Since 2010, Delta Airlines and American Express have had a co-branded credit card arrangement. Not such a big deal, say you?
You would be wrong, dear reader. It is a huge deal.
1. In 2018, eight percent — 8% — of all Amex traffic was on this card.
2. The Delta Skymiles/Amex card came out of the gate hot making more than $1.4B in gross revenue for Delta in 2010.
3. In 2018, that revenue number is $4B.
4. That percentage of Delta’s profits is more than 35%!
In a hotly contested, early-called election, the United Kingdom has given the Conservative Party of Boris Johnson a resounding victory providing him with a comfortable majority in their Parliament (House of Commons).
Prime Minister Johnson had taken a huge gamble calling for elections two years early as the country was bogged down in a vicious fight to follow the will of the people as demonstrated in the 2016 Brexit vote to part company with European Union. [The Brits were members of the European Union though they kept the British Pound Sterling as their currency, refusing to embrace the Euro.]
This election dissolves any idea of a Brexit do-over vote. It is now settled science that the UK is leaving the European Union.
The major opposition party, Labour, headed by Jeremy Corbyn, was handed a bruising defeat ending with 203 seats to the Conservative’s 364 (there are a total of 650 seats with 649 seats decided, one remaining to be finalized). It takes 326 seats in Parliament to govern.
Corbyn took things poorly, resigning in the wake of the keel hauling. A perfectly eloquent man, Corbyn said, “Ouch!”
The Scottish National Party took 48 seats (which will spark discussion of Scotland slipping away from the United Kingdom) and the Liberal Democrats took 11.
I like to follow the political events in Washington DC. As a macochist, I’ve also read the Department of Justice Inspector General’s 1,000,000 page report on the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978) investigation.
I watched the testimony of the Department of Justice’s Inspector General Horowitz. Glutton. For. Punishment.
In case you have been out of the country, a gentleman named Carter Page was the subject of four FISA warrants. A FISA warrant is the product of a secret process wherein the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation apply for the right to investigate an individual when that individual is either a foreign agent or under the influence of a foreign power. You cannot investigate an American citizen unless and only if that person is a foreign agent or under the control of a foreign power.
In this instance, the actual FISA warrant applications said that Carter Page was a Russian agent.
Carter Page is a distinguished Naval Academy graduate — graduated at the top 10% of his class, Trident Scholar — who served honorably as a Navy officer. Page has a Masters in National Security Studies from Georgetown, an MBA from New York University, and a Doctorate from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
Look at the scratches on this door. It is the door to my office at home from which I have worked for 25 years. Those scratches were made by a Labrador named Bella.
I was blessed to have a wonderful father who shaped me and made me into a young man, but he then sent me to Virginia Military Institute to finish off the job.
I was lucky. I was studying civil engineering and my faculty advisor was Colonel Donald K Jamison.
Colonel Jamison was a civil engineering professor for 40 years, the Department Head for much of that time, the tennis coach, and a mentor (faculty advisor) to a series of very lucky cadets.
He was a friendly face, a port in a storm, but a man who treated you like a man.
We used to get our grades six times per semester during our Rat year. The first time I got a grade in calculus, I got an F.
I had to report to Colonel Jamison to review my grades. All of my grades were good, except for calculus. I just didn’t get calculus. I was trying, but it just wasn’t sinking into my head.
“You’re going home and you’ll never be a civil engineer, won’t get an Army commission if you fail Rat calculus.”
Those were the words he delivered to me. He didn’t raise his voice, didn’t scold me. He just laid out what was going to happen.
The draft was on in those days and it meant something else — being drafted when my student status was removed.
I got some help in calculus — assisted by my first class dyke (mentor) who got someone to work with me — and I figured it out in a week. I finished the semester with an A. Once I figured it out, it was easy.
I ended that year #1 in the class academically, which was one Hell of a surprise to me.
“I knew you’d figure it out,” Colonel Jamison said, when I brought him my final grades (which was at the beginning of my second year).
Colonel Jamison inspired confidence in a wiseass 18-year-old who needed that kind of inspiration. After that, I knew what I was capable of and performed at that level.
I got a job in the Fluid Mechanics Lab grading papers and assisting cadets–arranged by Colonel Jamison. That meant I could study in the quiet lab. Colonel Jamison came around at least once a week to check on me. I studied in the same place for four years. He checked up on me for four years.
About fifteen years ago, I wrote Colonel Jamison a letter thanking him for the interest he had taken in me. He remembered every element of my cadetship including an odd discussion as to whether I should jump from the fourth stoop into the laundry truck that was located in the archway four floors below.
Only VMI guys will understand this: I suggested that I would be “out of the Ratline” if I did that. He would say, “Technically, you will be out of the Ratline, but you will have to come talk to me.”
Thank you, Colonel Donald K Jamison for all you did for me. Thank you, VMI, for having attracted such rare men of talent, character, and commitment. This is the secret sauce of VMI.
There are few institutions left in America that teach, develop character. VMI continues to be one of them.
Godspeed, Colonel Jamison. Thank you.
At 8:00 AM on Sunday 7 December 1941 Japan attacked the United States naval installations and fleet resting at anchor in Pearl Harbor. American aircraft carriers were out to sea, a lucky break for the US.
Pearl Harbor in January 1941 almost a year before the Japanese attack
Pearl Harbor dry dock area after the attack
It does not matter whether you love or hate President Trump, the economy is not influenced by your individual feelings or emotions.
Nancy Pelosi, who does not hate President Trump and who is a great Catholic, is praying for the economy and President Trump. [President Trump is praying for her also. The Big Red Car is praying for both of them though not at the same time.]
Here she is with that powerful pointer finger of hers. Looks great for 80, no?
The economy is impacted by policy coming out of Washington and since early 2017, that policy has been guided by President Trump.
Today, we learned that unemployment has dipped to the lowest level in half a century — 3.5%. The US created more than 266,000 jobs in November 2019. Hello, America!
This has to be the best labor market in a century.
As the CEO/Founder of a startup, you will develop practices that you know work. Many times, these practices will not be perfectly “normal.” They will reflect your own personal style or they will be things that you just know work.
These are what I call field expedients.
Back in the day, when I was a combat engineer officer overseas, I had a damn good sergeant who worked for me. We were blowing up old fortifications in South Korea just south of the DMZ. When we demolished them, we cut all the rebar with cutting torches, removed the concrete pieces with dozers, dug a big hole, and buried the detritus (reinforced concrete). I used to recover all the steel and send it down to Seoul.
Then, we rebuilt them — often in slightly different locations and to a substantially higher structural strength — to withstand then modern artillery.
Here’s a picture of what it looks like when 100 lbs of C4 is exploded underneath a shallow bridge abutment. The bridge abutment was in the way of our river crossing site if we had to attack into North Korea. So, me and another sergeant used scuba gear and wedged 100 lbs of C4 under it and voila!
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