#But you know there was a golden era of like minimum 50 years where he wouldn't fucking start sentences any other way

[thisdaynews]

Inside Susan Collins’ reelection fight in the age of Trump

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/inside-susan-collins-reelection-fight-in-the-age-of-trump/

Inside Susan Collins’ reelection fight in the age of Trump

GOP Sen. Susan Collins‘ reelection campaign is expected to be the most expensive in Maine history. | AP Photo/Patrick Whittle

2020 elections

The four-term Republican is facing a formidable opponent, anger over her support of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Democrats energized over the president’s divisive politics.

OLD TOWN, Maine — Shortly after Barack Obama won and Susan Collins was reelected in 2008, the president invited her to the White House to pitch the economic stimulus. It was not particularly subtle.

“He said: ‘You know Susan, they really like me in Maine. And I did really well in the last election,’” Collins recounted over sandwiches at the Governor’s Restaurant in Eastern Maine. “I practically had to bite my tongue in two to avoid saying: ‘They do like you Mr. President, but they liked me better.’”

Story Continued Below

For Collins to win a fifth term, she needs Mainers to again like her more than the current White House occupant. A whole lot more.

The 66-year-old political giant is facing the race of her life despite her universal name recognition and bipartisan reputation. President Donald Trump is targeting Maine as a battleground while his divisive politics has cleaved the state in two, and Collins has to share the ticket with him.

National Democrats, meanwhile, are backing Sara Gideon as her likely opponent, a battle-tested statehouse speaker who raised more than $1 million in the week after her launch.

Projected to be the most expensive in Maine’s history, the race is of imperative importance for party leaders and the Senate institution itself. With scarce opportunities elsewhere, Senate Democrats essentially need Gideon to win to gain a minimum of three seats and the majority. In the Senate, a Collins loss would be a potentially fatal blow to the reeling center of the chamber.

Faced with a cavalcade of challenges, Collins is projecting confidence while balancing her meticulous senatorial approach with an unmistakable shift into campaign mode. Collins, who is sitting on $5 million in campaign cash, bashes Gideon as a candidate who has “outsourced her campaign” to Washington and her longtime aides are gearing up for a knife fight.

Collins’ approval ratings, though, dipped below 50 percent in one poll. Republican strategists say they have her above 50 percent but acknowledge her unfavorables are up.

Collins is self-aware of her plight. She knows supporting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cost her and laments that decision helped bring the permanent campaign to Vacationland.

“Have I lost some votes because of my decision to support Justice Kavanaugh? Yes, I have. And I’m sad about that because I explained in great depth my decision-making,” Collins said. But “there still is an appreciation in Maine for someone who looks at the facts of an issue, votes with integrity and independence.”

Party leaders are openly preoccupied with Collins’ fate.

“We’re paying a lot of attention to it. She’s made some tough votes, she stepped up big time and did a very courageous thing … on the Kavanaugh vote. But there’s a political price that comes with that,” acknowledged Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “She’s the person that can keep that seat.”

Collins hasn’t officially announced her campaign, though it would take a seismic event for her not to run.

“No doubt that this is going to be a tough race,” Collins said. But “those who are eager to count me out … should take a look at [2008], where I had a truly, very worthy superior candidate.”

That’s a swipe at Gideon, an energetic 47-year-old mother of three who is eager to contrast Collins’ efficacy in the Trump era with her own role battling former Gov. Paul LePage and pushing progressive legislation. The race is already getting ugly.

Gideon says Mainers are “worried” that special interests are coming before them and suggests Collins stood by while thousands lost their lives to gun violence. Collins and her team see Gideon as a hypocrite on big money in politics and are ready to whack her for corporate donations and a campaign finance violation.

The tense atmosphere is not what Maine, or Collins, is used to. The Trump Era has frustrated a senator known for rigorous research, mild manners and a belief the Senate can still solve problems.

She toils away on health care legislation, then is confronted with the president’s tweets. She voted against the Obamacare repeal, then the administration backed a lawsuit aimed at sweeping the health law away.

Collins herself has no real relationship with the president, though she speaks with his daughter Ivanka Trump on topics like family leave and apprenticeships. More than anything, Collins resents the notion that she hasn’t stood up to the president.

“It’s never enough. Never. For those who truly hate the president, I’m never going to be able to do enough for them,” Collins said between bites of banh mi, which she frugally tucks into a to-go container before hurrying to a paper mill reopening. “I get tired of the ‘she speaks but doesn’t act.’”

Collins supported Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, but voted against Betsy DeVos as Education secretary and tried to override many of Trump’s vetoes. She took the lead on disapproving of Trump’s emergency declaration at the border.

Senate Democrats like working with Collins but would much rather have the majority. And to some, she’s in the way.

“This isn’t about Susan,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “You’ve got to make winning back the Senate a priority.”

Unlike most Senate races in 2020, Collins’s bid is a true referendum on her. Maine is not transient and everyone knows her.

Collins, one of two true GOP moderates along with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, is hyperfocused on Maine issues as the chairwoman of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging (demographically, Maine is the oldest state) and is often a lonely, if reserved, critic of Trump.

Collins’ strategy appeals to the middle. But Trump’s polarity gives Gideon an opening.

“She has voted with her party more than she ever has before. And I think that is worth repeating and remembering,” Gideon said over coffee in left-leaning Portland. “Part of the whole aspect of Mainers feeling left behind by Sen. Collins is she can not decisively say where she is on an issue.”

Gideon asserts that Collins is no longer the senator she once was, after her support for Trump’s nominees, the tax cuts that endangered Obamacare and her lack of a firm stance on Trump’s reelection. No matter how you ask about Trump’s 2020 campaign, Collins answers the same: “Not going to go there.”

“There will come a time when she’s going to have to make decisions and really tell people where she stands,” Gideon said.

Yet Gideon isn’t firm on hot-button issues herself. Eager to avoid the GOP’s “socialist” label, she won’t explicitly endorse Medicare for All or the Green New Deal but says climate change and universal health care access are priorities.

She doesn’t say whether she would support Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as leader and doesn’t have a “fully developed position” on expanding or reforming the Supreme Court.

“You’re asking me questions that my six-week-old campaign self has not quite gotten to yet,” Gideon said, when asked about the legislative filibuster, which Collins defends.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed Gideon shortly after she launched her campaign, snubbing liberal candidate Betsy Sweet. Backed by the progressive Justice Democrats, Sweet says Gideon’s strategy is misguided.

“Careful, try not to say too much, don’t ruffle any feathers,” Sweet said of Gideon. “People are hungry for real policy and they’re hungry for real ideas.”

But national Democrats argue Gideon has put the race on the map as much as Trump, with DSCC Chairwoman Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) calling her “a tremendous candidate.”

It will take more than that to beat Collins, who has always been able to balance the divergent needs in the “Two Maines,” split between a pair of congressional districts drifting in opposite directions.

Prosperous Southern Maine has tourists, Portland’s booming restaurant scene and big-city transplants. The feeling there: Collins is toast.

The rest of the state largely resides in the sprawling Second Congressional District. This is Trump Country with shuttered paper mills, endless forests and economic challenges. It’s also the heart of Collins’s support.

At the Governor’s Restaurant, she’s stopped repeatedly by fawning diners. These voters are decidedly not on Twitter fuming about their senator. But they’ll feel the effects of the resistance against Collins soon enough.

Advertising Analytics projects spending in the race at $55 million, easily the most expensive in Maine history. Outside groups are already softening up Collins.

“People in Maine do not like billionaires coming to our state to take out our senator,” said former GOP state Sen. David Trahan.

Collins adds: “I have never seen the far left as energized.”

The left is only one piece of Maine’s intricate political puzzle, a state that never neatly breaks down party lines. A prime example: moderate Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, a former Collins staffer, will stay neutral in the race.

“I haven’t met anyone who works harder than her to be honest with you. And obviously I’m working hard to try to follow in her footsteps,” he said of Collins.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who endorsed Collins in 2014, won’t say whether he will do so again. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) endorsed Collins, earning himself an angry call from Schumer.

“I can’t believe everyone’s so damn hypocritical. She’s the one person I work with all the time,” Manchin said. “Why would you not expect me to do that?”

“Yes,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), when asked if she’s conflicted. “I’m very fond of her. I consider her a friend. I trust her. I believe she’s a good senator.”

For others, winning the majority is far more important than playing nice in the Senate’s shrinking center. Collins said she supports Mitch McConnell as GOP leader, which is all some colleagues need to hear.

“Any vote to put Mitch McConnell in the leader’s chair is a vote to stifle climate action, period, end of story. It’s pretty categorical,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

Collins says some of the people rooting for her defeat are the same ones on the Senate floor each day, eager to speak with her.

“I have literally a line of people waiting to talk to me about: ‘Could you co-sponsor this bill, could you sign this letter?’” she said. “Clearly, my support is valued.”

In 2020, Trump will likely win an electoral vote in Maine’s Second District but lose the state overall. That means Collins probably needs thousands of voters to split their tickets. And the dynamics are anything but fixed.

Republicans harbor long-shot hopes that the Democratic primary gets ugly, aiming to elevate Sweet and put Gideon at odds with liberals. And Collins faces a potential time bomb with the Obamacare lawsuit, which originated from the GOP’s tax bill that killed the law’s individual mandate. She’s confident Kavanaugh will not strike down the entire law, which could fundamentally alter the race.

Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine), whom Collins handily dispatched in 2008, admitted she maintains an edge despite the massive national campaign against her. But he drew a parallel to another famous Maine Republican senator, not entirely favorable.

“Someone that’s elected four times to the U.S. Senate has got to be a favorite,” he said. But Margaret Chase Smith “ran for a fifth term. And she got beat. Susan Collins is running for a fifth term. And I think the chances of her being beaten are pretty good.”

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[itsworn]

Ultrarare 1 of 7 Canadian 1965 Ford Falcon Hi-Po Was Built for the Dragstrip

When physics teacher Graeme Thompson sat down at Little Brothers Ford in Weston, Ontario, just north of Toronto, to order his 1965 Falcon Futura, salesperson Ole Sorensen told him, “I’ll place the order, but I don’t think they’re going to build it.”

That’s because Thompson had opted for a little-known performance package that included the 271hp 289 Hi-Po engine, Top Loader four-speed gearbox, and Traction Lok–equipped 9-inch rear axle. That would be the K-code engine package in Mustang or Fairlane terms (minus the Traction Lok), but for the Falcon, it was simply conveyed as code 992. And it was only offered in Canada. No American-built Falcons were built with the package, and the K-code was never officially available with it north of the border.

brouwer-1965-ford-falcon-hipo-rear-three-quarter Nick Brouwer was a fan of the racecar Teacher’s Pet back in the 1960s and was “thrilled” when he was able to buy it in 2003.

As with other factory high-performance packages of the day, the intent was to make the car legal in NHRA Stock Eliminator racing. Problem was, only seven of the cars were built by Ford at the Oakville, Ontario, assembly plant: three pillared coupes and four hardtops, like this one. NHRA demanded at least 50 to qualify for a Stock Eliminator class. As a result, they were relegated to the Factory Experimental (FX) class.

brouwer-1965-ford-falcon-hipo-engine-overall Although the original is long gone, the engine is an internally authentic 289 Hi-Po, dressed with more contemporary induction components.

Knowing the cars would go straight to the strip, Ford truncated the normal two-year/ 24,000-mile warranty to 90 days/4,000 miles.

A modern, Quick Fuel-prepared 750-cfm four-barrel atop an Edelbrock aluminum intake takes the place today of the original 600-cfm Holley and iron intake of the original 271hp engine.

Racing the car was the very reason Thompson ordered the Hi-Po Falcon. He wasted little time in attaching a tow bar and pulling it to dragstrips around Ontario, often bringing home trophies for his weekend’s work. For the first couple of years, Thompson was sponsored by a local shop named Weston Race and Custom. When the sponsorship money dried up, he dubbed the car Teacher’s Pet and soldiered on independently.

All told, Thompson campaigned Teacher’s Pet for about eight years, typically running in the mid- and low-13s. He even worked his way through a 24-car class field, including a 390-powered Galaxie in the final round, to win the Niagara Gold Cup Nationals in 1969 at Niagara Dragway. It was one of 30 trophies the car earned in its eight years on the strip.

The restored interior matches the original, well-trimmed Futura cabin in Palomino, including the bucket seats and console.

It’s no surprise Thompson was able to drive around so many competitors. With a curb weight of right around 2,800 pounds, the car had a strong power-to-weight ratio of around 10.7:1. The 1965 Nova SS, by comparison, tipped the scales nearly 200 pounds heavier, and its 327 engine was down 20 hp to the 289 Hi-Po.

As it did many racers of the day, the advent of bracket racing prompted Thompson to put away his helmet. He sold Teacher’s Pet in 1973, and it changed hands a number of times before Nick Brouwer acquired it in 2003. More than a fan of the factory Hi-Po Falcons, however, Brouwer was a fan of the racecar.

A Hurst-shifted, close-ratio four-speed was standard fare with the 289 Hi-Po engine and could be matched with a range of rear-axle gears, up to 4.11.

“Starting around 1967 and for the next couple of years, I would walk past the car every day on my way to school,” says Brouwer. “Graeme worked on the car in his driveway. I don’t think the rest of his neighbors appreciated that, but I sure did.”

Brouwer even saw the car run at Golden Horseshoe Dragway (later renamed Toronto International Dragway), then watched it drive around his hometown after Thompson sold it, as a succession of his friends traded ownership. Although the car stayed local for a while, it eventually moved away. But not too far. Brouwer recognized it immediately when it popped up in a local trader publication in 2003.

The 60-series, 15-inch drag radials fill out the stock rear fenders, while a set of CalTrac bars used with the stock rear leaf springs keep axle hop to a minimum.

He says, “It had been painted black from the original Prairie Bronze, and the Palomino interior had also been changed to black, but it was definitely the Teacher’s Pet. I was thrilled to buy it. What it really deserved was to be restored to its original racing condition.”

Fortunately, the car’s early years as a dedicated track tool kept it off the street in the salted months, helping preserve the body. The miles were comparatively low, too. To date, the odometer shows 54,800 miles, the first few thousand, as it is said, racked up a quarter-mile at a time. The original color was resprayed, and temporary reproduction “Teacher’s Pet” graphics were added to the sides. They were ultimately removed, and discreet versions of the racecar name now reside on the rear quarter-windows. It’s a subtle but knowing tribute to the car’s heritage.

The car also rolls on updated wheels and tires, but it carries that classic big-and-little dragstrip stance. With a deep oil pan and a set of CalTrac bars out back, the effect is a nice blend of restomod and vintage drag car. Frankly, we just don’t see many Falcons with such a look, and it’s refreshing.

The original “Teacher’s Pet” graphics are honored in quarter-window decals.

Like so many dedicated racecars of that golden era, the original 289 Hi-Po engine had expired long before, and a replacement engine was nestled between the shock towers. Brouwer had a correct replacement build featuring all of the 271hp goodies, including a solid-lifter camshaft, heads with smaller chambers that supported a 10.5:1 compression ratio, a dual-points distributor, the appropriate crankshaft, and more. It was all to enable 6,000-rpm engine speeds, and it was a potent combination.

Vintage participation stickers show that the rare Falcon got around in the early 1980s. The Street Machine Nats were in Indianapolis in 1981, while the Motion event was a Toronto show that ran from 1974 to 1989.

Externally, the engine varies slightly today, with an Edelbrock Victor Jr. aluminum intake, a Quick Fuel 750-cfm Holley, finned valve covers, and a few other bolt-on items.

After the restoration was complete, Teacher’s Pet was displayed at the 2008 Speed-O-Rama in Toronto, as well as the Toronto Performance World Car Show, where Brouwer reunited it with Thompson for the first time in decades.

“It was a great moment,” he says. “And after the show, I took the car over to Graeme’s house. He still lived in the same one I walked by more than 40 years earlier. He and his son took the car out for a few blasts down the street. It was just like 1967 again.”

There’s not a K to be found on the Canadian data plate. The 992 engine code doesn’t correspond with other standard engine codes for Canadian Fords and is an indicator of the special-order option.

Brouwer has accumulated copious documentation on the car, including photos and notes of Thompson rebuilding the engine in his living room, a letter from NHRA indicating the low production excluded the car from Stock Eliminator classes, and, curiously, a copy of the original dealer invoice, which was shown in the Jan. 2002 issue of MCR. It was part of a story on another of the seven don’t-call-it-a-K-Code Hi-Po Falcons.

“I’m not sure how the invoice for my specific car ended up in the story, because it wasn’t for the car in the story,” Brouwer says. “But there it was, which prompted my contact to the magazine.”

For the record, we don’t know, either. It’s an MCR mystery dating back to the days when photo shoots involved a brick of Fujichrome slide film and when flip phones were still a thing.

Today, the car is part of Brouwer’s enviable muscle car collection. To be honest, his true penchant is for Mopars, but the Falcon is one of those cars that, like many of us, has burned into the brain: the muscle car you saw in your formative years that you just had to have one day. Brouwer made that happen, with one of the rarest high-performance Fords on either side of the U.S./Canada border.

At a Glance 1965 Falcon Hi-Po Owned by: Nick Brouwer Restored by: Chris’s Auto Body (ext. and int.); Autoserv 98 (engine) Engine: 289ci/271hp Hi-Po V-8 Transmission: Top Loader close-ratio 4-speed manual Rearend: 9-inch with Traction Lok (Detroit anti-spin) differential and 4.11 gears Interior: Palomino vinyl bucket seats with center console and Hurst shifter Wheels: 15-inch Cragar Street Pro five-slot Tires: 5.60-15 front runner front, P235/60R15 Mickey Thompson ET Street R rear Special parts: Factory performance package with 289 Hi-Po engine and driveline, including transmission; 9-inch rear axle with limited-slip differential; heavy-duty suspension; heavy-duty 10-inch drum brakes

Racing Days

Original owner Graeme Thompson showed the car in 1966 at the Speed-O-Rama car show. It’s the same event at which current owner Nick Brouwer reintroduced the car to Thompson in 2008.

Graeme Thompson, a physics teacher himself, hand-painted the lab-coat-wearing namesake character on the Falcon’s flanks, circa 1968.

Teacher’s Pet at Cayuga Dragway (now part of Toronto Motorsports Park), circa 1968 or 1969. Note the full house for the heads-up action.

Here’s the letter from NHRA tech director W.E. Dismuke indicating that the low production rate of the 271hp Falcons would keep them out of Stock Eliminator and push them to Factory Experimental.

The post Ultrarare 1 of 7 Canadian 1965 Ford Falcon Hi-Po Was Built for the Dragstrip appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ultrarare-canadian-1965-ford-falcon-hi-po/ via IFTTT

[propracticegurveerpadhal]

Presentation and feedback

For my presentation I did a pitch for the Ian Perry Scholarship. The power point should be linked bellow. Overall I think I had decent ideas but my presentation was way of, I had way too much information to the point it became confusing as to what I was trying to pitch, I should have been more succinct and clear. I had to have two ideas to pitch and I think the one based in Africa should be my first personal project after I get my company going, I have been setting up places to stay and events I need to go to so Overall I feel positive about the experience, my pitch needs tightening but my ideas are strong.    

My presentation should be linked where i submitted.      

Speech

For my project I want to present the lives of immigrant employees who are doing the minimum wage jobs in a Varity of conditions but all gruelling In west London. This will involve me working in these places and actually building real relationships with my sitters. I will be getting these jobs in mostly Asian and Somali areas because I would like to emphasise people of colour in this project but that doesn’t mean I wont use European sitters also. My Close aunt being a Hindi and Punjabi translator I have always been exposed to the realties of working class immigration.

  The reason why I chose this project was because of my first job, which was working in an extremely rundown corner shop, although the conditions where a bit Grimy I found a strong sense of community lay there, they where still giving people tabs until the end of the week, and the check out was almost like a Jamaican Hairdressers, people always coming in for a chat. But what struck me was the preparation before opening, when the sun was still rising I would have to set up the fruit stand and carry deliveries into a very run down walk in freezer, I loved how the shop looked at that time, it was like a twilight zone. Then I worked in a garage in the slough trading estates, learning car body repair, I was apprenticing under a Hungarian gentlemen who spoke hardly any English and grew frustrated when he could not explain things. He would offer me Cigarettes and talk about his frustrations with he 6-day workweek. In the engine shop there was a person called Happy Singh and yes he was exactly as jolly as you are expecting, he also works a 6 day work week. It is interesting how people’s inner selves slowly reveal themselves after hours and hours of grinding labour. But I would also like to represent these people in their homes. Because as well as it portraying the life style, their mental state, money situation and also eccentricities.

 My first Job will be the first job I ever had again but the owner has since become some what of a king pin of Jersey Parade (the row of shops where the shop is located), he now owns 4 other shops on the same road and sold others, Him and his family live above these shops and he is currently trying to drive out a butchery on the road with his own butchery one shop over from them. As Wealthy as this man seems, this is much more a story about a constant struggle from nothing into his little suburban empire. This man and his family lives above a shop that they have ben working everyday for the last 20 years and didn’t get help until 5 years ago. He still speaks in broken English but he built many businesses and thrived in England.

 These people stories need to be told because I feel like there are many unsung heroes in everyone local areas and many pillars that make home feel like home but also as a contrast the story of many working class immigrants particularly in the Asian population of west London is one of displacement, Particularly in the 80s when the national front was challenging Asian communities with the support of the police when things where particularly intense in India. You would see a lot of Sikh people involved in protests during this time in areas like Southall because it is in the warrior nature of Sikhi but also because of the Indian government raid and destroying bits of the golden temple and assassinating A Sikh khalistani leader. Being a Sikh Myself I have always found the community comes together more then most weather it be melas, religious events or defending Temples from being stoned by white power nationalists.

 I will be getting jobs such as big to small Indian cash and carries, dock yard work, ware house work in Southall, cheap hotel cleaning, barbers, car washes and also immigrant women who support families with a cash in hand maid service. Which There are in a shocking abundance. I want to also explore the world of casual jobs and I will try and find odd ones in the classified ads in shop windows.

There are a lot of new immigrants who often are sleeping on the streets for months at a time, they have started congregating around the increasing industrial abandoned spaces in some areas, car parks to. Creating temporary pop up shanty towns at night in these places, most of them have been con-ed into believe they have job security by crooked travel agents in their countries, this reminds me of the dust bowl era in America.

 This illustrates why I need to do this project. With Brexit and also the current situation in America. We have not fully humanized working class immigrants, Often over exoticfitation is a poor excuse for progress. I want to appeal to the human empathy photography can produce, often borders can make people feel violated and have a need to ostracizes foreign people to maintain a sense of security. But I want to represent a side of England that are its stomach folds, the Gaffa tape no one sees. In Looking into the writer James Joyce, I have been inspired to represent the multiplicity in life through the language of my fellow local people.

 I will use the money allocated to me to pay my sitters, lenses, and film. I will also need to rent Medium Format film cameras for a few shoots inside the home. For quality sake but also it would legitimise my practice, it would be hard to be mistaken for a immigration detective with a mamiya. Aside from the budget this scholarship would really legitimise my practice. It would certainly give  me a more convincing reason to ask these people for their portraits, these delicate subjects cant be achieved by a passer by, it comes from building good bases with real people. I will be staying at home so the money I get for from the jobs will go to very discounted rent and travel expenses, 3 or more of these jobs would barely even get you ends meet, aside from the access I already have this is another reason why this scholarship would help.

 This would perfectly set me up for my next project. Which would be based on amateur rallying in Kenya but also a few others in Africa. Which is a massive deal to the Sikh community in Kenya. My family is 3 generations Kenyan and nearly everyone we know there are involved In motor sports somehow. This has been a proud tradition in the Sikh community since the 1940s and has grown ever since. The Sikh Community in Kenya are extremely well connected, everyone knows everyone. I will split my time in between Nairobi and Kisumu. And will stay with family and in my families farmhouse In Kisumu. Kisumu is an interesting place to start because it is split in between the hands on farmers and the contactors who often live very bourgeois lives. Everyone lives in their own compound and it is their own micro universe. The farmers have huge lots of lands and very eccentric houses, planning permission isn’t as strict there and people start driving by the age of 12. Nearly everyone there is an entrepreneur of some sorts. These spaces and visual language is like nothing I have ever seen before the wealth divide is crazy but the lives that the middle classes are like what billionaires do here. As well as the rally it self I want to focus on the characters that peruse it, and the almost village like aspects of this community. Although houses and land are extremely sparse in Kenya everyone congregates in the Gudwara in town and catches up, this is where the community is realised, a lot of networking also goes on there, if your family is known there they almost kill you with hospitality, this is why I think I have supreme access. My grandfather was a photographer and directed the first Swahili movie Milavi and also the second. He also shot the news for KBC and dabbled in Journalism. I will also assist his friend who has been documenting the races since the mid 50s, there are 2 photographer that I will be learning from in the field, although they have been shooting the days at the race I want to go further and capture the peoples lives who are big players in these events. This project makes sense for me to do and with this scholarships name and exposure, I will be legitimate enough to publish these grand stories with out being to invasive.

 I will start this project with my neighbour who lives 2 miles away. The Brar family who own a huge farm. They have had a difficult five years but their only son Satthi has had to have several reconstructive surgeries on his shoulder due to a crash. His father Billay lives on a huge compound, which also contains his brother’s house. He is someone else I want to photograph.

 He owns a mechanics workshop which looks straight out of the 50s. He is a very eccentric person to say the least he has over 40 monkeys who live around his house, they all have names and he loves and feeds them every day, they also have a zoo you can see while you pull up in the drive way. This place almost doesn’t seem real. By contrast I will be shooting some family friends The Baryans who own the biggest transpiration company in Kenya, Multiple Transportation. Their eldest son Manvir is an avid rally driver, he drives for Team Multiple. He has recently won first place in last years Kisumu cup. He is particularly close with my dad and a personal friend to me growing up. His best friend Babu was recently killed in a race they where both in. I personally knew him also; this project would be in dedication to Babu. Although what happened to his body was horrific, the passion In Manvir and the rest of the rallying community has not been diminished and is still stronger then ever. Much like James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake I want the project to constantly shift perspectives of all the different people involved with creating this community and the pillars that lead and shape to this die hard love for a motor sport. I am trying to portray all these different accounts while I tie them together to form a portrait of a place. A simulacra of a way of living un-fathomable by most.   

[ronaldmrashid]

Confessions From An Angry Retail Banker

Every time I’m waiting in line to deposit a check at a bank, I wonder what the hell is taking so long. Who are these people with huge envelopes full of cash? Why does the elderly lady always have to argue with the teller about why her ATM card isn’t working? What are tellers thinking when they see massive bank accounts from punk kids? I’ve invited a blogging buddy to share his insights. Enjoy!

RAARGH!!!! I’m ARB, the Angry Retail Banker!

Over at my blog, I offer “An Insider’s Take On Retail Banking.” But today, I’m going to talk about people instead.

People. The general public. The customers who bring us the moolah. When you work with them and their money, you get to know them a bit.

I’ve been in banking for ten years. I’ve seen and dealt with people from all races, religions, and socioeconomic classes. And when you work in retail banking, you start to get insights into how people work.

Money is the most powerful force in the universe, right up there with gravity, compounding, and bacon. It finances wars and it finances dreams. Having it can buy you freedom and your life; the lack of it can make you a slave to strangers. People’s relationship with their money is very complex, and nowhere does a person interact with their money more than at a bank.

Because of this, you can learn a lot more about people when working in retail banking than most other places, because a few numbers on the screen can tell one hell of a story if you take the time to read it.

We Financially Neglect Ourselves

Sam recently asked if Americans are so financially unprepared that they couldn’t even meet a $400 emergency expense. It’s true; we are financially unprepared. But it goes beyond simply not having an emergency savings account.

We treat opening up a bank account like ordering food at McDonald’s: “I just want a checking account and a debit card. Just give me whatever account has the lowest minimum. How long is this going to take? Because I’m meeting a friend for lunch at McDonald’s in fifteen minutes where I’m going to put way more thought into what I want for lunch than anything I get from here.”

Because we’re not taught in schools the importance of managing and moving our money properly, we don’t treat its movement and management with any sort of care. No talking with a loan officer about protective lines of credit or an investment advisor about socking money away for retirement. No talking about how to protect your money from bank fees or how to safely use your debit card without the risk of it being compromised. People don’t even consider putting beneficiaries on their high balance accounts!

No wonder global card fraud damages are estimated to reach nearly $28 billion this year and upwards of $32 billion by 2019 according to The Nilson Report. We don’t even take a look at our bank statements unless they come in the mail! To say nothing of quickly checking an ATM for a skimming device. How do people know if their money was stolen?

Between the lack of financial education and the lack of financial caring, the typical retail banking client digs themselves into a financial hole.

We Are All Living In The Past

When it comes to our financial habits, we are stuck in the past.

Look at retirement savings. People still think that the way to retire is to throw their money in a savings account, despite a decade of historically low rates. They think their pensions will take care of them and 10% CDs are right around the corner!

“When are rates going back up?” is a coming question I get. Never. Sorry.

This is why traditional retirement might be a thing of the past. Check out this heartbreaking story about retirees now living in poverty after the Teamsters Local 707 pension fund dried up. The scariest part about this story is that more pensions are going to follow suit—including state funded pensions—leaving millions without retirement funds despite decades of work.

I guarantee you not one of these people ever saved for retirement because they they thought they’d have their pensions and Social Security to live off of forever. It’s why I deal with 50+ year olds with $18,000 IRAs earning 0.1%.

Well, the current generation isn’t too far off. So many Millennials don’t even invest in their 401k’s and are expecting massive inheritances to bail them out when the retirement age comes. Sure, their parents are the wealthiest generation ever, but what if they decide to leave the money to someone more deserving?

We live in the past; we see that the government and the retirement plans just “took care” of our parents and grandparents when they retired and figure everything will just turn out alright. We don’t realize that we live in a different reality where you must save diligently, invest intelligently, and work on your side hustles or else we will work for an employer until the day we die.

And you wouldn’t believe how many people have never started saving for retirement. I know because I get people in their fifties coming in looking for advice so they can start saving for retirement.

Comply, Please?

It’s not just in these manners that we are stuck in the past. People also don’t seem to realize that the heavy financial regulations that they demanded be put on the banks actually exist.

Customers refuse to comply with our AML (Anti-Money Laundering) regulations, claiming that as a customer they have every right to exchange thousands of dollars in cash without a paper trail (they don’t).

Business customers get testy during the opening process when we need more documentation or information about their businesses, claiming that it’s none of our business (it is). We’ve got to follow KYC (Know Your Customer) laws.

Decades ago, you could open a bank account with an out-of-state ID. Now? We need valid ID with a local address, a utility bill, and business formation documents with a full explanation of how you do business and proof of business (if your account is a business account).

People don’t seem to realize the golden age of the pre-9/11 world and the pre-Great Recession era is gone forever. We asked for regulations; we got them.

Combine that with people clinging to their paper statements, paper checks, and bank tellers, and is it any wonder why some people take forever?

Related: How Much Should I Have Saved By Age?

People Have More Than You Think

When you think of rich people, you think of fancy suits and Maseratis, right?

What you don’t realize is that many people are practicing Stealth Wealth, quietly saving and investing their money while keeping the appearance of an Average Joe or a Plain Jane.

Or they’re some bats***t crazy psychos who fell into money because “the Lord works in mysterious ways” (translation: “God hates you”).

If there was a person who I would never have believed had a six figure bank account, it’s the nutter in this story. Short version: A chronic alcoholic threatens to physically beat up my supervisor, forcing me to call the police. The guy had been a regular customer up until that point. He looked, sounded, smelled, acted, and really smelled like an alcoholic, but had over $100,000 in his bank account at all times. What the hell!?

While this was the only rich alcoholic that I ever had to deal with, he wasn’t the only person woefully unqualified and undeserving of the amount of money they had. It’s amazing to deal with a person with over a quarter of a million dollars in a savings account who can barely understand simple sentences.

Or when someone with over $400,000 in an account thinks that it’s okay to pee on a teller’s car “because I’m a premier customer.” That actually happened, by the way.

Fortunately, real Stealth Wealth is also practiced by seemingly ordinary people. It’s refreshing to meet someone who’s normal, friendly, and down-to-earth, who drove to the bank in a “regular” car or came by public transportation, and then open their customer profile to see a million bucks sitting in a number of different savings accounts.

I’ve spoken to a number of these people, and there seem to be a few themes common among all the customers with tons of money in the bank.

1) They tend to be very financially savvy and experienced. They are far from investment professionals, but tend to know about the stock market, municipal bonds, and various financial instruments. They like to have interest and growth calculations done before investing their money into any financial solution. They know all the pros and cons of different types of investments.

2) They tend to not just own their primary residence, but to have either bought it entirely in cash or made accelerated principal payments to the point where the property is paid off ridiculously early. More than once, I’ve spoken to couples who have only been in their homes a couple years and yet own them free and clear.

3) They tend to own their own businesses. Multiple businesses. This is the big one. Rarely do my high income customers make tons of money from a W2 salary. Very often, these are investment properties held in LLCs, but they can be anything. Consultancies, management companies, wholesalers, you name it. Anything that often requires them to yell at somebody over their cell phone mid-conversation. Then there’s blogging as the best business in the world.

When it comes right down to it, working in retail banking has taught me that you can never judge a person’s financial worth by the clothes they wear, the car they drive, or even their bank account balance. Or, as it sometimes seems, by their mental state.

People Think They’re Smarter Than The Professionals

Just recently, a woman came in to pay her $32 charge off so that she could open a new account. I noticed that she had two Social Security numbers on our system. The one she gave me had an account sent to collections in which she owed that $32; the other one had an account under it in which she owed $986.

She was “shocked” and said she didn’t know about this and would come in the next day to speak to the manager. I never saw her again, just as I predicted. I also took the time to note everything on her account so that she doesn’t get one over on the bank, opening up a new account when she still owes us money.

People in this country don’t have respect for the time or wisdom of a professional. They speak to a financial advisor and decide that the advisor doesn’t know what he/she is talking about because they can’t offer a double digit guaranteed interest rate in this low rate environment.

At best, they hold the expectations of professionals to be Law And Order caliber experts who can deliver fantasies. At worst, a professional in their minds is some MIT/Harvard suit with no knowledge of how the real world works.

This isn’t native to banking, but here, it leads to people trying to scam the bank because they think we don’t know things or share information.

It’s why people fight to deposit other people’s checks, or convince us their fee is a “bank error,” or get us to open accounts for fake businesses.

Why is that people think their doctor never knows what he’s talking about, or why all lawyers are shady and immoral, and why they think they can trick the bank.

They think they are. They aren’t. See: Dunning-Kruger Disease

Tips For Being A Happy Retail Banking Customer

What sort of Angry Retail Banker would I be if we parted ways without giving you some tips on how to be a happy retail banking customer? Your happiness erases my Anger (capital “A” is intentional).

1) Minimize Fees

First off, fees. Very easy to avoid. Says who? Says you, according to a survey by the American Bankers Association in which 55% of you say you pay zero bank fees.

Pat yourselves on the back, everybody!

So for the 45% of you who are still inexplicably handing your bank your hard earned cash, here’s my advice. First, stop using non-bank ATMs. Don’t even use a competitors’ ATM. Use only your own. Chase will charge you a fee if you use a Citibank ATM, but not if you use a Chase ATM. Brilliant, right? Right.

Next, overdraft protection. Have it. Overdraft protection is not the thing that allows your debit card to put your account negative when you have no money. Overdraft protection is the thing where if you spend more money in your account than you have, money sweeps into your account automatically to cover the shortfall. There will likely be a transfer fee involved, but it’s better than the $35 fee per item.

Next, higher level accounts. These are great things to have, if you can afford them. Because you know what’s cooler than a low monthly minimum? Having an account where you still stay above that minimum, but pay nothing for checkbooks, bank checks, stop payments, and wire transfers. Listen to us when we recommend you put your money into the right account, not just the cheapest.

And last, take care of yourselves financially by checking your statements periodically and reporting unauthorized charges to the bank. We’ve learned today that people don’t do that, and by being the exception to that rule, you can avoid the fees that come from someone else using your money.

2) Know How Much Of Your Funds Are Available 

Second, we’re going to talk about funds availability, or not spending money you don’t have.

You see, your bank may make that check available next day, but the money isn’t really there. The check isn’t clear yet. It can still bounce.

That’s why your teller won’t give you the money. We can’t authorize debits on funds that we know can still bounce.

My advice? Give your checks at least three business days to clear before you spend any money. And understand that the bank has every right to put an extended hold on checks if they have any reason to suspect that the check might not be paid. Because in the end, a check is just a fancy IOU with no guarantees behind it. And nothing more. Just a piece of paper with stuff that could easily be put on a Post It note.

3) Omni-Channel Banking

Believe it or not, all banks have multiple channels available for you to use for your daily banking needs. Branches, telephone, ATM, online, and mobile.

Use them!

Sometimes one isn’t available. The ATM’s down, you forgot your online banking password, the branch is short staffed.

It’s channel diversification.

Too many people don’t know how much money they have because their paper statements haven’t arrived in the mail yet. It’s 2017; this is unacceptable.

Too many people come into the branch and wait for me to finish dealing with a long line of customers and a giant stack of time-sensitive paperwork, instead of just calling the 800 number. Call.

Making use of all banking channels available to you will make your banking experience that much easier.

Gain Control Of Your Financial Life

Having a job in retail banking has given me a lot of insights about people, for better and for worse. Many people are spoiled or clueless because they’ve never worked a minimum wage job or a job that forces them to deal with people. I’m glad I have ten years experience in retail banking because it’s given me valuable insights into other people.

And learning about other people is how you make yourself a better person. If you have any questions about retail banking, feel free to ask!

– The Angry Retail Banker

from http://www.financialsamurai.com/confessions-from-an-angry-retail-banker/