Identity Theft Made Easy by the USPS

Did you know that your US mail may be diverted by anyone at any time to any location of their choosing?  A child can do it.

The United States Postal Service was created in 1971 by the Postal Reorganization Act.  This change eliminated the old Post Office Department.  While the act was meant to improve the postal service so that it would function more like a business, the USPS is still a government organization.  As such, it suffers much from the same bureaucratic ills of any government entity.

While much of their business functions with relative efficiency, i.e., the mail gets delivered, there is at least one area that is in serious need of overhaul.  That area of concern is the Official Mail Forwarding Change of Address Order, or PS Form 3575 to be more precise.  This simple form measures roughly 5” X 7” and has 10 basic line items.  It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to complete by any legitimate citizen or thief.  The postage is prepaid by the Post Office.

Change of Address Post Card

While the USPS requires validation in the form of a minimal bank charge for an online address change, the paper post card version has no verification process.  Therein lies the problem, anyone can complete the form.  There is no verification of the signature placed on the form.  No identification is required.  Any individual can divert your mail to any location of their choosing with barely two minutes of effort.  Think about that.  Your credit cards, financial statements, bills, investment information, social security correspondence, banking information, tax returns, personal correspondence, personal information, medical information, medications, and packages can all be sent to anyone anywhere with the stroke of a pen, or pencil for that matter.

This can be done by anyone to anyone.  You just need the name and address of a person and you can send their mail anywhere you want.  Scammers don’t have to risk showing up at a post office and the change is almost immediate.

The USPS does mail a form letter to your address notifying you of the address change.  This may arrive after your mail has been diverted.  If you do receive this notification, and realize it is an important document, you are directed to call 1-800-ASK-USPS if you didn’t authorize the redirection of your mail.

It's Comforting to Know That the Postal Inspectors Still Ride Horses

There are two problems with this.  That notification phone number, when I called, estimated my wait time to be just over an hour.  The second more serious problem is that the notice looks like junk mail.  Mine was literally stuffed with advertising much of which was related to my “recent move.”  There were fliers for hauling services, car insurance, life insurance, DirctTV, Lowe’s, and Xfinity.  With so much crap stuffed in one envelope, it would be easy to miss the “flier” from the USPS Change of Address Security Division.  I'm sure the USPS makes a few advertising dollars with this part of the venture, but is it worth the risk?

Junk Mail, Your Change of Address Notification May Be In Here

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America and the USPS is still using a 1950’s mentality with the Honor System.  In 2016, the cost of identity theft has been estimated at 16 billion dollars and it affected over 15 million people.

Simple changes in USPS policies and procedures would go a long way to either solving the problem or at least make life more difficult for thieves.  My recommendations for change are as follows:

• Eliminate the post card Change of Address Order.  Keep the form but require that it be hand delivered to a postal facility where identification must be provided and recorded.

•  Modify the form so that the signature line clearly states that fraudulent filings are subject to fines and up to 5 years imprisonment.  The current “see conditions on reverse” statement is not sufficient.

•  Modify the form to require a telephone number or an email address.  Individuals who have neither would delay the activation of the change until a notification letter has been mailed to the original address.

• The Postal Service should allow anyone to "lock down" their mailing address with personal information like a copy of authorized signatures, passwords or pin numbers, verifying phone numbers and/or email addresses.  Requests for change of locked accounts would require validation of the request using the provided information. 

•  Remove all advertising fliers and clutter from the Change of Address notification.  Mark it clearly as An Important Document from the United States Postal Service.

•  When evidence of a fraudulent Change of Address is discovered, both the legitimate and the bogus address postal carriers and annexes should be notified immediately.  The illegitimate location should take steps to prevent errant delivery.

In the 1950’s there were but a few credit cards in use, the Internet had not been invented, and home computers did not exist.  Identity theft was not the epidemic it is today.  In the 1950’s a post card change of address form made sense.  In the 21^st Century however, the Honor System represented by the USPS’ use of an unverified process for redirecting critical personal information, is an abhorrent decision.

While the above listed recommendations for change may involve a level of inconvenience for a few, a loss of advertising revenue for the USPS, and bit of extra work, the alternative is the continued exploitation of vulnerable individuals by criminals.  The grief and consternation caused by the theft of your personal information is reason enough to put up with the minor inconvenience of these recommended changes.  It is high time to correct this flaw in the system.

America, Land of the Free; Not So Much

Our founding fathers had a good idea and put together a set of documents outlining our new government.  They did however make a few mistakes.  If for a moment we can put aside the fact that a group of men decided that all men were free, while many of these men were slaveholders, we can address another of their grievous errors.  That mistake deals with freedom of religion.

The United States Constitution is mostly devoid of references to religion.  It merely touches on religion in Article VI where it prohibits religious scrutiny in order to hold public office.  Nice in theory but in modern practice professed atheists or others with less than mainstream religious backgrounds (read, Christian) need not apply.  Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and William Taft were accused of being atheists.  Dwight D. Eisenhower was raised as a Mennonite but abandoned that religion and was baptized as a Presbyterian prior to his first term.  John F. Kennedy was challenged for his Catholic faith.  Barack Obama, a Christian, was accused of being a Muslim and an atheist.

Freedom of religion was not seriously addressed until the 1789 adoption of the First Amendment to the Constitution (actually this was the third amendment proposed but One and Two were not adopted so number Three moved to the head of the class), which reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

We would have been better served by a policy of freedom FROM religion, not freedom OF religion.  Such an edict would have allowed individuals and groups to practice and believe anything they wanted so long as those beliefs were not imposed, in any form or fashion, on others.  Reasonable interpretations of such a written policy would have made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to force prayer into schools, government assemblies, and other policy decisions.  President Eisenhower would have found it difficult to adopt “In God We Trust” as the nation’s official motto and dictate that it be printed on all US paper currency.  It should be noted here that this phrase had been on US coinage since the Civil War.

If you think all of these issues were settled by the Supreme Court ages ago, think again.  As this is being written in April of 2017, the State of Florida legislature is again considering legislation (SB 436) to bring prayer back to schools.  The bill is titled, "Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act."  Even in the title, the writers are attempting to hide their intent with wording that would lead you to believe it is merely a reinforcement of established freedoms.  

The drafters of this bill are meticulously trying to structure a new law to avoid conflicts with the Constitution and previous Supreme Court decisions.  Their motivation is clear, they want religion and prayer back in our schools and government, even if they have to “tolerate” other beliefs.  What they fail to address is the fact that no person or student should be held in a place or forced to even hear the expression of the religious beliefs of others.  If I have a right to an education, and elect to attend a public school, I should not be forcibly subjected to the influences of any person's religious beliefs.

We already have parochial schools, private schools, and school vouchers that would allow students to attend an institution catering to their religious wants and needs.  While I object to the use of tax dollars to support religious schools, the mere fact that they currently exist would question the need for a further erosion of our supposed separation of church and state.  I have no problem with free speech when it is truly free.  By this I mean, anyone should be entitled to express an opinion in a forum where that opinion can be challenged and debated.  Such is the foundation of higher learning.

It should not be governmental policy however, that a student body be forcibly subjected to religious indoctrination, by way of the expression of the religious beliefs of others, in a school setting.  Even the process where religious opinions are proffered as subjects for debate, such debates would have no place in our lower grade levels.  Elementary school children are not yet well equipped to challenge these opinions.  These children would be subjected to adult belief systems if this legislation were to pass.

In our current fact challenged society, we do not need a furtherance of unchallengeable opinions, expressed as religious beliefs, to confuse our impressionable students.  Facts such as evolution should be taught as science where the proof can be shown.  The scientifically provable fact that the earth is well beyond the Bible’s 6,000 years in age, is established.  Anyone who wishes to challenge such facts needs to express more than mere opinion.  It is not sufficient to state, I read it in the Bible, or the Talmud states, or the Koran says, or I heard on Fox News that something is true.  Come up with your scientific proof or be able to admit yours is just an opinion and that it may not be true.


Wording in the Florida bill states that it is, "authorizing a student to pray or engage in religious activities or expression; authorizing a student to organize prayer groups, religious clubs, and other religious gatherings" and it further prevents school personnel from preventing such activities.

These “good Florida Christians” in public office should weigh the potential for disruption that would be inherent in their proposed legislation.  Do they plan to halt all school activities so devout Muslims can break out their prayer rugs at the appointed times?  Will teachers of varying beliefs be forced to monitor and supervise religious activities of all faiths?  Will atheists be allowed to counter others with their “heresy”?

Keep religion the Hell out of our public schools, if you believe in such a place (Hell, not public schools).

For more on my opinions on religion you may read my blog entry that directly deals with the topic of  religion.

Our Failed Democracy; Life Without Facts

To quote Edgar Allan Poe from The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, "...but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one-half that you see."1

Edgar Allan Poe

And then there is this quote from Sergeant Schultz of Hogan's Heroes fame.

          General Burkhalter: Enough! I don't want to hear any more of your lies.  

          Sgt. Schultz:  That's the only one I had. 

Ah, if only the White House would run out of lies.  Truth represents one of the cornerstones of our democracy.  Without truth, our democracy cannot stand.  Truth is essential for our citizens to make informed decisions when selecting our representatives.  Truth is paramount for our voters and elected officials to make the tough choices that guide our democracy.  Truth is truth.  Facts are facts.  Lies are lies.  Half-truths are lies in disguise.

Separating fact from fiction used to be one of the functions of another cornerstone of our democracy, a free press.  What was once represented by words written after careful thought and then printed on paper, has evolved to words spewed ad nauseam and without verification.  These words come at us from computers, cellphone screens, and televisions.  What should you believe?

Getting back to the Poe quote, Sergeant Schultz would have added, "I see nothing."  But closing your eyes and ears is not a solution to finding the truth in order to make sound decisions.  We are assaulted today, not just by careless individuals and sloppy journalists, but by organized groups, some state sponsored, who knowingly disseminate falsehoods in order to further some agenda or to make money.  

Computers are compromised and conscripted as robots known as "bots" that are used to flood social media with misinformation.  Their sheer numbers then skew social media statistics to show signs that a certain idea is "trending".  This creates a chain reaction that further spreads the disinformation.

Adding to this assault of lies, half-truths, and disinformation, are individuals who firmly believe that their cause or agenda is so important that the ends justify the means.  Whether it is a religious cause or principal, a search for power and influence, or just plain greed, no lie is too great to conjure.  Lies are a means to an end.

In our current environment we are compelled to now fact check everything.  Not just once or twice, but several times.  You must know your sources and only use those that have been proven trustworthy.  If you are not diligent in this effort, prepare to be deceived.  The adage to take something with a grain of salt goes back to at least 1647.  The dosage was modified in 1948 to a "pinch of salt."  I believe that the current condiment dosage must be up to at least a pound of sodium chloride.   These are devious and treacherous times.

Trump "wires tapped" Tweet

If only our Commander in Chief would use common sense.  Ignorance is not a virtue.  He has, after all, access to some of the world's most sophisticated intelligence services.  For him to make a serious criminal accusation against a former president, without any evidence beyond what he heard on Fox News, is not just reprehensible, it is idiotic.  He later claimed that he heard it from "a certain very talented legal mind," ..., "and so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox, okay?" 

You should never repeat anything of importance without verification.  If you repeat it, you own it, and should be held responsible for its accuracy.  Our democratic process will not survive the current onslaught of disinformation.  Individuals need to be more responsible and social media needs to use better algorithms to identify actual "trending" topics.

On-the-job training is fine for some positions but, for the leader of the free world, we should expect at least some level of  competence.  The want ad for the president's position should not read, "No experience necessary, will train."

The president of the United States has joined the ranks of news sources that can't be trusted.  He should have never placed himself in a position where he makes a serious accusation and then has to look around to see if he can prove it is true.  He should have known at the time he made the statement, beyond any reasonable doubt, that his statement was valid and would stand up to scrutiny.  You can't blast the media with "fake news" accusations and claim that, "The public doesn't believe you people anymore," and then use them as your claimed source for important information.

This is a sad commentary of our current situation where we can't trust our president to tell us the truth.  Our democracy needs and deserves better than what we have seen from Donald Trump.  As we used to say in the Navy, shape up or ship out.

1.  It should be noted here that the  quote from Edgar Allan Poe was from the short story titled, "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether".  The story takes place in a mental institution where it turns out that the patients are running the asylum.  They are "permitted to roam about the house and grounds in the ordinary apparel of persons in right mind".  With their System of Soothing, "The doctors have "humored" their patients by never contradicting their fantasies or hallucinations."  This would seem to be a timely and appropriate reference when we are talking about the occupants of the current White House.  We need to begin the contradiction.

As Presidents Go, Is He Really That Bad?

If Facebook posts and news media coverage are any indication, there seems to be some level of interest in our newly elected president.  This caused me to reflect and ask the question, is this presidency really that unusual?  I can, after proper reflection, unequivocally answer, yes and no.

Presidents In My Lifetime

At this writing on March 27, 2017, Mr. Trump has been president for a mere 66 days.  In that time:

•        The world did not end.
•        A bill was passed that removed restrictions which would block guns sales to the mentally ill.
•        Coalmines can now dump waste into our waterways.
•        Energy companies can now hide royalties and government payments.
•        Some Dodd-Frank reforms protecting consumers were lifted.
•        Two Executive Orders were issued restricting travel from some Muslim nations (under a court stay).
•        The Affordable Care Act was overhauled on paper but was pulled without a vote.
•        The Keystone XL Pipeline will be finalized using steel pipe from Russia.
•        Construction of the US Mexico border wall was ordered (waiting on the Mexican check to clear).
•        An insurance rate cut was eliminated for new homeowners.
•        I repeat, the world did not end.

President Trump is my 13^th president.  Yes, lucky number 13.  I’ve seen them come and go since the times of Harry S. Truman. 

Harry S. Truman with Lauren Bacall

I don’t remember much about Harry except that he was married to Bess, has a street named after him in Key West, and he was known as “Give ‘em Hell, Harry.”  He ended WWII with the dropping of two atomic bombs.  I was seven when he left office.  He seemed like a nice guy, I think I would have liked him.

Next up was Dwight D Eisenhower in 1953.  He had been a rare five star general and oversaw the D-Day invasion of Normandy.  I had an “I Like Ike” sticker on my little red wagon.  It represents one of the best campaign slogans in my memory.  Ike is credited with the implementation of the Interstate Highway System.  The highways and bridges were made mostly out of concrete and I guess it was assumed they would last forever because presidents in the successive 50 years have largely ignored their upkeep.

Eisenhower Addresses the Troops Before D-Day

JFK came to the presidency in 1961, and is perhaps one of the best known of my generation.  He was charismatic, well liked, and was assassinated in office.  When I was younger, people would question my use of Jack as a nickname for John.  I would use JFK in my explanation.  Back then, I would get a slow nodding acknowledgement that Jack is indeed a nickname for John.  Now, looking across at millennials and Gen-Xer’s I get blank stares and the shocking, “who’s Kennedy”? 

John F Kennedy with Eleanor Roosevelt

During his short presidency, JFK was credited with forming the Peace Corps and avoiding nuclear disaster during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  He was also blamed for the Bay of Pigs failure by many Cubans even though this operation was initiated by the CIA during Eisenhower’s administration.  The Bay of Pigs invasion plans were the worst kept secret in Miami.  A Cuban born student in my Spanish class pulled down a map in the front of the room and told us of the upcoming invasion strategy to divide Havana from the rest of the nation and to cut communication lines to begin a guerrilla war for freedom.

Headline During Cuban Missile Crisis

JFK also had reported affairs with several women, some of whom met mysterious ends.  Among his affairs were Judith Exner a mobster’s girlfriend, actress Marilyn Monroe, Mary Meyer the sister-in-law of a Washington Post editor, Mimi Alford a White House intern, Jill Cowan a secretary in the White House Press Office, Pricilla Wear a White House staff member, and Ellen Rometsch an East German spy.  Top that Donald Trump.

During his term in office, President Kennedy also managed to piss off Russian president Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban president Fidel Castro, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and mafia boss Sam Giancana.  Is it any wonder that conspiracy theorists had a field day with the Kennedy assassination?  Lee Harvey Oswald was married to a Russian, visited and had ties with Cuba, was known to the FBI, and was himself killed by a mob figure. 

 

While the movie The Manchurian Candidate has meaning today for the Trump presidency, there are certain parallels with JFK as well.  He was a war hero, had a powerful father, came from a prominent family, and won a close election.  At this point President Trump takes the lead in the movie plot with suspected ties (not proven) to a foreign enemy government.  It should also be noted that President Trump has no military experience.

1962 Movie The Manchurian Candidate

LBJ was the Rodney Dangerfield of recent presidents.  A great quote from Johnson, “If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: "President Can't Swim."

Johnson Sworn in on Air Force One after Kennedy Assassination

LBJ became president after the assassination of his predecessor.  Not that Johnson had anything to do with that.  There are theories out there to the contrary however, since Oswald visited an area of Texas before going to Dallas in which LBJ had ties.  LBJ launched his senatorial career in a tight primary election where 202 voters in Jim Wells County came to the polls in alphabetical order and signed in using the same handwriting.  Johnson’s campaign manager just happened to be John Connally.  Johnson won his senate party primary by just 87 votes, which won him the title of, “Landslide Johnson.”  You have to love politics.  John Connally went on to become governor of Texas and was later wounded in the presidential limo during the JFK assassination.  Things that make you scratch your head and go hmmmm.

Johnson did make his mark in the White House in the areas of Civil Rights, Immigration Reform, increased spending on education, and he championed the formation of Medicare and Medicaid.  That was all in the plus column.  On the other side, the Vietnam war continued to escalate.

In 1969, enter Richard Nixon, aka, “tricky dicky.”  While people will remember him for making the Watergate complex famous, he did a few good things.  He ended the Vietnam War, eliminated the draft, and opened diplomatic relations with China.  The ending of the Vietnam war happened on Nixon’s watch but was the end result of negotiations started under Johnson.  Nixon perhaps delayed the end of the war at the end of Johnson’s administration by promising South Vietnamese president Thieu a better deal when he took over as president.  Johnson knew this because he had been wiretapping (yes there is that nasty presidential word) the ambassador’s office.

Can You Spot Nixon In This Photo?

Nixon, during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 (Egypt and Syria, supported by USSR, attacked Israel), airlifted arms to support Israel.  Brezhnev threatened military action and Nixon took the US to DEFCON3.  If you are a movie buff and remember your DEFCON levels, you know they are related to defecation and to how deep the shit happens to be.  DEFCON 3 is the Air Force is ready to mobilize in 15 minutes, DEFCON 2 we are ready to launch, and DEFCON 1 “I won’t be home for dinner.” 

Brezhnev backed down but, as a result of Israel’s victory, the Arab OPEC nations halted oil sales to the US resulting in the 1973 oil crisis, aka, go wait in long lines for gas and prepare to be disappointed.  I will however, be forever thankful to OPEC, because I was working for General Motors at the time.  Large car sales plummeted and GM was forced into layoffs.  If I hadn’t been laid off at GM, I might now be the proud possessor of a worthless retirement fund.

Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew resigned.  He was then convicted of bribery, tax evasion, and money laundering for activities during his time as governor of Maryland.  Gerald Ford was picked as his replacement.  Watergate happened and Nixon had to go on TV to tell his fellow Americans, “I’m not a crook.”  Nixon was forced out and Ford became president.  Are we beginning to remember that the presidency has not always been a bastion of honest and thoughtful government?

Watergate Cast

Gerald Ford served as vice president and president without having been elected to either office.  As president, Ford held that office for only 895 days, the shortest on record for someone who did not die in office.  He also lived longer than any other president did, as he was 93 when he died.  He famously fell down the gangway departing from Air Force One while visiting Austria in 1975.

He was Commander in Chief during the Mayaguez incident where a merchant ship was seized by Cambodians and our Marines were dispatched to rescue the crew.  They landed on the wrong island and suffered heavy losses.  We, the US, didn’t know that the Cambodians had already released the captured sailors.  The raid was viewed as a US victory and Ford enjoyed an 11-point boost in approval ratings.  The 41 servicemen killed were the last official casualties of the Vietnam war.

Gerald Ford Teaches Pele How to Really Play Football

 

Ford pardoned Nixon and gave amnesty to Vietmam draft-dodgers.  He supported the Equal Rights Amendment.  This made all women equal under the law.  He survived two assassination attempts; both shots were fired by women.  He lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter is a distant descendant of Thomas Cornell, as is Bill Gates, Richard Nixon, Amelia Earhart, and ax murder Lizzie Borden.  Top that family tree Donald Trump!  

Carter is famous for bailing out Chrysler Corporation, giving away the Panama Canal, managing the 444 days of the Iran hostage crisis, deregulation of the airline industry, and deregulation of the beer industry (making microbrew and homebrew OK).  Speaking of beer, Jimmy's brother Billy went into the beer business promoting Billy Beer.  By most standards it was awful stuff and Billy cited it for why he stopped drinking. 

Billy Carter Promoting His Beer

Billy Carter became the center of a Senate investigation, known as Billygate, for his ties to Libya.  It seems Billy registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government and was "loaned" $220,000 for his efforts.  An article published by The New Republic stated Billy had been paid $2 million by Libya.  It was later determined that this was "fake news" and the author had been paid $120,000 to disseminate disinformation in order to influence the upcoming presidential election.  Sound familiar?

Carter supported the Mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.  This support of Afghanistan forced Russia to withdraw which also contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  Carter was defeated in 1981 by Ronald Reagan and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Jimmy Carter

The actor Reagan, beat out the peanut farmer Carter, and served as president from 1981 to 1989 with George HW Bush as his VP.  Reagan, like Trump, was formerly a Democrat and switched parties in 1962.  He left office with a 68% approval rating matching FDR and Bill Clinton.  As an actor, one of his memorable titles is Bedtime for Bonzo, where a psychology professor (Reagan) tries to teach human morals to a chimpanzee.  Boy, could we use his help today at the White House.

Bedtime for Bonzo

Reagan was the oldest president elected, at age 69, until Trump came in at age 70.  On the jobs front, Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers.  His so-called Reaganomics plan reduced inflation, created jobs, but also almost tripled the national debt.

Ronald Reagan and Nancy

Reagan was shot in 1981 by a nut-job named Hinckley who was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster.

The Iran-Contra affair also happened on Reagan’s watch.  If you remember, we covertly sold arms to Iran (which was against the law), the sale was brokered through Israel, and we used the sale proceeds to fund the Contras fighting the government in Nicaragua (also illegal).  The cover story was that the arms sale was to help free 7 hostages  taken by Hezbollah.   Reagan claimed he didn’t know what his staff was doing and appointed the Tower Commission to investigate.  A great many documents were withheld from the commission or destroyed and the final report found that it couldn’t be proven that Reagan knew the full extent of the program.  At one point however, Reagan took “full responsibility” for the arms for hostages’ portion of the deal.  Eventually, fourteen administration officials were indicted which resulted in eleven convictions.  All were eventually pardoned by our next president, George H.W. Bush.

Bush the First, inherited $220 billion of national debt from the Reagan administration so his promise of, “Read my lips, No new taxes,” didn’t quite hold water.  In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and we got into the Gulf War.  We won that war and Bush’s ratings skyrocketed.  Bush promoted NAFTA eliminating tariffs on products traded between the US, Canada, and Mexico.  It should also be noted here that President Bush is the first elected official to personally retaliate for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by puking on the Prime Minister of Japan.  This happened in 1992 during a visit to Tokyo.  It was blamed on the flu or maybe some bad sushi.  Bush lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton.

Bush Pukes on Japanese Prime Minister

President Clinton was the first of “my people” to be elected.  By that, I mean he was the first Baby Boomer to make it to the White House.  He was also the first to be impeached for his libidinous behavior even though he was a piker compared to the dalliances of JFK or the current Mr. Trump.  He was technically impeached for perjury by the House of Representatives and later acquitted by the Senate.  On a positive note, the affair boosted the GNP as Monica Lewinsky used her new pop culture status to start up a handbag line.

Clinton is the first president in this review to have not served in the military.  Several used money and influence to avoid personal risk but Clinton was the first to avoid any form of military service.  Bush the Second (“W”), Obama, and Donald Trump also share the distinction of not having served in the military.  It should be noted that “W” did serve in the Texas Air National Guard.

Clinton and his VP Al Gore launched whitehouse.gov and moved other federal agencies to the Internet.  During Clinton’s presidency, the 1996 US campaign finance controversy involved an effort by the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to influence US domestic policy.  It almost sounds like something ripped out of a 2017 headline.  

Bill Clinton

During a 1996 trip to the Philippines, several assassination attempts were thwarted by the Secret Service.  There was a massive IED scheduled to blow up a bridge to be travelled by the presidential motorcade, several hand grenades were discovered in a travel bag at the airport, and another bomb was found at a US naval base where Clinton visits were scheduled.  The bridge bomb was traced to a Saudi terrorist group called al-Qaeda then headed by Osama bin Laden.  Until recently, these assassination attempts were withheld from the public.

George W Bush, aka Bush the Second, or just “W,” won a close election over Al Gore that was ultimately decided by the Florida Supreme Court.  He won Florida by 537 votes out of six million cast.  This was the “hanging chad” fiasco.  I had a front row seat to the recount in Miami as my office was on a floor adjoining the recount area.  Bush also had the dubious distinction of being the Commander in Chief during the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Looking For Chads (picture taken just feet from my office)

After the 9/11 attack, Bush signed the executive order that implemented the President’s Surveillance Program that allowed the NSA to, without even a FISA warrant, surveille terrorists outside the US who contact people in the US.  This executive order was later replaced by PRISM that did require a FISA warrant.  Does any of this sound as if it’s had an impact in current events? 

There was only one assassination attempt involving president Bush and that took place in Georgia.  That’s Georgia the country not Georgia the state north of Florida.  The attempt was in the form of a hand grenade tossed toward the podium where Bush was speaking.  The Armenian “tosser” (that’s British slang for something) didn’t have much of an arm as the grenade fell 65 feet from Bush and didn’t detonate.  Bush wanted to invade Armenia but couldn’t find it on a map.  (Just kidding)

Bush Quote

Two other periods of the Bush presidency where the country could have ended up in deep shit, so to speak, happened in 2002 and again in 2007.  For brief periods during those years, Dick Cheney became the acting president when Bush underwent colonoscopies.  Both Bush and the country survived those near catastrophes.

President Bush Gives Encouragement to American Team at Beijing Olympics

When Bush took office, the DOW was over 10,000, but when he left office, it was under 8,000.  The US also endured the longest recession since the end of WWII.  The Dot-com bubble coupled with the 9/11 attacks contributed to the recession.  His term in office also saw the subprime mortgage crisis, a housing market correction, and rising oil prices.  Bush also pushed major tax cuts that didn’t help matters.  On a more positive note, he signed the Medicare drug benefit program.

Invasion of Iraq

The biggest blunder of the Bush presidency however, was his 2003 invasion of Iraq to find Weapons of Mass Destruction.  The eventual toppling of the Hussein regime created a power vacuum that was filled by al-Qaeda and Isis.  As presidential screw-ups go, this one topped the charts.  Speaking of charts, Bush had the highest and lowest approval ratings for an American president ever recorded.  It was highest after 9/11 and the lowest at the 2008 end of his presidency, partly because of the 2008 financial crisis.

Putin and Bush Argue About Fashion

This brings us almost up to date with the election of Barack Obama in 2008.  President Obama inherited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an economy in the worst shape since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.  During his presidency, the Dow Jones average went from around 8,000 to almost 20,000, the S&P 500 was up 181%, and NASDAQ tripled in value.  Corporate profits rose 166%, wages increased by 3.4%, 15 million people got health insurance, but the national debt went up 116%.  Also of note, on May 1, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed and buried at sea hours later.

His crowning achievement was the ACA, which is commonly called Obamacare.  It certainly has room for improvement and will need to be changed but, as we have seen in recent weeks, it’s complicated.

Obama Family Portrait

The unemployment rate was 7.8% when Obama took office and quickly rose to 10%.  At the end of his second term, unemployment was around 4.7%.  Could Obama have done better?  Of course, he could have done more.  In his defense, he did not have an advantage in Congress for much of his tenure, but did have a majority early on.  He inherited a mess, made some improvements, and he will be more properly judged in the years that come.  He also won the Nobel Peace Prize.

  

Now we are up to date.  It is far too early in the Trump presidency to draw many comparisons but, as we have seen, every president has had his problems.  Not one was without his flaws.  We have seen that, as philanderers go, president Trump doesn’t hold a candle to JFK.  Give him time though, and we shall see what the future brings.  President Trump has a lot of wiggle room if history is allowed some light.  His predecessors in my lifetime:

• ·       dropped two atomic bombs
• ·       launched a failed covert invasion of Cuba
• ·       brought us to the brink of mutually assured destruction
• ·       been assassinated in office
• ·       taken us twice to DEFCON 3
• ·       were suspected of rigging and/or interfering with elections
• ·       been forced to resign
• ·       launched an attack that landed on the wrong island
• ·       survived numerous assassination attacks
• ·       puked on a Japanese Prime Minister
• ·       “did not have sex with that woman”
• ·       illegally sold arms to an enemy
• ·       initiated wars based on poor intelligence

This list is far from complete.  Let’s allow President Trump to go about the business of being the leader of the free world, as we shamelessly refer to the position.  He will surely provide us with ample material for a follow-up article.

 

Trump