Who's Responsible? It's Not President Biden!

On January 20, 2021 (the date of Joe Biden's inauguration as President), the national average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.38; prices peaked in June 2022 at $4.92; the average price today (December 31, 2022) is $3.21 per gallon. 

Author's note: Gasoline prices in Utah are generally higher than the national average. I'm told it has something to do with how far they have to transport fuel from the refineries to Utah cities. Hint: the refineries are in North Salt Lake City, UT. Go figure. 

As the prices climbed in early 2022, I began seeing stickers on the pumps with a caricature of President Biden pointing to the price saying " I did that." A retailer I know pretty well complained the stickers would re-appear as fast as he cleaned them off. Which set me to wondering. . . 

Are people finally giving up Facebook and Instagram long enough to drive around and post false information on gas pumps? Are they part of the "Deep State" government we have been repeatedly warned about? Or could it be Antifa, trying to destabilize the government? Perhaps it is college students, upset about not having to pay student loans during the pandemic? Nah, it's probably those west coast elite socialist liberals upset that Bernie isn't President of the United States. 

Or maybe just maybe Saudi Aramco based in Texas; Marathon Petroleum in Texas, Louisiana, and California; Exxon Mobile in Texas and Louisiana; BP Products North America in Indiana; PDV America (Citgo) in Louisiana, and Chevron in Mississippi all decided to make record profits and gouge American consumers pent up from being in lockdown? Being really smart businessmen, and knowing how gullible the American public in general can be, they hired a bunch of grass smoking hippies to drive around in Volkswagon vans to put stickers on the gas pumps and deflect criticism from the Big Oil profits to President Joe Biden.

Of course, if it's not Big Oil, then those responsible good citizens who put stickers on the pumps blaming President Biden when the prices went up should now be putting stickers on the pumps thanking President Biden for the prices falling back down. 

Ain't gonna happen! 

Happy New Year, everybody!

Thanks for reading; as always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Just click the pencil in the white box below. 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

A Good Idea Gone Bad

 What happens if you have a really good idea but don't have all the money you need to make it a reality? You get yourself listed on the NYSE and raise money the good old fashioned American way. 

The only problem is those pesky things known as shareholders. They want the value of the stock they own to continue to go up, and dividends to be there every quarter. But we'll come back to dividends a little later in the broadcast. The initial IPO for Southwest Airlines stock was $11.00 on June 8, 1978 when it went public. The stock peaked at $64.82 on January 2, 2018. (It closed on December 29th at $33.88). If you had invested $100 in the IPO on June 8, 1978, and re-invested your dividends until today, your account would be worth $99,065!!! WOW  (This includes stock splits. All of these figures are my calculations, and may be off a little; I'm not a stock trader, and that math kind of confuses me.)

Talk about a return on your investment! But what creates those dividends and that great share value? It doesn't happen overnight, nor does it happen by accident. The founders of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher and Rollin King, stated in their business plan a goal to pay a dividend to shareholders every quarter. Probably, they did this to attract shareholders who could put up a lot of money for the IPO. Management then and now has kept that promise-but at what cost? 

Well, the week just ending has been possibly the worst airline business failure in the history of American aviation. Winter storm Elliott, a bomb cyclone, hit on December 21st causing flight delays for all airlines. Southwest, however, had some bigger issues; Elliott was just the straw that broke the camel's back. 

Southwest Airlines has not upgraded its computer systems (reservations, equipment and staffing) for many years; and there were not enough people on staff at headquarters to even answer phone calls from crew members asking for their assignments. The old computer system could not handle the complicated ballet of crews, equipment, and weather all at once. Management did not have an emergency plan in place to cover this contingency; Southwest was not sure where it's planes were, where it's crews were and where the luggage was. It was a total systemic meltdown, and the fault lies with a management team that has been more focused on shareholder value, and Wall Street opinion, than on planning, upkeep and system maintenance.         

Now, where was I? Oh, yes a good idea. Southwest Airlines was, and still may be, a good idea. But an even better idea would be to remember why you are in business; in this case, flying airplanes and transporting customers to their desired destinations, on time and safely. Take good care of your customers, and the stock value will take care of itself. Investments in employees, equipment and infrastructure that enables you to take good care of customers will pay off, in more ways than one. Sadly, Southwest is not the only major company that cares more about share value then customers, but it is one of the most visible cases in recent history. There are a couple of "big box" home improvement stores, and some chain drug stores, that also show signs of the same ailment. 

I hope management of Southwest learns a lesson from this failure and brings the airline back to its old self, a low-cost no-frills airline that provided good customer service. But it will be a long time before I fly Southwest again. 

Thanks for reading, as always, your comments are welcome, just click the pencil in the white box below! 

And, have a Happy New Year!

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

A Great Speech, A Great Moment In Our Time

 On December 22, 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a moving and powerful speech to the the United States Congress, and to the citizens of the United States of America.  I found this act to be one of considerable bravery, as he has been targeted by Russia for assassination since February of this year. That it was a timed event, politically, I have no doubt, as the visit to the United States and the speech before the joint session of Congress came as Congress is debating additional funding for the Ukrainian defense against Russia. Admitting the above, it was still an incredible event; President Zelenskyy has not been out of Ukraine in the 300-plus days of this war. 

And it is a war, no matter how Russian Federation President Putin wants to frame it as a "special military operation." It is a war against an independent nation, a nation the Russian Federation had recognized formally by signing the Budapest Memorandum on December 5, 1994 along with the United States and the United Kingdom. The Memorandum specifically prohibits the Russian Federation, The United States, and the United Kingdom from using military force or economic coercion against the three "break-away" republics-Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. 

I was reminded, listening to President Zelesnkyy's speech, of other great wartime speeches I have read. Certainly President Roosevelt's speech to Congress on December 8, 1941, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill's speech to Parliament on June 4, 1940 were excellent examples of the power of well-written speeches to lift up and empower people in times of great darkness. For the citizens of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy's speech certainly should have much the same effect. 

The majority of the congressmen in attendance at the speech were generous with their applause and shouts of affirmation, as they well should be. Should we fail to assist Ukraine in defeating the Russian menace now, America will be dragged into a large devastating war that will sap our citizens, our financial institutions and our very way of life. 

Senator Ben Sasse, R-NE, provided a response that, frankly, sums up what I believe should be the response of every member of Congress:

"President Zelensky just addressed the congress and the United States. Every mom and dad with discretion for the little ones should watch that video with their families. Everyone knows who President Zelensky is. Everyone knows who Putin is. He believes in murdering women and children. What Zelensky asked Congress to do is whether we have the courage of our conviction. Ukrainian freedom fighters need to win. We do not need them to lose more slowly. To win, they need to kill Russians. To kill Russians they need more weapons. The burden of proof should be on us, on why we do not supply everything they need. They need more ammo, they need more stingers, they need more airplanes. They need more of everything and they're fighting not just for their kids and their future, they are fighting for the free world. Zelensky has the courage of his conviction. The question asked the U.S. Government is do we have the courage of ours. "

Sadly, seven members of Congress chose to remain seated through most of the speech, even as the vast majority were giving President Zelenskyy standing ovations. Those seven member are: Lauren Boebert (R-CO) Michael Cloud (R-TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA) Warren Davidson (R-OH), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Dianne Harshbarger (R-TN), and Jim Jordan (R-OH).  These seven did stand for ovations during the final parts of the speech. I hope their constituents remember their actions from this event and vote accordingly in the 2024 elections. 

Thank you for your time, and remember, your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Just click on the pencil in the white box below to send a comment. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman

History Repeats Itself

 As a student of history, I have often wondered what would happen if an Adolph Hitler-type personality arose again on the world stage. Would the American public insist on waiting, as it foolishly did in the run-up to World War II, for an attack to occur on American soil? Would we join the Neville Chamberlain appeaseniks and accept a dictator's lie that he will steal no more territory? 

Is there is our political mass a leader who can say, as Roosevelt did, America will be the arsenal of Democracy? Are there leaders in Congress who can look past the last election, the next election, and make the hard decisions to do the right thing for the world?

I afforded myself the great pleasure of listening to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the 6th President of Ukraine (at 44!) present to Congress one of the most incredible speeches I have heard in recent years. In his historic address, the President of Ukraine spelled out in very clear terms to anyone who wanted to listen, his appreciation for the financial and military aid the United States of America has provided to his country, and the need of more financial, military, medical and logistic aid to his war-ravaged country.  

It is a need we should not, and can not, deny. The world has, in the person of Russian President Putin, one who wants to be a combination of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Mr. Putin illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and the world did little of anything to punish him. In February of 2022, he began a military assault on the whole of Ukraine. But you know that story, I'm not going to go into it now. Historically, this looks a lot like Hitler's actions in the early phases of WWII. 

This time, let America stand for freedom, let us stand for democracy, let us stand against criminal international aggression. Don't wait for a large-scale (world) war to break out. 

It's December 23rd, and Congress has passed a spending bill that includes $45 Billion in aid to Ukraine and our NATO allies, money well spent, in my opinion. Utah Senator Mitt Romney supported the bill, Utah Senator Mike Lee opposed the bill. President Biden has stated he will sign the bill when it is on his desk. 

Sadly, however, there are those in both houses of Congress who say we have spent enough on Ukraine, and they are promising in the next year to "provide oversight" for all the money sent to Ukraine. In plain Olde English, they want to stop any more aid going to the war in Ukraine.  I am not sure what they expect to happen, should they succeed. Do they expect Ukraine to give up democracy and become a Russian puppet state, as so many did between the end of WWII and the fall of the Soviet Union? Is is in their minds that Russia will stop the war and the slaughter of civilians if we stop providing aid to Ukraine? What country, if not the United States, is anywhere close to a position to provide aid in the depth required to Ukraine? Do they really think Putin will stop at Ukraine? 

To those isolationists in Congress, including Mike Lee, I say: Put your sons and daughters, your grandchildren, in uniform and send them to Ukraine. Let them die for your foolishness.  

For the rest of Congress, including Mitt Romney, I thank you for supporting Ukraine and the war against criminal international aggression.

Thank you for reading my thoughts on this matter. I invite your comments, just click on the pencil in the white box below. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman