tampa Bay, well maybe first one should check out where these teams play…..and maybe each city’s demographics. Also possibly in the equation might be the attitudes of ownership, personnel in the front office, and the players as well.

 

Marketing a baseball club at the Major League level is a tricky tap dance, probably addressing the perceived salaries that major league players get for their services might be upper-most on their list of things to explain. Player salaries really put both players and team management in a ham-string position; first and foremost the huge figure that team owners pay a player instantly comes into play. The pressure to perform at an elite level is a huge burden that a player with a bunch of zeros behind his name in a contract sometimes simply can’t handle.

 

THE BURDEN OF THE ZERO

The minimum major league salary, (usually paid to a rookie) is $480,000, (3 zeros,) and the average salary on a major league team is $3,330,240, (although not zeros) there are a bunch of numbers that add up to a tidy amount of pay for playing a kids game while wearing pajamas and having all kinds of people granting almost your every wish.

 

This pay grade is by far the most misunderstood part of what I think does contribute to some people staying away from the ball park. There isn’t a single player playing baseball today, or in the last twenty years or so that one can point to and unequivocally say “that guy is the reason for the high salaries.”

 

The disparity in player’s wages goes way back to the turn of the century when ball club owners needed what their ball clubs brought in, in revenue, to live on, and to keep their ball clubs solvent, and on the field of play. Of course those days are gone forever, Charles Comiskey, Clark Griffith, and Connie Mack, all former players as well as owners had as much to do with player’s salaries as the players themselves.

 

Comiskey, Griffith, and Mack were notorious for being penny pinchers, and moving players to other ball clubs if they complained about the money that they were being paid, usually to ball teams that were mired in last place, and were hopelessly outclassed on the field as well as off.

 

Of course free agency helped to re-write all sorts of issues with regards to player’s salaries, and some of the benefits that finally came to pass in major league ball. On December 23, 1975, arbitrator Pete Seitz declared the two pitchers free agents. In his 64 page ruling, Seitz sided with their interpretation of Section 10A of the standard player contract.

 

For the sake of space, time, and keeping readers focused, Major League Baseball thought so little of players rights, and probably their intellect, that they would send contracts at all different times of the year. Player’s attorney, Marvin Miller saw a fatal flaw in the wording of the player’s contract and took advantage, changing forever how players were treated and thought of by owners.

 

In 1970, forty three years ago, the minimum salary for a player was $12,000, while the average major leaguer’s was $29,303. In 1975 the minimum salary was $16,000, while the average was $44,676, after the 1976 mistake in contractual verbiage, the minimum by 1980 was $30,000, and the average big leaguer was making $143,756…..a whooping raise of $114,453 in just five years!

 

People for the most part can’t fathom a hundred and fourteen thousand dollar raise in just five years, and to tell you the truth, I can’t blame people for their attitude. However that said, people not coming out to the ball parks to watch these millionaires goes deeper than a perceived unequal salary distribution between the nine to five working crowd, and sports figures.

 

The burdens of those people making a bunch of zero’s in their yearly contracts work and live in a completely different world. They work twelve months a year, hire personal trainers, nutrition experts, accountants, money managers, and have a staff of people who do all sorts of things for the ball player. Most of us can’t comprehend their lifestyle, and wouldn’t want it no matter the paycheck.

 

HERE’S THE SKINNY MY FRIENDS

Explaining the trials and tribulations of the modern day baseball player won’t give the reason why people aren’t showing up in Oakland, Cleveland, and Tampa Bay. Their attendance malady is shared also by Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, and the Chicago White Sox.

 

All a person has to do is to check the demographics of these communities to catch a clue as to why attendance is a tough sled. All of these cities carry an accompanying metropolitan area that these ball clubs depend on for attendance support.

 

Winning can cure a whole bunch of ills, but also masks potential problems that will crop up whenever a losing season or a sub-par performance is encountered. Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, and the Colorado Rockies are prime examples of what I’m talking about. Each is drawing sustainable crowds, and are losing ball clubs…..some with several seasons of rebuilding ahead of them.

 

And finally the reason that people shun some teams are the prices…..stupid, how about a seafood lovers bread bowl of clam chowder for $8.75, or a $16.50 crab sandwich on sourdough bread. For the sweet-tooth, (that would be me,) a $10.00 Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae.

 

In another facility, try a 16 ounce can of beer for (God help me) $8.00, or a soda pop for $6.25, a $7.00 deep-fried red hot sausage on a stick, or a small bag of deep-fried peanuts for only $5.00 (I did not know you deep fried peanuts). They say everything is big in Texas and that would include the Texas Rangers broomstick, a 2’ foot-long beef hot dog, smothered in chili, nacho cheese, jalapenos and caramelized onions on a potato bun….the price, $26.00 for the monster!

 

I could go on, but I gotta get to some of the ticket prices to close this edition out, they range from $10.00 for upper bleacher seats during week-day games at Cleveland, to $50.24 for a front row seat at Boston’s Fenway Park.

 

Surely they jest, really people don’t show up to drink an overpriced can of beer and munch on stale popcorn and chomp on hotdogs made out of hog snouts and chicken lips…..gee can you imagine that. Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay is in a rough part of town, and has had a hard time attracting fans to their ball park…..like three years running, and twelve of their sixteen year history.

 

Oakland has also had trouble corralling financially supportive numbers at their McAfee Coliseum, or as it used to be called, Networks Association Coliseum, or the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. No matter the name, the stadium resembles a concrete mausoleum, and is located in a demilitarized zone near downtown Oakland.

 

Cleveland has a new ball park in…..if it can be said about Cleveland, a decent part of town, however that said, the entire working force of the community, and surround area is in a prolonged financial slump with no good news in sight.

 

Well there you have it, my view of why professional baseball is alive and well in America, even though there are several teams that need to clean up their act…..construct themselves new facilities, become more fan friendly, and hold the line on their prices.

 

Oh yeah players throw baseball into the bleachers, they show up to help certain benefits, and they sign autographs in a more polite way than ever before. Sadly there will always be a section of people who will take issue with salaries.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!