Wheeler Writes

Since the beginning of time, our species has been ruled by totalitarian kings, pharaohs, and dictators who believe people must not be given freedom as individuals. They must be controlled in order to avoid conflict.

Our founding fathers created a democracy, a government by the people for the people. It was an experiment that worked and it created the greatest nations in history.

Unfortunately there are those in power who believe that freedom for individuals is dangerous and that they, the “elite”, have moral obligation to rule. Their plan to remake this country into a totalitarian state is well underway.

By injecting fear and conflict into our lives they hope to create a willingness for us to sacrifice our individual freedoms in exchange for an orderly existence based on the rules they will make.

And of course, as with all totalitarian governments, the rules will not apply to those who make the rules. That would take away the endorfing generated feeling that comes with knowing you are “superior”.

Please, try to understand me and here is answer for “how are you?” inside me is a bomb of hatred, rage, pain, fear and injustice…

They stole our possibility to live our life, to happiness, to have home and even die as a humane… in Mariupol, people who were killed during the bombing and attack by the Russians were buried today in a common grave…

They shoot civilians, men because they try protect women and them child…Russian soldiers rape women in front of their children. Some of them shoot after, some were hanged…some of them had “the luck” to survive…

That is not just a “story” That is our reality today.

In moment when for Russian people is a problem closed store of lovely brand…

How many killed children, mothers, men…? How many raped women…? How many destroyed houses, bridges, cities…?

When it’s gonna be ENOUGH for you understand that not only about UKRAINE IT’S ABOUT ALL WORLD

President Vladimir Putin’s primary goal in life has been to earn a memorable place in history. “Congratulations Vladi, you’ve done it.” You’ve also booked a reservation in hell, sharing a room with Adolf Hitler.

Your most notable achievements:

Alienating the entire civilized world against your own people.

Sending young, poorly equipped soldiers into battle who have no desire to kill their ethnic Ukrainian cousins.

Instead, using missiles and bombs, which have no conscience, to do your killing.

REST ASSURED, YOU WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN OR FORGIVEN!

My girlfriend ten years ago was from Ukraine. One parent was Russian and one was Ukrainian. This was very common making this current conflict somewhat like a civil war.

I have two Russian friends in Russia who feel shame about what Putin is doing. How long will Russian soldiers do Putin’s bidding? It’s easy to convince a soldier to kill an enemy who looks different and speaks a different language. But killing someone who is very similar to your own friends and family is not that easy.

Putin will end up being the big loser!

Back in the mid-nineties I met an African American man in Atlanta, it was midsummer, and upon learning I was from the St. Louis area we struck up a conversation about the St. Louis Cardinals. He had been a baseball coach in the majors but now owned a limousine company.

I shared my memories from the 60’s and 70’s and how much I admired former greats like Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith and Curt Flood. I even had a glove signed by Flood whom I was fortunate to meet later at a charity event.

When I inquired as to why he was no longer involved with the MLB he said the owners had decided there was more money to be made promoting the careers of Latino players versus African/Americans. I was skeptical and ask why, it made no sense to me. But he explained that there was a huge market for anything “baseball” in Latin America. Broadcasting revenue, video tapes, fan merchandise, etc., etc.

He suggested I look at the numbers comparing the number of African/American players versus the number of Latino players and watch how the ratio was going to change over the next 20 years. I have now and see what he was talking about. It’s not about race it is all about the money. But the collateral damage to young African/American athletes aspiring to follow in the footsteps of Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron and all the other great Hall of Fame African/Americans I admired and cheered for in the past is obvious!

I had not thought about that conversation years ago until this past week when the owners of MLB took the All-Star Game away from Atlanta and gave it to the city of Denver in an attempt to portray themselves as dedicated supporters of African/Americans.

Here are the numbers which clearly show the incredible hypocrisy of the MLB owners.

YEAR     WHITE   BLACK   LATINO

1990       69%         17%             15%  

 
1995       64%           16%           19%

2000       61%           13%           25%

2005       61%           9%             28%

2010       63%           8%             27%

2015       63%           7%             28% 

And as many others have noted, the game, and all the economic benefits, have been moved from a predominately black city to a predominantly white city.

As speculation grows that the Chinese government may have intentionally launched Covid 19 into the world I began thinking of what could they possibly hope to gain from such dastardly action.  What could be their motive?  In search of an explanation I could not come up with anything external to China vis-à-vis the rest of the world.  But then it occurred to me that perhaps the motive could be perceived threats to their absolute dictatorial power.

Before joining the global community the Chinese people were impoverished with very few, if any, individual rights.  They lived, no “existed”, at the very bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  By opening their country to the World and providing vast amounts of cheap labor, the Chinese people began to climb up Maslow’s pyramid.  But this may have ignited the first potential challenge to the Communist Party leadership.  It’s human nature to expect more as you move up Maslow’s pyramid and what you desire, is more individual freedom.  Not something the Communist Party will ever concede.

To make matters worse, it is no longer possible for Despots, to prevent their subjects from knowing what is happening in the rest of the world.  When the Chinese people of Mainland China see the standard of living of Chinese living in Taiwan and Hong Kong they cannot help but ask why?  Is it our government?  Of course, asking that question too often in Mainland China is not advisable.

Here are the facts:

                   Per Capita GDP

Hong Kong           $66,527

Taiwan                  $57,214

China Mainland   $20,984  

With Covid 19 Xi Jinping has crushed any hopes the Chinese people may have regarding more individual freedom.  It also shows the Chinese citizens of Hong Kong that he will be ruthless, if necessary, to gain control of their government.

The “Mayor” is the personification of the Career Politician whose first thoughts each day are about how can I advance my career, not what can I do to improve the lives of my constituents.  There is no doubt the Mayor is a very bright young man with a very large ambition.  Smart enough to know that his resume as a small city mayor was not going to take him very far in his quest to become President.

​Our military has a program whereby civilians can volunteer to serve with the military for a short period of time if they have a useful skill and/or experience. (You can read the list of jobs on Wikipedia.)  When reading this list you will notice there are no options that would put these volunteers in harms way.  Why?  They have no military training.   Their training lasts 2-5 weeks during which they learn the “chain of command”, terminology (e.g. a Captain in the Marines and a Captain in the Navy are two very different ranks), and what to wear.  (It wouldn’t look right if they continued to wear their civilian attire.)  And with no weapons training no one is going to issue them a weapon.  At least I hope not.

​The Mayor’s assignment was to look for illicit bank transfers to potential terrorist groups.  Important, but no battlefield courage required.  The Mayor worked in an air-conditioned office, slept in air-conditioned officers quarters and enjoyed three meals a day at the Officers Club.  His attempts to position himself as a “war veteran” is not going work with those who have actually served or with the family and friends of those who paid the ultimate price while defending our country.  As a Vietnam veteran, I find the Mayor’s actions; exploiting the respect our Country has for those who actually serve, to be insulting, dishonest, unethical, and immoral.  It is beyond my comprehension to see the Mayor as the “Commander and Chief” of our Military.

Like so many others I was surprised to hear that my friend Eduardo Repetto and Pat Keating have started a new firm to compete with DFA.  Perhaps the added competition will benefit advisors and their clients, who knows?  When reading the news I had time to reflect on my years building the Advisor business at DFA, and all the success we had making a difference for so many investors.

In my opinion, the only serious mistake I made was hiring Pat Keating who had very different ideas regarding what DFA’s relationship should be with financial advisors.  Perhaps Pat’s ideas would  have been better and now he will have a chance to prove it.  DFA owes so much to the advisors who contributed a great deal to our success and in my opinion Pat failed to appreciate that.

I did however make some great hiring decisions.  I believe everyone acknowledges the talent and ethics of people like Dave, Bryce, Brad and Mark just to name a few.  They have continued to make DFA a great firm long after my departure.