#also the same birthday as president grover cleveland

[deadpresidents]

what do you think the chances are of a 35 year old president some day?

It's not impossible, but probably unlikely. Unfortunately, it's always going to be difficult for a 35-year-old candidate to have built up the political organization and harvest enough political and financial connections to be ready for seeking a party's nomination at that age. I don't think a 35-year-old would necessarily be less ready than an older candidate as long as the quality of their experiences was strong enough to complete with the length of experience that their opponent might have.

I think the average age of Presidents at the time of their first inauguration is around 55 years old, but we've had nine Presidents who took office before they turned 50 years old: •Theodore Roosevelt: 42 years, 322 days •John F. Kennedy: 43 years, 236 days •Bill Clinton: 46 years, 154 days •Ulysses S. Grant: 46 years, 311 days •Barack Obama: 47 years, 169 days •Grover Cleveland: 47 years, 351 days •Franklin Pierce: 48 years, 101 days •James A. Garfield: 49 years, 105 days •James K. Polk: 49 years, 122 days And of those nine Presidents under 50 years old, eight of them were elected directly to the Presidency. Only Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the office from the Vice Presidency, and when he was elected President in his own right in 1904 and inaugurated for his elected term, he was still younger (46 years, 128 days) than every other President in history other the JFK. So despite the age of the major party nominees in the last couple of elections, this country has elected quite a few relatively young Presidents.

We've also elected a lot of young Vice Presidents and the Vice Presidency, of course, is always just a heartbeat away from the main gig. There have been twelve (12) Vice Presidents inaugurated before they turned 50 years old, and three others took office before turning 51. The average age (on Inauguration Day) of the Vice Presidents is roughly the same as the average age of Presidents, but two Vice Presidents were elected in their 30s. John C. Breckinridge, who was Vice President under James Buchanan (1857-1861), was only 36 years, 42 days old when he was inaugurated, so he was barely old enough to meet the Constitutional age qualifications for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. And Richard Nixon was only 39 years old when he was first elected as Dwight D. Eisenhower's Vice President in 1952. Nixon celebrated his 40th birthday right before he was inaugurated as Vice President and was 40 years, 11 days old on Inauguration Day.

Part of the reason that both Breckinridge and Nixon were chosen as VP was to balance out the ticket due to the "advanced" age of their running mates. When Nixon was nominated alongside General Eisenhower in 1952, there were questions about whether or not Eisenhower might be too old for the Presidency. Eisenhower was 62 years, 98 days old when he was inaugurated -- nearly 20 years younger than President Biden and 17 years younger than Donald Trump. In fact, when he was first inaugurated, Dwight Eisenhower was younger than George Clooney currently is:

So that's a long way and a lot of information shared for me to come back to the point that it's not impossible, but pretty unlikely for a 35-year-old to be elected President. I think there's a better chance that someone that age would be elected Vice President.

[jjaywmac]

This week, I have had a lot of friends reach out to me.  Great.  Because it is rather bleak in this small apartment in Paris.  I have my favorite songs playing on Spotify; Missy is close by; and a lot of projects in the works, so I stay busy.  AND, I have WiFi (FINALLY) and favorite programs on the television (BBC and CNN).  So, I am NOT bored.  Quite the contrary.  But, no matter how you look at it, this is not my idea of the way to see Paris during my birthday 2020.  Haha.  But this surreal event will begin to move on at some point, so I have to “gut up” while I am going through the days.  As do all of us. 

I have spent a lot of time upgrading my WordPress “Jayspeak” site, so that I now have a link to a “Voluntary Contributions” and “Donations” for readers to help me fund this project.  It is hard to be creative when you’re worried about money.  And, I am worried about money (along with my health).  So, I am considering this creative project “Jayspeak” a business and plan to develop it for my readers and followers.  Let’s face it, it is not every day that a woman, 83 and alone, ups and moves to Paris, France, to live and learn.  Haha.  It even sounds crazy to me!!  Well, actually, there have been a lot of problems, and EVERYTHING is expensive.  Duh.  …which takes me to my birthday, happening on Monday.  March 30, 1937.  Ugh.  I am going to spend some time with Lillie.  Who?  Lillie Westmoreland, my grandmother.  Hang in there!  I will try to make it interesting.  Jay (also known as “Janet Tallulah Jewell”) is speaking. 

One of my friends this week told me this, and I have thought about it a lot.  

“… we all carry the blood of our ancestors, and they survived through much more.”

Thus, I thought about “Lillie”.  And, I have been thinking about her ever since.  WHO?  What?  Lillie Westmoreland.  WHY?  What did she survive?  I don’t know.  This is what I know, sorta. This is her picture.  I don’t know how old she was when this was taken.  My niece, Deb Prince Kroll, colorized it.  She looks to be around 60 to me.  

She was born into a family with 11 (COUNT THEM) – eleven!!!!!! children.  I don’t know where she was in the line-up.  Not oldest; not youngest.  I don’t know. I cannot imagine 10 brothers and sisters in the house.  Help!!!!!   They were not rich.  They were not poor.  I don’t know.  They lived in Royston, Georgia.  VERY SMALL TOWN.  Ugh.  She was born on September 12, 1840.  OK, let’s pause for a money to find out what was happening in the world in 1880. This is her father’s obituary that was in the Royston papers at the time of his death.  He was a Baptist preacher.  (no comment)

Seaborn Westmoreland Obit

Hello, Wikipedia!!! Help.

It was a Sunday.  Lillie was born (probably at home) on a Sunday, in Royston, Georgia.  The United States had five Presidents during the decade, the most since the 1840s. They were Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison.  On that day, James A. Garfield was president.  This is what I found interesting about him.

“At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield failed to win the Presidential nomination for his friend John Sherman. Finally, on the 36th ballot, Garfield himself became the “dark horse” nominee.  By a margin of only 10,000 popular votes, Garfield defeated the Democratic nominee, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.

Major power political disputes back then – same as now.  As President, Garfield strengthened Federal authority over the New York Customs House, stronghold of Senator Roscoe Conkling, who was leader of the Stalwart Republicans and dispenser of patronage in New York. When Garfield submitted to the Senate a list of appointments including many of Conkling’s friends, he named Conkling’s arch-rival William H. Robertson to run the Customs House. Conkling contested the nomination, tried to persuade the Senate to block it, and appealed to the Republican caucus to compel its withdrawal.  But Garfield would not submit: “This…will settle the question whether the President is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States…. shall the principal port of entry … be under the control of the administration or under the local control of a factional senator.”  Conkling maneuvered to have the Senate confirm Garfield’s uncontested nominations and adjourn without acting on Robertson. Garfield countered by withdrawing all nominations except Robertson’s; the Senators would have to confirm him or sacrifice all the appointments of Conkling’s friends.  In a final desperate move, Conkling and his fellow-Senator from New York resigned, confident that their legislature would vindicate their stand and re-elect them. Instead, the legislature elected two other men; the Senate confirmed Robertson. Garfield’s victory was complete.

In foreign affairs, Garfield’s Secretary of State invited all American republics to a conference to meet in Washington in 1882. But the conference never took place. On July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station, an embittered attorney who had sought a consular post shot the President.  Mortally wounded, Garfield lay in the White House for weeks. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, tried unsuccessfully to find the bullet with an induction-balance electrical device which he had designed. On September 6, Garfield was taken to the New Jersey seaside. For a few days he seemed to be recuperating, but on September 19, 1881, he died from an infection and internal hemorrhage.

That said, I doubt the Lillie’s family was interested in politics or in the world at large, during those day.  No radios or television.  This was a large family, living in a small town in the Deep South.  Just trying to survive during the depression with a large family (Today, with DNA testing, I have confirmed by Ancestry.com that I have LOTS of cousins and cousins of cousins – especially with 11 kids growing up and having kids – black and white.  Hey, that was the South during those years.  How?  I don’t know how. Get over it!  

“The 1890s was the ten-year period from the years 1890 to 1899.   In the United States, the 1890s were marked by a severe economic depression sparked by the��Panic of 1893, as well as several strikes in the industrial workforce. The decade saw much of the development of the automobile.  The period was sometimes referred to as the “Mauve Decade” – because William Henry Perkin’s aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion – and also as the “Gay Nineties”, referring to the fact that it was full of merriment and optimism. The phrase, “The Gay Nineties,” was not coined until the 1920s. This decade was also part of the Gilded Age, a phrase coined by Mark Twain, alluding to the seemingly profitable era that was riddled with crime and poverty.” – Wikipedia

Here is another picture.  I think she is 16.

She would have been 16 in 1896, and there were football teams at the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.  I know she played baseball with Ty Cobb in Royston.  He was a friend of hers.   She married a lawyer, Glen Dorough, who was also living in Royston.  I know she dreamed of being an actress and had “shows” in the family back yard and would present “pretend stories” to the neighbors in the afternoon presentation.  She would string a sheet on a clothesline for a curtain.  Her father has been described as a “character” with a good personality.  I don’t know much about her mother. 

I don’t know how old Lillie was when she got married.  Young, I think.  Very young.   I do know that she and Glenn had five little girls.  Mother was #2, I think.  Her name was Anna Louise Dorough when she was in college.  Quite a flirt with a good personality.

Ruth was the oldest.  Then, Mother (Anna Louise).  Then, Lillian.  Then, Edna (she died when she was 21, from peritonitis).  Then Rose (the baby).   They were all in their 90’s when they died.  Papa Dorough (Glenn) died of cancer on November 19, 1940.  He was 65.  Lillie was 60.  I still remember the funeral.  Mother sent all of us to the movies so we would not be at the funeral.  But, before I went to the movies, I visited that living room and studied the casket.  I can still remember that day in my mind’s eye.  I can still see the flowers surrounding the coffin in the living room of the Mama Dorough’s boarding house on Green Street in Gainesville, Georgia (my home town).   I don’t know much about Glen. 

Lillie was 45 when her father died, November 7, 1935.  I was born in 1937, so Lillie was still rather young when I was born.  Mother was 35 when I was born.  So she was 33 when her grandfather died.  I think I have all of these ages wrong.  I keep trying to figure out how young Lillie was when she married Glenn, but I am confused.  My brain needs more exercise.  But, if Lillie was born in 1880 and her father died in 1935 and I was born in 1937……  That is where I get confused.  I think ALL of everyone is too young for ALL of this.  And, they all Died VERY OLD.  Amazing.  I want that blood of my ancestors in my veins, especially now that I want time to LIVE and explore Paris.  Haha.

At some point, Lillie started running a “boarding house” and helped with income, taking in “boarders”.  I think they were more into survival mode than what was going in the world.  Newspapers?  College?  Marriages?  I don’t know.  The flu?  Plagues?  Doctors? Medicine?  I don’t know. SEE. That is what will happen to me.  My children and grandchildren will know that I existed, but they won’t know much else.  I have a lot of trouble with that part – the disinterest.    But, enough about me, back to Lillie…

She at some point moved to Atlanta, still making money by taking in “boarders”, cleaning rooms and preparing all meals.  Quite industrious and entrepreneurial, especially when the South was going through a terrible depression. 

I loved Mama Dorough.  She was witty and loved jokes.  She would “chuckle”.  Remember “chuckles”.  Do people still chuckle?   She loved all of my kids, especially Craig and Blake.  She loved me.  She loved ALL of us.  Full of lots of love.  She loved her boarders.  They loved her.  How blessed I was to have her as my role model. At some point, I got concerned because the family did not know a lot about Lillie’s life, so I got some tapes and recorded my conversations with her.  I asked her about her life growing up.  She was reticent to talk about it.  But I got a lot from her.  I need to have help transcribing those tapes.  It is on my long list of projects for “someday”.  I seemed to be the only one who cared.  Debby (my niece) knows a lot more than I do.  She is interested in all of it. 

Lillie died March 6, 1992 at the age of 111.  She would have been 112 on September 12, 1992.  All of her daughters (except for Edna) lived to be in their 90’s. 

So, my hope is that I have Lillie’s blood in my veins and God knows what all she survived!  No one seemed to ask during those days.  “It was not discussed”.  Same as today.  No one is asking about me.  What I have survived. Or that my kids have survived.  Or that my grandkids have survived at their young ages.  They all have survived a LOT. 

Like each one of you.  But we are ALIVE.  Let’s stay that way.  So, on Monday, I shall celebrate Lillie Westmoreland, her life and her times.  And, all she survived.  And her wonderful spirit!  May it continue to live in me, in my blood, in my veins. 

Best, Jay 

(without hair and make-up.  Sorry, but it is recent and in lockdown.  So, you get the picture of a current selfie!!  Take note of the “support Jayspeak” button. To all I offend with my “support” button, I apologize in advance.  But, you move to Paris by yourself when you turn 83 and survive a pandemic!!!  This is not a requirement.  It is a voluntary simple  support button.  You can also do any multiple of 50, like 25 (I think), or 100 or 150 or …..  i hope it works.  Let me know if anyone has problems with it.  It should link with my PayPal account.  But, you also have to have a PayPal account, (I think).   So, this is a work in process.  Haha.   Sorry.

Support Jayspeak

Donations

$50.00

ALIVE IN MY HEART! LILLIE! This week, I have had a lot of friends reach out to me.  Great.  Because it is rather bleak in this small apartment in Paris. 

[anthonybialy]

Eternal Apprentice

There's bland comfort in a show returning, which is why you pay more for television than you ever did with cable. Rehashes of mildly entertaining programs are all streaming services seem to offer. What else would you watch other than an episode that created mild nostalgia: something new? The mindless comfort of putting on something we've rested our background vision on before is based on the elusive acting quality of recognition. I'd joke about Punky Brewster returning, except it really happened.

The security of hideous programming sums up life as easily as a trite sitcom's 22-minute plot. At some point, passive viewers must admit that even acknowledging it's trash doesn't make high viewership acceptable. Apps need a previous property to make customers pay 12 precious monthly dollars on a known quantity. We also sadly know the quantity.

Just please leave one show retired. Wary viewers fear an Apprentice revival even if it doesn't end up on NBC Fancy Bird. The notion that Donald goddamn Trump should return to save us ignores how wretched the original program was. Bring it back if an even greater lack of script ideas sounds appealing. Those catchphrases should really land this time with even less context.

Ignoring attention whores is the best way to deprive them of superficial life goals. Anyone who endured the most exhausting presidency imaginable should avoid giving the perpetrator attention until he finally gets the message. The rejected drama queen probably still won't grasp denial no matter how obvious, which is why it's crucial to change lock combinations. Make the new ones his wife's birthday so he never guesses it.

Uninviting someone seems like a social foul until we realize who's being kept out of the party. A deliberate cur who thinks rudeness is a virtue should appreciate being bounced. It's so unlike someone pretending to be an outsider by choice to stick around after he's been told to leave the premises. Trump thinks demanding to be let back in makes him an alpha male.

Alleged fans of limited government just wanted their own cult leader. Bully the libs to have a true republic. Cult seekers shouldn't get someone who literally ran a pyramid scheme, especially not again.

Blandness is better. Some Republicans fret about party identity in the months after Trump was forced to flee as if it's bad for an entity allegedly built around ideals to not have a single personality be the only answer in word association. It's better to not revolve around one person, especially the rather obvious phony person in question.

Use the freshness of a divorce from a charlatan to develop an ideology based on, well, ideology. Thinking Trump is the most awesome doesn't count. Actual conservatives should develop notions and not worship individuals. At least one party shouldn't face Washington while praying.

Anyone familiar with how anything works is not expecting an individual to solve our planet's woes, like an alleged conservative saying “I alone can fix it.” Consider how much he broke to make his all-star pompousness look particularly foolish. The rugged individualistic side thinking a rerun will provide comfort leads to worshiping a quite false golden idol.

Life is so nerve-wracking that some participants want to take comfort in again patronizing a miserable clown show. A mortifying lack of accomplishments isn't going to scare off the faithful. Worshipers desperate for reassurance expect grand gestures.

The last Republican president displayed a taste for federal intervention befitting of an egomaniac who thinks his amazing decisions spur prosperity into existence. Political experts conclude massive spending is not how to limit government. Trump's a conservative in the same sense the USFL is about to play its championship.

Alleged victors sure seem miserable. There's outright misery in seeking nothing but to torment the other side. You're supposed to do that with policy successes, not just in making libs cry CPAC-style. Confused juvenile adults think that any inflicted aggravation means they're winning political bouts. A black hole of a human absorbs light and decency like the glass that adorns his appallingly tacky fortresses of garishness.

A failed insurrection was the perfect ending. Why mess with a conclusion worthy of Breaking Bad? Hoping Trump can pull off a soft reboot of Grover Cleveland's presidencies is like Robert E. Lee spending 1866 claiming Gettysburg as a win. It's not like General Trump is going to learn dignity in retirement.

Anyone good at business could tell you an unmotivated seller can doom a product, so don't ask Trump. The perpetually entitled hoary adolescent doesn't want to run again any more than he did in the first place.

The misplaced ego of needing to prove he can win is the only thing that's ever motivated him, presidency or not. You don't have to pretend it's a show just because he does. Nobody wants another season of reality-style maneuvering in the primary that led to facing Hillary Clinton, who would've been beaten by any of the dull twerps available.

Winning without articulating why it's good dooms any snow. Trump still thinks doing so proves how tough he is, as beating the worst major-party candidate in history is easier than learning pushups. Crushing others for its own sake is particularly sad for someone who couldn't crumble an aluminum can. A painfully phony image imploded like his failed casino.  I have an idea: avoid bringing back a contender who couldn't profit off slot machines rigged in his favor any more than he could beat Joe Biden.

Waking up from a nightmare is unhelpful when horror remains despite open eyes. Hoping Trump will run in 2024 is the only thing more embarrassing than him. Besides, he's not into it. Was there ever a moment where even his most rabid zombies thought he really wanted the job?

The presidency was the first time he ever had work responsibilities besides blathering. One would think he has his myriad of businesses to run again. That's unless he's been an utter fraud in every life aspect. We better let him commandeer the party again to glorify the least deserving egomaniac imaginable. Maybe he'd finally finish that wall.

[omcik-blog]

New Post has been published on OmCik

New Post has been published on http://omcik.com/discover-allstate-are-all-part-of-a-giant-but-forgotten-financial-legacy-sears-is-leaving-behind/

Discover, Allstate are all part of a giant, but forgotten financial legacy Sears is leaving behind

Little is more satisfying than cracking open a vintage Sears, Roebuck & Co catalog and marveling at the breadth of its offerings, dated illustrations and all. The one for the spring and summer of 1971, for instance, runs to 1,071 pages and offers everything from Dacron polyester nurse uniforms to colonial birch-veneer bedroom sets. Sadly, this once-great American retailer of everything may not make it to its 130th birthday in one piece.

The more enduring legacy of Sears, however, which published its first catalog back when Grover Cleveland was president, can be glimpsed deep within the nearly half-century-old edition. On page 432 is an application for a credit card. A few pages later there’s the “modernizing credit plan,” allowing consumers in seven states to buy merchandise and defer payment.

Sears Holding, the retailer, looks to be rapidly hurtling toward bankruptcy under the stewardship of hedge-fund boss Eddie Lampert. The financial-services businesses spawned by this empire – so robust a few decades ago that it built, in Chicago, the largest skyscraper in the free world – are alive and kicking. Therein lies a cautionary history lesson for Amazon.com, Alibaba and other internet conglomerates seeking international domination.

The market capitalization of Sears has shrunk to around $1.25 billion, or a fraction of where it was a decade ago after Lampert merged it with rival Kmart to create what his investors hoped would form the foundation of the next Berkshire Hathaway. A recreation of Warren Buffett’s model never happened. In fact, it’s surprising that Sears shares have any value given the company’s warning a week ago that it may not be able to continue as a “going concern,” auditor-speak for bankruptcy.

Lampert dismantled much of what was left. He spun off a collection of real-estate assets, which trade as the $1.25 billion Seritage Growth Properties. He also stripped away the Lands’ End apparel business, which Sears acquired for $1.9 billion in 2002 and now has a market value of $700 million.

Sears set its Hometown and Outlet Stores unit free four years ago, too, and it’s worth $97 million. It did the same for Orchard Supply Hardware, which Lowe’s bought for $205 million in 2013. Sears Canada still sports an independent equity stub worth C$200 million. And earlier this year, Lampert offloaded the iconic Craftsman brand of tools to Stanley Black & Decker for $525 million upfront, some $250 million in a few years and royalties for the next 15 years. All told, that’s more than $4 billion of value from the retail remnants.

That sum excludes a significant portion of the Sears heritage, however. The company’s attempts to offer credit to catalog shoppers led it to start the Discover Card in 1985. That business was bundled with Dean Witter Reynolds, the stock brokerage it acquired in 1981, and taken public in 1993. The combination later merged with Morgan Stanley, which spun off the credit-card arm a decade ago.

[topinforma]

New Post has been published on Mortgage News

New Post has been published on http://bit.ly/2oL7tnz

Discover, Allstate are all part of a giant, but forgotten financial legacy Sears is leaving behind

Little is more satisfying than cracking open a vintage Sears, Roebuck & Co catalog and marveling at the breadth of its offerings, dated illustrations and all. The one for the spring and summer of 1971, for instance, runs to 1,071 pages and offers everything from Dacron polyester nurse uniforms to colonial birch-veneer bedroom sets. Sadly, this once-great American retailer of everything may not make it to its 130th birthday in one piece.

The more enduring legacy of Sears, however, which published its first catalog back when Grover Cleveland was president, can be glimpsed deep within the nearly half-century-old edition. On page 432 is an application for a credit card. A few pages later there’s the “modernizing credit plan,” allowing consumers in seven states to buy merchandise and defer payment.

Sears Holding, the retailer, looks to be rapidly hurtling toward bankruptcy under the stewardship of hedge-fund boss Eddie Lampert. The financial-services businesses spawned by this empire – so robust a few decades ago that it built, in Chicago, the largest skyscraper in the free world – are alive and kicking. Therein lies a cautionary history lesson for Amazon.com, Alibaba and other internet conglomerates seeking international domination.

The market capitalization of Sears has shrunk to around $1.25 billion, or a fraction of where it was a decade ago after Lampert merged it with rival Kmart to create what his investors hoped would form the foundation of the next Berkshire Hathaway. A recreation of Warren Buffett’s model never happened. In fact, it’s surprising that Sears shares have any value given the company’s warning a week ago that it may not be able to continue as a “going concern,” auditor-speak for bankruptcy.

Lampert dismantled much of what was left. He spun off a collection of real-estate assets, which trade as the $1.25 billion Seritage Growth Properties. He also stripped away the Lands’ End apparel business, which Sears acquired for $1.9 billion in 2002 and now has a market value of $700 million.

Sears set its Hometown and Outlet Stores unit free four years ago, too, and it’s worth $97 million. It did the same for Orchard Supply Hardware, which Lowe’s bought for $205 million in 2013. Sears Canada still sports an independent equity stub worth C$200 million. And earlier this year, Lampert offloaded the iconic Craftsman brand of tools to Stanley Black & Decker for $525 million upfront, some $250 million in a few years and royalties for the next 15 years. All told, that’s more than $4 billion of value from the retail remnants.

That sum excludes a significant portion of the Sears heritage, however. The company’s attempts to offer credit to catalog shoppers led it to start the Discover Card in 1985. That business was bundled with Dean Witter Reynolds, the stock brokerage it acquired in 1981, and taken public in 1993. The combination later merged with Morgan Stanley, which spun off the credit-card arm a decade ago.