Professor Elam

Kids - No Thanks

11/30/23

 

Birth rates are falling across the world. Click to earn the consequences

CMA Review

11/0/2023

I am asking Mike if this is available later on

 

an Antonio Chapter

Members,

We had a GREAT Lunch N Learn session yesterday with excellent turnout!  We had quite a few members on-line whose schedules don't easily accommodate our regular evening events.  Thanks to Lawrence Coffee for the insightful info.

In addition to our 2 remaining activities for the year (details at bottom), IMA is promoting a FREE CMA review session THIS Saturday morning - 8am CT!

Seats are limited, register now: https://bcertifiedpro.com/courses/cma-usa/
Email us: [email protected]

CMA Part 1: Saturday, December 02, 2023 from 8 AM to 12 PM CT 

 

Sessions include:
- Strategies to answer MCQs and Essays in less time & score high.
- Practice with candidates' MCQs and Essays and guide them through each exam question.
- Go through the right way to approach MCQ and Essay questions using retired actual exam questions as well as simulated tricky questions.
- What to do and not to do on the exam while going through each question.

Prechter on Socionomics

11/23/2023

hClick here for 14 minue exlanatioin of Socionomics

Arnold's Pump Club now numbers 600,000

11/23/2023

Arnold on his first Thanksgiving and positive thoughts - notice this guy started with nothing and now lok

_________

From Arnold: Happy Thanksgiving

This is a special version of the newsletter. We won’t have the normal three items, but I do want to share an important story.

It’s Thanksgiving for all of our American subscribers today, so I wanted to let you off the hook before you start eating everything in sight and let you know it’s perfectly OK to go wild. And I wanted to tell you about my first Thanksgiving, and why it is so important to me.

I moved to America in 1968, just before the holidays. I had no idea what Thanksgiving was. I learned quickly.

One of the guys I trained with, Bill Drake, found out I had no plans. He told me I had to come to his parent’s house, and I had my first-ever Thanksgiving dinner. They treated me like I was part of their family, even though I barely spoke English and had a few language screwups at the meal that were very funny.

Around that same time, the guys at the gym found out I lived in an apartment with basically nothing. Then, like a strange group of really buff, shirtless elves, they showed up one after the other. Pillows, sheets, utensils, plates, a black and white TV, and a wooden clock radio I keep by my bed today as a reminder of the kindness I found here. They brought me everything I needed.

That’s why I give back every year around this time and donate turkeys and toys and hand them out at the Hollenbeck Center in East LA, and why I still have some of the gym crew over for Thanksgiving if they don’t have anywhere to go. I know what it meant to me. You never know what it means to someone to offer them a meal or really anything that shows you care.

Today is about more than eating delicious food and lying on the couch.

So, I also want you to know that I’m thankful for all of you. There are almost 600,000 of us in this village. Every day, we are filling the world with more positive people who know that there are plenty of problems in the world, but we won’t solve them by being angry and complaining about them.

I can’t believe the positivity I see every day in the replies to this email, and I am still in shock when I look at The Pump app’s community even after we opened it to all of you in the newsletter village and see that there still hasn’t been a single negative comment. We have never had to use our power to delete anything — what other app could say that? We are proving that positivity can work online. That’s because of the positivity of all of you lifting yourselves and each other. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, I am giving you a free pass. Not just today but for the celebrations to come. Don’t hold yourself back. Eat that pie. The reason we are healthy almost every day is so that we can let go on days like this. Remember that. We aren’t living lives of subtraction. We’ve added health and fitness to our lives so that we can also add some ice cream or mashed potatoes without guilt.

Let go a little bit. Your healthy diet will be waiting for you. Just remember it is there, and don’t let a day or a weekend turn into a month of saying, “Arnold gave me a free pass.”

Arnold Work Your A -- Off

11/22/2023

Click here for Arnold

 

Here is what Emerson was Talking About

1/22/2023

Here is an ad from the internet, note the store o[ens at  5 00 AM!

 

Upcoming IMA

11/20/2023

Members,

The San Antonio chapter has 3 exciting events in the next 3 weeks!  All details are posted to the website - https://SanAntonio.IMAnet.org.  As always, these events are open to non-members.  So please invite a colleague!

Wednesday, Nov 30th - Lunch N Learn (100% virtual, 1 hr CPE, 12-1pm CT, totally free!): 
AI and Accounting:  Building Better Systems for the Future - presented by Lawrence Coffee

Learning Objectives: 

• Understand the basics of Automation and AI Use Cases in Accounting from Small Business, scaling to Enterprise.
• Challenges facing Data Quality and Self Service in the AI era.
• The Case for AI Governance and the evolving AI Regulatory Landscape.

Friday, Dec 8th - Lunch N Learn (100% virtual, 1 hr CPE, 12-1pm CT, totally free!):
Excel 301 (Intermediate Excel Tips & Tricks) - presented by Brian Butler
Learning Objective: 

• Gain an understanding of how certain Excel functions can be used to establish a DATA FOUNDATION that will result in a meaningful analysis in virtually any setting.

Wednesday, Dec 13th - regular chapter meeting (in person 5:30pm-8pm CT/virtual 6-8pm CT, 2 hrs CPE):  
NOTE THE unusual date:  2nd Wed instead of 3rd Wed due to holidays!
Bending the Curve:  Leading in Unprecedented Times - presented by Michael Loschke
Learning Objectives:

• TBD

Tax Update for 2024 (Federal & Corporate) - presented by Jennifer Larson (former SA Chapter President!)
Learning Objectives:

• TBD

- Mike Lovelace, CMA
co-VP of Member Engagement

Meet Craig Standland,Fraudster

11/17/2023

 

Alert  student Ana Montalvo posted this review of the 1/15/2023 SA IMA meeting.

________

 

Yesterday I attended the monthly CMA meeting. I really enjoy attending these meetings because I get to meet new people in the accounting field in San Antonio and I also get to hear from speakers on very relevant topics. One of the presenters was Craig Stanland, he was a fraudster who went to prison his crimes, he shared his story, a very familiar story to us now because of all the fraud stories we hear in class every week.

 

Craig was working for a company who was a client of Cisco as an account manager. At first, he was doing very well and making a lot of money just doing his sales job but with time, the market got more competitive, and he wasn’t selling as much, and he wasn’t making the same commission he was used to. He found out that by taking advantage of Cisco’s warranty policy he could gain more money. He operated a service contract fraud in which he managed service contracts for Cisco networking parts. He made up hundreds of fake service requests to Cisco to replace “defective” parts. Cisco would then ship these parts to different addresses that Craig had access to. He would send back older or third party parts to Cisco, he would find these parts on Ebay and buy them very cheap. Afterwards, he sold the new parts for more money. Craig was not justifying his actions, but he was speaking to his state of mind during those moments. He said he felt like he needed to keep up with his lifestyle and felt a lot of pressure to keep making more and more money. He knew he was doing wrong but he kept going.

 

Eventually, he got sloppy, and Cisco found out what he was doing, he was caught and found out when the FBI raided his house and charged him with one count of mail fraud. He was arrested and sentenced to 2 years in federal prison, 3 years of supervised release, and payment of $834,307.00 in restitution.

 

Like your interview with Aaron Beam from Health South, Craig Stanland’s presentation was very effective. Hearing from the fraudster’s mouth why they did what they did was a different perspective. I like that he did not try to sugarcoat it, he explained the way he felt at the time, but he now takes responsibility for his actions and has been sharing his story ever since he got out of prison.

Black Friday Next Week, Time to Read Emerson on Gifts

11/17/2023

 

I believe I have posted this every year before Black Friday since the blog began in  2009. It was written in  1844 but may be even more relevant today in this world of advertising and credit cards.  I urge you to read this and think about the meaning of the Holidays.

 

____________________

It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than
the world can pay, and ought to go into chancery, and be sold. I do not think this general
insolvency, which involves in some sort all the population, to be the reason of the difficulty
experienced at Christmas and New Year, and other times, in bestowing gifts; since it is
always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts. But the impediment
lies in the choosing. If, at any time, it comes into my head, that a present is due from me to
somebody, I am puzzled what to give, until the opportunity is gone. Flowers and fruits are
always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty
from Essays: Second Series (1844)
Type to enter text
Gifts
Gifts of one who loved me, —
'T was high time they came;
When he ceased to love me,
Time they stopped for shame.
Gifts - Ralph Waldo Emerson
outvalues all the utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with the somewhat stern
countenance of ordinary nature: they are like music heard out of a work-house. Nature does
not cocker us: we are children, not pets: she is not fond: everything is dealt to us without
fear or favor, after severe universal laws. Yet these delicate flowers look like the frolic and
interference of love and beauty. Men use to tell us that we love flattery, even though we are
not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.
Something like that pleasure, the flowers give us: what am I to whom these sweet hints are
addressed? Fruits are acceptable gifts, because they are the flower of commodities, and
admit of fantastic values being attached to them. If a man should send to me to come a
hundred miles to visit him, and should set before me a basket of fine summerfruit, I should
think there was some proportion between the labor and the reward.
For common gifts, necessity makes pertinences and beauty every day, and one is glad when
an imperative leaves him no option, since if the man at the door have no shoes, you have
not to consider whether you could procure him a paint-box. And as it is always pleasing to
see a man eat bread, or drink water, in the house or out of doors, so it is always a great
satisfaction to supply these first wants. Necessity does everything well. In our condition of
universal dependence, it seems heroic to let the petitioner be the judge of his necessity,
and to give all that is asked, though at great inconvenience. If it be a fantastic desire, it is
better to leave to others the office of punishing him. I can think of many parts I should prefer
playing to that of the Furies. Next to things of necessity, the rule for a gift, which one of my
friends prescribed, is, that we might convey to some person that which properly belonged
to his character, and was easily associated with him in thought. But our tokens of
compliment and love are for the most part barbarous. Rings and other jewels are not gifts,
but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me.
Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a
gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own
sewing. This is right and pleasing, for it restores society in so far to its primary basis, when a
© 1996-2019 EmersonCentral.com Page of 2 5
Gifts - Ralph Waldo Emerson
man's biography is conveyed in his gift, and every man's wealth is an index of his merit. But
it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something, which does not
represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's. This is fit for kings, and rich men who
represent kings, and a false state of property, to make presents of gold and silver stuffs, as a
kind of symbolical sin-offering, or payment of black-mail.
The law of benefits is a difficult channel, which requires careful sailing, or rude boats. It is not
the office of a man to receive gifts. How dare you give them? We wish to be self-sustained.
We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.
We can receive anything from love, for that is a way of receiving it from ourselves; but not
from any one who assumes to bestow. We sometimes hate the meat which we eat, because
there seems something of degrading dependence in living by it.
"Brother, if Jove to thee a present make,
Take heed that from his hands thou nothing take."
We ask the whole. Nothing less will content us. We arraign society, if it do not give us
besides earth, and fire, and water, opportunity, love, reverence, and objects of veneration.
He is a good man, who can receive a gift well. We are either glad or sorry at a gift, and both
emotions are unbecoming. Some violence, I think, is done, some degradation borne, when I
rejoice or grieve at a gift. I am sorry when my independence is invaded, or when a gift
comes from such as do not know my spirit, and so the act is not supported; and if the gift
pleases me overmuch, then I should be ashamed that the donor should read my heart, and
see that I love his commodity, and not him. The gift, to be true, must be the flowing of the
© 1996-2019 EmersonCentral.com Page of 3 5
Gifts - Ralph Waldo Emerson
giver unto me, correspondent to my flowing unto him. When the waters are at level, then my
goods pass to him, and his to me. All his are mine, all mine his. I say to him, How can you
give me this pot of oil, or this flagon of wine, when all your oil and wine is mine, which belief
of mine this gift seems to deny? Hence the fitness of beautiful, not useful things for gifts. This
giving is flat usurpation, and therefore when the beneficiary is ungrateful, as all beneficiaries
hate all Timons, not at all considering the value of the gift, but looking back to the greater
store it was taken from, I rather sympathize with the beneficiary, than with the anger of my
lord Timon. For, the expectation of gratitude is mean, and is continually punished by the
total insensibility of the obliged person. It is a great happiness to get off without injury and
heart-burning, from one who has had the ill luck to be served by you. It is a very onerous
business, this of being served, and the debtor naturally wishes to give you a slap. A golden
text for these gentlemen is that which I so admire in the Buddhist, who never thanks, and
who says, "Do not flatter your benefactors."
The reason of these discords I conceive to be, that there is no commensurability between a
man and any gift. You cannot give anything to a magnanimous person. After you have
served him, he at once puts you in debt by his magnanimity. The service a man renders his
friend is trivial and selfish, compared with the service he knows his friend stood in readiness
to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with
that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my power to render him seems small.
Besides, our action on each other, good as well as evil, is so incidental and at random, that
we can seldom hear the acknowledgments of any person who would thank us for a benefit,
without some shame and humiliation. We can rarely strike a direct stroke, but must be
content with an oblique one; we seldom have the satisfaction of yielding a direct benefit,
which is directly received. But rectitude scatters favors on every side without knowing it, and
receives with wonder the thanks of all people.
© 1996-2019 EmersonCentral.com Page of 4 5
Gifts - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I fear to breathe any treason against the majesty of love, which is the genius and god of
gifts, and to whom we must not affect to prescribe. Let him give kingdoms or flower-leaves
indifferently. There are persons, from whom we always expect fairy tokens; let us not cease
to expect them. This is prerogative, and not to be limited by our municipal rules. For the rest,
I like to see that we cannot be bought and sold. The best of hospitality and of generosity is
also not in the will, but in fate. I find that I am not much to you; you do not need me; you do
not feel me; then am I thrust out of doors, though you proffer me house and lands. No
services are of any value, but only likeness. When I have attempted to join myself to others
by services, it proved an intellectual trick, — no more. They eat your service like apples, and
leave you out. But love them, and they feel you, and delight in you all the time.
© 1996-2019 EmersonCentral.com Page of 5 5
© 1996-2019 EmersonCentral.com

Pentagon failes SIxth Straight Audit

11/16/2023.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/11/16/pentagon-fails-sixth-straight-audit-with-little-improvement-from-last-year/

 

 

The Department of Defense (DOD) failed its sixth straight audit with little positive change from the year prior, despite pledges from Pentagon leaders to make improvements on the massive undertaking each year.

Auditors gave seven of the department’s 29 sub-agencies a clean audit in 2023, with no change from the 2022 audit, according to a Wednesday statement. Although it’s not a surprise that the DOD hasn’t yet been able to account for its $3.8 trillion enterprise and $4 trillion in liabilities, scattered across 50 states and 4,500 sites globally, DOD officials previously said they expected to see incremental improvement, Defense News reported.