In Excelsis Deo

Sometimes life can imitate art. Last month, a homeless man died of exposure. He was a Marine Corps veteran and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner had trouble locating his family so they went to the public for help. They were able to find a brother down in Missouri to let him know. But the story doesn’t stop there.

Since he was a veteran they wanted to make sure that he had a proper burial, with military honors. A local funeral home worked to help put everything together and today Jerry Jackson was laid to rest at Fort Snelling National Cemetery with a Marine Corps Honor Guard.

For fans of the West Wing, this sounds exactly like the episode that shares its name with the title of this post. In Excelsis Deo (Season 1, Episode 10) was arguably the best that the show ever produced. To see a similar situation happening so close to where I live, I had to go to the services today. Jerry Jackson was a veteran. He deserved nothing less.

Fornuatenly, this is where life stops imitating art. In the show, there were four or five people, plus the honor guard, at the service. Today, for Mr. Jackson, around 150 people were there. The community turned out to make sure a veteran was shown the respect he had earned at the end of this life.

This story probably plays out more often than anybody would care to think about. Homelessness among veterans is above what it is for the general population. We need to work to change that. Those that served our country in the military, regardless of if they were drafted or volunteered, are giving up part of their lives for us. Even after they return from war, the mental and emotional toll is, for me, unimaginable.

It is to the credit of Mara Gottfried for making sure this story was told. We need more reporters like her. And thanks to Bob Collins for posting this at MPR where I saw it.

Though I never met you, thank you Mr. Jackson for serving your country.

And to all of the veterans that have served, thank you.

Album Review: Brandi Carlile: The Firewatcher's Daughter

I'll admit, I wasn't a big Brandi Carlile fan when she first really broke on to the scene with her song "The Story". I don't know if it was just over played, something I wasn't interested in, or what. I didn't enjoy the song, didn't enjoy her music, that was that.

Oops.

Over the last couple of years I've really started to like her music. The Americana-Rock style she sings in with the amazing harmonies one that I really love. The story telling her in lyrics is incredible. Her and the Twins (Phil and Tim Hanseroth) ability to make such amazing music is great.

I got to see them perform at the Wits show taped on February 27th (side bar: if you've never been to a Wits show, go. You will laugh. Hard. It will hurt you laugh so hard. It's just an awesome time) and as a special treat we were able to buy a copy of her new album, The Firewatcher's Daughter, at the show and not wait until it was released on March 3rd. I grabbed a copy and listened to it a few times over the next couple of days.

While talking about the album, Brandi mentioned that it was a bit of a departure from some of her other work and had more of a rock feel to it. If that's the case, I don't really hear it. It still has that great Americana feel to it, strong, driving percussive guitars, and beautiful melodies and harmonies that carry throughout it.

The two songs on the album that venture closer to rock, Mainstream Kid and The Stranger At My Door are both good songs. I was expecting more songs like these given how she described the album.

The first single of the album,Wherever Is Your Heart, is a great lead track. It really sets the tone of the album well and gets you in the mindset that this album is going to move.

I can't really pick a favorite track off of this one, there are so many that a great. The Eye, The Things I Regret, Wilder. all of them. It's an album that tells a story of being with somebody and being happy and getting through together.

It's a great album and one I'd highly recommend to buy. For a different review, check out Bill DeVille's over at The Current, who picked this as their Album of the Week.

Why I Have Trouble With The Stock Market

About a week and a half ago, Walmart announced that they were going to give a raise to their employees. Minimum wage workers would get a raise to $9/hour with plans for future raises later. This is a good thing. It’s a great thing. In general, offering a pay hike to minimum wage worker will pump more money back into the economy. This is the theory behind tax rebates: lower and middle income families will spend the money rather than just sit on it with investments. So how did Wall Street respond?

By beating the snot out of Walmart’s stock. For two days. Shares immediately opened the next day 3% lower and continued to drop throughout the day. The second date, another 1% drop out of the gate. Share prices did recover throughout the day, even closing above the previous day open, but still not back to where they were. And that’s my problem with Wall Street and investing in the market.

Screenshot from Google Finance.
The scale makes the drop look worse that it really is.

Walmart’s profits in 2014 were higher than the GDP of 152 countries. I think it’s ok if they share a little more of that profit with the people that help get them there.

The people who work in the banking and trade world are so disconnected from the reality of people living paycheck to paycheck that the thought of a company that made $129.74 billion in gross profit in the 12 months ending January 31 giving a raise to its lowest paid employees should be punished. I’ll give Walmart credit for taking the lead on this. $1 billion isn’t an insignificant amount of money. And for the people who are going to see those raises, it is going to be a great thing.

Which leads to the answer to the title of this post: The stock market doesn’t take a long view of anything. It’s all about what you can do for me right now, this instant. Any view beyond the next 5 minutes is irrelevant. Part of the reforms that were put in place following the 2008 financial collapse should have addressed that, but they were so gutted that they didn’t stand a chance. I just can’t think like that, I’m not wired to. Which is probably why I don’t work on Wall Street or, outside of my 401K, invest in stocks.

I’ve thought about it. I’d like to. The savings account that we have earns crap for interest and it would nice to put my money to work to earn more rather than just hang out with Wells Fargo. The problem is I don’t know where to invest it. I don’t shop at companies that behave or act in a manner that I don’t agree with and my investing would be no different. Even with companies that do behave well and act in a responsible manner, it’s really hard to join in to an investment system that is hell bent on self-destruction, not unlike an 18 year old at their first frat party kegger.

It would be nice if the people who work the levers of finance could grow up and start to act like the adults that their age would suggest they are. The idea of tying bonuses and pay to future results not just the current quarter is great. I think it’s a start. But it’s going to take people standing up and saying enough and voting with their feet and the wallets to help reform this system. And change is never going to be easy with a group that can lobby so well.

Hopefully we can all start to take a look at the long game and not just focus on what happens in the next hour or the next day. Planning for the future, even far enough out to where you might not be a part of it, isn't a bad thing. And any temporary pain it may cause is just that: temporary. The rewards that you and future generations will get to reap will be amazing.