We are excited to bring back our popular "Seeing Red? Vote Blue!" made in the USA t-shirts to get out the vote for the 2018 midterm elections!! You can order one here at custom ink. Orders for this round are accepted through July 9. Let's spread the word and get out the vote for 2018!!
I literally could not breathe for a second when I saw this. And it's not me that is saying it - it is the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Defense that is saying this. Here's the link to the DoD document. I've also posted it separately to my site as according to this Forbes article from late last year it apparently was taken down before being reposted in a different place. Key finding from the report:
“OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis personnel did not adequately document or support adjustments made to AGF data during FY 2015 financial statement compilation. Specifically, OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis personnel did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in JV adjustments for third quarter and $6.5 trillion in JV adjustments for yearend.”
Think about it for a second. There was a $6.5 trillion of unspported adjustments to the Army's financial statements in 2015. The total budget for the Pentagon for 2018 is $700 billion. Here's a quote from the Forbes article, citing the GAO itself on what an unspported journal voucher adjustments are:
“According to the GAO’s Comptroller General, “Journal vouchers are summary-level accounting adjustments made when balances between systems cannot be reconciled. Often these journal vouchers are unsupported, meaning they lack supporting documentation to justify the adjustment or are not tied to specific accounting transactions…. For an auditor, journal vouchers are a red flag for transactions not being captured, reported, or summarized correctly.””
I should note that this article questions whether $21 Trillion of unspported adjustments were made. I'm "only" referencing the $6.5 Trillion because that's the backup I have.
I really don't know what to say except I'm floored.
I have one word for you on this: Water. Putting aside the issues of breaking up the university system, infrastructure maintenance, prisons, bond debt, et. al. - the fight over water would be insane. I can't imagine how that would play out in reality. I am pretty sure it would be very difficult and ugly. LAT has an overview piece here.
Just to give some perspective - let's say a multi-state authority - think along the lines of New York/New Jersey Port Authority - was established to manage water between the three states. The Port Authority of NY and NJ has jurisdiction over the Hudson River crossings, the three major airports in the region - JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, and other multi-state infrastructure (e.g., Bayonne Bridge). In practice, this isn't always such a great idea - we lived in NJ and watched NY and NJ try to jockey resources of the PA for its own benefit. An example of this was Chris Christie redirecting PA funds for repairs to the Pulaski Skyway in NJ - an old freeway entirely based in NJ, that is not a Hudson River crossing that would fall within the scope of the PA. Additionally, both the NYC and NJ governers (Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie) also vetoed legislation that was unanimously passed by both state legislatures designed to provide more oversight to the PA - in part because of the Pulaski Skyway issue.
California is a diverse state that for all its faults, manages to lead the nation in technology, environment, the economy, civil rights and countless other issues. Yes, we have major problems as well - lack of public school funding and an acute homeless crisis are two - and yet we still manage to have influence both in the U.S. and around the world. As the fifth largest economy in the world, California is a force to be reckoned with. I see no reason to walk away from California as the strong, united beacon it is today.
Help someone get home
The average shortfall in funds for a person to get a roof over his or her head is about $1000. Please join me today in making a modest donation to PATH to help get someone home. PATH's mission is to end homelessness for individuals, families and communities.
LA's homeless population has exploded to 53,000 people. The difference between the time we left in 2013 and the time we came home in 2016 - less than 3 years - is striking. The encampments underneath overpassses, the tents along the LA River, the increased population on Skid Row, calls for whatever action we can do.
According to PATH - People Assisting the Homeless - the average shortfall in funds for someone to get a roof over his or her head is about $1,000. That is why I am kicking off a fundraising campaign today to help get at least one person home. If 20 people gave $50, we would hit our goal! My fundraising page is here, and giving is EASY. Please take a moment right now to make a contribution to help combat homelessnes in our city. If you want to know more about PATH, you can find them here.
Thank you in advance - I know you love our city as much as I do. Let's start doing our part to make it a little better every day.
Valley Dude (c) 2018
In my last post on the subject of depression, I had expressed anxiety that more people might copy Kate Spade. But I did not think another very public figure would follow in Kate's footsteps so quickly. I did not know either Kate or Anthony, so I can't speak to their specific life experiences or what demons brought them to a darkness that they felt only one escape from. I can only tell you what I have been through, the demons and darkness that have visited me, and how I have tried to cope with them. I will say at the outset that at this moment I am living a life where the sun is shining most every day, I am finding interest in new and old friends again, new and old interests, and making the best of where I am at a given moment. I will also candidly admit this is a relatively (and happily) recent development after so many long years. I hope that my thoughts here can be useful for anyone reading this that might be suffering from depression.
For as long as I can remember, I have been living with lengthy periods of despair and anxiety since I was probably 8-10 years old. There are a lot of reasons I can think of as to the why - but I'm not all that sure the specifics matter; after all, Kate and Anthony were two different people with two different life experiences, yet they wound up sharing the same fate. Depression is that way, it is a disease that seeps into the very fiber of your being. Just as cancer may have different causes and can - but does not always - lead to similar disease progression in different patients, the causes of depression may differ from person to person but the outcomes can - but not always - be similar in different patients. It truly is a disease, just as someone who can't see needs eyeglasses for their eyes to focus, someone with depression needs consistent treatment and perhaps medication to have their mind focus and work in a more healthy manner.
I've often wondered why I spent so long trying to hide my mental and emotional pain. I suppose it is "not something people talk about", which if you think about it is really silly, and can be dangerous. I never got quite to the point that Kate or Anthony did - I could never leave my family, and I never wanted to quit fighting - but I understand the sheer terror that comes with a darkness and a lonliness that feels entirely out of your control. I felt, just like it seems like Kate did, that I had to put the smile and the act on to carry on my day to day life, and that admitting my problems would be tantamount to giving up to them. But the demons were always there, foreboding, angry, at times immobilizing. I wrote a poem back in 1992 when I was 22 years old, that may give you an idea of what can go through my head. You can read it at this link if you are interested.
For me, admitting the fact of depression was the first step in starting to understand how to cope with it. I first found and got help when I was 42, when I was feeling like my anxiety and depression were so overhwelming I was starting to feel like my entire being was fraying. Help consisted of both therapy with psychologists and psychatrists, as well as medicaton to help me "see" - my mental glasses. I admitted to my wife, certain close friends, and doctors that I was in crisis. It was really hard. I've run into some walls and have fallen flat on my face during this time. But the minute I realized I was not alone, and accepted a medical regimen that the doctors are keeping a close eye on me, that in fact I did not need to judge myself for feeling this way, I felt like I was starting to go down the right path.
Here's where it gets tricky - despite the constant therapy and trial and error on medication, it has taken six years of different doctors, approaches, medications and persistence to get me to the point where today, I feel like I wake up and I am ready to enjoy the day. I want to be clear on this - I am in a good place right now, but there's no doubt that just as a diabetic needs constant care and medication, depression requires the same. I also want to say that therapy and medication may not always be enough. It may require, like it did for me, changing fundamentally ways of how to live my life - lifestyle changes and avenues to my passions, which include my routines, my diet, and pursuit of things that are meaningful to me. There is also a useful NYT article here if you have a loved one suffering from depression and do not know what to do.
I would like to close this piece by reiterating a point - I judged myself for what I was going through, that somehow I was not good enough or able enough to fix my own problems. I used to feel almost out of body - like I was watching my own car wreck happening and I could not stop it. The fact is that I suffer from a disease, and I no longer feel shame or judgment for what I've been through. It is because I admitted my disease, let my loved ones - my wife, my children, my friends, family and closest colleagues - help me through my day. And for each of you, I am humbly and eternally grateful for you every single day.
On a recent flight out of LA I was looking out the window and really caught a great view of the heavy marine layer that was enveloping the Santa Monica Bay. I also caught a pic of the PV peninsula.
Sunset and the marine layer looking northwest. (c) J. Sarrow 2018
Looking north, heading west just after takeoff before the turnaround to go east. (c) J. Sarrow 2018
Marine layer looking west over the ocean as we began the turnaround to go east. (c) J. Sarrow 2018
View looking south at the Palos Verdes peninsula. (c) J. Sarrow 2018
(c) J. Sarrow 2018
Gate 75B at LAX. After a 2 hour departure delay.
I thought it was about time that the Valley Dude moved out of Google and into a website of my own. They say wherever you go, there you are. So, here I am! Still a work in progress, but am excited to build a new place to call my own.