Malala revisited - an inspirational girl who should have been but will be a Nobel Peace Prize recipient!

 

This amazing girl made the news again, as recently as tonight, Wednesday May 29th 2013, in the context of pressure mounting on Barack Obama to limit drone strikes in Pakistan in the war against terror. At the same time, he elaborated recently that her attempted murder did not fall into the criteria needed to go after a certain Taliban leader, due to the fact that she is not an American. That's one very fine line though, and I thought that the war in Afghanistan was at least in part an attempt to stabilize that country and give new hope to its endogenous population. So her not being an American hardly makes the attempted murder of a child by an enemy currently at war with America any less significant.

I might vouchsafe that it is for precisely the same reason that Time magazine overllooked her and ridiculously chose Obama himself as their #1 person of the year at the end of 2012. We will leave it to the Nobel committee to right this particular wrong!

This blog, in quite typical fashion, refuses to conform with what the (often) self-appointed judges and supposed cultural leaders say and do. We have a mind of our own which is not tainted by what fashions or societal mores dictate, and we are extremely proud of that. We are EU, after all!

That is why we refuse to post yet another pic of a man who gets way too much unmerited praise and press as it is, and choose without hesitation to post this video documentary of a girl who clearly has a mind of her own, and one which is not going to be dictated to - by anybody. This young girl continues to make the news today, not least because since March she is back where she belongs and always wanted to be - in school, in her new home town of Birmingham, England.

This is of course Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani schoolgirl who was targeted by the Taliban in a wave of military strikes in the Swat valley, aimed at governmental institutions and including girls schools, which naturally represent a threat to the misogynistic males of the Taliban. At an event in Peshawar in September, 2008, the eleven-year-old girl gave a speech entitled "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to an education". 

To say that it was a courageous move would be gross understatement. Writing under a pseudonym for obvious reasons, Malala started a blog in 2009 and continued to be outspoken about girl's rights to an education in Pakistan, and about women's rights more generally.

"All I want is an education and I am afraid of no one."

Those are very brave words when surrounded by men who think of grown women as second class citizens, never mind an eleven-year-old schoolgirl. Malala's father clearly doesn't agree, and he showed that by putting her name on the family register after her birth: a right reserved exclusively for only male children.

After a battle for control of the Swat valley in 2009, the Pakistani army declared victory and amidst a renewed sense of security, it was revealed that the mysterious blogger was in fact Malala Yousafzai. Immediately, those cowards in the Taliban began to issue threats against her and her family. But she had begun to attract serious attention and in late 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu nominated her for the International Children's Peace Prize for which she became a runner-up.

Having become well known by then, at the very end of 2011 she won Pakistan's Youth Peace Prize which has since been renamed after her, and suddenly she became a national and international figure. But that brought increased exposure and led to one of the most disgusting and disgustingly cowardly terrorist acts by the Taliban, who sent an armed gunman into a school bus to shoot her and people sitting near her.

She was seriously injured by a bullet that entered just behind an eye, and after treatment in Pakistan she was moved to Birmingham, England, whereupon the story became truly viral. She later came out of a medically-induced coma and began what will be a very slow process to recovery. But she immediately began communicating and offering support to others in her homeland who had been threatened by the Taliban.

Recently, in a very touching move, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari announced a new $10 million education fund in her name, which will remind everyone of her courageous fight for her right to learn. She is an inspiration not only for girl's rights everywhere, particularly in places where girls are looked down upon, but also more generally for women's rights everywhere around the globe.

Quite how Barack Obama is considered to be a more appropriate Time Magazine "Person of the Year" is beyond this writer. Don't worry, I am not going to go into some (albeit well deserved) rant about his totally inadequate first four years, but there seems to be some sort of inverse favouritism when it comes to this guy. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 - for what precisely?! For being elected? He moved into office in 2009, so yes, he got the prize for his tough move into the White House. Redecoration is hard, y'all!

Now, once again, after spending more money than God's banker was prepared to loan him, he managed to get a disillusioned public to elect him again, essentially based on the premise: "Let's go for the best of the two bad choices". One of the reasons that Time Magazine chose to anoint him for the second time in four years is that he was the first incumbent since 1940 to get reelected with unemployment above 7.5%. I don't find that to be anything inspirational, whatsoever. I imagine that the tens of millions still out of work and out of their homes would concur.

Under his watch, Americans suffered increasingly, and he seemed to be like a deer in the headlights, unable to do anything other than give the same tired old rhetorical excuses and promises of "change". If he got voted back in, it had one helluva lot more to do with who he was running against, Mitt Romney, than what he had done. It was a default vote for the safer (but weak leader) choice. It's nothing to give prizes over, at all.

It reeks of political brown nosing by Time, who seem to salivate over him getting out of bed in the morning and showing up in the oval office as some kind of holy ritual. Or perhaps being that kind of magazine, it all comes down to sales, and the face of ol' B.O. on the front is gonna shift way more units off the shelves than some relatively unknown girl's face from Pakistan. But it is supposed to be person of the year, not American of the year. Shame on Time Magazine!

As far as we are concerned, Malala Yousafzai stands so far above Obama as the choice for Person of the Year that there is no comparison. He got his feet wet during Sandy, and was praised for it - it is ridiculous. This schoolgirl made a massive move and achieved enormous impact due to her own courage and defence of women's rights in a way that simply overshadows more or less anything that Obama did (or didn't) do in 2012.

He runs around in armoured cars with an army of secret service and police surrounding him - this girl got shot in an attempted murder on a school bus, for speaking her mind. All because of what she believed in, and what she believed in is what we all know to be the right thing. I think he should do the right thing, and hand it over to her - God knows she did more to deserve it, and God knows he doesn't need any more salivatory praise.

As far as EU is concerned, the Person of the Year for 2012 (and 2013) is Malala Yousafzai. We simply don't care what Time thinks, and we know that we are not alone in that sentiment because a poll taken on NBC's Today show demonstrated that the public agrees with us. Well, of course they do! ;) - Kevin Mc

http://www.malala-yousafzai.com/

T for 2, and 2 for T - the question is, Y?!

    

In a move that made quite unlikely bedfellows indeed of two minor celebrity CEOs, it was announced last week that the Yahoo (minus exclamation mark!) behemoth would acquire the younger, hipper, cooler, and way more tech-savvy brand known as Tumblr (with a small "t" but no "e", by the way) with no lengthy engagement and more or less an instant marriage. Not quite a shotgun marriage though, especially as Yahoo was shelling out in excess of a cool one billion dollars as the dowry! 

To say that this sent some shockwaves reverberating around the industry would be more of an understatement than Yahoo without its "!", and the media jumped onto the story immediately. The business wedding of David Karp (CEO of Tumblr) and the inestimable Ms. Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo!) seemed to make no sense at all to many (usually the more impassioned blogger types on Tumblr) and yet simultaneously made a lot of sense to perhaps more business-minded individuals with a wider vision. Pick your side!

Let's cut to the chase on this deal. Our Marissa knew that her Yahoo wasn't in any position to compete with the Googles, Facebooks and Tumblrs of this world, and let's not forget that she came from Google, where she made quite a name for herself as an engineer and product developer/manager. She knows. She was acutely aware that Yahoo had become known as much for the "call it in"culture (telecommuting) pervading the company as it had for the appalling quality of the Yahoo blogs, among other thorns in its side. Too many people at home, under no supervision, with no boss, providing less-than-average content, does not a media giant make. 
 

I lost count of the number of times I saw users moaning below a blog that it had only a title, with zero (yes, zero!) content below it. This was a case of calling in the title, and somehow being allowed to promise to provide actual content to fit in, later. I also lost count of the number of times I was offended by bad grammar, typos, incorrect spelling, incomplete sentences, jumbled text and outright sloppiness across the board of their blogs. It was shameful!

In today's world, and in consideration of the competition, it was a total insult to the end user, demonstrated an incomprehensible arrogance towards the bottom line and was an astounding testament to how Yahoo had become totally out of touch with the very culture it was weakly attempting to be a part of - it wasn't so much that they wanted in on the "cloud", with the in-crowd, it was more a case of the light being blocked out completely by ominously black clouds. I for one, and I was one among many, refused to be insulted further and stopped using Yahoo even as my browser's homepage. 

But Ms. Mayer did one very good thing upon gaining control of the mothership, and that was to call in all the "calling it in" and demand that they returned to the office, pronto, or else. So it seemed that she was serious. She knew that the Facebooks and Googles weren't run by people feeding the baby at home while trying to write yet another blog, but rather, there were a bunch of young people in wide open spaces all interacting and firing off each other's creativity and ideas. Probably wearing hoodies, too, as did Karp in the "wedding" picture above!

So, it was quite natural that the ambitious Mayer would use the resources of the behemoth to actually buy herself some "cool". Unquestionably, the Yahoo brand becomes a lot more "Yahoo!" when it has assimilated the hip of a Tumblr, along with its young, trendy CEO David Karp - who will be remaining in his post at Tumblr, by the way. She didn't just want the technology asset; she bought the entire team, its product roadmap/business ethos and intends to keep it all. Smart. 

Does Yahoo really need Tumblr and is it worth >$1B? A clear yes, and a definite no. But a billion is simply the cost of doing business, and Karp probably needed to see an exuberant payday for all concerned, including and/or particularly for his investors, to get him to jump into bed with Mayer (uhm, make that Yahoo!) without prolonged negotiations. Her over-the-top offer carried the day, and it was all over with no histrionics. 

As to why Yahoo wanted them, well, Tumblr hosts an astonishing 105 million blogs that draw some 300 million unique visitors per month, and new subscribers are added at the hefty rate of about 120,000 on a daily basis. That is really something, and you can easily see how this audience of media-comfy tech-savvy ideas-rich creative forces could help to grow the Yahoo audience and brand considerably, and give them a seat at the table with the other big boys. 

Marissa Mayer has quite a challenge ahead of her but it is true that Yahoo has the resources and reach that also appealed to Tumblr, and Karp saw the opportunity to grow his brand now, and get a healthy payday for doing so - holding out for too much longer could have burnt him in the long run, and he has seen that happen to other likeminded but shortsighted entrepreneurs in the industry. 

For a company currently seeing some 900 posts per second, Tumblr definitely can use the search infrastructure and media know-how of Yahoo! to spread their message far and wide, and achieve Karp's goal of making the internet the ultimate canvas on which creators can illustrate their passion, convey their ideas/message and tell their stories to the world. It's called synergy, and the co-branding of Tumblr with Yahoo! is something in which both Mayer and Karp believe and both clearly envision a potentially huge synergy. 

Marissa Mayer did say one thing in the press release that immediately raised a few hairs on the back of the neck, and that line was - "We promise not to screw it up" - which could look like an attempt to appease the Tumblr users who reacted badly to the deal, but may also be a rather frank admission of and nod to the faded glory of the previously glamorous Yahoo brand.  Whichever it is, it is a very telling statement and one that displays a frankness and appreciation for the end users that is rather reassuring - at least for now. 

She's a very smart gal, and for now I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt, praise her for forking out the checkbook and for not being cheap on what is an incredible deal for all concerned, and let her get on with the job of amazing us all. That's what I hope is going to happen, and who knows, maybe even Evergreen Umbrella will ship its blog to a new virtual location one day. But we aren't quite there yet! ;) - Kevin Mc 

Good chemistry gone bad - A QUIET RESIGNATION

               

Carfentanil was an omnipotent opiate derivative, with a deadly potency in fact, and I simply had to have it. No matter that it was painful failure after painful failure, with abysmally low yields and poor stability. I physically enjoyed the pain it caused me, and the sleepless nights were part and parcel of the task at hand. Sleepless either because I was up all night, from lab bench to armchair to bench to armchair, or, lying in bed with a million chemicals visible in my eyes, running around and combining with each other. 

Nucleophilic attacks, electrophilic attacks, curly arrows, protonations, oxidations, reductions, hydrolyses, conversions, covalent bonds, ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds. Pink, black, blue, white, Charlie, you name it, I did it. I am forced to admit, I became a much stronger scientist and chemist during this period, mainly because my drive was such that I was “on the job” 24/7, essentially. 

There is something both worrying yet absolutely exciting about having work to do that can be carried on in your head, even when lying in bed at night. The bedroom ceiling became my blackboard, and I was able to test all sorts of things in what had become my virtual laboratory: my own head. Not bad, huh? De facto, three labs running all at the same time. The ivory tower, the basement and my head. It was only a matter of time, old boy, until the genius shone through. 

The problem was the bloody phenylether group itself, you see. When I tried to stick on other alkyl or alkanyl “R” groups, it worked much better. But the yield from the hydrolysis of the nitrile to the corresponding amide, when R was phenylethyl, was just miserable. The old ball and chain heard my screams of pain at the end of these syntheses, let me tell you. I had so many pilot hydrolyses reactions in my head, in the notebooks and ongoing downstairs that it was becoming impossible to keep track of them all. But, after the best part of six months, and learning all the while, one of my hypotheses struck pure gold. Clearly, I cannot give exact amounts and temperatures and methods; I don’t want the DEA on my back too, now do we? Well, you do. But I don’t. Cabiche? 

To cut a long story short (I lost my mind), I had to break it down into parts, slow it down so I could see all the molecules jumping around in front of my eyes, modify things, then go back to full speed and let it happen. Ergo, and to wit, a brilliant new hydrolysis step came into focus. I first converted the nasty nitrile into a formidable formamide, which was done with care and precision. Good yield. Next came a two step hydrolysis, firstly of the formamide into an imidate intermediate. Ya have heard of intriguing imidates now, haven’t you Charles? Wonderful creatures, in the right hands. Then, after that, a slow alkalization, to allow decomposition of the imidate into an amide. De facto, ending up as previously in a minute amount, if even detectable, of 1-ß-phenylethyl-(4-phenylamino)-4-piperidine carboxamide. 

The process of distilling off excess methanol from the first hydrolysis step was slow, and I was not in the mood to rush anything. Time was a wasting, and rushing foolishly can lead to significantly more loss of precious time. So I had gone upstairs to nap in front of the TV for a suspense movie the ball and chain was watching, and I went out for the count for almost two hours straight. 

The ball and chain woke me when she was turning off the TV to go to bed, and I was so sure of the usual flask of empty liquid that I almost went up with her. But I had to stop the distillation reaction, as always, so I went back down. Charles, Charles, Charles. Can you even begin to imagine the lightning bolt that shot right through me, from the floor up, when across the room I thought I saw something clouding my mixture? I turned the power off on my rotating flask, and turned away, almost too excited to look. I went and did a bit of clean up, as the place was a mess with various reactions in different stages of completion, and mess was something very rare for me. A good cook always cleans up as they move along, always. But I had been tired and the weekend was coming, so I had let things slide somewhat. 

After some time, I couldn’t resist further, and I went back to my reaction vessel. Charlie, I literally cried out so loud that the bottles on the shelves rattled against each other; there, at the bottom of the flask, fallen down, out of solution, was the most pristine white precipitate I had ever seen! I was beside myself with joy. So much powder I could see if from across the room. It must be ten-fold more than usual, I thought. Praise be to He on holy high, I had f'ing done it!

“Jesus Christ, I almost called 911 from upstairs, you scared the you-know-what out of me! I was certain you had been attacked or something had fallen on you, and look at you, standing there with a stupid smile on your face!”

“Darling, darling…humble, snivelling, whimpering, sycophantic little puppy dog apologies to you. You ain’t gonna believe it! You know what I’ve been working on, all these months, which feel like years, well, come over here, you are going to be astounded. Totally. It’s unbelievable! Look at this, no don’t touch it, it’s too precious, just look at it!”

“What am I looking at? A stinky round glass thing, with horrific smelling liquid in it, and some white crap or salt at the bottom. You’re a genius honey, now I am going back to bed. You can tell me all about it in the morning. Night.”

A kiss on the cheek, and she was gone. I am not sure whether there is more pleasure in having a partner who is in the same line of work as you, and so fully understands the reasons and details of a major breakthrough, or whether it is actually sweeter with one who does not. There’s something more juicy about the latter, more of an inside joke, or a private club. Exclusivity. They can celebrate with you, without having to know what all the fuss is about. 

Trust me, the old ball and chain didn’t know. Probably a good thing, as I was now within reach of the gold, and she didn’t need to know that the gold was actually an illicit material, one that would be worth huge amounts of money to the wrong hands. Charlie, if only I could transport you back to that night, and the appearance of a white solid in my flask. Yes, yes, it could have been "crap" (but not salt), some side reaction or something I had not foreseen, popping out of solution on me. But I knew in my heart and soul, that it was not. 

When you have gotten it right, after months of failure, ironed out the kinks, figured out what’s wrong and how to correct things, and everything comes together, you go from famine to feast. This is one of the beauties of science. When things don’t work, it is usually because something is wrong, with the hypothesis or the method. Or both. So one goes back, tirelessly, to try, try, try again. Until. A white powder appears like magic from a stinky swirling liquid. Eureka!

[Excerpted from A QUIET RESIGNATION by Kevin Mc, out now on Amazon-Kindle]

 

Restoration of a broken Idol!

From commenting on the under performant in our last blog, we now move on to what has become more a case of being aberrant rather than simply a lacklustre shadow of what it used to be - American Idol. As y'all may have noticed (or not) I have refrained from commenting on AI during its twelfth season in part because it was so unwatchable most of the time, and I simultaneously have so much yet so little to say about it. But you know me, I am so generous, so will attempt to squeeze out a few lines on the subject. Rejoice!

I did warn the producers almost a year ago (this blog, dated 14th July, 2012) that they had lost the plot, but they exacerbated matters considerably, leading to some of the lowest ratings in the show's history. Which bright spark decided that AI should become a vehicle for fading stars (in a few cases) and rescue them from encroaching obscurity and drag them back out onto the boards and the spotlight, all at a huge cost of several million dollars, minimum? Or pay ridiculous amounts of money to established superstars to double market themselves, and even use the show's audience to boost their sales and to hell with the kids on stage?!

Let's talk salaries for a second - here are the numbers. It appears that Mariah Carey is top (of course, where else would she agree to?) with a whopping $18M, then comes robotic train wreck Nikki Minaj at a very cool $12M, with boring Keith Urban more or less in the Randy "Dawg" Jackson bottom end of about $6M. Pop in our boy Ryan Seacrest to the picture ($15M) and we are looking at about $60M just for the five main characters on the show! That is one serious personnel bill and you can bet your sweet you-know-what that it's a given that this kind of price tag comes with some serious ratings expectations. Hell, make that ratings requirements!

The show seems to have an identiy crrisis - are we American Idol, or would we rather be back with Simon a la X-Factor, or better still, can we be The Voice? For Idol to have attempted to create something similar to any show that followed it, and took from it, was a massive error in judgement. AI was biggest and best, for a reason, and even if ratings would inevitably be eaten away as novelty factor (bot not X factor!) faded somewhat, the reasons it was #1 had nothing to do with the likes of Minaj, Carey and most definitely not Urban.

Ratings for the finale between Candice Glover and Kree Harrison were a measly 14.3 million, which staggeringly is the show's all-time lowest performance. Well, I can answer that one right away, and say that there was a finalist missing - Angie Miller. That girl has more potential to be a unique addition to what is out there, than either of the other two, alone or combination. She's cooler, she's hipper, she's younger, she plays an instrument, she writes, and she can sing the lid off a large can of coffee. We've had a Candice before, we've had a Kree before, and I don't see either of them having the necessary star power to make much impact. But my girl Angie has it all, and she is going to prove that, I am sure. You go, girl!

But it raises a point which has become frustrating in the show and that is the apparent desire to almost engineer a win for the chosen candidate, via both judge bias as well as show bias in focus on various individuals. You can begin to sense who they like for the final two, and it's almost a done deal when the jury starts to whip up a frenzy and tells America what to do. I don't think they have any idea what they are doing, quite frankly. They maybe used to have the plot, but it has been lost, clearly. Quite why anyone would see Kree Harrison as more marketable or explosive than Angie Miller is beyond anyone who has any youth remaining in them.

I can see why a Mariah Carey would take for a Candice, for example, because she has a big voice and clear diva potential. But it's not supposed to be about finding the next "me", it's supposed to be about finding an original star with huge marketing potential. Does anyeone even remember who won AI in 2010, 2011 and 2012? If not, why not? Simple - they have more or less evaporated, along with the show's ratings. The show decided to become a drama (which is entertaining) and whip up the tension on elimination nights, but sadly also filling up a full hour show with distractions, before getting down to business. Guess what? Viewers either recorded it, to skip the dross, or worse, tuned in for the last four minutes of each hour to see who was going home. Uh huh. That's not great TV - by a long chalk.

Oh God, where should I start with the judges? It's a train wreck not waiting to happen - it did, very regularly. I am not going to get into the shenanigans that went on, other than to say that the producers' salivatory anticipation of catfights between Minaj and Carey were misguided. It was not fun at all to see the disrespectful utterings of Minaj to someone who is rightfully considered a singing legend in the business (Carey), and even if Mariah is clearly a diva, one still shows the appropriate level of basic respect to one who has achieved more than probably any female star of her time. Minaj doesn't deserve to share a stage (and for her safety, a dressing room for that matter!) with Carey, and I doubt she ever will again.

Which brings me to the main point - and I will keep saying it until AI agrees. This show is meant to be the identification of new talent by record industry professionals, not has-been or wannabe singers. Keith Urban seems to be a nice enough boy, but a legendary singer he sure as hell ain't! So, why would I listen to his opinion on kids who can sing their heads off? It's an irrelevance. Of all the current judges, he is the one who has been quoted as saying "I would come back in a heartbeat!" I bet he would too, but isn't he supposed to have a career of his own, or does being an Idol judge pay more? Uh huh. It came across as almost desperate, begging to come back even as the divorce papers were being signed by the producers. 

Minaj is about as relevant to a singing competition as a fish is to a biccyle (thanks, Bono!). Mariah can sing the phone book and make you weep, but she has zero experience searching for, developing, mentoring, producing and releasing music from new talent. Why? Again, simple - she only cares about music by Mariah Carey, that's why! Duh! The Dawg? Well, he was on show #1, so he has pedigree, but without Simon and Paula, he's also a fish, but one out of water and already on his bike - he announced his departure towards the end of this season.

The rumor is that all four judges are gone - and that's great news. The ratings hit all-time lows and it is the judging that is central to that outcome. It became boring. My men on the street tell me that producer Nigel Lythgoe might also be out, and I think it's probably the right time; the changes he incorporated into AI have slowly killed it. Sorry, old chap, but you had a good run. However there is one shining star remaining and yes, we all know who that is - the one, the only, the Jimmy  - yes, Jimmy Iovine! In my humble opinion, our Jimmy simply has to be brought to the fore, perhaps as the nucleus of any new format for AI. He is the one constant that made the show worth watching, and he is always bang on, in my opinion. Always!

We must move back to three judges, with a true blue indiustry icon like Iovine in the middle. We add in maybe someone a bit like the Dawg, a producer who has also made a name for themselves, say, like a Daniel Lanois, or similar. Wow, that's actually an amazing idea, if he was available! For the cherry on the cake, we maybe can add in a sliver of celebrity, but first and foremost, it has to be someone who can actually sing, and didn't make a name for themseves via hollering or screeching over disco music about Weetabix. AI must be educated that the public loses interest in celebrity panels really quickly, they become a distraction from the show itself, whereas we love to see an unknown professional who has chops, charisma and a lot to say, like Simon Cowell, and get to know them through a season. AI makes them a household name, not the other way around!

Our boy Seacrest center stage. My man Jimmy at the helm of the judges station. A record industry vet-come-celebrity to his left. A singer with real credibility to his right. A no-nonsense-minimal-ego-driven panel, who all want to find the next big original thing. Not a clone of AI winners past, but someone of the future. If we can achieve some of all that, we might just have a show again, people! Oh, by the way, Jimmy, if AI listens to me and all of the above is corrected and transpires, I will expect to take over your role as the cranky uncle to the kids backstage, proferring my words of wisdom to encourage them to not listen to what those nasty judges are telling them! ;)  - Kevin Mc 

PS Oh yes, there is one other thing sadly missing from the show in recent years, and I am of course referring to our boy Seacrest's curtain call to end each show: "Seacrest, OUT!". Get that back in and we will all feel back on track! 

A trio of trouble beginning to bubble!

Here we go again. More scandal and uproar under the watchful eye (not)  of Barack Obama, this time courtesy of the good ol'IRS - everyone's favorite to love-to-hate. It's so par for the course for ol' BO to stand up at a press conference and say "This is unacceptable!" that we have all become immune to it. When ya gonna actually do something about it, for a change? Like kick some royal presidential ass?!

This blog has been pretty clear about how we feel that this presidency should have been a one term affair, even while kinda liking the guy. He's apparently a very good man. But that does not compare with being a very good leader when you have the job of being CEO of a vast country. Maybe he's too nice a guy, and that is the problem? George Bush was misguided, but he was a stronger President and leader.

And you know, you can only weather so many scandals, outrages, accusations of secrecy and White House subterfuge, etc. before the one commonality becomes well, you! Yes, yes, I can hear the bleating and the bleeding hearts, yes, of course he was a better choice in terms of world peace than Mitt Romney, even if Mitt would have put more people back to work in America. Where the Republicans failed miserably to strike while the iron of public resentment was red hot, the Democrats remained firm in the belief that there was no competition. No need to get excited. They were right. A win, by default almost. As it undoubtedly was.

So, a rather ineffective leader (but dedicated campaigner-in-chief) got the benefit of the doubt for a mediocre first term, and was slipped back in to become a lame duck after one year of a second term. Four more, yes, but by year two it's all gonna be about the Clintons - just watch. Barack knows it's true, and he owes ol' Bill for a star power-laced stellar performance at the Democrative convention in 2012, and he owes our Hillary for suckin' it up and takin' a job under him - no shocker that she buckled down and became a celebrated Secretary of State.

Well, celebrated until Benghazi, at least. Those who oppose her, on both sides of the House, have already shown their hands on this issue, some blaming her for being asleep at the wheel for a security breach that cost US lives, including the Ambassador to Libya. The language used by the White House in the hours following the attack, downplaying it as a terrorist attack of any kind, didn'help. Nor did the accusations that Clinton was involved in a cover-up and had blocked the State Department's counterterrorism unit from communicating on the issue on the night of the attack, and ignoring the intel that it was clearly al-Qaeda all along.

Whistleblowers from the State Department even alleged that they have been since threatened by unnamed insiders from the State Department, an allegation that has been denied. Uh huh. Then wheel in the then CIA director, David Petraeus, who himself became a security risk, and who had been alleged to be behind a mission to arm muslim brotherhood rebels in Syria, which was just a little too close for comfort. Petraeus himself appeared to not support the talking points as addressed by the White House following the attack, adding to the confusion.

Now here we have the IRS no less, accused of targeting conservative groups (including anything with the words "Tea" and "Party"in their name) and digging just a little too deep into the personal affairs of the personalities involved. Hmm, I wonder if they went digging into a guy called Jeff Martin, who shot to fame as the leader of a group called "The Tea Party", for example?! Ironically, it was Martin et al. who ended up selling their rights to the domain name to the political wing known as The Tea Party, for more than a song!

For a supposedly non-partisan outfit like the IRS, you simply cannot be seen to be targeting one side or the other, and profiling who might be worthy of some real skeleton-digging and muck-raking. Mr. Obama stated he was "angry" which is just about the same emotion many have over his administration's ongoing woes in general. But at least he felt sufficient pressure to act quickly, for once, and the Commissioner has been forced out, leaving the minions to face the scrutiny next.

As if all this is not enough, and bad enough, we now have two top soldiers responsible for controlling and eliminating sexual abuse in the military accused of, wait for it, hell yeah, sexual abuse! The Air Force had an officer who headed up a sexual assault prevention office who was arrested for  assault, while the Army's man for prevention of sexual abuse was subsequently placed under investigation for the same. Are you kidding me?! As the bona fide Commander-in-Chief, he is responsible for sorting this out, too!

Oh, I bet Mr. Obama is "angry"with all of the above. He gets angry a lot. Has launched or been witness to more congressional investigations than all other presidents combined! But patience is wearing thin on his image as the ultimate in passive presidency, and his opponents are gearing up for a feeding frenzy. Michele Bachmann, who lost out to Mitt Romney in the last race, has even gone as far as mentioning "Obama" and ïmpeachment"in the same sentence - not that we think it will come to that - but still. If she can raise it, there is clearly something to moan about.

In general, we think his time has come. Get through this year, and then let the 2014-16 years be all about his successor (Dem or Rep) because his presidential obituary is more or less writ in stone by now, and nothing he says or does will change anything very much at this late stage. This trio of scandals simply underlines what we said back in 2009, and since - that he appears to be a very nice guy, but one who has simultaneously proven to have been a rather ineffectual President and an occasionally useless "leader"of the House. In fact, I might vouchsafe that the House has not had a leader since George Bush (as outrageous as that may sound), or at the very best, since mid-terms in 2010. Time for a change, people! - Kevin Mc

Power, corruption and lies - we truly do need new order!

The EU blog is nothing if not contemporary, even when revisiting previous stories! Today we come back to JPMorgan Chase, once again under the spotlight for the very same reasons we got into this story in the first place - power and money, and the theoretical abuse of same. Perhaps not quite the "Power, Corruption and Lies" of New Order fame, but for sure there seems to have been a healthy dose of all three in the financial world over the last several years.

Once again, we are back at a critical vote to decide whether Jamie Dimon should be allowed to wield an unnatural amount of power and control over the financial giant by retaining the titles of both CEO and Chairman of the board. It was expected that firebrand Lee R. Raymond (formerly CEO of Exxon Mobil) would have done more to reign Dimon in, and maybe even push for his removal as chairman, but so far this has not happened.

Some feel that Raymond has not done enough to limit some of the wilder risk-taking at the bank, but at the same time, he was very aggressive in clawing back huge bonuses from executives involved in aberrant trades, and in January led the charge to cut back Dimon's salary by a whopping fifty percent. Panic not, even with this reduction, Mr. Dimon still maintains a healthy base of some $12M a year, give or take some change. That is a cool million, per month, people, so shed no tears on that note!

Furthermore, Raymond was a hugely influential and stabilizing influence during the foundation shaking acquisition of JPMorgan by Chase Manhattan back in 2000, and he helped ease the path for the entire organization - so he has hardly been totally asleep at the wheel.

The result of this non-binding vote will be released on May 21, and while it is not clear as yet, I think there is an overwhelming sentiment that Mr. Dimon should be focused on running the bank's business, while someone else should be running the board. Lee R. Raymond was a ferocious and feared leader at Exxon, and it is not clear whether his apparent reticence in ousting Dimon as chairman is due to a true belief in the man and his abilities, or is merely representative of insider politics that is rife in such organizations.

In any and all cases, they only seem to get richer and richer, even when the entire country appears to be suffering distress at the remaining and ongoing fallout from the financial collapse of 2008/9. There are currently as many as eight federal agencies investigating the bank's practices and that just about says it all, quite frankly.

What a shocker to hear of the monster $2B trading loss recently by JPMorgan Chase et al? Not. Most of these people barely got a slap on the wrist by Obama, as per Tim Geithner's wishes, when the financial sector collapsed a few years ago. While that strategy may partly be seen as having provided a degree of (apparent) stability at a very shaky time, it continues to pervade the financial sector today in that shameless greed and the ravenous desire to make more money by such types is undersigned and underwritten by the US government itself. We all heard that derivatives and credit default swaps were supposed to be financial instruments that were now to be looked at like upside down crosses, and not the tools on which to place unnecessary risk, so why did the normally conservative JPMorgan empire allow such a massive exposure to toxic assets and risk, again?

It seems that we are supposed to be thrilled that for once, heads are going to roll, and the first to go has already been canned: their Chief Investment Officer (CIO), one of the most powerful women on Wall Street. Well, it only seems fair and proper in some ways, I mean, how can you be called an "investment" officer, when you just repeated past mistakes and incurred a multibillion dollar loss? Damage control also seems to fall very heavily on the side of media-friendly Jamie Dimon (CEO), who one and all appear to see as the man who is sorting it all out. Yet, he is the BOSS. By default, he authorized such "investments". Additionally, mere weeks ago, he said that he stood by his CIO and their recent transactions, and that time would prove them all right. Not. Again.

It is always the same with such types and with Wall Street in general. When it goes well, we don't hear too much about it, other than the occasional outcry at massive sums of money being handed over in bonuses. But it's your retirement fund or my insurance company that also got boosted, so, fine. Then when disgrace occurs, well, it's all part of doing business, and Obama et al. tell us it's okay, and we disown this or deny that, wait for the hue and cry to die down, and then we get back to business as normal. It's all in a day's work, on Wall Street. But Jamie Dimon, as capable a banker as everyone seems to claim that he is, is the boss, and has too much power: that is the problem. For sure, the roles of CEO and Chairman should be split at an institution the size of JPMorgan. It is not in their interest to have one person in control of all of it, who then basically turns around and says it is too much for one person to oversee, as his excuse for a monstrous loss in the billions. Additionally, we need to see that he forces through clawback clauses in rogue executive contracts, and takes back the bonuses already paid to these people, who have just cost them billions. He may be popular, today, but if he doesn't appear to take this as seriously as it merits, the cries for his own demise will get louder and louder, and we think that's exactly how it should be.

Greed is one thing, but greed that is so overboard that it becomes incompetence by the sheer nature and degree of the risks incurred to feed that greed? Well, that type of greed needs to be sent home hungry and locked out of the kitchen for sufficiently long to remind it of the staggering failure that this greed just delivered onto the dining table. It is, quite frankly, a rotting, stinking slice of humble pie, very well earned to boot! Eat that for a few months, and then we will see if there has been a change of heart, or not. - Kevin Mc
Footnote: Later today, even with 40% of shareholders supporting a split in roles as discussed above, Jamie Dimon got to keep his double job, as both CEO and Chairman. Again, hardly shocking. They also voted in approval of his salary for the past year, a "healthy" $23.1M. Cough. But I bet the fact that the FBI are now stepping in to dig through the matter and see if any Federal Securities laws were broken will make tonight's champagne taste slightly less sweet.

May the fourth (Galaxy) be with you!

It's that time again, though I won't say that time of year, because some of the major smartphone makers seem to launch new high(er) end models with alarming frequency, more than once per year! To wit, Samsung, who have been kicking some you-know-what in the smartphone wars, where a larger and larger bite of the Apple is being chewed on in South Korea.

The issue is not just how much revenue the Korean giant is hacking away from fatcat Apple's profits, but frankly the main issue is how much cool they have stolen from their extremely litigious nemesis in recent years. It doesn't help that the great innovator and aesthete, Steve Jobs, has since gone, even if his own lust for dominance and the dollars that go with it had started to eat away at his own supposed "coolness". Look at his alleged role as the kingpin behind a price-fixing scheme for e-books with various major publishers, for example - pure unadulterated money lust and greed.

I think it is an excellent thing when an arrogant superpower (be it in political fighting or smartphone wars) gets a taste of its own medicine, and sees some former wannabe suddenly rise up and catch the wave, drawing the public's imagination and bucks away from it. Samsung has done this brilliantly, almost alienating iPhone users as instantaneously "unhip" - when they used to be the ones showing off their phones in public places. How awful!

The latest ads are a little mellower than of old, but the point is made clearly nonetheless - Samsung is cool and the Galaxy S series is for the young and hip, while iPhone users have been recategorized as the old and in need of (a) new hip! It's brilliantly entertaining of course, even if it may be a little less lighthearted than it appears, but for us Galaxy owners it's just impossible to not crack a smile or laugh out loud at some of the images drawn by the ads. It's all good clean fun, but very serious fun involving gazillions of dollars. 

SIV is an amazing beast, quite naturally, and perhaps what Samsung do best is turn these ads into a feast from the beast, showing off all sorts of "cool" new features that may or not change daily lives, but that's not always the point. A brand new Porsche Boxster Turbo S may do all sorts of things on an autobahn in Germany but which are rendered useless by the daily commute from one side of an urban sprawl to the other every day for work. But who cares - everyone stares at your car, right? Isn't that as much the point?

Personally, I love the idea that my ever handy smartphone can now turn on my HDTV (if I had an HDTV) and even suggest programs to me. Or, when my own fingers are sticky sweet from my Belfast Cowboy Smoky Spiced Whiskey Rib sauce, that I can wave a hand over the phone and answer a call - while the dejected iPhone user tries to do the same and nothing happens - awww! It's all about being included, and not feeling left out, and this is the genius of the Samsung brand and the marketing thereof. 

The Korean company spent a reported $300M on marketing in 2012, and looks ready and willing to keep on spending at that level in 2013. Good luck to them! They make an incredible product that was unthinkable several years ago, and they race on relentlessly, putting superior products in our hands that truly do and have changed modern life. Apple was there first, but Steve Jobs is not the only gifted entrepreneur and aesthete out there, and anyway, he needed this kind of challenge to keep him on his toes. I don't think that anyone can argue that iPhone has seen anything significantly new and exciting since iPhone4 - it's been more like treading water. 

The Samsung Galaxy SII, SIII and SIV are beautiful devices, all are beautifully crafted and each came/comes with top-of-line functionality. I know I can't look at Apple and iPhone the way I used to anymore, and I was an iPhone guy for a while there - but Samsung just do it better and often cheaper. As the consumer, we have the right to change track when someone runs ahead and simultaneously gives us a better deal - this is going to be become even more common (rampant?!) when the dreaded three year commitments evaporate. Bring it on, baby.

For today, all I can say, when thinking of their brand, their product line and their advertising, is - rave on, Samsung, rave on! - Kevin Mc ;)