Mexico’s HOMEX Scandal: Greed can be defined by the HOMEX homes for millions of working class Mexicans project. The program began in 2001 and by 2017 it has achieved the creation not of solid middle class communities, but rather over 1 million decrepit, hazardous, and worthless homes in new slum communities. The story can be found in / LA Times Richard Marosi HOMEX /, you won’t believe what you read!

The Tax Cut: The Republicans and President Trump passed the Tax Bill! “Hallelujah”…or “Oh No”… depending on your political point of view and or which Fake News channel you are influenced by. Listen to CNN and you will end up believing the millionaires have been rewarded at the expense of the working man or woman. Listen to Fox and you will think Robin Hood scored one for the people of Sherwood Forest.

The tax cut will be good for us, but there is a catch. Will the economy boom to the point where it begins to pay down the debt or will it stagnate and see the debt increase faster and faster? Time will tell, but I have to say it is well worth the gamble. Looking at the positives in American business and the stock market this past year I believe this bill will pay dividends in the form of bigger paychecks for working Americans.

The Vietnam War Film: There is much to criticize in the Ken Burns PBS Vietnam War series. In one of the later chapters of the documentary film the following statement was made regarding civilian casualties;

“The killing of innocent civilians happens in every war. In Vietnam it was not routine, but it was not an aberration either”. The civilian casualty count for the Vietnam War is not black and white. The Vietnam War is officially listed as being from 1955-1975. The American participation was from 1960-1975. Estimated Civilian Deaths are broken up by those in the South and those in North. The deaths are not listed as by which side, but just total war deaths.

Vietnam Civilian Casualties: 1955-1975 / South Vietnam Civilian Deaths: Between 195,000-430,000. There is debate over the exact amount because the Vietcong in the South dressed as civilians and blended in with civilian communities. North Vietnam Civilian Deaths: Listed as 60,000.

World War II Civilian Casualties: 1939-1945 / Civilian Deaths: Between 32,246,500 and 49,532,200 million deaths. The deaths are not listed by which side, just total deaths.

These numbers for both wars are estimates and do not include the later collateral deaths from things like displacement, starvation, sickness, and disease. These magnified the WWII civilian war deaths by more than double pushing them up near 85 to 90 million civilians!

Tiger’s Back: After watching Tiger Woods performance in this weekends Hero Challenge it is safe to say “Tiger and his back….are back“! He played very well except for on Saturday but still managed to finish tied for 9th place. More importantly though he played well, swung well, and was competitive. Way to go Tiger!