Featured

Test Pilot

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Book of the Week is “Test Pilot, How I Broke Testing Barriers…” by Stanley H. Kaplan with Anne Farris, published in 2001.

Kaplan was born in 1919 in Brooklyn, NY. In the last several decades he parlayed his passion for teaching into a big-name corporate entity in America. Kaplan began a tutoring business in his hometown and added the service of preparing students for the New York State Regents exams. In 1946, he added the “Scholastic Aptitude Test” (SAT).

At that time, the SAT’s original purpose was to provide a criterion based on merit (rather than white male privilege) by which colleges would accept students. The test was supposed to be predictive of a student’s first six months of higher education. Supposedly, the SAT was not the kind of test one could study for. It tested aptitude– “developed abilities” acquired from life-experience.

In 1947, the College Board (a trade group that monitored higher education in the United States) created the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to administer the SAT and other tests. ETS is a nonprofit organization. More and more WWII veterans were taking the SAT in order to get accepted to the college of their choice, and have the GI Bill pay their tuition. More and more colleges were considering the SAT in their admissions process.

The hegemony of the College Board was such that it wouldn’t tell students (and their parents) their SAT scores. The scores were sent directly to the colleges to which students applied.

The author wrote that in the 1960’s, “I still supported the use of admissions tests along with grades as the best predictors of success because grade inflation was rampant.” That decade, Kaplan expanded his company’s service lines to include test-prep for the PSAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, DAT and MCAT. It also did test-prep for medical-school board exams, the passing of which was required prior to graduation.

In the early 1980’s, Kaplan’s business was allowed to take on a duty of the Immigration and Naturalization Service– a federal agency. At that time, there was a shortage of medical doctors in America, so Kaplan issued visas to foreign students to study medicine in this country. There were students from Vietnam, Syria, and Russia, among others. Fortunately, Kaplan also offered test-prep for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

There were controversies through the decades. Kaplan wrote, “I realized that the SAT wasn’t biased; inferior education in America was biased… I saw firsthand at my own centers what a difference small classes, higher expectations, and individual attention made in students’ academic achievement.”

It appeared Kaplan did have bragging rights in that he built a billion-dollar business, and truly loved teaching. It is possible the test-prep trend he started, DID actually help reduce education inequality across the country by imparting basic skills to underprivileged students (with scholarships) whose under-resourced school districts failed them. In other words, his test-prep business was a stand-in for providing basic education for students who wanted to learn but couldn’t, at their poor-quality local schools.

However, it is impossible to prove whether or by how much, students can raise their standardized test scores by taking-prep classes, as the statistics on the students are trade secrets, and there has been propaganda from all the different stakeholders from the get-go, on all the standardized tests.

The reader might notice that the original name of Kaplan’s business was “Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center Ltd.” That “Ltd.” means it was incorporated NOT in the United States, but in the UK or some other offshore tax shelter, and a place that would minimize the company’s having to defend against lawsuits!

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about the author’s business history, and his philosophy.

Featured

Ain’t No Monetizing High Enough – BONUS POST

HACKERS STRIKE AGAIN

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger, and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Just as the definition of “shin” is : a device for finding furniture in the dark, free and fair elections are a device for finding democracy in the dark. Take heart. Social media are FINALLY shining a light on the sociopaths, so voters know AGAINST whom to vote.

Oh, how the mighty still have yet to fall. It is infuriating and depressing when America’s top leaders behave extremely badly and exploit legal loopholes in order to keep their jobs! Here’s a song about them and their party.

AIN’T NO MONETIZING HIGH ENOUGH

sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with apologies to Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Listen, lately, ain’t no monetizing high, ain’t no malice low, ain’t no drivel tired enough lately. The GOP is damaging you.

No matter who you are, they’ve gone too far. Lots of worries lately. They’ve sullied our name. This country’s sunk in a hurry, you be judge and jury.

‘Cause lately there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

Remember the day Trump beat Hillary. He told you you would always be rich and free [nonsense!]. With his every move he’s brought us down. Criminals here to haunt you every way. Right now.

‘Cause lately ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragraph --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

Oh no. [Nonsense.] All sins. All pain. All heartless and cold. Stop this crazy. (yes, yes crazy) ‘Cause we’ve been rolled. Are we ever in trouble. Trump’s still THERE in the rubble. Just fend off his hate.

Vote please, please. Show love is alive, and you have a heart. Although voting’s JUST a start. We all need a helping hand. The prez and his cronies caused all this trouble. Vote as soon as you can.

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately.

<-- wp:paragragh --> <-- wp:paragraph -->

You must know that there ain’t no monetizing high enough, ain’t no malice low enough, ain’t no drivel tired enough, GOP keeps you from getting the truth lately…

Featured

We Will Never Ever Feel Shame – BONUS POST

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

The following is what Trump and his claques, flacks and sycophants are singing.

INFINITE disclosures of their criminality will NEVER shame them into better behavior. Those disclosures are meant to inform voters about the actions of the Republican Party, which has held a Congressional majority for the last several years.

The only way to stop this charade is to vote out this rotten clique. One hopes this won’t be deleted again by hackers.

WE WILL NEVER EVER FEEL SHAME

sung to the tune of “There Is Nothing Like A Dame” (the 1958 South Pacific movie version, up until the “Hup two, three…” dialogue) with apologies to the Estates of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

To Trump we lend a HAND. It’s national securITY. SO ICE detention and AI data centers you cannot SEE. You little people are all losers and you are all lame. WHAT ain’t we got? We ain’t got shame!

We got women blamed and fired. We have distractions. We have SHOWs. We do speeches from our leader and defend against our FOES.

Put lipstick on the liberals’pig. We deny Trump’s brain is STALLED. What do we get? Spoils for us ALL!

We make world peace. Our country is the biggest and, the best. We protect all of you. We do it all at, Trump’s behest.

We will never-ever feel SHAME. Never ever ever. To us, it’s a great-big GAME. We never ever-feel-any shame.

We feel macho and we feel bold. We miss Epstein Island sex. We feel the rope getting tighter, and tighter, around our necks. We’re still strong and innocent, in your pesky hearings game. What DON’T we feel? We don’t feel shame.

Lots of things, we have done. We are still, in POWER. That shows we’ve done nothing wrong in any way shape or form, ha ha. You GLOWER.

We will never-ever feel SHAME. Never ever ever. To us, it’s a great-big GAME. We never ever-feel-any shame.

No other government’s the same. Biden failed the world. He was soft and lazy, and lame. We’ll put a tariff on his name. There is absolutely nothing about which, we feel shame.

Featured

Weapons of Math Destruction

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Book of the Week is “Weapons of Math Destruction, How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy” by Cathy O’Neil, first published in 2016.

This hodgepodge of a volume pointed out the dangers of Big Data, whose name has been changed to AI. The software that collects data and does number-crunching that results in harm– the author calls “weapons of math destruction” or WMDs. Since the book’s writing, ALL aspects of Americans’ lives have been taken over by AI. The author provided several real-life examples of groupthink and herd mentality that has led to a toxic loop of self-deception and cluster-screwups.

The three elements of WMDs are: damage, scaling and opacity.

In software engineering, the cliche, “Garbage in, garbage out” means that a flawed process that generates inaccurate data (garbage) will result in an end-product of inaccurate data (garbage). When AI models collect data on a small number of people, and those data are extrapolated to an entire applicable population (“scaling”), there can be honest ineptitude or even malice; numerous additional people’s lives can be adversely affected. The software models used are opaque because they are considered trade secrets or intellectual property. Of course, maximizing profits is the number one goal of AI makers.

The author discussed the subprime mortgage crisis that resulted in the 2008 financial crash. In 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed. The repeal allowed banks to enter the securities business. The securities-ratings services went hog-wild in their quest to collect huge fees from banks, labeling high-risk securities as the opposite of what they really were, while the banks bet against the very same securities they’d sold to their customers.

These perpetrators poisoned the well for everyone, so that new laws were enacted that made it more expensive for financially responsible, law-abiding people to apply for mortgages going forward.

In the 2010’s, students in Zhongxiang in China were slated to take the national standardized university entrance exam. There had been a crackdown on cheating. Approximately two thousand students protested outside their school, shouting “We want fairness. There is no fairness if you don’t let us cheat.”

American politics is currently witnessing this kind of unmitigated lawlessness and hubris. It waxes and wanes through decades, but now it is more extreme than ever because:

  • Since the 2008 financial crash, the profiteers’ wealth has been compounding, which has increased its power, as money is power.
  • The “president” (who some would argue is a dictator) is entrenched with the legal system.
  • Previous administrations were neither as litigious nor as driven to stay in power forever by rigging everything (including but far from limited to: a blood-for-oil war, insider trading, redistricting, launching smear campaigns against all enemies, sweetheart contracts with political donors, etc., etc., etc.).

Here is one last example of how poor Americans were the victims of expensive stupidity: Between 2013 and 2015, a deeply flawed AI system that screened unemployment-benefits recipients in the state of Michigan, wrongly accused 93% of the recipients of waste, fraud or abuse.

Read the book to learn about many more examples of the Orwellian juggernaut AI has become.

Featured

White House Fraternity – BONUS POST

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

This is a song for all law-abiding Americans. Don’t hesitate to show that you still believe in democracy.

WHITE HOUSE FRATERNITY

sung to the tune of “The Addams Family” TV theme song, with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

They’re sleazy evil criers, mysterious deniers. They’re altogether liars. The White House Fraternity.

The House is a greedfest for ’em, with a shrinking Congressional quorum. It’s impossible to ignore ’em. The White House Fraternity.

Beat. Cheat. Wall Street.

So vote out the corrupt leeches. Ignore the cliched speeches. We’ll correct the contract breaches of the White House Fraternity.

Featured

Freefall, A True Story

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Book of the Week is “Freefall, A True Story” by William Hoffer and Marilyn Mona Hoffer, published in 1989. The authors told a suspenseful story of a July 1983 Air Canada Boeing 767 flight that went awry. The authors caught the human interest element of the story as well, revealing biographical information on the passengers so that the reader would relate to and sympathize with the characters.

“Four more insistent beeps sounded, disrupting conversation. The cockpit was assailed by eerie warning buzzers and foreboding color-coded lights alerting them to a series of problems escalating in severity.”

As is well known, commercial aviation is an industry especially fraught with danger. There are always multiple causes for disasters. Flight 143 ran into trouble for the following reasons:

  • The Boeing model 767 had been launched only three months before, so workers had yet to work out all its kinks and update its three different flight manuals.
  • The plane’s different flight-related measurements used a mix of the metric system and the imperial system, so there was confusion, and there were miscalculations.
  • The Canadian agency that regulated commercial aviation allowed cockpit-visitors, who might be a distraction to the plane crew.
  • There were miscommunications among the pilots, the flight staff, and a myriad of workers who maintained the plane.
  • Air traffic controllers were still using the outdated system of “primary radar” at Winnipeg’s airport.
  • A delay on the first leg of the flight due to a mechanical problem, a malfunctioning of the plane’s movie projector in the rear cabin, and undercooked food, resulted in additional stresses for the pilots, crew and passengers.
  • The airline’s workers were always under time-pressure every flight, as time is money. Their employer lost money every time there was a delay, so they rushed their assessment of the situation.
  • The airline’s cost-cutting measures meant two pilots had to do the work of three. The workers who were tasked with different jobs spoke English and / or French so there could easily have been something lost in translation, and cultural clashes.

Read the book to learn the fate of the people on the plane and on the ground.

Featured

He Parties Hard – BONUS POST

Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

As is well known, FBI head Kash Patel has been accused of wasting American taxpayers’ money on luxury vehicles and pleasure trips. Here’s a song about that.

HE PARTIES HARD WITH YOUR MONEY

sung to the tune of “She Works Hard for the Money” with apologies to the Estate of Donna Summer and to whomever else the rights may concern.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right.

Flying in style to see his girlfriend’s band and we wonder where he is. And it infuriates us. He lies about everything. It’s high time, the hour’s at hand, for the prez to let him go. And it’s a real pity, his behavior reflects the status quo.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right.

A year and a half has come and gone and we’ve seen his shenanigans. Most FBI agents really resent his presence there. It’s interagency rivalry with the DOJ every day for luxury perks and frat-boy play. It’s worth the risk. He lives for today. He doesn’t CARE.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right.

The irony goes, he can’t see his OWN crimes. For a long time, he’s targeting the New YORK Times. More truth will out, it always will. But Americans will foot the bill. He parties hard.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right. Out-of spite.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money, and furthers the agenda of the Right.

He parties hard with your money, so hard with it, honey. He parties hard with your money…

Featured

The World I See

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Book of the Week is “The World I See, Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI” by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, published in 2025. In this wordy volume, the author described her professional and personal lives from the 1980’s through the decades of greatly accelerated computing power to date.

Born in Beijing, China, Li grew up in Chengdu. She and her mother moved to Parsippany, NJ to join her father in 1992. Because she and her parents were immigrants, they were grateful for opportunities to get educated and work in a free society. Thus, they weren’t self-absorbed attention-whores with a sense of entitlement. They worked extremely hard, and still suffered financial hardships. Of course, they got a few lucky breaks that allowed Li to participate in a tech startup.

Meanwhile, AI software can replace the inefficient way the census of the United States is taken. Nowadays, data on people’s cars, indicate all kinds of detailed demographics, including the political leanings of their drivers. On the other hand, there are American citizens who do not own or lease or drive a car. So other data sources would need to count those individuals.

There exist other potential dangers in the new Orwellian economy; fatal ones! A hacker could change just a few pixels of what a self-driving car sees so that it misreads a street sign and causes an accident.

The author became interested in a neural network in which software categorizes and describes graphics, in words. Unfortunately, in the single-digit 2000’s, Li and her colleagues couldn’t compete with other researchers who had monster-sized resources, such as those at Google.

Read the book to learn what became of Li.

Featured

Donors Kissing Up – BONUS POST

Please Note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was not inserted by this blogger and cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

Shoutout to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) for elaborating on the extremely criminal and unethical behavior of the Trump administration. Here’s a song about it.

DONORS KISSING UP

sung to the tune of “The Jeffersons” TV theme song with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

Trump-donors are kissing up, donors kissing up, to this guy, donors kissing up.

Getting tax CUTS and pardons with this guy.

Donors kissing up, donors kissing up, to this guy.

Honest people are sick of his lies.

Innocent-foreigner detentions, impunity, gambling and crypTO. Sweetheart contracts, criminal acts with each quid pro quo.

Now they’re in the big leagues, strongman tactics on tap. As long as he lives, it’s him and his cronies, and everything wrong with that.

Donors kissing up, donors kissing up.

Tax cuts and pardons with this guy, donors kissing up, donors kissing up, to this guy.

Honest people are sick of his li-ies.

Featured

Incognito

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Book of the Week is “Incognito, The Secret Lives of the Brain” by David Eagleman, published in 2011. This hodgepodge of a volume jumped from one subject to another on brain function in connection with: legal issues, technological advances in brain-screening, materialism and reductionism. The author argued that those last two ideologies will never fully explain the world’s most complicated neurological problems because humans are just too complicated.

The term “cognitive reserve” means multiple redundancies of brain power. One who seeks brain challenges throughout his or her life, possesses more of it than someone who doesn’t. An autopsy of the former kind of person might show physical manifestations of senility, but he or she might have had no behavioral symptoms of senility when they were alive.

Someone with “anosognosia” has delusional thinking. He truly believes he’s doing what he’s doing. As is well known, a world leader who has anosognosia can be dangerous.

AI statistics-software (hereinafter referred to as “AI”) in any subject-area of life (including brain-related ones) can generate credible evidence that there is a physical cause for a suspect’s behavior. In the future, this will result in more creative legal arguments to defend criminal-suspects. Physical causes can include genetic mutation, stroke, tumor, or chemical imbalance in the brain, or combination thereof.

Traditionally, elected officials in law enforcement had meted out punishment or ordered rehabilitation for a perpetrator, pursuant to the views of political donors. BUT, the predictive power of AI is ushering in a new era of sentencing-guidelines (that proves what works in reducing recidivism) based on numerical data rather than on the biased, unduly-influenced opinions of psychiatrists and parole-board members.

However, there is the danger that a hacker, or disgruntled or unduly-influenced employee could still lie with statistics, for their own selfish purposes.

Read the book to learn more about brain function (and dysfunction).

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Totalitarian Dreamin’ – BONUS POST

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It’s deja vu all over again: A skeleton crew of rich white men currently runs the show in the United States, just as it did in colonial times. Here’s a song about the individual (Trump) who is clogging the courts with legal cases that will get him the form of government he desires.

TOTALITARIAN DREAMIN’

sung to the tune of “California Dreamin’ ” with apologies to the Mamas and the Papas, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Workers have-been ground DOWN, have been ground down. And Trump’s flunkies aim-to-please. I’ve been DIS-tressed for a while, by what I see, by what I see. I’d be safe and calm, be safe and calm, if I were in a democracy, if I were in a democracy.

TO-talitarian, totalitarian dreamin’, by the GOP.

Tried to vote in a school, in the primary. Well, I was stopped by an agent of ICE, and was asked for ID, and was asked for ID. AI intrusive and oversold, but it’s here to stay, it’s here to stay. TO-talitarian, totalitarian dreamin’, by the GOP.

Workers have-been ground DOWN, have been ground down. And Trump’s flunkies aim-to-please. I’ve been DIS-tressed for a while, by what I see, by what I see.

Two more years in the CELLar, two more years in the CELLar, I am grieving today, I am grieving today.

TO-talitarian, totalitarian dreamin’, by the GOP.

TO-talitarian, totalitarian dreamin’, by the GOP.

TO-talitarian, totalitarian dreamin’, by the GOP.

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Peter the Great

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The Book of the Week is “Peter the Great, His Life and World” by Robert K. Massie, originally published in 1980. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author recounted in great detail, from the mid-1600’s to the first quarter of the 1700’s: the territorial conquests of various European countries’ leaders with their infantry, artillery, cavalry and navies, including those of Tsar Peter of Russia; the book’s title was thus misleading.

Russian Tsar Alexis’ wife died giving birth to their fourteenth child in March 1669. In February 1671, the tsar, at forty-one, found another wife. She, nineteen, was raised by a foster royal-family whose wealth and power rivaled the first wife’s. In May 1672, she gave birth to Peter. The tsar died of illness when Peter was three and a half.

Peter’s older sister Sophia became Peter’s regent, a surrogate tsar, until Peter was old enough to lead Russia. There ensued a power struggle for which heir would become tsar, as the other two candidates had health issues. Peter eventually became co-tsar with his older half-brother Ivan. Sophia had military protection from the Streltsy, about twenty thousand soldiers. She was a power-grabber, and for her time and place, afforded opportunities and a well-rounded education unusual for her gender.

When Peter was fourteen, he formed an army of about six hundred of his peers, called the Preobrazhensky Regiment. They were trained and paid like real soldiers. He acquired battle-smarts, rather than academic smarts. His mother hoped to produce a male heir to increase his family’s power, by marrying him off. She also felt the need to rein him in, as he was off learning the design and carpentry of warship-building instead of following protocol by attending royal ceremonies. His arranged marriage took place in January 1689.

At the dawn of the 1700’s, Peter imposed a draconian policy of a mandatory twenty-five years of military service for all young men. By June 1701, one quarter of all the church bells in Russia had been melted down to be used to make cannon because time was too short to refine new metals for arms-making. After the Russians defeated the Swedes in Poltava, many nations tried to curry favor with Russia.

In winter 1711, Peter considered himself the liberator of the Balkan Christians. He tried to solicit the assistance of soldiers of various religions to fight the Muslim Ottomans in Arabia. After losing that war, he transferred his military resources from the Black Sea region to the Baltic Sea, trying to preserve his namesake city, St. Petersburg, at all costs.

Read the book to learn about the shifting alliances and wars among and between Peter’s Russians, the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian Cossacks, Swedes, Danes, Saxons, Poles, Hanoverians, Prussians, French, Scottish, etc.

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Different Jokes – BONUS POST

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To all you comedians out there, thank you for getting us through this difficult presidency. Here’s a little song that explains the American entertainment situation.

DIFFERENT JOKES

sung to the tune of the TV theme song (the original) “Diff’rent Strokes” with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

Well, Americans won’t-long apPROVE, of elitists and-a-prez who’s dumb.

When the Right screws the poor, they screw everyone.

Trump acts like a slumlord, he’s a man of means. He’s mocked as a buffoon, while there are serious scenes.

But we’ve got, different jokes, it takes, different jokes, it takes, different jokes, to move the world.

The United States has an exceptional story. Entertainers are always in your face.

The internet and idiot box, cause brain rot. So what? They cheer us. They give us hope. It’s an infinite space.

And together we’ll start over.

It takes, different jokes, it takes, different jokes, it takes, different jokes to move the world.

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My World – BONUS POST

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As is well known, AI software is the conduit through which Trump’s shenanigans are conveyed. His handlers let him be chief spokesman so that HE alone gets blamed for all the nation’s problems. BUT Trump has dementia, so anonymous bad actors are actually to blame! They carry out his alleged orders to besmirch his name forever in the history books.

This will continue until Trump has irreversible cessation of vital body functions.

Infuriatingly for many people, not much will change even after that, because mostly rich white men will still rule the United States; they have been doing so since the country’s founding.

The media network FOX will continue to try to “put lipstick on this pig.” Here’s what AI is singing on Trump’s behalf.

MY WORLD

sung to the tune of “My Girl” with apologies to Smokey Robinson, The Temptations and to whomever else the rights may concern.

I hear LIBerals-whine, in this prosperous day.

When you’re on my side, I keep our foes at bay.

I rest and play, and I always get my way.

My world, my world, my world, doubling down in my world. MY world.

I’ve got so much money, Bibi envies me.

I get to stay on top because no one wants anarchy.

Well, I rest and play, and I always get my way. My world, my world, my world. Doubling down in my world. My world.

I always need honeys, and fortune and fame. I’ve made all the riches lately, one man can claim.

Well, I rest and play, and I always get my way. My world, my world, my world. Doubling down in my world. My world.

I’m superior to JFK in my world. I’ve always won every game in my world. Doubling down, doubling down. My world, woo, my world. That’s all anyone can talk about is my world…

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I Have You, Maine – BONUS POST

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As the United States heads for an economy of Jimmy Carter’s administration, it’s midterms time again. Candidates from all different states have all different brands. The ones who profess to be religious, must be careful not to engage in tax evasion in connection with their religion, while candidates who are fixtures in their states must not be complacent. U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) is one of the latter. Here’s what she should sing.

I HAVE YOU, MAINE

sung to the tune of “I Got You Babe” with apologies to the Estate of Sonny Bono, Cher and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Platner’s got skeletONS, he’s gone low, said he had PTSD, SOME time ago.

Well, I don’t know if all that’s true, but you have me, and Maine, I have you.

Maine, I have you, Maine. I have you, Maine.

They say I’ve got a liberal bent, but I patiently listen to YOUR every lament.

Well, so the earth’s getting hot. I’m keeping Maine, a cool vacation spot.

Maine, I have you, Maine. I have you, Maine.

I’m mature, in compromi-SING. Serving you well, is my thing. And when I can, I make policy sound. And when it’s time to vote, I’m always around.

There are good reasons I’ve been here so long. With your help, we can keep Maine going strong.

So keep my perfect attendance in mind.

I fear neither bullies not haters. I’m in my prime.

Maine, I have you, Maine. I have you, Maine.

To my constituents, I lend a hand. I’m egalitarian, you understand.

We see so much hypocrisy. I want us to keep democracy.

I help you sleep at night. I honestly do what I think is right.

I have you, I won’t let go. I keep fighting for you, you know.

I have you, Maine.

I have you, Maine.

I have you, Maine.

I have you, Maine.

I have you, Maine.

I have you, Maine…

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Timebends, A Life

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The Book of the Week is “Timebends, A Life” by Arthur Miller, published in 1987.

Born in 1915 in New York City, Arthur Miller was an internationally famous playwright best known for Death of A Salesman and The Crucible.

Miller commented that in 1932, ordinary Americans were out of money and hope, and the Republicans were out of ideas. In 1952, the Republicans were extremely furious that the Democrats had had a stranglehold on the American government for twenty years. Miller was a participant in an informal think tank of intellectuals– academics, writers and artists, and as was common for the time– who were also heavy drinkers and smokers. They were at wits’ end trying to counter the overwhelming, vicious anti-Communist propaganda of the political Right.

In 1948, Miller and his friend, an Italian attorney, met the mafioso Lucky Luciano in Sicily. In exchange for having three cartons of American cigarettes taken from them, Miller and his guide got a free road-tour of the island. Curiously, at every gas station, their driver wasn’t charged for fuel, either.

In the early 1950’s, Miller tried psychoanalysis, which was the latest thing among deep thinkers like himself. However, he gave it up, as he feared that digging too deeply into his subconscious might curb his creativity, which would mean the loss of his livelihood.

The [U.S. government’s] House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) maximized its power to terrorize all Americans by convincing them that Communists were conspiring to take over the country. BUT the Communist Party had been legal in the 1930’s and 1940’s– the period when the accused had allegedly been associated with it, or knew those associated with it. In many cases, by the end of the 1940’s, the accused had shed their ties to it, so at the time allegations surfaced in the 1950’s– there was no illegality. Even the accused who were actually guilty, were denied due process.

Besides, in the United States, the Communist Party and its front had had mostly Socialist, not Communist goals. There was, and still remains so much ignorance about the two ideologies. In this blog, do a keyword search for “Communist” and “Socialist” to become informed.

Miller forgave Hollywood-director Elia Kazan for naming names of alleged Communists he’d interacted with when HUAC pressured him into doing so. Miller argued that if Kazan had not caved, his career would have been ruined, so he wouldn’t have made any more emotionally moving movies with socially valuable messages; the same way some politicians who make ethically difficult choices by voting on legislation that will harm their constituents, are doing it to get reelected so that they may continue to do more good for their constituents in the long run.

On the other hand, in recent decades, laws have been changed to make excessively unethical behavior legal. So most of the disgusting behavior of America’s leaders is lawful, regardless of the leaders’ unconscionable greed and hubris. One ray of hope indicating that the United States still has democracy, is that it still has two political parties– one to rein in the other.

Read the book to learn a lot more about Arthur Miller’s life and times, generally a rerun of earlier times.

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I’ve Done Nothing Wrong – BONUS POST

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See this blog’s post “King of the Club” to understand how most U.S. Congress members misbehave. The U.S. Congress members who haven’t been complaining about the corruption of the U.S. government all along, but are suddenly grandstanding on ethics now, are all phonies!

They are jealous that they haven’t gotten away with everything Trump has ducked punishment for. In his dementia, Trump continues to spout insensitive, inflammatory nonsense– which the media is provocatively reporting, to get ratings. Here’s what Trump is singing, and has always sung.

I’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG

sung to the tune of “I Write the Songs” with apologies to Barry Manilow and to whomever else the rights may concern.

I’ll be your leader forever, and I’ve done the very best job.

I put the terms and deals together. I am super-rich, and I’ve done nothing wrong.

I’ve done nothing wrong and I make whole-world peace.

I’ve done nothing wrong and my miracles never cease.

I’m proud to say I made young girls cry.

I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve done nothing wrong.

My name lies deep in MAGA, and I’ll forever be in America’s soul.

Now you’ll look out through my eyes. We’re great again, because I’ve been bold.

I’ve done nothing wrong and I make whole-world peace.

I’ve done nothing wrong and my miracles never cease.

I’m proud to say I made young girls cry.

I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve done nothing wrong.

My court cases make me rant, but I get along great with Vance.

Democrats talk cock-and-bull, so you should boo.

Money is my life. Who cares about my wife?

It’s for me. It’s for me. It’s for me. It’s for me.

So exonerate me, speedily!

I’ve done nothing wrong and I make whole-world peace.

I’ve done nothing wrong and my miracles never cease.

I’m proud to say I made young girls cry.

I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve done nothing wrong.

I’ve done nothing wrong and I make whole-world peace.

I’ve done nothing wrong and my miracles never cease.

I’m proud to say I made young girls cry.

I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve done nothing wrong.

I am perfect, and I’ve done nothing wrong.

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Never on Sunday – BONUS POST

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When American playwright Arthur Miller visited China (a one-Party state) in 1978, he commented, “…the Party is the people and cannot oppress itself, and therefore there is no need for lawyers or the Western idea of a separate body of professionals to protect the innocent.”

In these interesting times, the U.S. has shifted to the extreme end of the spectrum– a large number of guilty people have been protected. Societal breakdown is occurring because white-collar criminality has become the new normal. Unlike in 1974, in 2026: The United States Supreme Court is corrupt. The “Nixon” figure (Trump) hasn’t been shamed into resigning, and his cronies aren’t kicking him out.

The only punishment Trump has ever received for crimes in his lifetime has been fining. Neither job loss nor jail time. Fining is hardly a deterrent to bad behavior for someone of his ilk.

So it will take decades longer than it did fifty years ago– to right the ship this time.

In the meantime, Democrats should start to practice what they preach. When they regain sufficient power, they need to get their regulatory game on. It is likely that in 2028, the American people will elect another saintly president like Jimmy Carter, because they are sick of the sinner Donald Trump, who considers himself a saint. The macho men who wish they could get away with what Trump did, are now blaming him for their own personal problems, because he broke his campaign promises.

In connection therewith, this is what U.S. senatorial candidate James Talarico (D-TX) is singing to his opponent Ken Paxton (R-TX).

ON SUNDAY

sung to the tune of “Never on Sunday” with apologies to The Chordettes and to whomever else the rights may concern.

We saw your felony on money-day, on money-day, on money-day, which wasn’t very good.

And we saw your bribery on Tuesday, on Tuesday, on Tuesday, as we knew we would.

And we saw you bailed out on Wednesday, on Thursday, your unfaithfulness on Saturday, no less.

But I won’t oppose-you on Sunday, on Sunday, on Sunday, ’cause that’s my day of rest.

All my days, as you might have guessed, I love thy neighbor, and my day of rest.

I’m anti-billionaire, in my democracy quest.

I’m a Ron Howard-lookalike, in this political contest.

I’m staying moral on a school day, a holiday, a Wednesday, whichever day you choose.

We saw your greedy play, in your heyday, on a payday, and that’s what I refuse.

You were bailed out on a bleak day, a dark day, a weak day, at GOP’s behest.

I won’t oppose you on a Sunday, a Sunday, the one day, I need a little rest.

You were bailed out on a bleak day, a dark day, a weak day, at GOP’s behest.

I won’t oppose you on a Sunday, a Sunday, the one day, I need a little rest.

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I Watch Fox – BONUS POST

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As is well known, the integrity of the United States is in decline, due to human-rights violations and corruption. Outing perpetrators by naming names might deter American officials from lying, cheating and stealing in the future. A few current perpetrators with conflicts (stock profiteers) include:

  • Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA)
  • Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX)
  • Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK)
  • Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI)
  • Rep Joseph Gottheimer (D-NJ)
  • Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and
  • Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

Google seems to be anti-Irish on those Republicans. Anyway, the manipulation of behavioral economics for evil, requires that there be messengers to help the ringleader / strongman acquire power and stay in power. Fox-TV personalities such as Sean Hannity, Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters fit the bill. While “paying their dues” they themselves must behave like strongmen– making high-powered contacts with whom they exchange favors throughout their careers.

In connection therewith, this Bertrand Russell quote cannot be repeated enough:

“There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.”

American leaders can’t admit to themselves how much they’re damaging our democracy. See this blog’s post, “In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz” to note the similarities between the Congo’s kleptocracy of 1997 and the United States’ kleptocracy of 2026.

Here’s a song about it– what Trump is singing.

I WATCH FOX AND TROLL ALL NIGHT

sung to the tune of “Rock and Roll All Night” with apologies to KISS and to whomever else the rights may concern.

A Google search of “KISS songs” omits this song in the search-results because it’s a bad influence on America’s youths.

I’ll never SHOW you everything I’ve got. I keep on ranting about getting shot.

I drive liberals wild. My record’s amazing.

I am the one who makes the world spin. My party’s just begun to win, win, win.

I drive liberals wild. My record’s amazing.

They keep on pouting. They keep on pouting.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I know you know I’m your prez for all time.

We’re great again, and I’m in my prime.

I drive liberals wild. My record’s amazing.

I’ll never SHOW you everything I’ve got.

I am great, and it’s quite a lot, and I drive liberals wild. My record’s amazing.

They keep on pouting. They keep on pouting.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

I watch Fox and troll all night, and profit every day.

$ $ $

American playwright Arthur Miller wrote that there was uncertainty as to whether the United States could recover from the Great Depression which was plaguing the country when he was in his teens. In those days, though, Americans blamed themselves for their own personal problems.

There was a lot less scapegoating, litigiousness, and self-absorbed attention whoredom than now. Only white men had a sense of entitlement then.

So, how can the United States recover from its latest bout of capitalist excesses?

Well, there but for the grace of science and cooperation was the United States able to recover from the Great Depression, to become the powerhouse it became. Science has:

  • fueled vaccines, drugs and quantum leaps in medicine;
  • helped create the atomic bomb that curtailed the Second World War;
  • helped win the Space Race against the Soviets;
  • fueled Silicon Valley’s innovations.

So, the United States must reverse the anti-science, anti-intellectual, divisive agenda of the Republicans.

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The Dark Pattern

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WARNING: LONG POST

The Book of the Week is “The Dark Pattern, The Hidden Dynamics of Corporate Scandals” by Guido Palazzo and Ulrich Hoffrage, published in 2025. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the authors listed the various goings-on that inevitably lead to a scandal at a big-name corporation. They cite several real-life examples such as Theranos, Boeing and Uber.

Although the authors have European names and do college-level teaching in Switzerland, this book covered American companies and reflected the American mentality. It is difficult, if not impossible to fact-check propaganda spouted by American companies because they manipulate the media.

Prior to the scandal, the media crow about how the CEO is doing a great job in enriching the company’s shareholders. Leadership (that is toxic and heading for trouble but the public doesn’t know it) is enhancing shareholder value (yay!). Until it isn’t. After breaking news of the scandal, the media pile on about the company’s seamy underbelly that led to the failure.

Scandals erupt again and again due to human nature– fear and greed are the two major motivators that cause most of the trouble in the world. Moral failure gradually occurs on a colossal scale throughout the organization, because if it really were only a “few bad apples” there wouldn’t be a scandal. Here’s how it happens.

A large number of employees are eventually brainwashed into rationalizing away their bad behavior, through:

  • ethical shift (baby steps which gradually take one down an unethical path, until matters come to a head; breaking one taboo makes it easier to break more of them);
  • pluralistic ignorance (getting influenced by how others react in an unclear situation);
  • evaluation apprehension (fear of getting publicly judged for speaking up);
  • bystander effect (not reporting bad behavior because one thinks others will do it);
  • euphemistic labeling;
  • what-about-ism;
  • minimizing, ignoring or misconstruing the consequences;
  • dehumanizing the victims to make it easier to harm them.

The human resources department covers the employer’s legal ass by establishing an “ethics hotline” for employees. It is a joke because employees are reporting the bad behavior of their bosses to the very perpetrators of that bad behavior! The bosses will be vengeful– harassing those employees, shutting them up, or firing them.

When interdepartmental rivalry within the company is taken to the extreme, one of two things happen: the company has a scandal, or a group of workers will leave to form a company that competes against their former employer.

The usual cliches apply: The fish rots from the head down; if the truth makes you angry, you’re living a lie; and just another case of the fox guarding the henhouse.

Anger from perceived unfairness will lead to additional vicious office-gossip, and an even more hostile work environment.

Excessive greed led to: 346 deaths in two plane crashes in 2018 and 2019; attendant trauma, lawsuits, hearings; a few heads’ rolling; an attempt to move on, so as to forget all that unpleasantness. Never mind learning from it.

Such was the case with Boeing, whose CEO James McNerney, made approximately $290 million between 2001 and 2016.

Boeing was aware of its software bugs in its plane mechanics. It was cutting costs to the bone in the name of profit. It deemed training pilots in a simulator or in the actual upgraded plane, too expensive.

Boeing also forgot to tell the FAA about that issue. The understaffed, underfunded FAA (a federal agency which is supposed to regulate airline safety) changed its language and became besties with Boeing. “By 2018, Boeing already certified a stunning 96% of their own work [doing the FAA’s job.]”

Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos was a spellbinder, and became a cult leader. She was able to fund her pipe dream because her family and friends were wealthy. The social networks of the wealthy, trust one another even when they lack direct knowledge of a technical subject, such as medicine or investing (like with Bernie Madoff), so they throw their money at the opportunity, blinded by greed.

Uber slapped the new name “gig economy” on an old idea, but became successful because the concept was ready for the technology of the times. The problem was, Uber’s purely libertarian culture got it into legal trouble. A corporate culture of pure libertarianism means zero-sum, cut-throat competition. One independent-contractor’s gain means another’s loss.

After the fact, there is: displacement of responsibility and blaming the victim.

Read the book to learn additional lingo of psychology describing more details of the above, and about other corporate scandals.

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Fear-and-Force – BONUS POST

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WARNING: LONG POST

Collectively, idealists are making progress. But there’s counter-intelligence (sic).

No one really knows who is winning the AI propaganda war.

Nonetheless, here’s a quick summary of fear-and-force atrocities: currently, of 20 to 25 years ago, and 52 to 57 years ago, that have or had a negative psychological and / or physical effect on millions of (not just Americans’) lives.

WAR-RELATED

CURRENTLY: Trump and his gang (teaming up with Israeli leader Netanyahu) launched a war against Iran; domestic goon squads are roaming the United States rooting out foreigners, touching off rioting and even more protests in a vicious cycle; not to mention extreme retaliation against anyone on Trump’s enemies list.

20 TO 25 YEARS AGO: Cheney, Bush and their gang (in 2003 teaming up with British leader Blair) launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; there were offshore torture chambers in Guantanamo Bay in which some 500 to 600 Middle Easterners (accused “terrorists”) were detained and denied the previous American version of due process.

52 TO 57 YEARS AGO: Nixon and his gang continued destroying Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; protests stemming from various dissatisfactions among Americans, and political assassinations, touched off rioting and even more protests in a vicious cycle; not to mention: extreme retaliation against anyone on Nixon’s enemies list, and the Damocles sword of conscription hanging over every American male– teenage or older, and his family.

COMMUNICATIONS

CURRENTLY: There is electronic surveillance everywhere, 24/7 of very nearly all Americans, plus instantaneous communications of propaganda. Trump has touched off an orgy of litigation regarding “free speech.”

20 TO 25 YEARS AGO: Computing power had yet to reach its peak, so that Big Brother apparatus and assembly of spying infrastructure had yet to be completed.

52 TO 57 YEARS AGO: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and his gang created and tried to maintain an overwhelming number of physical files (or dossiers)– with typewriters, on paper– an extremely inefficient system. Nixon, in controlling the FCC, attempted to intimidate the leaders of the limited number of communications outlets across the United States. He got mixed results. Nixon himself was the one who wanted to record all audio goings-on in the Oval Office. For posterity.

ENVIRONMENTALISM / HEALTHCARE

CURRENTLY: Hypocrisy and greed rule the United States. Unfortunately, cancer treatment is more lucrative than cancer-risk minimization.

20 TO 25 YEARS AGO: Hypocrisy and greed ruled the United States. Unfortunately, cancer treatment was more lucrative than cancer-risk minimization.

52 TO 57 YEARS AGO: A few “Cassandras” were telling the world about disasters, past, present and future, eventually spawning a movement. Yet politicians know that raising taxes (even if warranted in order to pay for an ounce of prevention– to minimize damage from an inevitable future “Hurricane Katrina” type disaster) will get them voted out of office. So they don’t raise taxes. They just hope a Katrina doesn’t happen on their watch.

IN GENERAL, CURRENTLY

All previous abuses of United States politics have become concentrated in one big, excessive system of dishonesty, hypocrisy, greed, incompetence, chaos, etc.; some of which will dissipate or turn around. Time will tell how soon. The turnaround will happen in baby steps. In connection therewith, one baby step is the election of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. The smear campaign against him shows he’s a good threat to the status quo. Here’s a song that elaborates on that.

THE COMMIE-MUSLIM

sung to the tune of “The Loco-Motion” [the original version] with apologies to Estate of Gerry Goffin, and Carole King, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Fox is doing the same old rant now.

C’mon haters, boo the Commie-Muslim.

They’ll turn-you against Mamdani, with his tax-the-rich stance now.

C’mon haters, boo the Commie-Muslim.

The little scared minds boo him with ease.

It’s easier than checking facts to see-him SINcerely.

So come on, come on, boo the Commie-Muslim dumbly.

You gotta ask specific questions now. Come on haters.

Hurry up. Talk back. Oh well, critical-thinking is what you lack.

You’re so quick to boo him, let’s play “telephone” now.

C’mon haters, boo the Commie-Muslim.

But-but Jeff Bezos’ actions are well known now.

C’mon haters, boo the Commie-Muslim.

The rich will leave New York now, it’s out of control.

With Fox’s provocation, this line gets old.

So come on, come on, boo the Commie-Muslim dumbly.

He’s got Hochul’s approval, that Commie-Muslim.

C’mon haters, boo the Commie-Muslim.

His big plans have got Democrats buzzin’.

C’mon haters, boo the Commie-Muslim.

Fox always has a rant that’s easy to do.

It’s fun to smear Mamdani. He hates the Jews.

So come on, come on, boo the Commie-Muslim dumbly.

C’mon, boo the Commie-Muslim. C’mon, boo the Commie-Muslim. C’mon, boo the Commie-Muslim…

Featured

This Is for Everyone

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

WARNING: LONG POST

The Book of the Week is “This Is for Everyone, The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web” by Tim Berners-Lee (hereinafter referred to as TBL), published in 2025. In this hodgepodge / bragfest / advertisement for his company’s services, the author (who has bragging rights only insofar as the World Wide Web was his idea) recounted how he actually helped change the world. Americans might balk at the English mentality of TBL. He constantly claimed that the internet should not be a profit-seeking entity, but at the same time, he was woefully naive in saying that the capitalistic side-effects of it that are evil, can be reversed.

IT IS ALWAYS TOO LATE TO REGULATE ANY TRENDING TECHNOLOGY BECAUSE ITS NEGATIVE EFFECTS AREN’T SEEN UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!

The author came across as an idealist, one of three kinds of major world-influencers. The other two are the pragmatist, and the strongman. The first kind is like Bernie Sanders– generous to a fault, desirous of creating a utopian world. The next is like Barack Obama– acknowledges the reality that there are haters and evildoers who will “poison the well” in their misdirected rage. So he picks his battles and compromises with the angry nasty haters, etc., BUT– he’s a peacenik, not a pacifist– until the tide can be reversed. The strongman kind is well known; his initials are DJT.

TBL was born in London in 1955. He related a (rather fanciful– to the reader) anecdote about how the Web could educate people in all different countries. In the early 2010’s, a centuries-old farming technique used in the African country of Burkina Faso was translated into various languages and put on video on the Web when an NGO gave a farmer a smart phone.

Other farmers in his area, and as far away as Mali and Niger allegedly learned the technique from him. The reclaimed land (which was thought too arid to be farmed) provided enough food to nourish an estimated three million people. The reader might ask: Over the decades, why haven’t NGO’s helped farmers in that region, albeit a little less efficiently, prior to that??

One answer might be, that nations in Africa have the same kinds of problems as those of Haiti, in terms of feeding their people [See this blog’s post, “Haiti After the Earthquake”].

Anyway, in describing how he pushed for his idea of the World Wide Web, TBL was far from comprehensive in naming specific entities and people that and who were major influencers along the way; among the omitted: ICANN, Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Julian Assange, Loebner Prize, WHOIS.com, etc.

TBL repeatedly circled back to “Solid” which is his company, that sells a “pod” based on his idea of a kind of electronic account that links ALL personal data– financial, medial and whatever else an individual user wants to keep there. Yes, it’s maximally efficient and the user has full control over all privacy settings. BUT it’s at high risk for maximally efficient theft of ALL personal data– financial, medical and whatever else the individual user is keeping there! No social engineering required.

Sooner or later, there will be a disgruntled or incompetent employee at Solid, who will not even need to be a hacker!! Even secure servers, obviously, wouldn’t prevent the data from disappearing in the event of a Crowdstrike (honest ineptitude) type crash.

Solid is going to end up like Bitcoin. It was created for the Silicon Valley set, and will spread to their family and friends, and perhaps to a few ordinary Americans, because TBL is more concerned about privacy and efficiency than security. Americans are hyper-aware of all three. Further, when TBL was asked whether Ed Snowden was a hero or a villain, he said hero. So even when the world was made aware of the US and UK governments’ abuses regarding spying with software, no watchdog groups changed Big Brother’s behavior. In fact, it got worse.

Another cringeworthy electronic service the author also described, was a chatbot named Charlie. The author provided a sample conversation between Charlie and a user, in which Charlie was condescending. The author described the negative psychological effects of evil social media, but also (blissfully unaware of his hypocrisy) proudly proclaimed that everyone should have a personal AI friend like Charlie.

One way AI is making positive medical advances is in diagnoses of patients. The software is more accurate than human doctors. It has multiple regression analysis behind it– statistics handled by software that, in the past would have taken humans years to calculate by hand for diagnosing one patient!

Additionally, TBL discussed the newest version of chat rooms or forums, in which there are rules for civil discourse. Good luck with that, all. Perhaps moderators can keep the peace in user-discussions, but governments can’t regulated users’ behavior or user-related policies set forth by the companies on the internet. They’re global 24/7.

There is no global government. The UN comes close, and it’s better than nothing, at attempting to keep the world civil. What the US government can regulate is business-related crimes that deal with anti-trust issues, financial and securities matters and data breaches. The trouble is, politicians financially benefit from lack of regulation of the internet companies, as the companies are political donors.

Read the book to learn much more about entities, people, issues and controversies in connection with the Web’s evolution, including but far from limited to: the Web Foundation; intellectual property rights; deepfakes; and lest it be forgotten, 23andMe’s bankruptcy filing in 2025 when the data ownership question reared its ugly head yet again.

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Nothing Random / In the Ring – BONUS POST

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WARNING: VERY, VERY LONG POST

The first Bonus Book of the Week is “Nothing Random, Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built” by Gayle Feldman, published in 2026. Ironically, the writing in this tome was awkward and contained bad grammar in certain spots. Anyway, the author recounted the U.S. book industry of a bygone era– a decades-long saga typical for a business run by alpha males with clashing egos.

The reader might recall that prior to the internet, publishing a physical book required months and months of advance preparation, involving what would now be considered a bloated staff. The publishing personnel took pride in their work, and truly cared about doing quality work. It wasn’t all about the big dollar sign as it is nowadays.

In summer 1963, author Ayn Rand, on contract with publisher Random House, was writing a book of essays, one of which was super-controversial. Rand contended that JFK was fascistic, supporting her arguments by quoting the president, showing how he sounded like Hitler and Goering. She truly believed that the most prosperous nation would have purely capitalistic economics, and completely libertarian politics. She felt capitalism is a meritocratic system.

But to start with, capitalism requires a government that provides and maintains the systems of a healthy, well-educated workforce. When private entities provide essential services such as healthcare and education, there occurs corruption– because profit-seeking entities favor money over people. Therefore, the government needs to have some socialistic systems in the forms of: financial assistance for certain of its citizens, locally run public schools, public libraries and public transportation, to name a few.

Capitalism is a meritocracy only insofar as there’s no cronyism between the government and business leaders. Pure meritocracy is a fantasy. There is always a certain level of corruption in government, that waxes and wanes with the tenor of the times. This is inevitable due to the greed of human nature. Public-private partnerships are a necessary evil in a democratic society.

So arguably, Rand’s political and economic systems are a recipe for the eventual formation of an oligopolistic oligarchy, run by fighting warlords. Sounds familiar.

One bright spot in today’s sorry state of affairs in America, can be seen in today’s communications environment: This is the Golden Age of Free Speech. The internet has allowed anyone and everyone to have their say if they want to– on social media, or if they get their own website– with no censorship. And no one needs to have great wealth or power anymore, in order to do so.

Read the book to learn much, much, much more about Bennett Cerf’s life and times.

The second Bonus Book of the Week is “In the Ring, The Trials of A Washington Lawyer” by Robert S. Bennett, published in 2008. This wordy volume contained awkward phrasing and bad grammar in certain spots. But it showed how tolerance for criminality in the United States government has skyrocketed.

The huge surge in the demand for white-collar criminal-defense attorneys in recent decades, is one indication. Bennett thought the attorney’s job is to do everything possible short of illegal or unethical behavior, to help save his client’s reputation and freedom. He recounted several legal cases he handled.

One, in 1981, involved U.S. Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr., who– after indisputable evidence of corruption surfaced– was convicted in the ABSCAM scandal. The investigating committee was truly nonpartisan. After the trial, Williams’ fellow senators felt his continued presence compromised the dignity of their government body, and therefore, they were obligated to expel him. Williams eventually resigned. HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

Unethical behavior and criminality have reached such a screaming crescendo that this country’s TOP leader (not simply a senator!) and his cronies are staying in power. And Congress is letting them.

The Democrats are letting the GOP have their way, thinking voters will blame the GOP– as the GOP has a majority in Congress; Democrats think they will win back a lot of seats in the midterm elections. But some voters are angry at the Democrats for looking weak, and not fighting back.

The concentration of power among the billionaires has gotten so extreme, that in the near future, the United States must return to the 1950’s era mentality of: (like the healthcare company ChenMed’s culture) Americans’ expecting to be treated by medical doctors who are trusted family friends; and taxing the rich as the standard, acceptable way of life.

Or else, the United States will continue to devolve into the kleptocracy of a Third World country.

Bennett showed how, when an international incident occurs, there are complicated, incestuous global relationships that require delicate negotiations. In the case of a 1997 Soviet-Georgian diplomat’s drunken-driving accident in Washington, D.C. in which someone died, controversy ensued as to whether the diplomat should have immunity from jail-time or fining. The U.S. could have instead cut off financial aid to Soviet Georgia as punishment. However, retaliatory action could be taken against American diplomats at embassies around the world.

The author wrote, “I have always felt that there was more business for criminal lawyers representing companies when the Republicans were in power rather than the Democrats.”

Anyway, read the book to learn of several additional situations which Bennett felt he handled skillfully, despite his having to deal with alpha males with hubris syndrome, James Bond wannabes, black ops and CIA operatives.

Regarding the aforementioned issues, here’s a song that answers the question: Why are the billionaires keeping Trump in office? It’s what Trump is singing to the few people still working for him.

U.S. of A.

sung to the tune of “Y.M.C.A.” [the album version] with apologies to The Village People and to whomever else the rights may concern.

My men, there’s no need to feel shame. I say, my men, immortalize my name. I say my men, ’cause I rule this great game. There’s no need to ask, am I stopping?

My men, I love making dough. I say my men, here is where you can go. You can stay here. I’ll rule the world for all time, all on the American taxpayers’ dime.

It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A.

It has everything for us men to enjoy. Our PR guys put out the best noise.

It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A.

My pardons will get you clean. I’ll help you lie-cheat-and-steal. The courts favor all our deals.

My men, we get rid of enemies. I say my men, I do cover-ups with ease. I say my men, you must re-district with me, and you build my ballroom, you see.

Oh yes, I must rule by myself. I say my men, I can be a big help. You must be here, in the U.S. of A. ‘Cause it’s my way or the highway.

It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A.

It has everything for us men to enjoy. Our PR guys put out the best noise.

It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A.

My pardons will get you clean. I’ll help you lie-cheat-and-steal. The courts favor all our deals.

My men, I am making world peace. I say my miracles, never ever ever cease.

I know you’re glad, that I am alive. I, the world’s savior have arrived.

Always, my men come up to me. They thank me. I am backed by Wall Street. I give them, to the U.S. of A. I can help myself to its riches every day.

It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A.

It has everything for us men to enjoy. Our PR guys put out the best noise.

U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A.

My men, my men there’s no need to feel shame. I say my men, immortalize my name. I say my men, ’cause I rule this great game.

U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A.

My men, my men, we get rid of enemies. I say my men, I do cover-ups with ease.

U.S. of A. You’ll find me plundering the U.S. of A.

My men, my men, I must rule by myself. I say my men, I can be a big help. Just go to the U.S. of A.

U.S. of A. It’s fun to plunder the U.S. of A…

Featured

The Calling

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The Book of the Week is “The Calling, A Memoir of Family, Faith and the Future of Healthcare” by Dr. Chris Chen and Dr. Gordon Chen, published in 2022. In this wordy, redundant volume, the brother-authors recounted their family’s history.

The Chen brothers, their wives, and their parents have built a successful medical practice of value-based care. They began in South Florida, serving low-income senior citizens in poor health. Their primary-care physicians (formerly called “general practitioners”) are truly passionate about treating their patients as though the patients are their own loved ones.

The family’s business, ChenMed, gets a flat fee from health-insurance companies, rather than a fee per patient. It is up to the practice’s bean-counters to do preventive care to make the business profitable. Arrogant and greedy doctors need not apply to ChenMed.

The doctors do quality over quantity, seeing a maximum of four hundred fifty patients per month. They have maximized the efficiency in their business so that they can spend a lot more time with each individual patient. Initially, they see cardiac patients daily until they get to know them. Of course, there is an emotional toll on the medical personnel when there are inexplicable complications or deaths.

It appears ChenMed has bragging rights– in the last forty years, it has established an impressive presence in the United States. And its monster-sized competition has copied the concept of their business model.

The Chens practice not only medicine, but also Christianity. The family’s patriarch thinks that one who does not believe in a supreme being, does not have a moral compass. Yes, people who have a bible that’s falling apart, usually aren’t. But that doesn’t mean that people who don’t have a bible usually are falling apart. There are plenty of ways other than religion for people to relieve the stresses of daily life, and still behave ethically.

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about the family’s and ChenMed’s backgrounds.

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Scenes From an Orwellian Juggernaut – BONUS POST

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A question for the ages:

How can Americans lower the likelihood of having to suffer through another sucky administration in the future? Stemming the propaganda would help a lot.

It will take decades to reverse the “fake news” trend, but it’s possible. The ways to do it involve lots of learning:

  • The American education system must teach critical thinking— in order to raise awareness of debating, public-speaking and propaganda techniques. In 1914, Oxford professor John Alexander Smith told his students the following: “…if you work hard and intelligently, you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole purpose of education.”
  • Americans must read or listen to a vast quantity of entire books of nonfiction personal accounts written by all different stakeholders with different perspectives of the same historical incident or person or place or institution– and note which information is common to most or all accounts– making that information more likely to be true.
  • Americans must travel to get exposed to the rest of the world– get life-experience in true deprivation and trauma and learn gratitude for their living standards.

In sum, critical thinking, books and exposure to the world are a start. Everyone must reconcile science with religion in their own way, but keep in mind the philosophy, “Better to have unanswered questions than unquestioned answers.”

There are still an infinite number of unanswered questions about the second Trump administration, due to secrecy. However, the following song is a snapshot of the state of affairs in spring 2026.

SCENES FROM AN ORWELLIAN JUGGERNAUT

sung to the tune of “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” with apologies to Billy Joel and to whomever else the rights may concern. Please note: The lyrics in the beginning and end have been omitted because Prez T does not drink alcohol, and he is no longer a teenager. Only the “Brenda and Eddie” segment is relevant.

whoa whoa whoa oh oh oh whoa whoa whoa oh oh

Billionaires and Prez T are the populist steadies and the prez is drama queen of Iran, flying around with their GOP crowd, with their fancy PR on.

No one has more power. Fox is rewriting history by the hour.

We never knew they would take control of our lives.

We’re stuck now, with the prez’s scapegoating, profiteering spies.

whoa whoa whoa oh oh oh whoa whoa whoa oh oh

Billionaires and Prez T are still going steady with their Project 2025.

They’re a mean, greedy bunch of frat boys, still committing crimes.

They smear their foes like crazy.

AI software will make us ridiculously lazy.

Apparently GOP can afford to live that kind of life.

Oh, and the little people can’t wait to bid Prez T goodbye.

oh oh oh oh oh oh

Well the GOP’s losing ground and down for the count but they constantly play on our fears.

Need it be said we’re being led by chuckleheads who waste our tax dollars every year.

Internally they fight against threats to the Right.

They’re nervous as the midterms near.

whoa whoa whoa whoa Spouting cock-and-bull!

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

They got the MAGA minds. Voters missed the strongman signs.

Politics is always the same in the end.

They rule by fear and force as a matter of course, and Americans see Big Brother trends.

Billionaires and Prez T stay on the green but YOU might never go there again.

oh oh oh oh

Billionaires and Prez T are getting a last squeeze of Project 2025.

They’re stooping so low at the end of their show. They’ve messed up our lives.

Dems will no longer be appeasers. Dems have got fewer reactionary geezers.

We’re sure they’ll rise again, by the by.

Oh, and that’s all I’ll say about billionaires and Prez T.

Do expect midterm lies and hypocrisy.

And here we are wishing Prez T would bleep bleep bleep bleep.

whoa whoa whoa oh oh oh whoa whoa whoa oh oh…

Featured

Walter Ralegh

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The Book of the Week is “Walter Ralegh, Architect of Empire” by Alan Gallay, published in 2019. There are alternate spellings of “Ralegh” but the author used this spelling.

In this hodgepodge of a tome, the author recounted the tenor of the times and exploits of the explorer, colonizer and treasure-seeker Walter Ralegh. Around the time Ralegh (born circa 1554), men originally from Spain owned most of the riches of the world. Humphrey Gilbert, Ralegh’s older brother by seventeen years, got permission from Queen Elizabeth of England to go on expeditions in order to steal those riches.

International voyages were dangerous, and use of multi-disciplinary expertise (of mathematics, ship-building and maintenance, cartography, alchemy and medicine, etc.) somewhat reduced the risks involved.

Queen Elizabeth believed she was (the Anglican Church) God’s representative on earth. England had an anti-Catholic bent. So when she funded Ralegh’s trips sailing across the Atlantic to colonize the Eastern Seaboard of North America, he recruited dissidents (who tended to be Catholic) to help him, to get them to leave England and become some other territory’s problem.

The voyages were made at intervals of several years, as they involved planning (data collection of the location of enemies whose ships could be pirated for their cargo), fund-raising, provisioning, recruiting of crew, etc.

Ralegh truly wanted to civilize the natives of foreign shores, but pirating of ships was so much more lucrative. He had thousands of men including his cousin, under his command. Through the decades, they encountered Native Americans when they hit land after their transatlantic voyages. Some expedition leaders ruled by fear and force and provoked violent incidents with them. The land was richly endowed with resources such as seafood and timber, and crops such as maize and tobacco could be grown for a profit. In his thirties, Ralegh named the territory now known as Virginia.

Read the book to learn much, much, much more about Ralegh’s adventures at sea, on land along the coast of North America, southeastern Ireland, and Guiana in South America.

Featured

Shady Donald – BONUS POST

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

As is well known, the United States is in a holding pattern. The billionaires still have yet to get together with the media to schedule Trump’s ousting. Here’s a song about that.

SHADY DONALD

sung to the tune of “Lady Madonna” with apologies to The Beatles and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Shady Donald, billionaires at your feet.

Wonder how you manage to keep your seat.

Who finds the money, when on war, you’re-hellbent.

Do you think your power is heaven-sent?

The far Right has trouble keeping a straight-face.

Sunday morning news shows aren’t fun.

Your messengers are counting down your last days.

Your reign is so done.

Shady Donald, Fox is doing its best, to express phony outrage at your behest.

Your reign is so done.

Shady Donald, lying with no cred.

We all wonder, what’s kicking around in your head.

Tuesday’s backtracking tune is never ending.

Wednesday morning papers leave you numb.

Thursday night your talking-points need amending.

Your reign is so done.

Shady Donald, billionaires at your feet.

Wonder how you manage to keep your seat.

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The Lords of Strategy

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The Book of the Week is “The Lords of Strategy, The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World” by Walter Kiechel III, published in 2010. This wordy, redundant volume showed how: times have changed; capitalism has become leaner and meaner; and in one way, American society has stayed the same since the Era after WWII.

In the 1950’s, the major reasons American companies began to acquire other companies included:

  • Dividends paid by public companies were highly taxed, so instead of paying dividends to shareholders, a growing company that was sitting on a pile of cash would reinvest it by acquiring other companies.
  • There were antitrust laws prohibiting companies from acquiring others in their same industry, so the companies bought others in industries unrelated to their core competencies, or snapped up companies in their supply chain.

By the end of the 1960’s, companies were going bust because, blinded by greed and ego, the stupid corporate executives had no experience in industries unrelated to their own.

In the early 1970’s, management-consultants began to counsel their clients (who mostly manufactured physical products) on strategy. Also, Boston Consulting Group began to advise their consumer-goods clients to engage in deficit financing to grow their businesses. Corporate executives began to adopt an even more greedy mentality. Maximizing shareholder value became their main goal.

The author listed four game-changers of recent decades:

  • deregulation;
  • new technologies including computers, the internet, the maximization of computing power and simultaneous minimization of costs in connection therewith;
  • the way target-companies wised up after the hostile takeover-mania of the 1980’s; and
  • globalization.

As America has switched to a service-oriented economy in the last fifty years or so, the consultants have been forced to pivot to advise clients on human-resources, public-relations and technology. In the early 1980’s, a Harvard Business School professor did a study of senior executives at major U.S. corporations, and found that their game-changing stemmed not from bossing people around or speechifying, but rather, from infinite interactions with their social networks whose relationships they’d been developing over the course of years.

The author commented that when internet use was becoming widespread, there was a brief flirtation with socialistic entities arising from the open-source movement, including but not limited to: the Linux operating system, wikis, BitTorrent, and Napster. But the inclination of the American powers-that-be, to monetize everything, has largely put the kibosh on those.

Generation X and the Millennials have picked up the cudgel of capitalism and it remains to be seen how Gen Z is going to make a living. Having evolved rapidly in the last thirty years, the internet is currently plagued by creative destruction. But not to worry. There will be jobs in national healthcare, geriatrics, building charging-stations for hybrid vehicles, and harnessing renewable energy. Lying politicians (a redundant phrase) will say they “created” those jobs. Don’t vote for those politicians.

On the other hand, it’s deja vu all over again in American society. Nowadays, AI software is replacing consultants because: American management-consultants were mostly elitist, sexist, racist alpha-males in the “old boy network,” and AI software is created mostly by elitist, sexist, racist greedy alpha-males, still in the “old boy network” (but that network is slowly shrinking).

And the stereotypes about the consultants (and now AI software creators) are still true: They’re like seagulls– they fly in, leave a mess, and fly out; they show their clients a line graph that looks like a hockey-stick– that represents how their services will do financial miracles for the clients’ business, but the line graph has no correlation with reality.

Read the book to learn the details.

Featured

Knocking Previous Prezzes – BONUS POST

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As is well known, Trump’s goal is to surpass all previous American presidents– in terms of political retaliation, profiteering and power accumulation. Here’s a song about that.

KNOCKING PREVIOUS PREZZES

sung to the tune of “Takin’ Care of Business” with apologies to Bachman Turner Overdrive, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump’s reversing all before him and ignoring global warming

and has great, great plans for his Party.

He’s supreme in his fakin’. In-that, he’s surpassed Obama and Reagan

in the world, he made topsy-turvy.

He’s committed numerous crimes but never done jail time.

He’s got a heartless, shameless mob to fill his needs.

He’s got his loyal envoys and his militaries deployed,

to exceed his predecessors’ deeds.

And Trump’s knocking previous prezzes. Every day.

Knocking previous prezzes. In-evil ways.

He’s been knocking previous prezzes. It’s all his.

Knocking previous prezzes, and making billions for his biz. (Kick him out!)

With some Middle Eastern putsches, he’s exceeding the warring Bush’s,

in his vengeful blood-for-oil guile.

Alleged sexual predator, he had whores at his resort. He and Clinton are in the Epstein file.

While the deficit balloons, Trump’s going to the moon.

He showed us he had to outdo JFK.

It’s serious issues he avoids. Like Nixon, he’s paranoid

in his quest to immortalize his name.

And Trump’s knocking previous prezzes. Every day.

Knocking previous prezzes. In-evil ways.

He’s been knocking previous prezzes. It’s all his.

Knocking previous prezzes, and making billions for his biz. (Kick him out!)

Trump’s reversing all before him and ignoring global warming

and has great, great plans for his Party.

He’s supreme in his fakin’. In-that, he’s surpassed Obama and Reagan

in the world, he made topsy-turvy.

He’s committed numerous crimes but never done jail time.

He’s got a heartless, shameless mob to fill his needs.

He’s got his loyal envoys and his militaries deployed,

to exceed his predecessors’ deeds.

And Trump’s knocking previous prezzes. Every day.

Knocking previous prezzes. In-evil ways.

He’s been knocking previous prezzes. It’s all his.

Knocking previous prezzes, and making billions for his biz. (Kick him out!)

Knocking previous prezzes.

Knocking previous prezzes.

Knocking previous prezzes.

Knocking previous prezzes.

And Trump’s knocking previous prezzes. Every day.

Knocking previous prezzes. In-evil ways.

He’s been knocking previous prezzes. It’s all his.

Knocking previous prezzes, and making billions for his biz. (Kick him out!)

Knocking previous prezzes.

Knocking previous prezzes.

Knocking previous prezzes…

Featured

A Flower Traveled in My Blood

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The Book of the Week is “A Flower Traveled in My Blood, The Incredible Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children” by Haley Cohen Gilliland, published in 2025.

In 1966, General Juan Carlos Ongania became the military dictator of Argentina. He oppressed hippies– arresting, torturing and killing them pursuant to their unacceptable clothing, hair and music. He imposed anti-capitalist economic reforms that caused inflation to soar. Unrest erupted on the streets of Buenos Aires.

People who wanted to become revolutionaries, joined one of the “alphabet soup” of political groups; mostly they were students or jobless youths. One such group was the Montonero, which got combat-operations training in Cuba. The most extreme groups attacked government forces, detonated bombs and effected kidnappings. They were mostly James Bond wannabes.

In the mid-1970’s, military leader Jorge Rafael Videla came to power. His police-force allegedly investigated fraud, but in the second half of the 1970’s alone, that force abducted, tortured and killed or “disappeared” an estimated thirty thousand people, including children.

One woman got so frustrated going around to law enforcement and government offices looking for her disappeared son that, in late April 1977, she staged a “sit-in” with other women in the main public square in Buenos Aires. They were risking their lives, as Argentina’s dictator banned assembly of three or more people.

The group marched weekly, and were eventually named “Madres de Plaza de Mayo.” Their mothers and mothers-in-law began a letter-writing campaign to all different parties– the Pope, ambassadors, journalists, the UN, Red Cross, human rights organizations, etc.– who might help them find their grown-children and grandchildren who had been taken as newborns or toddlers and adopted mostly by military couples who wanted children.

In October 1983, Argentina was to hold its first democratic election for its top leader in forty years. The military thus signed the National Pacification Law– pardoning itself for all of its past crimes. Further, the giant cover-up regarding the disappeared, continued. Even so, the aforementioned mothers and grandmothers were beginning to track down adoptees– proving their blood relations through genetic testing.

Read the book to learn about Argentina’s decades of: political gyrations (and those of other South American countries due to an actual conspiracy), and complications experienced by, associated with and progress made by, the movement begun by those intent on finding their disappeared loved ones.

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Strongmen – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, published in 2021. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author described the traits and behaviors of a “strongman” through a few real-life examples of dictators of the past hundred years.

A strongman is a male leader who finds ways (that happen to be nefarious) to maximize and maintain his power; including: causing needless deaths and ruined lives in the forms of propaganda (repeated scapegoating, generating crises and other brainwashing techniques), waging war, engaging in sexual conquests, seeking political dominance and enriching himself, usually through looting resources from the territory or territories he rules.

In October 1922, in an Italy of about forty million people, approximately thirty thousand people comprising the Fascist Party appointed Mussolini as prime minister. In the next two decades, in order to rule by fear and force, Mussolini formed various political and military groups, and passed laws that violated human rights. He incited excessive violence, and had dissidents killed.

In July 1925, Mussolini pardoned all political criminals (those who would help him stay in power). But by 1926, he had run out of money. Fortunately for him, he had friends in high places. Thomas Lamont– his contact at the American financial institution, J.P. Morgan, arranged a loan of one hundred million dollars for him. At that time, Hitler actually looked up to Mussolini and eventually got friendly with him, in order to get mentored. By 1933, the German industrialists had fallen for Hitler’s populist rhetoric.

In 1965, Mobutu, who engaged in drugs and arms sales, (with the help of the CIA) came to power in Zaire. He, along with a number of other dictators, had been war heroes, so they had military backing. Beginning in 1969, oil money allowed Gaddafi to give his government a socialistic bent– funding Libyans’ education, housing and other basic needs.

In 1994, Italy’s Berlusconi controlled very nearly all the messaging heard and seen by his people. He crafted laws to: give himself a get-out-of-jail-free card, and his businesses, to weasel out of legal and financial trouble. His propaganda screamed that immigrants were criminals. Gaddafi and Berlusconi (who should have been enemies) became besties– keeping their friends close and their enemies closer. Libya got weapons from Italy, and Italy got oil from Libya.

In Trump’s United States, “Women advance their careers by making it easier for the leader and his inner circle to harm other women.” Another strongman technique Trump uses is to put his assets in foreign bank accounts. In 2014, Eric Trump said, “We [Trump Organization] don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need from Russia.”

Like Berlusconi, Trump and his media outlet, Fox News, have repeatedly, emphatically smeared immigrants as criminals, and he has used his military, ICE, to detain or deport them. The author named locations of various detention camps that had inhumane conditions: in Florida– Homestead, and in Texas– Clint, McAllen, Rio Grande, and El Paso del Norte.

In sum, once the strongman has stolen all he can get from his citizens, his next tricks are to negotiate a peace treaty and schedule elections.

Read the book to learn much more about how the above-named and a few others have used strongman tactics to turn into not-so-benign dictators.

ENDNOTE: Here’s a song that describes Trump’s strongman tactics.

MODERN STRONGMAN

sung to the tune of “Modern Woman” with apologies to Billy Joel and to whomever else the rights may concern.

You see Trump on the idiot box touting his high-tech war-toys of his cronies’ design.

With his continual cruel smears he aggravates the tension. Tries to save face while losing his mind.

Now Trump’s in trouble. He fired all the intellectuals. He always figures voters aren’t very smart.

Or maybe he hopes his hype covers up his conflicts. Oh, he’s got to use PR tricks ’cause his wrongdoing’s off the charts.

He always puts on an ACT of ranting-frat-boy modern strongman. And he’s an old fascist man. He understands just what he’s doing. He’s a modern strongman.

His mean streak is exceptionally unprofessional. He’s got a lot of cockiness, it’s easy to see. You don’t want to be rude but you get so furious when he’s so injurious to American democracy.

He’s got bile and he’s got billionaires’ money and lots of attorneys so his-foes, he quickly disarms. His slow rise means you may not realize, YOU’RE jeopardized by his gradual harm.

He’s got his plan of attack and got the power-play knack of modern strongman. And he’s an old fascist man. He understands just what he’s doing. He’s a modern strongman.

The king won’t die. There is no president. He says he loves you but he treats you unkind. In the morning he detains you. You’re accused by your neighbors. It’s a cagey situation for an old fascist guy.

Times have changed, and you cry in vain, lately. He’s become extreme in his bad attitude. His cock-and-bull just used to be for kicks. But now he controls your politics. After 2026, you might get a clue.

You can’t relax and face the facts of modern strongman. And he’s an old fascist man, he forces your hand in the things he’s doing.

He’s a modern strongman. He’s a modern strongman.

He’s got the sociopathic zip that allows the grip of the modern strongman.

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It’s an Uncertain World – BONUS POST

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BREAKING NEWS: “America Spring” will continue until the media schedules the “Trump Is Out [he’s fired]” show via the 25th Amendment. Until then, here’s a song listing just a few of the people Trump has fired.

UNCERTAIN WORLD

sung to the tune of “End of the World” with apologies to R.E.M. and to whomever else the rights may concern.

What’s great? Trump parts with experts, truth-speakers and do-gooders, and his loyal cult is not afraid.

He fired: Streater, Hayden, Tillerson, Bunnell, Slaughter, Wilcox, Kruse, Grisham, Bolton, Geer, Doherty, Musk, Haugh, Kelly, Priebus, McEntarfer, Primus, Niceta, Matthews, Monarez, Chatfield, Salehi, Brown, down with a fight.

Flynn, Yachnin, Ramaswamy, Yates, and a government to fire, and Comey, Price, Krause, Linick, team by team, Richards, Samuels, trumped, Sessions cropped. Long, Atkinson, Fagan, Fine, then uh-oh O’Donnell, Noem, Perlmutter, Scaramucci, but it won’t do.

Save your wealth. Serve your stealth. Disturbed, and the world bleeds. Grim, Abruzzo, Martin, Bondi, chummy with the enraptured and the smeared and then gone. Right? Right!

ooh Hilton, patriotic Hanson slam fired blight Right. Feeling very iced.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

And it’s on our dime.

Dellinger, Bharara. Don’t get caught in TV hearing slash and burn. Return. This is like a Stalin purge. Who cares about a uniform, Cook burning, bloodletting. Every move escalate. Ulterior motives. Insist it’s secret. Gaslight Bannon. Lewandowski. Low down. Low down. Watch your deals. crush crush uh-oh Be mean with no fear. Cavalier. Renegade. Deteriorating clear. A plethora, a plethora of lies, Pekoske. No solutions. Offers no alternatives. In droves, resign.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

And we’re in decline.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

And we’re in decline.

The Right has defended ICE, gone mental. Krebs, Bedoya, Burrows. Frat boys tow the line. Leading billionaires. Letting go Shogan. Cutting loose thousands. Bloodbath Party. Shapley. Hellish scheme boom ooh argh hate riot, slam like heck. Right? Right!

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

And we’re in decline.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

And we’re in decline.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

And we’re in decline.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

It’s an uncertain world and you should know it.

And we’re in decline…

Featured

The Picnic

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The Book of the Week is “The Picnic, A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain” by Matthew Longo, published in 2024. This volume, whose language is awkward in spots, detailed some of the changes– especially in Hungary– that led to major transformations of balances of power in the world.

In sum, thousands of people acting together (rather than one dissident here and there) whose dissatisfaction reached critical mass, are what forced Eastern Europe to radically change politically, culturally, and socially, starting in the late 1980’s. Or, as the American 1960’s counter-culture expressed it: “United we stand. Divided they catch us one by one.”

The author called people who fled East Germany at the tail end of the 1980’s, refugees. They were actually immigrants. Refugees are fleeing from war, anarchy or starvation where their lives are in danger 24/7. Immigrants move to a different country because their own country dooms them to a life of crushing oppression, but no immediate life-threatening danger.

Anyway, by the late 1980’s, there appeared signs that the Soviet yoke of Communism in Hungary was becoming frayed, as its leaders sensed the people were approaching the point at which beheadings or a firing squad of themselves was in the offing.

In 1988,

  • “Moscow” (the authority that ruled all Soviet satellites, which included Hungary) allowed Hungarians to form non-Communist parties, although the new parties had only advisory power;
  • Moscow restored the freedom of assembly;
  • Hungary’s economy was tanking, so its Communist functionaries appointed as its prime minister, a young economist– Miklos Nemeth, a believer in free markets and democratic elections– who had studied in the US;
  • Moscow began to allow the issuance of special travel visas for families to drive into Austria to shop for Western consumer goods with a $350 government subsidy.

And in 1989,

  • The Hungarian minister of state delivered a radio address, shocking listeners (who had been brainwashed by Soviet propaganda for decades) with the truth about the 1956 uprising and incredibly, he wasn’t shot or hanged by his comrades;
  • In Budapest, police allowed a public protestor’s recitation of a poem about tyranny;
  • The Hungarian prime minister asked Mikhail Gorbachev to withdraw Soviet troops from Hungary, and the latter agreed to withdraw a few, as a public relations gesture;
  • Through Gorbachev’s permissive policy that each Soviet satellite’s leader could take whatever political actions he deemed necessary to keep the peasants from revolting, Nemeth ordered the dismantling of electrified barbed wire at Hungary’s borders with Austria and Czechoslovakia;
  • Some of the Stasi (the ubiquitous, brutal [Soviet] East German spying agency– the new breed of “Nazis” after WII), actually directed East Germans toward a border-crossing location, or stood by and let Hungarians and West Germans help the East Germans run through the gap in the barbed wire, in order to cross the border to Austria or Czechoslovakia.

There were countless other societal changes taking place in Eastern Europe. In June 1989, a few Hungarian dissidents who were forming a new political party, planned a picnic as a symbol of friendship among Hungarians, East Germans and Austrians.

In October 1989, the GDR turned forty years old. “There were lavish parties, honoring years of Soviet-East German cooperation.” Small wonder why the peasants were revolting. By November 1989, the Soviets had secretly moved all their nuclear weapons located in Hungary, to Ukraine. By the dawn of the 1990’s, the Hungarian Communist Party had ultimately renamed itself the “Hungarian Republic.” BUT a one-party State is not a democracy!

The former Stasi spies who got new jobs after the USSR dissolved, felt right at home helping Western businesses seek new markets in Eastern Europe. For, skills required for the jobs included exploitation, expropriation, and data collection.

The author wrote that a compromise between capitalism and socialism is possible. In 2009, he had a reunion with an East German couple who had fled to West Germany. They were very anti-Communist, but also shunned using crassly commercial, modern technology such as mobile phones and email. They didn’t care that they weren’t keeping up with the Joneses. Their experience in the East taught them to be grateful for the material possessions they did have.

But it’s actually not that simple. If everyone disengaged completely from their automated lifestyles and electronic communications, the world economy would crash.

Read the book to learn about various East Germans who left their homeland for what they perceived to be a better life after seeing how the non-Communist world lived, and about some of the historical changes wrought in their region of the globe.

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Iran’s Fighting Back – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty about what’s unsurprisingly going on.

IRAN’S FIGHTING BACK

sung to the tune of “My Boyfriend’s Back” with apologies to The Angels and to whomever else the rights may concern.

spoken:

After 2020, Trump never went away. He hung around and distracts us with radical actions every day and night. And when we don’t agree with him, he says and does things that aren’t very nice.

Iran’s fighting back and threatening more trouble.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

Public-opinion be damned in the Washington bubble.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

Everyone’s spreading lies, but who’s telling the truth?

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

So Trump’s given up on the Strait of Hormuz.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

Hey, we know that Trump’s a TACO.

And, he goes where he should not go.

GOP’s in charge for such a long time.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

Iran’s fighting back on the US-taxpayer’s dime.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

Trump’s never sorry. He toots his own horn.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

‘Cause he thinks he’s big and he’s always wrong.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

Hey, Trump’s forever profiteering.

And, he’s forever smearing.

What made him think you’d believe all his lies? wah ooh wah ooh

He needs to destroy his-enemies before he dies. wah ooh Excessively!!

Iran’s fighting back. It’s gonna ruin-Trump’s reputation.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

The shutdown gave Congress a paid vacation.

Yes way. Gee whiz. Iran’s fighting back.

La, yeah Iran’s fighting back, oh, look out now, Iran’s fighting back.

Trump’s naivete is stunning, ’cause he couldn’t see it coming…

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BONUS POST

I am pleased to announce that my book “The Education and Deconstruction of Mr. Bloomberg, How the Mayor’s Education and Real Estate Development Policies Affected New Yorkers 2002-2009 Inclusive” is available through the following online channels:

Amazon.com

alibris.com

https://books.google.com

booksamillion.com

fishpond.co.nz

betterworldbooks.com

northtownbooks.com

commongoodbooks.com

bol.com

regulatorbookshop.com

wildrumpusbooks.com

https://www.amazon.ca

https://business.walmart.com

https://www.fruugo.us

https://www.worldofbooks.com

https://www.dymocks.com.au

https://www.takealot.com

https://bookscape.com

https://www.mightyape.co.nz

https://www.flipkart.com

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Personality – BONUS POST

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Unsurprisingly, this is what American president Donald Trump is singing now.

PERSONALITY

sung to the tune of “Sloop John B” with apologies to the Beach Boys and to whomever else the rights may concern.

We’ve got the same person-al-ITY, Netanyahu and me.

Retaliating, reaping bounties. We can gloat.

We think might makes right. As a team we fight.

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal.

See how I won’t quit. I’m the captain of the world.

I set the TONE. I set the TONE. The world I own. yeah yeah yeah

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help. I set the TONE.

NATO is talking bunk. I got Iran in a funk.

I need to come and take their nukes away.

Sheriff Donald Trump. With my base I fist-bump. yeah yeah

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help. I set the TONE.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal.

See how I won’t quit. I’m the captain of the world.

I set the TONE. The world I own.

I set the TONE. As I said, I set the TONE.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal. So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal.

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help. I set the TONE.

The Democrats are in a snit. But they know I won’t quit.

They’re trying to take away all of my power. I set the TONE.

The world I own. Still on top, I make them cower.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal. See how I won’t quit.

I’m the captain of the world. I set the TONE…

Featured

The Rebels

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The Book of the Week is “The Rebels, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (hereinafter referred to as “AOC”) and the Struggle for a New American Politics” by Joshua Green, published in 2024. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author described some practices of the U.S. government that has led to its currently precarious economic state of affairs.

As of early 1978, president Jimmy Carter had failed to keep three economics-related campaign promises with which he tried to incite the hard-working American masses: income-tax reform (angry at the rich’s business tax-deductions); a stimulus (because stagflation was dogging everyone’s pocketbook); and an energy bill (due to rising oil prices). June 1978 saw California’s voters approve a huge reduction in property tax.

In October 1978, the Carter administration passed a tax-bill– the Revenue Act– that actually favored the rich and Wall Street. The bill cut capital gains taxes; funds were shifted from investing in factories and equipment to gambling in the securities markets. The president could have vetoed the bill, but instead, he sold out because his party would benefit with mere weeks to go before midterm election-day. Ironically, Ralph Nader, who was known for advocating for consumers, urged the government to deregulate airlines and trucking. It turned out that deregulation of these exceptional industries was to hurt consumers (and their employees!) in a few short years.

There also occurred the privatizing of retirement funds in the form of 401(k). As is well known, it was touted as a tax shelter, but it gave Wall Street more control over Americans’ hard-earned money.

After Carter lost his bid for reelection, Democrats such as Paul Tsongas, Mike Dukakis, Bill Bradley and Bill Clinton pivoted toward neoliberalism– appeasing the corporate community with anti-union legislation, deregulation, and allowing monopolistic practices.

Unsurprisingly, the above, and the implementation of a bunch of other unwise economic policies, led to the 2008 financial crash. The American people were understandably very angry to learn that the government bailed out the crash’s institutional perpetrators (whose obscenely paid executives had jobs that weren’t pay-for-performance, and who still got their bonuses); never mind helping hard-working ordinary Americans.

According to the author, the bailout cost U.S. taxpayers $32 billion instead of between $700 billion and $1.5 trillion. It is impossible for laypeople to believe that “experts” can accurately estimate those kinds of numbers, given the pressure on “experts” to propagandize. Ever since, there is almost total disbelief of all economics numbers spouted by those “experts.” It is actually the age-old activity of lying with statistics.

The author wrote that, as a newly elected U.S. senator from New York State, Hillary Clinton paid her dues by playing well with others, making friends with strange bedfellows, while U.S. senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, nearly a decade later, behaved in a confrontational manner that garnered applause from the little people– grassroots supporters.

The author contended that the aforementioned Warren paved the way for the Independent Bernie Sanders’ surprising popularity among the young voters in the 2016 Democrat primary election for president. His presence in the primary affected the choices of voters in the general election, adversely affecting Hillary’s chance to win.

The author explained why AOC achieved what most politicos thought was going to be impossible. “Running as a Democratic Socialist, she [AOC] drew a large, multiracial progressive coalition that overwhelmed an incumbent, in [Joseph] Crowley, who personified the Wall Street-friendly Democrat uninterested in local concerns but assumed to be too powerful to be held to account.”

Read the book to learn much more about how the individuals named in the book’s title have influenced American politics in a major way in the last fifteen years.

ENDNOTE: In sum, American voters would like to see their government return to rule of law, civility and transparency! They would also like to see political workers and candidates: answer the questions asked of them, and clarify what they mean. Various terms of late have been given emotionally-charged interpretations to incite people who easily get upset at political news. For example, climate change and woke mean different things to different people. Instantaneous communication among Americans has made them hyper-aware of shenanigans in the staged and scripted reality show that is currently American politics.

Featured

This Historic Moment – BONUS POST

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This is what all the people who are saying, “I told you so” and “I called it” are singing now.

THIS HISTORIC MOMENT

sung to the tune of “This Magic Moment” with apologies to The Drifters, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

This histORic moment,

a little-different but not NEW, just like any other.

Haha. Trump dissed you.

With all that’s happened,

he-still took you by surprise.

I almost fell for him too, with dollar signs in my eyes.

I know his ki-ind, always spoiling for a fight.

Everything he wants, he has.

His theme is might makes right.

This histORic moment, while the US is in decline,

won’t last for-eh-ever. However, entitled men cover-up and lie.

whoa, whoa [histORic] whoa, whoa [histORic] hmm, histORic

I know his ki-ind, always spoiling for a fight.

Everything he wants, he has.

His theme is might makes right.

This histORic moment, while the US is in decline,

won’t last for-eh-ever. However, entitled men cover-up and lie.

whoa, whoa [histORic] whoa, whoa [histORic] hmm, histORic

Featured

Shutdown – BONUS POST

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“Promises were broken, debt was imposed, dictatorships were supported and natural resources were depleted.”

–The United States. Or, according to Paul Farmer, Haiti.

The US Congress has been working intermittently but receiving full pay from 2020 to date. It seems there is taxation without representation here, what with Congress’s absence. This is an insult to all Americans who are not tax cheats.

In 2020, there was a lockdown due to a pandemic. Now the excuse is the disputes over funding of militaries under the president’s command. However, as should be well known, there are a total of five hundred thirty-five (535) elected officials in the US House and Senate, who have the power to impeach one (1!) president and also remove him from office altogether. He has been impeached twice before.

What might be the reasons for Congress’s failing to curb the president’s abuses of power in the past year alone?

  • Greed (profiteering) of powerful members of Congress?
  • Power hunger? (desire for reelection)
  • Fear of doxing or death threats? (Congress members are allocated taxpayer dollars for security.)
  • Lack of time? (If it’s important, you make time; if not, you make excuses.)
  • Fear that the vice president who replaces the president would lack the talents and skills required to lead the country? (With his dementia, the president is becoming a useful idiot to his handlers, so that argument is invalid.) Anyway, it’s debatable whether it matters, who’s in charge of the country– this capitalist tool, or that capitalist tool.

How about, all of the above? The solution: Vote these slackers out of office, if they’re running again!

Here’s what most Democrat Congress members are singing now.

SHUTDOWN

sung to the tune of “Small Town” with apologies to John Cougar Mellencamp, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Of-course I love the shutdown. I get full pay during the shutdown. We know why there’s a shutdown. Oh, there are secret unities.

Blame the GOP for the shutdown. My power is nil in this insane shutdown. My job’s easy in shutdown, while others work for free.

We’re-manipulative in the shutdown. Taught to fear DHS in the shutdown. I keep Instagramming, IN the shutdown, another social media fanatic, that’s me.

But I’ve seen the US fall in the shutdown. Having myself a ball in the shutdown. Arrogant Trump’s gall brought on THIS shutdown, he loves the shutdown, just like me.

No, I cannot forget where my votes and money come from. I get upset by the people who judge me. I’M not the one who’s prolonging the shutdown. People won’t let me be. They keep HOUNDing me.

We are against DHS in the shutdown. My paid vacation’s enough to say, let’s continue this shutdown. Senior leaders say shutdown, until we get back, democracy.

Well, of-course I love the shutdown. We all have phony outrage in the shutdown. People are dying in the shutdown. All I care about is me.

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Election Meltdown

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The Book of the Week is “Election Meltdown” by Richard L. Hasen, published in 2020.

This short, slightly sloppily-edited volume named names of incompetent or criminal election workers, and unethical, influential political workers, in connection with specific political races of the past couple of decades. The offenders are listed below, in no particular order. The location of their actions, where applicable, is in parentheses.

The incompetent ones included:

  • Brenda Snipes (Florida)
  • Susan Bucher (Florida)

The criminal ones included:

  • Brian Kemp (Georgia)
  • Mark Harris (North Carolina)
  • Mark Anderson (Florida)
  • Leslie McCrae Dowless, Jr. (North Carolina)

The unethical ones who spread disinformation (one or more lies) via social media included:

  • Ken Paxton (Texas)
  • Donald Trump
  • Kris Kobach (Kansas)
  • Hans von Spakovsky (Kansas, Missouri)
  • Jesse Richman (Kansas)
  • J. Christian Adams (Florida)
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Kamala Harris
  • Michael Cohen (Trump’s former New York attorney)
  • Paul Ryan (former Speaker of the House)
  • Kayleigh McEnany
  • Christie McCormick

The author also named elections experts, lawyers and judges who refuted the claims of the above.

The author related that the Clintons argued that the reason for investigating voter suppression is to make sure it doesn’t affect the outcome of the election. But that should not be the most important reason. The most important reason to make sure there is no voter suppression, is to ensure that everyone eligible to vote, has a chance to vote. The reason Americans should vote is to show they believe in the process of free and fair elections.

Democracy requires that a significant number of people believe in it for it to work.

The bottom line is: Democracy is compromised when political workers engage in voter suppression, election crimes, or spreading of disinformation. All of those can result in low voter turnout, which in turn, can end badly. For example, in 1972, low voter turnout resulted in the reelection of the war-criminal Richard Nixon.

Read the book to learn many additional details regarding the above-named individuals’ actions, and about those who called out the liars.

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Insults to All Law-Abiding Americans – BONUS POST

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The most serious general action American “president” Trump has taken is to repeatedly ignore the rule of law. No, it’s not the Holocaust, but its negative impact on American society will be felt for decades to come.

What happened in Haiti in the late 1980’s is somewhat analogous, albeit on a smaller scale, to what is happening in the United States in the Trump Era. In Haiti, frontier justice punished some of the perpetrators of horrific crimes. In the Holocaust’s aftermath, the civilized world was so traumatized trying to process unspeakable horrors, that with its use of inefficient civil law to enforce rule of law, only a tiny percentage of the perpetrators were punished. Most Nazis melted into the general population, and were never caught.

Trump’s henchmen who are committing acts of vicious political retaliation and targeting foreigners for rough treatment, will probably never be punished. Additional insults to all law-abiding Americans include:

  • Untold taxpayer-dollars are wasted in countless ways– to line the Trump gang’s pockets in his attempts to dominate the world and immortalize his name.
  • Secrecy allows him and his henchmen to evade accountability for all their wrongdoing. Closed hearings, documents with redactions and refusal to release files are just a few of their tactics, along with total media manipulation. When there was frontier justice in a few recent shooting incidents– most against Trump’s side– law enforcement pulled a “Jack Ruby.” So even frontier justice is an insult to all law-abiding Americans in the Trump Era, due to secrecy.

One hopes another Bonfire of the Vanities is on the way (the Tom Wolfe version).

Here’s a little ditty about yet another of Trump’s infinite actions, that is an insult to all law-abiding Americans. It’s what Trump is singing.

TAKING IRAN OUT

sung to the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

I’m-taking Iran out in the oil game,

making out with my crowd.

Defying strategists and black ops facts.

I don’t care if I forever get flak.

I’ll root, root, root for my Trump team.

We always win with no shame.

For I know, this is, my last hurrah in the old oil game.

I’m-taking Iran out in the oil game,

making out with my crowd.

Defying strategists and black ops facts.

I don’t care if I forever get flak.

I’ll root, root, root for my Trump team.

We always win with no shame.

For I know, this is, my last hurrah in the old oil game.

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Cringeworthy – BONUS POST

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The USA needs the actual, physical presence of a lucid and sane (not to mention, ethical!) leader, to return the nation to rule of law. This involves checks and balances on power, and due process. Not the same as law and order, which involves punishment and deterrence, fear and force. Of late, law and order has become misguided and excessive.

As usual, the “president” (senile Donald Trump) is bragging, and spouting: denials, proclamations, decrees, threats and pardons, and singing the following rubbish.

CRINGEWORTHY

sung to the tune of “Cracklin’ Rosie” with apologies to Neil Diamond and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Cringeworthy are the peasant HORDES.

I’m gonna take ICE as far as it will go. My legend will grow.

I’m your-overlord, you know.

I’ll have me a time with my power escalating.

Hitchin’ on twilighting states.

Everyone gets detained for every wrong, a law-and-order song.

Everything I want.

Get on your knees when you’re handled by my goons.

Oh, I love my low-down guile.

The money always makes me happy.

I love to see my rank and file.

Cringing hordes, you’re my hard-fought summit.

You’re making my realiTY-show from it.

So keep watching me. My name keeps running on.

Pay me now! Pay me now! Pay me now! My gravy.

Perverting laws makes me smile. The word is, I can make you cower.

Yes, that’s right. I’m all spite. I rule the Right.

Fox is so green it don’t ask hard questions, yeah!

Oh, I love my low-down guile.

The money always makes me happy.

I love to see my rank and file.

Cringing hordes, you’re my hard-fought summit.

You’re making my realiTY-show from it.

So keep watching me. My name keeps running on.

Pay me now! Pay me now! Pay me now! My gravy.

Perverting laws makes me smile. The word is, I can make you cower.

Yes, that’s right. I’m all spite. I rule the Right.

Fox is so green it don’t ask hard questions.

nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah…

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Whistlestop

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The Book of the Week is “Whistlestop, My Favorite Stories From Presidential Campaign History” by John Dickerson, published in 2016. Some of the stories in this slightly sloppily-edited volume got tabloidy, but all of them just reminded the reader that there is nothing new under the sun, or showed how times have changed, in connection with presidential politics in America.

In 1948, Democratic incumbent Truman speechified about the usual politico-economic nature of the Republicans:

  • trickle-down economics;
  • heartless;
  • greedy toward American consumers;
  • betraying American farmers.

Currently, many people would agree with the above description of the Republicans. Truman urged voters to elect a Congress which would help ordinary Americans rather than act in “the interests of the men who have all the money.” Truman wasn’t a hypocrite in this, as he inherited neither a business nor a boatload of wealth from his daddy.

In 1992, presidential hopeful Bob Kerrey “suggested using the military to fight the War on Drugs, an idea that could get a candidate arrested in Democratic politics…” Not anymore. Just ask Nicolas Maduros of Venezuela– a rerun of George H.W. Bush’s episode with Manuel Noriega of Panama.

In 2004, presidential candidate Howard Dean went on the TV show Meet the Press with Tim Russert. Critics said his delivery was awful, as he made rambling generalizations and got impatient and impertinent with the questioner.

Apparently, by 2016, some viewers tolerated an inarticulate presidential candidate (Trump) who attacked the media outright! Those viewers wish they could accumulate (over the course of decades) the kind of power that allowed Trump to get away with that.

One last interesting factoid: In the last sixty years, three vice presidents ran for president and never became president, all three of whom were Democrats, and two of whom were from Minnesota: Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore.


Read the book to learn about various other episodes involving presidential hopefuls who won or lost, from all different centuries.

ENDNOTE:

According to media headlines, Trump PLANNED in February 2025 to (in no particular order):

  • use military sites across the country to detain undocumented immigrants
  • take over the Postal Service
  • inspect Fort Knox gold
  • impose tariffs on foreign automakers, chips and pharmaceuticals
  • create a sovereign wealth fund
  • lower consumer energy costs
  • name himself chair of the Kennedy Center and fire board members
  • create a tourist mecca in a strip of land in Gaza
  • reduce access to abortion
  • lower the corporate tax rate to 15%
  • eliminate income taxing and payroll taxing of tips
  • eliminate taxing of Social Security benefits
  • trample on the rights of LGBTQ+ people
  • eliminate the Department of Education
  • replace the Affordable Care Act
  • give a tax credit for family caregivers of older and disabled adults between $5,000 and $6,000 per year
  • support more oil and gas drilling
  • take over Greenland and
  • take over Canada.

It has been a year. The above can be used as a checklist of what the president has accomplished, made progress on, or NOT.
The simplest, most direct way for ethical leaders to turn the country around, would be to TAX THE RICH.

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Hey JD Vance – BONUS POST

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When workers are responsible for leading a sprawling entity, where people’s lives or livelihoods hang in the balance, there can be extracurricular activity because no one is minding the store.

It appears that such is currently the case with regard to president Donald Trump, who is showing signs of dementia. The nation is rudderless for the next three years.

Two particular cautionary tales in the United States come to mind in connection therewith. The top leaders got blamed because one thing led to another on their watch, due to their impaired brain function. Even so, no one person, not even the top leader is entirely to blame when things go wrong.

Into the early 1980’s, senile Bill Paley, head of the international corporation CBS, would come into board meetings with a walker and two nurses by his side. Since he wasn’t truly running the company anymore, a rogue department at CBS, having zero experience, decided to try to make movies. That division generated disastrous losses that resulted in layoffs in unrelated departments, causing trauma for all stakeholders associated with CBS.

In the late 1980’s, senile president Ronald Reagan’s CIA director Bill Casey– whose mental faculties were worsening due to a brain tumor– allowed Oliver North to go rogue– play a large role in secretly selling weapons to Iran– supposedly an enemy of the United States. Reagan then diverted the arms-sales proceeds to help the Contras in Nicaragua. Reagan was accused of abusing his presidential powers by failing to get Congress’ permission for either endeavor.

In both of the above instances, there would have been a lot less trouble had the leader been removed when his incompetence due to reduced brain function became evident. Of course, the GOP and Fox News scream that the mental incompetence of his predecessor Joe Biden, was hushed up for three years– but they knew, and let Biden stay in power!

Here’s a song that Trump is singing to his vice-president, JD Vance. Trump’s still in power, despite the infinite number of reasons that numerous people feel that he should never have become president in the first place!

Trump is still keeping his job as president, and controlling his underling.

JD VANCE

sung to the tune of “Carrie Anne” with apologies to the Hollies, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Hey JD Vance.

Hey JD Vance.

In my thousand-year rule, our games are simple.

I play the dictator, you play the messenger.

I HAVE-you play with my billionaire boys and diplomats.

We act like frat boys in what we’re doing.

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

You’re always, a useful idiot to me.

Never independent. Never daring.

You’re my PR arm as I am aging. There’s always attraction in what I’m doing.

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

You go, go to cover for me. Go to cover for me. Go, go, go, go to cover for me, cover for me.

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

Sheeple never learn so they’re still burning.

My pockets are lined and I’m a force of nature.

When democracy’s over, you’ll be rich-with me,

but then you WILL, still, hear me saying,

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

Hey JD Vance, Trump’s your game now. I control your play.

JD Vance. JD Vance. JD Vance.

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Breakneck

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WARNING: LONG POST

The Book of the Week is “Breakneck, China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” by Dan Wang, published in 2025. In this hodgepodge of a volume whose language is awkward in spots, the author made vast generalizations in comparing China to the United States, sometimes oversimplifying things.

The author contended that China’s economy has grown in leaps and bounds economically in the last few decades because its government has thrown vast resources into engineering.

The author argued that the United States is in political and economic decline: due to its obstructionist legal system, and for failing to stop the offshoring of its factories to lower-cost facilities in China.

Capitalism involves profit-seeking. Communism involves a government that steals the economic surplus of the profit-seekers. Socialism is a collective, non-profit-seeking effort to provide essential services that fulfill basic human needs such as food and shelter. Some believe that the government is obligated to provide these essential services to the people.

Historically, business start-ups in the capitalist economic system have been forced to rely on mostly private funding. In the United States, when a business becomes monster-sized and politically entrenched, it gets government assistance in terms of tax breaks and legislative favoritism. The United States government sometimes makes taxpayers pay for a corporate bailout after executives have bankrupted their employer.

China’s Communist system grants a revolving credit facility to all businesses that start to show profitability, taking a financial interest in them. Some businesses still go bankrupt later on, due to a proliferation of fierce competitors engaged in price wars, because they jump into making products unrelated to their core competencies. Those failed companies don’t get bailed out. There is creative destruction.

Economics 101 says a nation needs to have a healthy, well-educated workforce to stay in good economic shape. Both China and the United States sabotage themselves in this regard in different ways.

China has become capitalistic of late– rewarding entrepreneurs who build hospitals rather than their staffs who dispense their medical expertise, resulting in engineers with robust financial health, and patients with poor physical health.

In the United States, whenever the government tries to be socialistic– say, by passing laws that financially benefit consumers who are patients, students or tenants– the medical providers, schools and landlords whose bottom lines are adversely affected, simply pass the extra costs onto those consumers by raising prices!

The bright spot in America’s selling out its manufacturing is: worldwide economic incestuousness has given rise to co-dependence, and thus forced cooperation among rivalrous nations. All the countries heavily involved on the world stage must sit down at the bargaining table now, or their own people will face severe economic hardships.

Of course, there have been world leaders in the recent past whose heartlessness sparked peasant revolts. The current leaders know that, and in order to stay in power, they keep their populations just fat and happy enough, amid their saber-rattling at their (phony) enemies.

The author commented that Boeing lost its way. It used to have a knowledge base– had a reputation for institutional memory– learning from mistakes. Its products inevitably would improve because it paid attention to process. Now China is the country obsessed with process rather than product.

A stupid employer has workers meet to discuss a recently failed project, but whose list of suggestions of how to do better in the future is shoved in a drawer, never to be seen again. A wise employer will add the list to its knowledge-base so no one has to reinvent the wheel. China currently has the latter bent.

Other factors at play in the current situation include: China has one-Party rule while America’s two political parties are in a constant tug-of-war over how to deal with its fragmented and complex economic issues. True, America’s production of consumer goods has drastically declined in recent decades, while all kinds of services now drive its economy. Its attorneys are obstructionist; however, the glacial pace of construction of infrastructure is also due to the politicians’ goal to stay in power.

No voters want politicians to raise taxes to pay for infrastructure. So the politicians don’t raise taxes; so, no infrastructure. Besides, ground-breaking ceremonies are long forgotten at re-election time. Politicians know that campaigns are more likely to succeed through mudslinging rather than through (usually empty) bragging about accomplishments.

The author asks a question for the ages: “Should it [the United States] really go all in on artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, and other things that the Communist Party mocks as fictitious economy?”

Read the book to learn about additional issues facing China and America, their histories, and about their quest to dominate the world while they have been reversing their roles of late, politically and economically.

One last telling quote: “His reign was characterized by regulatory forbearance, perhaps because he was a personal beneficiary of the sector’s growth.” – written about Lu Wei, director of the Cyberspace Administration in China, the chief internet regulator prior to 2018. Sounds familiar.

ENDNOTE: The author failed to mention that, prior to this writing, the United States had illegal immigrants making significant contributions to its GDP, while China’s sex industry makes significant contributions to its GDP. Sexual issues in China are linked to its “underground” economy, while sexual issues in the United States are a whole different ball of wax.

Speaking of such issues in the United States, two assumptions apply in connection with unwanted sexual advances.

  1. The crimes were more evil when the victims were under eighteen years of age.
  2. If the alleged perpetrator was punished through jail time, job loss or fining, he was guilty.

That is not to say the alleged perpetrator wasn’t guilty if he wasn’t punished, but mere accusations are less conclusive indicators of guilt than actual punishment. And yes, lack of punishment can also indicate how powerful the alleged perpetrator was when the allegations surfaced.

Here’s an alphabetical list of the most famous American alleged perpetrators of unwanted sexual advances:

Roger Ailes, Woody Allen, Mario Batali, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Louis C.K., John Conyers, Jr., P. Diddy, Jeffrey Epstein, Mark Foley, Al Franken, Matt Gaetz, Dennis Hastert, Michael Jackson, Brett Kavanaugh, R. Kelly, Matt Lauer, Roy Moore, Larry Nassar, Billy O’Reilly, Bob Packwood, Kevin Spacey, Jerry Sandusky, Clarence Thomas, Strom Thurmond, John Tower, Donald Trump, George Tyndall, Mike Tyson, Anthony Weiner, Harvey Weinstein.

In the United States, the causes of sex crimes are of course, complex and fraught with political, cultural and social hysteria.

The ongoing hysteria is more lucrative than prevention. Sex crimes create business for: lawyers, therapists, the media (including social media), the medical industry, the justice system, law enforcement, and politicians. Also, who is still largely in charge of these parties? And what is the gender of all of the alleged perpetrators listed above? Arguably, preventing sex crimes threatens America’s paternalistic society.

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Right-Wing Hate – BONUS POST

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This is what president Donald Trump is singing in the throes of his dementia.

RIGHT-WING HATE

sung to the tune of “Norwegian Wood” with apologies to the Estate of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and to whomever else the rights may concern.

I, still have the world, or should I say, it still has me.

I’ll, own all states soon.

Isn’t it great, Right-wing hate?

You’re going to beg me to stay,

and my name will be everywhere.

I’m litigating ’cause my foes are so unfair.

I’m, planning with Musk, biding my time, tweeting his lines.

We, talk of our coup, and then he says, I need my meds.

He told me his AI does porn and started to laugh.

I said I hope you skate, but I am taking a bath. And no one need vote.

This is my throne. Fox echoes my tone.

Oh, liberals are liars. Isn’t it great, Right-wing hate?

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A German Generation

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The Book of the Week is “A German Generation, An Experimental History of the Twentieth Century” by Thomas A. Kohut, published in 2012. This hodgepodge of a volume alternated essays with personal stories of Germans coming of age during the Nazi Era.

After WWI, the German government brainwashed people into thinking the Versailles Treat was outrageously unfair to Germany. The government pushed extreme nationalism to make Germany (the “fatherland”) great again by trying to take back the territories (in Denmark, Czechoslovakia and Poland) it had occupied during the war. The Weimar Republic (1919 – early 1933) was chaotic, with lack of strong leadership to quell rioting and appease striking workers in Berlin amid sky-high inflation in 1923.

The Third Reich (early 1933 – May 1945)– father figures– encouraged kids, and former soldiers who were politically right-wing, rabidly anti-union and anti-socialist to join youth and social groups in which ability to withstand hardships would prove their masculinity.

All through the 1920’s, and 1930’s, both boys and girls in those groups, mostly middle class, went hiking and camping together, but shunned sex, alcohol and tobacco. The groups sang mostly military and hunting songs, played games and danced. Every couple of years, numerous groups got together, marching in uniforms, flying flags. They thought of themselves as self-starters, but nonpartisan. However, in 1932, all bets were off, as the Hitler Youth swallowed up all the other youth groups. Some people quit their group, as they recognized what a power-hungry megalomaniac Hitler really was, and didn’t like him.

There were various political factions, each with a different ideology: the two major factions wore brown (Nazis) or red (Communists). The National Socialist (Nazi) Party initially encouraged the cooperation of economic classes, and rewarded people pursuant to their accomplishments rather than pursuant to their good luck when they were “to the manor born.”

People volunteered to live communally, doing farm or household chores at work collectives in the countryside for a few months at a time. Teenage boys who had completed apprenticeships but couldn’t find work were sent there to keep them off the streets and out of trouble. Eventually, a stint in a collective became mandatory for everyone until 1933, when the collectives were disbanded. The Hitler Youth encouraged fierce competition in sports, music and work, and demanded blind obedience to rigid rules in a tattle-tale environment. There was extreme societal pressure to join the Hitler Youth, and when one got older, the Nazi Party.

In the first half of the twentieth century, there were paradoxes with regard to females’ roles in German society. They got the vote in 1919. In the mid-1930’s, they took on domestic responsibilities of the men who were drafted into the military. But the women were still expected to do housework and child-rearing. Through the 1930’s, the Nazi Party gave monetary incentives to encourage Aryan Germans to get married and have children, to help perpetuate the “master race.”

“The Gestapo strategy of focusing on target groups and leaving ordinary Germans alone continued during the war, although the pressure on ‘enemies of the people’ and on ‘community aliens,’ especially Jews, was increased.” Sounds familiar.

Read the book to learn many more details about: the experiences and mentalities of the Germans from the 1920’s onward; the yawning generation gap after the war; how the Germans were brainwashed by propaganda into cooperating among themselves while behaving fiercely competitively toward their perceived enemies (which included specific individuals in their own communities!), to coming together again, while rationalizing away their lack of courage in communication and action to stem the hatreds in their society.

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Jeffrey Epstein – BONUS POST

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Two cliches are ever-present, but hardly ever heeded in politics:

A man is known by the company he keeps.

When you lie down with dogs, you get fleas.

One Bertrand Russell quote in connection herewith bears repeating:

“There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.”

Here’s a song that elaborates further on the Jeffrey Epstein story, that is trotted out during every slow-news period, forever teasing but never exhibiting closure.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN

sung to the tune of “San Francisco” with apologies to Estate of Scott McKenzie and to whomever else the rights may concern.

If you’ve been outed with Jeffrey Epstein,

be sure to retain attorneys, top tier.

If you’ve been outed with Jeffrey Epstein,

you’re gonna have, your reputation smeared.

For those who were with Jeffrey Epstein,

assignations, MIGHT soon be reVEALED.

In the sleaze of Jeffrey Epstein, powerless people cowered AT his force and fear.

All across the nation, such tabloid titillation. Evil actions.

There’s a whole population denying participation, in evil actions, evil actions.

For those who were with Jeffrey Epstein,

be sure to retain attorneys, top tier.

If you’ve been outed with Jeffrey Epstein,

assignations, MIGHT soon be reVEALED.

If you’ve been outed with Jeffrey Epstein,

assignations, MIGHT soon be reVEALED.

Featured

TACO Donald – BONUS POST

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A study cited in Dan Pink’s book entitled When asked different groups of subjects to evaluate the overall moral character of a fictional man who was hypothetically their boss. Different groups were given different scenarios describing his awful and good behaviors. “Indeed, they [the subjects] evaluated a life with 29 years of treachery and 6 months of goodness the same as a life with 29 years of goodness and 6 months of treachery.” When the last 6 months were good, the subjects were forgiving, and seemed to forget the character’s past sins.

The above is just one tactic used by president Donald Trump. He is forever exploiting human nature. The following song elaborates further.

TACO DONALD

sung to the tune of “Rockin’ Robin” with apologies to the Estate of Michael Jackson and to whomever else the rights may concern.

[chanted:]

mislead, deny and cheat

mislead, deny and cheat

criminal is he

criminal is he

Fear. Fear. Atrocities.

His crock’s on the idiot box all day long,

smearing and flip-flopping and doing a lot wrong.

All his loyal servants on FOX and Wall Street,

read the teleprompter telling his supposed feats.

TACO Donald, block block block.

TACO Donald, sock sock sock.

TACO Donald’s a puppet of billionaires on the Right.

Taxpayers are the victims of the usual hypocrisy.

Even Donald’s cronies find him cringeworthy.

He is foul. He goes low. He acts like a king, raking in big dough.

TACO Donald, block block block.

TACO Donald, mislead deny and cheat.

TACO Donald’s a puppet of billionaires on the Right. bad bad

AI’s his known haven on FOX’s network.

His cronies front him, and tolerate his quirks.

He must face reality and then reverse his tone.

He gets friendly with his enemies to retain his throne.

His crock’s on the idiot box all day long,

smearing and flip-flopping and doing a lot wrong.

All his loyal servants on FOX and Wall Street,

read the teleprompter telling his supposed feats.

TACO Donald, block block block.

TACO Donald, mislead deny and cheat.

TACO Donald’s a puppet of billionaires on the Right.

AI’s his known haven on FOX’s network.

His cronies front him, and tolerate his quirks.

He must face reality and then reverse his tone.

He gets friendly with his enemies to retain his throne.

His crock’s on the idiot box all day long,

smearing and flip-flopping and doing a lot wrong.

All his loyal servants on FOX and Wall Street,

read the teleprompter telling his supposed feats.

TACO Donald, block block block.

TACO Donald, sock sock sock.

TACO Donald’s a puppet of billionaires on the Right.

mislead, deny and cheat

mislead, deny and cheat

mislead, deny and cheat

Fear. Atrocities.

Featured

The Long Gray Line

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The Book of the Week is “The Long Gray Line, The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1965” by Rick Atkinson, published in 1989. The author followed a handful of men who happened to attend West Point in the thick of the Vietnam Era. He detailed their adventures during and after their military training.

The nation’s situation in the early 1960’s, economically, politically, philosophically, and socially were described thusly:

  • At the end of Fiscal Year 1962, which ended at the end of June, the federal deficit totaled more than $7 billion.
  • Influential national and military leaders such as JFK, LBJ, Douglas MacArthur and William Westmoreland inspired an eagerness in the young American male to risk his life for his country in fighting America’s enemies. “A West Pointer’s place was at the front, even in a conflict [such as Vietnam] where there was no front…” West Point taught him to trust the nation’s leaders and be nonpartisan; he wasn’t even registered to vote.
  • “Communism was bad; America, freedom, and West Point were good. That was the extent of his political philosophy.”
  • In early November 1963, West Point (Army) beat Air Force in the football game at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Those athletes who didn’t attend the after-game party, went bar-hopping on Rush Street. Because they were wearing their military uniforms, they were surrounded by adoring young females who bought them beer and bourbon.

The next decade would be one of expensive stupidities and disillusionment. There is insufficient space here to even summarize it all. But read the book to learn much, much more about how radically the nation changed when its leadership fooled a sufficient number of people into behaving in ways that resulted in an unnecessarily excessive amount of death, destruction and protestations.

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I Love Gravy – BONUS POST

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The following is what Trump’s handlers are singing to the American masses on his behalf, as Trump and his cronies continue to reap the gravy train.

I LOVE GRAVY

sung to the tune of “In the Navy” with apologies to The Village People and to whomever else the rights may concern.

My admin finds PLEasure, searches the world for treasure, makes money from technology. I have just begun to make our dreams all come true, pushing cryptocurrency.

My ICE is turning the tide. I boost our national pride. I’m savvy geopolitically. Vote with a GOP-slant, make a strong mid-TERM stand, or suffer economically.

I love gravy. Yes, dollar signs are all I see. I love gravy. Just keep calm and follow me. I love gravy. My party’ll take a stand, to back the gravy. I love gravy. I’ve got the whole world in my hands. I love gravy. Biden-has bankrupted our land. I love gravy. Biden was a swindling man. I love gravy. I love gravy. I love gravy.

[shouted: I’ll help you! I’ll help you! I’ll help you, get more loot!]

If you like to PAY tax, don’t you vote, just relax. Liberals waste your money FAST. I’ll stop the socialism-of-late. Welfare and homeless deserve our hate. I’LL make your wealth grow vast. Maybe you are TOO young to vote on election day. But read up on my candidates. I will make them incumbents, just wait. Then you’ll see my policies pay.

I love gravy. Yes, dollar signs are all I see. I love gravy. Just keep calm and follow me. I love gravy. My party’ll take a stand, to back the gravy. I love gravy. I’ve got the whole world in my hands. I love gravy. Biden-has bankrupted our land. I love gravy. Biden was a swindling man. I love gravy. I love gravy. I love gravy. I love gravy.

[the heckler’s spoken words are in italics and boldfaced]

I’ll help you! I’ll help you! I’ll help you, get more loot! Who me? I’ll help you! I’ll help you! I’ll help you, get more loot!

but, but, but… we’re all going underwater! Let’s see the books, man. I get sick even watching you on TV!

[Trump flips “the bird”]

I. Hate. You.

What are YOU going to do about our credit rating?

I. Hate. You. I. Hate. You.

I love gravy.

I love gravy. Yes, dollar signs are all I see. I love gravy. Just keep calm and follow me. I love gravy. My party’ll take a stand, to back the gravy. I love gravy. I’ve got the whole world in my hands. I love gravy. Biden-has bankrupted our land. I love gravy. Biden was a swindling man. I love gravy. I love gravy. I love gravy.

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With My Rise Only – BONUS POST

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“His method was to deliver at every opportunity a barrage of repetitious slogans and vilifications against all who were suspected of the slightest deviation from orthodoxy.”

-written by Arkady N. Shevchenko about Mikhail Suslov, Communist Information Bureau operative into the 1980’s

Apparently, the above quote can also apply to the current American president, Donald Trump, whose handlers’ AI software is singing the following on his behalf; ironically, through Fox’s opinion shows!

WITH MY RISE ONLY

sung to the tune of “For Your Eyes Only” with apologies to Sheena Easton, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

With my rise only, I make world peace.

With my rise only, the Dems’ fraud will cease.

I’ve SAVED the future, everything I’ve done is NEW.

America was hell, till I was elected by you.

With my rise only, only for you,

I do what no one else will do. America will stay free.

With my rise only, only for you.

My love of fighting for you is key.

Dems cause America’s bankruptcy.

Only by them. Only by them.

With my rise only, I meet all my goals.

You really know me. I root out all moles.

My second term’s still an open book.

There’ll be more great times.

Under the Democrats, there would be breadlines.

With my rise only, only for you,

I do what no one else will do. America will stay free.

With my rise only, only for you.

The bad guys who collide with me,

see the super hero side of me. Only for you.

With my rise only, only for you,

I do what no one else will do. America will stay free.

With my rise only, only for you.

***


Who’s the Commie, whose government owns the means of production, suppresses free speech and voting, and keeps his friends close and his enemies closer??

Further Readings – posts in this blog:

Shadows and Whispers, The Six Days of Yad-Mordecai, The Last Idealist [see ENDNOTE on the post’s bottom], Patriot Number One [see bullet points only], Ask a North Korean, Memoirs, Against the Grain

If you have the time to read tens of books, all of the books in the following categories are recommended: “History – Currently and Formerly Communist Countries” and “Politics – Systems”

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The Fifties

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The Book of the Week is “The Fifties” by David Halberstam, published in 1993. This slightly sloppily edited hodgepodge of a volume consisted of a compilation of the author’s journalism entries. As usual, there is nothing new under the sun. The decade was characterized by alpha males with hubris syndrome, egos pushing and shoving, in all areas of American life.

“He delighted in control of the political apparatus, and he started each day by meeting with a trusted aide from the secret police, who brought him up to date on gossip gathered from wiretaps.”

Actually, the above was written about Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista. For most of the 1950’s, he was the CIA’s friend. Until he wasn’t.

In connection with the Korean War, Douglas MacArthur exhibited “arrogance, foolishness, and vainglory… taking a small war that was already winding down and expanding it” to fight against Communist superpower China, so the war dragged on for two additional years; “he was to damage profoundly America’s relations with China…”

Matthew Ridgway helped save a few American soldiers’ lives by personally visiting all of them in South Korea to boost their morale, while MacArthur stayed in Tokyo, thinking of himself as king of the world. MacArthur thought it was Truman who was irrational. As is well known, about twenty years later, president Richard Nixon repaired America’s relationship with China, but prolonged the Vietnam War.

By the mid-1950’s, the evolution of the American labor movement had taken an ironic, hypocritical turn: Unions allowed Wall Street to invest their pension funds in the securities markets on their behalf.

In December 1955, the arrest of Rosa Parks was the last straw– prompting the Montgomery bus boycott. A bunch of factors came together, one thing led to another, spurring great political changes. Just a few included:

  • Parks was so emotionally tired of the oppression she and her fellow dark-skinned people suffered, she felt she had nothing to lose by rebelling.
  • Parks had friends in high places in the Civil Rights Movement.
  • Approximately three-quarters of Montgomery, Alabama public-bus riders were black, and of those, most were women who took buses across town to get to their jobs as servants in the white community.
  • The white community refused to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling.
  • The articulate Martin Luther King, Jr. became the public-relations leader of the Movement, which was nonviolent, and his religious crowd had more money than other groups in the black community.

The blacks outsmarted the whites in an end-run around taking public buses, by carpooling. Donations allowed the purchasing of new vehicles. White Montgomery officials had no clue about how fed up the blacks were with the conditions of apartheid, voter suppression, etc., so they didn’t know what to do when dissatisfaction reached critical mass.

In January 1956, police began arresting carpool drivers. The blacks shed their fears that they themselves would suffer retaliation for protesting, and owned their fighting-back as a point of pride. The Montgomery Advertiser newspaper was used as the local white politicians’ disinformation outlet. Nevertheless, after a while, the whole world was watching, as the boycott story spread like wildfire among hundreds of media outlets– mostly newspapers and TV stations.

The major influencers of the initial incident– Rosa Parks, MLK, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy– continued to behave in a mature manner, so the media sympathized with them. MLK Jr., remained a thorn in the side of the white community because he took a licking and kept on ticking. He was the recipient of a ton of hate mail, doxxing, death threats, fire-bombing of his residence, etc.

Anyway, another pivotal historical event occurred in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Governor Orval Faubus refused to allow segregation of a high school there in order to ensure his reelection. The orgy of hatred he unleashed, taught Southern politicians– George Wallace especially, “how to manipulate the anger with the South, how to divide a state by class and race, and how to make the enemy seem to be the media.”

Just as legislation is a tool that can be used to spread hatred, technology is a tool that can be used for nefarious purposes, too.

“Do you get the funny sort of sense that, so far, at least, there are no human candidates in this campaign?”

The above was written by Dean Acheson, addressing Harry Truman, about the 1960 presidential race, packaged by consultants. JFK won because he had the nicer-looking TV image. Nowadays, the candidates can be replaced by AI software, created by consultants.

Read the book to learn much more about both disturbing and progressive, seminal historical events, and the people who made them happen.

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I’ve Got Your Back – BONUS POST

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Currently, this is what president Donald Trump’s handlers are singing on his behalf.

I’VE GOT YOUR BACK

sung to the tune of “I Want You Back” with apologies to the Estate of Michael Jackson, the Jackson Five, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

[whining]

Let me protect you now.

I have the White House to myself.

My messaging’s turning around.

Fox’s smears and lies always helped me, stand out in my crowd.

I gave my enemies the knockout punch when that was all it took.

Now’s the right time for me, to massage the history books.

Ooh, believe me, forget all my rants. I’ll show you I’m good.

Won’t you please help me stay, king of the world.

America, I must try, to let you know, let-you-know, believe me.

I’m still in-no-cent of everything.

I’ve got your back. I do now. I’ve got your back. Ooh believe me. I’ve got your back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve got your back. Don’t you worry.

Trying to win my base’s love was one long reckless fight.

I need to show the world, that I know wrong from right.

Only cream and SOB’s, rise to the top.

In my conquest for the world, I never, ever stop.

Let me protect-you now.

Ooh, believe me, forget all my rants. I’ll show you I’m good.

Won’t you please help me stay, king of the world.

America, I must try, to let you know, let-you-know, believe me.

I’m still in-no-cent of everything.

You-you-you-you, you-you-you-you,

I-give you a lot, you-you-you-you, all you need, you-you-you-you, all you want. You-you-you-you, all you need.

Forget all my rants.

I’ll show you I’m good.

Ooh, believe me, believe me, believe me, forget all my rants. I’ll show you I’m good.

America, I must try, to let you know.

I’m still in-no-cent of everything.

Let me protect you. Forget all my rants. Ooh, I’ll protect you…

Featured

Red Carpet

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The Book of the Week is “Red Carpet, Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy” by Erich Schwartzel, published in 2022. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author described the interactions between the United States and China in connection with their movie and television industries, beginning in the 1990’s.

America seeks to profit in everything it does.

The Chinese government’s number one goal is to boost its national pride when selling video entertainment to end-users. The government therefore keeps a tight rein on the optics of its products– limits the stories of its public-private partnership’s shows to:

  • glorifying itself and its Communist Party history;
  • recounting its victimization at the hands of evil, Western powers and Japan with regard to militarism and trade in the 19th century;
  • glorifying superheroes who convey Communist ideology.

The Chinese government gets very offended when even one movie-line or one tweet implies that Tibet or Taiwan are not part of China. It censors story-characters who challenge authority, buck established order, or shake things up. It censors disparagement of China, adult themes of vice, religion, gruesome violence, ghosts and gays. China financially punishes the perpetrators– the entertainment companies. Because it can.

Another aspect of China’s video culture is rampant pirating of Western entertainment. Further, deals made with foreign countries to screen shows in China, are always financially superior for China. Contrarily, in various ways, China will curtail revenues for all parties if it sees that the foreign entities’ shows are too influential with Chinese viewers.

November 1994 saw the first American movies (made by Warner Brothers) shown in China. Even though in the next quarter century, foreign videos shown in China became China-fied, only Chinese people watch movies made in China. Americans aren’t watching movies made in China.

Beginning around 2014, China’s dictator Xi began to punish Chinse entertainment-industry dissidents. Between 2017 and 2020, America had 17 of the fifty highest-grossing movies of all time. China had 27.

China has begun to export its movies and TV shows to Kenya at a deep discount in order to push its ideology. But viewers enjoy American shows better. The younger generation yearns for the consumer goods they see on TV. Interestingly, Disney was one of the few American content-providers that didn’t portray Africa as a “lawless land of disease and despots.”

Read the book to learn many more details of how Hollywood became experienced at dealing with China in seeking to make money, while China played Hollywood, and how China is spreading its gospel to the African continent with the goal of world domination.

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The Budget Show – BONUS POST

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It’s a new year, and an old budget fight. In connection herewith: a song the Democrats are singing.

THE BUDGET SHOW

sung to the tune of a composite of the Muppet Show theme song, with apologies to Disney, Estate of Jim Henson and to whomever ever else the rights may concern.

[spoken by Kermit]

It’s the budget show, with our very special regular distraction: the football industry, yay!!

It’s time to face the music.

It’s time to-gaslight the Right.

It’s time to flirt with a shutdown,

on the budget show tonight.

GOP blames a flood of scapegoats.

It’s time we assess the Right.

It’s time to raise the cuts on the budget show tonight.

[Waldorf and Statler sing the next 4 lines; season 5]

We all agree to stay mum-here.

The half of it, you don’t KNOW.

It’s like a form of torture,

when we’re scandalized on our show.

To push for lower-cost healthCARE,

that’s what we’re here to do,

but with witch hunts and the-prez’s-cronies,

tax dollars are stolen from you.

[Kermit on getting things started below]

It’s time our media donors rePORted,

on how GOP’s sordid…

on the most Orwellian, Machiavellian,

averting-peaSANT-rebellion…

This is the ReCURring budget show!

[spoken] The budget show. Sponsored by powerless, law-abiding American taxpayers.

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The Tricks – BONUS POST

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BREAKING NEWS: The media are distributing a reality-show franchise, Reaganomics on Steroids, a GOP Production. Here’s the theme song.

THE TRICKS

sung to the tunes of “The Twist” and “Let’s Twist Again” with apologies to the Estate of Chubby Checker and to whomever else the rights may concern.

BUDget gaming, with accounting tricks.

Biden deFAMing, we get our kicks.

Reinforce the Trump brand, even more in ’26.

Ha, ha, tricks, gravy, ACA tricks. (round-and-turn-around)

Yeah, just trust our tricks. (We’re down and out.)

Come on, settle this, our last licks.

While Trump’s sleeping, and payroll’s ground down.

Yeah, profiteering leaping. Enforcers ain’t around.

The Dems we’re gonna nix, nix, nix, until we wear the House down.

Ha, ha, tricks, gravy, ACA tricks. (round-and-turn-around)

Yeah, just trust our tricks. (We’re down and out.)

Come on, settle this, our last licks.

Yeah, we all SEETHE, at the Dems’ wish list. USA NEEDS, a military mix.

We put poor Americans in hock. We don’t tax the rich.

Ha, ha, tricks, gravy, ACA tricks. (round-and-turn-around)

Yeah, just trust our tricks. (We’re down and out.)

Come on, settle this, our last licks.

AND THE SEQUEL:

Can’t resist again, like we did last summer.

Yeah, still we dish it out, like we did last year.

Don’t let foreigners, steal our Hummers.

Yeah, it’s tricks again, fixing time is here.

Defunding and defunding back and forth, we GO again.

Make them know we’re tough you KNOW, and then,

can’t resist again, like we did last summer.

Come on, still we dish it out, like we did last year. (tricks)

Can’t resist again, like we did last summer.

Yeah, still we dish it out like we did last year.

Don’t let foreigners, steal our Hummers.

Come on, it’s tricks again, fixing time is here.

Defunding and defunding back and forth we GO again.

Make them know we’re tough you KNOW, and then,

come on, can’t resist again, like we did last summer.

Yeah, still we dish it out like we did last year.

Come on, can’t resist again, like we did last summer.

Come on, it’s tricks again, fixing time is here.

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Trump’s Brain Is Hazy – BONUS POST

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It’s politics and business as usual in this slow-news-period holiday season. Here’s a ditty about that.

TRUMP’S BRAIN IS HAZY

sung to the tune of “Luck Be A Lady” with apologies to Estates of Frank Loesser, Frank Sinatra and to whomever else the rights may concern.

They should call out hazy Trump. There’s no room for doubt.

All times he has a very shady-like way of cutting out.

He dominates the GOP. His profiteering has been lush.

And yet, before his term is over, his brain is total mush.

He’s mute on serious matters, xenophobic he stays.

And so his foes just hope, he goes away.

Trump’s brain is hazy alright. Trump’s brain is hazy alright.

Trump’s brain was always lazy to begin with. Trump’s brain is hazy alright.

Trump owns militaRIES.

He’s like Soviets and Chinese.

He’s fronted by the gun-loving guys he’s been with.

Trump’s shady with his GOP.

Hegseth and Musk are Trump’s escorts.

Where’s healthCARE? The deficit’s not NICE.

Trump’s charade is distracting, delaying his doom,

as he sops up AI software’s adVICE.

He hardly keeps his party polite.

They’re never out of his sight.

They’re stuck with him lately. They’re mutually dependent.

Trump’s a charade tonight.

Trump owns militaRIES.

He’s like Soviets and Chinese.

He’s fronted by the gun-loving guys he’s been with.

Trump’s shady with his GOP.

Hegseth and Musk are Trump’s escorts.

Where’s healthCARE? The deficit’s not NICE.

Trump’s charade is distracting, delaying his doom,

as he sops up AI software’s adVICE.

He hardly keeps his party polite.

They’re never out of his sight.

They’re stuck with him lately. They’re mutually dependent.

Trump’s a charade, Trump’s a charade, where’s the 25th Amendment tonight?

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Our Gang

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The Book of the Week is “Our Gang (Starring Tricky Dick and His Friends)” by Philip Roth, published in 1971.

A satire of the Nixon administration, this was also a book-long rant. Major aspects of the then-political situation are so familiar now. There was an inflammatory passage of Nixon’s dim view of wounded veterans. Trump has taken a dim view of prisoners-of-war. The author wrote what Nixon was really thinking, about various crises he either exacerbated, or brought on himself.

Of all the presidents, Nixon and Reagan were the ones from whom Trump has copied the most. The author claimed Nixon said, “We’ve had foul language, we’ve had the cynicism, we’ve had the masochism and the breast-beating– maybe a big dose of innocence is just what this country needs to be great again.”

No American leader has been innocent, but Carter came close. Nixon’s war crimes were many times more evil than the repeated financial and more-likely-than-not sex crimes Trump has committed.

Deaths directly caused by Nixon’s war criminality cannot be reversed. Trump’s breakage of the American legal system can be reversed, over the next few decades.

But the repetition of Trump’s protestations of innocence have: 1) played a part in convincing some Americans that he’s the victim of witch hunts, and 2) desensitized others into acceptance of reality– quiet desperation over his overwhelming power and influence until his name fades from public memory.

Nevertheless, the author harps on Nixon’s thoughts regarding the anti-war protesters on his enemies list. Nixon called the protesters, “Boy Scouts” (perhaps for irony) but Trump spares no expletives in his labeling of anti-ICE protesters.

The author described Nixon’s method. The president received advice from a legal coach, a highbrow coach, and a military coach– on the three major crimes allegedly committed by the Boy Scouts: inciting to riot, tampering with the morals of minors, and corrupting the youth of the nation.

Then the gang came up with a short-list of people and groups to blame for the unrest: Hanoi, The Berrigans (religious brothers who influenced others to practice pacifism), The Black Panthers, Jane Fonda, and Curt Flood (a baseball player who sued MLB for racial discrimination). Trump has also smeared and retaliated against an endless number of scapegoats in his political career.

Nixon explained how he distracted Americans from his avoidance of addressing the nation’s serious problems. “It never fails– every time they start marching on Washington, I’m the one who has to leave town. Now does that make any sense to you? I’m the President…” Trump does the same thing, and furthers his profiteering, too.

Read the book to learn much more about Nixon’s take on previous administrations, and other dirty tricks in his play book.

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Legal Bills Suck- BONUS POST

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Trump has been the most litigious president in American history. Here’s a little holiday ditty about this.

LEGAL BILLS SUCK

sung to the tune of “Jingle Bell Rock” with apologies to Estate of Bobby Helms and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Legal bills, legal bills, legal bills suck.

Legal bills bring a deficit sting.

Trump’s suing and blowing taxpayer funds.

Now the legal bills weigh a ton.

Legal bills, legal bills, legal bills suck.

Legal bills’ times,

add up and climb.

Trump’s suing and screwing, taxpayers, here.

These are costly years.

What a frightening time,

it’s the Right’s crime,

to suck our wealth away.

GOP time is a swell time

to blame Biden in infinite ways.

Hurry up, judges, courts–reject tariffs complete,

or Trump will pass the buck.

We’ll fix his tricks so the poor can eat.

Trump’s legal bills suck.

Legal bills, legal bills, legal bills suck.

Legal bills’ times,

add up and climb.

Trump’s suing and screwing, taxpayers, here.

These are costly years.

What a frightening time,

it’s the Right’s crime,

to suck our wealth away.

GOP time is a swell time

to blame Biden in infinite ways.

Hurry up, judges, courts–reject tariffs complete,

or Trump will pass the buck.

We’ll fix his tricks so the poor can eat.

Trump’s legal bills, Trump’s legal bills, Trump’s legal bills suck.

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Do You Know What I’ve Done – BONUS POST

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This is what Trump was singing when his thinking was lucid.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT I’VE DONE FOR THE USA?

sung to the tune of “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” with apologies to Dionne Warwick and to whomever else the rights may concern.

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

I’ve been prez so long. I did it right, I again made us great.

Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

I’ve given us all peace of mind in the USA.

My beautiful bill is a great big giveaway.

I put illegals down and raised the bar.

In all my years, I’ve always been a star.

I made world peace. How great is that?

And all those losers, who never-were,

can get their funds cut-off and kiss my ass.

Criminals make me seethe in the USA.

We’re going to conquer space.

The White HOUSE is where I’ll stay.

I was born and raised in the USA.

I sent bad people away from the USA.

Fame and fortune, I’ve achieved in my life.

I’ll show you how to do it, TOO.

Buy my stuff, donate to the GOP, do what I do.

The Dems will turn to dust and blow away,

but if you want, to be my friend, you’ll get rich and happy right away.

I’ve got lots of friends in the USA.

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

My beautiful bill is a great big giveaway.

I put illegals down and raised the bar.

In all my years, I’ve always been a star.

I made world peace. How great is that?

And all those losers, who never-were,

can get their funds cut-off and kiss my ass.

I’ve got lots of friends in the USA.

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

Can’t wait to do more for the USA.

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough…

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Martin Van Buren

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WARNING: VERY LONG POST

The Book of the Week is “Martin Van Buren, America’s First Politician” by James M. Bradley, published in 2024.

In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author recounted many of the historical events to which Van Buren was witness in his lifetime. Throughout, the reader can see the evolution of American politics, and how some bad situations have become reversed, and others have stayed the same or gotten worse.

Van Buren was born in December 1782 in Kinderhook, New York State, now a part of Columbia county, a couple of hours’ drive north of New York City. For most of his teenage years, he was apprenticed to an attorney. His preliminary training was spent in a version of “night court” in a tavern– the courthouse of his generation.

Republicans were the “bleeding heart liberals” of the 1800’s, while the Federalists were the free-market capitalists who believed the country should be governed by a centralized authority. Van Buren began his political career as a Republican. Nevertheless, he accumulated great wealth while practicing law. There were wealthy politicians who bought the votes of the lawmakers to make themselves richer. He became one of them through the decades. Back in the day, there were no campaign finance laws, so no one was required to disclose any information on campaign donations.

Van Buren was elected New York State senator, and began his first term in November 1812. The governor of New York State appointed him to be that state’s attorney general in early 1815. Politics were fickle, so his job security was poor. At the same time, he was allowed to finish his term as senator before starting the attorney general job. By December 1821, the Republicans were the only political party in the United States.

In the last half of the 1820’s, Congress frequently succeeded in opposing president John Quincy Adams’ initiatives. For months, senator Van Buren and his cronies fought against one initiative Adams managed to push through: funding for a diplomatic trip to Panama, to make nice with various countries in South America. Adams and his vice president Henry Clay (of the Whig party he founded in the mid-1830’s) had wasted resources on this project that ended up a bust anyway, because a few of the key diplomats passed away. Meanwhile, Van Buren had been building a bipartisan coalition to oppose his political enemies on hot-button issues such as race and slavery.

In the early 1800’s, ninety percent of federal revenue came from tariffs, as a federal income tax wouldn’t be levied until 1913. Various parties were hurt or helped by those tariffs. New York City’s business stakeholders, as did the southern states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama, mostly agricultural, were hurt. Commercial entities located around the Erie Canal, and states in New England began to favor tariffs as they built new factories. At the dawn of the 1830’s, the federal government was able to purchase its own Treasury bills and pay off its debt entirely.

At the same time, President Andrew Jackson, claiming it was an anti-corruption measure, imposed a policy of mandatory turnover of federal office holders every four years. Only about ten percent of the workforce was affected, but drawbacks included: disruption of corporate culture and loss of institutional memory in the workplace, so that new hires had to re-invent the wheel, and the replacement-workers would likely be inexperienced. Jackson later named his party the Democrats.

In 1836, Van Buren ran for president as a Democrat. He was the only candidate on the ballot at the Convention in Baltimore. Separate states were allowed to push various Whig-party candidates, and they did, so they all became spoilers of one another.

Then then-philosophy had been to leave the economy alone, and not grant bailouts. President Jackson’s Democrats blamed the banks on hard times. But after the president himself enacted banking legislation, that wouldn’t fly. A financial crisis hit the fan in 1837. Van Buren’s presidency was the first in which ordinary Americans blamed the bad economy on the federal government.

President Van Buren proposed an Independent Treasury– a federal entity that would simply be a conduit for collecting federal revenue and paying bills. It should be unconnected to commercial and savings banks, which were proft-seeking and had to answer to shareholders. It should not be subjected to political meddling.

Nonetheless, the politicians were greedy hypocrites all, of both parties. Ordinary Americans of course, were brainwashed by propaganda, and didn’t know the half of it. The legislation for the Independent Treasury was finally passed in June 1840.

By the late 1830’s, America’s government consisted of a two-party system. The party that was out of power trashed the one in power. But, presidential candidates didn’t travel around campaigning. They promoted themselves by writing letters that got published in various newspapers (which were partisan). Whig candidate William Henry Harrison broke tradition by traveling around the country, smearing Democrat Van Buren.

Read the book to learn much, much, much more about Van Buren’s life and times.

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Reagan – BONUS POST

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Trump is obviously ruminating on his legacy at this time. He’s trying to out-Reagan Reagan in terms of instilling fond memories in his base’s hearts and minds. Below is what Trump was secretly singing when his thinking was lucid.

Trump is praising the president he most imitated, and with whom he had the most in common. He:

  • passed big tax cuts;
  • sent US troops and law enforcement on international and national adventures because he believed in “might makes right” in the name of national security;
  • was extremely focused on maintaining America’s worldwide hegemony and dominance at the expense of catastrophic environmental damage;
  • has symptoms of senility which his handlers are hushing up– they’re implementing his messaging and policies on his behalf.

REAGAN

sung to the tune of “Woman” with apologies to the Estate of John Lennon and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Reagan, I was so impressed

with your ideology and cleverness.

After all, I’m forever in your debt.

And Reagan, I will do no less,

in my dealings and dominance.

You taught me, the scheme for success.

Ooh, al-so, I sue-sue-sue, sue, sue.

Ooh, al-so, I sue-sue-sue, sue, sue.

Reagan, I hope you understand, why I rile up my fellow men.

Please remember, their lives are in my hands.

And Reagan, you were close to my heart.

But as presidents, we were far apart.

After all, I’ll be a bigger star.

Ooh, al-so, I sue-sue-sue, sue, sue.

Ooh, al-so, I sue-sue-sue, sue, sue.

Reagan, you were consistently plain.

My style is to cause sorrow and pain.

And I will do it again and again and again.

I’ll outlast you-ou ou, yeah, yeah. Now and forever.

I’m above you ou-ou, yeah, yeah. Now and forever.

I’ll outlast you-ou ou, yeah, yeah. Now and forever.

***

But Reagan was pre-internet. In the Trump Era, just as electronic words can globally, instantaneously appear, they can be changed, or disappear. Electronic historical revisionism is easier, faster and more environmentally friendly than book-burning. It remains to be seen whose propaganda will prevail as conveyed by the latest technology, in the next century.

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Between Two Fires

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The Book of the Week is “Between Two Fires, Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia” by Joshua Yaffa, published in 2020.

In this volume, the author described various workers in entertainment, tourism, war, religion and humanitarian aid– under Vladimir Putin’s reign. In order to avoid getting arrested or worse, the subjects needed to play well with the government, which funded a large percentage of their activities. Each of their stories was chronologically disorganized, wordy and redundant, but the author clearly conveyed their plights and mentalities.

Putin came to power when Boris Yeltsin resigned at the beginning of the year 2000. Shortly thereafter, Putin’s government took over the media, forcing a mogul (whose TV channel could reach as much as 98% of Russian households which had a TV set) to sell his media empire to the State (the Russian government).

In the late 1990’s, the site of a closed Russian prison called Perm-36 was turned into a museum whose curators tried to inform the public about crushing oppression suffered by Cold-War Era Soviet dissidents there. After Putin had come to power, German university students who believed in the cause of democratic freedoms, volunteered to do maintenance work on the site.

However, they got offended when a former prisoner was forgiving and even behaved in a friendly manner toward a former guard, who had become a security officer at the museum. The German’s were “bound by strict, categorical norms, an ethical prism born [sic] of Germany’s admirable– if often inflexible– attitude toward totalitarianism and those who serve it. A political prisoner and his guard should not shake hands, and from that flows a whole way of seeing the world.”

The former prisoner explained: The guard had been young and therefore impressionable, easily brainwashed into rationalizing that he was simply following orders as a messenger, putting prisoners into solitary confinement. The guard didn’t directly kill anyone; he was subjected to the same drab environment and fed the same food as the prisoners.

On the immorality / morality spectrum, no one’s perfect. Nevertheless, it appears that, in human history, the kinds of people who are evil– on the extremely immoral end– have become dictatorial world leaders in disproportionate numbers.

The author spoke with a local “fixer” in the war in Chechnya in the 2010’s. She served as messenger, bailed dissidents (anti-government rebels) out of jail, and aided journalists covering the war. She had adopted a kind of pragmatism– cooperating with the administration of the Soviet-appointed leader of Chechnya– even though he and his ilk brought genocide, atrocities and crushing oppression to her people.

For approximately the first decade of Putin’s dictatorship, ordinary Russians’ living standards improved due to modernization, plentiful oil, and an increase in consumer goods in the stores. They also enjoyed religious liberalization (except for Western Christian and Catholic worshipers– those denominations competed too much for congregants with the Russian Orthodox Church). Freedom rang until it didn’t, as Putin’s hunger for, and amassing of power got him “reelected” as supreme leader in 2012. From then on, under Putin– Russia’s, Crimea’s and Ukraine’s leadership became Stalinist all over again.

At any rate, like the United States media, the Russian media has its trivial distractions. A scandal, which the State investigated for two years, erupted when a contemporary art museum’s curator allowed an Azeri exhibit to feature children’s dolls in gruesome positions.

After a while, employees in many workplaces, couldn’t guess what would spark an inquiry from the authorities. There were neither written nor spoken rules on acceptable behavior. Of course, spies were everywhere, ready to arbitrarily wield power.

Read the book to learn much more about various workers in the Putin years.

Featured

Burning Question – BONUS POST

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In the last forty years, New Yorkers’ political subconscious has yielded the following:

  • two Jewish mayors (Koch, Bloomberg) had 3 terms each;
  • two mayors (Giuliani, de Blasio) with Italian names had two terms each;
  • two black mayors (Dinkins, Adams) had one term each.

How many terms do you think a Muslim mayor will have?

On a related plane, here’s a little ditty on the state of affairs of the leader of the United States.

TRUMP’S FREE OF TRUTH

sung to the tune of “Up On the Roof” with apologies to the Estate of Gerry Goffin, Carole King, The Drifters and their estates, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

When those liberals keep shutting Trump down,

and pesky laws are just too much for him to face,

he’ll use AI in front of Fox’s cameras,

and all his words will fall, right into place.

Free of truth he’s peaceful as can be.

And there his world of flacks executes his fantasies.

So when his brain is feeling tired-and-gone,

he’ll go where his GOP friends kiss his feet.

He’ll get far away from the irksome crowds

who’re asking tough questions from front-row seats.

Free of truth, that’s the only way he knows.

Luckily, his power allows him to make it so.

Trump’s free of truth.

All the time Fox puts on a show for free.

And you can help them re-write history.

He’s telling you, he’s making America a great paradise, that’s trouble-proof.

But if there’s someone shutting you down, why, it’s you know who.

Trump’s free of truth.

Featured

The Crazies

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This blogger skimmed “The Crazies, The Cattleman, The Wind Prospector, and A War Out West” by Amy Gamerman, published in 2025. The author made a very bad editorial decision not to include an index in this volume. With an index, it could have been a reference book, but instead, was a mishmash of the history of a family of ranchers in the Crazy Mountains, and brief biographical descriptions of the stakeholders and their activities in a decades-long fight over a renewable-energy project in Montana.

As an aside, in the past decade or so, journalists who publish books are getting sloppier and lazier than ever. It appears that they slap together the articles on a specific topic that they’ve written over a number of years, and fail to edit and organize those articles in a coherent way. And the book gets published, as is.

Anyway, in June 2004, a wind-farm entrepreneur named Marty Wilde oversaw the construction of a wind tower on a Montana ranch owned by the Jarrett family, on behalf of the company named Crazy Mountain Cattle. That tower took all kinds of measurements of the copious wind in the area, for more than a year. Then a wind map was made. Wilde had to front all expenses until the wind-farm was actually built before he could collect a developer’s fee and royalties– which could take years, decades, or not happen at all.

Building a wind farm involves an extremely complicated set of steps involving the law, politics, economics and the environment. In the mid-single-digit 2000’s, part of the wind-farm was to be built on land where lived the Blackfeet Tribe, Native Americans. Thanks to a grant Wilde secured from the US Department of Energy, the Tribe’s community college had most of its 100-kilowatt electricity bill (charged by the Glacier Electric Cooperative) paid for using a wind turbine donated by a California company called Vestas. The school’s students were employed to erect that turbine on its campus. That was still one of the early steps in terms of a full-fledged wind farm.

In 2008, the original plans called for eighty megawatts to deliver electricity to twenty-six thousand homes. But Marty Wilde and Rick Jarrett needed buy-in from Jarrett’s neighbors.

Read the book to learn how Wilde and Jarrett fared– their triumphs and setbacks, in connection with laws, legal rulings, and actions from all the numerous people and parties up until the book’s writing, that basically involved redistribution of wealth among the wealthy lawyers and their clients (excepting Rick Jarrett, who found he couldn’t make a living ranching). As usual, curious things will happen when there’s dishonor among thieves.

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Oh Yes, Trump’s Got Flunkies – BONUS POST

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Here’s the current political situation in America.

OH YES, TRUMP’S GOT FLUNKIES

sung to the tune of The Monkees TV theme song, with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

Round the world, Trump-flies on Air Force One.

All his profiteering, is never done.

Oh yes, Trump’s got flunkies.

His flunkies enable his rule.

They are always busy, screaming his enemies are fools.

Foreign countries are friendly, distracting from the shutdown here.

He’s cheating our young generation, of democracy we hold so dear.

Oh yes, Trump’s got flunkies.

You never know where he’ll be found.

So you better get ready, America’s bankruptcy-bound.

Featured

Mad House

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The Book of the Week is “Mad House” by Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater, published in 2025.

This volume focused on the shenanigans involving Mike Johnson’s eventually becoming the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives during Donald Trump’s first and Joseph Biden’s terms. Children masquerading as lawmakers, due to a razor-thin GOP majority in the House, acquired a disproportionate amount of power.

“The ‘little bitch’ remark became an emblematic moment of the Congress: two MAGA mean girls [Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene] fighting loudly on the floor of the House, over who had the right to call a baseless, attention-seeking impeachment of [Joseph] Biden her own.”

The GOP has mastered saying all the right things– infuriating and depressing their base in a way that spurs them to vote. The GOP’s emotional messaging is most powerful because they cause their base to lose sleep. They resort to ad hominem attacks– more memorable than logical, reasonable, sensible, factual, rational arguments. Columnist Dorothy Thompson wrote in late 1944 (in reference to the decimating of Germany’s ability to make war again): “Hate is an emotion that should be confined in the heart. When it rises to the brain, the result is insanity.”

The GOP targets people in the middle of this political-emotional spectrum; the unhappy voters. Some members of this middle group protest in the streets. They revel in their anger together. Misery loves company. The media focuses on street protesters, regardless of their party, because they garner high ratings. But it’s impossible to prove how much this kind of activist accomplishes, if anything.

As an aside, activists accomplish nothing if they’re not attention whores, as the squeaky wheel gets the grease. However, there are very few concrete examples of activists who are able to prove they got legislation passed. None directly led protests in the streets without lots of additional campaign activity. Three from the past include Estes Kefauver, Saul Alinsky and Ralph Nader. To begin with, they were all white males, so they were necessarily more influential than other kinds of people. They had very specific goals, and the nation was ready to buy into their ideas.

Returning to the political-emotional spectrum: on one extreme end, are the joyful simpletons. They are happy because they are blissfully unaware of what’s going on in the world. They stay away from news on governmental goings-on, and don’t vote. Or if they do vote, they don’t think too much about for whom they’re voting, which has recently been for Republicans. For, they’ve been influenced by talking with people they know and trust, who are targeted by the GOP. Case in point: The late comedian George Carlin (a non-voter) joked, “I didn’t even leave the house on election day!”

The people on the opposite end of the spectrum, voraciously read books in order to think critically about how voters get brainwashed by candidates, a multi-disciplinary body of knowledge: psychology, sociology, history, economics, etc. They do not worry because they take the long view of history and have faith that the worm will turn. Their philosophy is, there’s nothing new under the sun and this, too, shall pass. They’re the kind who vote, but they’re loyal to neither party. They’re very cynical, but they don’t get too upset about misbehaving leaders, either. For, John Maynard Keynes said, “In the end, we’re all dead.”

In recent decades, when covering the U.S. government, the media has given disproportionate attention to the said children. There appears to be more of a focus on females, as they are still just getting their sea legs in politics. BUT, in covering their cat-fights, the media’s ulterior motives are to draw high ratings, and set the women’s movement back decades! The owners and top executives of the American media oligarchy are still mostly men. Sure, there are lots of overpaid female noisemakers– talking heads– appearing on the idiot box now, but ordinary American women are still way behind in terms of equality in so many areas of everyday American life.

The authors named names of flip-floppers– politicos who sold out and joined Trump’s crowd in order to continue their political careers (in alphabetical order):

Lauren Boebert, Tom Emmer, Nancy Mace, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Chip Roy, Steve Scalise, Michelle Steel, Elise Stefanik, and Marjorie Taylor Greene

Karni and Broadwater also listed the principled few who resigned rather than sell out to a dictator. The petty, vengeful and mean-of-spirit Matt Gaetz and his followers sought to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (described as “a sensitive grudge holder”), but had no plans for the aftermath when they met with success.

All through the autumn of 2023, Republicans were trying to get their act together. Steve Scalise (a “secretive backstabber”) threw his hat into the ring. Also running for the position of House Speaker– Jim Jordan, who had supporters who made death threats against his political enemies and their families. Jordan never apologized for the trauma he caused.

Democrats didn’t want to see Jordan become Speaker, because he would put the kibosh on aid to Ukraine, and they would have to fight over the budget bill again. He wasn’t a good candidate for Speaker anyway, because he wasn’t holding anyone hostage for political favors, and he hadn’t “paid his dues” in terms of experience.

Read the book to learn much more about yet another tabloidy episode in American politics.

Featured

Donald TACO – BONUS POST

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As is well known, celebrities’ names endure through decades or centuries when entertaining poems, songs and other such propaganda are written about them. Here is one about Donald Trump (aka Donald TACO ).

DONALD TACO

sung to the tune of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” [also, the Beverly Hillbillies TV theme song], with apologies to Disney and to whomever else the rights may concern. There are various versions– with different verses and lyrics.

Born a Baby Boomer in New York’s Queens,

with the real-estate- biz in its-infancy.

Daddy gave him the goods,

so he held every key.

He became a slum lord, when he was only three.

Donald, Donald TACO,

naming the wild frontier.

Through the decades, he fought legal wars,

till his biz-opponents FLIPPED,

and his credit was restored.

Lawyers and PR handled this, risky-chore.

He made himself a legend, forever more.

Donald, Donald TACO,

whitewashing history.

When he lost Atlantic City, golfing was his victory-lap.

He wrote a few books. His deal-school turned to crap.

Even while in hiding, he kept greatness on tap.

He invented New York City, on the map.

Donald, Donald TACO, avoiding jail free and clear.

While building his homes, his golfing never done.

When the Apprentice firings had just begun,

he plotted with his lawyers and his hired guns,

and lit out a smearin’ to have political fun.

Donald, Donald TACO,

the leading dictator here.

His name is biggest.

Now he needs a rest,

from real-estate-to-show-biz,

to the political crest.

He just recently passed the world-peace test.

His propaganda and dominance,

are the best.

Donald, Donald TACO,

king of this occupied sphere.

King of this occupied sphere.

Featured

Crazy Town

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The Book of the Week is “Crazy Town, The Rob Ford Story” by Robyn Doolittle, published in 2014.

In this volume, the author described political shenanigans before, during and after a mayor of a major world-class city was caught: on video committing a shocking act, behaving badly, spouting inflammatory nonsense, and palling around with criminals. Canadian-style.

These cobbled-together writings of Doolittle, an investigative journalist, were chronologically disorganized and thus became redundant, but she did take a lot of trouble to fact-check and make the story suspenseful.

Rob Ford was born into a wealth family in May 1969 in a Toronto suburb. He and his siblings spent their own money to get him elected to the city council in 2000. For more than a decade, he amassed a grass-roots base of supporters whom he helped personally. Ford remained a “loose cannon” even after he and his siblings hired political consultants to advise him on how to get elected mayor of Toronto in 2010. He promised voters he would minimize taxes, cut the budget on subsidies of events and programs of a cultural nature, and cancel an already-in-progress, above-ground, light-railway project to plan and build a subway project instead.

In early 2011, Ford could brag that he had balanced Toronto’s budget without service reductions or tax increases. However, he got away with that only because he was coasting on surpluses from his predecessor’s prior years. By autumn, he was forced to propose budget cuts. As of spring 2012, “According to three former staff members and a close confidant, senior staff had been trying to get Ford into rehab for more than a year. They believed his drinking was affecting his job.”

The author considered the aforementioned video, “the scoop of the century.” Really?? Political wrongdoing has become a cliche in the past couple of centuries, even for world leaders, not just mayors. It has become trivial in recent decades because people have become desensitized to it. The scoop of the century really ought to be breaking news of a truly world-changing event that is, for instance, associated with large-scale genocide and / or atrocities, such as Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the dropping of the atom bombs, or 9/11.

There are always going to be celebrity scandals, but global game-changers merit mention in the history books. They have big ideas behind them– although tabloid trivia is entertaining and a welcome distraction from infuriating and depressing politics.

Anyway, read the book to learn Ford’s entertaining story.

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Two Cronies in the Sun – BONUS POST

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As is well known, together, American president Donald Trump and Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an end to the war in Gaza. Here’s a little ditty about that.

TWO CRONIES IN THE SUN

sung to the tune of “Take the Money and Run” with apologies to the Steve Miller band, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

This here’s a story ’bout Donald Trump and Netanyahu,

two old leaders with nothing better to do, than abuse their power from on high and lie about their feats.

They got to keep their jobs when they decided to make peace.

In the public square, they shot their reality show.

That’s where they continued to polish their mythical glow.

Donald Trump claimed he stopped the Gaza war.

Netanyahu told everyone he won.

Two cronies in the sun,

two cronies in the sun

put their foes under the gun.

Peaceful society is done.

Fox News had their software at the scene.

They spliced together propaganda to make Trump look keen.

These two never answer to justice.

They wasted tons of their peoples’ taxes.

Netanyahu’s been immortalized forever and a day.

Donald Trump’s footnotes in history will never fade away.

They got their power, hey, they seized the day.

They own the world that they’re still running today.

Singing, two cronies in the sun

put their foes under the gun.

Peaceful society is done.

Two cronies in the sun

put their foes under the gun.

Peaceful society is done.

Two cronies in the sun

put their foes under the gun.

Peaceful society is done…

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Trump’s-Sweet Payback Time – BONUS POST

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As is well known, American president Donald Trump is thoroughly enjoying wreaking revenge on everyone who is on his enemies list. Here’s a little song about that.

TRUMP’S-SWEET PAYBACK TIME

sung to the tune of “Sweet Caroline” with apologies to Neil Diamond and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump’s always mad, he never fails to show it.

Who’d have believed he’d rule so long?

Fox helps this king, keeps his messaging humming.

Who’d have believed his base is so strong?

Plans, witch hunting plans. Reaching out.

Witch hunting me. Witch hunting you.

Trump’s-SWEET payback time.

Putdowns never seemed so crude.

Democrats will be kind,

to turn around the national mood.

But now, we, look at “Spy vs. Spy.”

The Right’s smearing’s so lowly.

Both sides fed up. It makes voters blue.

And the Left’s been hurt. The Right’s been growing colder.

Lately, what’s the Right done for you?

Force, witch hunting with force. Reaching out.

Witch hunting me. Witch hunting you.

Trump’s-SWEET payback time.

Putdowns never seemed so crude.

Democrats will be kind,

to turn around the national mood.

Oh no, no.

Trump’s-SWEET payback time.

Putdowns never seemed so crude.

Trump’s-SWEET payback time.

Putdowns never seemed so crude.

Trump’s-SWEET…

Featured

Bondi – BONUS POST

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As is well known, lately, Trump has been using U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi as a messenger in carrying out his policies. Here’s a song about that.

BONDI

sung to the tune of “Windy” with apologies to The Association, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Who’s sparking outrage in the streets of the cities

in Trump’s name of force and fear?

Who’s cashing in with others in the shutdown?

Everyone knows it’s Bondi.

Who’s asking for help of federal agencies,

firing the DOJ rivals she sees?

Who’s acting out of loyalty to her overlord?

Everyone knows it’s Bondi.

And Bondi violates hu-man rights.

And Bondi re-lates Trump’s lies.

And Bondi has Trump’s foes to indict,

to please her crowd, to please her crowd, to please her crowd, to please her crowd.

And Bondi violates hu-man rights.

And Bondi re-lates Trump’s lies.

And Bondi has Trump’s foes to indict,

to please her crowd, to please her crowd, to please her crowd, to please her crowd.

Who’s asking for help of federal agencies,

firing the DOJ rivals she sees?

Who’s acting out of loyalty to her overlord?

Everyone knows it’s Bondi.

Who’s asking for help of federal agencies,

firing the DOJ rivals she sees?

Who’s acting out of loyalty to her overlord?

Everyone knows it’s Bondi.

Who’s asking for help of federal agencies,

firing the DOJ rivals she sees?

Who’s acting out of loyalty to her overlord?

Everyone knows it’s Bondi.

Who’s asking for help of federal agencies,

firing the DOJ rivals she sees?

Who’s acting out of loyalty to her overlord?

Everyone knows it’s Bondi.

Who’s asking for help of federal agencies,

firing the DOJ rivals she sees…

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Let There Be Water

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The Book of the Week is “Let There Be Water, Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World” by Seth M. Siegel, published in 2015. For this redundant, wordy volume, the author obviously simply slapped together all his past articles on the subject, without regard to organizing them. His main message was: Hire Israel to provide expertise on water management– to save time, energy, and the earth!

Anyway, in Israel, all water ownership and usage is controlled by the government. Its socialist philosophy is: do the greatest good for the greatest number. Water is an essential resource for humans. Israel’s tiny geography and population allow its government to more or less dictate policies that minimize damage done by selfish, greedy people who hoard essential resources– much more easily than can a nation like the U.S.

In 1937, Levi Eshkol, Simcha Blass and their cronies co-founded and launched a water company called Mekorot. It became a capitalist entity in bed with Israel’s government, but profit can be a good motivator for spurring innovation, and improving people’s lives. Financial conflicts of interest can be forgiven in this case, as the water-entrepreneurs made significant positive contributions to the physical and economic health of the young nation, developing the best water-distribution method for farming.

Conservative Republican Americans would actually scream SOCIALIST!!! at such a system. It works in Israel. As is well known, such a system does not work in the United States because it encourages citizens to start entrepreneurial ventures via financial assistance while also taxing the super-rich on the back-end for having taken advantage of existing infrastructure and front-end incentives. In America, there is little to no taxing on the back-end for the super-rich.

Anyway, in 1949, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion struck a deal with Germany for the latter to pay WWII reparations for lost and stolen property of the Jews. Those funds, and donations by American Jews, through the next few decades, were spent on constructing water infrastructure, such as fault-tolerant water pipelines, environmentally friendly waterways, and waterfront tourist-attractions.

In the 1950’s, the Knesset began passing laws regulating the country’s water system. Israel’s geography, topography and meteorology are diverse from north to south, and present challenging desert-related conditions, so it’s complicated and expensive to deliver safe, reliable, available water to its citizens. The water experts found that recycling sewage by filtering it three different times and ways, made it potable. In 2008, the Israeli government began to make its people pay for the real cost of delivering their water.

Read the book to learn much more about Israel’s water expertise, and how it is changing the world.

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Behind the Charged Talk – BONUS POST

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Speaking of the current greedy, selfish leadership in the United States, here’s a song about it.

BEHIND THE CHARGED TALK

sung to the tune of “Under the Boardwalk” with apologies to The Drifters, their estates, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Oh, when the prez doubles down

and raises a stir just for a GOOF,

and opinion shows get so hot and tiresome,

you give up on hearing the TRUTH.

Behind the charged talk,

away from D.C., yeah,

on a junket with his golf clubs,

is where Trump’ll be.

Behind the charged talk,

Trump’s brain is done.

Behind the charged talk,

real issues, he’ll shun.

Behind the charged talk,

wild lies are spun.

Behind the charged talk,

Trump’s cronies have won.

Behind the charged talk, charged talk.

From talking-heads you hear

the oppressive clout of the president.

You can keenly feel the stark wrongs

the rich guys, commit.

Behind the charged talk,

away from D.C., yeah,

on a junket with his golf clubs,

is where Trump’ll be.

Behind the charged talk,

Trump’s brain is done.

Behind the charged talk,

real issues, he’ll shun.

Behind the charged talk,

wild lies are spun.

Behind the charged talk,

Trump’s cronies have won.

Behind the charged talk, charged talk.

Behind the charged talk,

away from D.C., yeah,

on a junket with his golf clubs,

is where Trump’ll be.

Behind the charged talk,

Trump’s brain is done.

Behind the charged talk,

real issues, he’ll shun.

Behind the charged talk,

wild lies are spun.

Behind the charged talk,

Trump’s cronies have won.

Behind the charged talk, charged talk.

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A Whole New Mind

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This blogger skimmed “A Whole New Mind, Moving From the Information Age to the Conceptual Age” by Daniel H. Pink, published in 2005. As this volume was published twenty years ago, there is now 20/20 hindsight as to the author’s futuristic, and in spots, propagandistic pronouncements.

Throughout the text, Pink sprinkled names of people, places and things, and recommended various websites, but he did not make clear which, if any, he was getting paid to mention. Also, he used the word “computers” when “software” is the more specific entity that is actually accomplishing the tasks he described.

Anyway, the author contended that the human brain is evolving so that there will be more right-brain usage than there used to be, although humans use both halves of their brains in everything they do. The right-brain does the face-recognizing, emotional, specialized, big-picture thinking. The left-brain uses a broad range of knowledge to perform language-oriented, serial reasoning.

Currently, humans are living in the Conceptual Age; they have been forced to become more and more creative for the purpose of survival. They have collectively acquired centuries of life-experience, so everything has become a cliche. Cutting-edge technology in communications and transportation has helped humans become hyper-aware of, and wise to difficult and dangerous situations. Thus, little by little, they’re starting to prevent or minimize damage from those situations.

The Conceptual Age was prompted by three major, worldwide conditions (that have developed over decades from numerous, complex causes):

  • Abundance (mostly the result of a capitalistic, competitive, profit-seeking– rather than a cooperative– environment),
  • Asia (at the time of the book’s writing, outsourcing was all the rage– the people of this continent’s countries were willing to work for lower pay than those in more hegemonic countries, but Pink failed to mention cultural clashes and linguistic misunderstandings; plus, they have a cooperative rather than competitive mentality in the workplace),
  • Automation (software is doing tasks that humans previously did).

Since the book’s writing, all three of the above have forced people to use more of their right-brain in creating and maintaining a higher number of incestuous trading and investing relationships among and between all different countries, especially Asia’s. But, a whole host of jobs still must be done by local employees, as they require a physical presence; those involving personal services and retail locations.

Pink wrote that in the future, two kinds of people will be valued: creators and empathizers. The innovative, revolutionary nature of the Internet has generated demand for creators, inspired humans to get imaginative and produce content.

But a major campaign in America was already underway to encourage young people to develop their right-brain, and of course, to try to maintain America’s economic dominance in the world. It is called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

With regard to empathy (feeling what another person feels– leading to compassion, care and uplift), the United States has an aging population and an incredible ability to monetize such behavioral trends. So, no worries, despite its current greedy, selfish leadership.

Read the book to learn more about the aforementioned subjects and others relating to the right-brain; including a list of further readings and websites containing online quizzes.

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The Acid Queen

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The Book of the Week is “The Acid Queen, The Psychedelic Life And Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary” by Susannah Cahalan, published in 2025.

Rosemary was born in April 1935 in Saint Louis. Her family changed residences frequently through her childhood. At the dawn of her thirties, she made a friend and lover in a high place, in the form of Timothy Leary. Born in 1920, he was famous by then for his advocacy of LSD. He was still married, but separated from his second wife.

In the second half of the 1960’s, wealthy heiress Peggy Hitchcock owned the humungous estate up in Millbrook, New York State, on which Leary led a socialist cult. His purported goal was to educate his disciples in improving their lives by using controlled substances. Those drop-outs from society consisted of tens of upper-middle-class whites who were rebelling against their bourgeois lifestyles.

Leary’s lawyer helped him and Rosemary weasel out of legal trouble with drug possession and tax evasion, in arguing that the drugs were a tool of their religion. In September 1966, they legitimized their religion as a church by completing the legal paperwork, naming it League for Spiritual Discovery. It was monotheistic, urging its parishioners to alter their consciousness with LSD on a weekly basis, and smoke marijuana on a daily basis.

That same month, Leary and Rosemary raised funds by putting on a psychedelic and spiritually uplifting show that involved performance art, special-effects and preaching (of a hybrid Christianity and Buddhism), at a theater in Manhattan for a sold-out audience of more than twenty-eight hundred. Although he was already way older than thirty, Leary appealed to disaffected, countercultural American youths, doing the talk-show circuit on the idiot box, and doing the lecture circuit on college campuses.

In January 1970, the Nixon administration passed an anti-drug law to harshly punish all the kinds of people (those protesting the Vietnam War; employees of communications outlets who were propagandizing about drugs– raising awareness of them, and their uses; and those who believed in a libertarian lifestyle) on the president’s enemies list.

Read the book to learn much more about Rosemary’s life, times and social circle.

Speaking of a president with an enemies list who is harshly punishing all kinds of people: The current one is doing so, but he himself has yet to be punished in a way that fits his decades’ worth of numerous crimes! Here’s a little song that depicts the tip of the iceberg.

THE CRIME GAME

sung to the tune of “The Name Game” with apologies to the Estate of Shirley Ellis and to whomever else the rights may concern.

The crime game.

Tax-cheating! Tax-cheating. Tax-cheating. System-beating. Funny-money. Secret meetings. Oh my. Fines-defeating. Tax-cheating.

Treason! Treason. Treason. Base appeasin’. Spying, lying. All season. Oh my. Justice-teasin’. Treason.

Come on everybody. This is the time. I bet you we can make a list, of a fraction of Trump’s crimes. Committing of the crimes, he vehemently denies. But courts and courts, and courts contain his lies. And then we say the crime, then repeat, then we say a rhyme, then a phrase, rhyme, and oh my. Then we say a rhyme again, and the crime a third time. Then the verse is done. We could do this all day and for all time. And there’s hardly a crime that we can’t rhyme.

Failed coup! Failed coup. Failed coup. Chaos grew. Uncivil drivel. Trump’s nasty crew. Oh my. Hatred ensued. Failed coup.

But all of Trump’s crimes helped him amass power. So he got rich and he makes people cower. Like. No prez. Before. He controls the vast network Fox. Like, everyone should be wary, wary. Together, they’re scary, scary. To truth and justice, he is contrary. Okay?

Now say libel. [libel] Now libel repeated. Now say a rhyme, [rhyme] and a phrase. Now say a rhyme another time, then oh my, and the rhyme another time. Then the crime. And there’s hardly a crime that we can’t rhyme.

Everybody do fraud!

Fraud. Fraud. Court see-sawed. Appeals-deals. Rulings flawed. Oh my. Trump’s base is awed. Fraud. Pretty good.

Let’s do conspiring!

Conspiring. Conspiring. Illegal-firing. Steam-rolling, controlling. RICO hiring. Oh my. Gets tiring. Conspiring. Very good.

Let’s do racketeering!

Racketeering. Racketeering. Lots of smearing. Plugs for thugs. Lots of hearings. Oh my. Trump’s base is cheering. Racketeering.

Saming with defaming.

Defaming. Defaming. Situation gaming. Jeering and sneering. Cruel nicknaming. Oh my. False blaming. Defaming.

The crime game.

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The Forgotten Founding Father

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The Book of the Week is “The Forgotten Founding Father, Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture” by Joshua Kendall, published in 2010.

Webster was born in October 1758 in western Hartford, CT. His 1778 Yale class consisted of forty graduates. In the 1780’s, he created a spelling and grammar primer for early childhood education that improved upon the then-standard text. It used phonics to teach pronunciation. He believed that Americans– who had recently declared their independence from Britain– should develop their own style of English, to differentiate themselves.

In 1782, beginning with Maine and Vermont, northeastern colonies passed laws on the copyrighting of original literary works. Even though the U.S. Constitution was ratified in June 1788, federal law superseded state law only after Congress passed a law granting a fourteen-year copyright term in 1790.

Throughout his life, Webster propagandized via publishing inflammatory, libelous, anonymous writings in the major newspapers in the states in which he lived– Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

Webster also was one of the first people to collect data on Americans. In 1785 and 1786, he traveled around the thirteen colonies and counted the number of homes (from a few hundred to a few thousand) in major cities. To financially support himself, he went on the lecture circuit. He was a capitalist at heart.

“Webster thus was counting on the Philological Society to help him cash in on the passage of the Constitution which suddenly improved the commercial prospects for his books.” He could sell his federally copyrighted book more efficiently with less competition, by arguing that standardized school curricula in all the states, would help unify the country.

However, around 1812, when Webster was elected as Representative in the Massachusetts statehouse, he reversed himself on Federalism, and instead advocated states’ rights. He jumped on the bandwagon in attempting to oust president James Madison. His political views were liable to change with his strategic interests– as do those of any opportunistic, power and money-hungry alpha male.

In late 1828, Webster’s American Dictionary, containing about seventy thousand words, was introduced to America. At the dawn of the 1830’s, “Having personally lobbied the executive and legislative branches of government, Webster did not neglect the judiciary. He was hoping to get the Supreme Court to unite behind a certificate in support of his dictionary.”

Read the book to learn about Webster’s other lifetime achievements, and his times.

As can be seen, there’s nothing new under the sun since Noah Webster’s generation. Here’s a song about that.

POLITICAL HEROES

sung to the tune of “Celluloid Heroes” (the long version) with apologies to The Kinks, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Every candidate’s a schemer, and every candidate is bought, and every candidate hires bullies. Most lie without a second thought. There are fixers at every level, from the White House to the streets. And you can read about their districts and political-wards. Their myths are written with every tweet.

Don’t be unfair to The Donald, as you review his sordid past. He was persistently hostile and agile. He amassed enough power to last. He attempted a coup with his cronies, and sat himself on a throne, but he ended up golfing and babbling, because his dictatorship got old.

You can see armored cars as you drive around their districts and political-wards, bigwigs who have LEGacies. Most you’ve never even heard of. They have their entourages and consultants and volunteers in their campaigns. The ones who succeed have the best public-relations brains.

President Donald Trump looks very vacant indeed. AI software does his public-addresses. HE can no longer lead.

Avoid disparaging Donald Trump or you’re in for a legal fight, and worship Donald Trump because his was such a glorious life.

If you said “Voting for him, you’re garbage,” Donald Trump would smear you good, and when you voted against Donald Trump, he cried “fraud!” and sent in his hoods.

Please don’t TREAD now on dearest Donald, ’cause he’s actually TACO, not tough. He should have begun younger in campaigning. Too bad he’s only made OF flesh and blood.

You can see armored cars as you drive around their districts and political-wards, bigwigs who have LEGacies. Most you’ve never even heard of. They have their entourages and consultants and volunteers in their campaigns. The ones who succeed have the best public-relations brains.

Every candidate’s a schemer, and every candidate is bought, and every candidate’s in show biz. Most lie without a second thought. And those who are successful are always on their guard. They’ve got lawyers, judges and thugs, in their districts and political-wards.

Political life is a nonstop soap-opera media show. An angry, nasty world of real-life villains and heroes.

Political heroes always personally gain. And political heroes seize-the-day in their TIME.

You can see armored cars as you drive around their districts and political-wards, bigwigs who have LEGacies. Most you’ve never even heard of. They have their entourages and consultants and volunteers in their campaigns. The ones who succeed have the best public-relations brains.

Political heroes always personally gain. And political heroes seize-the-day in their TIME.

Political life is a nonstop soap-opera media show. An angry, nasty world of real-life villains and heroes.

Political heroes always personally gain. And political heroes seize-the-day in their TIME.

Featured

His Majesty’s Airship

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“The New York Post wrote, ‘No more funds of American taxpayers [should] be squandered on these useless gasbags.’ “

The above is NOT a comment about the 2025 New York City mayoral candidates, but is a 1935 comment in reaction to the series of American airship crashes that killed hundreds of people.

The Book of the Week is “His Majesty’s Airship, The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine” by S.C. Gwynne, published in 2023. In this sloppily edited, chronologically disordered, wordy, redundant (but suspenseful) volume, the author recounts the history of airships through the late 1930’s.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the Germans racked up significant construction- and flying-expertise with regard to airships with rigid frames. However, they had an abysmal safety record. They papered that over with jingoistic propaganda. The 1910’s saw a few conditions established to make airship flights less risky: flying only in summer and in clear weather with only light winds.

There was a high risk of fire because the hydrogen that filled the airships is easily combustible with just one spark. Helium is less so, but was expensive and difficult to obtain or make, and the Americans controlled the small quantity that was easily accessible.

The German government got the idea that in the event of a war, it could destroy cities at night via airships much more efficiently than it could with ground troops. In WWI, its submarines were actually more effective, because Britain wised up quickly– training searchlights on the airships, and shooting them into fireballs. By 1917, warplanes had become superior to airships, even with their mechanical problems.

Anyway, the author went off on a tangent, detailing the life-histories of a few different royal family members– main characters in the airships story. One such character was Lord Christopher Birdwood Thomson. Beginning in spring 1924, he persuaded the British government to execute his big idea of contracting with a company to make airships a fun, efficient form of global, public transportation.

The author tossed around the term “socialism” but did not elaborate. He described two competing British airship projects; one as capitalist, and the other as socialist. Here is a clarification (more details of which can be found in this blog’s post, “The Last Idealist” about Norman Thomas, in the “Politics – Systems” category):

With SOCIALISM, the people collectively own entities, and share and share alike. These can be profit-seeking businesses; or the government can own entities that provide essential services– health, education, welfare and large public transportation entities– that should not be profit-seeking (but some of their subcontractors are, anyway).

With COMMUNISM, the government owns profit-seeking entities (businesses) in whole or in part (as in the former Soviet Union and China). So yes, these include public-private partnerships in which there are clearly outrageous conflicts of interest that result in patronage and profiteering. So, arguably, the former Soviet Union and China have both Socialism and Communism to a large degree. The U.S. is not far behind anymore.

Furthermore, in America, the super-rich who pay no income tax, salve their consciences through philanthropy, which allows them to propagandize that they’re helping the poor. BUT income tax revenues are pooled so that they could end up getting spent on anything in the political budget. The super-rich specifically choose where to donate their money– whom to help, and it is a tiny percentage of poor people who are helped, compared with the number who are helped if money is provided through income tax!

Anyway, read the book to learn the outcome of the flight of R101 (hint: a large, expensive project run by alpha males with hubris syndrome– in which Darwin award candidates partake– rarely ends well) plus lots more historical background that explains why rigid airships are a thing of the past.

As is well known, the American government has been a large, expensive project run mostly by alpha males with hubris syndrome. Given the current overwhelming influences of money and sophisticated messaging via global, sophisticated communications technology, individuals need not even be physically present anymore to run the government. Like Elon Musk, they can be a mastermind of national policies in absentia. Here’s what Musk is singing now.

AMERICA

sung to the tune of “Africa” with apologies to Toto and to whomever else the rights may concern.

See my influence echoing on the Right.

These are the results of our secret conversations.

I and Trump pretended to have a fight.

Withdrawal from D.C. has let me discreetly plot to save my nation.

I learned from my old man along the way,

looking to amass resources to impose my brand of supremacy.

I turn to forceful people for-pay.

Scan the whole world, is I all have to DO.

It won’t take a lot to make my dreams come true.

My money has such power, I can lord it over you.

I act behind-the-scenes in America.

Trump’s taking this time to do the things we always pla-a-a-anned. ooh ooh

We reach out to our friends on the Right,

and we’ve grown prosperous, assisted by our hegemonic companies.

I know I’m doing what is right, sure as I am aiming to gradually rid the White House of democracy.

I need world conquest, deep inside.

Priming the pump for the great times to come.

It won’t take a lot to make my dreams come true.

My money has such power, I can lord it over you.

I act behind-the-scenes in America.

Trump’s taking this time to do the things we always pla-a-a-anned. ooh ooh

Scan the world is all I have to DO.

It won’t take a lot to make my dreams come true.

My money has such power, I can lord it over you.

I act behind-the-scenes in America.

I act behind-the-scenes in America.

(I act behind-the-scenes)

I act behind-the-scenes in America.

(I act behind-the-scenes)

I act behind-the-scenes in America.

I act behind-the-scenes in America.

(Trump’s taking this time)

Trump’s taking this time to do the things we always pla-a-a-anned. ooh ooh

Featured

Nervous About A Woman – BONUS POST

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While a woman has served as the top leader in numerous nations of the world (including Third World countries!), citizens of America would still rather have a male dictator than a female president. Here’s a little song about that.

NERVOUS ABOUT A WOMAN

sung to the tune of “Natural Woman” with apologies to the Estate of Aretha Franklin, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Looking back at 2016,

a dictator over female-prez, was hired.

After 2024, women still have to wait until someday.

Now– of that dictator, we’re tired.

The gender-biased AI vets you. Trump is so unkind.

Decades of messaging on your mind.

‘Cause Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

nervous about a woman. (woman)

When a Wall was discussed,

and threats worked better to obviate it.

We didn’t know just how evil Trump would be,

until his ICE men became sadists.

Lots of Americans are regretful,

of what they voted for: greed and hypocrisy.

Trump is rotten to the core.

‘Cause Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

nervous about a woman. (woman)

Now Trump’s courts are topsy-turvy, (topsy-turvy)

admin’s his personal PIGgy bank, (piggy bank)

aided by his wannabes, (wannabes) hoaxing you.

Who knows whether his brain is still alive?

‘Cause Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

nervous about a woman. (woman)

‘Cause Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

Americans still feel,

nervous about a woman. (woman)

‘Cause Americans still feel…

Featured

Battle of Distractions – BONUS POST

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

Here’s a little song about the nature of American politics and media of the past week.

BATTLE OF DISTRACTIONS

sung to the tune of “Battle of New Orleans” with apologies to Estate of Johnny Horton and to whomever else the rights may concern.

On Au-gust 14, Fox had a little fun, along with TACO Trump on the mighty Air Force One.

They debriefed with AI software, and gave Biden all the blame.

And TACO talked to Putin ’bout bloody Russians in Ukraine.

Al-lies expressed their hopes, and sound-bites kept-a-comin’.

U.S. problems are as many as they were a while ago.

Media hushed up once more that Trump’s brain is struggling.

Never mind Jeffrey Epstein. Senile Trump’s a TACO.

Fox looked in D.C. and they see’d protesters come,

but they highlighted the troublemakers who are paid to beat the drums.

Fox’s ratings so high, their overpaid-noisemakers sing.

Their words are from AI, they don’t have to write a thing.

Al-lies expressed their hopes, and sound-bites kept-a-comin’.

U.S. problems are as many as they were a while ago.

Media hush up once more that Trump’s brain is struggling.

Never mind Jeffrey Epstein. Senile Trump’s a TACO.

All Trump is doing, should come as no surprise.

If he didn’t fire scapegoats, it’s ’cause it’s where his power lies.

Mainstream media cower. They want to keep their jobs as well.

If they really tell the truth, Trump will surely give ’em hell.

Al-lies expressed their hopes, and sound-bites kept-a-comin’.

U.S. problems are as many as they were a while ago.

Media hush up once more that Trump’s brain is struggling.

Never mind Jeffrey Epstein. Senile Trump’s a TACO.

Yeah, media run through their reruns and they run through their rambling, and they run through their grudges on their opinion-shows.

They hold so fast to the biases of their owners.

Down through history, so much America doesn’t know.

Well, media spouted nothing-words till talks melted down.

Then they grabbed social-media quotes to put-out another round.

They filled Trump’s mouth with AI-words, and kissed his behind,

and covered up the fact that Trump’s lost his mind.

Al-lies expressed their hopes, and sound-bites kept-a-comin’.

U.S. problems are as many as they were a while ago.

Media hush up once more that Trump’s brain is struggling.

Never mind Jeffrey Epstein. Senile Trump’s a TACO.

Yeah, media run through their reruns and they run through their rambling, and they run through their grudges on their opinion-shows.

They hold so fast to the biases of their owners.

Down through history, so much America doesn’t know.

Trump, 2, 3 , 4

Back off, 3, 4

Trump, 2, 3 , 4

Back off, 3, 4

Trump, 2, 3 , 4

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The Optimist

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The Book of the Week is “The Optimist, Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future” by Keach Hagey, published in 2025.

The Baby Boomers generation of the 1960’s had its Timothy Leary, who was a big advocate of dropping out of school, work and society in general. The goal was to experiment with LSD and other drugs with the hope of becoming more creative.

From the 1990’s into the single-digit 2000’s, computer programmers and Web developers chose to engage in tech startups as their drug. In 2011, Peter Thiel, born in 1967– just around the time Leary’s popularity was waning– also encouraged students to drop out, but awarded them grant money with the hope they would manage successful businesses.

Sam Altman, one such student, was typical for his time and place. Born in 1985, Altman grew up in the Chicago and Saint Louis areas. His philosophy was “Go big or go home.” He never heard the word “impossible.” Beginning in summer 2005, a Boston-area technology consultant called Y Combinator helped startups get started with funding and mentoring. Altman was accepted to this program.

Altman’s first venture was a social-media application eventually called Loopt. The major drawback of its business model was inefficiency. Another was privacy concerns. Years later, the concept was joked about by comedian Aziz Ansari — meeting up with his friends (if they happened to be nearby) by seeing their locations on their electronic devices.

Back in 2006, Loopt had to negotiate separate contracts with multiple, competing cell phone companies across the country. Big Tech had yet to introduce the smart phone, on which the internet would be visible worldwide on one website that Loopt could have had, regardless of which phone service its tech-savvy, young customers subscribed to.

Altman’s peripheral hobby consisted of working to achieve nuclear fusion (not to be confused with the radioactive– carcinogenic!– fission) as a “clean” energy source. Propagandists repeatedly use certain words, such as “clean” in an attempt to reassure people that certain products will do them no harm. The following is just a small sample of other overused, euphemistic words:

  • free (nothing is ever free; someone is always paying for, say, government programs; usually taxpayers);
  • safe (nothing is ever 100% safe; instead, say “low-risk” or “high risk” but never safe);
  • cheaper (everything is expensive; instead, say “less expensive”).

Anyway, fusion is one of those problems that will be solved when enough resources are thrown at it. But even when it gets solved, it is possible such an endeavor isn’t worth doing in the long run, like when chemist Glenn Seaborg proved that alchemy could create gold from bismuth.

At any rate, the author went on a tangent naming the Silicon Valley men who joined the Extropian community, thinking deep thoughts on the mysteries of the universe.

Simply put, AI software applications can replace any kinds of human activities that have mathematics behind them: all games of 100% skill such as chess, some vehicle-operating skills, robotics, medicine, marketing of consumer products, etc. But, AI will never replace, in a completely unbiased way, activities with linguistic-oriented aspects to them: music and art.

Creative works need to be translated into words for AI software to work on them, and the translators (with all their ethnic, religious, cultural, social and political biases) control their interpretation. Besides, in order to take the actions that allegedly improve humans’ lives, AI software must become spyware on everything users do.

The propaganda of American science fiction in popular culture, is no longer:

“Commies are going to infiltrate the world so we must kill them!”

It has become:

“AI is going to infiltrate the world so we must learn to control it via a few thousand alpha males’ brain power, financial power and political power!”

The arrogance is matched only by the title sequence of the TV show, The Outer Limits: “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control…”

For decades, the world has seen the ways the United Nations has monitored, and tried to stem conflicts, among diverse peoples. AI presents a similar challenge, as it can globally manipulate human thought and systems.

It is unclear whether the world is ready to sit down at the bargaining table to discuss international cooperation on the future of AI. In the United States, in recent years, waves of propaganda have screamed about:

  • privacy concerns;
  • of various kinds of online crime; and
  • of how psychologically damaging all-day, every-day, staring at, working, playing and communicating through, an electronic toy really is.

The prolonged, forced confinement prompted by the COVID lockdown got anti-social (solitary) behavior out of the country’s system. Influenced by more of the above propaganda, in the future, Americans might be ready to spend less time on their toys, and more time on face-to-face activities, outside.

Read the book to learn about Altman’s career, and the common problems that plague tech startups in the context of the brave new world of AI: bureaucratic shenanigans, hypocrisy, secrecy, conflicts, competition, and regulation (or lack thereof). Hint: It is yet one more worldwide technology project consisting of redistribution of wealth among the wealthy, run by alpha males.

ENDNOTE: Grammar sticklers would take issue with the less than perfect writing in this book. The author made errors commonly seen in books published in recent years in America. She didn’t know what “a.m.” and “p.m.” stood for, and awkwardly put “being” in the middle of sentences, among other minor errors.

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Teasing – BONUS POST

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Here’s a song that explains the secrecy of the Trump administrations.

TEASING

sung to the tune of “Grease” with apologies to Frankie Valli, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Can’t solve the problems of media on-the-Right. They got a, profitable thing. Trump makes it quite a sight.

The co-dependent powers have made it so far. It’s a slow-reveal now, but we know who they are. Teasing the herd.

We know our government is just a growing pain. The media, understand, it’s just a historical game.

Trump goes from secret-deal to secret-deal. We’re biding our time right now. Eventually, the records will-be unsealed. Teasing the herd.

Teasing the herd, with every word, with every word.

Trump’s INFLUence tells us mean is in.

Teasing the viewers, and the listeners, and the readers, now teasing is the way to get ratings.

Trump puts on pressure and they throw away, all morality. Truth’s so yesterday.

The co-dependent powers have made it so far. It’s a slow-reveal now, but we know who they are. Teasing the herd.

Teasing the herd, with every word, with every word.

Trump’s INFLUence tells us mean is in.

Teasing the viewers, and the listeners, and the readers, now teasing is the way to get ratings.

It’s all one big illusion, total control. Makes you confused. That’s what they’re doing here.

Trump puts on pressure and they throw away, all morality. Truth’s so yesterday.

The co-dependent powers have made it so far. It’s a slow-reveal now, but we know who they are. Teasing the herd.

Teasing the herd, with every word, with every word.

Trump’s INFLUence tells us mean is in.

Teasing the viewers, and the listeners, and the readers, now teasing is the way to get ratings.

Teasing the herd, with every word, with every word.

Trump’s INFLUence tells us mean is in.

Teasing the viewers, and the listeners, and the readers, now teasing is the way to get ratings.

Teasing the herd, with every word,

with every word, with every word, with every word, with every word, with every word, with every word, with every word.

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Major Noah

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The Book of the Week is “Major Noah, American-Jewish Pioneer” by Isaac Goldberg, published in 1938.

Born in July 1785 in Philadelphia, Mordecai Manuel Noah was raised mostly by his grandfather. In the 1810’s, Noah, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, the governor of Pennsylvania and other “Yankees” (people living in the then-northeastern United States) were expansionists– proposed that the U.S. annex Canada and Florida.

Noah engaged in various profit-seeking pursuits in his lifetime: playwriting, literary criticism, speech-making, newspaper publishing, and international diplomacy. In 1813, he was named Consul on the Barbary coast. His territory included Algeria, Tunisia– where lived about sixty thousand Jews, and Spain. He hopped a ship to get to the Mediterranean. His goal was to stop the activities of pirates in that region, and to negotiate the release of twelve Americans who were then-prisoners of the Algerians.

As is well known, early-nineteenth-century Britain had the world’s best navy; she trained boys seven to twelve years old, in seafaring. In July 1813, a British navy boat captured Noah’s, as the War of 1812 was still raging. There ensued a long, complicated,(and weird!) series of events.

Fast-forward to April 1815. American president James Monroe sent a letter to Noah informing him that he should never have been hired as Consul because he was Jewish; his religion was unfavorable with regard to foreign-service negotiations in northern Africa, so Monroe was firing him as Consul. That letter didn’t get to Noah until July 1815, at which time, Noah was “headed to a dungeon in Tunis.”

Fortunately, the deliverer of the letter, an American commodore, hadn’t read it because it was addressed to only Noah, personally. Bristling and posturing, Noah lied to the commodore in such a way that led him to demand that the British pay his personal debts. After that, Noah “got the hell out of Dodge.” He had actually gone rogue– sort of a cross between Oliver North and Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen. Upon returning to the United States, he printed his own propaganda to paper over his indiscretions, and used his friends in Congress to exonerate himself.

Noah then went into the newspaper publishing business. In the 1810’s, “American journalism was not yet out of its black period– an orgy of assault, battery, libel, recrimination, accusation, bribery, scurrility, chicanery, such as makes the succeeding development of yellow journalism appear by comparison, a Sunday picnic. Such was indeed, the tradition of journalism in our adolescent United States.”

In 1820, Noah, (actually seeking to profit in real estate), put forth a big idea of purchasing Grand Island, in the city of Buffalo, New York State, to provide a colony for the “wandering Jews” of the world.

Five years later, Noah had sufficient financial backing consisting of other people’s money to start his venture, which he called “Ararat.” He gave himself the titles Governor and Judge of Israel, making announcements in newspapers worldwide. Poland’s government wouldn’t allow Noah’s public notice to be published, as his campaign was perceived as a plot to overthrow the Hapsburg monarchy.

British rabbis to whom Noah gave fancy titles and invited to his new Israel, politely declined his offers of employment, saying they were happy where they were, and that he was undeservedly acting like the Messiah; only God would know the location of apocalyptic Israel. The French and Austrian rabbis weren’t fooled either, and actually called Noah a charlatan.

In the 1830’s, when pressured to explain himself as to why he switched political parties from Democratic to Whig (conservative), he gave the best excuse ever: The party, not he, had changed! His former party had become unprincipled. So in the interest of good conscience, he switched.

Read the book to learn much more about Noah’s philosophy, writings, and machinations.

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Secret Aging Man – BONUS POST

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As is well known, the trade war launched by American president Trump is wreaking havoc on the world economically, as he has threatened to retaliate against Russia, Canada, India, Brazil, Mexico, the EU, etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile, he and his cronies are trying to keep his (infinite!) past sins a secret. Here’s a song about all that.

SECRET AGING MAN

sung to the tune of “Secret Agent Man” with apologies to Johnny Rivers, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump’s a man who revels in his power.

His TACO deals keep changing by the hour.

With everything he spouts,

with more people– he’s on the outs.

Odds are, he’s losing his grip on tomorrow.

Secret aging man, secret aging man.

He and his slaves clam up,

as they immortalize his name.

Beware the petty demands that he makes.

A petty king will leave damage in his wake.

If you cross him in any way, big-time, he’ll make you pay.

Odds are, he’s losing his grip on tomorrow.

Secret aging man, secret aging man.

He and his slaves clam up,

as they immortalize his name.

Secret aging man, secret aging man.

He and his slaves clam up,

as they immortalize his name.

At his golf course in Scotland one day,

and then staging a media stunt the next day.

Oh yes, his reign has gone on too long.

Never stop shouting out his wrongs.

Odds are, he’s losing his grip on tomorrow.

Secret aging man, secret aging man.

He and his slaves clam up,

as they immortalize his name.

Secret aging man.

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Fight Back and Win

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The Book of the Week is “Fight Back and Win, My Thirty-Year Fight Against Injustice – and How You Can Win Your Own Battles” by Gloria Allred with Deborah Caulfield Rybak, published in 2006.

Allred, a civil-rights attorney, was born in southwestern Philadelphia in July 1941. She wrote about the lessons she learned from her activities, and tried to inspire readers to stick up for themselves if they had been the victims of discrimination. However, her method of settling disputes through the courts is extremely expensive and emotionally wrenching. It was obviously in her best financial interest to promote the launching of lawsuits.

She recounted some of her most famous court cases, many of which involved tabloid-celebrities. She admitted to staging publicity stunts to get attention, thinking they would help her clients. Some people might think the actions she took were unbecoming an attorney. In the United States– the staging and scripting of media events (or non-events but merely pushing propaganda) is nothing new for people from all walks of life who protest perceived injustices.

Jerry Rubin, a member of the “Chicago Eight” spread disinformation just before the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Three TV stations bought his lie and reported on the local news that ten thousand “Yippies” (slang for members of Abbie Hoffman’s Youth International Party) planned to protest-march in the nude at the Convention. The media had visions of naked demonstrators getting their heads bashed in by law enforcement. Indignant letter-writing to Chicago newspapers ensued. Actually, fully-clothed demonstrators got their heads bashed in, and the idiot box and newspapers still got their sky-high fill of viewers and readers.

Political-front groups are nothing new. They are secretly funded by big-money donors who hire a handful of troublemakers who incite violence at street-demonstrations. Most of the people who attend such events are brainwashed into thinking they’re helping make political change, peacefully. They clearly haven’t read their history. They never learn!

Through the decades, street demonstrations alone have never effected significant political change in America. Not even when people died, as happened at “Kent State” in May 1970. The Vietnam war still dragged on and on.

The major historical events during which street-protests have worked (in other countries) include: the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution in 1918 (as seen in the treatment of the Romanovs) and in Romania in 1989 as seen in the treatment of the Ceausescus. Other instances (with ample help from the United States via the CIA), to name a few, include: the Marcoses in the Philippines, Duvaliers in Haiti, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. There is insufficient room here to elaborate on why, in these cases, citizens who took to the streets, were able to oust their country’s leadership.

Anyway, Allred’s political stunts have largely faded from the public’s memory, to be replaced by more recent ones staged and scripted or incited by the biggest publicity hound in American history, Donald Trump. Despite the number of lawsuits Allred has won against powerful people– even politicians– in her decades representing victims of discrimination, it seems the nation has regressed, because it tolerates Trump’s abuses.

In 1992, there was still a double-standard in connection with racism versus sexual harassment in the workplace. “If he [Oregon Republican Senator Bob Packwood] had racially harassed members of his staff, he would have been forced to resign. Why was it acceptable to sexually harass women?” It took three years to bring him to justice.

Read the book to learn additional details, and about lots of other legal fights in which Allred engaged in her decades-long career.

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All the Worst Humans

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The Book of the Week is “All the Worst Humans, How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians” by Phil Elwood, published in 2024. This short volume was authored by an alcoholic adrenaline-junkie and occasional drug addict who was happiest when he was afforded opportunities to use his creativity to help his clients weasel out of image-trouble, burnish their image, or launch a smear campaign.

Born around 1980, Elwood began to acquire valuable contacts in Washington, D.C. when he did a summer internship in the U.S. Senate. Elwood was pleasantly surprised that, after ruining his own reputation, one such contact wrote a recommendation letter on his behalf to help him get accepted to a different college.

Most of the time, the following publications are the major influencers on breaking news: Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, Politico, Axios, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. The last three have a paywall– users must subscribe to them, and pay to read their articles. As is well known, in the last several decades, elected officials and their staffs in Washington, D.C., the media, the entertainment industry, Silicon Valley, professional sports and Wall Street have all incestuously melded together to create one big gossip circle. Readers who are no longer willing to pay for news, miss out on the gossip.

The author commented that there are currently a few tens of thousands of people who call themselves “journalists” while there are a few hundreds of thousands of people employed in the public relations industry. Very nearly all (except for this blog!) global communications are now sponsored-opinions, after so many decades of changes to information-sharing. Four of many milestones that set shameful precedents include:

  • In 1963, a journalist broke the taboo against prying into the personal lives of professional athletes when he revealed that Sandy Koufax was adopted. After that, privacy invasion became the norm.
  • In 1982, the New York Times eliminated the firewall between its editorial and advertising departments. Sports Illustrated did the same in the late 1980’s.
  • The year 1984 saw Republicans launch a fishing expedition of, and vicious smear campaign against Democrat vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro’s husband. Even for modern times, the high level of nastiness was extreme– and Republicans have continued such behavior to date, more than the Democrats.
  • Beginning in the 1980’s, the FCC relaxed its antitrust laws, allowing Rupert Murdoch to create a monster-sized multimedia empire (by purchasing the New York Post newspaper, Twentieth Century Fox, HarperCollins and the Wall Street Journal, to name a few propaganda outlets) with its attendant extremely large concentration of resources that allowed for infinite conflicts of interest that afforded him and his cronies the kinds of growth opportunities that free-market competitors couldn’t possibly hope to match.

To get additional information on how money, power and political hacks have corrupted every aspect of how people find out what’s going on in the world, feel free to read all the posts in this blog’s category “Publishing Industry Including Newspapering.”

Anyway, the author planted the following naive passage in his writing: “Salaries in some newsrooms are going up. Private equity is buying up media companies left and right. Foreign nations are investing heavily, too. Lines of ethics are blurring.” Newsflash: all these trends are decades-old!

Nonetheless, read the book to learn of the author’s adventures in image-management.

Along these lines, here’s a song about yet another downfall of someone once-rich and powerful (brought to you by Elwood-style PR.). This is what the Democrats are singing to the American president, whose name rhymes with “rump” and “dump.”

MIDTERMS-KARMA

sung to the tune of “Instant Karma” (1970 version) with apologies to the Estate of John Lennon and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Midterms-karma is gonna get you.

Gonna flip the states that are Red.

You’ll try to give yourself a pardon.

No one will shut up and take your bread.

All the world has had enough,

laughing behind your back,

all over the earth you’re a TACO.

They know you go low, yeah, low.

Midterms-karma is gonna get you.

A man like you is once-and-always.

Even the “new” Nixon wasn’t the “new” Nixon.

Yours is an open and shut case.

Your sins, the whole world is gonna see.

You’ll be blasting the fools in your GOP.

Everyone on earth knows who you are. A has-been tsar.

Far Right you are.

Well, we all pile on.

Very soon you and your suck-ups will be gone.

Well, we all pile on. Everyone. Come on.

Midterms-karma is gonna get you.

You lay down with dogs, you got fleas.

You know a man is known by,

the company he keeps.

Everyone knows you’re outa here.

You’ve made so many live in pain and fear.

Why are you there, when you should be nowhere?

You got more than your share.

Well, we all pile on.

Very soon you and your suck-ups will be gone.

Well, we all pile on.

Gone and gone and gone, gone and gone.

Yeah, yeah, alright, uh-huh, uh.

Well, we all pile on.

Very soon you and your suck-ups will be gone.

Well, we all pile on.

Gone and gone and gone, gone and gone.

Well, we all pile on.

Very soon you and your suck-ups will be gone.

Well, we all pile on.

Very soon you and your suck-ups will be gone.

Well, we all pile on.

Very soon you and your suck-ups will be gone…

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Lunatic Commie Guy – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty on the mayoral race in New York City, about Zohran Mamdani’s situation.

LUNATIC COMMIE GUY

sung to the tune of “Magic Carpet Ride” with apologies to Steppenwolf and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump likes to ream Dems out, yes yes

before his sycophantic crowd.

He’s got a stranglehold on the Right. In spades he shows his might.

Getting taxed, he fears.

He wants Mamdani out of there.

Well, you know well, what’s on Trump’s mind.

He tells you to vote against Zohran,

calls him a lunatic Commie guy.

We don’t know well, Mamdani.

He’s got big housing dreams, you see.

But social programs are never free.

Beware of LIES, all. Ask the budget SIZE, all.

Don’t let sound bites get in the way.

Like Dinkins – thirty years ago,

it’s near the end of Adams’ term.

New York City’s candidates’, mayoral campaigns are going low.

Just look around, no detailed plans can be found.

Well, you know well, what’s on Trump’s mind.

He tells you to vote against Zohran,

calls him a lunatic Commie guy.

We don’t know well, Mamdani.

He’s got big housing dreams you see.

But social programs are never free.

Beware of LIES, all. Ask the budget SIZE, all.

Don’t let sound bites get in the way.

Well, you know well, what’s on Trump’s mind.

He tells you to vote against Zohran,

calls him a lunatic Commie guy.

We don’t know well, Mamdani.

He’s got big housing dreams you see.

But social programs are never free.

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Compromise – BONUS POST

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Here’s what TACO Trump is singing now.

COMPROMISE

sung to the tune of “Break My Stride” with apologies to Matthew Wilder and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Last week I passed the greatest bill.
I hush up our debt to China.
I’m acting like Reagan kinda.
You’re mesmerized by my good-news mill.
I’ve sold you down the river. Ha ha. And you love me still. Thanks Fox.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
No dirty secret’s gonna slow me down. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
I will reign forever all-around. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

My legend is growing.
I hope you forget my past.
With the bragging rights of Ali, I reveal the Democrats’ folly.
You turn to me to solve your problems at last.
I’m the reason why America’s so vast. Thanks Fox.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
No dirty secret’s gonna slow me down. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
I will reign forever all-around. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

Never let another nation of the world,

rip us off again.

Never let another nation of the world,

threaten us with anything.

If we see another nation like that,

we will tell them

we won’t put up with you.

It kills-me-to say,

I have to backtrack and compromise.
No dirty secret’s gonna slow me down. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
I will reign forever all-around. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
No dirty secret’s gonna slow me down. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
I will reign forever all-around. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
No dirty secret’s gonna slow me down. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
I will reign forever all-around. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
No dirty secret’s gonna slow me down. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
I will reign forever all-around. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
No dirty secret’s gonna slow me down. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING.

I have to backtrack and compromise.
I will reign forever all-around. USA!
Never MIND my flip-flopPING…

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The Spirit Catches You…

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The Book of the Week is “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures” by Anne Fadiman, published in 1997. This volume alternately told the story of every last detail of the medical history (too much information!) of a child of the Hmong tribe from the country of Laos, and how the child’s fate was determined by the clash between American and Hmong cultures.

The history of Laos from the 1960’s onward is an infuriating and depressing one. Via their war-orders, American presidents destroyed Laos’ populated areas with land mines, bombs, napalm and agent orange in order to cut off a major North-Vietnam supply route called the Ho Chi Minh trail.

To start with, JFK violated an international agreement that Laos (neighboring Vietnam and Thailand) remain neutral in the event of war in the region; this, by secretly ordering, via the CIA– the recruitment, training and arming of a Hmong guerrilla army (even child-soldiers); at its peak thirty-thousand strong. This militia (consisting of the “Royal Lao”) continued fighting the (Communist) Pathet Lao (who behaved genocidally toward the Hmong), through the LBJ and Nixon administrations. Previously, the Hmongs had been farmers, growing opium-poppies and rice. This expertise of the Hmong, provided “Quiet War” funding.

The Americans’ delivery of rice (terminated in June 1974) kept the peasants from starving to death. When the Vietnam war “ended” in spring 1975, about 150,000 Laotians flooded refugee camps in Thailand (the nearest country that would take them due to funding from the United States and other “democratic” nations).

Long story short, the American government destroyed the Hmongs’ peaceful way of life of agriculture and herding in the mountains of Laos. Thus, some politicians sought to salve their consciences by allowing a few Hmong refugees to come to the United States beginning in May 1975.

Preference was obviously given to the few thousand Laotian military members who had aided the Americans, and thereafter, about 25,000 Hmong arrived through 1980. The Hmong felt a sense of entitlement in collecting American public assistance, because: the CIA broke its promises to aid the Hmong in exchange for their risking their lives to help Americans fight the Vietnam war; and the United States military wrecked their country.

In 1980, the Lee family arrived. Born in July 1982 in California, Lia was the fourteenth child born to the Lees. As a baby, Lia was diagnosed with epilepsy. Even by the late 1980’s, not one tribal member who lived in their community– Merced, CA– spoke the English language. The language barrier plus lots of other cultural differences the Lees had with Merced Community Medical Center, led to many misunderstandings and serious physical consequences for Lia through the years.

The Hmong people perform rituals based on superstitions, beliefs and customs; for, they believe in honoring their ancestors, shamanism and alternative medicine in the form of herbalism and acupuncture. Their humungous families have multi-generational households, and their priorities consist of taking care of their families, then their clan, then their own tribe.

They stick together and their mentality is one of cooperation rather than competition. Here’s an example: “Then Jonas [who speaks five languages and works long hours; an anomalous member of the Hmong tribe in that he was educated and had jobs] drove home [of one residence] to his wife, his three children, his brothers, his brothers’ wives, his brothers’ ten children, and his ringing telephone.”

Read the book to learn much, much more about the cultural clash between the Lees and their American community, some history of Laos, and how, as is typical for war-refugees coming to America, the younger generation of the Hmong tribe is becoming assimilated in this country.

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The Making of A Leader

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The Book of the Week is “The Making of A Leader, The Formative Years of George C. Marshall” by Josiah Bunting III, published in 2024. This short volume detailed the career of a war hero, up until the late 1930’s.

George C. Marshall, whose name is fading from the public’s memory, was best known for playing second fiddle to Eisenhower in WWII, but he still did a good job. He was born in December 1880 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. As a military officer, he played well with others, even his subordinates.

During WWI, Marshall got glory for deploying American troops and equipment across France, more efficiently than was thought humanly possible. He made a small dent in reducing the total number of deaths (close to 52,000) and wounded (close to 200,000) in that war.

In summer 1919, after having experienced or heard about the horrors of the war gone by, most Americans’ attitude was anti-authoritarian and pacifist. They highly doubted a new dictator would rise up anytime soon; moreover, military aggression was so expensive. Contradictorily, perhaps desperately clinging to his job, General Peyton March, secretary of war, believed the United States should have a large military of half a million already-trained men at-the-ready to deal with future threats. General John Pershing, a WWI hero, thought half of that might be necessary, as additional men could be trained quickly.

The government assigned Marshall to be an instructor at military schools on and off through the years. In the early 1920’s, he became gatekeeper and assistant to the aforementioned Pershing, military chief of staff. This new Washington, D.C. administrative job also stalled his career. Commanding soldiers in a war was the fastest way to win medals, and get a promotion to a better military title and rank.

One time, a group of men from the Tennessee GOP came to Marshall’s office when Pershing happened to be out of town, to urge Pershing to run for president. Marshall turned them away. For, he knew Pershing would be another Ulysses S. Grant as president– a naive leader whose administration was horribly corrupt.

Through the decades, Marshall was paid very little money, but when stationed overseas, his family was provided with household help in what was considered luxury accommodations in those locales.

Read the book to learn much more about: Marshall’s personality, his colleagues, and how his talents were arguably wasted when he was assigned to sit behind a desk and push paper instead of training men to fight; and the first forty years of his working life.

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I Saved the World – BONUS POST

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As is well known, no one wants to see Iran experience the same kind of extremely horrible nuclear disaster Japan suffered in March 2011 (See this blog’s post, “Ghosts of the Tsunami”), and no one wants to see a radioactive cloud blow across the Middle East, to create a significantly higher probability of cancer for everyone.

Regardless of how Iran is stopped from launching missiles at Israel, America’s president Trump of course, is taking all the credit for doing so. Here’s what he’s singing now:

I SAVED THE WORLD BUT IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU

sung to the tune of “I’ll Melt With You” with apologies to Modern English and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Ending wars, I get hardly any rest.

Making peace for you is never second best.

I saw Iran, threatening the Middle East.

As you know, my miracles never cease.

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

The U.S. defense, is getting better all the time.

Iran with nukes, just won’t do.

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

I give you a better life, Netanyahu and I are mates.

I’m creating a state of beautiful world peace.

I made pilgrimages to make America great, like no other leaders in modern times.

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

The U.S. defense, is getting better all the time.

Iran with nukes, just won’t do.

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

[The future is on my side.]

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

I’m making changes, and I’m getting better all the time.

Iran with nukes, just won’t do.

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

[The future is on my side.]

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

The U.S. defense is getting better all the time.

Iran with nukes, just won’t do.

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

I saved the world, but it’s not about you.

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Kristi Scandals – BONUS POST

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As is well known, Kristi Noem is the United States Secretary of Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Here’s a little song about her.

KRISTI SCANDALS

sung to the tune of “Sixteen Candles” with apologies to The Crests, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

[Having a bad day. Having a bad day, indeed.] Oh. I hate you so.

Kristi scandals

scream, “might makes right”

all to the delight, of the xenophobic whites.

She outs her-own scandals, makes her power-plays come true.

And she’ll be fishing, for dirt on YOU. [for dirt on YOU.]

The ends-justify the means. There’ve been brutal scenes.

She’s the most-ruthless, huffy-est DHS-chief, I’ve ever seen. [I’ve ever seen.]

Kristi scandals. Deportations will grow, until deaths and lawsuits

end her reality show, end her reality show.

The ends-justify the means. But there’ve been brutal scenes.

Oh, she’s the most-ruthless, huffy-est DHS-chief, I’ve ever seen. [I’ve ever seen.]

Kristi scandals. Deportations will grow, until deaths and lawsuits

end her reality show, end her reality show.

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TACO Man – BONUS POST

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It might be recalled that “TACO” stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” Here’s a song about that.

TACO MAN

sung to the tune of “Rocket Man” with apologies to Elton John, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

He packed the Court to fight for the Right.

Gaining power, getting old.

And his proposals will mo-o-ost, likely be put on-hold.

He repulses the earth so much, left by his wives.

He’ll go lonely to his grave, from all his li-i-fe-long fights.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

In his shakedowns, we see all his lies.

He’s not the man the rich think they own. Oh whoa whoa whoa.

He’s TACO man, TACO man.

Doing the same deals he smeared in-the-past.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

In his shakedowns, we see all his lies.

He’s not the man the rich think they own. Oh whoa whoa whoa.

He’s TACO man, TACO man.

Doing the same deals he smeared in-the-past.

Mar-a-Lago ain’t the right place to hide secret-documents.

By the way, where’s the Wall?

Vance will be there, to raise taxes, you-know he must.

And all the academics, Trump doesn’t understand.

He relies on defamers eight days a week.

TACO man, TACO man.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

In his shakedowns, we see all his lies.

He’s not the man the rich think they own. Oh whoa whoa whoa.

He’s TACO man, TACO man.

Doing the same deals he smeared in-the-past.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

In his shakedowns, we see all his lies.

He’s not the man the rich think they own. Oh whoa whoa whoa.

He’s TACO man, TACO man.

Doing the same deals he smeared in-the-past.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time.

And we’ll be able to correct this wrong, wrong time…

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The Playbook

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The Book of the Week is “The Playbook, A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War” by James Shapiro, published in 2024.

In the 1930’s, American president FDR implemented programs to help the unemployed during the Great Depression. One was the Works Progress Administration, a sub-program of which, Federal Theater (hereinafter referred to as “FT”), put thousands of people to work. However, there were numerous complications every time the group wanted to put on a play, because there were a dozen unions with whom to negotiate.

FT produced thought-provoking shows that starkly portrayed the dangers and immorality of fascism, totalitarianism, slavery, racism, etc. It risked having its funding cut for its political correctness. In autumn 1936, FT was able to stage the Sinclair Lewis novel It Can’t Happen Here because MGM had decided not to make a movie of it.

FT opened the inflammatory play in eighteen big cities across America. In Seattle the cast was inter-racial. New York City performed the play in Yiddish. The traveling version lasted 133 performances. Fortunately, audiences interpreted the play all different ways politically.

In September 1937, FDR signed affordable-housing (what activists for the downtrodden would call “gentrification”) legislation that was diluted due to fears of:

  • government competition with the private sector;
  • over-regulation;
  • budgetary excesses;
  • and Southern states’ getting short shrift because they were more rural than urban.

In response to the above, in 1938, FT staged One Third of a Nation. That theatrical production demonstrated how stakeholders treated America’s slums, which accounted for where one third of the nation’s population resided, according to FDR, as of early 1937.

The movie version was Hollywoodized– its funders were purchasers of distressed assets and profiteers. They made it a story about poor whites with a romantic subplot involving a “kindly capitalist” (the absentee landlord, or in the real world– a slumlord). A suicidal arsonist prompted the landlord to rebuild the place with trees and a playground. Everyone lived happily ever after.

Anyway, FT’s most vicious enemy turned out to be Martin Dies, a U.S. Congressman from eastern Texas, first elected in 1930. He had the KKK mentality, with xenophobia and misogyny thrown in. In 1935, he got himself on the Rules Committee, the most powerful committee in the House.

Dies also fast-tracked his power accumulation with his endless persistence. In 1938, he finally got himself appointed the head of a special committee that investigated a hot-button political issue; this, by chance, through teaming up with the exact right person who could help him– Samuel Dickstein, a Congressman from New York City who was equally driven to amass power and attention. They secretly allied with vice president John Nance Garner, who was on their side.

By spring 1938, their committee was claiming it was trying to root out subversives, Fascists and Communists, and prevent violence at Nazi rallies in America’s streets. But they had questioned a politically active Nazi who stayed right under their noses, and they failed to investigate him further!

Their real motive was to execute a smear campaign against FDR himself, in addition to his New Deal, and unions. So FT became an easy target, too. Ironically, “He [Dies] envisioned the hearings touring nationally, moving from city to city, beginning on the West coast and ending back East.”

One of Dies’ star investigators, Hazel Huffman, ignorantly equated Progressivism, racial integration, anti-capitalism and anti-fascism with Communism in her testimony. She recited verbatim lines from the FT’s scripts, out of context as evidence of Communist propaganda. Dies backed her up. They were so entertaining– newspapers, magazines and radio broadcasters presented her nasty, biased utterances about the FT, as fact. Dies realized he needed to keeping directing fresh accusations at FT and the WPA to keep the media in his back pocket.

Read the book to learn yet again, that there is nothing new under the sun, in terms of demagogues who use age-old propaganda techniques to amass sufficient power to commit crimes, oppress their fellow citizens, and spread hatred far and wide with total impunity.

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(Knock Harvard Out) in Massachusetts – BONUS POST

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As is well known, the president is executing an evil plot against America’s institutions, and Harvard University is a major target. Here’s what Trump is singing that explains the situation.

(KNOCK HARVARD OUT) IN MASSACHUSETTS

sung to the tune of “(The Lights Went Out) in Massachusetts” with apologies to the Bee Gees and to whomever else the rights may concern.

I am getting back, at Massachusetts.

They were always telling me Harvard’s the best school.

And I’m going to knock Harvard OUT in Massachusetts.

I hate the Left. I have standing to be cruel.

Also on my list is San Francisco.

Gotta give my cronies law-jobs to do.

And I’m going to knock Harvard OUT in Massachusetts.

They bring me back, to sore spots in a state-of Blue.

Sack all the life out-of Massachusetts.

Freak out all the people I’ll unseat.

And I’m going to knock Harvard OUT in Massachusetts.

And Massachusetts shows I hate the Kennedys.

I will dismember Massachusetts.

I will dismember Massachusetts.

I will dismember Massachusetts.

I will dismember Massachusetts.

I will dismember Massachusetts.

I will dismember Massachusetts.

I will dismember Massachusetts.

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Troublemaker

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The Book of the Week is “Troublemaker, A Memoir from the Front Lines of the Sixties” by Bill Zimmerman, published in 2011. The author was a true activist– he sacrificed his livelihood and risked his life to work for causes he believed in. Kudos to him.

In his twenties, the author made a major life-decision that made him look like a righteous prick (excuse the crudeness). He opposed the powers-that-be via participating in street demonstrations and civil disobedience. Later on, he felt he was more likely to change the world via engaging in humanitarian actions and working within the system.

Born in December 1940, Zimmerman grew up on Chicago’s West Side. In 1963 in Greenwood, Mississippi, he helped African Americans register to vote. In May 1966, the author and other anti-Vietnam-War protesters occupied the administration building at the University of Chicago. He learned from an experienced activist, what to do in connection with making demands of the school officials, to get what they wanted.

President LBJ was running out of cannon fodder (who were mostly non-white, poor men) for his war in Vietnam. So he had the Selective Service System (the government’s military-draft authority) do away with students’ ability to defer their service until after graduating.

The older generation of men– WWII veterans– viewed draft dodgers as cowardly, unpatriotic and selfish. They were unaware that their tax dollars were paying for the U.S. military’s committing of atrocities; one kind involved torturing pairs of enemy soldiers (National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters) by taking them up in a helicopter, and throwing one out the door so the other would be terrorized into revealing his side’s State secrets.

The author wrote, “Flower power [a 1960’s idea pushed by antiwar activists and people in the counter-culture] meant freeing men from outdated norms of masculinity that sapped their sensitivity, their poetry, and their urge to share instead of dominate.”

It was widely known even then, that the three major ways to redistribute societal wealth, consist of: 1) reforming campaign financing practices so that election winners are those who get the most votes, not those who are wealthiest; 2) having the least unfair tax system– encouraging citizens to start entrepreneurial ventures via financial assistance while also taxing the super-rich on the back-end for having taken advantage of existing infrastructure and front-end incentives; and 3) having a social safety net for those individuals who have unluckily been born into sucky situations, and providing opportunities for everyone, as far as egalitarianism is possible.

As is well known, in the first half of the 1970’s, there were lots of behind-the-scenes shenanigans involving president Nixon’s sidekick Henry Kissinger, with his secret diplomatic missions and his role at the Paris Peace Talks, to purportedly end the Vietnam war. South Vietnam’s leader, Nguyen Van Thieu, ran a corrupt regime, and he was eventually forced into exile, compliments of American taxpayers.

That theme– the propaganda-suffused, and CIA-assisted ousting of various dictators around the world– had already become a cliche since the 1950’s. A Mad Lib could be made of it: “He then consoled himself by fleeing to ______ [a place that would accept him] with $_______ [money he had looted from his homeland that supplemented his offshore financial stashes, that also might serve as tax shelters if he had U.S. income] stolen from the aid the U.S. had given to _______ [his former territory].” In recent decades, for obvious reasons, there has been less of this Cold War nonsense.

Anyway, as is also well known, the Japanese in WWII dogmatically would have fought to the last man, guerrilla-style. It was known that America’s supposed enemies in Vietnam had the same mentality. Yet, regarding Vietnam, the unbloodied elites and chickenhawks in the U.S. government failed to take a lesson from both the WWII’s Japanese and from the French in Dien Bien Phu.

Fortunately, the vast majority of current world leaders have had enough of genocide and atrocities, and are ready to sit down at the bargaining table to negotiate the distribution of rare resources (especially those that will fulfill their energy needs) crucial to their homelands’ economic development for decades to come. Slowly but slowly, the world is making progress in the humanitarian arena.

Nevertheless, worldwide, human beings have evolved so that the super-rich now own:

  • show business;
  • professional sports teams;
  • gambling entities;
  • Silicon Valley, and
  • Wall Street.

They have become one big, incestuous network, married to politics. The situation has spawned excessive (especially in the United States):

  • pardoning of criminals;
  • lawsuits;
  • deregulation;
  • smearing;
  • lies;
  • conflicts of interest, and
  • deception via AI-generated images, and pre-recorded video clips (especially of the president!)

This calls for a funk reggae fusion rock parody.

ELITIST REVENUE

sung to the tune of “Electric Avenue” with apologies to Eddy Grant and whomever else the rights may concern.

[Ploys. Ploys.]

Now ov’r resources, there is violence.
And profi-TEER-ing to be done.
One hand washes the others.
And in charge, are fortunate sons. Oh, no

They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire. Oh
They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire.

Abortion, wars, and the border.
Can’t bear to watch a thing on TV.
In their world, it’s a challenge,
to push the envelope infinitely. Good God?

They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire. Oh
They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire. Oh
They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire.

We’ve gone extreme in this country.
Money and revenge are job-one.
Lawyering and manipulation,
and our Constitution is done. Oh no

They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire. Oh no
They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire.

Oh, Trump is discreet.
So is Wall Street.

Locking in the payday. Ratcheting up the spite…

Oh, they gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire.
They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire.

Trump is discreet.
So is Wall Street.

AI is Fox’s playground, on the dark side all-around.

Oh, they gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire.
They gotta LOCK in their, elitist revenue.
They’re power-whores for hire. Oh yeah

Locking in the payday. Ratcheting up the spite…

$ $ $

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about Zimmerman’s life and times.

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Same Old Cock and Bull – BONUS POST

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Trump wanted to be Reagan, but he’s actually more like Nixon.

There will be an admission that the president is senile only after the president’s men and his propagandists have exhausted all means of profiteering and retaliation.

Moving on, midterm campaigning starts soon. Here’s a song about what to do.

SAME OLD COCK AND BULL

sung to the tune of “Old Time Rock and Roll” with apologies to Bob Seger and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Vote those BLEEPing profiteers out the DOOR.
I’m sick of the criminal West Wing core.
Today’s government sold its soul.
I hate the media’s cock and bull.

Don’t try to blame their predecessors.
Blame those cowards in Congress and the courts.
In mere minutes, I’ll ignore the attention whores.
I hate the media’s cock and bull.

Still hate the media’s cock and bull.
The system’s fat cats are full.
With this greedy crew, we have no pull,
just the same old cock and bull.

Want to HEAR ’em check all the FACTS.
Don’t want to see AI political hacks.
We’ll sue, impeach or vote OUT the claques and flacks.
Ignore the media’s cock and bull.

I’m e-gali-TAR-ian, no need to be cruel.
By democracy, we should be ruled.
Today’s government sold its soul.
I hate the media’s cock and bull.

Still hate the media’s cock and bull.
The system’s fat cats are full.
With this greedy crew, we have no pull,
just the same old cock and bull.

I hate the media’s cock and bull.
The system’s fat cats are full.
With this greedy crew, we have no pull,
just the same old cock and bull.

Still hate the media’s cock and bull.
The system’s fat cats are full.
With this greedy crew, we have no pull,
just the same old cock and bull.

Still hate the media’s cock and bull.
The system’s fat cats are full.
With this greedy crew, we have no pull,
just the same old cock and bull.

Still hate the media’s cock and bull…

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The Oracle of Oil

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The Book of the Week is “The Oracle of Oil, A Maverick Geologist’s Quest For A Sustainable Future” by Mason Inman, published in 2016.

The author– a journalist rather than a historian or academic– described redundantly in great detail, certain issues and historical events (perhaps those from sources to which he had easy access), and omitted or provided scant coverage on a bunch of others that were equally important.

The text was like Swiss cheese. He failed to mention the geopolitical issues of oil refining, oil spills, mergers of oil companies, nuclear disasters, and lawsuits and scandals that were game-changers in the energy arena.

If this volume was meant to be a career biography, the author should have simply said there were numerous issues and historical events that affected the subject’s career, but they were beyond the scope of the book. He could have simply named them without giving extensive depth to some and omitting others altogether.

Anyway, King Hubbert was born in 1903 in central Texas. He attended the University of Chicago, a focal point of intellectual ferment back in the day. He became a geologist and began working in the oil industry, which was in its infancy. He alternately worked and returned to school to earn higher academic degrees, during which he met theorists such as himself.

One was Howard Scott, whose early 1920’s vision consisted of a Communist society (all industries would be government-owned) which, through certificates rather than currency, would fulfill all of its citizens’ basic needs; food, clothing, housing, etc., pursuant to the amount of energy required to manufacture those goods. The people would work only sixteen hours a week, and have lots of leisure time.

By the early twentieth century, academics were spending untold amounts of time debating the merits of political, social and cultural systems– their own, and other nations’. In the 1920’s, they despaired that automation was putting people out of work, and monster-sized corporations manufactured their durable goods with “planned obsolescence” in mind. Propaganda even then, was persuading consumers to throw out old cars, machines and material goods (instead of repairing them), and buy new ones. In 1930, the nation was gobsmacked by the Great Depression.

In early 1932, Hubbert, Howard, and a few other engineers and scientists, included their aforementioned utopian fantasy in the theory of Technocracy, generating a report. Hubbert wrote the portion covering chemistry and physics. Engineers and scientists, rather than greedy capitalists, would direct their economy.

Two of their ideas have somewhat come to pass in modern society (a century later!):

  • Scientists and engineers (who are also greedy capitalists, from Silicon Valley) are controlling the world’s communications systems (and the U.S. government and economy); and
  • money has not altogether been eliminated, but two kinds of Socialistic means of exchange have been introduced in recent decades– the Euro and electronic currencies.

On the other hand, capitalism and consumerism have produced an abundance of material goods in the United States–to which other nations have aspired– lifting worldwide living standards. Yet, there is still extreme poverty, even in the United States. The overall cause of this paradox, is human nature– greed, guilt, fear and exclusivity.

Back in the 1940’s and for the next few decades, Hubbert and others made projections as to the amount of the earth’s fossil fuels still to be exploited by humans for their energy needs. His predictions were the most cautious. He truly cared about accurately analyzing data to publicize the truth.

In the early 1960’s, the newly elected president John F. Kennedy tasked committees with doing studies. There was interagency rivalry between the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Academy of Sciences. There were conflicts of interest, of course. Federal agency employees were clinging to their jobs and therefore trying to maximize their budgets. Oil-industry employees were hoping to get the government to pass legislation favorable to themselves.

The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) was a federal agency that approved the sites on which nuclear power plants were built. In 1966, the AEC refused to release a report critical of its nuclear waste disposal practices in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, salt mines in Kansas, Hanford in Washington state, and the Nuclear Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. Written by Hubbert’s committee, that report basically stated that the sites were cancer clusters. Nevertheless, by the mid-1980’s, approximately ninety nuclear power plants had become operational in the United States.

The author did mention that fracking is extremely damaging to the earth but didn’t mention how extremely damaging it is to people. Besides, it is extremely expensive, so shale gas drillers must take on crushing debt load.

In sum, there are no easy, simple solutions to the current fragmented, complex energy crises that plague the world. At the dawn of the 1970’s, Hubbert was proven correct in his assessments, but unsurprisingly, all the energy stakeholders in America clouded the issues with excessive propaganda. Read the book anyhow, to learn of Hubbert’s trials and tribulations in his trying to tell people what they didn’t want to hear.

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Yankee From Olympus

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The Book of the Week is “Yankee From Olympus, Justice Holmes and His Family” by Catherine Drinker Bowden, published in 1944. The bulk of this volume recounted the lives of the members of Supreme-Court-Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ family, beginning with his grandfather.

Born in March 1841 in the Boston area, Holmes was born to the white male privilege typical of his generation. His father was a prominent medical doctor. The Protestant Work Ethic dominated the aristocracy. Due to the potato famine in their homeland, Irish families were arriving on America’s shores in droves. “Boston had developed a caste system toward them almost like the Southern feeling for the Negro.” The South End neighborhood’s Irish boys threw hard snowballs or mud at boys such as Holmes, who attended private school.

Holmes acquired life-experience in psychological and physical trauma as an officer in the American Civil War. After his military discharge, he simply went over to Harvard Law School to sign up, paid the $100 a-year tuition, and in autumn 1864, began attending lectures. There was a total of three professors at the school. He didn’t need to take any tests, or do any assignments. Yes, times have changed.

Holmes practiced debating fellow students, though, and was told to read various texts written by law students or attorneys, that expounded on contracts, jurisprudence, or jurisdiction. At that time, academic culture consisted of males who were (presumably passionate about the law) mostly self-starters, sufficiently mature and disciplined to undertake independent study. Working at a law firm after graduating, Holmes became somewhat famous for writing articles for the Harvard Law Review.

Through the 1870’s, Holmes hated the drudgery of practicing law, and basically wanted to be a one-man legal think-tank. At the dawn of the 1880’s, he presented a Harvard lecture series to lawyers and their ilk, but his new theory was heretical for his generation. He suggested that public opinion should play a role in how the law was shaped. In 1882, as a Harvard law professor, he used the Socratic method along with the newly instituted case-analysis curriculum.

In 1904, a case reached the U.S. Supreme Court that tested the Sherman (antitrust) Act. If the monster-sized Northern Securities Company of merged railroads was going to restrain trade, then it should be dissolved. President Theodore Roosevelt believed in free-market competition and therefore became known as a monopoly-buster. But he was a political hack, and aroused public opinion whichever way was expedient for himself. Holmes (by then a Supreme Court justice) believed the law should be crafted pursuant to the economic tenor of the times, without regard to conscience, morality, politics, self-dealing or art.

Holmes was a quick study. He had already formed his opinion about each case before arguments of both sides were even finished. The other justices took months to give the impression that they had spent a long time thinking about a case, so as to come to the correct decision. That’s still the situation today.

The reason some justices make everyone wait, is that they use the delay as a form of control. Or, they are putting on a show of discussing weighty issues because they have big egos– they think they’re saving the world with their decisions, though some issues are not a matter of life and death, and affect only a tiny percentage of ordinary Americans. Anyway, Holmes’ fellow justices complained that his writings were too brief, so his meanings might be misconstrued.

As is well known, in early 1932, the United State was suffering extreme economic hardships from the Great Depression, at which time Holmes humbly realized he was no longer mentally competent to do the job of Supreme Court justice. The nation shuddered at the scary prospect that President Herbert Hoover got to choose the next justice. Ordinary Americans were crying out for more regulation. The Court already had a solid conservative majority, and adding another conservative would worsen most Americans’ situations by (excuse the cliche) making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer.

Read the book to learn much, much more about the lives of the Holmes family members.

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Fifty Ways to Make You Suffer – BONUS POST

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It’s business as usual in TrumpWorld, with numerous ongoing legal battles, factional infighting, turnover of personnel, and financial markets in turmoil. Trump revels in his power to cause all this chaos. Occasionally, there is a big announcement of good news timed for maximum ratings and distraction (from the fact that the president is senile, and from really serious political issues), that gets analyzed to death. There might even be some later this week, as the religious holidays are over, and May is a “sweep” month. But today, we suffer.

FIFTY WAYS TO MAKE YOU SUFFER

sung to the tune of “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” with apologies to Paul Simon and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump’s a dictator whose likeness has been evolving for centuries.
He’s given his name undying fame in posterity.
He hinders you in your struggle to be free.

He’s got fifty ways to make you suffer.

It’s really his habit to be unsavory.
Fox’s overpaid noisemakers are beholden to his slavery.
His crimes feed on themselves with no risk, no wavering. He gets off scot-free.

Fifty ways to make you suffer. Fifty ways to make you suffer.

Supreme Court he did pack, Jack.
Imposed the GOP’s plan, Stan.
The world’s his toy, Roy.
No one gets themselves free.

His mouthpieces convey his fuss, Gus.
His undue influence is too much.
But his senility is key, Lee.
From his grip, we’ll soon be free.

Supreme Court he did pack, Jack.
Imposed the GOP’s plan, Stan.
The world’s his toy, Roy.
Shame on GOP.

His mouthpieces convey his fuss, Gus.
His undue influence is too much.
But his senility is key, Lee.
From his grip, we’ll soon be free.

Talking heads teasing you again and again.
Ignoring the mean phonies, will help you keep your head.
Though it is excruciating,
the way Trump’s act, is tolerated fifty ways.

GOP sends its claques, flacks, and sycophants with quips.
Reagan’s Morning in America to Bush’s Read My Lips.
Then MAGA dissed them.
With a boatload of ugly clips.

He’s got fifty ways to make you suffer. Fifty ways to make you suffer.

Supreme Court he did pack, Jack.
Imposed the GOP’s plan, Stan.
The world’s his toy, Roy.
No one gets themselves free.

His mouthpieces convey his fuss, Gus.
His undue influence is too much.
But his senility is key, Lee.
From his grip, we’ll soon be free.

Supreme Court he did pack, Jack.
Imposed the GOP’s plan, Stan.
The world’s his toy, Roy.
Shame on GOP.

His mouthpieces convey his fuss, Gus.
His undue influence is too much.
But his senility is key, Lee.
From his grip, we’ll soon be free.

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No Way But to Fight

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The Book of the Week is “No Way But to Fight, George Foreman and the Business of Boxing” by Andrew R.M. Smith, published in 2020.

Born in 1949 in the Houston, Texas area, Foreman grew up in poverty in a large family. His future looked dim, as his schooling had been scant and his leisure activity had consisted of mugging people on the streets in the middle of the night.

Beginning in the mid-1960’s, president LBJ’s federal job-training program, called the Job Corps, arguably saved Foreman’s life. Various mentors who had acquired diverse life experiences- military veterans, counselors, coaches and teachers– supervised about two thousand troubled teens. Foreman learned about boxing, and won the first tournament he fought, in January 1967.

Foreman’s coach got him excused from the military draft for an undisclosed reason. As is well known, rival boxer Muhammad Ali became religious and resisted the draft. Through the decades, compulsory military service hindered plenty of careers of professional athletes, but they (Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Louis and Roger Staubach, to name four) didn’t make a public issue of it. The government wanted to punish Ali on behalf of those athletes– regardless of his ethnicity– because it was unfair to them, that Ali could continue to develop his career while their lives were disrupted or put at risk.

Ali obviously turned this into a civil rights issue, but other people considered him to be “cheating” as he was getting an unfair advantage over his competition. It is interesting to see how, through the decades, the conversation has shifted on how some Americans define “cheating” in professional sports.

Performance-enhancing drugs (regulated in international competitions but not terribly strictly in American professional sports) have quietly disappeared from the discussion in the United States, as a million conspirators have pushed gender-issues to the forefront– as the next form of cheating. That just shows how easily human beings can be brainwashed by propaganda!

Anyway, yet another turning point in Foreman’s career, occurred at the dawn of the 1970’s, when he met Dick Sadler. The boxing promoter was a rare bird– did business on a handshake and wasn’t as greedy as his competition.

Boxing through the 1970’s was a complicated business, considering all the stakeholders involved: the fighters themselves, their entourages, event-venues, event-broadcasting outlets, the various professional groups that organized the matches, and the political entities that regulated and taxed the aforementioned.

In the early years of his career as an amateur, Foreman was criticized for choosing to fight easy opponents. In March 1974, he was also labeled unpatriotic for scheduling a match outside the United States (in Venezuela), even after his tax-avoidance and financial-related divorce troubles had ended. The international media stories arising from that fight, smacked of the poor diplomatic relationship between America and Venezuela (for oil-related reasons).

Read the book to learn much more about the boxers of Foreman’s generation who began their careers in the 1960’s, the history of the industry through the 1990’s, and Foreman’s careers.

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Retaliation – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little song about what’s going on in the Trump camp.

RETALIATION

sung to the tune of “Fascination” with apologies to the Human League and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Impeachment a third TIME is needed. Arguments already made.
The plans of evil billionaires are heeded.
A powerless Vance, is dismayed.
Just looking to get rid of elections, in a modern, oppressive way.
The culmination of all-powerful connections, for profit and for play.

And so the opposition burns, and Trump’s enemies fall down.
And the propaganda churns, eveRY day.

Keep seeding retaliation, lashing-out, spinning, distractions all along.
Keep seeding retaliation, stiffing, menacing, moving on.

Well, truth has disappeared in the telling.
The story is so old.
And a golfing, senile Trump is raging.
Democracy’s on hold.

And so the opposition burns, and Trump’s enemies fall down.
And the propaganda churns, eveRY day.

Keep seeding retaliation, lashing-out, spinning, distractions all along.
Keep seeding retaliation, stiffing, menacing, moving on.

And so the opposition burns, and Trump’s enemies fall down.
And the propaganda churns, eveRY day.

Keep seeding retaliation, lashing-out, spinning, distractions all along.
Keep seeding retaliation, stiffing, menacing, moving on.

Keep seeding retaliation, lashing-out, spinning, distractions all along.
Keep seeding retaliation, stiffing, menacing, moving on.

Keep seeding retaliation, lashing-out, spinning, distractions all along.
Keep seeding retaliation, stiffing, menacing, moving on…

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Blind Spots

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“The media clapped like seals congratulating the researchers. Reporters amplified the study’s conclusion, even thought they hadn’t yet seen the actual data… the media promoted whatever health authorities said, rarely challenging them or publishing quotes from dissenting experts.”

For decades now, such are the sound bites emanating from communications sources, telling people about alleged medical-research results or medical recommendations; information that is distorted at best, and is even harmful to the population.

The Book of the Week is “Blind Spots, When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What it Means for Our Health” by Marty Makary, MD, published in 2024. This slightly sloppily edited volume contained anecdotes of wrongheaded messaging of medical “experts” that resulted in numerous needless deaths and ruined lives. Not to mention lawsuits.

In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) told Americans that an infant should not be fed any peanut butter or products with any peanuts– as the child would develop a peanut allergy. The AAP should have made the opposite recommendation, as their reasoning was backwards.

Makary saw that the AAP’s board of messengers were mostly dieticians and had little or no immunology knowledge! For fifteen years, many pediatricians blindly obeyed the AAP, and told their patients to avoid peanuts. Those patients developed extreme (life-threatening) peanut allergies that had to be treated with exorbitantly priced EpiPens. The experts with whom Makary spoke– who claimed to know what caused a peanut allergy, were later promoted and got awards in their respective careers.

The above happens frequently in the medical industry. For decades, arrogant medical authorities also told people that opioids aren’t addictive. To combat a myth such as this, the author and his colleagues started a website, “Sensible Medicine” but a drawback is that one of the types of people (a closed-minded, cocky medical professional) who could benefit from the site, won’t read it!

The author wrote that Big Pharma shies away from funding research that doesn’t involve intellectual property from which it can make big bucks. Thus, funding was stopped for a non-mRNA technology flu vaccine (one covering many flu strains)– because it wouldn’t have to be administered annually, and wouldn’t pay royalties to anyone.

Meanwhile, the media continue to spout their staged and scripted reality shows of political soap-operas whose issues affect a tiny percentage of ordinary Americans, while America’s broken healthcare system continues to cause the deaths of, and bankrupt numerous people every day.

Read the book to learn of many more healthcare abominations borne of greed, and dogma, and how healthy skepticism is a good thing.

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Criminality – BONUS POST

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It is interesting to note that the late president Richard Nixon has extremely few, if any entities (such as roadways, bridges, dams, tunnels, buildings, schools or research institutions) named after him. It appears that by imposing revenge-tariffs, Donald Trump is striving to be the anti-Richard-Nixon– trying to escape criminality-comparisons so that he won’t suffer the same fate.

Two differences between Nixon and Trump include: In 1972, Nixon initiated trade with China, and he was a heavy drinker. Trump revels in his absolute power to wreak havoc on the world’s financial markets! Don’t worry, there won’t be a Great Depression, because nowadays, America has insurance of financial institutions, and bailouts.

Nevertheless, speaking of criminality, here’s a list of presidents on whose ultimate authority rested,

post-WWII wrongdoing– NOT unethical behavior, but explicit law-breaking and crimes against humanity, which consists mostly of Cold War / CIA shenanigans, blood-for-oil, or both, secret weapons-research, war-related crimes (genocide and atrocities, in terms of deaths, destruction and devastation), which shall hereinafter be referred to as “classified crimes” if they have yet to be declassified; and other kinds of crimes, from MOST to LEAST [president: kinds of crimes]:

1) Nixon: war, political/election, financial
2) George W. Bush: classified, political/election, financial, treasonous (draft dodger)
3) LBJ: war, political
4) Truman: war– BUT arguably ended WWII sooner than otherwise via nuclear weapons, thus limiting the deaths and devastation; however, arguably unnecessarily wasted lives in Korea.

Due to lack of data on classified crimes, the rest of this list is debatable; plus, it is difficult, if not impossible to determine the number of deaths and amount of destruction and devastation DIRECTLY caused by all the other kinds of crimes. It stands to reason that the shorter a president’s time in office, the less likely he was to order the committing of classified crimes.

5: Reagan: war, treasonous, political
6: Eisenhower: war– at minimum, regime changes in Guatemala and other countries
7: Trump: classified, political/election (impeached twice), financial (adjudged guilty of 34 felony counts), more-likely-than-not sex crimes, treasonous (draft dodger)
8: George H.W. Bush: war
9: Bill Clinton: classified, treasonous (draft dodger and lied under oath about adultery), more-likely-than-not sex crimes
10: Barack Obama: classified, born in Hawaii and became president (but adjudged not guilty)
11: JFK: war
12: Biden: classified
13: Ford: war
14: Carter: ?

As can be seen, the above consists of seven Republicans and seven Democrats. Nonetheless, if one adds up the numbers of the rankings for each party (with the LOWER total signifying a HIGHER level of criminality) the Republicans total 42; the Democrats, 63. Hmm.

Anyway, now here’s a little ditty about the latest law-breaker in the White House.

ALWAYS UNWORTHY

sung to the tune of “She’s Always A Woman” with apologies to Billy Joel and to whomever else the rights may concern; Trump is unworthy of the temper tantrums, hissy fits and conniptions thrown by anyone who is wasting their time on him; this includes everyone who pays attention to him.

He rewrites history.
He inherited his rise.
He’s ruined-America’s fate with his countless lies.
He’s mesmerized his base with his demagoguery.
He behaves like a child,
and he’s always unworthy to me.

He thinks he’s tough.
In a second he’ll betray you.
His billionaires snoop while his media deceives.
His victims all quiver and he keeps criminals free.
Yeah, he’s caused so much grief, and he’s always unworthy to me.

Oh, he thinks only of himself.
He gets what he wants.
He’s led a life of crime.

Oh, history has borne out:
The best liars win.
We’ll reverse course in time.

He’ll promise from his actions you’ll get rich quick.
Then he’ll take away the carrot and give you the stick.
And he’ll hire loyalty over competence, ev’ry time.
He blames everyone else when his messes are all on your dime.

Oh, he thinks only of himself.
He gets what he wants.
He’s led a life of crime.

Oh, history has borne out:
The best liars win.
We’ll reverse course in time.

Oh, he’s losing his mind.
To his wannabes, he’s cool.
They’re eager to please him.
They’re all his fools.
And he can’t be convicted, he’s bought his degree.

And the most he will do is throw riches to his crew,
and he’s always unworthy to me.

Featured

No Better Time

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The Book of the Week is “No Better Time– The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet” by Molly Knight Raskin, published in 2013. This short, slightly sloppily edited volume whose title exaggerates, described the brief life of a dot-com startup genius.

Danny Lewin was born in May 1970 in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. His family moved to Israel when he was fourteen. He enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, and then he moved back to the United States to attend school at MIT.

While in school, with a friend, Lewin helped develop a technological innovation within the big-picture innovation of the whole Internet. Initially, his dot-com business, named Akamai Technologies, provided the service of preventing of the crashing of the browser when: a video went viral or a website got overwhelmed with traffic, or a denial-of-service attack was launched against a website. Through algorithms, obviously, eventually, computer scientists discovered the required optimal number of servers communicating among themselves to maximize computing power to minimize latency and downtime.

In the second half of the 1990’s, worldwide usage of the Internet, a decentralized network of potentially infinite networks, was in its infancy. This meant, for ordinary users, downloading of data was extremely slow. Impatience was growing in leaps and bounds as time-saving devices (like office software) were, too; resulting in “irrational exuberance” over securities sold to the public that funded dot-com startups. The likely reason Akamai still exists today while so many other tech startups failed, is that there was an actual, valuable service behind it!

By spring 2000, after receiving ginormous funding from its IPO, Akamai’s customers’ servers collectively numbered more than 2,750 in more than one hundred fifty networks in forty-five nations. At the book’s writing, Akamai controlled between fifteen and thirty percent of the world’s Internet traffic.

Read the book to learn much more about Lewin, the people who helped him, and his startup.

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Puttin’ on the Blitz – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty about the current political situation in the United States.

PUTTIN’ ON THE BLITZ

sung to the tune of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (the short version played on the radio in the 1980’s) with apologies to Estate of Irving Berlin, Estate of Fred Astaire, Taco, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

States of BLUE, Trump’ll, unmercifully-mow down.

His goal is to go, where vengeance sits.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Diff’rent agencies to oppress each-day. Loots, ravages, snoops or cuts away, giving victims fits.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Rule by fear and force. Be a shaker and mover.

Trying hard to act like J. Edgar Hoover. [super-Hoover]

Trump will nix all democracy by 2026, with this oppressive mix.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

He’s the SLAVE of the well-to-do, on Pennsylvania Avenue.

He’s an A-mer-i-CAN nightmare.

Scent-of Mao’s China is in the air.

The media revels, IN the hollers. Democrats are losing dollars.

Trump’s looking at every dime, and having a wonderful time.

States of BLUE, Trump’ll, unmercifully-mow down.

His goal is to go, where vengeance sits.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Diff’rent agencies to oppress each-day. Loots, ravages, snoops or cuts away, giving victims fits.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Rule by fear and force. Be a shaker and mover.

Trying hard to act like J. Edgar Hoover. [super-Hoover]

Trump will nix all democracy by 2026, with this oppressive mix.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Rule by fear and force. Be a shaker and mover.

Trying hard to act like J. Edgar Hoover. [super-Hoover]

States of BLUE, Trump’ll, unmercifully-mow down.

His goal is to go, where vengeance sits.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Where is Vance? Where is Vance?

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Puttin’ on the Blitz.

Featured

Ugly Farce – BONUS POST

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According to recent media headlines, Trump PLANS to (in no particular order):

  • use military sites across the country to detain undocumented immigrants
  • take over the Postal Service
  • inspect Fort Knox gold
  • impose tariffs on foreign automakers, chips and pharmaceuticals
  • create a sovereign wealth fund
  • lower consumer energy costs
  • name himself chair of the Kennedy Center and fire board members
  • create a tourist mecca in a strip of land in Gaza
  • reduce access to abortion
  • lower the corporate tax rate to 15%
  • eliminate income taxing and payroll taxing of tips
  • eliminate taxing of Social Security benefits
  • trample on the rights of LGBTQ+ people
  • eliminate the Department of Education
  • replace the Affordable Care Act
  • give a tax credit for family caregivers of older and disabled adults between $5,000 and $6,000 per year
  • support more oil and gas drilling
  • take over Greenland and
  • take over Canada.

A year from now (February 2026) — the above can be used as a checklist of what the president has accomplished, made progress on, or NOT.
The simplest, most direct way for ethical leaders to turn the country around, would be to TAX THE RICH. Here’s a little ditty about that.

UGLY FARCE

sung to the tune of “Hungry Heart” with apologies to Bruce Springsteen and to whomever else the rights may concern.

If your life is in the United States,
you’ve been taken-for-a-ride,
you have a dismal fate.

Among the wealthy, money keeps flowin’.
Leaders-TOOK a wrong turn and they just kept goin’.

Now democracy’s an ugly farce.
Now democracy’s an ugly farce.
Little-people’s-voices PLAY no part.
Now democracy’s an ugly, ugly farce. uh-oh

The sleazy types have maximum power.
Canned-videos of Trump are the LAtest trend.
The-rich took what we had and they ripped it apart.
Now here we are with lies-smears, and lawsuits again.

Now democracy’s an ugly farce.
Now democracy’s an ugly farce.
Little-people’s-voices PLAY no part.
Now democracy’s an ugly, ugly farce. uh-oh uh-oh uh-oh

Everybody is SICK of this mess.
Not everybody HAS a home.
It matters most what the money says.
We’ll see in-a-year whether the deficit’s grown.

Now democracy’s an ugly farce.
Now democracy’s an ugly farce.
Little-people’s-voices PLAY no part.
Now democracy’s an ugly, ugly farce.

(Now democracy’s an ugly farce.)
(Little-people’s-voices PLAY no, no part.) uh-oh
Now democracy’s an ugly farce. oh yeah
(Little-people’s-voices PLAY no part.) uh-oh
Now democracy’s an ugly farce.

ah ah ah, oh yeah…

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American Shield

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The Book of the Week is “American Shield, The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy” by Aquilino Gonell and Susan Shapiro, published in 2023.

Born around 1980, Gonell spent his early childhood in the Dominican Republic. When he was twelve, he moved to Brooklyn in New York State. In the late 1990’s, the author’s “green card” allowed him to join the U.S. Army Reserve while also attending college at Long Island University. He had a choice to join the military full-time. But part-time, he could eventually afford a higher education.

That just shows how desperate the U.S government is to get people to join its military, absent a draft. It is taking non-citizens! People who are so grateful to be living in America are more willing to risk their lives, and are willing to work harder and longer than people born here. And, in the event of war, American leadership wouldn’t be as aggrieved at losing fighters whom they don’t actually consider their own, anyway.

Through centuries of wars in the world, other countries have practiced variations on military recruitment methods. They’ve hired mercenaries, but those soldiers are fighting for the money and ego satisfaction. It’s a challenge for them to survive. They feel no obligation to anyone. In past wars, Britain has conscripted soldiers from its colonies in Africa, and India– forget the compensation.

Anyway, the author served in Iraq, and was a Capitol police officer on January 6, 2021, by which time he was a U.S. citizen. He didn’t know he’d be risking his life during what should have been a peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next. Yet 140 officers sustained serious injuries to their heads, limbs, backs, internal organs (from bear and pepper spray)– as though they were wounded in a war.

Gonell described in detail: “…fellow officers brazenly beaten with pipes, sticks, and rocks by rioters chanting ‘Fight for Trump’ and ‘USA! USA!’ Trump banners outnumbered American flags, and for a second I froze in fear. I’d seen this kind of unbridled rage in Iraq when the base was under attack, and I knew this was bad.” Gonell himself sustained serious injuries that would plague him the rest of his life.

Americans like to think they don’t live under a dictatorship, but their thinking has changed. Before, during and after the insurrection, Fox News was spouting smears and lies, such as– Antifa plotted the agitation at the Capitol. Very few GOP leaders at that time had the courage to actually condemn the violence. There are still too many people who owe their jobs to the major influencer of the violence to kick him out of office, even though he’s now senile!

AND, theoretically, the American president, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, has ultimate authority to decide on military deployment. However, if the president has sole control over the military and it obeys only him, is loyal only to him, including in connection with all top-secret foreign policy matters– THE PRESIDENT IS A DICTATOR.

Be that as it may, Gonell bravely appeared on talk shows to reveal the truth about the Capitol riot, even though he and his family feared doxing and death threats. He felt that a firearm would help him defend his family in his private home, and “The paperwork and background check only took fifteen minutes, and I walked out with a new Glock in its black case.” He mentioned that he had PTSD while he was in Iraq, but apparently, in the United States, traumatized ex-military members can acquire firearms in no time, with no pertinent questions asked.

Read the book to learn much more about Gonell’s life and times. A major change in the American regime will be announced during a slow-news week, so that its messaging will have maximum impact, and the media can make maximum money. Meanwhile, here’s a ditty on the current state of affairs.

STUCK WITH AI

sung to the tune of “Stayin’ Alive” with apologies to the Bee Gees, their estates, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Well, it’s the same old DRECK on the idiot box.

Old clips and deepfakes fill airtime on Fox.

Smearing loud, inciting a storm,

Musk and Trump tooting his horn.

It’s far Right, it’s a sad day.

It’s his way or THE highway.

It’s hard for some to understand,

how the brainWASHing got out of hand.

Whether you’re innocent or guilty as sin,

we’re stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

See criminals walking and Big Tech stalking.

We’re stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

new-normal police-state, stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

new-normal police-state, stuck with A-I-I-I-I.

Oh, criminals walk…

Well, the GOP’s low, and on power they’re high,

and democracy’s crumbling before our eyes.

Job security at an all-time low.

A lying senile leader causing more woe.

It’s far Right. It’s their way.

Fourth Amendment is in shreds today.

It’s hard for some to understand,

how the brainWASHing got out of hand.

Whether you’re innocent or guilty as sin,

we’re stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

See criminals walking and Big Tech stalking.

We’re stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

new-normal police-state, stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

new-normal police-state, stuck with A-I-I-I-I.

Vance needs to step up. Somebody help him. Somebody help him, yeah.

Vance needs to step up. Somebody help him, yeah. Stuck with AI.

Well, it’ the same old DRECK on the idiot box.

Old clips and deepfakes fill airtime on Fox.

Smearing loud, inciting a storm,

Musk and Trump tooting his horn.

It’s far Right, it’s a sad day.

It’s his way or THE highway.

It’s hard for some to understand,

how the brainWASHing got out of hand.

Whether you’re innocent or guilty as sin,

we’re stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

See criminals walking and Big Tech stalking.

We’re stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

new-normal police-state, stuck with AI, stuck with AI.

new-normal police-state, stuck with A-I-I-I-I. Argh.

Vance needs to step up. Somebody help him. Somebody help him, yeah.

Vance needs to step up. Somebody help him, yeah. We’re stuck with AI…

Featured

Evil Geniuses

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The Book of the Week is “Evil Geniuses, The Unmaking of America, A Recent History” by Kurt Andersen, published in 2020. In this large, redundant volume, the author described how wealth inequality in the United States has been increasing at an alarming rate in the last forty years, as evil geniuses– economic royalists and self-made empire-builders (who take advantage of existing resources and infrastructure)– have rigged the system to compound their spoils and re-distribute it among themselves in a self-serving cycle.

Lots of research has shown that financial inequality in society actually hinders economic growth in developed nations. In connection therewith, in 2014, the OECD conducted a United States study that showed a 20% slowdown in economic growth since the 1980’s.

The author argued that the year 1980 was the turning point at which America’s hegemony started to decline. Both the Republican and Democratic parties’ elitists (other evil geniuses in addition to the above-mentioned) actually hurt America’s ability to remain economically dominant in the world. They brainwashed a significant number of ordinary Americans into:

  • believing that government is the enemy;
  • agreeing to tax cuts for the rich (also called “trickle down” economics);
  • favoring excessive deregulation; and
  • bashing unions

because such actions would make everyone wealthy!

The author cited ample evidence that the above actions do NOT make everyone wealthy.

The author contended that conservative Republican 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater paved the way for Ronald Reagan’s wrong-headed economic agenda (described above).

Politics cannot be divorced from economics. This is a simple idea that has been hardly ever EXPLICITLY SAID in historical, political and economic literature read by ordinary Americans, through centuries. The author calls this the “political economy” and former president Bill Clinton had the line, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Politics involves the making, monitoring, changing, and enforcing of society’s laws. The evil geniuses in the legal field who helped perpetrate the insidious brainwashing of the American masses, actually conveyed the following attitude in writing and speaking:

“So if you happen to think it’s a good idea for judicial decisions to also consider fairness or moral justice, or other values or versions of social happiness that can’t be reduced to simple metrics of efficiency,

Law and Economics [a body of legal theory from Robert Bork and his fellow Chicago School libertarians] says you’re a fool.”

That is how the 1980’s saw the American legal system start to focus on efficiency– favoring profiteers. The author argued that old men who are resistant to change are the conspirators of the current state of affairs. Well, SOMEone’s got to be oppressed.

Another indication that Americans’ attitude was becoming even more inclined toward rule-breaking greed and showing off wealth, could be heard in a 1980’s SUV TV commercial, which featured a visual of a white, 40ish male driving. The voice-over says, “It doesn’t just say you’ve arrived; it says you got there any way you darn well pleased.”

The author cited evidence that taxing the rich would be the largest factor in more evenly distributing wealth. The first Trump administration passed a tax cut for the rich that gave rise to the “…largest percentage reduction in tax revenues of any developed country on earth.” This was BEFORE COVID. And “…the federal debt increased by $1.5 trillion more than it had in Obama’s final three years.”

Nonetheless, the most hurtful president ever was George W. Bush, whose unconscionable greed and unmitigated hubris led to the crashing of the American economy and the commencement of two wars that enriched him and his cronies.

LBJ and Nixon were two other war-criminal presidents. Their war policies, too, wasted an excessive amount of taxpayer dollars on needless deaths and ruined lives. At the same time, they tried not to foul their own nest. They attempted to maintain this country’s economic dominance in the world, and salve their own consciences by funding domestic social programs. LBJ did some profiteering, but not nearly as much as Trump.

Trump is an angry, vengeful old president who, at the end of his career, is hurting not only his own political party, but also ordinary Americans. His excessive financial criminality has incalculably hurt society as a whole.

In 2018, Trump said NAFTA was the “worst trade deal ever made.” But in 2025, after all his bluster, the trade deals he’s going to make with Mexico and Canada, are going to be largely similar to NAFTA’s, all over again! And through his spokespeople who draft the words spoken by his deepfake image, he will take full credit for “great, great trade deals.”

His threats are causing a panic that certain sectors of the American economy will crash. Even the threat of a soft economy will deter some illegal immigrants from coming to this country. Given financial cycles, it is likely that some people will be hurting financially in the next few years. Trump is using a scorched earth strategy on his way out of office in order to be able to brag that HE reduced the number of illegal immigrants who are coming here. He will brainwash his base into believing that the economic downturn was all Biden’s fault!

Anyway, the author also commented that the internet changed American culture in accelerating the automation of the exchange of information, obsolescing a humungous number of jobs. Machine-learning is also making the job situation even worse. It could be said that the internet is the “new television” for the Millennial and Z Generations. However, there are major differences in the ways television changed American culture, and the ways the internet has changed it.

Television was a passive entertainment / infotainment / education source that, for most Americans, was consumed at home only, in one’s leisure time; perhaps on average, most students and workers (there were many more of those then than now) watched three to four hours a day, at no extra charge (except for electricity)– for the lifespan of the set. Then came recording of shows, but also cable TV– whose costs are many times higher for shows and sports games that used to be free.

The internet is an interactive source, and can be accessed globally, 24/7. So the younger generations are wasting so, so, so much more time obsessing over politics, than did the older generations. People have been bamboozled into paying big bucks to purchase electronic toys on which to subscribe to the internet, for which they have to pay even more!

So the amounts of time and money most Americans are spending on the internet are infinitely higher than that of television (and movies, and reading books, magazines, and newspapers). The early years of the internet (up to the single-digit 2000’s) brought emotional comfort to Americans. They flocked to websites that featured relatable, entertaining user-contributions with few or no ads that interrupted their viewing pleasure.

Once the entrepreneurial dot-commers mastered monetization and propagandizing, users became victims of their mind-control techniques. Arguably, the cultural transition from television to the internet has been economically and psychologically regressive for most Americans.

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about the depressing developments in politics, economics and culture that will eventually lead to the collapse of American civilization.

Featured

Trotsky in New York 1917

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The Book of the Week is “Trotsky in New York 1917, A Radical on the Eve of Revolution” by Kenneth D. Ackerman, published in 2016. This volume had a misleading title, in that it described not only Trotsky’s activities, but those of his contemporaries and their times. There were backstories and flashbacks– insulting the intelligence of a reader who desired to read the book from cover to cover, rather than use it as a reference book. It repeated itself as history does; “When war [WWI] hysteria hit, people began to look for scapegoats, traitors, and spies. And the first accused of disloyalty were always the same: immigrants and socialists.”

Anyway, in January 1917, the man latterly known as Leon Trotsky, his second wife and their two sons arrived in New York City by boat. He and his wife confidently lied to immigration officials who had visited them personally in their cabin. They were able to bypass the Ellis Island third-degree inquisition because they were first-class passengers. The Spanish government paid the extra cost of upgrading them from second class because it was so eager to exile them.

Trotsky worked in the East Village office of Novy Mir (“New World”), a Russian socialist newspaper with a circulation of eight thousand. He had numerous intellectual and political friends in high places. Trotsky was a spellbinding speaker and prolific writer on socialist ideology. He doubted the elitist president Woodrow Wilson could help make peace in Europe because America was capitalist and ruled by its moneyed class. That class wanted to maintain the status quo of the gravy train of great profits derived from weapons contractors. Trotsky thought similiarly of the American Socialist Party leader– Morris Hillquit, who, as a lawyer, charged big bucks to represent labor and radical political activists and wasn’t opposed to using violence to get candidates elected.

In March 1917, after the tsar in Russia was deposed, Trotsky was on the move again, as he was a member of the Russian revolutionary organization. He and his family acquired proper identity papers and booked passage on a boat back to Russia. However, he was detained in a prison west of Halifax by Canadian authorities (ultimately ruled by Britain) for fear his native Russia would ally with Germany to defeat the French and British. He prepared several telegrams to inform various parties of what was happening with him; one of which was actually sent. This spawned letters, demonstrations, telegrams and newspaper articles in America, Canada, Britain and Russia that put pressure on officials to allow him to return to Russia.

By late 1917, Trotsky and the gang were well on their way to forming a dictatorship in Russia– breaking their previous campaign promises. Via violence, they eliminated free speech and all political activity except their own. Trotsky made the excuse that such measures were necessary to head off a French-Revolution-style peasant-uprising. However, in order to stay in power as the top leader, Vladimir Lenin scaled back the brutality by instituting the New Economic Policy. Because the common people were starving, he actually allowed them to engage in capitalist initiatives in agriculture. Of course there was corruption. Hilarity did NOT ensue.

As is well known, hilarity is associated with the American sitcom, a bygone era. Trotsky’s scene was more like a modern-day reality show– whose viewers vicariously release their rage along with the overpaid noisemakers on the idiot box. Here are the sentiments of some other Americans.

TRIPE

sung to the tune of “Escape” with apologies to Rupert Holmes and whomever else the rights may concern.

I’m tired of the president.
He’s been in office too long.
He’s a worn out recording of a boatload of wrongs.
So while he’s hiding and golfing, he’s trying to clear his head.
And his personal consultants, keep the media fed.

I don’t like this queen’s drama.
He’s GOT mush for brains.
All the negative emotions, and the race to defame.
I don’t like his fluff night AFTER night, the views, and the hype.
It’s not fluff I voted for.
I TUNE out the tripe.

I don’t think about the president.
He’s always so mean.
He and his media slaves,
require a staged and scripted routine.
It should be in all the papers– his mind is going bad.
GOP doesn’t want to SHOW it. GOP is power-mad.

I don’t like this queen’s drama.
He’s GOT mush for brains.
I don’t like the xenophobia, the greed campaign.
I hope Vance steps up soon,
and cuts through all this red tape, via the 25th Amendment,
and changes the leadership landscape.

The prez can’t TALK off the cuff.
He’s in an embarrassing place.
It’s another Reagan instance.
Billionaire boys set the pace.

Vance MUST be less shady.
He’s a Millennial coup.
You can laugh for a moment.
But he’s dangerous, too.

I don’t like this queen’s drama.
He’s GOT mush for brains.
All the negative emotions, and the race to defame.
I don’t like his fluff night AFTER night, the views, and the hype.
It’s not fluff I voted for.
I TUNE out the tripe.

I don’t like this queen’s drama.
He’s GOT mush for brains.
I’m into sane healthcare, NOT the greed campaign.
I don’t like his fluff night AFTER night, the views, and the hype.
It’s not fluff I voted for.
I TUNE out the tripe.

I don’t like this queen’s drama.
He’s GOT mush for brains…

==================

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about Trotsky’s life and political career.

Featured

Ivan’s War

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The Book of the Week is “Ivan’s War, Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945” by Catherine Merridale, published in 2006.

As is well known, by the mid-1920’s, Stalin had taken over Russia, in which there had been a revolution to turn the country Communist. Beginning in 1929, Stalin forced peasant-farmers to merge their land into collectives and adopt wrong-headed agricultural methods, resulting in millions and millions of deaths from famine. Elite schools in the cities were training the upper class (and a few poor boys) for leadership.

In spring 1937, Stalin ordered many top leaders in his government and military to be fired or tortured or killed, or a combination thereof. The younger soldiers had been brainwashed from birth to be anti-Fascist and therefore to hate the Germans, so they were confused when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in August 1939. Nevertheless, when WWII came, the Russian military incited the educated young men to lead the fight to protect mother Russia. Back home, their families were still starving.

In June 1940, the Soviet military was unpleasantly surprised by an attack on their Slavic lands by the German Luftwaffe. The now-enemy had knocked out a lot of military resources and Soviet troops had been disorganized and poorly equipped previously. Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin’s right-hand man, used the occasion to inspire patriotism and incite additional hatred against the Germans.

Propaganda literally flew back and forth hot and heavy. German planes flying over Ukraine dropped leaflets that said Moscow had fallen and Stalin was dead. Turnover in the Red Army was extremely high due to: desertions, deaths from NKVD executions for desertions, and deaths from disease and enemy fire and bombardments.

In spring 1944, Soviet soldiers invaded Romania. They began to see peasants there and in Germany, Poland, France, Holland, Belgium and other capitalist places, who were living way better than they themselves had been, in their civilian lives. The young Soviet military men began to question how Communism was so great if they had been so economically poor.

Instead of setting fire to Romanian villages as they and the Germans had done to so many other battlegrounds as they were leaving, they looted corpses and appropriated farm animals, alcohol and material possessions for themselves. Black markets flourished.

When they finally marched into East Prussia and Budapest, the Soviets’ frenzy of hatred involved raping females, too. Peer pressure caused otherwise ethical men to become barbarians, and drunkenness made it easier to misbehave the way they did.

The Russian propaganda outlet “Pravda” portrayed the Soviets as victims of the Nazis, and called for revenge and reparations. It conveniently neglected to mention the atrocities they committed.

Stalin deflected blame from himself for millions and millions of Soviet deaths through the decades of his rule, by claiming he was suffering along with his people. He believed that Western capitalist cultures were a bad influence, so he demobilized the Russian Army from Germany in 1945– making them sign nondisclosure agreements. He also appeased them with a monetary bonus and (low quality) consumer goods. However, they were spied on by his intelligence service 24/7.

Stalin cast aspersions on the Jews during and after the war. One of numerous myths spread was that during the war, Jews held office jobs instead of fighting on the front lines. In 1945, Ukrainians in Kiev launched a pogrom.

The ravages of the war gave rise to adrenaline junkies with PTSD. After the war, they didn’t know what to do with themselves, and they continued to lead violent, empty lives. “Instead of aspiring to freedom, patriots would henceforth– wittingly or not– become complicit in the repression of the minorities, large-scale arrests, and a bleak and deadly dogma that had almost nothing in common with the libertarian promises that had drawn such crowds to Palace Square in the revolutionary months of 1917.”

After official histories of the war were published, Soviet censors prohibited the publishing of any additional war-related information. No one was allowed to see the archives. They were classified. Top secret.

Read the book to learn much more on the history of the Soviets’ experiences before, during and after WWII.

ENDNOTE: Speaking of non-disclosure and keeping up appearances, here’s a little ditty that describes Trump’s latest marital status.

FIRST LADY MELANIA

sung to the tune of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” with apologies to The Beatles, their estates and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Donald had a victory in the political race.

Melania is, standing by her man.

Donald said to Melania,

“You’ll help me save face. We’ll sign an agreement to maintain the Trump brand.”

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

Donald has a radical agenda in store.

Melania, must obey her king.

She’s stiff and aloof and doesn’t care anymore.

She knows she’s not allowed to say a thing.

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

For all of their years, their marriage is a BUS-iness act.

With previous kids, their family’re reality show stars…

of Donald’s and Melania’s contracts.

Donald’s the big winner in the transactional race.

Donald lets the children lend a hand.

Melania stays at home and does her pretty face,

and at events she’s loyally standing by her man.

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

For all of their years, their marriage is a BUS-iness act.

With previous kids, their family’re reality show stars…

of Donald’s and Melania’s contracts.

Donald’s the big winner in the transactional race.

Donald lets the children lend a hand.

Melania stays at home and does her pretty face,

and at events she’s loyally standing by her man.

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

First laDY, MelAN-ia, fashion icON,

la la la la fashion icon.

For Donald it’s FUN.

But for Melania, it’s NOT!

Featured

Crossing Lines – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty on the current situation in the American government.

CROSSING LINES

sung to the tune of “Borderline” with apologies to Madonna and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Backroom deals are SHOWing criminality.
Trump didn’t want to be a prisoner so his sycophants set him free.
It’s his usual history.
It’s no mystery.
Both parties let us down.
Election year is done.
The bad guys have won.
THEY’RE back to fooling around.

They’re, just undermining our land.
They get away with all they can.
Trump’s sycophants set him free.

Crossing lines.
The justice system lost its mind.
Just like when Ford pardoned Nixon.
They are crossing lines.

Crossing lines.
The justice system lost its mind.
Just like when Ford pardoned Nixon.
They are crossing lines. Crossing lines.

Backroom deals are SHOWing criminality.
When someone’s power is so great,
they defy reality.
Both parties let us down.
THEY’RE fooling around.
The truth just can’t be found.

The hypocrisy’s so rife.
You can cut it with a knife.
[The original lyrics are so bad. That’s life.]

They’re, just undermining our land.
They get away with all they can.
Trump’s sycophants set him free.

Crossing lines.
The justice system lost its mind.
Just like when Ford pardoned Nixon.
They are crossing lines.

Crossing lines.
The justice system lost its mind.
Just like when Ford pardoned Nixon.
They are crossing lines. Crossing lines.

When Ford pardoned,
when Ford pardoned,
when Ford pardoned Nixon…

CRIMinality.
CRIMinal-government.

No punishments.

duh duh duh duh
duh duh duh duh

Featured

The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon

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The Book of the Week is “The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon, The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady” by Heath Hardage Lee, published in 2024.

The future first lady Pat Nixon was born in March 1912 in Nevada. She was orphaned as a teenager. She faced numerous other hardships, so she was forced to play well with others; making her a skilled diplomat. In the second half of 1959, when her husband Richard (“Dick”) was running for president, she got her own campaign in order to attract female voters. There were buttons, banners, songs, and speaking engagements at social events such as teas and gatherings at women’s clubs.

Pat usually refrained from publicly expressing her opinions on her husband’s political activities, but she felt most strongly about gender equality. When he was finally elected president in 1968, she campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, and urged Dick to nominate female U.S. Supreme Court justices when two vacancies arose.

However, he hid behind the sexist American Bar Association’s assessment that the whole list of female nominees was unqualified for one reason or another, when he had to finalize his choices.

During Dick’s time as president, both individually and with Dick, Pat traveled extensively internationally to maintain friendly relationships with America’s then-allies. She still kept her personal life as private as possible, but complained she felt underappreciated in her diplomatic role.

People offered to help her write a book about her world-peace making. Yet, in her mind, publicizing her political activities was akin to her usage as a prop to promote her husband. But– isn’t that what politics is– managing the image of the big boss?

Beginning in the summer of 1973, the media covered nothing but the Watergate investigation. The special counsel who prosecuted the bad actors in the Nixon administration judged that the president “had entered a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.” This, pursuant to the “smoking gun” consisting of a conversation between Dick and his aide Bob Haldeman, recorded on tape in June 1972.

John Dean, the president’s former attorney, participated in the cover-up by urging the labeling of the break-in as a matter of “national security.” Therefore, the FBI and CIA shouldn’t interview two key witnesses in the case. When Dean was charged with crimes, he provided damning testimony saying that Nixon was aware of all the wrongdoing all along.

In May 1976, Woodward and Bernstein, the two investigative journalists who broke the Watergate stories, revealed the whole incident-crowded affair in a book. According to Heath Hardage Lee, some of its contents were tabloidy. The book made the claim that Pat became a drunk loner in the last several months of her husband’s presidency. The TV comedy-sketch show Saturday Night Live (“SNL”) portrayed her thusly, too. But Lee pointed out that Pat’s image had been conflated with that of Betty Ford.

Another reason why Pat was smeared in this way, might be that it was actually the president who had become the drunk loner when his crimes were coming to light. This assertion has been recounted in various primary sources that described the president’s behavior in the presence of Kissinger, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman.

It is likely that the SNL writers were reluctant to mock the former president, as they might still have been subject to lawsuits and political retaliation. Anyway, read the book to learn much more about the public life Pat chose to have, and her struggles in trying to stay private.

ENDNOTE: Speaking of privacy, lawsuits and political retaliation– along with the issues of free speech, exploitation and the public’s right to know about how much of what their government is doing– modern communications technologies have muddied the waters. Even so, Donald Trump’s extreme litigiousness is his legacy.

Trump can dish it but he can’t take it. That’s why he’s suing everyone all the time. It’s a way to trot out the “victim card” to elicit sympathy from his base, and harass anyone who displeases him. Here’s what he’s singing now.

I WANT TO FORCE YOUR HAND

sung to the tune of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” with apologies to members of the Beatles, their estates, and whomever else the rights may concern.

I SUE, to tell you something: You’re under my command.
When I, sue-over everything, I want to force your hand.
I want your criticism ba-anned.
For your excuses, I won’t stand.

You must, cave in to me.
I’m a defamed man.
Oh jeez, you’ve pained me.
I’m in conTROL of this land.
You’re thwarting my best-laid plans.
You’re hurting THE Trump brand.

And when I crush you, I’m still not, satisfied.
It’s such a feeling that your abuse, I can’t abide.
You hurt my pride.
You all lied.

I SUE, to tell you something: You’re under my command.
When I, sue-over everything, I want to force your hand.
I want your criticism ba-anned.
For your excuses, I won’t stand.

And when I crush you, I’m still not, satisfied.
It’s such a feeling that your abuse, I can’t abide.
You hurt my pride.
You all lied.

I SUE, to tell you something: You’re under my command.
When I, sue-over everything, I want to force your hand.
I want to force your hand.
I want to force your hand.

I want to force your hand.

Featured

Merkel’s Law

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The Book of the Week is “Merkel’s Law, Widsom From the Woman Who Led the Free World” by Melissa Eddy, published in 2024.

This short, sloppily edited, chronologically disorganized, redundant volume described the highlights of the decades-long (beginning at the dawn of the 1990’s) political career of Angela Merkel in Germany.

As much as the capitalist Americans scream “socialist!” at many aspects of the culture of Europeans, the latter are superior in gender equality! In approximately the last fifty years, several females have served as world leaders; Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir among them. But the United States has yet to elect a female president.

Interestingly, East Germany had a bigger selection of daycare centers than did West Germany at the time of this book’s writing. This meant a larger percentage of eastern German women (on whom the burden still largely falls to raise children and do housework) than otherwise, could have a career if they chose. It is still a myth that women can have it all, even in industrialized countries.

Additionally, the media pestered Merkel about various issues they wouldn’t dare have raised if she had been a male. They criticized her fashion choices. They treated her public appearances as a beauty contest. But Merkel did have a unique perspective, having grown up in East Germany under the yoke of Communism. She witnessed poor talent deployment under the crushingly oppressive system. Everyone was guaranteed a job, but there was wasted talent galore.

One behavior Merkel exhibited, for which a few male politicians have become known, was delaying making decisions until the last possible moment. There might have been various time-sensitive factors at work when she finally announced she was going to run for a fourth term as chancellor of Germany, that would begin in 2017. One factor included waiting to see whether American voters elected Donald Trump for president in 2016. Another was the possible influence outgoing American president Barack Obama had on her to run again.

On the other hand, making people wait is a control-issue. There is power in keeping information to oneself. The media has to monitor when an announcement is going to be made, and keeping viewers in suspense generates ratings.

Two major crises Merkel faced during her chancellorship, for which her reactions were lambasted– consisted of the overwhelming number of Syrian refugees coming into Germany beginning in the 2010’s, and the oversight of energy sources for Germany. Regarding the latter, Merkel chose to purchase more natural gas and stopped the use of nuclear energy after Japan became a cancer cluster from radiation. Japan suffered a meltdown of its nuclear plants from an earthquake and tsunami in spring 2011.

Many Germans thought Merkel sold her soul to the Russians on the energy front. However, all world leaders must make wrenching decisions for their nations in connection with goods and services (especially energy!), environmental friendliness (or not), economics, and diplomatic relations, because all kinds of issues are all interrelated and cannot be divorced from one another.

Nevertheless, the decisions of elected public servants tend to be selfish, as they always have their eye on reelection or their legacy. In a democratic country, the one exception is when a dictatorial leader’s decisions are all selfish– if they are in their last term due to term limits and they don’t care about their legacy.

Read the book to learn about Merkel’s career trials and tribulations, her strengths and weaknesses, and her legacy.

Featured

More Today Than Yesterday – BONUS POST

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You American voters have actually elected grasping, calculating AI bureaucrats, who bring you Deep Fake News! Here’s a song about the situation.

MORE TODAY THAN YESTERDAY

sung to the tune of “More Today Than Yesterday” with apologies to The Spiral Staircase and to whomever else the rights may concern.

YOU do remember how in-your-face Trump was.

Ra-ally and press-conference obsessed, he was.

All we know is that he’s NOW-hiding from you.

And all his dreams came true.

He’s no-longer spending time with you.

Daily his PR team conveys, some-fluff to you.

With each day comes a fight for face-time, among his crew.

Every time he moves his lips, his mind starts to wander.

And if his VP’s dreams come true,

Vance’ll be spending time with you.

Oh, Trump’s absent more today than yesterday.

But not as much as tomorrow.

Trump’s absent more today than yesterday.

But darn it, not as much as tomorrow.

In-auguration time’s just a short way’s away.

Amendment 25 is needed now,

come what may.

Thank yourselves for democracy like ours,

that grows ever stronger.

Trump’s absence is a clue

that he can’t directly talk to you.

Oh, Trump’s absent more today than yesterday.

But not as much as tomorrow.

Trump’s absent more today than yesterday.

But darn it, not as much as tomorrow.

Trump’s every aide is power struggling,

egos pushing and shoving.

The end for him is humbling.

A new regime is coming.

Trump’s every aide is power struggling,

egos pushing and shoving.

The end for him is humbling.

A new regime is coming…

Featured

He’d Love a Trade Fight – BONUS POST

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This song is self-explanatory, about you-know-who.

HE’D LOVE A TRADE FIGHT

sung to the tune of “I Love A Rainy Night” with apologies to the Estate of Eddie Rabbitt and whomever else the rights may concern.

Well, he’d love a trade fight.
He’d love a trade fight.
He loves to invite wonder.
Watch the fireworks as the globe swallows his lies.

You know it makes him feel good.

Well, he’d love a trade fight.
He’s showing his might.
He delights in his threats in your face,
tests the power of his words.

In the spotlight HE knows.

The news-cycle, takes all his words away.
His allies aid-and-abet for-gotten days.

‘Cause he’d love a trade fight.
Yeah, he’d love a trade fight.
Well, he’d love a trade fight.
Well, he’d love a trade fight.

ooh, ooh

Well, he’d love a trade fight.
He’d love a trade fight.

He loves to invite wonder.
Watch the fireworks as the globe swallows his lies.

You know it makes him feel good.

Well, he’d love a trade fight.
He’s showing his might.
He delights in his threats in your face,
tests the power of his words.

In the spotlight HE knows.

Puts his name in posterity.
To hell with, historical verity.

‘Cause he’d love a trade fight.
Yeah, he’d love a trade fight.
Well, he’d love a trade fight.
Well, he’d love a trade fight.

ooh, ooh

The news-cycle, takes all his words away.
His allies aid-and-abet for-gotten days.

‘Cause he’d love a trade fight.
Yeah, he’d love a trade fight.
Well, he’d love a trade fight.
He’d love a trade fight.

Well, he’d love a trade fight.
But it might be lies.
He’d love a trade fight.
Well, it MAKES headlines.

Ooh, he’d love a trade fight.
He’s fooling you. Yeah, yeah.
He’d love a trade fight.
Well, he’d love a trade fight.
But it might be lies.
He’d love a trade fight.
Well, it MAKES headlines.

Well, he’d love a trade fight.
Loves himself, too.
Well, he’d love a trade fight…

Featured

Pardon Party – BONUS POST

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It’s not hard to see where the brain-dead president-elect is going.

Here’s a song on it.

PARDON PARTY

sung to the tune of “Garden Party” with apologies to the Estate of Ricky Nelson and whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump’s planning a pardon party, to RE-lease his old friends.
A chance to exchange political favors, and bury wrongs again.
After his inauguration, he’ll clear all their names.
They won’t have to face prison.
Things’ll stay the same.

And that’s THE Right now.
Trump learned his lesson well.
You KNOW he’ll pardon his current base.
And he’ll, try to pardon himself.

People’ll come from miles around.
All his cronies’ll be there.
Trump’ll bring more corruption.
There’s impunity in the air.

And over in the courts,
much to no one’s surprise,
the judges will hide their quid pro quos,
doubling down on lies.

And that’s THE Right now.
Trump learned his lesson well.
You KNOW he’ll pardon his current base.
And he’ll, try to pardon himself.

He’ll play them all the old songs,
access is why they’ll come.
Everyone knows he’s brain-dead.
On their plans, they’re staying mum.

Trump’s appointing his favorite sycophants.
They belong to him.
He knows the regulators won’t do their jobs,
but just be willfully dim.

And that’s THE Right now.
Trump learned his lesson well.
You KNOW he’ll pardon his current base.
And he’ll, try to pardon himself.

Trump will open a Pandora’s box,
at the border and on trade,
playing Fox viewers while his profiteers,
will have it made.

Taxpayers-lose at this pardon party.
The donors make the bucks.
If you don’t see this political fact,
we’ll never get out of Trump’s muck.

And that’s THE Right now.
Trump learned his lesson well.
You KNOW he’ll pardon his current base.
And he’ll, try to pardon himself.

And that’s THE Right now.
Trump learned his lesson well.
You KNOW he’ll pardon his current base.
And he’ll, try to pardon himself.

Featured

A Wild Idea

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The Book of the Week is “A Wild Idea” by Jonathan Franklin, published in 2021. This sloppily edited volume told a suspenseful, inspiring story of a man famous for doing the impossible– saving huge swaths of ecosystems in southern regions of Chile and Argentina in the single-digit 2000’s.

Born in 1943, Doug Tompkins spent his childhood in New York City and upstate New York. A social misfit, he dropped out of high school. Nevertheless, he acquired marketable skills in tree-felling and other manual labors, and retailing, enabling him to fund his wilderness adventures. His entreprenurial bent led him to start two clothing companies that prospered.

Tompkins wasn’t some hypocritical environmental philanthropist who claimed to want to save the earth, while: generating excessive pollution with his gas-guzzling vehicles and corporate and private jets, zipping around to his various mansions, and yachting with celebrities.

Tompkins truly, deeply cared about contamination of the world’s food supply, in addition to securing nature preserves in the form of national parks. His goals were to re-balance the proportions of life forms on earth through re-populating those areas with endangered species, and to let people enjoy nature! This, in regions of South America that had yet to be destroyed by humans, only because the terrain was so inhospitable to human habitation. He lived there; off the grid, when he wasn’t on some challenging outdoors-adventure with his buddies somewhere in the world.

Read the book to learn much more about a few episodes of Tompkins’ more extreme adventures, his businesses, the changes he wrought, and how he was changed by his experiences and relationships.

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Let’s Sink the Right Together – BONUS POST

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As is well known, most of The Rolling Stones’ songs are about sexual conquest and emotional trouble (and to a lesser extent, drugs).
A current presidential candidate is largely similar. Here’s a little ditty on the situation: It’s the correct thing to do.

LET’S SINK THE RIGHT TOGETHER

sung to the tune of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” with apologies to The Rolling Stones and whomever else the rights may concern.

bop a la la bop bop a la la

bop a la la bop bop a la la

bop a la la bop bop

my my my my

bop a la la bop bop a la la

You have to worry about what’s ON Trump’s mind. Oh my.

bop a la la bop bop a la la

He’s looking to commit more crimes. Oh my.

bop a la la bop bop a la la

He dominates red and his tongue’s getting tied.
Tongue’s getting tied.
He’s got a muzzy head, which his base denies.
All he does is lie, lie, lie, and spy. Cha cha cha.

Let’s sink the Right together.
Your vote is NEEded more than ever.
Let’s sink the Right together now.

bop a la la bop bop

bop a la la bop bop a la la

He ACTS so strong but his words are unwise. Oh my.
Let’s sink the Right together.
But he just CAN’T apologize. Oh no.
Let’s sink the Right together.

HE’D STRING PENCE UP. DON’T LET US DOWN. DON’T LET US DOWN.

We will have laughs turning the country around,
else we’re king-bound. King-bound. Oh my my.

Let’s sink the Right together.
Your vote is NEEded more than ever.
Let’s sink the Right together.

Let’s sink the Right together.
Your vote is NEEded more than ever.

doot doot doot doot doo

You know he’s unsavory, sli-MY.
He thinks he’s gliding, ea-SY.

If you’re deciding lately, wow.
Your vote is NEEded more than ever.
Let’s sink the Right together.
Let’s sink the Right together.

Now.

my my my my my my my

bop a la la bop bop a la la

Don’t let Trump happen EVER again. Oh my.

Let’s sink the Right together.

His excuses offered are always lies. Oh my.
Let’s sink the Right together.
He’ll actually satisfy HIS every need. His every need.

And now you know, he’ll screw the coun-TRY.

Oh my my my my my my my

Let’s sink the Right together.
Your vote is NEEded more than ever.
Let’s sink the Right together.

Together now

bop a la la bop bop

Oh my my my my my my my

Let’s sink the Right together.

He’ll actually satisfy HIS every need.

Needed more than ever.

Let’s sink the Right together…

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Month’s Rant – BONUS POST

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As is well known, America has a mis-prioritized news cycle.
The headlines on deaths resulting from extreme weather last about a week, while the media scandalizes trivia on politicians, celebrities and sports-figures, and revels in their troubles– and the headlines drag on for weeks and weeks.


As is also well known, there is one politician whose scandals are NOT trivial, and whose abominable behaviors on January 6, 2021 and in infinite other episodes, bear repeating until he can no longer terrorize anyone.
This ditty explains it.

MONTH’S RANT

sung to the tune of “Moondance” with profuse apologies to Van Morrison and whomever else the rights may concern.

Well, it’s a marvelous month for a Trump rant,
world domination set in his eyes.
A fantabulous month to make a comeback
with a barrage of October lies.

And the far-Right GOP candidates come calling
to the sound of the sleazy Trump show.
Fox’s hysterical rhetoric is galling.
They need high ratings to rake in big dough.

Election night’s scheming is subject to whisper and hush.
You know the soft money down the line, makes no one blush.

Trump JUST wants the next month to rant with Fox, you know.
Trump JUST wants more and more mean chants with Fox, you know.

Well, Trump loves to be the drama queen EVery night.
He can’t wait till election day comes.
He MUST keep pushing the far Right,
with dirty tricks, sneers and publicity stunts.

His claques, flacks and sycophants will be waiting.
They foolishly THINK that he’ll be true.

But in a month if his dreams are dashed, folks,
there and then he’ll vow revenge-against YOU.

And with all his history, the unprotected tremble inside.
His targets KNOW he’s dangerous; thus,

the October surprise.

Trump JUST wants the next month to rant with Fox, you know.
Trump JUST wants more and more mean chants with Fox, you know.

Well, it’s a marvelous month for a Trump rant,
world domination set in his eyes.
A fantabulous month to make a comeback
with a barrage of October lies.

And the far-Right GOP candidates come calling
to the sound of the sleazy Trump show.
Fox’s hysterical rhetoric is galling.
They need high ratings to rake in big dough.

Election night’s scheming is subject to whisper and hush.
You know the soft money down the line, makes no one blush.

Trump JUST wants the next month to rant with Fox, you know.
Trump JUST wants more and more mean chants with Fox, you know.

a month more of mean chants, against you
then election night, the dangerous Right
la la la la la
then election night, the dangerous Right
Trump JUST wants more mean chants against you, you know…

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Confessions of A Wall Street Analyst


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The Book of the Week is “Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst, A True Story of Inside Information and Corruption in the Stock Market” By Dan Reingold with Jennifer Reingold, published in 2006.

The author happened to become a telecommunications-industry stock analyst, hopping from one big-name investment bank to another. This, at the start of about two decades of an excessively deregulated, gravy train of greed on Wall Street: the early 1990’s. He described his job as requiring lots of reading and writing, and as having long, long hours. He got to travel around the world to meet his contacts, and gossip with industry competitors. The compensation he collected for doing so was obscene.

The U.S. government had just acted on a wave of anti-trust sentiment, so competitors were scrambling to game the situation. Telephones were going wireless, while their service providers were merging like crazy.

The author detailed the changes in the industry, including how it became corrupted by the usual suspects– greedy Wall Street workers. These included analysts and the departments that trade securities on behalf of their clients and their employers’ compliance departments who looked the other way on the LAWS against analysts’ getting inside information from the said departments.

For example, if the banking arm told an analyst that a certain company was a takeover target before information in connection therewith was publicly disclosed, the analyst could write a report recommending that his employer’s clients (which ranged from huge pension funds to little investors and everyone in between) buy its stock. That is one kind of insider trading.

In the mid to late 1990’s, the author witnessed various episodes in which one particular analyst at a competing big-name investment bank was manipulating the system. There was circumstantial evidence that he was receiving inside information on the stocks he was touting. Later on, one telecommunications company turned out to be not just “cooking the books” but scorching them. The resulting mess turned out to be the largest accounting-fraud scandal to that date.

These and other Wall Street shenanigans (that were bunched together in the course of a decade!) resulted in the usual harm to society and more excessive wealth for the wealthy; more specifically:

  • The perpetrators (the offending workers and their employers) got a “slap on the wrist” in the form of chump-change fines from regulators, while collecting excessively large fees for servicing the merger transactions and advising their clients on what to trade when– while admitting no wrongdoing;
  • The mergers resulted in massive layoffs of working-class people;
  • Taxpayers paid for the salaries of the regulators who bragged about how great they were in catching and punishing the few white-collar criminals they did nab; and
  • Unsurprisingly, the author retired before he got nabbed but he claimed his employment contract contained no pay-for-performance provision with regard to his employer’s investment-banking revenues.

Anyway, read the book to learn a boatload more about Wall Street’s goings-on in telecommunications from the 1990’s into the single-digit 2000’s, and the author’s career.

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Spite of the Liars – BONUS POST

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As the presidential election winds down in the next six weeks, many people are getting agitated and frustrated because it appears to be largely 2016 all over again.

Not to worry. It won’t be. The way people release anger in this country (aside from football and violence), is politics. Just keep calm and turn off the “news!”

Here’s a little ditty on the situation.

SPITE OF THE LIARS

sung to the tune of “Eye of the Tiger” with apologies to Survivor and whomever else the rights may concern.

A ratings race.
They’re making history.
Hogging airtime,
doing their dances.
With Trump and Harris now
afraid of defeat,
using AI and social contagion to thrive.

In these times, money rules all–
healthcare, sports and elections.
It’s up to you to make the CORrect call.
You must fight just to fact-check their cries.

It’s the, spite of the liars,
mad people thrilled by the fight.
Audiences GET manipulated by their idols.
And noisemakers revel, in the-charade every night.
And they’re involving us all in the spite, of the liars.

A ratings race.
Eyes and ears on the news.
Inflammatory rhet’ric gets, gory.
By stacking the odds, they having nothing to lose.
But meritocracy will keep democracy alive.

It’s the, spite of the liars,
mad people thrilled by the fight.
Audiences GET manipulated by their idols.
And noisemakers revel, in the-charade every night.
And they’re involving us all in the spite, of the liars.

A ratings race.
Both sides flip-flop.
Plenty of time for more surprises.
Scandalizing trivia, they’re not gonna stop.
It’s winner-take-all, someone’s not going to survive.

It’s the, spite of the liars,
mad people thrilled by the fight.
Audiences GET manipulated by their idols.
And noisemakers revel, in the-charade every night.
And they’re involving us all in the spite, of the liars.

spite of the liars
spite of the liars
spite of the liars
spite of the liars

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Blue Sky Kingdom

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The Book of the Week is “Blue Sky Kingdom” by Bruce Kirkby, published in 2020.

The Canadian author recounted how he, his wife and two sons– seven and four– went on a radical sabbatical for half a year. The parents had always enjoyed adventurous nature trips on various continents– whitewater rafting, hiking, kayaking, canoeing, and bicycling; not to mention camping. In the mid-2010’s, they began their journey to the Himalayas– Ladakh in northern India, near the Tibet border.

The family got sponsorship from Travel Channel, but had to shop around for a tour manager whose liability insurance allowed children under twelve on the trip. They had to hire local people (who knew the territory and languages) to help them: carry their equipment, cook their food, and know what to do in case of emergency (given the life-threatening terrain and weather), etc. The trip required months and months of planning. Well, the impossible took longer.

The family took various forms of transportation to get from their home in rural British Columbia, to Asia; car, canoe, train, ship. They then backpacked through various parts of Asia. In India, they stayed at a guest house where the air conditioning was broken. As the temperature was over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, they crowded into the cold-water shower stall, which had mildewed tiles. “A group of monkeys watched curiously from outside a window perched in a strangler fig [tree].” To try to cool off, they also ate mango ice cream.

Both parents wanted their family to experience the precepts of Tibetan Buddhism, including but far from limited to: minimalism, tranquility, non-attachment, non-materialism, and transcendental wisdom. So they lived in a monastery, partook of prayer sessions and ceremonies, and taught English to the monks-in-training. The older son, especially, who was on the autism spectrum, took to his surroundings. The author described, through a series of anecdotes, their unique adventures. The takeaway is that the author realized that he became stressed when he was able to check his email in the remotest corner of the world.

Read the book to learn about every last aspect of a simple lifestyle that is quickly disappearing– due to the globalization of capitalism (Hint: “But here [at a luxury hotel] in modern Delhi, such attributes [shorn skull, maroon robe indicating a Buddhist monk– a powerful figure in Tibet] were meaningless [for getting a visa to travel to Canada]. I, on the other hand, possessed light skin and a credit card, which could open almost any door.” The United States– whose economic model is emulated by the rest of the world– is becoming more and more a nation full of athletes, gamblers and public-relations mouthpieces.

ENDNOTE: In Tibetan Buddhism, wisdom and compassion go together– the antithesis of the current Republican presidential candidate in America. Like a dictator, he sneakily sows doubt about the effectiveness or validity of:

  • all manner of international conferences and summits (except for Davos);
  • citizenship of his enemies;
  • the American election process;
  • the American justice system;
  • the American tax system;
  • immigrants’ positive impacts on the U.S. economy; and
  • America’s international trading relationships; etc., etc., etc.

for the purpose of amassing power.

An intellectual sows doubt for the purpose of furthering the knowledge-base that will improve humanity (and winning a Nobel Prize). Of course, NO presidential candidate has ever been ideal. But the best one would have the:

  • influence of JFK;
  • charisma of Reagan;
  • life-experience of Eisenhower;
  • intellect of Bill Clinton; and
  • temperament of Obama.

Here’s a little ditty describing Trump’s modus operandi.

CYNICAL

sung to the tune of “Physical” with apologies to the estate of Olivia Newton John and whomever else the rights may concern.

TRUMP’S sowing doubt with all-things ON your mind,
clouding the conversation.
He’s gotta smear eveRYone Left.
He goes low and MEAN.
He questions your citizenship incessantly.
Then he’s SUDdenly moody.
All his cronies rally round him
about going tax free!

He wants you to get cynical, cynical.
He wants you to get cynical.
Because if you’re cynical,
the IRS and courts will let him walk,
let him walk.
The IRS and courts will let him walk.

He wants you to get cynical, cynical.
He wants you to get cynical.
Because if you’re cynical,
the IRS and courts will let him walk,
let him walk.
The IRS and courts will let him walk.

He’ll incite more violence.
We’ve been too nice,
tried to keep the dialogue civil.
It’s getting hard to tolerate this hack.
He goes low and MEAN.
His victims understand his point of view.
He owns his base mentally.
They should know, he’s destroying us, institutionally.

He wants you to get cynical, cynical.
He wants you to get cynical.
Because if you’re cynical,
the IRS and courts will let him walk,
let him walk.
The IRS and courts will let him walk.

He wants you to get cynical, cynical.
He wants you to get cynical.
Because if you’re cynical,
the IRS and courts will let him walk,
let him walk.
The IRS and courts will let him walk.

He wants you to get cynical, cynical.
He wants you to get cynical.
Because if you’re cynical,
the IRS and courts will let him walk,
let him walk.
The IRS and courts will let him walk.

Let’s be American, American, by voting AGainst him.
Let’s be American.
Or the IRS and courts will let him walk.
Or the IRS and courts will let him walk.

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My American Dream

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The Book of the Week is “My American Dream, My True Story As An Undocumented Immigrant Who Became A Wall Street Executive” by Julissa Arce, published in 2016.

The author was born in 1983 in Taxco, Mexico. In 1994, she moved with her parents to San Antonio, Texas on a tourist visa. Because she was going to school (a private one) she was actually living in the U.S. illegally. Her parents (who were legal immigrants) didn’t understand the implications of such a situation. They simply wanted her to get a good education. Americans’ tax dollars weren’t even paying for it.

The upshot, though, was that Arce never got a Social Security Number, and couldn’t get any kinds of government or financial services: healthcare, a driver’s license, a bank account, or financial aid when she applied to go to college.

By living in the United States, Arce’s foreign status became her single biggest life-problem, especially when she was in her late teens. That problem led to others. If she moved back to Mexico, she most likely would be unable to return to the United States for at least ten years, unless laws changed.

Arce needed to earn “off the books” money to support her family, and pay her mother’s medical bills. On top of that, she had a drunk, abusive father. She was accepted to a college at the last minute, based on academic and student-participatory merit, and thanks to a new Texas state law. As is well known, many students are accepted to schools based on “legacy” or alumni-bribery practices, or on athletic rather than academic merits.

After many more hardships, the author got a job in the real world. She initially omitted the inconvenient fact that fake identity papers would allow her to work at the job only until she got caught for having a fraudulent Social Security Number. It appears that both her employer and the IRS turned a blind eye to her situation, as the former was able to pay her less than it would a non-foreign employee. BUT her employer was still withholding taxes from her paycheck. So why should her employer fire her? She was a model worker. She had to be– she was under the constant threat of deportation. She had to try harder than everyone else to please everyone.

Fortunately, several people in Arce’s life gave her good advice:

  • get the best education she could;
  • always strive do be the best at whatever she did– regardless of what it was;
  • be persistent;
  • associate with the appropriate people;
  • be professional at all times; and
  • continually socially network.

Arce was actually a shameless social climber, but she also showed she was a team player– unselfish with her time and talents. When the author achieved the pinnacle of what she perceived to be success, she wrote, “I felt normal– just another drunk Wall Street analyst on Stone Street on a Friday night.” And yet, she realized she still wasn’t truly happy.

Read the book to learn much, much more about Arce’s life experiences, and additional (true!!!) information (not emotionally-charged political propaganda) about immigrants in America.

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Jailing – BONUS POST

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As is well known, Donald Trump is forever spewing hatred against all kinds of people other than white Christian males. As the presidential election winds down in the next two months, many people are drooling at the prospect that he might actually be locked up, not just fined. This would still be a tiny amount of punishment if he’s truly guilty of all the crimes of which he’s been accused.

This is the next development in the political soap opera. In politics, turnabout is considered fair play. The ultimate fantasy some people have is that Trump will end up like Jeffrey Epstein. If not, they’ll settle for his ending up like Paul Manafort or Michael Cohen– both of whom were subjected to ugly conditions in jail as revenge.

Here’s a little ditty on the situation.

JAILING

sung to the tune of “Sailing” with apologies to Christopher Cross and Universal Music Mgb.

Well, it’s not rocket science to analyze
Trump’s fall from grace lately.
If adverse winds bite, he’ll lose his way, and know humility.
Oh, political-canvassing can do miracles, just you wait and see.

Study history.

He’s always in never never land,
no reason to pretend.
And if you just wait it out, you’ll see the joy of leaders, working for YOU again.
Oh, political-canvassing can do miracles, just you wait and see.

Study history.

JAIL-ing would take Trump away to where some think he’s always DEserved to be.
His former teams were nobodies. THEY weren’t all sprung free.

Candidacy. It brings out the haters, you see.
But Trump’s jailing…

THAT would show democracy.

His whole world is a cacophony, of all that is SLI-my.

JAIL-ing would take Trump away to where some think he’s always DEserved to be.
His former teams were nobodies. THEY weren’t all sprung free.

Well, this country’s coming back to sanity.
Trump’s fallen from grace lately.
If adverse winds bite, he’ll lose his way, and know humility.
Oh, political-canvassing can do miracles, just you wait and see.

Study history.

JAIL-ing would take Trump away to where some think he’s always DEserved to be.
His former teams were nobodies. THEY weren’t all sprung free.

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Nerves of Steel

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The Book of the Week is “Nerves of Steel, How I Followed My Dreams, Earned My Wings, and Faced My Greatest Challenge” by Tammie Jo Shults, published in 2019.

The author, born at the dawn of the 1960’s, grew up in New Mexico and Colorado. For two years, military men in the recruitment offices of the Air Force and Navy told her she wasn’t allowed to become a pilot in their services because she was female. That was a lie. In March 1985, she was (finally!) inducted into the Navy, due to her chance meetings with honest men. She graduated near the top of her training class. Of course.

Shults was passionate about and good at, piloting aircraft, but she had to endure numerous indignities and conditions perpetrated by her bosses that were even more life-threatening than they should have been, because she was female. She was cool under fire, and her Christian faith saw her through those stressful and traumatic times of her life. Strangely, a religious quote in her book indicated she believed her God is a male!

Anyway, after her Navy service, she transferred her super flying skills to a job fighting wildfires in California. In the mid-1990’s, she learned to fly a piston-engine plane (different from the military aircraft she had been flying). She engaged in surveillance missions to alert firefighters and others on the ground to situations that were more dangerous than usual; dispensed red mud to put out the fires; and spread fertilizer so as to facilitate the growth of new vegetation.

The third leg of the author’s piloting career involved getting a job at a commercial airline. The GI Bill paid for her training in a 737 jet. Compensation and benefits for women in the military and pilots’ union are equivalent to the mens’, but in some quarters, women are still treated as second-class citizens by men who don’t like “girls” to invade their fraternity.

Infuriatingly for American women, Congress is still one such place where there are a bunch of powerful men, so even if a female were to be elected president, those men would automatically smear her, and vote against everything she did.

As is well known, presidents have had to make serious compromises in civil-rights legislation in order to further their own mandates. Attitudes are very, very difficult to change, as almost every facet of American life began with a bunch of white alpha males:

  • the Founding Fathers;
  • Wall Street;
  • the military and law enforcement;
  • professional sports;
  • science and technology;
  • business and industry;
  • most of the licensed professions, etc.,

except for areas involving family, household chores and jobs in the arts and entertainment.

So it should not have been surprising that the author encountered yet more gender discrimination with her new employer– in the late 1990’s. Read the book to learn much, much more about Shults’ ordeals and triumphs that show that America is making slow, slow progress in workplace gender equality. Unfortunately, not fast enough for politics. Not yet.

As is well known, in the 1960’s, there were impatient civil-rights activists who believed that resorting to violence would facilitate the enactment of equality-legislation. After the American Civil War to date, white males have threatened and resorted to violence in order to hinder the enactment of equality-legislation.

Not to worry. There is still plenty of time for progressive historical events this election season. Currently, it’s like the start of the fourth quarter of football games, but fans, like voters, need only check the last five minutes of the games to see the winners. Turning off the idiot box for the next month will prevent a lot of emotional trouble. There’s no need to despair, as there might just be a quarterback such as Tom Brady who will step in late in the game. Thank goodness for the last minute. If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.

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The Trading Game

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The Book of the Week is “The Trading Game, A Confession” by Gary Stevenson, published in 2024. This blogger highly encourages the reader to peruse the entire “Wall Street” and Economics categories of this blog in order to gain a better understanding of financial matters and economics.

In March 2007, the 1987-born author began working on the Fixed Income Trading Floor at the Short Term Interest Rates Trading Desk in the Foreign Exchange section of Citibank in its London branch. He had grown up in a tough, poor neighborhood in East London. He beat the odds for someone of his demographic group, considering the fierce competition in both getting accepted to a prestigious university and getting a job in currency trading.

Stevenson nurtured an aspiration to make lots of money. Fortunately, his talent and hard work in mathematics allowed him to score high on standardized exams. He attended the London School of Economics where he rubbed shoulders with mostly male, wealthy elitists whose fathers gave them a leg up in life, and whose futures were almost guaranteed to be bright. At school, when he won a game involving hypothetical securities trading, Stevenson’s life turned around. For, he won an internship which turned into a career.

After a few lucky breaks and bold moves on his part, the author was just hitting his stride in work-experience when he happened to be at the right place at the right time to earn extremely large financial gains from a triple-whammy disaster. In March of 2011, about twenty thousand people died in Japan due to an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown of three power plants. Amidst the resulting financial turmoil and previous turmoil of the 2008 worldwide financial crises, Stevenson made a percentage of the millions upon millions of dollars he earned in currency trading for Citibank.

Stevenson alone in his department had been correct in gaming the situation. Everyone else had been wrong and they lost money. Nevertheless, he was still emotionally troubled. He bore two major similarities with Alan Turing– another genius: social dysfunctionality, and indifference to how he looked and what he wore.

Stevenson was one of the proverbial three kinds of people (geniuses in the minority)– the kind who knew what was happening and made things happen. The vast majority account for the other two kinds of people– brainwashed, unwashed masses who watched what was happening, and then still wondered what happened.

In the early 2010’s, the author came to the realization that there would NEVER be economic recovery of any financially-struggling countries in the European Union while the Swiss National Bank kept interest rates at or below zero. The other traders in his department optimistically kept repeating that interest rates HAD to rise sooner or later, because they had bet wrong.

But, the tiny percentage of the super-wealthy, super-powerful people of the world sought to maintain the then-status quo, because it made THEM even richer, and the poor, poorer, as the cliche goes. The income inequality of the world would eventually result in a slave-based economy (as existed in ancient times) all over again.

Read the book to learn much more of Stevenson’s personal and professional life, and his times. As is well known, the United States is one of the major economic superpowers of the world, and its politics are part and parcel of that. Here’s a little ditty on its momentary political situation.

LET THE BEST TEAM WIN

sung to the tune of “Let the River Run” with apologies to Carly Simon, BMG Gold Songs C’est Music and Tcf Music Pub Inc.

[Spoken: We’re all on edge,
waiting for the savior,
gaping with alarm
at the immature behavior.]

Let the best team win.
Let’s all peaceFULly watch the changes.
Come the new, new Washington.

Brilliant ideas rise.
The media lies, about, and smears them.
And celebs get themselves in your face.

It’s asking for the taking,
blaming, deep-faking.
Oh, Americans are aching.
We’re all on edge,
waiting for the savior,
gaping with alarm
at the immature behavior.

Through the hate and all.
It’s who we are:
Place a trail of desire
on the White House lawn.

It’s asking for the taking.
Just hold on now.
Democratic convention will be a show
you’ve never even seen in political history.

Oh, Americans are aching.
We’re all on edge,
waiting for the savior,
gaping with alarm
at the immature behavior.

It’s asking for the taking,
blaming, deep-faking.
Oh, Americans are aching.
We’re all on edge,
waiting for the savior,
gaping with alarm
at the immature behavior.

Let the best team win.
Let’s all peaceFULly watch the changes [watch the changes]
Come the new, new Washington.

Featured

Toast at the Borderline – BONUS POST

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This is what Trump will be singing the next three months. It’s ALL he’s got, unluckily for him.

TOAST AT THE BORDERLINE

sung to the tune of “Close to the Borderline” with apologies to Billy Joel.

CrowdStrike-crash, heat wave, D-P-M-S, SHOTS, were fired.
I’m not dead, but Harris made the border-crisis, very dire.
JD was standing there witnessing how the crisis is taking, its toll.
Migrants slip through. They’re all criminals.
It’s Harris’ fault, says every poll.
Just for me, women have-to pretty-their-face,
The black people get, special TREATment for their race.
I get attacked be-cause Secret Service is-n’t around.
They’re a disgrace. Under-my-rule, better-men are found.
Life is rough, but I’m so tough.
I cry no tears at any time.
I survived, I’m still alive, but

with Harris, we’re toast at the borderline, uh huh, toast at the borderline, huh, uh huh.

Oh, all-you-see are criminals and the homeless in blue-states these days.
And Biden raised PRICES on gas. He was terrible, so terrible, in SO many ways.
Rich man, poor man, I’ll keep-away the tax man, when I get elected this round.
With the Democrats– well, we’re gonna ALL go to hell with their next big meltdown.
I got remote control and a color TV.
Those troubles at the border, we all can see.
I got real truthful friends. The Democrats LIE.
They don’t know how to lead. On a Marxist-agenda they rely.
I’m so great. I can’t deny.
I started-a-revolution. I didn’t even try.
Don’t know why I’m still a nice guy, but

with Harris, we’re toast at the borderline, uh huh, toast at the borderline, huh, uh huh.

I’ve had to sacrifice so many things. The Democrats are throw-ing it all away.
They don’t know how to do anything.
The border is wide open, it gets worse every day. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I need to teach JD my mad skills.
I need a lawyer for my Witch Hunt bills.
I need a banker to finance our debt. But Democrat support, I’ll never get.

Isn’t new what they put me through, but everybody knows I’ll make us great again. Another night I fought the good fight, but

with Harris, we’re toast at the borderline, uh huh, toast at the borderline, huh, uh huh,
toast at the borderline, line, line, line, huh, uh huh…

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Cobb

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The Book of the Week is “Cobb, The Life and Times of the Meanest Man Who Ever Played Baseball, A Biography” by Al Stump, published in 1994. Born in December 1886, Cobb grew up in Royston, Georgia.

In 1904, with big-league dreams, Cobb began “paying his dues” in semi-professional baseball. It was employment-at-will. The team paid his travel expenses to away-games at stadiums around southern states via horse-and-buggy in all sorts of weather. The food consisted of bean soup, hog jowls and grits.

Throughout his baseball career, Cobb behaved badly in various ways to get attention and his name known and remembered. He took full advantage of every opportunity to make his own stats look good, although he himself was a social outcast on his own team. He was a man of supernatural ability in both hitting and fielding, and he groomed his legend to the maximum.

Early on, Cobb got himself thrown out of the game for shoving, and spitting on the umpire. He began many a bench-clearing brawl. He repeatedly, anonymously wrote letters of shameless self-promotion to then-famous sports writer Grantland Rice at the Atlanta Journal to get his name in the paper, because his team was too low-level to be covered by the media.

Cobb pioneered various kinds of slides while base-stealing, in ways that would intentionally plant his sharpened metal cleats into basemen’s legs, to injure them, and make them drop the ball. No rule against that dirty trick was imposed during his career. He acted the drama queen– moving the second-base bag closer to third base by kicking it a few inches in mock frustration. Cobb would loudly comment on the game in order to psychologically rattle opposing players.

Americans were shocked when they learned a couple of years after the scheme was executed, that some Chicago White Sox players sought to financially benefit from deliberately losing the 1919 World Series because organized crime figures organized gambling on the games.

In 1921, Cobb simultaneously played for and managed the major league Detroit Tigers. He was a hypocrite, banning his team (except himself) from playing golf, and during spring-training, ordering practice on Sundays. He himself didn’t show up for the latter, as he was visiting the minor league teams he co-owned in Rhode Island and Georgia.

“One corrupt game in every 300? Club owners blanched at that news. They had covered up the rewards systems, allowing it to pervade a game believed by millions of Americans to be on the square. Now, the outcome was shameful disclosure.”

Just as dishonesty waxes and wanes over decades in various areas of American life, it’s time to clean it up again in politics. BUT– only after one big burst of phony outrage spikes media ratings in the next few months, as American society values overpaid noisemakers (talking heads) on the idiot box and sports figures, more than: passionate teachers, sincere public servants, whistleblowers, and muckrakers pushing for social justice.

It is no accident that it’s more expensive than ever to be an idiot these days. Prior to cable TV (beginning in the 1950’s), the price of a TV set included the vast wasteland of entertainment and ads via pure broadcasting. For most Americans, watching TV now entails the purchase of an overpriced monitor and on top of that, payment of a monthly installment forever (!) to receive that vast wasteland (which still includes ads!), for more choices. That installment helps pay the obscene salaries of the said overpaid noisemakers and sports figures. The idiot box and radio pay people to talk. And certain politicians pay people not to talk.

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about Cobb’s family life and career– the man, the myth, the legend.

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Nightline

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The Book of the Week is “Nightline, History in the Making and the Making of Television” by Ted Koppel and Kyle Gibson, published in 1996. The TV show Nightline, and this book were aired and published during the Reagan Era and president Bill Clinton’s first term, prior to the historical revisionism and 20 / 20 hindsight of even more modern times– during which politics is even more sophisticated. And when political awareness is higher than ever, due to social media’s pervasiveness.

In November 1979, Koppel began to host on ABC News at 11:30pm, what he thought was slated to be a temporary show, on the Iran hostage crisis. Thanks to videotape and satellites, he was able to feature a few different people who could talk to one another live, simultaneously, halfway around the world. By March 1980, this format had evolved into a news-analyzing talk-show called Nightline.

One of many moments in which viewers got to see major historical events happening right before their eyes, was the April 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in the state of Washington. In 1985, Koppel and his crew televised a week of episodes in South Africa on apartheid, in color, and black and white. Actually. Also in 1985, in simulcasting another set of shows in a violence-prone area, they commemorated the 10th anniversary of the U.S. pullout from Vietnam. “Le Du Tho and Henry Kissinger, co-winners of the 1971 Nobel Prize, together again for the first time.” In 1988, they went to Israel to cover the never-ending dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Al Campanis had played baseball with Jackie Robinson in 1946. In April 1987, the former became a victim of cancel culture after he made some unpopular comments on Nightline. “The bigger problem for baseball was that Campanis had inadvertently revealed an ugly truth about racial attitudes in the front office, and firing him wasn’t going to end what was now a national debate.”

Read the book to learn of numerous other episodes of an educational late-night TV show that was obsolesced by the changing times in America.

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Mr. Republican – EXTRA BONUS POST

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Here’s an update on the American political situation.

MR. REPUBLICAN

sung to the tune of “Mrs. Robinson” with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.

The smear’s on YOU, Mr. Republican.
Females hate you more than you will know.
What do you mean, NO?
Stop the misogyny please, Mr. Republican.
Plenty of legal cases still to play.
Yay, yay, yay.
Yea, yea, yea.

We know all too well, about you and your wives.
With all you do, you hurt yourself.
Look at how others see you. You’ll see no sympathetic eyes.
All your polling hounds
will bring the message home.

The smear’s on YOU, Mr. Republican.
Females hate you more than you will know.
What do you mean, NO?
Stop the misogyny please, Mr. Republican.
Plenty of legal cases still to play.
Yay, yay, yay.
Yea, yea, yea.

Attacking in a sensitive place where every frat boy goes.
Go back to middle school with your behavior.
It’s not a secret. Old-boy Republicans are there.
Worst of all, you’re brainwashing the kids.
Spew, spew, spew, spew, Mr. Republican.
Females hate you more than you will know.
What do you mean, NO?
Stop the misogyny please, Mr. Republican.
Plenty of legal cases still to play.
Yay, yay, yay.
Yea, yea, yea.

Watching the idiot box spout the same old platitudes,
saying the Dems will lose the race.
MouthPIECES of the GOP,
rant and rave on-the-“news.”
Having ONLY angry white male voters, you LOSE.

Where have you gone, good-government intellectuals?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you,
muckrakers, too.
You’re still complaining, frat-boy Republicans,
though Sleepy Joe has left and gone away.
Oh, happy day.
You’ve lost your way.

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Shadow

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“… the isolated and powerful imperial presidency was over. The nation seemed to be falling in love with its new Midwestern president.”

-NOT January 2025, but August 1974. Regardless of where he (or she) is from, though, the absolute best American presidential candidate would have maximum life-experience, knowledge and wisdom, but still be lucid and sane.

The Book of the Week is “Shadow, Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate” by Bob Woodward, published in 1999. This primer on presidential power-struggles was written toward the end of the Clinton Era–prior to the historical revisionism and 20 / 20 hindsight of the resurgence of American presidential power.

President Jimmy Carter made a campaign promise that his administration was going to behave morally. Yet, in summer 1977, his budget director Bert Lance got in trouble for personal financial conflicts and hypocrisy. In 1978, Carter signed the Ethics in Government Act, some aspects of which turned out to be a can of worms for later presidents. Pursuant to the Act, an independent counsel was to be appointed to investigate illegal behavior of a president when there was probable cause. However, in the next two decades, overzealous, viciously vengeful, legally wily government officials abused their power to launch witch hunts. Any counsel appointed could never really be “independent.”

The Justice Department has the authority to investigate wrongdoing by a president. Nonetheless, the Department serves under the president, who is presumably considered innocent until proven guilty. But, most of the time, the president’s political enemies clamor for the administration to appoint the “independent” counsel (a prosecutor) whose job is to find wrongdoing.

By the summer of 1995, the above conundrum dogged president Bill and first lady Hillary Clinton. “The FBI couldn’t investigate itself. The White House was at the center, and the Justice Department also would have zero credibility investigating its own bureau or the White House.” “Independent” counsel Ken Starr twisted the Ethics in Government Act for his own purposes in instigating the tabloidy probes into Whitewater business transactions, the White House travel office activities, Vince Foster’s death, and later on, Bill Clinton’s sex life.

In May 1997, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a private party could bring a civil suit against a president still in office. Thus, the Paula Jones case could proceed. Even so, at that time, now-Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh believed that Ken Starr was abusing his power as an independent counsel in maximally, mean-spiritedly probing the Clintons. Bill Clinton didn’t help his cause, though, by launching vigorous denials and counterattacks, instead of coming clean.

Anyway, read the book to learn of how post-Watergate presidents handled the changing political times in connection with presidential power amid increasing partisan hostility. As is well known, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Excesses reach a screaming crescendo; dissatisfaction reaches critical mass, and the people say, enough’s enough.

In order to boost their ratings (and profitability), the media incessantly teases Americans with propagandizing, incitement and phoniness. But, not to worry. When the nation is at its breaking point, there will be surprises. Again, DO NOT be fooled by Trump’s “new Nixon” act. Here’s what’s actually going on.

THE MINDS THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’

sung to the tune of “The Times They Are A-Changin’ with apologies to Bob Dylan.

Protect your history books YOU have at home,
beCAUSE revisionists around you have grown.
Stop fretting. Soon our government’s fate will be known.
If you vote, it’s democracy you’ll be saving.
It’ll be really exciting, you’ll see a new tone.

For the minds, they are a-changin’.

Come readers and thinkers who are mature and kind.
And keep your ears open, it’s compromise you’ll find.
Don’t give up too soon, for you’ll see the signs.
There’s no telling truth from the raving.
You just might be in for a pleasant surprise.

For the minds, they are a-changin’.

Come senators, Congress reps, do the correct thing.
Don’t be a greedy hypocrite, don’t act like a king.
Or you will get outed, you will feel the sting.
There’s a new ethical attitude dawning.
It’ll soon shake your conscience and become a thing.

For the minds, they are a-changin’.

Come community leaders throughout the land.
Tyranny is trembling despite best laid plans.
Think for yourself: democracy is at your command.
You’ll replace the rapidly aging.
To the young idealists, you’ll lend your hand.

For the minds, they are a-changin’.

Sure, there are still pawns,
but the worst it is past,
though the nation’s mandates appear to be vast.
Targets of hatred should no more be harassed.
The ugliness is rapidly fading.
And the best characters will be hired for the cast.

For the minds, they are a-changin’.

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Bill Moyers Journal

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The Book of the Week is “Bill Moyers Journal, The Conversation Continues” by Bill Moyers, published in 2011. This compilation of interviews was done in the middle of the Obama Era–prior to the historical revisionism and 20 / 20 hindsight of the Trump Era and thereafter.

One subject Moyers touched on was campaign finance. Due to the merging of the American political, media and business worlds, and court rulings, money has corrupted the election process. Two cliches apply: The fox is guarding the henhouse (it’s really hard to clean up “Tammany Hall” because many of the enforcers themselves have conflicts of interest), and the fish rots from the head down (unethical behavior is contagious).

One way to take unfair advantages away from wealthy candidates is to legally require publicly financed campaigns. Obviously, even legally required disclosure means nothing to shameless, greedy officeholders who refuse to act ethically in connection with their conflicts of interest, once they’re elected.

Higher-quality (better behaved, less hypocritical!) Americans would be more inclined to run for office at all levels. Leaders need to be tax-paying, law-abiding citizens– people for whom honesty is a habit, a lifestyle (or at least have a reputation for it, such as Bernie Sanders). Otherwise, this nation will become a Third World country.

The latest big U.S. Supreme Court ruling is yet another indication that the nation needs campaign finance reform. That ruling was likely a choice between the lesser of two evils, in which the worse evil would be even more expensive (not just financially) for American taxpayers.

It was comparative to the 2008 financial-crisis bailout program. The alternative to the bailout would have been, that alpha males with hubris syndrome who possessed almost as much hegemony as George W. Bush, would have launched an extremely long, traumatic, complex set of lawsuits (whose goal of some would have been to get their bonuses), that would have bankrupted ordinary, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens. Ironically.

Perhaps the conservative Supreme Court justices rationalized that their ruling would be the lesser of two evils. Yes, they would give absolute power to a future president who acts like a dictator who loots his country. However, the law could be modified in the future. And the current American money-driven electoral system allows a candidate to purchase his way to office, anyway.

But the alternative would be: Trump could take the title, “president.” As is well known, Biden has some skeletons in the closet, and he’s been the target of witch hunts for, forever. So the ruling was also a deterrent to Trump’s allies and other Biden-haters who would stop at nothing to kick Biden out of office, and distract Americans from the 2024 presidential election process.

The bottom line is, TAXPAYERS ARE ALWAYS FOOTING THE BILL FOR THE MESSES AND SHENANIGANS OF THEIR GOVERNMENT. Decisions made by the authorities in massive financial scandals clearly aim to lessen the (still outrageous) tax burden on innocent Americans, lest there be revolution.

The United States needs CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM NOW. Abortion, gun control and healthcare can wait.

On a different issue, Moyers interviewed James Cone, a professor in New York City and a person of color. Cone thought white Americans omitted inconvenient facts when discussing their history, such as: Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were slaveholders. He said, “Because America likes to be innocent… that’s why it’s hard for Barack Obama or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to talk about blackness; if they talked about blackness in the real, true sense, it would be uncomfortable.”

Read the book to learn about a wealth of other issues on which America needs to work.

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Cable News Confidential

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Foreword

Hannah Arendt, in an essay on Socrates, wrote that a statesman of high caliber listens— meaning, attempts to understand another speaker’s views. Charles Lindbergh and Joseph P. Kennedy obviously failed to listen to signals from their own countrymen; for, they hitched their star to Hitler. They figured if he won the war, they’d reap the spoils. Strangely, in 1968, even Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was fooled by the “new Nixon” who was actually the same old vicious, wily, power-hungry criminal. It pays to listen to the other side to see historical behavioral patterns that aren’t going to change.

Post

The Book of the Week is “Cable News Confidential, My Misadventures in Corporate Media” by Jeff Cohen published in 2006. The author was born in the 1950’s in the Detroit area. He detailed the now-expected, and standard: hypocrisy, shenanigans, unfairness and imbalance he encountered while appearing as a political commentator at three different cable channels into 2004.

Beginning in 1997, the author appeared as a Left-wing panelist on the TV show, Fox News Watch. Also present were a Right-winger and a Centrist. On Fox, Cohen was allowed to bite the hand that fed him– criticizing the media for its biases, profiteering, smears and lies, etc. during his five-minute appearances on political shows. He believed that the commentary was actually politically balanced for about a year. Thereafter, Right-wingers became the majority.

In the summer of 1999, George W. Bush’s cousin John Ellis wrote in a Boston Globe column that his covering the 2000 presidential-voting results on election night in November would be a conflict of interest. Nevertheless, Ellis was doing exactly that, on Fox News, wrongly announcing, at 2:16am Wednesday, the day after election day, that Bush was the winner in Florida and therefore, Bush had won the presidency. Unsurprisingly, Cohen personally witnessed Ellis’ kind of unethical behavior over and over again.

From January to August 1998, MSNBC covered Bill Clinton’s sex life with Monica Lewinsky. Too bad, Lewinsky missed a valuable opportunity to become a political activist. Instead of allowing the media to shame her, she could have engaged in a public relations coup with the right messaging.

Anyway, in May 2001, Chandra Levy– a female intern– went missing, at which time the major cable “news” stations put her boss Democrat Congressman Gary Condit under the microscope nonstop until September 10, 2001. Other “news” stories the idiot box could have covered instead included:

  • On September 9, 2001, secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld was demanding billions of dollars to fund the creation of weaponry to defend against America’s enemies’ ballistic missiles. But, contrarily, he was saying that the president was opposing the U.S. Senate’s proposal that would shift the funding of said weaponry to fund counter-terror measures.
  • On September 10, 2001, U.S. intelligence agents heard al-Qaeda members utter the phrases, “the match begins now” and “tomorrow is zero hour.” But, contrarily, head of the Justice Department, John Ashcroft opposed the FBI’s request to add tens of millions of dollars to its budget to hire additional personnel to counter terror threats.

Cohen was constantly backing up his arguments with facts, such as when Chris Matthews basically denied that the United States did not send its military into other countries willy-nilly– that Iraq in 2003 was an exception. Cohen countered with occasions after 1945 during which America was an aggressor, that included 21 different territories into the single-digit 2000’s.

Read the book to learn much more about the author’s dismay with his employers’ practices that included much, much more Right-wing commentary than Left, and lack of fact-checking.

Endnote

By agreeing to debate and softening his rhetoric, Donald Trump is showing he has reached the bargaining stage of grief, in the death of his political career. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY HIS “NEW NIXON” ACT.

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Poor Little Rich Man – BONUS POST

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How can you tell when a politician (i.e., Donald Trump) is self-destructing?

His lips are moving.

Here’s what this politician is singing now.

POOR LITTLE RICH MAN

sung to the tune of “Fortunate Son” with apologies to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The Democrats support,
the vendetta by Alvin Bragg.
Ooh, I’M red, white and blue.
They distract us all WITH Hunter Biden.
But there’ll be a bloodbath for YOU.

It ain’t me, it ain’t me.
I ain’t no president’s son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me.
I didn’t do drugs and buy a gun.

The Communists support, the whole Biden fam-ILY.
Lord, don’t they help themselves.
But when the tax man came to my door,
there was a corrupt and biased ju-RY.

It ain’t me, it ain’t me.
I ain’t no president’s son.
Vote for me, vote for me.
It’s either me, or we’re done.

Our unfair courts,
perpetuate such lies.
Biden opened the door.
And when they undo all my great laws,
ooh, they only Witch Hunt ME more more more.

It ain’t me, it ain’t me.
I ain’t no president’s son.
Vote for me, vote for me.
It’s either me, or we’re done.

The only way the U.S. government can restore its integrity (which it is trying to do through prosecuting wrongdoers)
is to remove the plank from its OWN eye before it removes the splinter from others’ eyes.

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Baseless

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The Book of the Week is “Baseless, My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act” by Nicholson Baker, published in 2020.

From the 1940’s through the 1960’s, the CIA funded, and was supposed to supervise certain big-name American universities’ and the U.S. military services’ secret research; this, in biochemistry, pathology, mycology, entomology, etc. for the purpose of developing weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons would cause deaths of famine from crop failure or from fatal diseases, or spur regime changes. Government officials lost control of the experimenters’ spending and activities. The “researchers” were accountable to no one.

Pursuant to their actions, the researchers generated documents that they desired remain classified forever, or else redacted in large portions thereof, so as to become incomprehensible or prevent their readers from connecting the dots, because such secrecy allows them (to this day!) to hide their unethical, even evil behavior and shameful harm to society.

This book’s author repeatedly asked for said documents under the United States’ federal law called the “Freedom of Information Act” (or FOIA); he did hours and hours of reading to detect the truth about the wrongs committed by American officials. Those officials’ excuse for their coverups (during the Cold War– it was anti-Communist measures) is always “It’s a matter of national security.” The government keeps on violating FOIA by taking years (instead of weeks or months) to fulfill the author’s numerous requests.

Despite the government’s stonewalling, American society is changing in ways that offset the harm done by the lack of information on the government’s past evil actions; among them:

  • muckraking gadflies such as the author (who globally disseminate information on the shameful behavior of society’s leaders);
  • the increasing number of females (who are displacing alpha males in the shrinking “old boy network” and generally do not behave like alpha males) who are taking top leadership positions in America’s institutions;
  • propagandizing of celebrities, such as Bill Maher, (who, a number of years back, joked that “If your kid’s not learning in school, don’t blame the teacher– fire the parent!” which has perhaps influenced recent legal cases in which failures of parents have been perceived as a major factor in their kids’ shooting people– involving “parental responsibility statutes”);
  • the quantum leap in knowledge-sharing made quick and easy by the Internet (in spite of disinformation), through countless international, multi-media human-interest stories and videos that are raising awareness of the importance of voting and other actions Americans can take to help maintain their democracy;
  • the fact that the Internet has fostered a grass-roots communications revolution by allowing ordinary Americans to express themselves in a decentralized global network at the speed of light, absent the filtering of past societal influencers such as journalists, politicians and celebrities;
  • the fact that the body of knowledge of power-abusing American presidents in the past half-century has been amply globally publicized so as to significantly lessen the impact of their historical revisionists– and that Americans’ learning curve on them has run its course;
  • the COVID lockdown of 2020, which forced all different stakeholders to deal with education and childcare issues, and showed how the wisdom of life-experience has been imparted from the older generation to the younger one.

The author pointed out that every president to hold office since the 1930’s has committed evil of one kind or another– funding terrorists or authorizing the use of unethical practices in creating weapons of mass destruction (which were actually seldom used, and of course, were a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money) to supposedly keep America’s enemies at bay.

The author listed a number of online primary sources of governmental misdeeds and James-Bond wannabe activities; among them (in no particular order):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Classified_documents

Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/CIADocuments/CIA-001/)

Brill (https://brill.com/display/db/cwio?language=en) — charges a fee for its services

MuckRock (https://www.muckrock.com/)

The Black Vault (https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/)

governmentattic.org

And, he listed the physical libraries that contain the said Swiss-cheese, needle-in-a-haystack, “smoking gun” information: the National Security Archive at George Washington University and the CREST database in the FOIA Reading Room at the CIA.

One of many specific studies the author mentioned, involved 1940’s germ-warfare experiments that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of hogs and fowl, and the subsequent early 1950’s actual use of bacteria in North Korea and East Germany. On civilians.

Other evil scientists sought to learn whose buildings burned longer– Japan’s or Germany’s, in the early 1950’s, as the U.S. was then firebombing both North and South Korea. Interestingly, each territory’s building materials differed, and so burned at different rates.

Read the book to learn a lot more about the research– how men were promoted to the highest military or government positions and hailed as heroes for the info they gathered on how to do grievous harm to other human beings; the unexpected, mysterious deaths of certain of them; and everything you ever wanted to know about their plausibly deniable, willfully ignorant, fear-mongering propaganda campaigns (which was their true ulterior motive in the midst of all that distracting sociopathic “science”; it was thought that rattling the enemy psychologically more than physically, did more harm).

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The Night Trump WAS Defied – BONUS POST

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…And the exciting conclusion of the “Hush Money” Trial, produced by and starring Donald Trump, written by lawyers and decided by, THE JURY:

The Night Trump WAS Defied

sung to the tune of “The Night Chicago Died” with apologies to Paper Lace.

(Trump was STOPPED, in a court in New York City,
back in the USA, back in the Biden days.)

In the heat of a late spring night
where the land is a lawsuit mill.
The night Trump was defIED.
For him it was a bitter pill.

About-WITCH-hunts he’d bitch-and-moan.
But the GOP, he did OWN.
“It’s a disGRACE,” we-hear-him SAY,
while others FINally yell, “Hooray!”

I’d heard a MILlion lies.
I’d heard-the-crimes the night Trump WAS defied.
People, what a night the lawyers saw;
people, what a fight the lawyers saw.
Could it be?

I’d heard a MILlion lies.
I’d heard-the-crimes the night Trump WAS defied.
People, what a night the lawyers saw;
people, what a fight the lawyers saw.
Could it be?

And the propagandists sang, that a jury turned the tide,
but Trump’s current legal gang, could apPEAL and save-his-hide.
There was shouting and infinite TWEETS,
saying progress like this is SWEET.

But other people SAID, this is good for states of red.

I’d heard a MILlion lies.
I’d heard-the-crimes the night Trump WAS defied.
People, what a night the lawyers saw;
people, what a fight the lawyers saw.
Do my-eyes-deceive me?

I’d heard a MILlion lies.
I’d heard-the-crimes the night Trump WAS defied.
People, what a night the lawyers saw;
people, what a fight the lawyers saw.
Do my-eyes-deceive me?

And Trump still had the gall, to keep trashing one and all.
And the Right’s wallets opened wide,
and his slaves rushed to his side,
and they kissed his big, fat ass,
and they brushed his tears away.

The night Trump WAS defied.
hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah.
The night Trump WAS defied.
People, what a night the lawyers saw;
people, what a fight the lawyers saw.
Holy GOP!

The night Trump WAS defied.
hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah.
The night Trump WAS defied.
People, what a night the lawyers saw;
people, what a fight the lawyers saw.
Holy GOP!

The night Trump WAS defied.
hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah.
The night Trump WAS defied.
People, what a night the lawyers saw…

Featured

Liars’ Theme – BONUS POST

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“Our vision stands in stark contrast to Crooked Joe Biden and his Far-Left special interest allies who want to keep the status quo and end American Exceptionalism at home and abroad… The radical Biden Democrats have had their time and their tried-and-failed Marxist agenda has been a disaster.”

So says a May 2024 mailing that is soliciting donations for the Trump National Committee. One wonders whether donations would go toward paying MORE hush money to who knows whom.

Here’s the trial situation:

LIARS’ THEME

sung to the tune of “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” with apologies to Christopher Cross, the Estate of Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and the Estate of Peter Allen.

All of his life Trump FOUND them.
Accomplices who kept word from GETting around.
Michael Cohen made himself, the, TALK of the town.
After-his-ordeal, he’s still with us.
What comes around, goes around, in this town.
Wondering whether he’ll take, Trump, down.

When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
Both are phony. Is anything new?
When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
The best that they could do, the best that they could do, was cover up.

Donald, he does what he pleases.
All of his life, he’s mastered power.
His claques, flacks and sycophants are ACTing, ACTing loyal.
Tired of court, time after time,
thinks he’ll never be doing, ANY time.
Showing his suck-ups the way, they WISH they could be.

When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
Both are phony. Is anything new?
When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
The best that they could do, the best that they could do, the best that they could do, was cover up.

When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
Both are phony. Is anything new?
When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
The best that they could do, the best that they could do, the best that they could do, was cover up.

When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
Both are phony. Is anything new?
When Trump got caught with Michael COHEN in New York City…
The best that they could do, the best that they could do, the best that they could do, was cover up…

Featured

The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told

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The Book of the Week is “The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told, A True Tale of three gamblers, the Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel” by Mark Paul, published in 2020.

Sidenote: Speaking of gambling, in May 1988, Paul Laxalt, a Republican from Nevada, and in June 1992, H. Ross Perot, an Independent from Texas: jumped into the race for president. The latter exceeded many people’s expectations.

Anyway, the author described the American horse-race gambling environment of the late 1980’s. At that time, off-track betting was putting smaller racetracks out of business, because gamblers could watch the races on which they bet, live– simulcast on video screens at racetracks and casinos; in other words, wherever gambling was legal. They did not need to be physically present at the racetrack.

Through the decades, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) got wise and cracked down on gamblers’ financial crimes such as tax evasion and money laundering. The author described one guy at the racetrack who illegally paid cash to winning bettors who wanted their money immediately, who were willing to pay a twenty percent fee to him rather than to the IRS.

The suspenseful part of the author’s story began when he and his best friend identified a talented filly– a female horse– that was running in major races. Practically all horse races had previously featured colts because on the whole, they were bigger and stronger and so more likely to win races, and were worth more money because they could be hired out to breed more race horses like themselves at a much higher volume than could females.

The author and his friend took what turned out to be a life-threatening risk by driving down from California to a casino in Tijuana, Mexico, to place a bet months in advance, on the said filly that was to run in the Kentucky Derby. He explained that by placing bets on events to take place far into the future, gamblers get tremendously advantageous odds; for instance, 50 to 1 odds three months in advance, rather than, say, 2 to 1 odds on race day, on a horse to win– because that horse has become the favorite. However, if the horse doesn’t run in the race, regardless of the reason, the gamblers will lose all of the money they bet.

Read the book to learn of the gamblers’ activities before, during and after their fateful bet on their favorite horse in the Kentucky Derby.

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Rockne of Notre Dame

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The Book of the Week is “Rockne of Notre Dame, The Making of a Football Legend” by Ray Robinson, published in 1999.

Knute Rockne was born in March 1888 in western Norway. Two friends convinced him to become a student at Notre Dame (located in South Bend, Indiana), which had open enrollment for anyone who could pay the tuition. In the 1910’s, Rockne was able to get paid for playing and coaching American football simultaneously. The financial rules of football played at schools and football played as a form of work, were still evolving.

Rockne took full advantage: he knew all the public-relations tricks for building a reputation and maximizing his earnings. He sometimes played under a fake name, or sent a substitute to play under his real name. He got away with that because few people knew what he looked like.

In the nineteen-teens, Rockne became an assistant coach and trainer for the Notre Dame football team. He was promoted to head coach in 1918 when the previous one retired. One team member was a colorful character named George Gipp (as in “Win one for the Gipper”). His life outside football consisted of drinking, gambling and cutting classes.

Rockne condoned Gipp’s behavior because he helped the team achieve a winning record with his extraordinary talent. However, by March 1920, when Gipp’s sins became excessive and he was a bad influence– hurting the reputation of the school– Notre Dame’s administration basically told him “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son” (like in the movie, Animal House) and expelled him.

In a not-uncommon situation, by late April 1920, local businessmen pressured Notre Dame’s president into reinstating Gipp, because they wanted to see a winning football team, and they were major investors in the school’s then- and future facilities.

Rockne always had a profit-making pot of irons in the fire, that included betting on the games of his own team. Gambling was rampant among numerous stakeholders of the American sports scene at the time. By the early 1920’s, Rockne could even control his own press, becoming a weekly columnist (sometimes published by ghostwriters) in syndicated newspapers. No one seemed to care that conflicts abounded among Rockne’s other (concurrent!) positions– Notre Dame’s athletic director, football recruiter, track-team coach, etc.

The Notre Dame football team’s profitability rose when the team was finally invited to play in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on New Year’s Day 1925. The school (pursuant to Rockne’s negotiations) collected a portion of the gate receipts (of paying fans at the stadium). The game was broadcast on the radio.

The Notre Dame team played against Army every year. The football community had yet to feel the effects of the Great Depression in their big game of November 1929 at the then-Yankee Stadium. “A special train brought in Notre Dame’s eighty-piece marching band, and hundreds of South Benders came along with them.”

Through the decades, Rockne’s influence spread far and wide, as he served as a father-figure to dozens of his players. He recommended them for coaching positions after they graduated.

Read the book to learn much more about how Rockne became a legend in Notre Dame football.

Featured

Bounds of Silence – BONUS POST

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Interesting factoid: Donald Trump paid hush money to most everyone who worked for him when he was president. For, as a hiring-condition, they signed non-disclosure agreements that legally barred them from speaking publicly about their employment experiences. These workers were forced to choose between whistle-blowing and loyalty to their boss, but the boss hogged all the free speech for himself. Here’s what happened.

BOUNDS OF SILENCE

sung to the tune of “Sounds of Silence” with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.

Hypocrisy is Trump’s known trend.
He’s been confronted yet again.
Because legal-cases continuously
leave their seeds and are proliferating.
And the secrets, that were buried by his PR team
gathered steam, within the bounds of silence.

In gag-agreements signed by all,
through his own scandals and stonewalls,
under the spotlight of the tabloid camp,
sued by his-transition-team, employees and tramps.
His sins were outed, by-a-clash with the betrayed Right.
To his enemies’ delight.
And breached the bounds of silence.

And in attorneys’ offices one saw
one hundred people, maybe more.
People talking and people speaking.
People hearing and people listening.
People writing books.
Their thoughts were finally shared.
People dared. Breaking the bounds of silence.

Fools bound by Trump.
Free speech with a dreck-show dump.
Read their words and they might teach you.
Trump would slam them, with his crew.
But their words, through social networks spread.
Volumes out of the bounds of silence.

And this made Trump’s gang afraid, of the free-speech mess they made.
And democracy rang out in ITS glory, in a civil-rights success story.
And the courts say the words Americans-express are always free except-for-threats

or epithets.

We’re out of the bounds of silence.

[Heads exploding.]


Featured

Tripping on Utopia

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The Book of the Week is “Tripping on Utopia, Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science” by Benjamin Breen, published in 2024. This book documented the circumstances that led several “scientists” in America to experiment with psychedelic drugs from the 1940’s through the 1970’s.

In 1920’s Munich in Germany, psychotherapists tested mescaline on schizophrenic patients. Ditto in 1930’s London, England. In 1933, funded by government or university grants, the thirty-one year old Margaret Mead, along with her male or female lover of the moment (She had a series of them through her life), practiced “salvage anthropology.” She tried to salvage information about exotic cultures that were dying due to colonialism and war.

In the 1930’s, Mead did fieldwork with the Native-American Omaha tribe in the Great Plains. They, and her research subjects in Bali used peyote, a psychedelic drug, for ritual purposes. She theorized about sexual identity and wrote best-selling books.

Mead and her scientific colleagues discussed how Hitler used hypnotism to control the subconscious thoughts of his fellow Germans. He didn’t need psychedelics! Starting in 1939, she and her then-husband studied human nature to help propagandize for the war effort. In 1941, “The members of the Committee for National Morale saw themselves as a shield protecting freedom, democracy and diversity from the weaponized manipulative forms of applied science emanating from Nazi Germany.”

The American federal agency, Office of Strategic Services (OSS) began to study truth serum and hypnosis for the purpose of getting prisoners-of-war to talk, improving the health of traumatized soldiers, and analyzing enemy psychology.

In 1944, since Mead and her husband, Gregory Bateson, had insiders’ knowledge and experience of tribes’ cultures in Asia, they were allowed to play adolescent-boy spy games, thinking they could make the Japanese surrender. In late 1944, Bateson volunteered to go to Burma on perilous missions. In reality, as evinced by kamikazes, and their guerrilla warfare all over the South Pacific theater, the Japanese would never, ever surrender. They would actually fight to the last man. Mead, Bateson, and other spies were fooling themselves. Their big egos led them to risk their lives for nothing.

After the war, the CIA began a series of research projects called MKULTRA. Most of those conducting the LSD, mescaline and psilocybin Cold-War Era studies didn’t know the CIA was providing funding. The Macy Foundation and the Department of Defense were the CIA’s fronts. The operation was a desecration and perversion of legitimate scientific research, as it scrapped the scientific method. In one experiment, a spy posing as a “scientist” slipped LSD into the alcoholic drinks of his unknowing friends and acquaintances at social gatherings.

Further, many of the research described in the book sounded unscientific— lacking rigor (amateur, James-Bond wannabes were conducting them), lacking a statistically significant amount of data, and lacking a regard for chemical interactions of the psychedelics with alcohol!

In the 1950’s– about two decades prior to the outlawing of psychedelics– the “scientific” community (comprised of psychiatrists, pop psychologists and spies, not to mention profiteers) around Stanford University especially, had the arrogant notion that perhaps LSD could accelerate the rate by which global culture could not only become one big, peaceful, happy family with no starvation– but also become more tolerant of otherness, different lifestyles, sexual orientations and gender identity.

It appears that in trying to solve the world’s problems, politicians nowadays are a little less naive than they were in the mid-twentieth century. However, reducing social ills requires multi-pronged approaches– legislation and social programs. Ironically, instead of eliminating social ills, introducing psychedelics to society caused social ills to multiply exponentially.

Anyway, read the book to learn about the evolution of research on psychedelics, including various shameful episodes in which people, dolphins and Siamese fighting fish were harmed or died; one of which involved a prestigious institution (whose main character was, by 1960, described thusly: “Approaching forty, he had alienated most of his colleagues back in Berkeley, was nearly bankrupt, and had no income despite his extravagant multimonth family vacation [in Spain and Florence, Italy].”).

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naomi osaka (sic)

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The Book of the Week is “naomi osaka (sic), Her Journey to Finding Her Power and Her Voice” by Ben Rothenberg, published in 2024. In this large, wordy volume the author showed how in chasing big money– noise from the incestuous relationships among the industries of: sports, media (which includes social media), entertainment and politics– has reached a screaming crescendo.

As a member of Generation Z, a professional athlete, a biracial individual, and a frequent poster on social media– Naomi was treated as a Very Important Person when she put her two cents in.

Born in October 1997 in Osaka in Japan, Naomi and her family moved to Long Island, New York State when she was three years old. Her Haitian father and Japanese mother were inspired by the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena– professional tennis players– to push their two daughters to also become professional tennis players, beginning when they were pre-schoolers.

As is well known by its fans, singles tennis is a super-suspenseful game because either player has plenty of opportunities to make a comeback. It’s always unpredictable. Upsets happen all the time. Even when “It’s gotten late early” (as Yogi Berra would say) because a match seems to have been won already, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

After a socially isolated childhood in which her parents made extreme sacrifices for her career, Naomi kept professional tennis exciting by making amazing comebacks in tournaments. Although she began to earn obscene amounts of money from tournament winnings and sponsorships, she still expressed her dissatisfaction with various aspects of professional tennis. And the media. And politics. However, Naomi and Serena Williams (a fellow tennis rival) needed to learn how and when to protest to maximize their desired results.

In 2018, Serena Williams argued with a line judge during a match, when she was losing. So she appeared to be a sore loser, regardless of whether she was right or wrong. In 2021 during the French Open, Naomi sent out a message that she would refuse to talk to the media. She was biting the hand that fed her, as her making money required the publicity the media gave her; she was in effect, an employee of the governing tennis organizations because their rules required that she talk to the media. At less emotionally charged times, the governing tennis bodies might have been more receptive to the players’ proposals to change the rules.

BUT, the bottom line is the bottom line. The governing entities subjected to complaints in a push for change, must consider how much money they would lose, or how more money they would make, in effecting the change. It seems celebrities who push a message persistently and have a sufficient number of friends in high places can make a small change.

In Ross Mathews’ case, in around 2012, a certain fast food outlet re-introduced a butternut squash menu item because Mathews and his social media friends bombarded the restaurant with messaging that appeared to show how popular the item was. In 2019, a bit of legislation was finally passed due to Jon Stewart’s long-time rigorous activism to compensate 9/11 first responders who had been harmed.

It is unclear whether other kinds of protests work, because they involve ideology rather than money. Due to the overwhelming propaganda that smears violence in the streets committed by brainwashed youth protesting a war, it is impossible to prove whether the war was stopped sooner by the protesters, or even how much the course of the war was affected by them. Of course in a war, there are hugely complex interactions of profit-seeking entities that throw a wrench in the works.

Another aspect of messaging in most situations, is that the bulk of the most active commenters are people whose jobs are on the line if they don’t weigh in with positive or negative coverage, in a way that is financially or ideologically advantageous for their employers.

At any rate, in late August 2020, in the wake of a number of emotionally charged, law-enforcement actions against people of color, Naomi wielded her tremendous power and influence as an individual professional athlete– jumping on the bandwagon of a protest among team-efforts of other sports– to postpone a very important tennis tournament in order to make a political statement. She was able to postpone it, due to the way professional tennis is governed internationally.

Naomi spurred hours of stressful phone calls among the chief executives of the major tennis organizations– the USTA, WTA, and ATP. But it is hard to prove whether that kind of political activism has actually worked in stemming violence and racial incidents.

Read the book to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Naomi and her adventures in professional tennis.

Featured

We Will Mock You – BONUS POST

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Interesting factoid: Donald Trump sued, among hundreds of other parties (in no particular order):

George Stephanopoulos in 2024
Orbis Business Intelligence, 2024
H. Pixel International, 2011
Mary Trump, 2021
Michael Cohen 2023
Juan Merchan, 2024
Wesley Moss, 2024
Andrew Litinsky, 2024
ABC News, 2024
Bob Woodward, 2023
Cable News Network, 2022
Hillary Clinton, 2023
Bill Maher, 2013
New York Times, 2024
Tim O’Brien, 2006
Letitia James, 2022
Univision, 2016
Twitter, 2022
Facebook, 2022
Merv Griffin, 2015
City of New York, 2019
New York District Attorney Vance, 2020
Jose Andres, 2015
E. Jean Carroll, 2023
City of Palm Beach (FL), 2020
Morrison Cohen, 2020

Pursuant to the cliche: “What comes around goes around” or, the negative version of “You get what you give” here’s what prosecutors at the Southern District of New York (and countless others) are singing:

WE WILL MOCK YOU

sung to the tune of “We Will Rock You” with apologies to Queen and whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump, you are spoiled.
Always making noise.
Playing politics.
Getting punished today.
You got egg on your face.
You’ll lose the race.
Juggling your slush funds all over the place.

Face it.

We will, we will mock you.
We will, we will mock you.

Trump, you’re an old man, defeated man.
Shouting out of court.
Hated by the WORLD today.
WE’LL set the pace, we’re on your case.
We’ll keep that scowl all over your face.

We will, we will mock you. Face it.
We will, we will mock you.

Trump, you’re the doomed one, the LOser.
We’re TOYing with your fate.
Gonna make you cry UNCle today.
You played your last ace.
You big disgrace.
We’re finally putting YOU back in your PLACE.

We will, we will mock you.
We will, we will mock you. (Dig it.)

We will, we will mock you.
We will, we will mock you. (America!)

We will, we will mock you.
We will, we will mock you. (’bout time)

Done.

Featured

Enemies

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“The political hacks and blackmailers were to be fired forthwith. No more midnight break-ins at the Capitol. No more cloak-and-dagger work. No more arrests.”

— In the mid-1920’s, Harlan Fiske Stone tried to rid the Bureau of Investigation of partisanship and re-position its function from spying to catching criminals. That endeavor lasted less than a decade, given the turbulent times.

The Book of the Week is “Enemies, A History of the FBI” by Tim Weiner, published in 2012. With regard to catching criminals who cross state lines, spying, and national security, various recurring themes have emerged over the decades. This, as a result of America’s alpha-male-dominated culture and leadership. The major themes include:

  • incompetence, corruption and billions and billions of wasted taxpayer dollars due to inter-agency rivalry and power struggles among the FBI, Army, Navy, State Department, Secret Service, U.S. Marshals, large urban police forces, the office of the Attorney General, CIA and other law-enforcement groups;
  • violations of the civil rights of countless ordinary Americans, in the name of “national security”;
  • smear campaigns launched by America’s leaders, against its domestic and foreign enemies (which could change “on a dime” pursuant to the tenor of the times);
  • traitors‘ sale of secrets to the Soviets, undetected for years due to the hatred between the FBI and CIA;
  • an outdated, disorganized filing system that lasted into the 1990’s;
  • lack of Arabic translators (resulting in the severe crippling of the FBI’s ability to spy in the Middle East; it had one translator until the early 1990’s);
  • total absence of communication among the FBI’s fifty-six field offices with the others, and rare conferences between agents and headquarters, analysts or the White House through the 1990’s;
  • a culture of secrecy in which all classified documents won’t be disclosed to the general public for decades and decades; and
  • high turnover of personnel— means no one knows who’s in charge– even years after the 2005 consolidation of America’s national-security services encompassing intelligence, counter-intelligence, and counter-terror operations.

To be fair, the kinds of men who are a good fit for the culture of intelligence organizations tend to be James Bond wannabes, predatory stalkers and bullies.

In July 1908, president Theodore Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Bureau of Investigation (later named the FBI), which started with thirty-four agents. By August 1919, as head of the Bureau’s Radical Division, the twenty-four year old J. Edgar Hoover supervised hundreds of agents.

World War I gave rise to the Espionage Act of 1917, which gave Hoover an excuse to order that foreigners and countless others be spied on and arrested– right up until the day he died in 1972!

The author used the terms “informant” and “informer” in a confusing manner, and didn’t clearly define either one. But “mole” or “infiltrator” are more clear terms: an intelligence agent who joins a political, ideological or labor group targeted for spying, who eventually– of course on flimsy or no evidence, uses smears and lies to arrest and jail the group’s members.

Hoover’s favorite techniques included using infiltrators, mail-theft, sending agents to engage in break-ins, planting of hidden microphones, and warrantless wiretapping of phones (violations of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution) at the homes of people he perceived as enemies of America– named on his list.

Sometimes, law enforcement denied due process to suspects just to quell public fear or outrage, such as in the Sacco and Vanzetti case in the 1920’s. Over decades, there have been many incidents whose perpetrators were never caught. Spring 1919 saw one example of political terror. In acts of protestation against the federal government’s xenophobia and crackdown on innocent people, suspected anarchists sent tens of mail bombs to high-level public officials. The U.S. attorney general blamed Communists.

In November and December 1919, the Bureau of Investigation corralled and deported hundreds of the Union of Russian Workers. A few months later, the Attorney General’s office, run by A. Mitchell Palmer, basked in the glory of catching thousands of suspected Communists across the entire country– by way of spying operations and stomping on due process; he was fortunate to have Hoover’s authorization and talent for plotting the complicated operation. The jails overflowed with foreigners.

The hysteria against foreigners, anarchists, labor unions, Socialists and Communists was such that president Woodrow Wilson’s administration allowed the American Protective League (comprised of vigilantes– ordinary Americans who volunteered to, and were authorized, by wearing badges!) to spy on, burglarize the homes of, and beat up, suspected subversives. The group’s membership at its peak numbered approximately three hundred thousand.

Clearly, after WWI, the world wasn’t ready for president Wilson’s proposed League of Nations– a group of the world’s most industrially and technologically advanced countries that were attempting to cooperate in maintaining world peace. They couldn’t even quell their own citizens’ unrest, and were too busy jockeying for territory and resources of other sovereign states.

WWII saw historical events that forced human beings to evolve sufficiently politically, economically, culturally and socially, so that they did cooperate, more or less. And yet, there’s still so much hatred.

Anyway, FDR allowed Hoover to install listening devices in the German, Italian, French, Russian and Japanese embassies in the United States. However, the U.S. Army, Navy and FBI did not share intelligence among themselves prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. So failure to connect the dots resulted in countless deaths and ruined lives. The FBI crowed every time it caught criminals who could harm America in wartime, but in one of countless instances, in spring 1942 it omitted inconvenient facts from its narrative. Two of eight saboteurs had an attack of conscience and revealed their evil plot to the Bureau before the plot was executed. They would not have been caught otherwise.

In January 1946, president Harry Truman wisely disallowed the growth of a monstrous, oppressive, Stalinist kind of organization run by one individual. He dashed Hoover’s dream of running all worldwide spying operations on behalf of the United States– by ordering the founding of the CIA, which would spy internationally, while the FBI would do so domestically. Nevertheless, unsurprisingly, “The routine destruction of FBI files ensured that no accurate count [of break-ins and buggings] existed.”

Seething, Hoover secretly vetted men who went to work for the CIA, and publicly shamed them if they had Communist affiliations or homosexual tendencies. He contended that they were vulnerable to blackmail if they were employed in the government, colleges, law enforcement or public schools. He rooted them out and got them fired.

In the late 1950’s, Hoover began to target the Civil Rights Movement, saying its members palled around with Communists; in 1963, he deemed MLK “the most dangerous Negro in America.” Hoover’s spies infiltrated King’s cohorts, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and other religious and political groups. Although Hoover wanted to go after Soviet spies, attorney general RFK wanted him to spy on the KKK. But Klan members in Alabama and Georgia were employed in local law enforcement, so it was hard to fight City Hall.

There is nothing new under the sun. The FBI collected information on the sex lives of U.S. Senate and House members, and any deviant behavior could be used for blackmailing. It kept the reports in a safe. “The president wondered allowed whether they should be leaked selectively.”

Beginning in late 1967, LBJ let Hoover sic spies on about a hundred thousand Americans who were protesting the Vietnam War and civil rights violations. Hoover manipulated the FBI (of course), plus the U.S. attorney general’s office, army, NSA, CIA and community leaders. A couple of months later, LBJ’s own administration was under surveillance.

President Nixon kept pressuring the FBI to prove that the Soviets were to blame for the civil-rights and anti-war protests. But they weren’t to blame. Into the 1970’s, the Weather Underground, a subgroup of SDS, destroyed property through tens of terrorist bombings in the United States. The FBI solved none of the cases. Major media outlets such as Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Time magazine reported there was something rotten in Denmark.

Read the book to learn:

  • how Hoover made a “new normal” of ignoring the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to spy on everyone during four presidential administrations (Supreme Court rulings be damned);
  • how this has come full circle now, intruding on the lives of all Americans;
  • what happened under presidents Ford and Carter;
  • of infinite occasions of mis-allocation of the FBI’s resources (such as the time when hundreds of agents investigated president Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern instead of chasing after criminals who were stealing from, terrorizing or killing people);
  • and a century’s worth of the FBI’s adventures and (mostly) misadventures in law enforcement.
Featured

Oozing Democracy – BONUS POST

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Interesting political factoid: At the end of April 1968, Hubert Humphrey (a Democrat from Minnesota) jumped into the presidential race. America was in a different time and place then.

Since the Reagan Era, America’s diversity, location, size and the greed of human nature have all teamed up to give its style of democracy and capitalism a slimy underbelly.

These increasingly incestuous political and economic systems put it through a vicious cycle:

1) Excessive deregulation spawns unconscionable looting (of itself and other lands) by mostly alpha males.
2) The consequences lead to: partial restoration of regulation, but hardly any punishment for the real culprits, and eventually,
3) business as usual all over again.

Politicians are a crucial cog in the systems. They think they’re oozing democracy when in reality, they’re just oozing.

Here’s what they sing in American-style campaigns.

DEMOCRACY OOZING

sung to the tune of Rock ‘N’ Roll Music with apologies to the estate of Chuck Berry and whomever else the rights may concern.

Just let me preach some of my democracy oozing.
Through voting you can choose it.
Knowing backstory you can’t lose it.
Any old time you use it.
I’m gonna be democracy oozing, if you want to rant with me, if you want to rant with me.

I got no beef against equality.
Unless the law doesn’t favor me.
I deserve due process indefinitely.
You know I am never GUI-i-lty.
That’s why I go for that democracy oozing.

Through voting you can choose it.
Knowing backstory you can’t lose it.
Any old time you use it.
I’m gonna be democracy oozing, if you want to whine with me, if you want to whine with me.

I greet my donors in shady spots.
Where nosy-bodies can’t conNECT the dots.
I have a RIGHT to privacy.
Just as activists, to AS-sembly.
That’s why I’m all about democracy oozing.

Through voting you can choose it.
Knowing backstory you can’t lose it.
Any old time you use it.
I’m gonna be democracy oozing, if you want to lie with me, if you want to lie with me.

My opponents want autocracy.
And their actions show hypocrisy.
They have oppressive POL-i-cies.
And they rewrite history.
Only I MYSELF am democracy oozing.

Through voting you can choose it.
Knowing backstory you can’t lose it.
Any old time you use it.
I’m gonna be democracy oozing, if you want to smear with me, if you want to smear with me.

In your state we have a primary.
In other countries they have bribery.
It’s much too early to declare victory.
But in the meantime, I keep Americans free.
So I keep on democracy oozing.

Through voting you can choose it.
Knowing backstory you can’t lose it.
Any old time you use it.
I’m gonna be democracy oozing, if you want to brag with me, if you want to brag with me.

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The Bluest State

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The Book of the Week is “The Bluest State, How Democrats Created the Massachusetts Blueprint for American Political Disaster” by Jon Keller, published in 2007. This short volume contained a mishmash of anecdotes on politicians and issues in Massachusetts from the 1980’s to the single-digit 2000’s.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked Notes, Sources, References, and a Bibliography), Democrat politicians in Massachusetts (such as Ted Kennedy and John Kerry) displayed “Aloofness. Arrogance. Entitlement. Condescension. Hypocrisy.” They and their supporters consisted largely of aging, elitist Baby Boomers, such as the Clintons, Al Gore, and John Edwards. The author cited some data that showed this (without listing his sources).

In 2004, the Democrats chose Barack Obama to deliver the keynote speech at their convention in Boston. The author commented on how African American politicians had changed the tone of their rhetoric: “American liberalism’s black face this time around would not be a fire-breathing preacher with a sermon full of angry demands [like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson]. Instead, as the crowd roared in approval, a dignified light-skinned black man spoke compellingly about his love for America in Hallmark terms.”

And yet, as Barbara Walters wrote in her book, “We [the media] really seem to care only if they [celebrities and politicians] are outrageous and call our president a devil or declare that the Holocaust never existed. Stand up and scream and we will interview you, or be reasonable and unheard.” Political races are won or lost with the right messaging at the right time. It is a delicate operation.

The author wrote of another politician– Deval Patrick– who was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2006. Patrick’s charisma helped him just before the election– he and his rival were neck and neck in the polls, but a good bit of last-minute messaging gave him the win. After he took office, however, he immediately began to ignore his constituents and reap political spoils in various ways, breaking his campaign promises. Is it relevant that he is African American?

Identity politics is alive and well for various reasons. One reason is that it is a way of maintaining two rivalrous parties– which has helped maintain a democracy more or less, for the United States for more than two centuries. Indefinite one-party dominance would be a dictatorship. There would be total cooperation, but the leader would rule his empire by fear.

There are always leaders who have embarrassing stories to tell about numerous political contacts and those contacts know it, so by threatening to tell those stories, the leaders can cash in on favors from those contacts in the future whenever necessary. Unbeknownst to voters, all the time, infinite acts of political puppetry are going on behind the scenes.

Anyway, read the book to learn of how the author gave a few examples of the hypocrisy of the Democrats, especially in Massachusetts, on the usual major political issues that get voters riled up: scandals, affordable housing, the environment, education, taxation, gay rights, abortion, crime, etc., etc., etc.

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Jonas Salk

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The Book of the Week is “Jonas Salk, A Life” by Charlotte DeCroes Jacbos, published in 2015.

Born in October 1914 in East Harlem, Salk grew up in the New York City area. In 1942, he got a fellowship to study polio at the University of Michigan, that served as a draft deferment. The spread of influenza and pneumonia had caused ruined lives and a massive number of deaths in previous years, so health officials wanted to stem a similar kind of devastation in connection with polio. Unlike measles or mumps, the flu was found to have variants. Polio was also found to have variants, so making a vaccine for it was a complicated affair. Even so, in the 1940’s, medical researchers were permitted to experiment on human subjects in, say, mental institutions and prisons.

In 1945, Salk signed a contract with the drug company Parke, Davis that allowed him to collect royalties for the flu vaccine. In October 1947, he got to manage his own laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. His goal to was to create a polio vaccine in order to eradicate the fear of illness and deaths that was then plaguing ordinary Americans.

Salk was one of the first scientists to describe the-then idea of herd effect: during an epidemic, when a population became effectively vaccinated, there were fewer people to whom to spread the virus– the rest of the population, or herd. Therefore, disease-spread was greatly reduced. In the absence of an effective vaccine, disease spread like wildfire.

At his new employer, Salk chafed under a bean-counter and inferior resources. But he sold his soul and became a workaholic bureaucrat. He got the dean’s permission to renovate the place, in exchange for teaching classes and delivering lectures in serving the Pittsburgh community.

Salk tested whether mineral oil was a good adjuvant in a flu vaccine. This was a non-toxic substance added to the syringe to stimulate the production of antibodies at the vaccination site on the arm. An effective adjuvant would allow the patient to better fight the flu and a variety of other germs. Besides, it would dilute the vaccine, cutting costs.

By 1948, Salk had developed a reputation for explaining his work to laypeople at press conferences, so he was able to get funding to study how many types of polio virus there were. His belief was that inactivated (dead), rather than live virus cells in the vaccine-syringe could still be effective. Other alpha-male scientists disagreed with him. Live virus was riskier, because there was a small chance that even a healthy patient could contract or spread the disease.

By 1953, Salk’s research on monkeys and children showed that his vaccine was effective. However, “The press continued to incite the public; exaggerated and inaccurate reports created unreasonable expectations.” The public began clamoring for the vaccine. The clashing egos of polio research-scientists resulted in power struggles over how to conduct vaccination field trials.

The mid-1950’s saw a successful nationwide study on Salk’s polio vaccine that made him a celebrity. His wife and three sons lost their privacy. The press slapped Salk’s name on the vaccine, even though a rival scientist named Sabin aggressively pushed the live-virus vaccine that became the standard one used for decades across the United States from the 1960’s onward.

Read the book to learn everything you ever wanted to know about the history of polio vaccines (including the 1955 vaccine-making drug-lab mishap that resulted in illness, deaths and lots of scapegoats)– how hard it was to make them safe and effective and convince the public of same (hint: The chief reason it was so hard was that it costs money and scientists can’t do research without money, and humans are corrupted by money; also, scientists tend to have big egos and want to win a Nobel Prize).

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Dumb Ranting – BONUS POST

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All the time, Trump continues his dumb ranting about a “bloodbath” and about promising to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

There needs to be a cautionary riches-to-rags sitcom starring Trump, called “Fallen Towers.” This could be its theme song.

Dumb Ranting

sung to the tune of “Come Dancing” with apologies to the Kinks.

Trump inherited a company that owned land,
where hospitality properties used to stand.
Before that, his father built an empire slowly,
on sites now notoriously lonely.
That’s where Trump’s cronies used to come and play.
His groupies follow HIS lead every day.

Dumb ranting.

All his girlfriends used to come and call.
Why not dumb ranting? It’s only natural.

Another ruling, another court date.
He delays, appeals and whines to make them wait.
Viewers drool IN anticipation.
His victims know the cases will end up in frustration.

He wasted all his money on legal fees.
A life of litigation, and crime sprees.

Dumb ranting.

Dysfunction started when he was just a kid.
And who listened to his ranting? His worshippers always did.

His ranting doesn’t bother the FAR Right. They will ignore it and wait.
To most, it’s gotten tiresome, big-time.
And Fox News helps him bloviate.

spoken:
[Out in the cold, think of the leaders who have made comebacks:
Grover Cleveland, Jerry Brown, Juan Peron, Netanyahu…]

The DAY judges knock down his fallacies,
Trump will continue to whine, “This hoax is outrageous!”
His childhood will never die. My, my.

Now the grownups will take over the land.
Voices of rule of law will take a stand.
Trump was married and he lived on an estate.
He might be out. Now it’s his turn to wait.
Will he get away with things YOU never could?
He keeps repeating that he alone, should.

Dumb ranting.

C’mon Trump, have yourself a ball.
NOW, do all of your dumb ranting,
before the jailer comes to call.

Dumb ranting.

Just like Truth Social every single day.
Trump keeps on dumb ranting,
so for him, it’s Groundhog Day.

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Laws – BONUS POST

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Unsurprisingly, this is what Trump is singing now, and will be singing for the foreseeable future.

LAWS

sung to the tune of “Signs” with apologies to Five Man Electrical Band.

And their law said, the greatest real estate leader lied.
So I ran for prez and got audited.
And I went in and asked them WHY.
They said your organization made too much money.
We’ll keep harassing YOU.
So I got elected prez and said,
Imagine that, huh, me LEADing you. Whoa.

Law, law everywhere a law.
Witch Hunting me.
I did nothing wrong.
You said I DID this, I did that.
You misread the law.

The law said,
allow all the migrants in.
DON’T shoot on sight.

So I questioned this,
and said to our people,
Hey, we have a RIGHT
to build a wall to keep them out
and keep Americans safe.

They keep coming here.
We’re losing the race.
THEY will be the winners.

Law, law everywhere a law.
Witch Hunting me.
I did nothing wrong.
You said I DID this, I did that.
You misread the law.

Now hey, judges can’t you read?
I don’t understand how you got your seats.
You should watch.
I’m in the lead.
How can you say I can’t BE here?

The law says I have the First Amendment, it’s my RIGHT. Uh.

And the law said
I should be immune to prosecution today.
But the rulings came down from some Witch Hunts.
Those are fines I shouldn’t have to pay.

So I got me an interview on Hannity.
No need to read between the lines.

I say thank you GOP for thinking about me.
I’m alive and doing fine. Woo.

Law, law everywhere a law.
Witch Hunting me.
I did nothing wrong.
You said I DID this, I did that.
You misread the law.

Law, law everywhere a law.

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A World of Ideas

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The Book of the Week is “A World of Ideas, Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our Future” by Bill Moyers, edited by Betty Sue Flowers, published in 1989. This compilation of interviews was done at the end of the Reagan Era–prior to the historical revisionism and 20 / 20 hindsight of the Clinton Era and thereafter.

David Gergen was one of the few political workers who has explicitly stated that the job elected officers should be doing is governing. This means serving one’s constituents in public service– rather than wooing voters with fantastic promises that will likely be broken– effecting wily public relations that includes propagandizing and standing on ceremony, also called populism.

Forrest McDonald, one of Bill Moyers’ interviewees, commented that America’s one president fills the roles of both government officer and populist, while England has two separate people doing those jobs, respectively: the prime minister, and the king or queen. A recent American president whose populism instilled fond memories in the minds of Americans that made them forget his wrongheaded governing, was Ronald Reagan. Around the time of the interview, the Iran-Contra hearings were all the rage, yet Reagan’s charisma was on display, as much as his amnesia.

McDonald correctly prophesied that more Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals would break in future decades, due to the conflicts the president faced in executing laws while worrying about protecting his reputation. Hardly any political issues have changed at least since the late 1980’s when McDonald rightly declared, “We’re living beyond our means. Congress is for sale to the highest bidder from one election to the next, the Pentagon belongs to the fixers, the President’s out to lunch, and the media are drowning us in violence, nonsense, and trivia.”

In his interview, Noam Chomsky pointed out that the United States government is comprised of two parties (Republican and Democrat) whose main policies are based on business and economics; in other words, donor-determined. All other major, developed countries of the world have a Labor Party– comprised of politicians who lobby on behalf of the poor or working class. It appeared that Chomsky was making a value judgment that the United States was wrong for allowing money to elect its public servants.

There are pros and cons to this, which are too numerous and controversial to discuss here. Suffice to say, the American government’s leadership-and-management culture is a completely different animal from that on other continents. It allows its people the freedom to practice capitalism on a much more extensive scale. Its foreign policy, shaped by globalization of course, has played a major role.

Speaking of foreign policy, Sissela Bok wished that the United States would behave in a more humanitarian manner in international conflicts. She wanted to see more Americans value all humans equally– “… so that it becomes just as awful for us to take an innocent life in some other country as it is in our own.”

Read the book to learn the opinions of mostly university professors, on American political, economics, cultural, and social issues from the 1980’s; that show the areas in which the country has regressed or progressed.

ENDNOTE: Since the book’s writing, arguably, the U.S. is slowly but slowly, progressing in terms of maintaining a democracy, more or less. One bit of evidence of this, is that the country suffered roughly ten years in a row during which a wartime president behaved like a dictator– under LBJ and then Nixon. The next occasion of that, which was seven years in a row, occurred under George W. Bush. It took four years in a row and one day (Jan. 6) for the U.S. to get tired of the next president who behaved like a dictator (Trump), and there wasn’t a war on.

Crisis-generation has always been a cliched way for leaders to keep their power, but hyper-awareness and politicization of crises has been generated in recent decades, due to the speed and reach of modern, global communications. In this way, the traumas of recent natural disasters, financial crashes, wars and celebrity anguish stay fresh in the minds of every culturally-labeled American generation, from Depression-Era babies to Generation Z.

The institutional memory of the older generation especially, allows them to detect and minimize the impact of crises sooner than otherwise. For instance, the Baby Boomers personally experienced— how LBJ and Nixon stubbornly refused to withdraw American troops from Vietnam– a war that involved unspeakable horrors in the region, causing adverse decades-long consequences there and in this country. The Boomers saw that Trump’s megalomania, secrecy and vengeance are akin to those exhibited by LBJ and Nixon. However, Trump refuses to ever give in; whereas, Nixon was shamed into resigning.

Leaders who have harnessed ways to brainwash the masses into believing they are saviors, are the ones who keep their power, at least until their enemies out their crimes in court.

There are many more indicators that our nation won’t devolve into anarchy anytime soon, that are beyond the scope of this post.

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Winchell

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The Book of the Week is “Winchell, Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity” by Neal Gabler, published in 1994. Two cliches that apply to the likes of Walter Winchell’s role in the evolution of the American entertainment industry include: THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN, AND DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN.

Born in April 1897 in East Harlem, Winchell got into Vaudeville as an adolescent. In the 1920’s, there were about six major New York City newspapers, and readers had their favorite columnists. In August 1924, Winchell got his own column, specializing in Broadway gossip in the newly launched Evening Graphic.

Winchell’s career took off. By summer 1929, he was writing for the Hearst-owned paper, the Mirror. The following spring, he launched a radio show, and the following summer, he acted in a movie. He associated with Mobsters, advertising their night clubs while he received protection from them.

Winchell vacillated between suffering from imposter syndrome, and behaving like an alpha male with hubris syndrome. He was a dream dispenser for his readers; they aspired to adopt the lifestyle of “Cafe Society.” In the 1930’s, this set consisted of star-struck social climbers, heirs and heiresses who had done nothing to merit their own celebrity.

Winchell acquired significant power to make or break peoples’ fame with his column, by promoting or smearing them. During the Depression, he honed his showmanship and propaganda techniques, becoming a strong political influencer. Beginning in 1933, he flacked for FDR and smeared Hitler. His rhetoric was anti-Communist, anti-Fascist and anti-isolationist.

Lacking significant formal education, Winchell rode a wave of success based on envy, anger and vengeance, into the 1950’s. The author wrote, “The real grievance was the control he exercised over his social and intellectual superiors and what that control portended for the elites.”

Read the book to learn a lot more about Winchell and others that smacks of other public figures whose rises and falls have been largely similar, in the history of this country.

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He’s All Alone – BONUS POST

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Thanks to the American political atmosphere of the last eight years, the courts have been busier than ever. One party on both sides of the system, George Santos is yet another tragic figure abandoned by his supporters, who is meeting his downfall. Here’s a little ditty that tells his story.

HE’S ALL ALONE

sung to the tune of “We’re All Alone” with apologies to Rita Coolidge.

In court the cases begin,
and they may never end.
Crying foul, George San-tos will dream,
his acting we’ll still see,
forever more, forever more.

He makes the tabloids beam,
coming apart at the seams.
He rants and raves, among the knaves of ours.
He won’t be forgotten now.
He’s all alone. He’s all alone.

Cue the videos, enjoy the fight.
Santos will find his light.
You’ll continue to watch him now.
He’s forced to account, you’ll see all his sins.
He knows how to pretend.

Once the truth is out,
the defendants lose their clout.
Drama-queens do, lawyers too.
So fast-en your seatbelts for the trend.
For years and years, for years and years.

Cue the videos, enjoy the fight.
Santos will find his light.
You’ll continue to watch him now.
He’s forced to account, you’ll see all his sins.
He won’t be forgotten now.

He’s all alone. He’s all alone.

Cue the videos, enjoy the fight.
Santos will find his light.
You’ll continue to watch him now.
He’s forced to account, you’ll see all his sins.

No slow news-weeks now. Too-ooh much.

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All Year Long – BONUS POST

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The year 2024 in America might get worse before it gets better, but it WILL get better. As usual, the media are whipping up the most heinous hysteria. Here’s a little ditty that explains the situation.

ALL YEAR LONG

sung to the tune of “All Night Long” with apologies to Lionel Richie and Universal Music.

My fellow Americans,
the media here
mislead you through teasing and mongering fear.
It’s extreme, this election year.

Trump will try to LIVE on (live on, live on, live on…)

His crew will lie, his crew will smear,
conspire and hate and scheme and jeer.

He’s the GOP PArty.
Calm down, don’t WORry, not forever.
Ignore his DANCE and song.

He’s the GOP PArty.
Calm down, don’t WORry, not forever.
Ignore his DANCE and song.

All year long (all year) all year.
All year long (all year) all year.
All year long (all year) all year.
All year long (all year) all year.

His lawyers all in the courts
play dirty tricks of all sorts.
They delay, they distract.

Trump will try to LIVE on (live on, live on, live on…)

Curious things will happen and
aging will take its toll.
He can’t help but lose control.

He’s the GOP PArty.
Calm down, don’t WORry, not forever.
Ignore his DANCE and song.

All year long (all year).
All year long (all year).
All year long (all year).
All year long (all year).

Yeah, IT might seem that
there’s no hope right now.

But wait for the fun.
It WILL come ’round.
He can’t possibly ignore
his troubles away.
The GOP party will change one day.

No more sheNANigans AND nonsense.
Yeah, the worm will turn.

That GOP party,
oh, it’s changing
Oh, change will come.

No more sheNANigans AND nonsense.
Yeah, the worm will turn.

Dough dough dough dough yeah,
Oh, that GOP party, yeah.

All year long (all year) all year.
All year long (all year) all year.
All year long (all year) all year.
All year long (all year) all year.

People of all sorts,
they’re watching all the courts
all year long.

(all year, all year)

Yeah, I said

People of all sorts,
they’re watching all the courts
all year long (all year)

Yeah,
just wait, just wait!

(all year, all year)

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Impresario

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“He was clearly in the early stages of what his colleagues referred to as Alzheimer’s, although it was never diagnosed as such. Whatever it was, it didn’t prevent him from functioning effectively much of the time, yet by this point…”

–Around 1969, Ed Sullivan began having “senior moments.”

The Book of the Week is “Impresario, The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan” by James Maguire, published in 2006.

Born in 1901 in East Harlem, Ed Sullivan grew up in the New York metropolitan area. He had a burning desire to become famous and rich. Therefore, beginning in his teen years, he met as many people as he could, and hung out at all the city’s hippest social clubs (celebrity hangouts) that featured alcohol and performances.

In 1948, he finally got to host his own show on TV, after paying his dues failing at radio shows and succeeding at writing a newspaper gossip column. Even so, he got lots of hate mail. His CBS-TV show, Toast of the Town was partially sponsored by Lincoln Mercury (car) dealers in Southern states. They were livid that he refused to stop shaking hands with and hugging black performers. Sullivan was racially egalitarian, but politically, rabidly anti-Communist.

With the 1955-1956 season, the show was renamed The Ed Sullivan Show— as the host had achieved his goals of wealth and stardom; media ratings, really. He began talks with Warner Bros. to make a movie of his life. In preparing the script for that endeavor, unsurprisingly, the clashing of egos resulted in back-and-forth shenanigans; summarized thusly: “When Jack Warner realized that Sullivan had completely thrown out Wallace’s second version… hearing of Sullivan’s plans for still more rewriting… He cancelled the film.” That was eight months after signing the contract.

In summer 1967, the CBS Standards and Practices department was strict about performers’ not saying specific words that smacked of sex or drugs. The band The Doors got away with “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” in its song “Light My Fire” because the show was live, and the lead singer disobeyed the censors.

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about: how The Ed Sullivan Show was able to stay wildly popular and attain high ratings for decades despite its host’s lack of charisma; (Hint: It changed with the times in featuring guests who entertained audiences of all ages, until advertisers’ demands changed); the people who helped make it so; and the secrets of Sullivan’s success.

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Tangled Vines

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The Book of the Week is “Tangled Vines, Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California” by Frances Dinklespiel, published in 2015. The moral of this book’s main story is “Lawsuits followed and winemakers like Viader made mental notes never to be cavalier about the disposition of fire-damaged wine.”

According to the author, as of 2013, Americans drank the largest quantity of wine, 13% of all the wine of all the countries in the world.

In October 2005, a majorly evil crime was committed at the Wines Central warehouse on Mare Island in Vallejo. An assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern district of California– an expert in wine fraud and arson, and an agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assessed the damage and investigated the site. The latter used an acceleration-detection canine, also called an arson dog.

The perpetrator committed: mail fraud (for shipping wine across state lines under a false name), interstate transfer of stolen property (because it wasn’t his wine to sell), arson, and tax evasion.

Fire destroyed millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of wine (stored in the warehouse) of mostly mom-and-pop wineries. As is usual in such instances, insurance claims of winemakers whose wine was covered, were denied, because the insurers contended that the wine was “in transit.”

In the single-digit 2000’s, Bill Koch of Koch family fame, didn’t spare a dime in finding out how he had become the victim of wine fraud. He employed investigators in various fields: ex-FBI agents, ex-Sotheby’s workers, a glass historian, and experts in cork and adhesives and labels. He sued the auction house and original seller of the wine.

Read the book to learn about the kinds of people who are passionate about making and selling wine, how they became victims of one especially bad actor, and a few other incidents in the life of the California wine industry.

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Mar-a-Lago – BONUS POST

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As is well known, Donald Trump ignores ALL signs of decline in his popularity. Clearly, his downfall will be complete only: when the number of his ass-kickers (such as Judge Engoron, E. Jean Carroll, and Omarosa among others yet to emerge) exceeds the number of his ass-kissers (his attorneys, previously– Rudy Giuliani, Bill Barr, Alan Dershowitz, etc., etc., etc.), or, when he dies.

Here’s a little ditty of what he continues to sing, despite the wreckage piling up around him.

MAR-A-LAGO

sung to the tune of “Key Largo” with apologies to Bertie Higgins.

I’m better than the others.
I’m fighting so hard in the courts.
All these Witch Hunts together.
My accusers are losers of all sorts.
Watching my old testimonies,
and attacking me desperately.
America, I am your hero.
And you are my favorite country.

I do it all.
Protecting you and building the Wall.
Starring in my own great, great show.
I’ve just been planning at Mar-a-Lago.
All our enemies ran and hid.
So many, many things I did.
I could do them all again, I know.
I’ve just been planning at Mar-a-Lago.

America, don’t you remember–
I cancelled every bad deal.
We will never surrender.
I stopped the steal.
I made you rich. I will do it again.
‘Cause you love me still.
America, this can’t be the end.

I do it all. I do it all.
Protecting you and building the Wall.
Starring in my own great, great show.
I’ve just been planning at Mar-a-Lago.
All our enemies ran and hid.
So many, many things I did.
I could do them all again, I know.
I’ve just been planning at Mar-a-Lago.

I do it all. I do it all.
Protecting you and building the Wall.
Starring in my own great, great show…

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I Should Have Honor

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The Book of the Week is “I Should Have Honor, A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan” by Khalida Brohi, published in 2018.

Pakistan’s Muslim men have a tradition of arranging marriages for their prepubertal daughters to clans they deem worthy. None of the female family members have any say in the matter.

It was through a stroke of great good luck that Grohi’s father (born in the mid-1970’s) received an education, instead of facing a fate of ignorance, poverty, goat-herding and hard manual farmwork as his siblings did. Too, the author won the “world parents lottery” in many ways. Her father refused to agree to marry her off before she was born (!) Her parents provided the same resources and opportunities to her and her sisters, as to her brothers. She attended school and was allowed to do almost anything her male counterparts were allowed to do.

The author was born in the late-1980’s, although when she began to travel internationally, her later-created identity documents were inaccurate by about a year. She became fluent in English and Brahui. During her childhood, her financially struggling, ever-growing family moved around a lot. At first, they lived in multi-generational households in rural villages and later on, upgraded to the cities of Hyderabad and Karachi.

Even so, Grohi’s mother and females in her large extended family were still enslaved in a life of domestic chores, which included feeding their farm animals and making cow-dung patties to be burned in cooking-fires. In other words, in most Pakistani Muslim households, the females were kept barefoot and pregnant.

On an even more extreme note, in the single-digit 2000’s (!) the males were allowed to physically abuse their wives (for any reason they rationalized, or none at all), and allowed to kill a female who brought shame to the family through misbehavior such as eloping. The latter situation occurs about a thousand times a year in Pakistan. Gossiping is the number one activity in rural-village communities, so everyone was under pressure to conform to the elder males’ rules.

The author realized that religion, caste or tradition had nothing to do with how such a punishment was justified. The elders were simply alpha males with hubris syndrome who were insecure, or enraged at the disobedience of their daughters. Grohi tried to change that. She founded a non-profit organization that empowered females by spurring discussions in Pakistan and internationally regarding gender equality. After much trauma, she was forced to switch to a less confrontational approach– by apologizing to the males, and convincing them:

  • that physically harming females was dishonorable;
  • that allowing female family members to work outside the home would financially help the household (and for that, they might need education), and
  • that the points above were their idea.

Read the book to learn an additional slew of information on the author’s family, and her trials, tribulations and triumphs in trying to change Pakistan’s entrenched gender-segregated, cruel culture.

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Somethin’ Stupid – BONUS POST

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In 2024, everyone who’s anyone knows who the main Democratic candidate for president will be. That candidate will want to debate Trump, who probably will avoid participating in any and all political debates the rest of his life.

For decades, it’s been a cliche for a candidate to debate against an empty podium, but in this case, it might be a hilarious comedy sketch, at which this little ditty could be sung by the Democrat to Trump:

SOMETHIN’ STUPID

sung to the tune of “Somethin’ Stupid” with apologies to Nancy Sinatra, the estate of Frank Sinatra, and whomever else the rights may concern.

I know your standard line
that you CANnot spare the time to spend an evening with me.
You’ll never take the chance that I will kick your ass
when you engage in a debate with me.
Then after you refuse,
I will put you in your place
on all substantive issues.

And then you go and prove it all by spewing somethin’ stupid like “I hate you.”

I know most voters are sick of
all the same old lies you’ve told for years and years now.
We know you’re just a has-been.
I know I’m true,
and we ignore your fears now.

I’ve practiced my whole life to propose ideas to share
to help our democracy pull through.
With my knowledge and experience,
I know it’s not too late,
and the hell with you.

My time is right.
I get inside your head,
then states of red become states of blue.

And then you go and prove it all by spewing somethin’ stupid like “I hate you.”

My time is right.
I get inside your head,
then states of red become states of blue.

And then you go and prove it all by spewing somethin’ stupid like “I hate you.”

“I hate you.”
“I hate you.”
“I hate you.”

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My Race

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The Book of the Week is “My Race, A Jewish Girl Growing Up Under Apartheid in South Africa” by Lorraine Lotzof Abramson, published in 2010.

Born in March 1946, the author grew up in Orange Free State in South Africa. Her ancestors were originally from Latvia. Many other fair-skinned people (hereinafter called “whites”) were descended from British settlers. The Afrikaners (descended from Dutch settlers) were the country’s ruling majority. They imposed apartheid beginning in 1948. They interpreted the Christian Bible in a way that depicted dark-skinned Africans (called Africans; hereinafter called “blacks” but the derogatory term is Kaffirs) as servants. All white families had sufficient wealth to employ at least one (black) servant.

The black population way outnumbered that of the white. The Afrikaners felt extreme pressure to oppress the blacks unmercifully, lest they revolt against any and all whites. The Jews were thus largely left alone. The author was the only Jew in her elementary school. She showed natural running ability at an early age, and after collecting a bunch of victories in footraces, she became a source of local pride for the community. So she was tolerated, even though she was Jewish.

In August 1961, the author was chosen to represent her homeland of South Africa in the Maccabi Games, a competition for Jews held in Israel. She met athletes of all different nationalities, including surprisingly, an Indian Jew. Under apartheid in South Africa, simply having a conversation with an Indian (or any non-fair-skinned person) was a crime, in public or in private.

The South African government used a divide-and-conquer strategy, outlawing assembly of ten or more individuals of dark-skinned tribes. The government fomented hatred of one tribe against another. Signs saying, “Whites Only” or “Non-Whites” were posted in all public places to indicate who was allowed where and what they could do. Whites would be arrested for entering a place bearing the “Non-Whites” sign. The police kept photos of protest-marchers (troublemakers– including whites). A person of any skin color who criticized the government would be punished.

In 1991, after serving 27 years in prison, (black political activist) Nelson Mandela was elected leader of South Africa. The whites were deathly afraid the blacks would wreak revenge against all whites. Mandela was forgiving, and didn’t hold a grudge against his oppressors. But he could’ve– as happened in previous decades when various other African countries achieved independence and a black person became the top leader. The South African whites were relieved as hell.

Read the book to learn much more about the author’s life and times and places.

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Joy to MY World – BONUS POST

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If Donald Trump cheers up, this is what he’ll be singing:

JOY TO MY WORLD

sung to the tune of “Joy to the World” with apologies to Three Dog Night.

Giuliani was my bullhorn.
He was a good friend of mine.
I stood behind every word he said,
but our relationship changed over time.
Yeah, I HAD to draw the line.

Singin’ Joy to MY World.
It’s ALL me and rallies now.
Joy to my assistants E-RIC and Donnie.
Joy for my victory.

You know I am the King of the World.
I tell you what I’ll do:
I’ll take away the migrants and the Bidens and the laws
and I’ll get rid-of the states that are blue.

Joy to MY world.
It’s ALL me and rallies.
Joy to my assistants E-RIC and Donnie.
Joy for my victory.

You know I love the ladies.
With the media, I have such fun.
I’m never going to tire, I’m the top survivor,
and a witch-hunt victim but I won, a witch-hunt victim but I won.

Joy to MY World.
It’s ALL me and rallies.
Joy to my assistants E-RIC and Donnie.
Joy for my victory.

Joy to My world.
It’s ALL me and rallies.
Joy to MY World.
Joy to my MAGA rallies.
Joy to My world.
It’s ALL me and rallies.

Joy to IVAN-ka and Jared, too.
Joy to MY whole crew.

Joy to My world.
It’s ALL me and rallies.

Joy to MY world.
It’s ALL me and rallies.
Joy to my assistants E-RIC and Donnie.
Joy for my victory.

Joy to MY world.
It’s ALL me and rallies.
Joy to my assistants E-RIC and Donnie.
Joy for my victory…

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When – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing” by Daniel H. Pink, published in 2018.

The author cited various studies that focused on timing, rather than the contents of events. The results of one study he cited, indicate a counter-intuitive aspect of human nature.

The study asked different groups of subjects to evaluate the overall moral character of a fictional man who was hypothetically their boss. Different groups were given different scenarios describing his awful and good behaviors. “Indeed, they [the subjects] evaluated a life with 29 years of treachery and 6 months of goodness the same as a life with 29 years of goodness and 6 months of treachery.” When the last 6 months were good, the subjects were forgiving, and seemed to forget the character’s past sins.

Religion might account for some of the study’s results; some evil people find religion when they have a near-death experience– like surviving a plane crash, or surviving a bullet that should have killed them. They believe that when they are baptized, all their sins are washed away. So they empathize with the aforementioned fictional character– their past criminality doesn’t count.

That could be why people elect politicians who are serial criminals, and why men in sinful or controversial fields of work– have an attack of conscience and turn traitor at the ends of their careers. Here is a little ditty about the collective mood in this country, notwithstanding the fact that the people gets the government it deserves.

ANOTHER DAY

sung to the tune of “Another Day” with apologies to Paul McCartney and whomever else the rights may concern.

Every day the media incite wrath,
at the news we glare,
politicians-wrap LAWyers ’round them.
They’re teaming up with corporate chairs.

It’s just another day.

Sidling up to donors,
they know how to schmooze,
dipping in the pockets of the taxpayers.

It’s just another day.

At the office where their powers grow,
they’re one big herd.
Doling out the Kool-Aid.
And we find it hard to trust their words.

It’s just another day.

baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa

It’s just another day.

baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa

It’s just another day.

So sad, so sad. Sometimes we feel so sad.
Unheard and harmed we dwell
till a less bad leader
comes to give us, a better sell.

Ah, can’t-wait.
Don’t stand us up.
Vote against the-bums,
but some stay,
and we continue to pay.

So sad. Sometimes we feel so sad.

As they plant another story for their favorite cause.
Their colleagues rally ’round them.
We find they don’t obey their own laws.

It’s just another day.

baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa

It’s just another day.

baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa

It’s just another day.

So sad, so sad. Sometimes we feel so sad.
Unheard and harmed we dwell
till a less bad leader
comes to give us, a better sell.

Ah, can’t wait.
Don’t stand us up.
Vote against the-bums,
but some stay,
and we continue to pay.

So sad. Sometimes we feel so sad.

Every day the media incite wrath,
at the news we glare,
politicians-wrap LAWyers ’round them.
They’re teaming up with corporate chairs.

It’s just another day.

Sidling up to donors,
they know how to schmooze,
dipping in the pockets of the taxpayers.

It’s just another day.

baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa

It’s just another day.

baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa

It’s just another day.

***

Read the book to learn of additional studies that show how doing certain things at certain times can make a difference.

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The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty

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The Book of the Week is “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, How We Lie to Everyone– Especially Ourselves” by Dan Ariely, published in 2012.

The author presented one way human beings think about ethical behavior in a given situation: the Simple Model of Rational Crime (SMORC). It says someone would do a cost / benefit analysis in order to decide, for instance, whether to park illegally because they’re late for a meeting. Of course, a major factor in their decision-making includes how likely they are to get caught, and if they are caught, how willing they would be to bear the consequences.

The author wrote that SMORC doesn’t take emotion and trust into account, so most people wouldn’t engage in that kind of moral reasoning. With only reciprocity as the sole consideration, an individual using SMORC would require contracts for almost every ethical dilemma. He would spend most of his life in legal battles and litigation; like, Howard Hughes, Ted Turner, and Donald Trump.

Although the author failed to distinguish between guilt and shame, he cited numerous behavioral-economics studies he and other professors conducted (on mostly American subjects) to learn the causes of dishonest behavior, and ways it can be curbed.

The author realized that in a matter of weeks, even he was getting brainwashed by the propaganda of his bosses, because he was receiving generous compensation for serving as an expert witness.

Two ways to reduce cheating included:

  • Having people read or sign an honor-code document (such as the Ten Commandments, or an agreement not to cheat on an exam, or a set of rules, which, if broken, would give them an unfair advantage) before completing a particular task, taking a test, or competing.
  • Having people put their signature at the top of a document, and then fill in the info (such as on an application or tax return), rather than fill in the info and then sign at the bottom.

Read the book to learn of additional ways society can spread more ethical behavior (yes, it can be contagious!) so as to stave off the collapse of modern civilization just a little longer.

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Courthouse Crock – BONUS POST

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The New York civil fraud case against Donald Trump and Trump Organization will be rearing its ugly head again soon. Here’s a recap of it thus far.

COURTHOUSE CROCK

sung to the tune of “Jailhouse Rock” with apologies to the estates of Elvis Presley and Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Went to watch a case in New York civil court.
Judge Engoron was there.
He’s a damn good sport.

Trump’s hate speech is distracting
and his intent is to sting.
He’s desperately trying to stay “still a thing.”

It’s crock. Everybody, it’s crock.
Everybody in the GOP bloc–
on the stand was courthouse crock.

Donald Senior played the Witch Hunt card.
Eric had amnesia. He hit back hard.
Don Junior’s emails went crash, boom, bang.
Such was the nature of the Trump Org gang.

It’s crock. Everybody, it’s crock.
Everybody in the GOP bloc–
on the stand was courthouse crock.

Don Junior said to the grilling at-torney:
“My daddy’s the best artist I ever did see.
I myself am delighted with our company.
Accountants shared nothing of the numbers with me.”

It’s crock. Everybody, it’s crock.
Everybody in the GOP bloc–
on the stand was courthouse crock.

The defendants put on an irrelevant show,
when the prosecutors asked, “Where’s this gonna go?”
Judge said, “Calm down, don’t inVITE a mistrial.
Just shut your mouth, ignore Trump’s bile.”

It’s crock. Everybody, it’s crock.
Everybody in the GOP bloc–
on the stand was courthouse crock.

The media tell us Trump’s act is a charade.
They give Trump due process. They give it in spades.
Trump thinks he’s being shifty and saying nix nix.
He wants a mistrial. He’s getting his kicks.

It’s crock. Everybody, it’s crock.
Everybody in the GOP bloc–
on the stand was courthouse crock.
on the stand was courthouse crock.
on the stand was courthouse crock.

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Davos Man

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The Book of the Week is “Davos Man, How the Billionaires Devoured the World” by Peter S. Goodman, published in 2022. As the now-cliche joke goes, “You can tell Monopoly is an ancient game because there’s a luxury tax and rich people can go to jail.”

Yearly, about three thousand, super-rich people gather in Switzerland at a five-day conference called “Davos.” The least wealthy people there consist of journalists, academics, diplomats, entrepreneurs, activists and senior government officials. The billionaire-attendees (whom the author called “Davos Man”) pay lip service to the world’s social, economic and environmental problems, and behind closed doors, discuss how to profiteer in connection therewith.

In the last half century, Davos Man has enriched himself through making campaign contributions to politicians who have legislated:

  • monopolistic practices
  • tax cuts
  • excessive deregulation and
  • gutting of social programs.

The above favor powerful, rich people in Silicon Valley, New York City and Washington, D.C. Their propaganda campaigns brainwash the masses into blaming:

  • China
  • immigrants whom they believe are taking their jobs away, and
  • automation

for the working classes’ job losses.

The author argued that the common people in most industrialized nations of the world should blame DAVOS MAN and politicians, who are sometimes one and the same!

Davos Man– the modern-day Robber Barons– salve their consciences through philanthropic activities that are comprised of a tiny, tiny percentage of their businesses’ profits. Plus, the author contended that it is a Cosmic Lie that tax cuts pay for themselves by spurring spending.

During the COVID pandemic, the American Davos Man enriched himself through incestuous corporate / political relationships: “The United States had employed a Rube Goldberg contraption, with [Steven] Mnuchin’s slush fund [in the U.S. Treasury] funneled through Jamie Dimon’s bank [JPMorgan Chase], and Larry Fink’s firm [BlackRock] buying bonds on behalf of the Fed, allowing Steve Schwartzman’s private equity empire [Blackstone Group] to borrow for free.”

The English government convinced many of its people that through Brexit, their nation could decide its own financial fate. But Davos Man actually ended up collecting a boatload of their hard-earned taxes. Meanwhile, Argentina was defaulting on its loans for the tenth time in the last half-century. The aforementioned Davos Man, Larry Fink, blamed Argentina for the resulting disastrous losses of his clients at BlackRock. BUT– his firm was the sucker that lent it the money!

Anyway, read the book to learn of: Davos Man’s activities in various countries of the world– that resulted in skyrocketing wealth for him, and plummeting economic security for everyone else; why the author is still optimistic that the world can reverse the current, cold-hearted global financial climate in which inequality between rich and poor is ever-widening (hint: creative ideas on community cooperatives are in the air, but also– read Amy Klobuchar’s tome on antitrust issues); and the economic history explaining how Davos Man has become so rich and powerful.

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All American

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The Book of the Week is “All American, The Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe” by Bill Crawford, published in 2005.

America’s tradition of holding a Thanksgiving Day college-football game began in the early 1890’s. The schools with football teams practiced profiteering from the get-go. They charged fans admission to the games, and gambling was rampant; even in preseason games. Even among the coaches– who themselves, sometimes played in the games. The coaches also made obscene salaries, even then.

Football had no passing, only rushing, until 1895. And hardly any rules: with respect to creative plays, and preventing injuries. There was unnecessary roughness galore, not to mention minimal, if any, protective equipment, and fan interference was sometimes allowed. Officials arbitrarily enforced the few rules there might have been. Play continued in all kinds of weather.

Born in May 1887 in Oklahoma, Jim Thorpe received most of his education on sports fields, although he was supposed to have been in school. His mother was of Native American, Irish and French origin. At sixteen years old, Thorpe began attending Carlisle Indian Industrial School. It was a military-style trade school for Native Americans where they could live on-campus.

In 1903, the Carlisle team tricked the Harvard Crimson with a play in which a Carlisle player hid the ball under the back of his jersey while his teammates hid their helmets under their jerseys so the opposing team couldn’t find the ball until its actual holder had run into the end zone for a touchdown.

Another dirty trick involved sewing an image of half a football onto various players’ jerseys, making it unclear as to which receiver caught the ball, to trick the opposing team’s defense. But, there was still no penalty for pass-interference, so receivers could be tackled before touching the ball. All of them. Even if they didn’t have the ball.

It should be noted that other, better-funded teams had tens of players who could enter the game anytime, whereas Carlisle had a tiny team whose players were both offense and defense.

In 1906, the newly formed NCAA established specific rules that dramatically reduced injuries, but failed to address the financial shenanigans that have greatly enriched colleges and individuals for the past century.

In 1907, when he was twenty, Thorpe joined the Carlisle football team, which had been coached by Glenn Warner since 1899. Warner headed the school’s Athletic Association, but he was not an employee of the school. So he got paid by a profit-making organization, which got its revenues through gate receipts of sports-competitions hosted by the school– football, baseball, track, etc.

Since Carlisle was a school for Native Americans, it received full federal funding for tuition, room and board for all its students. The Association didn’t have to award tuition-scholarships. Coach Warner used the Association as his personal piggy bank.

Yet another part of Warner’s job that has characterized football coaches since time immemorial, was to hush up the bad behavior of his players so as to squelch bad publicity the school would receive when players got drunk and destroyed property or got into fights, broke school rules or NCAA rules, etc.

Read the book to learn of what an exceptionally excellent multi-sport athlete Thorpe was (though he played mostly football; hint: “Twice Thorpe managed to run downfield and catch his own punts” and on one of those receptions, he shook off three or four tacklers to run twenty yards to score a touchdown.); the scandal surrounding him; and much more about his life and the tenor of the times in “amateur” sports.

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Never Gonna Give It Up – BONUS POST

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Just like Rick Astley, Trump is an alpha male with hubris syndrome.

The former is associated with “rickrolling” and Trump has started a trend of
what could be called “quicktrolling.”

The persona of both exhibit an undertone of stalking.

THIS IS WHAT TRUMP IS SINGING TO HIS ENEMIES.

NEVER GONNA GIVE IT UP

sung to the tune of “Never Gonna Give You Up” with apologies to Rick Astley.

I’m no stranger to life.
I’ll play the game until I die.
A Great America is what I’m fighting for.
GOP wouldn’t get this far with any other guy.
I, just want to win
and leave you reeling.
It’s free speech, you, UNderstand.

Never gonna give it up.
Always gonna cut you down.
Give-the-courts the run around, and spurn you.
Always max my fame,
make you say my name.
Always gonna dominate my empire, and burn you.

You’ve been targeting me, for so long.
You’re all losers, and you’re gonna blow it.
Inside we both know what’s been going on.
I’m still winning the game, and we all know it.

And, I just know that I’m aPPEALing.
I’ve made my supporters, look up to me.

Never gonna give it up.
Always gonna cut you down.
Give-the-courts the run around, and spurn you.
Always max my fame,
make you say my name.
Always gonna dominate my empire, and burn you.

Never gonna give it up.
Always gonna cut you down.
Give-the-courts the run around, and spurn you.
Always max my fame,
make you say my name.
Always gonna dominate my empire, and burn you.

[Ooh, give it up
Ooh, give it up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give
Give it up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give
Give it up]

You’ve been targeting me, for so long.
You’re all losers, and you’re gonna blow it.
Inside we both know what’s been going on.
I’m still winning the game, and we all know it.

I, just want to win
and leave you reeling.
It’s free speech, you, UNderstand.

Never gonna give it up.
Always gonna cut you down.
Give-the-courts the run around, and spurn you.
Always max my fame,
make you say my name.
Always gonna dominate my empire, and burn you.

Never gonna give it up.
Always gonna cut you down.
Give-the-courts the run around, and spurn you.
Always max my fame,
make you say my name.
Always gonna dominate my empire, and burn you.

Never gonna give it up.
Always gonna cut you down.
Give-the-courts the run around…

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the (sic) Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl

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The Book of the Week is “the [sic] Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl, How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis” by Arthur Allen, published in 2014. This disorganized story presented horribly confusing time frames, alternating between scenes of the main characters, with a large amount of historical context thrown in– which made the book’s title misleading, besides. But it provided information on a lesser-known aspect of WWII: the evolution of the typhus vaccine that saved countless lives.

Anyway, in 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire drafted the two doctors described in the story, as medics for the Kaiser’s army. Dr. Rudolf Weigl was born in 1883 in what is currently Czech Republic. Dr. Ludwik Fleck was born in 1896, and was Czech, Austrian and Polish. They both lived in the city of Lviv (aka Lwow or Lemberg) for a significant period in their lives. Weigl studied typhus there at the Polish National Health Institute of Hygiene (PZH).

Fleck opined that the contradictory medical journals of the 1930’s weren’t particularly useful, so doctors needed to use their personal smarts when diagnosing patients. Patients could be carriers of an illness, but not have symptoms themselves. For decades, Weigl was experimenting nonstop by breeding body lice (rather than head lice) as the spreaders of typhus– that fed on human blood. The guts of those lice were then injected with typhus-contaminated blood solution. He developed a vaccine that worked better than the competition’s.

Later on, during WWII, the German military ordered Weigl to refine the vaccine (because different strains of typhus appeared) to protect its soldiers. Fleck’s immediate boss was a spy for the SS (Security Service) who ordered him to do medical research that minimized the possibility that Aryans would contract a disease such as typhus, in the name of creating a master race. His ultimate boss was Heinrich Himmler.

Beginning in autumn 1939, new Soviet bosses imposed their will on Fleck and Weigl. Fleck previously had a private medical lab, but he was named head of the microbiology department of the new Ukrainian Medical Institute, led Lviv’s Sanitation and Bacteriological Laboratory, and conducted research at the new Mother and Child Hospital.

Weigl received and took the savvy advice that he should avoid joining the Communist Party, because inevitably, eventually, Stalin would turn against him and he would be thrown in the gulag, or worse. He also heeded the warning that he should engage in corruption only insofar as it helped him survive. Excessive corruption would get him in trouble. Different armies took over certain territories in Eastern Europe during the war years.

Beginning in summer 1941, fearing for his and his family’s life, Weigl cooperated with the Nazis rather than the SS and local German leaders in Lviv. His reasoning for insisting on keeping his private lab was that, if the Nazis killed him, he’d be viewed as a martyr. He let a German VIP help him supervise the research, though. He saved hundreds to thousands of lives of Jews of Polish origin. Their false identity papers allowed them to be hired as medical guinea pigs by having body lice feed on their blood.

Starting in the early 1940’s, the Nazis needed medical doctors who happened to be Jewish, so they spared them, but they compelled them to commit atrocities doing research. During wartime typhus epidemics, deaths of Polish and Soviet Jews were significantly higher than those of people of other ethnicities due to anti-Semitism. For, the Nazis ordered medical doctors to refrain from treating Jews in their quarantined ghettos. The SS needed the Jews’ slave labor in factories to further the war effort, so the Jews weren’t confined to the ghettos. They therefore spread typhus, anyway.

Through the years, the constantly-improved vaccines developed by Weigl were used (and spread far and wide in black markets) in Ethiopia, Manchuria, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. Britain, however, decided to take steps to kill the lice rather than muck about with a typhus vaccine.

Read the book to learn how American soldiers fared during times of typhus epidemics; plus much more about vaccines other than Weigl’s, about the Soviets on the Eastern Front, the history of Buchenwald, the adventures of Fleck and his family at Auschwitz, the fates of the people associated with different vaccines, and other ways various peoples combated typhus.

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Mr. Whiny-Speech – BONUS POST

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Since U.S. retailers start the holiday season right after Labor Day, it’s high time for a Christmas song after Halloween.

MISTER WHINY-SPEECH

sung to the tune of “Little Saint Nick” with apologies to the Beach Boys.

Boo.

Forever DISHing hate speech.
Trump’s a grinch throughout the year.

Boohoo.

Well, IN all the courts
where the air gets cold,
there’s a defendant called Trump
as you can’t help but know.

He’s a real famous DUDE
all caught up in suits
and he’s spending his last-years
with GOP in cahoots.

He’s Mister Whiny-Speech.
Mister Whiny-Speech.

He’s Mister Whiny-Speech.
Mister Whiny-Speech.

Just a-bunch of lawyers, HELPing
Mr. Whiny-Speech
and they can’t shut him up
no matter how they beseech.

He’s always spewing insults at
his former mob.
And trashing has become
his full-time job.

He’s Mister Whiny-Speech.
Mister Whiny-Speech.

He’s Mister Whiny-Speech.
Mister Whiny-Speech.

Spread spread spread smears.
Spread spread spread smears.

Woe

Spread spread spread smears.
Spread spread spread smears.

He don’t miss NO one.

He did WRONG through the election
at a frightening speed
with half a dozen schemes
with Rudy to lead.

He’s got to wear his blinders
’cause he really lies,
and USE every trick
in-order TO survive.

He’s Mister Whiny-Speech.
Mister Whiny-Speech.

He’s Mister Whiny-Speech.
Mister Whiny-Speech.

Boo

Forever DISHing hate speech.
Trump’s a grinch throughout the year.

Boo

Forever DISHing hate speech.
Trump’s a grinch throughout the year.

Boohoo

Forever DISHing hate speech.
Trump’s a grinch throughout the year…

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Character & Characters / Retail Gangster

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The first Book of the Week is “Character & Characters, the Spirit of Alaska Airlines” by Robert J. Serling, published in 2008.

Alaska Airlines (AKA) came into existence in the mid-1940’s with the buyout of Star Air Service. It faced stiff competition from Northwest Airlines, and Pan American– which was already monster-sized from: its contract with the federal government to deliver the U.S. mails, and exchanging many political favors.

Mostly, AKA transported passengers between the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. In early 1949, it completed a dangerous mission, flying about 140 Jews from Yemen to the airport in Tel Aviv, while an Arab bomb could have hit the plane anytime.

In the 1950’s, top executive Charlie Willis had such passion for and loyalty and dedication to AKA, that he borrowed $100,000 using his personal house as collateral, in order to restore the pilot-pension-fund shortfall, to keep his employer from going out of business. Beginning at the dawn of the 1960’s, he enabled his second-in-command-executive to engage in deficit spending. They broke the bank to do promotional gimmicks.

In the back of its model CONVAIR 880, AKA installed a stand-up beer bar, even though it replaced eight passenger seats. AKA generated goodwill by throwing parties it couldn’t afford for industry players, such as its own employees and trade associations. In the late 1960’s, it bought hotels and a ski resort. AKA was one of the very first airlines to provide in-flight movies and music. So it hovered near bankruptcy, repeatedly unable to meet its employee payroll. For years.

Commercial airlines, initially transporting wealthy passengers, employed stewardesses in sexy uniforms– with no or minimal training, and offered alcoholic beverages included with the airfare. With evolution came the organization of labor– of pilots, flight crews and ground crews. Alaska’s bush pilots who had gotten in on aviation’s ground floor, had become disenchanted with the changing times. Bob Ellis sold his tiny airline in Alaska because he was no longer having fun, was emotionally exhausted from the government’s imposition of regulations, and didn’t understand the need for union labor. He had treated his employees well.

The Civil Aeronautics Board, one of the government’s regulatory bodies, was soon to stop subsidizing the (small, financially struggling) regional airlines (including AKA) in Alaska. The consolidation of the industry in the 1960’s meant no more floatplanes, biplanes, and single-engine monoplanes. These were replaced with DC-3’s and other faster, technologically superior aircraft.

Competing airlines were growing in size, complexity, and needed economies-of-scale and scope. Bosses couldn’t afford to pay for their employees’ expensive personal problems as though they were in a small business anymore. There was backlash by the workers against this vanishing era. They no longer felt like a family.

In summer 1970, AKA’s Willis (rumored to be an alcoholic) was able to get a new air route: to the U.S.S.R. Ironically, AKA had to lease a Pan Am 707 in order to do it. Willis became a drinking buddy to his Aeroflot counterparts. The passengers, who flew to Siberia, consisted mostly of Native Americans from Alaska visiting family, missionaries, and businessmen. They were treated to flatware made of gold, caviar in their Caesar salads, wine, and Russian samovars. The flight attendants dressed in Cossacks’ attire, with bear fur hats. Unsurprisingly, the flights proved insufficiently profitable over the course of three years.

AKA suffered less disastrous financial losses when the oil industry in Alaska kicked into high gear, in the late 1960’s. Oil-pipeline construction around Prudhoe Bay in the North Slope area became all the rage. From the Seattle-Tacoma airport, the airline’s Hercules’ C-130 planes transferred cargo, including hazardous materials that could accidentally cause a lot of wrongful deaths and property damage: 25,000 pounds of dynamite, heating and fuel oil and big, heavy drilling rigs for ground vehicles, and heaters.

In the early 1970’s, many pipeline workers liked hunting, but they got drunk before they flew home. AKA allowed rifles on their planes, so they hired the equivalent of bouncers who served as ground-crew screeners, and had a locked-up special gun-rack section in the front of the plane.

Read the book to learn a wealth of additional details on Alaska Airlines’ role in the development of aviation, people, power struggles, technologies, and the tenor of its times up until the book’s writing.

The second Book of the Week is “Retail Gangster, the Insane, Real-Life Story of CRAZY EDDIE” by Gary Weiss, published in 2020.

Currently fading from Americans’ memory, is “Crazy Eddie.” Launched in the mid-1970’s, it was a retail chain of electronics stores in the northeastern United States. The company became known for a spokesman who flooded all kinds of advertising media with emotionally-charged screaming, that Crazy Eddie’s prices were insane. The repetitive repetition of this singular message worked. Eddie projected an image of success that fed on itself.

However, from the start, the store’s top executive– Eddie Antar– committed financial crimes. He had selfish, greedy intent, unlike the aforementioned Alaska Airlines executives, who were merely big spenders out of unbridled optimism and honest ineptitude.

Starting in 1984 when the company sold shares to the public, Eddie and his key employees (mostly his relatives) engaged in securities fraud. They had ongoing, frantic bursts of activity in which they: “…stuffed cash in the ceiling, stole store sales-taxes, [plus, they falsified inventory records] and defrauded insurance companies without a second thought. They did not expect to be caught, and if the Antars had any doubt on that score, they had only to look to City Hall for inspiration.” New York City’s government had committed exactly the same kinds of accounting fraud for years and years, beginning in the 1960’s. As the behavioral-economics cliche goes, “The fish rots from the head down.”

By 1987, Crazy Eddie had 2,250 workers in 32 locations from Philadelphia to New England. Read the book to learn a slew of details on the fates of Eddie, his families, and his businesses.

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The Longest Race

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The Book of the Week is “The Longest Race, Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team” by Kara Goucher with Mary Pilon, published in 2023.

Born in 1978, the author grew up in New Jersey and the Duluth, Minnesota area. Goucher became a professional runner. Like many of her fellow athletes, the author– who experienced an early childhood trauma– found at a young age that competing in footraces is cathartic.

Goucher focused on her training and reaching the finish-line first, rather than getting all worked up about the numerous stressful situations she endured in everyday living. However, she rationalized away some of the wrongs committed against her, because speaking out against them would ruin her career, her marriage, her friendships, etc.

In the United States, the way runners go professional is to convince a corporate, non-governmental sponsor to pay them to race. Goucher and her husband both signed contracts with Nike, the monster-sized corporation best known for making athletic shoes. The company provided her and her fellow runners in her working group with the best, cutting-edge scientifically and technologically advanced resources for winning races.

However, the Gouchers’ status with Nike was as independent contractors, so they had less legal recourse than that of employees with regard to any illegal goings-on in their field of work. Their coach and immediate boss was the celebrity runner Alberto Salazar. In the single-digit 2000’s, he led the “Oregon Project” which was an attempt to help Americans win races again around the world; their victories had been woefully plummeting for years.

Salazar did boost Kara’s confidence and helped her perform better than she thought she could. But, his behavior and many of his training practices were inappropriate and illegal. He and his colleagues (an alleged psychotherapist and medical doctor) wielded a lot of power over the Gouchers, who owed their careers to their sponsor. Salazar’s underlings hewed to his training methods through fear and force. “He [Salazar] got testy when called out for having a third drink. I could only guess how he would react to being called out about sexual harassment.”

As a female, Kara had to deal with Nike’s double standard of suspending her pay when she ran an insufficient number of races in a specified time period pursuant to her contract. Male runners were punished this way when they got caught in doping scandals or had injuries. She was subject to those same conditions, but she couldn’t race because she was pregnant. In connection with exploring her career options, Kara wrote, “… I found myself again and again in rooms of male executives explaining women’s running to me. There seemed to be more interest in how I would look on a poster than in how the sport could evolve.”

Fighting “City Hall” in so many different areas of life is difficult. Anyone who attempted to do so in professional running in the single-digit 2000’s would have to deal with Nike. It held a near-monopoly with overwhelming power and influence over regulators. Whistleblowers would suffer doxing and death threats.

BUT, it is an age-old truism that when more and more courageous people come forward with firsthand information about wrongdoing by an institution or a particularly powerful individual– the less the harm that will be done in the future because the collective mood of the community will shift against the wrongdoer. Eventually.

Read the book to learn lots of additional details of the Gouchers’ experiences in their professional running careers– their trials, tribulations and triumphs.

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When the Media Love A Romance – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty that explains why Taylor Swift is still a “thing.”

Sung to the tune of “When A Man Loves A Woman” with apologies to Percy Sledge.

WHEN THE MEDIA LOVE A ROMANCE

When the media love a romance
Taylor Swift must stay on viewers’ minds,
and nothing else.
The media THANK the Lord
for the easy money they’ve found.
They report on triVIA when they see it.
She can do no wrong.
Turn their backs on wars-trials-elections.
They award her a CROWN.

When the media love a romance,
she spends her last PR dime
trying to hog the attention she needs.
The media CLING to their comforts
and stay in the tabloid lane,
but that’s NOT how it ought to be.

Well, American media LOVE a romance.
And they do everything they can
trying to promote the NFL.
Lonely, sad viewers eat it up.

When the media love a romance
deep down in their soul,
they want to distract from misery.
Always playing viewers for fools,
it’s a highest-bidder show.
Hard news is impossible to see.

When the media love a romance
She can do no wrong.
Unless more money brings another queen.
Yes, when the media love a romance…

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We Were the Future

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The Book of the Week is “We Were the Future, A Memoir of the Kibbutz” by Yael Neeman, published in 2016. Readers might argue that the author and her cohorts were raised in a cult– brainwashed from birth. The kibbutz movement strove for 100% socialism– the economic system in which all the people (not the State) collectively owned everything; and collectively governed themselves.

In 1947, the total population of kibbutzim as a proportion of Israel’s (Jewish) population reached a high of 7%. It waned after Israel achieved sovereignty in 1948. The first half of the 1950’s saw global historical events (the trials of: Prague [1952], the Doctors in the U.S.S.R. and the Rosenbergs in the U.S. [both 1953]) that were jarring to Jews. The kibbutz movement split over ideological disagreements, especially after Stalin died in 1953 and his crimes were revealed in 1956. Adults around the author held zero discussions about this recent history.

Neeman was born in 1960 in Kibbutz Yehiam (founded in 1946) in Western Galilee near the border with Lebanon. Her kibbutz was a branch of Hashomer Hatzair (meaning “Young Guard”), the movement’s umbrella organization that began in 1913. Their motto was, “For Zionism, Socialism and Brotherhood Amongst Nations.” Her children’s group consisted of eight boys and eight girls, who did everything together, every day. She was raised among them by women who collectively took care of the kibbutz’s children grouped by age; she visited with her biological parents, but didn’t live with them in the same building.

The lifestyle encompassed a number of major ideas:

  • “Family and education in the rest of the industrial world were considered bourgeois institutions.”
  • “Everyone knew after all, that work [on the kibbutz] was more important than school, more important than anything.”
  • Egalitarianism for all the people was key– all decisions were made by committee.

Contradictorily:

  • There was a hierarchical division of labor– upper and lower. The former consisted of high-level positions in the fields and factories; held by the founders of the kibbutz, the (mostly Hungarian) First of May group. The latter consisted of low-skilled, dead-end jobs such as peeling potatoes.
  • The kibbutz undertook a number of enterprises through the years, including a banana “plantation” which was the most “profitable.” [these words with nuanced meanings were translated from Hebrew, but even so, these were capitalist endeavors.]

Kids whose behavior was troublesome were exiled from the kibbutz, and sent to a “special institution.” At twelve years old, all the conforming kids began to attend what amounted to boarding school, located off the kibbutz campus. They had previously received an eclectic education of hands-on instruction on a myriad of topics. Beginning in adolescence, they were allowed to shape their own education, or lack thereof.

Currently, analogous experiments are underway in American education in which adolescents are placed in front of computer screens with no teachers. Educrats and profiteers expect the software to teach them. At that age, most kids have neither the judgment nor the discipline to acquire the knowledge and skills required for becoming mature, responsible adults who can financially support themselves.

Kibbutzniks were afforded too much freedom and not enough guidance and supervision within their tiny, limited community in their early childhood. So they had a rude awakening when they were permitted (on rare occasions) to see how other kids in the rest of the world lived.

One other interesting factoid: Neeman wrote, “In our biological home, we [she and her three siblings] were already allowed to smoke on Purim when we were in the first grade.”

Read the book to learn about a boatload of other ways Neeman’s upbringing was extremely unconventional due to her fledgling homeland’s exceptionalism.

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Propaganda – BONUS POST

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Here’s a parody about the current worldwide situation– especially relevant in wartime.

PROPAGANDA

sung to the tune of “Pop Muzik” with apologies to M (the band) and Robin Scott.

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Low down.

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Radio, video
Buzz with every legal case.
Go living in a courtroom.
Outrage in the prez race.
Celebrities with heartache.
Lies, smears, photos fake.
Boss some, buy some–
attention whores can’t stay mum.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop.
I can’t veriFY it.
Pop goes the idiot box.
It’s a Kool-Aid diet.

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Infiltrated.
Way overrated.

New York Times, CNN, WaPo, Fox slander.
Everybody fooled by propagander.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Reveling in the headlines.
Shuffle all the partisans.
Spin me a cover-up.
Aren’t they artisans?
Wanna be a war monger–
arguments ARE longer.
Blah blah drivel blather.
Get viewers in a lather.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Lying like a rug.
Pop goes the idiot box.
Aiding the thugs.

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Social contagion.
Pop goes the idiot box.
Wily stagin’.

Insidious.

You buy what they’re sayin’.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Swaying the world.
Gullible you are.
At the speed of light.
Hear it in the car.
It can give you a fright.

cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog
cog cog cog cog cog cog
cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog
cog cog cog cog cog cog

Tabloids in the supermarket.
Read it in the magazines.
Messages in movies.
Your face in your phone again.
You get so, EFfing mad
at hypocrites WE’VE had.
Sunlight on the liars.
Deniers, war and fires.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Hard to know WHAT’S fake.
Pop goes the idiot box.
When everyone’s on-the-take.
Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Hard to know WHAT’S fake.
Pop goes the idiot box.

Insidious.

New York Times, CNN, WaPo, Fox slander.
Everybody fooled by propagander.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Low down.

Don’t listen!!!

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda…

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Oh, My Homes – BONUS POST

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Here’s what Trump is singing now.

OH, MY HOMES

sung to the tune of “Kodachrome” with apologies to Paul Simon.

When I look at all the political crap and how the courts rule,
it’s a wonder they’re allowed to judge at all.

And they’re unfair and un-American, they’ve hurt me some.
They’ve totally defamed me with their gall.

Oh, my ho-o-omes, you gave me tax breaks and loans,
gave me changes in zones.
Helped me build my perfect businesses every day, oh yeah.

I got a bunch of supporters.
I say this IS a Witch Hunt.
So judge, don’t take my magnificent homes away.

You know I didn’t do ANY of the crimes
I’m accused of.
And if you really know HOW to do right,
you’d agree I’m innocent and all my protestations,
AREN’T-inciting racial tensions between black and white.

Oh, my ho-o-omes, you gave me tax breaks and loans,
gave me changes in zones.
Helped me build my perfect businesses every day, oh yeah.

I got a bunch of supporters.
I say this IS a Witch Hunt.
So judge, don’t take my magnificent homes away.

Judge, don’t take my real estate away.
Judge, don’t take my hotels away.
Judge, don’t take my businesses away.

Judge, don’t take my free speech,
Judge, don’t take my mo-ney,
Judge, don’t take my golf courses away.

Judge, don’t take my declassified documents.
Why don’t you leave me the hell alone?

Judge, don’t take my candidacy away.
Judge, don’t take my freedom away. Arrgh.
Judge, don’t take my magnificent homes away.
Hey!

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Trump’s Been Good – BONUS POST

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Trump’s Been Good

sung to the tune of “Life’s Been Good” with apologies to Joe Walsh. This is what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is singing, in a rare moment of honesty.

I have a speakership.
Forget my power.
Got reelected on condition I cower.
I obey my donors, probe Dems, erect walls.
I have taxpayers pay for it all.

They say I’m weak, but I’m GOP-loyal.
I’m just looking for ways to reap all the spoils.
Trump’s been good to me so far.

I get reelected every few years.
I lost my scruples. Now I have no fears.
GOPers have all got my back,
Secret Service here in case I’m attacked.

I bash the liberals, my base they agree.
It’s my last hurrah, obviously.
So I got me an office,
fancy furniture and all.
Need votes or money, I’ll certainly call.

I deserve a medal after all I’ve been through.
(Everybody say, “I’m cool,” “He’s a fool.”)
The media complains about everything I do.
Trump’s been good to me so far.

I’m a hack for my Party sometimes until four.
It’s hard to leave when you’re a political whore.
It’s tough to handle this fortune and fame.
But with Dems gaining power, the nation will change.

They say I don’t do-enough,
but it takes all my time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
My days are numbered,
and we all know why.
Trump’s been good to me so far. Yeah, yeah yeah.

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On Shaky Ground

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The Book of the Week is “On Shaky Ground, An Invitation to Disaster” by John J. Nance, published in 1988. Prediction of earthquakes is an age-old issue that can be improved, if enough money and political support is thrown at it, in connection with studying the geologic, tectonic, volcanic and geophysical problems that crop up along fault lines.

Even in 1960 when a major earthquake hit Chile, there was disagreement among scientists over the behavior of underground structures. The opposing theories consisted of “steep vertical fault” and “shallow, sub-horizontal dip-slip fault.”

To that time, ivory-tower “experts” at Caltech relied on only seismograph data for ideas. In the coming decades, graduate students looked elsewhere to disprove the old theories. One young scientist personally, physically surveyed a large swath of the topography of the Alaskan countryside. His data disproved the steep vertical fault theory. Another graduate student became a pioneer in paleoseismology, which identify the substances piled up underground in an earthquake zone, showing how they changed and moved over the course of millennia.

In the early 1960’s, the U.S. government and military were the major employers in the city of Anchorage in Alaska. They were eager to urbanize the place, and construction was booming. They ignored a pesky report issued in 1961 by the U.S. Geological Survey warning that the city’s underground foundation– Bootlegger Cove Clay– would be unstable in the event of an earthquake. Building codes were lax on structural soundness.

Alas, a major earthquake hit the area in March of 1964. The epicenter was under Unakwik inlet in North Prince William Sound, ten miles from Valdez, Anchorage and Seward, Alaska. Many structures collapsed, including but far from limited to: docks, warehouses, a newly opened J.C. Penney store and a Four Seasons apartment building.

The underground clay became liquid, causing the location of oil, army and cannery docks, and railroad yards to shift many feet. Fortunately, there had been regulation of natural gas lines. They had been programmed to shut off in an emergency, and they did, preventing explosions and fires. However, wooden buildings swayed instead of collapsing, but they burned in fires when a Texaco fuel tank exploded.

As fate would have it, the Seismological Society of America happened to be holding its annual meeting in Seattle, on the campus of the University of Washington on that very day. But news of the disaster in those days took hours to reach them. As is well known, communications technology has come a long way since 1987, when there were different radio systems for Los Angeles’ more than one hundred and forty police and fire jurisdictions.

The seismic waves generated vibrations in numerous other places around the world. The quake’s severity was “off the charts” given the existing technology for measuring such activity. Four tsunamic waves spanning twelve thousand square miles of Alaska’s sea floor was felt as far away as Hawaii, and swamped Vancouver Island. Seward’s economy was ruined, as it was based on oil, fishing, import/export, railway transportation, and boating.

Sadly, human beings have short memories; possibly because they’ve become desensitized to cautionary tales. Greed eventually results in business as usual. Political candidates in at-risk communities are loath to spend precious campaign time on safety regulations– their donors benefit financially from disasters. In recent decades, American communities have become wise to the fact that they can always apply for federal aid when they are hit by a disaster (whose loss of life and property damage could have been minimized!).

Anyway, read the book to learn about additional disasters in China, California, Mexico, South Carolina, and much more about the science of earthquakes, and the mentalities of the people in connection therewith.

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Cuba on the Verge

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The Book of the Week is “Cuba on the Verge, 12 Writers on Continuity and Change in Havana and Across the Country” edited by Leila Guerriero, published in 2017.

After Cuban leader Fidel Castro died in November 2016, there was a slight relaxation of economic restraints on the common people. Under the one-party rule of Castro’s brother Raul, Cubans could engage in entrepreneurial pursuits– serving tourists through renting out their homes or turning their cars into taxis, supervised by the government. Americans have begun doing the same in the last two decades, but through centralized corporate entities such as Airbnb and Uber.

Ironically, under Fidel’s leadership, Cuba developed a reputation for literacy and affordable, quality healthcare; during which time, America developed a reputation for deleterious (greedy!) practices in education and healthcare.

At the book’s writing, Cuba required working mothers to take paid maternity leave halfway through their eighth month; the paid leave continued for four and a half months after the births. An additional year was optional, for which mothers received sixty percent of their wages. Further, abortions were not only legal, but used as a form of contraception, with neither shame nor emotional hysteria generated by political activists, attached. On the other hand, the Cuban government spies on its people 24/7.

Cuban children are taught sex education beginning in the fifth grade. So kids are sexually precocious, as they learn from their older siblings. They are casual about relationships, so there are no hard feelings when families become fragmented, but there are many latchkey children, and males dominate.

After the Soviet Union broke up, Moscow’s government no longer funded Cuba’s economy. Beginning in the 1990’s, this “Special Period” saw severe shortages of basic consumer goods such as health and beauty aids and clothing, not to mention food. Unsurprisingly, domestic violence spiked.

People sold their jewelry at government trading posts in order to survive. They received mostly Panamanian goods in return. They adopted casual dress all the time– flip-flops, shorts, T-shirts– even where formal clothing had been worn previously, such as the theater. Counterfeit big-name goods flooded the market, sourced mostly from Miami, Panama, Madrid and China.

Yet another cultural change included males’ taking on of domestic chores and child-rearing, as more women could earn money through prostituting themselves. Socially-skilled men collected and sold coconuts from private properties, or sought out sexual relationships with visiting of out-of-town women who paid their everyday expenses.

Read the book to learn of the numerous other ways Cuba changed in the 1990’s, and ways it hasn’t– such as in its practices of numerology and witchcraft and in its love of baseball.

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Usurpin’ USA – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty that describes a recent situation of the United States government, and the next three years of political charade:

Usurpin’ USA

sung to the tune of “Surfin’ USA” with apologies to the Estate of Chuck Berry,
Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump tried to SEIZE an election, across the USA,
and his minions were usurpin’, especially Georg-I-A.
You saw ’em wearing fake badges, defaming officials, too.
Obstruction, insurrection.
Usurpin’ USA.

Watched him USURpin’ at Mount-Rushmore, (inciting outcasts USA)
on the White House lawn, (inciting outcasts USA)
Charlottesville and the Capitol, (inciting outcasts USA)
Proud Boys and QAnon. (inciting outcasts USA)
All over Arizona, (inciting outcasts USA)
Nevada and Ukraine. (inciting outcasts USA)

Trump’s gang is usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.

Lawyers are planning court-duels
we’re gonna watch real soon.
The media’s priming our behavior.
We’re all GONna drool.
Like OJ trials forever.
We’re on court-shows to stay.
Tell the world about usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.

Oath Keepers, Wisconsin, (inciting outcasts USA)
Helsinki-summit, Fox News, (inciting outcasts USA)
Michigan, Pennsylvania, (inciting outcasts USA)
the certification-ruse. (inciting outcasts USA)
All over Mar-a-Lago, (inciting outcasts USA)
and Truth Social today. (inciting outcasts USA)

Trump’s gang is usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.

Trump’s gang is usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.
Trump’s gang is usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.
Trump’s gang is usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.

Yeah, Trump’s gang is usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.
Yeah, Trump’s gang is usurpin’, usurpin’ USA.

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The Preacher and the Presidents

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The Book of the Week is “The Preacher and the Presidents, Billy Graham in the White House” by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, published in 2007.

Billy Graham was one of the most famous Christian preachers in the world from the middle of the twentieth century, into the single-digit 2000’s. He was a religious version of Rush Limbaugh. Although he was raised as a Presbyterian, in 1939 he earned his Baptist-minister certificate from the Florida Bible Institute. By 1949, he had become president of a Bible College, and he had founded a radio station. He spouted propaganda on various political issues through the years, but claimed he was nonpartisan, and claimed he wasn’t aware of the implications of his speechifying.

Graham got friendly with as many powerful, influential people as he possibly could, including American presidents from Truman through Dubya. He rubbed shoulders with publishing magnates Henry Luce and William Randolph Hearst. His philosophy was, believe the Bible or leave the ministry. He was a true, literal believer. Graham told worshipers in Los Angeles that the Soviets were planning to attack the U.S. with nuclear weapons because they were sinners. Yet, he preached love rather than fire and brimstone.

In January 1952, Graham held a religious rally– er, uh, revival in Washington, D.C. He invited president Truman, who didn’t like him because he was a grand-stander. About eleven thousand people attended. “To keep his finances transparent, he [Graham] insisted that crusade accounts be audited and published in the local papers when the crusade was finished.” (Apparently, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker didn’t get that memo with regard to their ministry.)

Graham continued to identify himself as a staunch desegregationist. He delivered sermons to that effect in president Eisenhower’s second term, after racial incidents. A common situation cropped up when Graham courageously took a stand on controversial issues. People on each extreme side of the political spectrum complained he was doing too much for their opponents, or not enough for them.

But Graham was still ever-popular through the 1950’s. In 1957, about two million people attended his 97-day crusade (which was publicized via prayer chains in fifty different countries, leaflets, mailings and bumper stickers) at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He strove for quality over quantity in holding only a few crusades a year, but Martin Luther King, Jr. was constantly on the move for the Civil Rights Movement, spreading himself and his resources too thinly.

Graham prayed at president-elect Nixon’s 1969 inauguration. A few days later, he spoke at the National Prayer breakfast, and presided over a church service at the White House; all these events jammed into a few days to provide efficiency for Secret-Service security. “Whatever else they were, the [religious] services were a great opportunity for arm-twisting, fund-raising, loyalty-testing. [both for Nixon and Graham].”

Also in early 1969, the government was drafting young men working full-time for (college) Campus Crusade for Christ (Graham’s organization) to fight in Vietnam. Graham pulled strings so they would be treated like ordained ministers and evade conscription. However, in late April 1970, Nixon said that it was up to the United States to save the world, be its police officer, lest free nations were threatened with dictatorship and anarchy. Never mind that America had been an aggressor for two decades in so many little global wars, replacing one dictator with another, and had been bombing Cambodia for the year prior(!)

Also in 1970, the president held a July 4th event called Honor America Day in Washington, D.C., to help ordinary Americans calm down. It featured interfaith speakers and celebrity singers, and attendees from all walks of life. Nixon himself, however, didn’t personally attend. He was at his San Clemente property. Later, the media revealed that the event had been a nepotistic donor-fest presented by J.W. Marriott and Nixon’s brother, Donald. Once again, there is nothing new under the sun.

A dress rehearsal for the Patriot Act was proposed in the summer of 1970. It was called the Huston plan. It would have legalized a bonanza of spying in America, like there is currently. Through that plan, Nixon wanted to get rid of influential antiwar troublemakers, but FBI head J. Edgar Hoover opposed it. Even so, as is well known, the Nixon administration committed countless evil acts in order to “… stop leaks, track down traitors, punish enemies, and ensure domestic tranquility.”

In mid-October, 1971, Charlotte, NC enjoyed a holiday named “Billy Graham Day” with a parade and school and government closures. Nixon and Graham rode together in the motorcade. The Secret Service barred anyone who appeared to be a demonstrator, from entering the Coliseum — the venue of a political rally– er, uh, a speaking event. In early 1972, the White House perceived that Jews dominated the American media, so they attacked certain of its members.

As is well known, in the past century, separation of Church and State has waxed and waned in this country. But the main reason for the separation is that civil law must trump religious law, as this nation’s diverse people have diverse religious beliefs. Graham always used the technique of “whataboutism” whenever people pointed out Nixon’s high crimes and misdemeanors, using the cliched excuse: He who is without sin, cast the first stone.

In the mid-1980’s, for the 1988 presidential race for George H.W. Bush, an evangelical political-consultant prepared a 57-page briefing book for wooing devout Christian voters– identifying their demographics, denominations, leadership and beliefs; providing a glossary (with such entries as, “born again”) and recounting how Reagan had wooed them.

Read the book to learn numerous other factoids on Graham’s life, career and political impact.

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Both Sides Now – BONUS POST

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This is the song Rudy Giuliani is singing now.

Sung to the tune of “Both Sides Now” with profuse apologies to Judy Collins.

Jailing bad-guys and a clean Times-Square,
and law-and-order in the air,
and zero tolerance everywhere.
I looked at crime that way.
But now for me it’s no longer fun.
I’m cringeworthy to everyone.
So many things that I have done.
A god complex in my way.

I’ve looked at crime from both sides now,
at us and them,
and still somehow,
my trusted friends were my downfall.
I really don’t know crime, at all.

Ukraine, fake electors and voting machines.
Attorney-client privilege would be our means
to defend our reelection schemes.
I looked at truth that way.
But now it’s just another show.
At least we gave it a long go.
And we’re not weak, we let them know.
We didn’t give anything away.

I’ve looked at truth from both sides now,
at us and them,
and still somehow,
my trusted friends were my downfall.
I really don’t know truth, at all.

RICO and debt and feeling mad.
Political revenge is the latest fad.
Bills and sanctions, oh egad…
I looked at history that way.
But now friends are acting disloyal.
They’ve abandoned me after all this toil.
Well, all is lost, our plot’s been foiled.
I’m broke and living in a void.

I’ve looked at history from both sides now,
at us and them,
and still somehow,
my trusted friends were my downfall.
I really don’t know history, at all.

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We Get Attention – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty in connection with the real motives behind the ridiculous vacillations in the politically expedient pronouncements of the likes of Anthony Fauci, Bill Barr and Alan Dershowitz in the last three years and change.

WE GET ATTENTION

sung to the tune of “I Got Rhythm” (the studio version) with apologies to The Happenings.

In this hyped and waffling world
we often can get bossed.
And we’re like the network, Fox.
We flip-flop a lot because

clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip
clip-clip-attention
clip-clip-attention
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clip-clip-attention

We get attention.
We had power.
We’re in good company
when they ask for media whores.

We’ve got amnesic viewers.
And more good lines.
We’re in good company
when they ask for media whores.

We get money (We get money.).
We don’t have shame (We don’t have shame.).
You won’t find it
round our door.

No more fairness (No more fairness.).
No more balance (No more balance.).
We’re in good company
when they ask for, when they ask for,
media whores.

clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip
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We get money (We get money.).
We don’t have shame (We don’t have shame.).
You won’t find, you’re never gonna find it
round our door.

We get attention.
We had power.
We’re in good company
when they ask for media whores.

In this hyped and waffling world

clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip-clip
clip-clip-attention
clip-clip-attention
clip-clip-attention
clip-clip-attention

We get attention.
We get attention.
We get attention.
We get attention.

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Warnings

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The Book of the Week is “Warnings, Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes” by Richard A. Clarke and R.P. Eddy, published in 2017. The authors explored the concept of “sentinel intelligence” which means that certain members of humanity have a sixth sense for future dangerous occurrences. The one who issues a warning in connection therewith, is called a “Cassandra.” The Initial Occurrence Syndrome means humans find difficulty in acknowledging that an extremely improbable event could happen, simply because it has never happened before.

The authors recounted various instances in which Cassandras spoke up prior to horrible events. A few of the events they described should not count in the annals of Cassandra-warnings; wars, for instance. There are going to be needless deaths and ruined lives in any and all wars. Predicting what is going to happen when tensions are rising in the hotspots of the world is not rocket science. Those who see them are not Cassandras. People like them are basically Nostradamus. He got famous in the 1500’s for “predicting” all kinds of catastrophes that are inevitably going to happen to human beings, such as wars, pestilence and natural disasters, over the course of centuries.

Also, the authors failed to define “catastrophes” referred to in their book’s title. They might want to refine their description of Cassandra events. The difference between Nostradamus’ and Cassandra’s premonitions is in the specificity: Cassandras identify one individual and/or entities around whom or which one specialized scandal is brewing, or describe signals around which, say, a natural disaster, financial crash or pandemic is coming, within a relatively short time frame (i.e., a Jeffrey Epstein or a Chernobyl).

One good example the authors provided, was the Bernard Madoff scandal. Madoff was a specific criminal– a power broker who harmed a significant number of people in a community. The circumstances were not a general, ongoing situation like welfare fraud or insider trading.

However, the situation still all boils down to how one defines “catastrophe.” There were various Cassandras who claimed to know the different events associated with Donald Trump that have actually come to pass. If one defines his getting elected in 2016 for instance as a catastrophe because the community harmed was the entire United States, then yes, its qualifies as a Cassandra event.

Anyway, the authors explained how a Cassandra in the securities industry helped forward the women’s movement. She issued a warning before a financial crash. She garnered kudos when she turned out to be correct. At the book’s writing, though, another female Cassandra issued a warning in the field of public health. Of course, a white male made a sexist remark about her appearance in an ad hominem attack. That’s how critics seek to discredit female Cassandras.

In another of the authors’ Cassandra cases, in July 2004, the federal U.S. agency FEMA (which provides disaster assistance) and the Army Corps of Engineers held a severe-storm-drill in the New Orleans area, but didn’t take it too seriously. Insufficient funding was provided to make specific plans regarding evacuation-transportation for people who were unable or unwilling to heed the evacuation order.

Nevertheless, the Coast Guard and (federal agency) Wildlife and Fisheries did. At the end of August 2005, they were somewhat prepared when Hurricane Katrina actually hit Louisiana. But hilarity did not ensue. Many needless deaths and ruined lives did, as the aforesaid New Orleans residents couldn’t be evacuated. Of course, the exacerbated disaster aftermath was caused by honest ineptitude, profiteering and opportunism rather than malicious intent. Beforehand, there were a few Cassandras who tried to tell others that a “Katrina” was on the way.

The reason Cassandras aren’t listened to, is that they tend to be gadflies in their organizations. There are: clashing egos, jealousy, and inter-agency rivalries. Cassandras are outspoken, and their mouths get them in trouble. They begin their careers as idealists, and usually end up disillusioned, frustrated, cynical and emotionally burned out. They embarrass powerful and/or monied groups whose support they need to keep their jobs.

Read the book to learn about many more Cassandra events, and the authors’ suggestions for encouraging Cassandras to come forward (Hint: one idea is to revive the White House group from the Reagan Era that evaluated foreign policy threats– but expand it, to take other kinds of disaster-preparedness measures).

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An Ocean to Cross

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The Book of the Week is “An Ocean to Cross, Daring the Atlantic, Claiming A New Life” by Liz Fordred with Susie Blackmun, published in 2001.

The author was born in 1953 in Southern Rhodesia. By the late 1970’s, she and her husband were both wheelchair-bound, due to a horseback-riding accident and an auto accident, respectively. Gluttons for punishment that they were, they decided to pursue the husband’s idea of building a boat with their personal hands, customized for them, and sailing it across the Atlantic Ocean. Many people who cast doubt on their dream had no clue how persistent, creative and resourceful this couple was.

The two were able to cut through some bureaucratic red tape in their home country because there were so few people of fair skin, including them and their then-leader, Ian Smith. But they encountered numerous delays for various reasons, including lack of money, lack of experience in boat-building and sailing, and government regulations. Their native Rhodesia was in the midst of political turmoil, and they needed sailing-practice in a challenging geographic location.

So they moved their craft to the South African coast, where they had to deal with South African customs, and submit a mountain of paperwork for various other reasons, including financing their boat-construction and supplies through: a bank loan, getting articles on their story published, and attracting sponsors. A series of guardian angels provided assistance through the whole laborious process.

Of course, they underestimated how much the entire project would cost and how long it would take; just one example– they allocated four days, with the help of family and friends, to drive their multiple vehicles to transport the boat (which was still a work in progress) to the Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town South Africa, their launching place. Read the book to learn about: how long it really took, the details of their whole ordeal, and their learning-experiences and growth; from start to finish.

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Court Days – BONUS POST

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This is a song about the biggest financial backer (initials, DJT) of the American legal system.

COURT DAYS

sung to the tune of “School Days” with apologies to the Estate of Chuck Berry.

Off in the morning and out to court.
He’s made his law cases a national sport.
Constitutional crisis, treasonous crimes.
He makes a deal, time after time.
His legal history is a disgrace.
But his PR’s the best, he always saves face.
In front of the press, he puts on a show.
To his attorneys, he owes so much dough.
Countless hours, our courts work for him.
Some say conviction chances are slim.
He keeps campaigning, scapegoating, smearing.
He sometimes appears at a hearing.
Regardless of whether his crowd gets their way,
taxpayers pay, and taxpayers pay.
A lot of court jobs will disappear
shortly after election year.
Up to ’24 and around the bend–
on media hysteria, you can depend.
Some say it’s a conspiracy and evil plots.
But it’s very hard to connect the dots.
A lot is confidential and secrets of State.
It’s civil society versus spewing of hate.
Feeling the anger from head to toe.
Round and round and round we go.

Some say it’s a conspiracy and evil plots.
But it’s very hard to connect the dots.
A lot is confidential and secrets of State.
It’s civil society versus spewing of hate.
Feeling the anger from head to toe.
Round and round and round we go.

Hail, hail rule of law,
even though it has many a flaw.
We need court reform loud and BOLD
to deliver us from the days of old.
Rule, rule, rule of law.
We’ve got this guy stuck in our craw.

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The Nightingale’s Song

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“Some looked on his cavalier attitude toward the facts as a harmless, at times amusing sidelight to his high-octane personality. Others seemed to view it as a disability for which he bore no responsibility, like a clubfoot.”

–regarding Oliver North’s lies and credit-grabbing but incredible work ethic in doing a job, and lack of accountability in the event of failure or wrongdoing

The Book of the Week is “The Nightingale’s Song” by Robert Timberg, published in 1995. In this large paperback, the author provided biographies of a group of Naval Academy-at-Annapolis graduates of 1958, 1959 and 1968. Their backgrounds provided insights as to their behaviors, and how they fared at the end of the Reagan Era. The group included John McCain, John Poindexter, Bud McFarlane, Oliver North, and Jim Webb, Jr.

During the Cold War, there were countless ways the United States government, through propaganda, incited phobia across-the-board that the Soviet Union might attack with nuclear weapons. In July 1958, the U.S., pursuant to such phobia, loaded nuclear missiles(!) into AD Skyraiders that would presumably counterattack if the Soviets got aggressive in Berlin or North Korea. For, the U.S. was distracted helping the president of Lebanon stay in power, as there had been a coup in Iraq. McFarlane participated in the Skyraiders endeavor, despite his alarm.

In late 1967, McFarlane was sent to Dong Ha, where he saw that the American senior military leadership was conducting the war extremely stupidly. They had pipe dreams of high-tech installations– while the infantry and artillery suffered shortages of basic supplies. A killing-the-enemy quota was imposed on the front-line soldiers, but the enemy was using guerrilla warfare.

Vietnam veterans such as McCain, McFarlane, Webb, North and Poindexter did their patriotic duty, and entered public service. While they were fighting, however, antiwar protesters and draft dodgers entered the professions and the political arena. “The president and many politicians appeared to be cheering them on.”

Further, the younger generation of civilians appointed by Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense in Lyndon Johnson’s administration) behaved haughtily toward the former old-school military leaders (WWII and Korean veterans) who were then serving in the federal government. The former were comprised of a “pampered, unbloodied elite.” Congress scapegoated senior military leaders over Vietnam. The usual egregious hypocrisy abounded over Monday-morning quarterbacking. There was serious brain drain from the Navy, and budget cuts, too.

North, McFarlane and Poindexter had met at Annapolis and were reunited in the National Security Council during Reagan’s first term. In early 1982, critics claimed there was a lack of foreign policy experience. That was disputed at a meeting of Reagan’s top staffers. Meanwhile, McCain was still recovering physically and psychologically from having been a prisoner of war in the “Hanoi Hilton” for five years and change.

In mid-1981, McCain insanely decided to run for Congress from the state of Arizona, even though he was labeled a carpetbagger. Having never lived in Arizona, he joined his wife’s family there. His campaign had a very short year and a half before election day, to get his name and platform known, raise money, etc., etc., etc.

All through the Reagan years, there was a constant tug-of-war between the policy makers in the White House, and the military men in the Pentagon. As a consequence, countless dangerous situations ensued; one occurred in the early 1980’s: each gave contradictory orders to a troopship off the coast of Lebanon. The men appointed to high-level policy positions in the White House (i.e., the major perpetrators of the Iran-Contra scandal) eventually went rogue– ignored the chain of command, and thought nothing of it.

In the mid-1980’s, the men in the Reagan administration argued over what to do about the mentally unstable Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. They decided against killing him altogether. The reasoning went that he’d be viewed as a martyr, prompting Arab terror groups to counterattack with vicious vehemence. Poindexter simply wanted to humiliate Gaddafi, and maybe ordinary Libyans would be grateful, and finish getting rid of him themselves.

Of the Iran-Contra scandal, the author wrote, “If nothing else, the administration acted in a muddleheaded, thoroughly unprofessional manner… Administration spokesmen denied any American involvement [on the the CIA-Contra aspect of it] but evidence that they were lying piled up quickly.” By the mid-1980’s, Americans of “Generation X” and older, could see that the Cold War hysteria about Central America generated by the American government was overblown. The region was like Vietnam all over again, complete with guerrilla warfare.

In July 1987, North became a TV star when he testified at the Iran-Contra hearings. He launched a blistering attack on Congress. He considered himself a man of honor in actually helping the Contras because he kept his promise that he would. His other defenses were: the goal was to free six American hostages in Iran; secure supplies for American troops because their lives were at risk. On the other hand, North engaged in very illegal activities: shredded documents, committed perjury, broke federal law by skirting Congress and the president in funding operations that affected numerous people’s lives– and even put lives at risk.

Curiously, the author failed to provide significant information on a major component of the Iran-Contra story: William Casey and his CIA. Casey was conveniently dying of a brain tumor (a smart career move) when the scandal broke. This book, therefore, is missing a major ingredient. It is like baking a cake, and omitting the sugar!

Anyway, read the book to learn additional numerous factoids about the above and other major Reagan-Era characters whose common military schooling gave them a particular mentality and shaped their generation.

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People’s Republic of China – BONUS POST

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This is the song Janet Yellen is singing now.

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

sung to the tune of “Hotel California” with apologies to The Eagles.

In a busy Asian city, bright lights in my eyes,
the stink of cigarette smoke, crowds in every high rise.
Given the agenda, I tried to relax.
The talks were heavy and deal chances slim.
It’s all spies and hacks.

I was geared to debate there. I heard the opening bell.
I was thinking to myself– so much stress. I hope I stay well.
Then they fed me their specialties, and they showed me the way.
The media waited in the corridor. Thought I heard someone say,

Welcome to the People’s Republic of China.
Such a lovely place.
Such a lovely place.
But they’re in the rat race.
Plenty of excess in the People’s Republic of China.
Oppression and fear.
Oppression and fear.
Paradoxes here.

They’ve got top officials– they got fancy cars.
They got factories and technology, they might go to Ma-ars.
How they danced in our peace talks. Overtures and threats.
We jockeyed for position. A treaty is anyone’s bet.

I said to my hostess, you’ve got a great crew.
They said we haven’t had that spirit here since 1972.

And still we put up a front in all-ll we say.
We talked circles around human rights; be reasonable– okay?

Welcome to the People’s Republic of China.
Such a lovely place.
Such a lovely place.
Always saving face.
Livin’ it up in the People’s Republic of China.
Put on a good show.
Put on a good show,
till it’s time to go.

Warships and solar panels, semiconductors and rice.
We’re all just prisoners here, of our own device.
And as part of the ceremony,
we gathered for the press.
They stab it with their steely words but it’s still an economic mess.

This was a trip to remember, as I headed for the door.
Haven’t made much progress from the place I was before.
These talks scratched the surface. But I was gladly received.
We’re entrenched countries joined at the hip, we can NEVER leave.

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Voices From Tibet

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The Book of the Week is “Voices From Tibet, Selected Essays and Reportage” by Tsering Woeser and Wang Lixiong, edited and translated by Violet S. Law, published in 2014.

In 1910, Great Britain mandated that Tibet become part of China. The territory consisted of yak and sheep herders and barley farmers. Fighting in Tibet ensued until October 1950, when China got its way. Mao Tse-Tung directed his People’s Liberation Army to take it over, except for the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). That bit of land was led by a Buddhist leader called the Dalai Lama. In 1959, he was forced to assume a government-in-exile in India.

More recently, Tibet, with a population of approximately six million, is a mountainous region that is twelve thousand feet above sea level and three and a half times the size of the state of Texas. It has seen decades of violence from protesters agitating for independence. In July 1994, the Chinese government launched a smear campaign against the Dalai Lama. Dissidents who had any connections to Buddhism, even tenuous ones, were imprisoned or killed.

Two political dissidents– a married couple– whom the Chinese government has oppressed due to their stance on freedoms in Tibet include: Tsering Woeser (a Chinese army officer’s daughter, a poet, born in 1966) and Wang Lixiong (a novelist born in 1953).

In 1998, Wang’s writings didn’t advocate subversion, but rather, sought to educate people to effect political change, proposing a gradual approach toward Tibetan democracy. In 2001, he resigned his membership in the Chinese Writers’ Association because its actions offended his sensibilities. The Chinese government expelled him from Friends of Nature, an environmental organization he co-founded.

In 2003, Tsering was fired from a job with a publisher because she praised the Dalai Lama, the Karmapa (a Buddhist leader), and encouraged belief in religion. She moved from Tibet to Beijing and became an unofficial spokesperson for Tibetan dissidents in China. Beijing allowed a little more free speech than Tibet. She posted writings on a foreign website rather than through print-media so it was harder for the Chinese government to harass her.

In 2008, more kinds of people agitated against China’s control of Tibet. Nuns, monks, local vendors, students, farmers and nomads demanded that the Dalai Lama be allowed to return to Tibet. In 2011, almost two dozen of the religious ones set themselves on fire in protest. In 2012, about eighty of them did.

In 2006, China opened the Qinghai-Tibet rail line.”What is unfolding in Tibet is pseudo-modernization, essentially a kind of invasion, a sugar-coated act of violence.” That sounds like colonialism, but in 2008, in the Tibetan city of Lhasa, the political environment was like that of Nazism. Chinese law enforcement officers detained and rounded up about seven hundred monks from monasteries, and took them to the last rail-line stop in Tibet.

The train cars smacked of Holocaust cattle-cars. The monks ended up in either political re-education camps or prison. Armed Chinese soldiers in the streets harassed monks and youths.

Tibet caught capitalistic fever from China. There was a “gold rush” in minerals and caterpillar fungi. Strangely, “The Buddha teaches us that all living beings are equal.” But the Buddhist monasteries in Tibet became hypocrites– were persuaded by an enterprising Chinese tour company to provide Mandarin and English-language translators to fill an (extremely lucrative) niche in the tourism industry. The Chinese controlled the business, which involved swindling tourists in various ways.

Anyway, read the book to learn much more biographical info on the two aforementioned dissidents, and the many additional ways that Tibetans are losing their culture (hint: by the turn of the twenty-first century, Tibet was becoming a regular Dubai) at the hands of the Chinese.

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The Waiting – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty about America’s current political situation.

THE WAITING

sung to the tune of “The Waiting” (Official Music Video) with apologies to the Estate of Tom Petty, and the Heartbreakers.

Seems-LIKE we’re in a holding-pattern right now.
Candidates are assembling their teams.
Yeah, 2024 is not to missed.
But, America will be kind a-gain.

Yet lots of politicians are trying to pretend.
America will survive this conTENtiousness.

Clean-house, clean-house, clean-house, clean-house.

The waiting is the hardest part.
We-are eager for trials to start.
We enjoy-a good debate.
Integrity would-be smart.
The waiting is the hardest part.

Well, most pundits chase tabloid-topics around.
All it does is bring us down.
We need leaders who’ll make us feel good.
But it takes time to reverse right now.
The presidential race will show us how,
to move the nation forward.
We need to move forward.

Clean-house, clean-house, clean-house, clean-house.

The waiting is the hardest part.
We-are eager for trials to start.
We enjoy-a good debate.
Integrity would-be smart.
The waiting is the hardest part.

No more shenanigans, elect a better prez.
No more shenanigans, elect a better prez.
You know right from wrong.
You know you’re nobody’s fool.
This has got to turn around. No more shenanigans.

Clean-house, clean-house, clean-house, clean-house.

The waiting is the hardest part.
We-are eager for trials to start.
We enjoy-a good debate.
Integrity would-be smart.
The waiting is the hardest part.

Yeah, the waiting is the hardest part.
Shape-UP-or-ship-out.
It’s the hardest part…
Shape-UP-or-ship-out.

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Life in the Trash Lane

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The Book of the Week is “Life in the Trash Lane, A Sports Agent’s True Story” by Mel Levine, published in 1993. This sloppily edited volume described a bygone era in terms of the financial aspects of “amateur” sports in America. Only “professional” athletes could receive compensation in the form of money or gifts from work-related people and entities. College players were considered amateurs.

The author began a career as a tax attorney and business investor, but also became an agent for college football players on their way to the pros. He offered his services as an agent, CPA, lawyer, and financial planner. Initially, representing big-name athletes boosted his ego. The author hired various scouts called “bird dogs” who would help him acquire clients who had barely started college but were perceived as talented players. On the surface, sports agency looked lucrative, but it was actually a cutthroat, sleazy business.

The convention in the late 1980’s was for agents to advance expenses to the professional hopefuls, and then, if the players made the pros, the agent was paid about 5% of the athlete’s earnings. The author paid for their cars, insurance, housing, gifts for their significant others, legal fees, etc. (a clear NCAA rule violation). The author continued to run afoul of the strict NCAA rules, but he rationalized that all of the other agents were doing so, too, and he needed to stay competitive. Many times, he was almost busted.

The author was suckered into paying big bucks to numerous players he represented, but they never paid him even in cases when they made the pros. The players owed him thousands and thousands of dollars, but he developed a version of Stockholm syndrome– acting as a father figure to a few of them, and remained fiercely loyal because he felt an escalation of commitment.

In May 1986, one of the author’s clients had an accident in the expensive car paid for by the author. Two major Miami newspapers’ stories on this prompted the question of how the athlete could afford such a car. The car was likely provided by his agent, or his college– the University of Miami. If so, the NCAA violation would end the player’s career before it started, and the scandal would ruin the reputations of the agent, the school, and many others.

The author cooked up a scheme to get a slew of parties out of trouble. He shredded all the paper contracts of his rule-violating clients, and claimed he was running a car-leasing operation; the athletes’ parents were leasing the cars for them [like everyone really believed that (!)].

The author told of another client who was nothing but a boondoggle, but the author stuck by him for years, anyway. By 1987, “He was damaged goods for a [National Football League] team to expend a valuable draft choice on a kid with a bad ankle, drug problems, legal problems, and a dishonorable discharge from BYU was more than any of them would bear.”

As can be imagined, the sports agency business will keep commercial litigators in business forever, as its seamy underbelly consists of an orgy of litigation. The author dismissed yet another client’s transgressions: “At worst, he blew up a Porsche (quite by accident), got arrested in New Jersey for carrying a concealed weapon and unfortunately got into a fight or two. No big deal.”

Read the book to learn about a slew of other details of the conduct of sports agents and their clients of the late 1980’s.

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Oh What A Fight – BONUS POST

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Oh What A Fight

sung to the tune of “December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)” with apologies to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

Oh what a fight.
Criminals STILL walk free in ’23.
What a noisy prez-race we’ll see.
Thug po-LI-tics.
What a fight.

Oh what a fight.

All the candidates, we know their names.
‘Stead of brains-and-maturity, we’ll see false claims.
Where’s the fact-checking?
What a fight.

Oh they, inCITE hostile-feelings in male viewers, of the news.
And oh, fren-em-ies’ll call in favors in-secret soo-oon.

Oh what a fight.
Frus-trating AND infuriating me.
Prah-paganda and lack of substance we’ll see.
Sour surrender, what a fight.

Some viewers, WISH they could roll with the elites,
reveling in opponents’ scandals and electoral defeats.
Oh what a fight.

Oh they, inCITE hostile-feelings in male viewers, of the news.
And oh, fren-em-ies’ll call in favors in-secret soo-oon.

Oh what a fight.

The whole campaign IS a scripted charade.
CLAshing egos, now it’s donor-made.
Hypocrisy-and-attorneys.
What a fight.

Some viewers, WISH they could roll with the elites,
reveling in opponents’ scandals and electoral defeats.
Oh what a fight.

Dough-dough-dough-dough-dough, dough-dough-dough.
Oh what a fight.
Dough-dough-dough-dough-dough, dough-dough-dough.
Oh what a fight…

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John Reed: Witness to Revolution

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The Book of the Week is “John Reed: Witness to Revolution, A Biography” by Tamara Hovey, published in 1975.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked a detailed list of Notes, Sources, References, and Bibliography), Reed was born in October 1887 in Portland, Oregon. The beneficiary of white male privilege, he graduated from Harvard, then bummed around Europe, and wrote stories and articles that were published in the magazines of the day; among them: American, Saturday Evening Post, Century, Smart Set, Colliers, and Trend. But he rebelled against the bourgeois values of his social class. The Masses did not pay its contributing writers, but featured short stories that realistically portrayed the struggling masses in America of the 1910’s. Many publications generously compensated their contributing writers, so Reed was able to scratch out a living.

Reed was given a press pass through the years by different publications to cover a few major historical events. In 1913, he wrote human-interest stories through immigrant workers’ eyes after witnessing violent labor trouble at the silk factory in Paterson, New Jersey.

Reed rubbed shoulders with the famous social activists of his generation. Showing their white-savior-complex– in June 1913, he, along with the independently wealthy Mabel Dodge (who owned a stately home on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan) and Robert Edmond Jones, staged a pageant whose performers consisted of downtrodden laborers at the old Madison Square Garden. The three served as planner and director, funder and arranger, and set designer, respectively. Their goal was to improve working conditions for the poor. After the pageant, Reed, Dodge and Jones sailed to Europe.

Reed spent four days in New Jersey’s Passaic County jail (whose conditions were very disgusting) in order to write articles that publicized the plight of striking workers who were denied due process. He was unlike journalists at most newspapers, who were puppets of: management (rather than labor), government officials, and law enforcement. Reed physically climbed into the trenches with German soldiers during WWI to get their stories. He then turned into a pacifist.

Read the book to learn what transpired when Reed developed a reputation as a radical (hint: he acquired a press credential from the American Socialist press in August 1917 in order to cover the Russian Revolution).

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one THOUSAND wells (sic)

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The Book of the Week is “one THOUSAND wells (sic), How an Audacious Goal Taught Me to Love the World Instead of Save It” by Jena Lee Nardella, published in 2015.

Born in the early 1980’s, the American author– raised in a strict Christian household– became an idealist, passionate about helping the downtrodden. By her teens, she was volunteering at a Colorado Springs homeless shelter. She worked at an orphanage in Tijuana. In college, she got to meet and work with the Christian music-band, Jars of Clay.

Together with other groups over the course of a decade, the do-gooders who formed a humanitarian organization in 2005 called Blood: Water Mission, would bring uncontaminated blood (for medical purposes) and water (for basic drinking and cleaning) to various underprivileged communities in Kenya, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Uganda, and other African countries. They would help them with the three major components of improving Africans’ health: clean water, hygiene and sanitation.

One of the first of many, many things the author learned in her quest to save lives, was that most Americans’ first impulse is to throw money at a complex problem to solve it. They mean well, but their white-savior-complex is a wrong-headed approach. As she gained experience in providing international aid to poverty-stricken, poorly-educated rural communities, the author saw how villagers were initially skeptical about aid workers’ promises; in the past, so many aid workers had failed to follow up or do anything.

The author’s group eventually elicited a grateful, cooperative response because an educator involved the villagers in raising their own standards of living. A few different aid groups who handled various aspects of a water project, did what they said they would do.

If their projects succeeded, women and children (before school– if they were lucky enough to attend) wouldn’t have to spend hours every day trekking on foot to a water-well or river (which might be used by hundreds of households, and was usually polluted with germs and who knows what else) located many kilometers from their living areas. Blood: Water completed one specific project in Rwanda that allowed eighteen hundred villagers to partake of clean water. Such a basic victory produced a great ripple effect in the community. School attendance soared because:

  • kids were neither fatigued by water-fetching nor plagued by water-borne illnesses (and all the people by other illnesses, for that matter) anymore;
  • villagers were neither sickened by, nor dying from the water they used; and
  • villagers had more time on their hands.

However, the author had rude awakenings on various fronts– a water project that failed, fund-raising struggles, and an episode of corruption by a local male aid-coordinator. She was also forced to do some soul-searching on her religious beliefs. She finally had to accept that it is better to have unanswered questions than unquestioned answers.

Read the book to learn a wealth of additional details about all of the above.

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Danger Rant – BONUS POST

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In light of what current supporters, imitators and phony-enemies (the likes of Jim Jordan, Greg Gianforte and Ron DeSantis) of Trump are doing now, this is the current song of Ranting Republicans (a potentially great name for a rock band!).

DANGER RANT

sung to the tune of “Safety Dance” (the studio version) with apologies to Men Without Hats.

D-D-D-D-A-A-A-A-N-N-N-N-G-G-G-G-E-E-E-E-R-R-R-R-DANGER-DANGER-DANGER-DANGER-RANT-RANT-RANT-RANT

We can rant if we want to.
We can waste the House’s time.
Because if we don’t rant about con-spir-acy,
Trump won’t get a second try.

Say, we can go where we want to,
draft LAWS that are unkind,
and we can act like dictators
from the Third World
and leave your freedoms far behind.

And we can rant.

We can rant if we want to.
We can waste the House’s time.
Because if we don’t rant about con-spir-acy,
Trump won’t get a second try.

Say, we can go where we want to,
draft LAWS that are unkind,
and we can act like dictators
from the Third World
and leave your freedoms far behind.

And we can rant, and zing!

We can spite when we want to.
We hurt Americans all around.
We can act against China and the Dems
by passing bills that shut them down.

Say, we can hate if we want to.
We can and must DO Trump’s will.
As long as anger smolders,
we’ll get MORE-extreme and bolder.
It’s how we get our thrills.

Say, we can rant, we can rant.

We think we’re in control.
We can rant, we can rant.
We’re doing it from poll to poll.

We can rant, we can rant.
We can take liTIGious stands.
We can rant, we can rant.
We lose nothing by taking a chance.

Danger rant, oh well, the danger rant,
ah yes, the danger rant.

D-D-D-D-A-A-A-A-N-N-N-N-G-G-G-G-E-E-E-E-R-R-R-R-DANGER-DANGER-DANGER-DANGER-RANT-RANT-RANT-RANT

We can ban what we want to.
We’ve got Trump’s low base in mind.
As long as we please them,
to hell with reason,
everything’ll work out right.

Ah, say, we can rant if we want to.
We can waste the House’s time.
Because if we don’t rant about con-spir-acy,
Trump won’t get a second try.

And say, we can rant, we can rant.
We think we’re in control.
We can rant, we can rant.
We’re doing it from poll to poll.

We can rant, we can rant.
We can take liTIGious stands.
We can rant, we can rant.
We lose nothing by taking a chance.

Danger rant, oh well, the danger rant,
ah yes, the danger rant.
Danger rant, oh well, the danger rant,
ah yes, the danger rant.
Danger rant, oh well, the danger rant,
ah yes, the danger rant…

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Settle For More

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The Book of the Week is “Settle For More” by Megyn Kelly, published in 2016.

Born in November 1970, Kelly was raised Catholic in the suburbs of Syracuse and Albany in New York State. She conveyed a few simple principles on life. One is, “The only place ‘success’ comes before ‘work’ is in the dictionary.”

The late, great college basketball coach John Wooden said one should be worried about one’s character, not one’s reputation. The true test of one’s character is: how you treat people who can do nothing for you. Like so many others, Kelly got caught up in worrying about her reputation when Trump and his followers smeared and lied about her.

Anyway, Kelly wrote that there occurred an egregious breach of journalistic ethics during 2016, leading up to election day. It was this: some idiot-box interviewers of Donald Trump told him prior to airtime, the critical things they would be saying about him, so they would appear to be “fair and balanced” in their reporting. Trump knew to behave himself and didn’t react with hostility to those questions or comments. Scripting and rehearsals are the new unethical normal in “journalism” nowadays.

Unsurprisingly, Kelly was the victim of a misogynistic Tweet by Trump. He knew this Tweet would become the subject of a 2015 post-debate news story, rather than her debate questions and his non-answers. He is, after all, the master manipulator of distracting messaging. His distractions are analogous to the scene shown during the closing credits of the movie Animal House: While a parade is passing through the college town, a frat boy says to a guy, “Look at my thumb.” The guy does and the frat boy sucker-punches him and says, “Gee, you’re dumb!” the same way Trump makes outrageously offensive comments for shock value, and then watches the fireworks.

In 2016, Kelly was forced to confront an ethical dilemma in connection with sexual harassment in her workplace– Fox News. Having succeeded in two male-dominated fields, she advised her female readers to get some advice on how they sound, and the clothing and makeup they wear so that they will be taken seriously by their male coworkers and bosses.

That said, it is unclear whether Kelly had the authority to choose the photo (in which she is wearing skimpy clothing) appearing on the front cover of the hardcover version of her book. The question is, would a male TV-news-show host wear a sexy shirt in the cover-photo of his book? Resounding no.

Kelly’s choice in that photo could have been an act of rebellion, or an act of naivete and poor self-awareness, on her part. With it, she hurt her cause of telling female readers to behave in ways that even the playing field with their male counterparts. If Kelly couldn’t control the photo on the cover, one might suspect her publisher was engaging in political retaliation.

Nevertheless, read the book to learn about how Kelly became super-successful as an attorney and as a TV “news” anchor, and how she was also able to have a family life in her time and place in the United States, despite the fact that her society gives males advantages over females.

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Disney, Disney – BONUS POST

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This is the song Ron DeSantis (governor of Florida) is singing now.

Disney, Disney

sung to the tune of “Monday, Monday” with apologies to the Mama’s and the Papa’s.

Call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes
Call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes
Call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes

Disney, Disney, [Call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes]
so expedient for me.

[Call-ing ALL ho-MO-phobes, call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes]

Disney’s learning all about how anti-woke I can be.

Oh, Disney’s torment, Disney’s torment is guaranteed.

[Call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes]

Anti-Disney donors, I do what they say,
’cause I need the MONEY.

Disney, Disney, I love power today.
Disney, Disney,
in my state
you’re not allowed to be gay.

Oh, Disney’s torment,
my Florida laws meant
you must go through me.

Oh, Disney, Disney, you can’t proceed
with your upgrading spree.

Every single day, every single day,
every single day of the week you’re mine, yeah.

And you’re under China’s thumb [and you’re under]
And you’re under China’s thumb.

You’re an easy target all of the time.

Disney, Disney, [Call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes]
so expedient for me.

[Call-ing, ALL ho-MO-phobes]

Disney’s learning all about how anti-woke I can be.

Oh, Disney’s torment, Disney’s torment is guaranteed.

Anti-Disney donors, I do what they say,
’cause I need the MONEY.

Every single day, every single day,
every single day of the week you’re mine, yeah.

And you’re under China’s thumb [and you’re under]
And you’re under China’s thumb.

You’re an easy target all of the time.

Disney, Disney, I love power today.
Disney, Disney,
in my state
you’re not allowed to be gay.

Disney, Disney, it’s time to pay.

Oh Disney, Disney…

Featured

Stand Down, You’re Distorting the Vote – BONUS POST

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Obviously, given America’s current political situation, certain people will be receiving the “Flying Fickle Finger of Fate” award. Here’s a little ditty that describes the situation.

STAND DOWN, YOU’RE DISTORTING THE VOTE

Sung to the tune of “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” from the 1955 movie-musical Guys and Dolls, with apologies to the estate of Frank Loesser.

ReadING teleprompters on Trump’s road to reelection,
by Trump’s hand
Fox NEWS played along,
and whenever they could,
they hollered Dominion’s shady!!!
But luckily patriots knew right from wrong.

For the lawsuits said stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote,
the lawsuits said stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote.
And Fox News made us wonder, how they were ever compelled to help Trump GLOAT.

Stand down, stand down, stand down, stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote.

We saw the lies on Trump’s road to reelection.
We found by Trump’s hand, fake electors in our midst.
And there Fox stood, handing out the hypocrisy,
but the patriots were bound to resist.

For the patriots said stand down, you’re on a power trip,
the patriots said stand down, you sore loser, get a grip.

And Fox News made us wonder if there’s truth to anything they ever wrote.
Stand down, stand down, stand down, stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote.

And as Trump STAFFED those fronting his reelection,
a wave of subpoenas came,
saying Trump come to COURT.
And as he shrank, he hollered, someone MAKE me!
Secret papers were found at his resort.

Patriots said stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote.
Said to him stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote.

And Fox’s slander made us WONder how they’re ever going to stay afloat.
Stand down, stand down, stand down, stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote.

Stand down, you’re distorting, stand down, stand down, stand down, you’re distorting,
stand down, you’re distorting, stand down, stand down, stand down, you’re distorting the vote.
Stand down, you’re distorting the vote.

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Peace

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The Book of the Week is “Peace, the biography of a symbol (sic)” by ken kolsbun with michael s. sweeney (sic) published in 2008. This colorful volume described how a symbol has gone viral worldwide. That symbol is an instantaneous message that its bearer is anti-nuclear, anti-war and / or anti-discrimination.

English artist Gerald Holtom invented and mass-produced the “peace sign” (hereinafter abbreviated ps; consisting of a circle bisected by a vertical line, and on the bottom half, an upside-down “v”), to be attached to picket signs for a 1958 anti-nuclear-weapons march in Britain. Thereafter, the ps was used on what became all sorts of memorabilia, repeatedly, internationally in different kinds of protests.

After WWII, the governments of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. brainwashed many of their citizens into thinking that the other nation (the enemy (!)) would use nuclear weapons to make war. According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked a detailed list of Notes, Sources, References, Bibliography and index), beginning in December 1960, Bradford Lyttle led ps-displaying members of the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA)– (pacifists urging American and Soviet nuclear disarmament) in a march from San Francisco to New York City, through Western Europe, that ended in Moscow in October 1961.

In November 1961, the group Women Strike for Peace (WSP; a spinoff of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy) was afraid that usage of nuclear weapons at the newly constructed Berlin Wall would trigger more widespread hostilities and globally cause slow, painful deaths due to cancer. So they led about 50,000 ps-bearing females (many of whom had children) to go on strike; alpha males with hubris syndrome were the perpetrators of massively destructive war tools, after all.

In autumn 1963, freedom walkers teamed up with peace walkers to express their displeasure with violations of their civil rights, and nuclear weapons, through marching from Quebec to Cuba. Everyone wore the ps. Folk singer Pete Seeger joined in the activism. He said, “Songs are sneaky things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells.”

Read the photo-filled book to learn about numerous other people whose messaging helped spur the peace sign’s popularity through countless protests.

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I Get Around – BONUS POST

This is the song Clarence Thomas is singing now.

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I GET AROUND

sung to the tune of “I Get Around” with apologies to the Beach Boys.

Resort-bound, get around, I get around,
yeah, get around, woo-woo, I get around,
I get around, get around, yacht-bound, I-didn’t write it down,
I got wined and dined, get around, resort-bound, I get around,
I’m the VIP kind, get around, yacht-bound, I’m makin’ real good friends.

I’m getting bugged and probed by some pesky foes.
I gotta find new gifts I don’t have to disclose.

My cronies and me are gettin’ TOO well known.
Yeah, the previous admins used to leave us alone.

I get around, resort-bound, get around, I get around,
yeah, get around, woo-woo, I get around,
I get around, get around, yacht-bound, I-didn’t write it down,
I got wined and dined, get around, resort-bound, I get around,
I’m the VIP kind,

conFLICTS up and down, I get around, I-didn’t write it down, resort-bound, yacht-bound, bound, bound.

We always loved Crow’s trips ’cause they’re for us elites
and we made sure our connections were ALWAYS discreet.

It’s our turn to be targeted, ’cause we’re on the far Right.
We’ve got the best PR and we’re ready to fight.

I get around, resort-bound, get around, I get around,
I get around, get around, yacht-bound, I-didn’t write it down,
I got wined and dined, get around, resort-bound, I get around,
I’m the VIP kind,

conFLICTS up and down, I get around, I-didn’t write it down, resort-bound, yacht-bound, bound, bound.

Resort-bound, get around, I get around,
yeah, get around, woo-woo, I get around
I get around, get around, yacht-bound, I-didn’t write it down,
I got wined and dined, get around, resort-bound, I get around,
I’m the VIP kind, get around, yacht-bound, I’m makin’ real good friends…

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the signal and the noise (sic)

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The Book of the Week is “the signal and the noise (sic)” by nate silver (sic), published in 2012. In this volume, the author described in redundant and wordy terms, why human beings are so fallible in their predictions and forecasts (and explained the difference between the two). Basically, humans get distracted by noise, so they don’t zero in on the right signals in order to tell the future correctly.

Ironically, the author used less-than-ideal language in describing the epic failings of ratings-agencies in the 2008 financial crash. He should have pointed out that they could have mitigated, just a little, their false advertising by using better risk-assessment wording.

Silver wrote, “… trillions of dollars in investments that were rated as being almost completely safe instead turned out to be almost completely unsafe.” (Never mind the awkwardness of the word “being” in the middle of the sentence, or “it” in the middle of a sentence– so many recently published books have that kind of bad writing.) The ratings agencies should describe investments as “low-risk” or “high-risk” and use the adverbs “extremely” or “very” or “somewhat” or “slightly” as applicable, but never use the word safe.

Anyway, another irony was that the author appeared to be distracted by vast generalizations that were just noise– as cherry-picked data tend to be. He provided all sorts of line graphs and scads of data on housing bubbles. He cited a study on market prices of the “American home” completed by Robert Schiller and Karl Case that created an index based on a century’s worth of data– the years between 1896 and 1996, inclusive.

The research indicated that an inflation-adjusted home bought for $10,000 in 1896 would be worth $10,600 in 1996. Is that noise or what? Silver didn’t specify what “American home” meant. Anyhow, who would buy a home in 1896, and sell it in 1996?

Silver did admit that predictions and forecasts were less inaccurate when qualitative data supplemented statistical models. Worded facts are considerations that add real-world conditions because numbers never tell the full story in complex situations, which are dynamic.

Incidentally, at the book’s writing, he had had success in making predictions in professional baseball because: 1) an excessive amount of data on it had been collected, and 2) he claimed its rules didn’t change. The latter is not true anymore. And besides, performance-enhancing drugs, not to mention new stadiums– among other factors– have put new noise and signals in baseball statistics.

The author pointed out that more data actually made for worse accuracy in predictions in many areas of life. Technology in the form of software that can process scads and scads of data in record time has improved humans’ ability to specifically forecast severe weather, but not earthquakes. As an aside– in any area that involves linguistics, technology is overrated. A chatbot cannot comprehend complex concepts and nuanced language (like sarcasm, irony and idioms). American English is especially fraught with words that have multiple meanings, so it is highly contextual.

There are still financial crashes, gamblers who lose big-time, and “experts” who can’t modify conditions to improve the economy with certainty. Incidentally, as is well known, more and more, daily life in America has been infiltrated by politics.

Read the book to learn about futuristic pronouncements of: television pundits, professional-sports commentators and gamblers, seismologists, chess software, national-security advisers, poker players, and many others.

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Intimate Memoirs – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “Intimate Memoirs” by Georges Simenon, published in 1981. This tome’s intended readers were his four adult children. The author detailed: his and his family members’ lives through all their changing of residences, vacations, the dysfunctionalities in his relationships with others (wives, mistresses, governesses, household help, publishing and movie personnel, etc.), and his daughter’s writings.

Born in 1903, Simenon grew up in Belgium, and served in the military in both WWI and WWII. As a teenager, he began writing. He got rich in a short time, penning via typewriter each year, about six dime novels (eventually numbering dozens in his lifetime, some of which were made into movies) about a police detective named Maigret– whose character was partly based on his father.

By summer 1940, he had a wife and son, at which time they rented a chateau surrounded by a vegetable garden and poultry farm in a coastal sub-prefecture town in France. He was supposed to sign in every day at the police station. A couple of benign German officers were posted on the outskirts of the town.

For the rest of the war, the family stayed in French coastal towns, renting homes with farms for a year or two, then moving on. Basically, they were on vacation, except for one incident that reminded them that a war involving religious persecution was taking place elsewhere.

One day, a Vichy commissioner buttonholed the author and aggressively called him a Jew, demanding that the author prove otherwise, by showing the birth certificates of his parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. By war’s end, many non-Jewish wealthy people had become wealthier through profiteering, while the peasants suffered the hardships of rationed goods.

The author wrote of powerful, money-grubbing people, “Sometimes there are indeed fatalities. And aren’t the worst brutes the ones that get the most applause? I no longer look on all this as an outsider. When I first got to Lakeville [Connecticut in the USA] I was told ‘Here you have to belong…'”

Read the book to learn everything you ever wanted to know, both happy and sad, about what the author wanted his children to know.

ENDNOTE: Speaking of the worst brutes, here’s a little ditty in connection therewith (This is the song Donald Trump is singing now):

THE ULTIMATE BULLY

sung to the tune of “The Boxer” with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.

I am a super-rich man
all-powerful and bold.
I’ve-always-had HIGH resistance
to acknowledging my failures and broken promises.
At-bullying, I’m the best.
My base hears what it wants to hear
and cheers on the unrest.
mm hm, hm hm hm hm hm hm, hm
When I left my home and my family
I was not in THE least coy,
I had to teach my attorneys
dangers of beCOMing a-PR-sensation. I-wasn’t scared.
Making deals, seeking out
the easy suckers and easy girls
looking FOR the
ways I could use them in my World.

lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie-lie, lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie
lie-le-lie-lie-lie-le-lie-le-le-le-lie

Paying minimal workers’ wages
I start handing out the jobs
and pad my coffers.
One-after-another bankRUPtcy
to disappear through.
As a first resort,
I’ve made smearing, scapegoating and suing,
a na-tion-al sport.

la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie-lie, lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie
lie-le-lie-lie-lie-le-lie-le-le-le-lie

Now I’m huddling with my attorneys
and wishing I was golfing at Mar-a-Lago.

But the New York City renters are in need of me,
you can’t indICT me. You’re all DOPES.

I hire the best doxers
and go to legal extremes,
so you CARry a reminder
that anytime I-can lay you down
or cut you while I lash out
in my anger with no shame.
You’ll be bleeding,
you’ll be bleeding,
and the-spiter-in-me remains.

mm-hmm

lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie-lie, lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie
lie-le-lie-lie-lie-le-lie-le-le-le-lie
lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie-lie, lie-le-lie, lie-le-lie
lie-le-lie-lie-lie-le-lie-le-le-le-lie…

Featured

The New Cool

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The Book of the Week is “The New Cool, A Visionary Teacher, His FIRST Robotics Team, and the Ultimate Battle of Smarts” by Neal Bascomb, published in 2011.

In the single-digit 2000’s, Amir Abo-Shaeer taught robotics in a “STEM” (four subjects that would help the United States remain economically dominant in the world: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program at Dos Pueblos high school in Goleta, California (a western suburb of Santa Barbara). If he was able to raise $3 million, he would receive matching funds from the state of California to start to build STEM academies all over the state. Dean Kamen’s goal was to have a robotics team in every school in the country.

Kamen was gravely concerned that the United States education system was falling woefully behind that of other countries. He might best be remembered as the inventor of the Segway, but at the dawn of the 1990’s, he also began to change the world in a much more impactful way.

Kamen and Woodie Flowers’ goal was to spark students’ interest in STEM. They wanted to give young people hands-on, real-world skills, not just convey knowledge. In 1992, they co-founded an annual program of STEM competitions for American students called FIRST. About a decade into the program, there were hundreds of thousands of students of different age groups competing in different events.

Elementary schoolers built structures out of LEGO. Each high school team was required to build a robot, and then in the competition, form alliances with other teams in playing a complicated physical game that differed every year, against another alliance.

In January 2009, the aforementioned Shaeer and his robotics team (consisting of high school seniors he taught) attended the briefing that Kamen, Flowers and NASA simulcast– of the terms and conditions of the robotics competitions to take place in the next three months. If their team emerged ultimate winners, they could win scholarships and might be more motivated to pursue a STEM career.

Read the book to learn of Shaeer’s students’ extremely hard work in preparing their contest entry (the robot), and the suspenseful story of how the team performed with its alliances in its very emotionally charged matches against other alliances, and whether Shaeer got the funding for his schools.

Featured

Around the World in Fifty Years – BONUS POST

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“What kind of people would so violate the customary rules of survival as to pillage a disabled vehicle and steal the equipment we need to repair it?”

No, the above does not refer metaphorically to a political system on its way to dictatorship, but rather, lawless tribesmen who stole the author’s traveling group’s gas cans, bootjacks and some tools from their Land Rover and trailer in 1966 in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Around the World in Fifty Years, My Adventure to Every Country on Earth” by Albert Podell, published in 2015.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked a detailed list of Notes, Sources, References, Bibliography and an index), the author risked his life countless times in all kinds of circumstances. In March 1965 in Algeria, he was lucky not to have been blown up by land mines.

The author had to take flights and other means of transportation back and forth thousands of miles out of the way of his destinations due to diplomatic difficulties between or among territories. He had to postpone visiting a bunch of countries because at the time he applied for a visa, the United States wasn’t on the best of terms with them (such as Chad and Angola). Luckily, he had contacts who helped him get onto their soil via extralegal means. It seemed he had a death wish. Why would a sane person want to visit ultra-dangerous countries that have extremely low living standards, for fun?

Well, in countries such as Chad, Angola and North Korea, up until the late 1990’s, the people who dominated release of information about themselves to the rest of the world, were those in the government or journalists with a martyr complex.

Nowadays, it’s those who have World Wide Web access. So the only way to obtain accurate information about the common people in those countries (most of them did not have Twitter) was to visit them personally. So that is what Podell did.

Of course, the author’s stay was supervised and severely restricted as to what he was allowed to see, but he got clues just by making observations about his surroundings.

Read the book to learn the details of the travels of this James-Bond wannabe.

ENDNOTE: Those who are spreading hate-speech on Twitter are shaming themselves and their own countries– projecting a childish image for people such as Albert Podell, who want to learn about other cultures. As has been recently revealed by a probe led by Jim Jordan (Republican Congressman from Ohio), more of his own supporters launched mean-of-spirit Twitter attacks against the Democrats rather than vice versa. Here’s a little ditty that describes the situation.

OOH, TWITTER

sung to the tune of “Moon River” with apologies to Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer and any other rights-holders this may concern.

Ooh, Twitter
both sides of the aisle, are sick of Jim Jordan today.

You deal-maker,
you reputation-breaker.

Name-callers need the trolling,
so they’re not GO-ing away.

Smearers and fibbers, angry at the world.
Their political aims are easy, to see.

It’s the same old pol-it-i-cal show, and,
what a huge waste of time,
on the taxpayers’ dime.

Ooh, Twitter, spare me.

Ooh, Twitter
both sides of the aisle, are sick of Jim Jordan today.

You deal-maker,
you reputation-breaker.

Name-callers need the trolling,
so they’re not GO-ing away.

Smearers and fibbers, angry at the world.
Their political aims are easy, to see.

It’s the same old pol-it-i-cal show, and,
what a huge waste of time,
on the taxpayers’ dime.

Ooh, Twitter, spare me.

Featured

S.O.S.

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The Book of the Week is “S.O.S., Spirit of Survival, One Family’s Chilling Account of the Costa Concordia Disaster” by Dean, Georgia, Valerie, Debbie, and Cindy Ananias, published in 2013. This informative, suspenseful horror story is a must-read for all travelers who go on cruises.

“People were freaking out in various languages and everything was mass confusion.” Such was the situation on the Mediterranean cruise, Costa Concordia in mid-January 2012. The trip turned out to be not just a ruined vacation for the Ananias family– the parents and two of three grown daughters– but a series of life-threatening traumas and insult-to-injury indignities.

About four thousand people found themselves on a sinking cruise late at night. There were indications from the start of the trip, that the captain and crew of the ship were disorganized, negligent and sorely lacking in customer service training and emergency preparedness.

One circumstance (just one of many) that exacerbated the disaster, was that the ship was listing so precariously, lifeboats on one side of it were prevented from reaching the water by the laws of physics. After much exhausting effort, an attempt to lower the lifeboats failed, and hundreds of passengers already in them had to be lifted out of them only to fret about what to do next, how to get off the sinking ship.

In disasters such as this, life-threatening elements (such as which side of a listing ship will have operable lifeboats) are difficult to predict, but passengers can use ounces of prevention, and should, for the entire duration of the cruise.

The following are just some of the actions that can save lives in worst-case scenarios (if the parties involved are not too vain and don’t care how they look):

  • wearing one’s life jacket all the time (there weren’t enough life jackets for all the people on the Costa Concordia);
  • keeping tightly snug in one’s pockets– a packet in a waterproof holder containing: one’s travel documents, wallet-contents, contact info of one’s homeland’s embassy in all countries where the cruise might get shipwrecked, emergency-contact info of one’s family and friends, and (if one is American) contact info of major media outlets so that one can publicize one’s horror story while it is happening in order get maximum compensation from the cruise-line’s lawyers who are experts at defending against any and all legal challenges from anyone harmed by the cruise line’s activities;
  • keeping a flashlight tightly snug in one’s pocket all the time;
  • wearing sturdy, but lightweight and comfortably but snugly fitting shoes (not high heels) all the time;
  • carrying a sweatshirt tied around one’s neck or waist all the time– in case an evacuation takes hours in freezing weather; and
  • knowing how to swim before cruising.

Another step passengers can take to avoid losing valuable items, includes not bringing fancy jewelry or fancy clothing in the first place!

Read the book to learn: everything you ever wanted to know about what the authors went through during the cruise’s sinking, and their tips on how to avoid what they went through.

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After A Stroke

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The Book of the Week is “After A Stroke, 300 Tips for Making Life Easier” by Cleo Hutton, published in 2005. The author of this short paperback had a stroke in 1992, but gives many tips that are still relevant to recovery from an event that adversely affects the brain, and therefore, specific body functions– that commonly impair one side of the body.

In recent decades, a huge amount of attention has been paid, and money spent on research for: raising awareness of stroke prevention and symptoms, treatment, and the introduction of products to make activities of daily living easier for stroke patients.

The author briefly discussed the neurological effects of a stroke, which are on a continuum; every patient is different. She explained that “constraint-induced therapy” helps a patient’s brain transmit messages through alternate neurological routes through the unaffected side of the body.

The author listed the common frustrations and situations recoverers might encounter:

  • feeling overwhelmed by everyday decisions, such as product-selections while shopping (in the United States, especially!);
  • loquaciousness upon regaining the ability to speak;
  • linguistic impairments such as usage of expletives in speech due to groping for the correct word– even for patients who wouldn’t normally utter them, or inability to understand idioms;
  • personality change;
  • seeing specific items in certain situations that prompts crying or laughing at inappropriate times due to damage to the visual association cortex.

The author recommended keeping aspirin in the freezer to help keep it fresh, if one is taking it.

Read the book to learn a slew of other useful tips for facilitating dealing with: the emotional problems arising from bodily impairments, getting around, communicating, cooking, eating, taking care of the home and one’s body, etc., etc, etc.

Featured

American Mirror – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “American Mirror, The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell” by Deborah Solomon, published in 2013.

Born in February 1894 in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan in New York City, Rockwell was an illustrator known for his engaging scenes of ordinary Americans in a kind, lighthearted, innocent time.

The attitude of the United States was forced to change with WWII. FDR speechified about Four Freedoms: of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear. In 1943, Rockwell was tasked with creating images on posters (to promote the sale of War Bonds) that portrayed the freedoms; during which, he helped shape the image of “Rosie the Riveter.” In this way, Rockwell developed a reputation as a patriotic artist who reinforced America’s values, that contrasted with the values of America’s enemies.

Read the book to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Rockwell’s life and career.

ENDNOTE: The 2024 presidential candidates should be asked to explain what they will do to preserve the above Four Freedoms in these modern times. Ironically, freedom of speech is what allows propagandists to whip the public into a frenzy of fear (!)

The freedom from fear directly stems from the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights that, arguably, the U.S. government violates daily, in this electronic age. President George W. Bush pushed for decriminalizing spying on American citizens via Congressional approval of the Patriot Act– a set of federal statutes separate from those contained in the U.S. Constitution. In the past forty years, the following presidents have been accused of a significant number of crimes in the following major categories:

  • war-related crimes: Reagan, H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush;
  • treason-related crimes: Reagan, G.W. Bush, Trump, Biden;
  • financial-related crimes: H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush, Trump, Biden;
  • sex-related crimes: Clinton, Trump, Biden

It shouldn’t be surprising that Obama’s name is absent from the above. He needed to avoid egregiously unethical behavior because, given his skin color, not only his political enemies, but also hatemongers— witch-hunted his and his family’s history and every move 24/7.

The question for the 2024 election is:

Is the country ready for another variation on the Caucasian Christian/Catholic male presidents– in terms of ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation?

Featured

Nice Guys Finish Last

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The Book of the Week is “Nice Guys Finish Last” by Leo Durocher with Ed Linn, published in 1975.

Durocher was born in 1906 in West Springfield, Massachusetts. He began his baseball career playing utility infielder for the New York Yankees in 1925. He developed a reputation as a contentious alpha male. Branch Rickey, one of his bosses through the decades, said he was a “… man with infinite capacity for immediately making a bad situation worse.”

Durocher squandered his initial $5,000 annual salary on clothing, food and nightclubs in New York City. Always in debt, he was a pool-hall hustler, too. But everyone wanted to be seen with him, as his social set consisted of celebrities who lived life in the fast lane.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked Notes, Sources, References, and Bibliography) professional baseball culture for most of the twentieth century was mean-of-spirit, with alcohol-fueled violence. Team personnel such as Durocher were always thinking of new dirty tricks to win games.

Durocher admitted to trash-talking to batters to psych them out so his team’s pitcher would strike them out. Players suffered injuries galore due to lack of protective gear that would minimize or prevent injuries; batters especially suffered, as team-managers told their pitchers to deliberately hit batters with their pitching.

If hit, the batter was awarded the equivalent of a single as compensation. Durocher wrote, “I once saw Diz [pitcher Dizzy Dean] hit seven straight Giants [the baseball team players] in Miami early in the exhibition season, because the Giants had the nerve to score seven runs off him in one inning.” Finally, in 1940 (!), team-executive Larry MacPhail of the Brooklyn Dodgers ordered his players to wear plastic batting-helmets. This, after batter Joe Medwick was knocked out by a pitch by Bob Bowman of the Saint Louis Cardinals.

Durocher claimed that during the time he managed the Dodgers, MacPhail “fired” him zillions of times in the mid-1930’s, but most of the time, didn’t really mean it, until a tipping point was reached. As is well known, from the 1970’s into the 1980’s, the “You’re fired” situation became a running joke between Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and team manager Billy Martin, in order to entertain baseball fans.

Read the book to learn of other similar episodes, and trials and tribulations Durocher faced in his career (hint– major issues included his own newspaper column; the ongoing hostilities between the Yankees and the Dodgers; the media’s anti-Durocher lies and smears in its baseball reporting; punishments imposed by a few baseball commissioners over the years for alleged libel committed by, and gambling among, members of the ball clubs managed by Durocher; and a few of the colorful characters whom Durocher recruited and managed) and more. Curiously, Durocher failed to mention performance-enhancing drugs.

Anyway, speaking of contentious alpha males, here’s some advice for voters in this ditty concerning the 2024 candidates.

SHOW, NOT TELL

sung to the tune of “Express Yourself” (Official Video) with apologies to Madonna.

[spoken] C’mon America, do you want to see substance and quality in 2024? Of course you have something to SAY about it. That is how we roll.

Ignore the candidates’ bragfest, people.
Feel FREE to put them to the test.
You know, you know you’ve got to make them disPENSE with their spiel.
We want to KNOW their positions for REAL.

Politicians PULL the strings and THEY reap all the gold.

Their eight-year plan is way too vast.

You know, that never lasts, no, no.

What we need is a maTURE public-servant whose policies are smart and sound.
What we usually GET is a king on a throne, who’s abOVE the law and brings us down.

Ignore the candidates’ bragfest, people.
Feel FREE to put them to the test.
You know, you know you’ve got to make them disPENSE with their spiel.
We want to KNOW their positions for REAL.

Deep tax cuts are the way to your heart, but they treat you like an airHEAD. No, budget plans are NOT romantic. We’re hypoCRITically in the red.

Well, there’s no FREE lunch in life, it is TIME for the nation to move ON. Govern-ment should give you chances, but you’ve got to CRE-ate wealth on-your-OWN.

Ignore the candidates’ bragfest, people.
Feel FREE to put them to the test.
You know, you know you’ve got to make them disPENSE with their spiel.
We want to KNOW their positions for REAL.

De-STRESS yourselves. You’ve got to make them SHOW, not tell. Hey, hey, hey, hey.
To distinguish the greats, make them have the debates.
Show what they’ve GOT. We’ll see the best of the lot.

After all, you won’t reGRET it. Think about how much support they deserve.
If they don’t deserve it, they shouldn’t get it.
It’s YOU they should serve. So please

Show themselves. Show themselves. Hey, hey.

What we need is a maTURE public servant whose policies are smart and sound.
What we usually GET is a king on a throne, who’s above the law and brings us down.

After all, you won’t reGRET it. Think about how much support they deserve.
If they don’t deserve it, they shouldn’t get it.
It’s YOU they should serve. So please

Ignore the candidates’ bragfest, people.
Feel FREE to put them to the test.
You know, you know you’ve got to make them disPENSE with their spiel.
We want to KNOW their positions for REAL.

De-STRESS yourselves. You’ve got to make them SHOW, not tell. Hey, hey, hey, hey.
To distinguish the greats, make them have the debates.
Show what they’ve GOT. We’ll see the best of the lot.

SHOW themselves. SHOW themselves. Hey, hey.

To distinguish the greats, make them have the debates.
Show what they’ve GOT. We’ll see the best of the lot.

De-STRESS yourselves. ReSPECT yourselves…

Featured

Just About Everybody vs. Howard Hughes

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The Book of the Week is “Just About Everybody vs. Howard Hughes, The Inside Story of The TWA-Howard Hughes Trial” by David B. Tinnin, published in 1973.

In the 1930’s, Howard Hughes inherited his father’s oil-industry-equipment company, Toolco, which sold a unique, patented, lucrative drill. By the early 1950’s, Hughes had become a pilot passionate about acquiring jets (whose engines had technology that was obsolescing pistons) for his airline, TWA. He was an alpha male whose desire for control of his company led to decades of complex litigation involving age-old economic and political issues.

As American society became ever more capitalistic in the Postwar Era, businessmen hired more and more attorneys to wield more and more power and influence. They sought to change the tax laws to make more and more money.

Hughes was a victim of his own success in that he was using highly leveraged, deficit financing to purchase the new jets through his Toolco. Into the 1950’s, individuals (rather than their companies or employers) were the ones responsible for debts if they needed to borrow money for their businesses. This economic condition has come full circle with tech startups.

Hughes borrowed from banks and insurance companies, but by the late 1950’s, his debt was so high, they refused to give him special treatment. He used dirty tricks (which arguably weren’t illegal but were unethical, at best) to order jets from a few different suppliers.

Hughes’ incestuous business transactions generated an escalation of commitment among various parties, who were averse to losing even more money if they withdrew from their ongoing deals with him. Need it be said, there is nothing new under the son (or sun– either one). In the early 1960’s, his creditors terminated his borrowing privileges and created a voting trust that took control of TWA. Neither side wanted to see TWA go bankrupt. There were, of course, other wrenches in the works, which are too numerous to mention here.

The orgy of litigation resulting from Hughes’ business activities triggered a very controversial legal and economic issue. Hughes owned 78.23% of the voting stock of TWA, which was financially affiliated with his Toolco. At that time, TWA shares were not owned by the general public. His side argued that he should be allowed to control his companies as he saw fit, because he had a controlling interest in them. On the other hand, he really didn’t own them– his creditors did!

Besides that, if TWA went belly-up, there would be far-reaching economic consequences for many stakeholders. All employees of TWA would lose their jobs, competing airlines would benefit financially, contractors supplying jets and their parts to TWA would lose a customer, Hughes’ lenders would lose megabucks, etc., etc., etc.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked Notes, Sources, References, and Bibliography), in June 1961, the big lawsuit initially launched in federal court in the Southern District of New York against Hughes was named TWA v. Howard Hughes. TWA charged Hughes with making special deals with third parties that led to financial harm for TWA. He tried to keep competing airlines from buying jets he wanted for TWA, through monopolistic practices.

BUT, due to disastrous losses (from a downturn in air travel that prompted proposals of various airline mergers, and his tax-evasion tricks), Hughes chose to cancel a portion of jet orders for TWA. Under his crushing debt load, he couldn’t afford to pay for all of his purchases. So the airline couldn’t stay competitive in the commercial airline industry. Other airlines were purchasing jets sooner at lower cost. Hughes’ series of attorneys through the years, of course used all manner of shenanigans (through: filing a blizzard of documents with creative legal arguments, counter-suing and appealing rulings) to delay the case.

One last-minute development that aided Hughes’ attorney before Hughes would be charged with contempt of court yet again, was a curious January 1963 Supreme Court ruling regarding jurisdiction in connection with a monopolistic entity. There was a little federal agency called the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), that had been regulating the airlines. The attorney repeatedly tried to get the case against Hughes dismissed– by arguing that CAB, rather than a federal court, should have been trying Hughes’ case.

Read the book to learn every last detail of this suspenseful story that spawned reams of tabloid fodder, but also greatly impacted the legal, economic and tax cultures of corporate America.

Featured

Behind the Candelabra

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The Book of the Week is “Behind the Candelabra, My Life With Liberace” by Scott Thorson with Alex Thorleifson, published in 1988.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in May 1919, the pianist who became known as Liberace (he used his family’s last name as his stage name) had three younger siblings. The father abandoned the family when he was an adolescent. However, Liberace was his mother’s favorite. Upon seeing that he had piano-playing talent, she had him practicing all the time, instead of socializing with his peers. She also practiced spousification. He began to get paid for his musicianship at fourteen, playing with a band in saloons.

Piano concerts were only the setting for Liberace’s performances. His witty verbal jousts, audience participation, makeup, ten or more changes of glittery costumes, jewelry galore, and flamboyant props and sets– were par for the course.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked an extensive list of detailed sources, and an index), Liberace was very emotionally needy. Once he became rich and developed Peter Pan syndrome, he felt the need to flaunt his high-on-the-hog lifestyle. As an adult, he became a father figure to a series of young males one at a time (but also had an army of servants), sharing his wealth and material possessions with them. However, he was the controller of the relationships, and would break up with them when they expressed too much desire for independence.

At the dawn of his twenties, Scott Thorson met Liberace and became his personal assistant in the summer of 1977. Thorson had suffered through a difficult childhood in a series of foster homes. He soon became Liberace’s surrogate son, and learned of the pianist’s excesses. He enjoyed his new role at first, as his interests meshed with his boss’s. They cared for pet dogs and horses, shopped for and wore elaborate clothing, ate sumptuous meals, met other celebrities, and traveled in style to go on tour.

Their first Christmas together, Thorson was tasked with purchasing holiday merchandise. He wrote, “That year, we had eighteen huge Christmas trees [in Liberace’s mansions in Las Vegas and Palm Springs CA, at a cost of $25,000], more than 350 red and white poinsettias, table decorations, greenery, wreaths– enough candles, lights, and tinsel to stock a department store.”

Read the book to learn of Thorson’s fate: when Liberace asked him to make a serious physical sacrifice; and how Thorson handled the responsibilities and stresses of living with a celebrity such as Liberace– with its many kinds of orgies, including those of litigation in the end.

Featured

Our House – BONUS POST

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Here’s a little ditty that summarizes events of the past week or so in the United States House of Representatives.

OUR HOUSE

sung to the tune of “Our House” with apologies to “Madness” (the band).

McCarthy sold-his-SOUL, feeling pressed.

Reps are tired, they need a rest.

The committees are plotting beHIND closed doors.

The Caucus’s power took a LEAP. [ah-ah-ah]

Biden holds an olive branch, his legacy is now.

Our House, in the middle of the heat.

Our House, in the middle of the–

The Caucus was uncowed.

Males are always power-struggling and they’re usually quite proud.

The Speaker went-fifTEEN-rounds.

Only concessions slowed him down but defeat was not allowed.

Our House, in the middle of the heat.
Our House, in the middle of the–

Our House, in the middle of the heat.

Our House [Tabloids tell us that the radicals took hold of it.]

in the middle of the–

McCarthy rejected-the-Jan.-6 panel’s work.

His base didn’t know, whom to desert.

Then he wanted to probe the probers.

See him long-to-stay where Trump’s YOKE is. [ah ah ah]

Pelosi’s the one they’re going to miss in lots of ways.

Our House, in the middle of the heat.
Our House, in the middle of the–

[I remember way back when, men had honor

and the world didn’t have so very MANY spies.

No more PRIvate lives.

Such a FREE time.

And I remember how we’d live, simply face to face,

used our brains.

Software wouldn’t come between us.

No Tweeters.]

McCarthy sold-his-SOUL, feeling pressed.
Reps are tired, they need a rest.
The committees are plotting beHIND closed doors.
The Caucus’s power took a LEAP. [ah-ah-ah]
Biden holds an olive branch, his legacy is now.

Our House, in the middle of the heat.

Our House, in the middle of the heat.

Our House, in the middle of the heat.

Our House, in the middle of the–

Our House, we need IT for demo-cracy.

Our House, in the middle of the heat.

Our House, that is where some people sleep.

Our House…

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Black Box Thinking

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The Book of the Week is “Black Box Thinking, Why Most People Never Learn From Their Mistakes– But Some Do” by Matthew Syed, published in 2015. This volume attempted to answer the question: “How does failure-denial become so deeply entrenched in human minds and systems?”

The author described two ways of thinking:

1. Some people believe their abilities are fixed, so they won’t improve with practice. They have fear of failure, and make excuses and / or blame others for their failures.

2. Other people believe they can get better with practice, and they are honest about admitting they have made errors. They learn from them. Success is achieved only through trial and error, hard work and persistence.

Number 1 above is also described in the following quote from Bertrand Russell: “There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.” Yet another way of putting it is “hubris syndrome.”

Two of America’s recent presidents– George W. Bush and Donald Trump– were this kind of thinker. According to the author’s thesis, they succeeded against the odds (if success is defined as getting elected president), considering that they were blind to their own character flaws.

BUT– their common beginnings saw them through: They both began with the special advantages of inheriting money, mentors, lawyers, and valuable career and political contacts. They proceeded to fail upwards until they reached their peak “Peter principle” level, kind of like the joke: How do you make a small fortune in Israel? Answer: Come with a large one.

The author drew parallels between the topic-areas of aviation and healthcare delivery. These involve life-and-death scenarios when things go extremely wrong. However, that is where the similarities stop. People who have shaped the evolution of aviation have built up a knowledge-base that has served to produce lower and lower death tolls when catastrophes have occurred; powerful, influential people working in healthcare have been stubbornly resistant to adopting measures that would result in a drastic reduction in unnecessary deaths.

The author cited real-life examples from Great Britain and the United States. But there are other major reasons why his comparison is mostly invalid. These involve lawsuits, unions, government regulations and the political climate at the time of the disasters, and the following:

Obviously, workers in aviation have more of an incentive to improve safety, because in a disaster, many more people might die all at once in a plane crash, compared to the one patient on an operating table or examination table. Even if members of the flight crew survive a disaster, their careers are likely over. Even when doctors are at fault, they usually continue their careers.

The author discussed the pros and cons of just-culture versus blame-culture. He described the latter thusly: “It may be intellectually satisfying to have a culprit, someone to hang their disaster on. And it certainly makes life simple.”

The author recounted how a public-relations campaign can fool even intelligent people into believing a particular method of crime-prevention among young people, works wonders. The only way to debunk such a myth is through numerous Randomized Control Trials.

Read the book to learn about additional concepts surrounding psychological self-deceptions that humans employ in order to avoid admitting failures: cognitive dissonance, narrative fallacy, top-down versus bottom-up product development, various biases, and others.

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The Courage to Survive – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “The Courage to Survive” by Dennis J. Kucinich, published in 2007. This raw, emotional, personal story was similar to those of: journalist Joe Queenan (Closing Time), and teacher Tara Westover (Educated).

Born in October 1946 in Cleveland, the author had a difficult childhood in an ever-growing, poverty-stricken family. His mother was of Irish ancestry; his father, Croatian. The latter was a mean, physically abusive drunk. In his daily life, the author was fortunate to receive guidance and life-lessons from community role models such as his parents, teachers, coaches, his many relatives, (Catholic) priests, godparents, etc.

Nevertheless, the author’s take on life by the time he reached his teens was as follows: “The violence I witnessed at home percolated … I was ready to unleash it, but not in the street… What do you do when you are a kid and you feel violent? Do you look in your neighborhood for people to beat up? Do you vandalize? Do you just plain raise hell?”

More and more in America, such young males who feel like powder kegs pick up firearms and shoot innocent strangers or rival gang members, or engage in cyber attacks and fraud. Instead, if they are lucky– their anger is channeled into competitive sports, the military, performing arts, or politics.

Read the book to learn about the forces that shaped the author’s start in politics.

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Sandworm

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The Book of the Week is “Sandworm, A New Era of Cyberwar and the hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers” by Andy Greenberg, published in 2019. In this eye-opening volume, the author provided the backstory (out of chronological order, in a confusing, cherry-picked way) on how and why Russia has become the world’s biggest disrupter of society yet again through a new method. “Sandworm” refers to the Russian hackers who perpetrated cyberattacks. The author implied that knocking out power grids was one new way to destabilize target nations. But this is NOT a new idea.

Anyway, as is well known, in recent decades, for various reasons, Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, ordered his military to attack Estonia (in 1999 and later), Georgia in 2008 (yes, Soviet Georgia– not the American state), and Ukraine. These offensives were accomplished not just on the ground, but also through technology. Ukraine’s election process and electric power were both seriously damaged through the Internet.

In the United States, various federal agencies fight for the power to set policy on the country’s cybersecurity: FBI, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security; plus the U.S. military, North American Electric Reliability Corporation, and SANS Institute.

During the George W. Bush administration, America and Israel started a secret project to develop virulent malware that could wreak cyberwar on their enemies, but whose main purpose was to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons.

During the Obama administration, a young, bright Air Force officer was hired to build a cyber-security department from the ground up, within the NSA. However, he got disgusted with the abusive hierarchy of the American military, as new recruits’ talent was wasted because the status quo dictated that they pay their dues.

Meanwhile, after years of work, investigators found evidence that the Russians were to blame for penetrating America’s technology infrastructure in 2016. Even conservative radio-show host Rush Limbaugh jumped on the bandwagon, saying, “It was an acrylic [sic] keyboard!” [He meant Cyrillic].

In 2017, Britain’s National Health Service was disabled via malicious software code that demanded a small amount of bitcoins as ransom. Other entities hit included a German railway, a Russian bank , colleges in China, police departments in India, and malware called “NotPetya” that did a number on Ukrainian civilians who were really inconvenienced in living their everyday lives.

In sum, it’s deju vu all over again in terms of a Cold War arms race involving Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and the U.S. This time, though, the weapon is technology and the threats are made by numerous worldwide terrorist cells who can hack a target’s infrastructure and its political system (like with online voting in Arizona and Illinois) whenever their territory’s leader commands them to do so. Another difference is that the kinds of cyberattacks seen thus far are akin to one aspect of Nazism: sowing social unrest (rather than killing people; not that the Nazis didn’t also do that) to bring a nation down. Damage done by psychological harassment from foul play via the Internet is economically incalculable and extremely difficult to regulate because it is international.

As is well known, through the twentieth century into the new millennium, information sources evolved from newspapers, magazines, books, and radio, to television, cable television, and then the Internet. Currently, Google and social media can serve as news aggregators, but more often, they are for-profit propaganda tools, just like all the aforementioned media. Most Americans think of movies as entertainment rather than as a source of news or education, but in the Postwar Era, they have also become for-profit propaganda tools.

But take heart, America! There is at least one area of optimism that will help this country’s democracy continue:

Compared to now, there was as much as or even more social unrest in this country in 1968. Before and after, the nation suffered through two dictatorial presidents in a row— LBJ and Nixon– who were recruiting all men of military age; many against their will, to fight in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in a war that was extremely expensive in so many ways. They sowed social unrest among their own people. America has not had two such presidents in a row since.

Even so, LBJ was kind of schizophrenic because he helped pass major civil-rights legislation. However, his ego wouldn’t let him order a stop to the war. Nixon went all-out on lies and deception, wreaking vicious political vengeance on his perceived enemies because he didn’t think he’d ever get punished. As journalist P.J. O’Rourke commented, beginning in the mid-1960’s, the Baby Boomers threw “a decade-long temper tantrum.” But now, their generation is wise to political shenanigans of decades past.

In 1972, voter apathy was so severe that Nixon was reelected in a landslide. Nowadays, voter turnout is at an all-time high. This is cause for celebration. Americans are starting to understand why voting is so important: it shows they believe in the democratic process (regardless of for whom they vote). A significant number of voters are required in order for democracy to work. When a dictatorial leader senses the people aren’t paying attention to what he’s doing, he will take advantage of that to acquire more power. He’s more likely to do the people’s will when he sees their anger is close to reaching critical mass.

On that note, read the book to learn much more about the author’s alarmist take on the global cybersecurity situation.

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The Emergency

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The Book of the Week is “The Emergency, A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in A Chicago ER” by Thomas Fisher, published in 2022.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, friendly bedside manner disappeared in the Emergency Room of the author’s employer, a medical center affiliated with the University of Chicago, on Chicago’s South Side. The author, a medical doctor, was tasked with judging whether to put newly arrived patients on ventilators.

Already a stressful place, the Emergency Department was put under excessive tension when an edict was issued that everyone entering the building was required to cover his or her mouth and nose (with any old piece of germy fabric or a plastic shield; most wore the fabric). The authorities perpetuated the scientifically questionable assertion that covering one’s face (with anything) would stem the spread of disease.

BUT, requiring the country’s entire population to wear medical masks would be impractical and unenforceable. There wouldn’t be enough medical masks for everyone; meaning, masks that would filter one’s toxic exhalations, allow one to breathe relatively easily, while presumably, disallowing most germs from entering and exiting one’s mouth and nose. So, instead, across the country, there was rampant abuse of power by numerous officials in controlling the population with petty, dishonest mask-orders.

Anyway, a nearby Chicago hospital had no more ventilators, and another had only three on hand. A patient might not have COVID, but still might be struggling to breathe because she had heart failure from postpartum cardiomyopathy. The author decided to treat a young patient such as this one with magnesium, additional Lasix and nitroglycerin instead of a ventilator, because she would be more likely to survive than an older patient in poor health who had severe COVID.

“Still, too many physicians and scientists accept that the inequities around us emerge from inside the body we treat, rather than in relation to prevailing societal structures or systems… But it is society that shapes the population-wide patterns we see.”

This volume presented, in a series of anecdotes on the patients admitted and treated by the author, reasons why this country desperately needs NATIONAL HEALTHCARE. It is the right thing to do at this time in history. Other reasons can be found in this blog’s posts:

Morphine, Ice Cream, and Tears. (sic); Chasing My Cure; Clinging to the Wreckage; and I Shall Not Hate.

Read the book to learn of the physical and psychological traumas suffered by not just patients, but also caregivers, that could be prevented or minimized by improving policies in national healthcare in the United States.

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Dr. Folkman’s War

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The Book of the Week is “Dr. Folkman’s War, Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer” by Robert Cooke, published in 2001.

In the 1970’s, Judah Folkman was a competent surgeon and a very popular professor at Harvard Medical School, but his first love was medical research. He hypothesized about why and how a tumor grows. He inferred that blood vessels grow toward a tumor, but was unable to provide proof for a very long time. He was ostracized for having this radical idea, so he had difficulty attracting enthusiastic graduate students to assist him, and with getting funding for his research.

Traditionally, university medical studies in laboratories had been funded by government grants. Profiteering from patents and medical products resulting from research was considered sleazy in scientific circles. In 1974, Harvard broke the taboo and partnered with the large, profit-making organization called Monsanto.

Even after receiving generous funding, Dr. Folkman worked around the clock simply because making new medical discoveries requires months or years of blood, sweat and tears. The materials required to do experiments can be expensive, messy, odorous and pose unanticipated problems. For a while, Folkman’s lab was working with vast quantities of cow and shark meat (and other obscure, problematic materials) because the animals’ cartilage contains no blood vessels.

Even after the doctor’s studies yielded exciting breakthroughs, media articles influenced the medical community and the public in ways that were harmful to Folkman’s research operations. There were even accusations of fraud against him. It turned out that in his team’s haste to treat cancer patients, many errors were made. Time was of the essence, and procedures for organized data collection were lacking. Folkman wasn’t deliberately trying to deceive anyone.

Folkman was a rare bird in that he was quite altruistic with his time and talents. His patience and persistence allowed him to ignore his detractors and the naysayers (most of whom were jealous). He eventually acquired an area of expertise that not only spawned a new way of thinking about cancer treatment, but also led to treatments for other medical conditions, and whole new industries, including biotech. He also helped shatter a myth in cancer treatment. But this additional idea of Folkman’s still might not be fully accepted in oncology circles (due to GREED), even two decades after the writing of this book.

This is what he learned: The approach to cancer-drug delivery to a tumor of:

“low [dosage] and slow [buildup over the long-term]” was shown to be superior to

“might makes right” and come in with guns blazing; in the past, it was hoped that immediate, large doses would eliminate the tumor before metastasis, and before the patient died from the deaths of too many healthy cells that were also killed in the process.

In other words: The patient’s treatment should begin with a low drug dosage, and if that proves ineffective, increase the dosage gradually until it is effective. Folkman’s experiences with patients showed that that was the successful way to go, and he even saw a few miraculous cures.

Read the book to learn many more details on Folkman’s trials and tribulations and the reasons for them, and what transpired when he finally found vindication.

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Did Elon Musk Lose Your Favor – BONUS POST

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As is well known, the messaging-clutter in the United States has reached a screaming crescendo. Here’s a question in connection with the tenor of the times.

DID ELON MUSK LOSE YOUR FAVOR

sung to the tune of “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor” [1961 Hits Archive] with apologies to the estate of Lonnie Donegan.

Oh [bleep], oh [bleep], oh you.
Whatever shall we do?
And YET one more bleep.
The question is so deep.
At stake is big-time dough.
Politicos want to know,
the pollsters’ Twitter question:
Is it yes or is it no?

Did E-LON Musk lose your favor by poor judgement overnight?
If the critics say just quit it,
do you keep your account in spite?
Do you seek out all the radicals?
Do you follow the Left or Right?
Did E-LON Musk lose your favor by poor judgement overnight?

Here he COMES with excessive pride.
His atTORNeys by his side.
THOSE lies and smears
everywhere are stoking fears
that our country could be wrecked.
But free speech is guaranteed,
and as Musk has trouble with control, he wants to take the LEAD.

Did E-LON Musk lose your favor by poor judgement overnight?
If the critics say just quit it,
do you keep your account in spite?
Do you seek out all the radicals?
Do you follow the Left or Right?
Did E-LON Musk lose your favor by poor judgement overnight?

Now the nation’s split in two.
Democracy will come through,
at every level, yeah, every single level.
Each side keeps the other in check.
We do it with Big Tech.
The most influential voices keep the candidates neck and neck.

If a price tag’s made of a price,
what’s a hashtag made of? [Boom, boom]

Did E-LON Musk lose your favor by poor judgement overnight?
If the critics say just quit it,
do you keep your account in spite?
Do you seek out all the radicals?
Do you follow the Left or Right?
Did E-LON Musk lose your favor by poor judgement overnight?

By poor judgement overnight?

You’re the best, and Twitter loves you, and it wants to make things right.
It’s going to be the most trendy, uncensored social media site.

By poor judgement overnight?

A spade is a spade and
a fact is a fact.
He’d sing another chorus but
he’s afraid of getting hacked.

By poor judgement overnight? Yeah!

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The Vortex

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The Book of the Week is “The Vortex, A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation” by Scott Carney and Jason Miklian, published in 2022. This multi-faceted story involved a massive number of deaths due to (cue the dramatic music): the Great Bhola cyclone (what would be called a hurricane in the Western Hemisphere), a cholera epidemic, dictatorial political shenanigans, atrocities and genocide; plus heroic international aid workers who were horribly hindered in their disaster-relief efforts. Sorry, no romantic subplot– this wasn’t a movie; all of this actually happened within the space of about three years. But at the end, there was the founding of a new nation, called Bangladesh.

Even decades after geographic separation of various religious and ethnic groups into: A) India, and B) a sovereignty of two discrete land masses (East and West) that comprised newly formed Pakistan in 1947– hostility still reigned. In Pakistan, anger and resentment simmered between the Muslim Punjabis in West Pakistan who spoke Urdu, and the Hindu Bengalis in East Pakistan (which became Bangladesh), who spoke their own language.

In the mid-1960’s, general Ayub (“Yahya”) Khan, who became Pakistan’s leader in 1969 [For more information, see this blog’s post, “The Rape of Bangla Desh”], ordered Pakistan’s military to attack India. The United States imposed economic sanctions on both Pakistan and India for childishly fighting. Pakistan allied with China. India allied with the then-USSR.

In August 1969, American president Richard Nixon tapped Yahya to be the contact to introduce him to China’s leader Mao Tse Tung. In exchange, Yahya wanted to purchase arms for Pakistan. Nixon violated the then-arms embargo against Pakistan to sell it armored personnel carriers and B-57 bombers.

In 1970, there occurred a quantum leap in hurricane-forecasting technology what with a new satellite called ITOS 1 that gathered real-time data on the Northern Hemisphere for the National Hurricane Center. Nevertheless, because they had no clue a storm was coming (the new forecasting technology had yet to reach Central Asia), almost all local residents drowned when the Great Bhola cyclone hit the delta near Manpura island in November 1970. A month later, fifty million Pakistanis were voting for the first time in their lives.

A few months later, American weapons were killing the Bengali people. Nixon was supporting Yahya. The latter’s military leader whipped up a Nazi-level frenzy of hatred against the Hindus, massacring them with .50 caliber machine guns and destroying– via American M-24 Chaffee tanks, jeeps and F-86 jets– key communication, political, educational and law enforcement structures in the city of Dacca in East Pakistan.

Unsurprisingly, all of the above was accompanied by a boatload of radio propaganda put out by Yahya’s side. But later, radio broadcasts helped the Bengalis. Anyway, Nixon aided and abetted Yahya in various additional ways to achieve his own political aims. Refugees fled to India, and where, counterintuitively, military camps trained Bengalis (technically Pakistanis) to resist the Pakistan Army. Indians had always been sworn enemies of Pakistanis. Still, it was in India’s best interest to see the Bengalis win the war and break up Pakistan.

There have occurred countless historical tapestries such as the aforementioned in which a complex bunch of circumstances resulted in millions of deaths; one thing led to another. The authors argued that the especially severe cyclone played a major role in giving scheming politicians an excuse to abuse their power even more. They asserted that more severe storms are occurring due to the earth’s changing atmosphere, and such natural disasters in turn trigger a series of events that increase global conflicts.

BUT, arguably, global conflicts have waxed and waned throughout history, regardless of natural disasters. There are four major causes of global conflicts (that are present in different combinations):

  • fighting over limited (and /or exploited) resources;
  • tribal hatreds;
  • religious hatreds; and
  • territorial disputes.

Present-day events (!) have shown that humanity is making slow, slow, slow progress towards a total net amount of good versus evil on earth– even with all the advances in early-warning systems for disasters and the striving for more widespread humanitarian activities. Cases in point: once-Communist countries have changed for the better in certain ways in the last thirty years, and there is less colonialism in the world than there used to be.

Unfortunately, advances in technology and charitable aid still trigger profiteering and political exploitation with their attendant propaganda. Alpha males with hubris syndrome with their greed and power-hunger still rule most of the world. Bottom line: human nature doesn’t change, but globally, human beings overall, are evolving.

Anyway, read the book to learn many more story-details, involving: how Nixon (and his evil sidekick Kissinger) came extremely close to instigating a nuclear war against the USSR in the Bay of Bengal; the fates of various political and military leaders; and the hapless common people of Pakistan, and the aid workers who passionately tried to help them.

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The Education of A Speculator

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The Book of the Week is “The Education of A Speculator” by Victor Niederhoffer, published in 1997.

Born in 1943 in Brooklyn in New York City, the author sorted “market advisers and investment newsletter writers” into eight different categories, providing a brief description of their behaviors or personality traits. He classified himself as “The Other World Person” because he ignored the overpaid noisemakers and distractions of conventional media outlets that purported to convey information on which securities to buy, sell, or avoid.

The author’s two data sources for his commodities, currency trading and investing ideas consisted of the National Enquirer and his research results from testing all kinds of variables in statistics-calculations of past securities-market data using software. No other sources.

The mid-1990’s saw great advances in statistics software modeling that could process scads and scads of data; hence, market players could erroneously use past performance of investment vehicles faster than ever before for predictive purposes to help themselves and others lose their money faster than ever before. And those advances might have played a part in the scandals and financial crashes that have occurred with alarmingly increasing frequency in the last thirty years. Big Tech’s and Big Media’s incestuous oligopolies (fraught with political donations) just keep getting more hegemonic, so that power and money keep feeding on themselves ad infinitum. Globalization is yet another wrench in the works.

At the book’s writing, global trade had been maturing for decades, but capitalism was still in its infancy in many territories of the world; particularly in ones that were becoming politically democratic again, or for the first time in their histories. Many European countries were in the process of adopting cooperation rather than competition in their financial and economic dealings. A large proportion of them even voted to use one currency among them. The United States kept to itself, but more and more people around the world were starting to trade or invest in foreign securities, currencies and governmental financial entities, so chain reactions occurred more and more.

The Federal Reserve (aka Fed) has always been a major influence on America’s financial markets. The author contended that the Fed was just as clueless as the rest of the country about what effects its making of rate-adjustments would have on the nation’s economy. It is currently just as clueless. But its announcements are made with such confidence and arrogance, that a large number of their listeners are brainwashed into believing they are receiving valuable information.

The incumbents– known names pre-Internet–became the most influential voices in the financial sphere. The wiliest ones use propaganda techniques to paper over their wrong predictions. They never apologize for the losses stemming from their pronouncements. The walls of the author’s business office were lined with portraits of ones who had disastrous losses.

To be fair, the author himself told various anecdotes of his own failures. In 1992, he bought IBM stock for his own kids. That was an embarrassing mistake. He learned to cut his losses at a certain level of the total money he reinvested. And, he didn’t let his greed get out of control when he was winning.

The author was a champion squash player. One similarity between squash and speculating is externalities–opponents’ actions determine players’ actions in the game. So, for instance, in ten-pin bowling, there are no externalities. In squash, there are. In one college finals-match, the author moved his body in a way that tricked his opponent into thinking the ball was going to go in a certain direction, but it went the opposite way. Traders and investors play similar tricks in their communications in the financial markets. Conditions change rapidly so even the market propagandists’ winning streaks don’t last long.

The reason is:

First, independent thinkers make observations or find obscure data that works in making them money. Then software detects their trading tricks. So word gets around, and everyone else jumps on the bandwagon so that the advantage is lost.

Human beings want so badly— to believe they can predict the future, and love to fantasize about getting rich quick– that they tend to look for patterns and order where none exist. The author did provide one vast generalization that might be valuable, though. His statistical analysis between the years 1870 and 1995 inclusive showed that years ending in the digit 5 were good years, and those ending in 7 were bad, for the American stock markets. He didn’t speculate as to why.

However, politics is one major mover of markets, and the collective mood of the United States specifically, might be a bit more upbeat in years when political uncertainty is at a minimum. Presidents and other politicians begin or continue their terms during years ending in 5. The public might be unclear about their future policy directions, or weary of them by the years that end in 7.

Anyway, read the book to learn a boatload more about the author’s philosophy, his trials, tribulations and triumphs in the markets, his research results and comparisons between financial markets and: ecology, games and sports.

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The Six Days of Yad-Mordechai – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “The Six Days of Yad-Mordechai” by M. Larkin, originally published in 1965.

Passionate, mostly Polish Holocaust survivors who were able to make their way to the Gaza Strip in Palestine in late 1943 worked tirelessly to establish a new kibbutz called Yad-Mordechai. The socialistic ideal of their farm collective was this: “Since economic dependence upon the father was what gave him power, such dependence was abolished in their society.”

Still, the community fell short of total gender equality, as the males did the hard manual labor on the infrastructure; an all-male militia except for one female fought against attacking Egyptians, and females did all the food preparation and childcare.

In November 1947, a majority of United Nations (UN) members voted in favor of partitioning Palestine between an Arab state and a Jewish state. The situation was to become official in mid-May 1948, when the British were to withdraw its officials from Palestine. Arab countries broadcast propaganda that gave their fellow tribesmen the impression they were only temporarily evacuating their homes by that same deadline, and would eventually conquer the Jews and return to take over the entire strip of land that was slightly larger than the state of New Jersey.

The Yad Mordechai kibbutz just happened to be located in the Arab state. The Arabs refused to recognize the UN vote, and decided to fight the Jews for the entire territory. The villains of WWII– ex-Nazis and Italian Fascists, plus Lebanese, Egyptians, Syrians and Trans-Jordanians fought on behalf of the Arabs. The Jews had poorly equipped militias and intelligence cells called the Hagana, Palmach, Irgun and the Stern group.

Nevertheless, as of this writing, Wikipedia says this kibbutz still exists today, and its population is 737. It might be recalled that pure socialism thrived for a short time when the State of Israel was born. That was an extremely special exception, for the following major reasons; the kibbutzniks:

  • were forced to work together in order to survive in the desert, geographically surrounded by enemies;
  • were like-minded– oppressed for their religion– seeking a safe place in the world;
  • had a common goal bigger than themselves– building a country for themselves from the ground up– creating the political, social and cultural systems and infrastructure when everything was simple and their population was low;
  • had in common the shared, traumatic experience of WWII and/or the Holocaust; and
  • had substantial financial and military help from the United States.

Lo and behold, Yad Mordechai has since turned to capitalism to survive, selling certain brands of foods. However, the dangers of capitalism become apparent when financial scandals and crashes plague the nation due to EXCESSIVE DEREGULATION.

As is well known, there was consolidation through the 1980’s and 1990’s of the corporate auditing industry, and “Big Six” became the “Big Four” eventually, prompting businesses across the country to become even more incestuous (corrupt) in their relationships with their auditors.

In 1994, the big-name auditor Ernst & Young fired their in-house legal department and hired outside legal counsel. They must have been hiring employees from the competition, who brought a certain corporate culture to their legal department. In 2002, the Enron / Arthur Andersen scandal broke.

Certain wise folks can see a scandal coming. Like Ernst & Young. They don’t know exactly when it will hit the fan, but they know they don’t want to be there when it happens. James Baker of the Reagan administration was one of those sharp individuals. He switched positions with Donald Regan so that he would be far away when the Iran-Contra scandal became publicized.

In 2019, BB&T, a government bond broker, merged with Sun Trust Banks. Excessive deregulation can do wonders for the bottom lines (when they go hog-wild) of any profit-making organizations in the short term. BUT– it seems as though as the decades pass, financial-industry-players gain more and more experience in preventing lawsuits brought against them from their customers and clients by:

having the latter sign legal documents they never had to sign before, and placing disclaimers galore on all of their communications. The latest disturbing trend is for (previously low-risk) government-bond(!) brokers to do this.

Anyway, read the book to learn of the spirited beginnings, independence-warfare death toll and traumas suffered by the Yad Mordechai kibbutzniks, and their eventual fate. [And stay tuned for more traumas in the government bond market.]

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Extreme – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Extreme, My Autobiography” by Sharon Osbourne with Penelope Dening, published in 2005.

Born in October 1952 in the United Kingdom, Osbourne grew up in a dysfunctional family. In this volume, she revealed how her father– Don Arden– a music-industry executive got away with committing an excessive number of financial crimes. Basically, he never signed legally-binding contracts, but had his daughter and other members of his entourage sign them, so when it hit the fan, they were on the hook, not him. His contacts in high places did his bidding until his bullying and contentiousness wore thin and they abandoned him.

Arden bribed a U.S. senator to help Osbourne acquire a green card. She thus became a permanent resident of America and got a Social Security number so that he could commit tax evasion. Of course, he also hid his assets in offshore bank accounts, which the United States cannot outlaw. Her formal education ended when she quit high school in her sophomore year. So her limitations led her to join the family business. In her early twenties, she was so flattered that her father trusted her with important documents that she happily signed everything put in front of her.

Osbourne met her future husband Ozzy in the late 1970’s. He was the lead singer of the rock band, Black Sabbath. “The music business in those days was a boys’ club, fueled by cocaine and sexual favors. These were the days of payola and Mafia involvement…” But Osbourne would sooner get violent with the boys than give in to their advances or threats.

Read the book to learn many more details about the lives of Osbourne and her family, trials, tribulations and triumphs.

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Sandstorm

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The Book of the Week is “Sandstorm, Libya in the Time of Revolution” by Lindsey Hilsum, published in 2012.

Just prior to WWI, Libya was colonized by Italy in three sections, when the Ottoman Empire was in its death throes. Pursuant to where they live in Libya, various rivalrous tribes exhibit traits of the Middle East and Europe, or Africa. The country is located on the continent of Africa, but has major trade routes that go to the Middle East. Its population is about six million, and oil and gas supports its economy. Many of its people go overseas to attend university.

Beginning in 1959, big-name Italian, British and American companies negotiated agreements that allowed them access to newly discovered fossil fuels, and military training and weapons-testing grounds in the desert in Libya. In September 1969, Muammar Gaddafi became the new leader. He continued to impose one political-party rule (in place since 1952) and instituted one religion (Muslim). He punished political dissidents more harshly than Libya’s previous autocrat, King Idriss. But he made Libyans proud to be Arab. He took a swipe at the British by banning the English language in his country.

By the early 1970’s, Gaddafi’s actions were prompting brain drain and capital flight. His nation did need water, but he could have acquired it much less expensively and with a lot less trouble than he did. “It was one of man’s extravagant dreams, come true because no one dared counter him and too many were profiting from his grandiose visions.” In 1982, Gaddafi formed a political group that was allegedly going to fight against Imperialism, Zionism, Racism, Reactionism and Fascism.

As is par for the course for men such as Gaddafi, his enemies (such as the CIA and the king of Morocco) plotted assassination attempts against him. Smuggling guns and grenades into Tripoli and Benghazi were for nought, as the 1984 plotters were discovered and were killed. Through the last few decades of the twentieth century, the United States vacillated between allying with Gaddafi, and railing against him.

The Reagan administration railed against him. Gaddafi was strongly suspected to be the mastermind of the December 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103. That turned out to be a major historical incident that had worldwide repercussions. However, the tide turned through the 1990’s. George W. Bush wooed Gaddafi.

By the single-digit 2000’s in Libya, nepotism and tribalism had become crucial to survival. Families are comprised of multi-generational networks with tens of people on every level of the family tree. Disaffected, jobless young males became jihadists in Iraq, killing Americans in suicide bombings, as the terrorists had been brainwashed into expressing extreme hatred for the West.

Nevertheless, after 9/11, various nations such as Russia, Turkey and China were drooling over the money to be made in Libya in banking, accounting, construction, hotels, shipping, and of course, oil. But the U.S. held back (Bush was very conflicted) due to its complicated relationship with Israel.

As is well known, in February 2011, ordinary Libyans jumped on the “Arab Spring” bandwagon after Tunisia and Egypt. They used the worldwide forum of social media to publicly express their displeasure with their leader. Also, protesters personally gathered in Benghazi and Tobruk, and then farther east.

Gaddafi, distrustful of his own military, hired mercenaries from Algeria, Niger, Mali, Morocco and Burkina Faso to violently disperse crowds of youths standing around shouting slogans, as Internet access became unreliable. Gaddafi’s own military, angry at his disloyalty, turned against him. In Tripoli, attorneys formed a group to publicize human rights abuses, represent political prisoners, and start an underground resistance movement. Through the four decades Gaddafi stayed in power, he knew how to exploit discontent: bribing Muslims to build mosques and go on pilgrimages to Mecca.

Read the book to learn many more details about Gaddafi’s reign, including those relating to: shenanigans of his son Seif, and Bahrain, Qatar and Iran (hint: Everyone knew the UN arms embargo that applied to fighters on both sides was a joke.); his Green Book, Stalin-style purges, oil-industry machinations, propaganda campaigns and governmental policies; his contradictory stance on his nation’s female citizens; his providing of military training and arming of certain groups; and the reaction of certain countries of the world at his downfall.

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The Silent War

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The Book of the Week is “The Silent War, Inside the Global Business Battles Shaping America’s Future” by Ira Magaziner and Mark Patinkin, published in 1989. When Magaziner worked for Boston Consulting Group, he would conduct extensive research on industries, markets, businesses and people in order to generate reports that would presumably help his clients (consisting of big-name companies). He argued that America was economically falling behind the rest of the world because it was resisting global trade and because its federal government wasn’t financially assisting business and industry.

One time, in the mid-1970’s, Magaziner’s report’s conclusions contradicted those of his client, a big steel mill company. He asked where the executives got their information. Each one’s source material, “… was all the same– all based on one original study done a few years earlier by some professors.” The executives’ groupthink and herd mentality in relying on old, faulty data led to financial trouble for their industry.

In another case, in the late 1970’s, when General Electric partnered with Samsung to make microwave ovens, they struggled to arrive at the most profitable arrangement for both of them. One major cultural difference was that the South Koreans (unlike the Americans) worked sixty to eighty hour weeks because they believed in making sacrifices for future generations. Incidentally, they sent their children to universities in the United States to be educated, and taught them the value of hard work.

Obviously, Americans too, wanted better for their children, but their labor unions and a different mentality prevailed in their workforce. South Korea eventually became an economic powerhouse, not just with the help of American financial aid, but also through maximizing its exporting of goods.

In the 1960’s and thereafter, Singapore’s leader, Lee Kuan Yew, tried a few different territory-wide economic initiatives that failed. One included legislating a 10% wage increase for all workers. Foreign companies, with all the then-availability of sweatshop labor, simply moved their factories to Thailand and Malaysia, where workers were paid less so that goods could be produced more cheaply.

One successful economic program Yew executed was to train his citizens’ factory workers in connection with an Apple-Computer partnership in the 1980’s. The workers made the sacrifices to attend night-school (tuition-free) after a long day’s work two to three times a week, for two to three years. The benefit for the partnership was that the workers’ experience allowed them to submit innovative ideas to improve manufacturing efficiency. Again, in the United States at that time, labor unions discouraged new ideas lest workers automate themselves out of jobs. Which happened to them, anyway. But the non-unionized Singaporean workplace was such that workers weren’t laid off– they were retrained for higher-level positions.

Yet another reason the United States began to economically trail the rest of the world in the latter half of the twentieth century, was that its securities markets accelerated impatience in America’s corporate psyche. American industry became unwilling to finance and do the hard work of, continuing research and development and take a loss in bad times to keep pace technologically with Asian competitors. It wanted to prop up stock prices instead and make its executives rich quick. Still does.

One company that bucked the trend was Corning. In late 1983, (finally, after sixteen years of losses!) it had the cutting-edge technology in fiber-optics for telecommunications, ready to deliver finished products to its first big customer, MCI, to turn a profit. Corning did it on its own– receiving scant financial help from the United States government.

Times have changed little since the 1980’s, when photovoltaic scientist Paul Maycock remarked, “I hated the whole concept of buying oil from the Persian Gulf and spending $50 billion a year defending that part of the world.” He wasted a lot of time and effort on environmentally-friendly business initiatives. Sadly, those were incompatible with the United States’ strategic interests. The start of the Reagan Era saw the Department of Energy nix further funding for solar-technology research. The solar panels (installed during the Carter administration) on the White House roof were removed.

Further, since in the 1990’s (after the book’s writing) there has arisen an orgy of patent litigation in software and computer hardware. Technologically inexperienced patent clerks and court personnel have made legal decisions that have been economically damaging to the country. Additionally, the American government has a history of eagerly funding innovations that have military applications while denying funding for innovations that have commercial applications.

And yet, astute perpetrators of American foreign policy have damaged other nations’ economies not only by waging war, but also through dispensing bad advice on “shock capitalism” and other subtle (“classified”) methods of indirectly causing mass destruction. So the United States remains the economically dominant nation in the world, despite suffering its share of financial crashes and certain sectors’ damaging policies that weaken it economically as a whole; sectors such as healthcare and education.

Anyway, read the book to learn: of additional business cases that related to the aforesaid themes, and the four major reasons the Japanese technology sector achieved great success in the past.

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Pity the Billionaire

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“It is as though the frightening news of recent years has driven them into a defensiveness so extreme that they feel they must either deify the system that failed or lose it altogether.”

No, not the Republican Party in connection with Donald Trump.

The Republican Party in connection with Republican voters’ gullibility in believing the Right’s propaganda machine that rationalized away Wall Street’s unmitigated hubris and unconscionable greed amid the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008-2009. As is well known, the rich were made richer and poor, poorer in the second half of the single-digit 2000’s. The GOP’s clever aftermath-messaging led to big wins for them in the 2010 midterm elections.

The Book of the Week is “Pity the Billionaire, The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right” by Thomas Frank, published in 2012. This short volume described how the political group called the Tea Party (“TP”), a subset of the GOP, whipped an alarmingly high number of Republican voters into a hysterical rage against the Obama administration’s handling of bailouts of financial institutions and foreclosed-upon ex-homeowners.

It appeared to be counterintuitive, that the TP raged against bailouts for bankers, brokers and lenders. After all, taxpayers were forced to reward these greedy perpetrators of the economic disaster. Through flawed reasoning, though, the TP propagandized that capitalism should be free of any and all economic intervention from the government, whether in the form of regulation or assistance. They pretended to be an enemy of big business, screaming “Socialism!!!” at the government’s every move. They did this because the resulting continued excessive deregulation would make Republicans wealthier and more powerful, and each trait would feed on the other ad infinitum. As ought to be well known– politics cannot be divorced from economics.

The TP was really pushing for 100% pure, capitalistic Libertarianism. Under the “you have two cows” scenario (look this up on the Web): you can do with the cows whatever you wish, whenever, wherever. Also, remove: ALL regulation from all aspects of American life, taxation and social safety nets. And to make the situation truly American, throw firearms into the mix and see what happens. Absent rule-of-law, sanity and civility, the resulting ruthlessness would evolve into (judging from the federal-level administrations’ gyrations of the most recent thirty years) a dictatorial kleptocracy (sort of like Zaire (aka Congo) in the 1980’s), and then anarchy, not unlike… Somalia (?)

Fortunately, a sufficient number of Americans– despite most politicians’ cronyism with big-money donors– clung to the country’s democratic underpinnings (reasonable regulation, taxation with representation, and social safety nets) to weather the storm. The author harshly criticized Obama and his Democratic party for not punishing the morally bankrupt financiers and enforcing the law in helping the bankrupted borrowers. It is possible the president felt it was worth selling his soul to those big-money donors; he wouldn’t have been reelected otherwise and wouldn’t have been able to accomplish more of his agenda. His Democratic party, too, was too nice to get down in the gutter and use the GOP’s sleazy propaganda techniques.

Anyway, read the book to learn of how the pronouncements of the TP and Glen Beck and the contents of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged influenced numerous voters in 2010, and other reasons the nation’s political history unfolded the way it did in the early 2000’s.

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Car Wars – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “Car Wars, The Rise, the Fall, and the Resurgence of the Electric Car” by John J. Fialka, published in 2015. This volume provided a brief history of how manufacturing and sales of renewable-energy vehicles has been evolving in the last few decades. Clearly, the author wrote about relevant subjects from documents, and people to which he had easy access.

The (lazy?) author dismissed the electric cars of the late 1800’s in two sentences, saying they were obsolesced by 1920 via an innovation by engineer Charles Kettering; an electric ignition system replaced a burdensome hand crank in gas-powered cars, especially in the Cadillac of 1912, and then just like that, everyone started buying gas-powered cars. A propaganda war, profiteering and politics likely played a role in that major development in standard-setting in transportation, but the reader wouldn’t learn that from this book.

Anyway, in the 1980’s, previously competing automakers were initially compelled to form alliances to comply with car-emissions limits and meet deadlines set by U.S. laws, especially in the state of California. They shared info on electric vehicle (EV) technology. Over the years, when the deadlines were relaxed by pro-business politicians, the automakers parted ways, and independently pursued only the specific projects they felt would be profitable. Environment be damned.

In 1990, near the campus of the California Institute of Technology, when drivers tested the plug-in recharging feature of the General Motors Impact in their personal garages, their neighbors’ garage doors and TV sets went crazy, because the recharger was actually a huge radio transmitter.

In October 1995, Japan’s Toyota beat American carmakers to the punch when it showed off its hybrid Prius, that got 70 miles per gallon of gas. Of course Japan, of all the industrialized countries in the world, is significantly more motivated to seek efficient, renewable energy sources for its transportation modes– for the sake of its economic survival.

In the late 1990’s in a few select places in California and Arizona, super-rich males leased the first few models of EVs, because the cars had the attractive features of fast acceleration and high velocity; high gas mileage was a secondary benefit.

Meanwhile, in the single-digit 2000’s, a group named the California Fuel Cell Partnership was formed. It consisted of Geoffrey Ballard, Daimler, and Ford, who were working on a competing vehicle that uses fuel cells– whose mechanical components chemically alter water molecules. The selling points for those cars, once the technology’s commercial application is perfected, include: zero-emissions and the ability to fill up the car at existing gas stations. However, oil companies would supply hydrogen tanks.

Read the book to learn some of the politics, economics, entrepreneurs and technologies involved in developing cars that ran on renewable-energy sources, up until the book’s writing.

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Flipped

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The Book of the Week is “Flipped, How Georgia Turned Purple and Broke the Monopoly on Republican Power” by Greg Bluestein, published in 2022.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked Notes, Sources, References, or Bibliography), in the 2010’s, a Republican candidate in Georgia would better their chances of getting elected when they were on Fox News all the time and became a darling of hard-right conservatives.

Former president Barack Obama said manufacturing and mining jobs weren’t coming back. Former president Donald Trump contradicted him, saying the coal industry would be returning (but he was wrong). Similarly, in 2017, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams told her opponent Stacey Evans, that a certain scholarship program wasn’t coming back. Significant funding that would assist financially challenged students was part of a bygone era in Georgia. Sadly, she was right. Nevertheless, a new Democrat political coalition in the state was on the rise.

For decades and decades well into the twentieth century, the Democrats, via gerrymandering, maintained a stranglehold on Georgia politics. The GOP implemented voter-suppression tricks in order to turn the tide, beginning in the 1990’s. In 2018, state election officials sent a postcard to voters telling them they were required to re-register to vote even if they changed residences within the same county in Georgia, or else they’d be ineligible to vote come election time. The ACLU put the kibosh on that with a lawsuit.

As is well known, the most recent decade saw especially vicious feuding between Democrats and Republicans in Georgia. A bunch of cliches apply to the campaigning environment:

Turnabout is fair play, but–two wrongs don’t make a right. And a pox on everyone’s house– because an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Two other cliches apply in politics, too: A man is known by the company he keeps, and when you lie down with dogs, you get fleas.

When former vice-president Al Gore was campaigning for president in 2000, he cringed when former president Bill Clinton insisted on helping him campaign by making appearances and endorsing him. Gore’s association with Clinton was not a good look anymore. Similarly, messaging of former president Trump was unwelcome during the Georgia runoff campaigns between Democrat and Republican senate candidates at the end of 2020. The Democrats enjoyed the delicious irony that their side was helped when voters (who would have voted for the GOP candidates) were told by Trump to stay home and not vote in revenge for the “rigged” presidential election.

One theme the author also could not help but mention that involved the state of Georgia, was the recently concluded but contested, presidential election. Lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan appeared on CNN and Fox News shortly after election day in November 2020 to “… invite Georgians who had evidence of legitimate voter fraud to come forward. None could do so.” Governor Brian Kemp also stood pat and did the right thing, because the fact was, “State lawmakers can’t retroactively change election law after a vote to help a candidate [such as Trump].”

Read the book to learn of: the candidates’ campaigns, conflicts and confrontations, and their many attendant issues, such as GOP senate candidate Kelly Loeffler’s part ownership of a WNBA team and the suspicious timing of her stock transactions; the ambivalence of most GOP candidates in uttering anything negative about Trump lest they lose votes; and much more.

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Inside the Kingdom

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The Book of the Week is “Inside the Kingdom, My Life in Saudi Arabia” by Carmen Bin Ladin, published in 2004.

Born in the early 1950’s, the author grew up in Switzerland. Her mother was Persian. When she married into the Bin Laden family (of Osama fame; a sprawling, super-wealthy and powerful family), her husband had tens of siblings. She, her husband and baby daughter moved to Saudi Arabia in 1975. According to the author’s account (which appeared credible although it lacked Notes, Sources, References, or Bibliography and an index), four years later, Iran’s religious craziness spread to Saudi Arabia, so that fanatical Muslim males began to abusively rule every detail of females’ lives.

The author described many other aspects of Saudi Arabian culture (whose religious extremism has increased in recent decades), and how it compared to the values and beliefs of Western culture. She learned Muslim culture from her mother, but was partial to the freedoms and opportunities females enjoyed in Europe and the United States. She wanted to expose her daughters to her husband’s Saudi lifestyle (which was mildly religious compared to many of his siblings’ and contacts’), but also have the same chances to succeed that she did.

The author observed that, in the late twentieth century, Western mentality encouraged entrepreneurship; on the other hand, traditionally, Saudi Arabia’s sons had hierarchically inherited their wealth pursuant to birth order, and were expected to stay in their lane– work in their existing family businesses, and not start their own. The author’s husband bucked the trend and despite his success, his older brothers professionally and socially ostracized him for it.

In the early 1980’s, the author’s oldest daughter started school (at the time, a rare opportunity for females). The education system was all rote learning– of Arabic, arithmetic, history, and most importantly, the Koran. Her daughter wrote in her exercise book, “I hate Jews. I love Palestine.” The author was powerless to change the school’s curriculum, but at home, tried to foster critical thinking in her daughters. Even so, “… her teacher would always give a Bin Laden the best marks, whether she deserved it or not.” One other interesting factoid: the female teacher was allowed to slap a student’s face for the purpose of discipline.

Read the book to learn a lot more about how the author, her family and her (super-rich) in-laws lived in Saudi Arabia, and about her and her daughters’ fate at the book’s writing.

ENDNOTE: As is well known, the Muslim religion fosters gender inequality. And even in the United States, certain cultures of peoples have more gender inequality than others. The overturning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Roe V. Wade is not just about female reproductive rights or religion or rich or poor. The demographic groups who think of females as property are most affected by the changing of the law. They need to change their own cultures themselves before they trot out excuses as to why they are oppressed by society at large. They need to stop oppressing themselves!

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Americanized / The Dilbert Future – BONUS POST

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The first Bonus Book of the Week is “Americanized, Rebel Without A Green Card” by Sara Saedi, originally published in 2018.

According to this slim volume (which appeared credible although it lacked Notes, Sources, References, or Bibliography and an index), the author’s family had a difficult time getting permission to live permanently in the United States, after fleeing the Iranian Revolution in the early 1980’s.

The author, born in 1980, provided a host of details on her family’s immigration ordeal, and her own life’s trials and tribulations (mostly First-World problems). Incidentally, she unwittingly wrote a line that would have subjected her to cancel-culture [In 1992]:

“…I’d personally reached peak frustration levels at our country’s complex and seemingly arbitrary immigration laws. I wanted to get on the first flight to Washington, DC, and storm the Capitol, but I didn’t, because any form of criminal activity would get me deported.”

Read the book to learn more.

The second Bonus Book of the Week is “The Dilbert Future, Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century” by Scott Adams, published in 1997.

The author discussed his predictions, obviously at the book’s writing. One of them was particularly accurate:

“As dense as they [the children] might be, they will eventually notice that adults have spent all the money, spread disease, and turned the planet into a smoky, filthy ball of death. We’re raising an entire generation of dumb, pissed-off kids who know where the handguns are kept.”

(!!!)

Read the book to learn more of the author’s insights.

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Ghosts from the Nursery

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The Book of the Week is “Ghosts from the Nursery, Tracing the Roots of Violence” by Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley, published in 1997. The authors cited scientific studies to support their assertions about the links between the increasingly younger ages at which Americans are committing increasingly more frequent horrific crimes, and the social and cultural trends that are driving this alarming revelation.

At the book’s writing, in the United States, criminal justice system spending was three times (!) the entire healthcare budget. The authors argued that the seeds of criminality in humans are planted in the womb rather than in early childhood, as previously thought.

Environmental factors, such as a future mother’s or father’s consumption or inhalation of toxic substances, alters the reproductive mechanisms in a fetus’ brain cells. If the fetus’ environment is neglectful, chaotic or hostile– people are raucous, or physically abusing the mother-to-be– it stands to reason that the child might have behavioral problems later on. These problems could range from hyperactivity, impulsivity, attention deficits and learning disabilities to criminality.

The range and extent of damage done varies with the time frame in which the abuses occur. It has been found that any amount of alcohol drunk by a potential father or mother can adversely affect: spermatozoa and ova weeks before conception, the zygote, embryo, fetus and then the child’s health thereafter. Maximum visual damage is done to the brain of a fetus, when the abuses occur during the limited time, for instance, in which the neural connection from the retina to the visual cortex is made. Language skills develop or fail to develop, similarly.

The opposite is true, too: a nurturing environment will maximize benefits for the child (even in the womb!) when parents’ soothing or happy voices are heard by the fetus during his or her audiological development. After emergence from the womb, the baby can recognize his or her mother’s, father’s or others’ voices. Preverbal memory (an emotional vibe emitted by parents and others– a mood felt by the fetus and then infant and then child) stays with everyone through their entire lives. Parents have been shown to display the same behaviors their parents did with their own babies and children.

The authors mentioned several European studies that showed the incidences of juvenile criminality and suicide increased with an increase in unwanted pregnancies. That’s obviously a can of worms. But, since reams and reams of data have been collected from decades and decades of sociological, psychological, medical and legal studies worldwide, perhaps a multi-pronged approach applied locally would help– instead of commissioning more, additional expensive studies for the purposes of procrastination and patronage.

HOWEVER, one particularly rich vein of data on how to invite failure of the multi-pronged approach at the federal level of poverty-fighting (and on a related topic, crime-prevention), can be found in the administration archives of the late president Lyndon B. Johnson. A 20/20 hindsight look at the enduring actions he did take, are unfairly omitted from the history books that show an anti-liberal bias. His administration saw the start of Medicare and Medicaid and the passing of landmark civil rights legislation. BUT, these great accomplishments were overshadowed by conspiracy theories that he plotted the assassination of JFK and of course, his role in a needless war.

Johnson had grand plans to eliminate poverty at home, but shortly after he came to power, he decided to send Americans abroad to fight a war that led to countless deaths and ruined lives. And continued to rationalize why it needed to continue. Johnson’s anti-poverty programs weren’t given sufficient time to succeed because they became starved for funds.

That is why this country has regressed on the social-programs front: Every American president has sold his soul to the MILITARY [Currently, that military is fighting a war at the Mexican border instead of overseas; a future post of this blog will elaborate on this].

The only president fully justified in diverting significant taxpayer monies from improving conditions at home, toward fighting a war, was FDR. Since WWII, alpha males with hubris syndrome have been funding military actions whose long-term costs outweigh the benefits.

As a final insult that indicated that Johnson had major control issues, was the fact that he cruelly teased his own Democratic party by withdrawing from a 1968 reelection bid at the last minute, leaving the field to a few other candidates, and uncertainty in his wake. He also gave his political opponents a golden invitation to smear him in so many ways.

Granted, there are countless other vicissitudes of history that come into play with any president’s actions, but as is well known, campaign-finance regulation in America has become horribly eviscerated in recent decades, so the increase in financial influence of special-interest groups other than the military, has also played a role in this nation’s shifting priorities.

Be that as it may, the United States’ practices fly in the face of reason by bringing in a “pound of cure” (after the fact!) via a complicated, expensive bunch of bloated, bureaucratic government services (special-education, welfare, foster care, criminal justice, etc.). Instead of an “ounce of prevention.” One specific program has been found to be the most effective solution thus far in preventing crime in the long run: infant home-visitation programs, because the problems are dealt with early! This was the conclusion of a criminology team who submitted a report to the U.S. Congress in April 1997.

Clearly, different levels of government can implement more of a combination of social programs and legislation in order of what works best pursuant to all those scientific studies (preferably longitudinal ones), regardless of costs, limited by whatever the budget will reasonably bear; instead of going the easy, greedy, or power-hungry, politically expedient (and fraught military) route.

A grass-roots movement would have to hold officials’ feet to the fire on that– perhaps appealing to their egos by giving them a legacy via a footnote in the history books crediting them for getting it done. This, while keeping political patronage to a minimum (It used to be called “honest graft” but has reached excessive levels in certain regions; time will tell whether upcoming elections oust the “Tammany Hall/Boss Tweed” contingents.).

So, for instance, a hypothetical mandate for a large, diversely-populated city might consist of:

First, an infant home-visitation program;

Second, no-charge universal pre-kindergarten program;

Third, stricter background checks and bans on specific firearms and loophole-closing;

Fourth, a community-policing program (that does not involve military hardware) like those mentioned in this blog’s posts, “L.A. Justice” and “Riverkeepers”; and

Fifth, imposing and enforcing a legal maximum to class sizes in early-childhood education.

If additional funding is found (for whatever reasons), there could be other kinds of education programs that deal with issues such as: teen pregnancy, sex education, contraception, substance abuse prevention (all possibly as a part of the high school health-class curriculum), parenting classes, family planning, welfare-to-work, at-risk youth centers, and job training– again, prioritized from the most to the least effective outcomes.

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about research results on this topic, and the authors’ suggestions on crime prevention via focusing on ways to improve outcomes in connection with pregnancy and child care.

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Maverick

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The Book of the Week is “Maverick, The Personal War of A Vietnam Cobra Pilot” by Dennis J. Marvicsin and Jerold A. Greenfield, published in 1990. Marvicsin nicknamed himself “Maverick.”

Born in 1940 in Mansfield in Ohio, Maverick had a burning desire to become a helicopter pilot. He joined the Navy right out of high school, but after a year and a half, switched to the Army in order to fulfill his dream. In September 1964, he began boot camp in Fort Wolters in Texas, and finished advanced training in Fort Rucker in Alabama.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked Notes, Sources, References, or Bibliography and an index), in 1965, Maverick began his first Vietnam-War tour in Vinh Long. The American military base there had comfortable living conditions, and creature comforts such as alcohol and cigarettes. At his periodic reassignments to other locations, he encountered primitive accommodations. He began by flying re-supply missions to ARVN troops and American advisers in the Cam Ranh Bay area before a full military installation was built there.

The American military killed not only the enemy, but also dangerous animals such as tigers, and elephants because they were useful beasts of burden to the enemy. In autumn 1965, when he began flying a Huey helicopter that had the ability to return fire– for the purpose of rescuing the war-wounded– he took to the work like a fish to water. When they answered a typical call for help, he and the three other adrenaline-junkies in his crew rushed to “… the middle of the jungle, miles from the base, but someone had set off a red smoke grenade which meant enemy fire.” A crashed or shot-down chopper might be stuck in the trees with fire all around, and the pilot pinned in the wreckage’s cockpit.

On more than one mission, Maverick got to host a highly-decorated military bigwig. This, in an allegedly aerodynamically improved aircraft (but it had yet to be perfected and was shot down), such as the “…brand new Charlie-Model Huey with the fancy 540 rotor system, and now it’s fancy garbage and it’s on fire…”

Maverick began his second tour in Vietnam in Tay Ninh, a mountainous region where the Viet Cong had made tunnels underground. The Huey helicopter had been replaced by the Cobra, which was easier to maneuver but had its own flaws. Regardless, the traumas of war had caused Maverick to become twice shy about getting emotionally close to his fellow soldiers. He said, “First tour, you make friends and they get blown up or shot down or simply never come back. Second tour, you make no friends.” One of numerous other emotionally troubling aspects of Maverick’s participation in the war was not knowing how long it would be, if ever, before he was released when he was taken as a Prisoner of War.

Read the book to learn of many more episodes of Maverick’s personal experiences in combat, in captivity, and in collecting medals and glory.

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BONUS POST

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“Inflation, profiteering, and corruption are rife, and the food situation and (closely connected therewith) the transportation situation are most serious, as is also the housing problem… The present regime does not at present command a sufficient majority, or perhaps sufficient constructive talent to initiate the drastic measures which alone could save the situation.”

The above happens to have been written in January 1946, by the British embassy in Rio de Janeiro, about Brazil.

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Brazil, The Fortunes of War, World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil” by Neill Lochery. This wordy and redundant volume described how a South American leader, Getulio Vargas– through cleverly navigating: relationships with war alliances and foes, and tricky political issues– was able to modernize his country by the Postwar Era, compliments of American taxpayers.

In late 1937, Brazil got a new Constitution. Vargas, duly elected leader since 1930, had gotten friendly with the United States in exchange for agreeing to fight Italy and Germany when war came. However, by May 1938, there occurred a failed coup against him; perhaps partly because he had banned all political parties except his own. His enemies included the Communists and the Fascist Green Shirts (Integralistas), and he wasn’t exactly buddy-buddy with two of Brazil’s top military leaders.

One conflict Vargas faced in September 1939, was that he couldn’t afford to make trouble because: Brazil’s military was weak, Brazil traded with both Germany and the United States, and it had immigrant communities from Germany, Italy and Japan. Vargas’ speech at the May Day parade in 1940 didn’t go over too well with the United States, as his language was that of a Fascist; he sounded like he was siding with Hitler and Mussolini. This was deliberately calculated to tease FDR, in order to secure financing for a steel mill in Brazil.

By the time of the infamous December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, Brazil had still yet to receive the bulk of the weapons it was due from Germany and the United States. Brazil had a fuel shortage, and the U.S. supplied Brazil with most of its fuel. Other wartime hardships and plot twists abounded; 1942 was a year crowded with incidents, too numerous to mention here.

Suffice to say, in autumn 1945, when dissatisfaction with Vargas reached critical mass among military leaders and many ordinary Brazilians, there was distrust that he would actually hold free and fair elections. They were scheduled to be held in December 1945.

Read the book to learn what happened in August 1954, and about the cast of characters and propaganda that shaped the history of Brazil just before, during and after WWII (hint: public relations schemes included wartime visits to Brazil by Walt Disney and Orson Welles, thanks to Nelson Rockefeller.).

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Ask A North Korean

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The Book of the Week is “Ask A North Korean, Defectors Talk About Their Lives Inside the World’s Most Secretive Nation” by Daniel Tudor, published in 2017.

As is well known, North Korea is an insular dictatorship, one of just a few left in the world. From birth, its people are brainwashed into worshiping their supreme leader, the dictator. His leadership style resembles that of Stalin’s: threatening the oppressive social order will cause one to be arrested in the middle of the night and thrown into a political prison camp.

There is one-party rule (the Workers’ Party). The people are allowed: no free speech, no freedom of assembly, no due process, no freedom of religion (Christianity or any other), and anyone who does not work for, or is not a sycophant of the government is probably poverty-stricken.

Jail time or public execution awaits those who are caught in possession of videos or music from the West (likely the United States, China, Hong Kong or South Korea). A tiny percentage of North Koreans get a view of other cultures, but only when they are permitted to travel to China on business, or when they risk their lives to listen to radio broadcasts from South Korea.

The government owns ALL property of all of the people. It even used to provide limited amounts of food and goods to the people. But in the 1990’s, the country suffered from a famine that forced people to become creatively capitalistic in order not to starve to death. North Koreans living near the borders of China and Japan traded black-market consumer goods with them. They hunted, fished, bred domestic animals and literally prostituted themselves. Illegally, they sold alcohol.

In North Korea, the most economically powerful entities are those that obtain foreign currencies because they are affiliated with the government, which is an unavoidable behemoth of cash-only bribery and corruption. The people do not have credit cards or even bank accounts.

Cars, which are very few in number, are a status symbol in the country’s capital city, Pyongyang. Those who own them are likely government workers, who have drivers. The highly coveted job of driver requires obtaining a license that takes a minimum of three years to obtain. One needs to get training for the job, but first must achieve hard- won acceptance to one of only two driving schools in North Korea. Unsurprisingly, there is a black market in fake driver’s licenses.

A high percentage of North Korea’s population is in the military at any given time. For, males must serve a minimum of ten years; females serve seven. Exceptions include college graduates, who serve five years, and science or engineering majors serve only three. Ironically, malnutrition is widespread in the military, as North Korea does not provide its ranks with enough to eat (!)
Read the book to learn a wealth of additional details about North Korea.

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My Father and I

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The Book of the Week is “My Father and I” by Camelia Sadat, published in 1985.

Born in July 1949, the author grew up in a distant suburb of Cairo, but possessed nostalgia for her father’s home village– Mit Abul-Kum, in the Nile delta. Her father was Anwar Sadat, whose mother was half Egyptian and half Sudanese, and whose father had eight wives; only the last two wives bore thirteen children between them. Anwar was the second oldest child of his father’s seventh wife.

Born in late 1918, Anwar’s young adulthood was typical of Muslim men of his generation who were headed for a political career. He chose his alliances and enemies pursuant to his future leadership role in mind. During WWII, he allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group desirous of replacing Egypt’s monarchy of King Farouk, with an independent Muslim theocracy. The British supported the king. During and after the war, Anwar did stints in jail for his pro-Axis, pro-Egyptian-independence activities. Further, he was discharged dishonorably from the Egyptian army.

By the late 1940’s, Anwar had two wives and two babies. The younger of the latter was Camelia. However, Anwar’s first marriage ended in divorce shortly thereafter. At thirty, he began his second marriage with his nineteen year-old bride. In 1950, he resumed his military career. He was appointed by Gamal Nasser to lead the group fighting for sovereignty for Egypt– the Free Officers’ Organization.

Anwar moved quickly up the political ranks. In July 1952, he and his cronies ousted King Farouk. In December 1953, he helped found a revolutionary newspaper, working in the communications (translation: propaganda) department of Egypt’s government. The very next year, he was named Minister of State. In 1956, Egypt saw the end of British occupation.

Camelia was a headstrong, independent child. When she was twelve, a marriage was arranged for her. The groom was 29. Unfortunately for them, a quiet, serious wedding reception (which was uncustomary) was the order of the day because Egypt was breaking its diplomatic ties with Syria.

Initially, Camelia accepted her fate as an obedient housewife (which was required by the Quran, and was the culture in Egypt). But after a couple of years, she became emotionally exhausted by the bossiness and physical abuse of her especially insecure husband. Camelia told her uncle about her marital problems, and reprimanded the husband. However, Anwar found out and told Camelia that a wife should obey her husband.

In the 1960’s, unrest in Yemen led to difficult geopolitical jockeying among Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and of course, the United States. In December 1970, Anwar was elected president of Egypt, at which time, it was on the outs with America. In 1971, he foiled a coup attempt against him. Egypt wasn’t diplomatically benefiting from Soviet financial aid, either, as the Soviets’ reputation for aggression made the U.S.S.R. an isolated state in the industrialized world.

Anwar was best known for his willingness to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel’s leader Menachem Begin, through an intermediary, America’s president Jimmy Carter. Read the book to learn many more details of his and his daughter’s life and career, and a bit of Egyptian history.

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Misfire

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The Book of the Week is “Misfire, Inside the Downfall of the NRA” by Tim Mak, published in 2021. This volume told the all-too-frequent story of alpha-male executives with hubris syndrome, who use their employer as their personal piggy bank, and bankrupt them. That of the National Rifle Association (NRA) was just the latest in a series of such scandals in recent decades.

As it began to go belly up, the NRA had 76 people on its board of directors, a few of whom were celebrities. They received no salary, but took ridiculous advantage of their expense accounts, and at the same time, and, in an obvious conflict, some were tasked with overseeing the NRA’s finances.

A power vacuum that started in the late 1980’s allowed Wayne LaPierre to assume the most powerful executive position in the organization by 1991. His colleagues– the NRA’s officers, and executives of its outside communications agency — manipulated him in order to form a cult of personality around him. This way, they, too, could partake of all the first-class travel, shopping and host of other aspects of a luxury lifestyle through their outsized salaries and expense accounts.

After the Sandy Hook elementary-school shooting in December 2012, the NRA became even more sociopathic, throwing up distractions in its messaging. It was already aggressively– as it had been since 1977– defeating every bit of firearms-restriction-legislation it possibly could using not only its money, but also its ability to influence politicians and voters through its network of priceless, powerful contacts; even to its own financial and reputational detriment. It argued that politicians should seek to improve America’s mental health system, and that everyone in the country had a right to own a firearm for the purpose of self-defense!

Countless, cowardly politicians have caved under pressure to the NRA’s demands; they voted against even weak proposed laws that would restrict gun acquisitions and gun usage, that would hardly have made a dent in sales of firearms, because they wanted to get reelected. As is well known, the NRA was a monster-sized lobbyist and political donor. It had a mean-spirited cancel-culture: publicly shaming its ex-employees on social media if they criticized it, even years after their employ.

Beginning in April 2019, a decades-long power struggle resulted in an orgy of litigation between and among the NRA, its communications agency, and its law firm, whose main go-to executive had become besties with LaPierre. That executive, too, was availing himself of the benefits derived from financial crimes of excess typical of these kinds of organizations.

Read the book to learn all about it. Wayne LaPierre has been just one (of those countless who are actually caught!) of a few poster boys whose financial crimes borne of excessive greed have been exposed, but sooo few organization leaders such as he, are punished for their misdeeds. Here are a few others, who were actually punished (and the year in which they went to jail):

2005, Dennis Kozlowski

2005, Bernie Ebbers

2006, Jack Abramoff

2007, Richard Scrushy

2012, Bernie Madoff

And here is the song they sing when caught:

I TOOK IT EASY

sung to the tune of “Take It Easy” with apologies to the Eagles.

Well, I got out on BAIL.
You can’t put me in JAIL.
I got SEVen sins on my mind.
Whistleblowers betrayed me.
Prosecutors flayed me.
My lawyers are close friends of mine.

I took it easy.
I took it easy.

Don’t believe the evil liars who say I’m guil-ty.

I live it up while I still can.
I hid my assets. Then it hit the fan.
I found a place to make my millions.
I took it easy.

Well I’m STILL your leading male.
I’m just too great to fail.
My claques, flacks and sycophants all aGREE.
I DID nothing wrong.
I’ll delay this CASE so long you’ll give up on punishing me.

Come on, payyy me,
my bonus and sa-alary.
I have no doubt that friends in high places are gonna SAVE me.

TaxPAYERS lose. I win.
You’ll never catch ME again.
So eat your heart out. Look at ME grin.
I took it easy.

Well, I got out on BAIL.
You can’t put me in JAIL.
I got NO remorse on my mind.
No matter how much you hover,
you’ll NEVER recover, all the money you say is not mine.

I took it easy.
I took it easy.
Don’t believe the evil liars who say I’m guil-ty.
Come on, payyy me,
my bonus and sa-alary.
I have no doubt that friends in high places are gonna SAVE me.

Oh, I got it easy.
YOU’RE the one who’s slea-eazy…

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Suez

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The Book of the Week is “Suez, 10 years after Suez, questions are still being asked…” by Hugh Thomas, originally published in 1966. This volume was penned by and through the eyes of a British journalist.

In 1875, on behalf of the British government, Benjamin Disraeli purchased a controlling interest (45%) of shares in the Suez Canal Company. By 1956, a little less than 25% of the imports, and about 33% of the ships passing through the canal, were British.

There was arrogance all around, among the top leaders of countries involved in the Suez Canal Crisis: Egypt’s Nasser, Great Britain’s Eden, France’s Mollet and Israel’s Ben Gurion.

Other leaders, such as America’s president Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles refrained from a hawkish stance for their own country, letting the British and French make fools of themselves in sending troops. The author described the whole episode thusly: “… the spectacle of over one hundred thousand men setting off for a war which lasted barely a day and then returning has few parallels in the long gallery of military imbecility.”

Eden was ready to fight the Egyptians when Nasser declared he was nationalizing the canal’s holding company, which was based in Paris. The declaration meant that Nasser would charge dues on ships passing through.

The international contract governing the canal stipulated that Egypt would own the canal itself in 1968. The Treaty of Constantinople, signed in 1888 deemed the canal an international waterway. Nasser could be removed as a custodian of sorts only “for cause” but arguably one cause could be the fact that, beginning in 1951, he banned Israeli ships from the canal.

One other piece of documentation associated with the canal included the United Nations Charter’s Article 51. It was kind of a worthless passage, as its provisions were unenforceable unless nations agreed on how to interpret it and chose to abide by it. That passage said military action was justified if any entity took over the canal.

Eden came of age in the generation who fought in WWI and was of the mind that appeasement didn’t work on Hitler. Wiser world leaders whose experiences and intelligence differed, knew that Nasser was no Hitler. Eden’s cabinet ministers were men of different ages, some of whom disagreed with him.

Britain’s options included resolving the complicated dispute with the assistance of the United Nations (UN), or the International Court. Britain’s troops stationed geographically nearby (in Malta, Port Said, Libya, Jordan and Cyprus) were unprepared to fight a war in or near Egypt, and it would take a few months to move supplies, equipment, etc. to where they needed to be. The Soviets were supplying weapons to the Egyptians, and those weapons would be superior in the event of an air war.

The European government officials who were dovish, argued that it was wrong to use force just to safeguard oil supplies, and that the conflict should be settled through the UN. The situation became more complex (as though the propaganda war, Hungarian suffering and upcoming elections in Jordan and the United States, Britain’s lingering pro-Arab stance and France’s sending arms to Israel weren’t enough) when, in the second week of October 1956, there occurred a border skirmish between Israel and Jordan. About a week later, Israel attacked Egypt.

Yet another set of conditions on paper by which specific nations agreed to abide, came into play: the 1940 Tripartite Pact stated that when lands around Israel (pursuant to the geography of 1950) were crossed by people with war in mind, both Britain and France together were obligated to take some kind of action.

Read the book to learn more details of the diplomatic and political events leading up to and during the conflict (or war, as interpreted by some), its exciting conclusion, and the death tolls of the parties involved.

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Oil and War

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Below is the song Putin is singing now.

OIL AND WAR

sung to the tune of “Elenore” with apologies to The Turtles.

You give me so much power
but my leadership’s starting to sour.
I really love this.
Oil and war suit me.

Economic ruin aWAITS me.
Besides that, THE world hates me.
I never tire of oil and war, really.

Oil and-war, GEE I think you’re swell.
I don’t care that war is hell.
It’s my pride and joy, etc.

Oil and-war, I will TAKE this time
to say-you CAN-not speak your mind.
In my empire, I’m banning Meta.

Trump really thinks I’m groovy.
This is my James Bond movie.
Don’t you agree,
Oil and war suit me?

If you don’t like when we go low,
maybe you shouldn’t watch the show.
It takes one to know one.
Oil and war suit me.

Oil and-war, GEE I think you’re swell.
I don’t care that war is hell.
It’s my pride and joy, etc.

Oil and-war, I will TAKE this time
to say-you CAN-not speak your mind.
In my empire, I’m banning Meta.

Oil and-war, GEE I think you’re swell, ah hah.
Oil and-war, GEE I think you’re swell, ah hah, aah.

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The 188th Crybaby Brigade

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The Book of the Week is “The 188th Crybaby Brigade, A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah” by Joel Chasnoff, published in 2010.

The author related his experiences as an American who joined Israel’s military (Israel Defense Forces; IDF) of the late 1990’s, and had various rude awakenings. He observed a major lack of skills-training and deterioration of leadership. Plus, he wrote, “What disturbs me about our endless fun isn’t just that it’s so often misogynistic, racist, and in the case of Ziv the redhead, outright insensitive, but how easily I go along with it.”

At 24, he was the oldest member of the testosterone-fueled group of mostly immature 18-year old boys who had too much time on their hands. The book’s major themes reflected those in Catch-22 (the same kinds of craziness) and “Portnoy’s Complaint” (only insofar as their gender led them to behave the way they did).

In February 1997, a helicopter accident that killed 73 Israeli soldiers, led the IDF to change its training and treatment of its ranks. It was a time similar to that just after the Yom Kippur war, when the Israeli military realized that it was unprepared to defend the country.

However, unlike in the second half of the 1970’s– in the late 1990’s, the IDF gave certain soldiers a pass, via an honor system. Ultra-Orthodox scholars could avoid military service altogether– a very emotionally charged controversy in Israel. Moreover, due to civilian complaints from families of soldiers, the military became less of an abusive hierarchy, and more socialistic, allowing soldiers to falsely claim they were injured or ill, to shirk the rigorous aspects of military life. The soldiers who weren’t crybabies, were subjected to harsh weather and severe sleep deprivation at the hands of an “arrogant, impudent, and thoroughly incompetent” captain. The other leaders were sociopathic sadists with weaponry.

The author was assigned to the tank division. A class lecturer told soldiers-in-training that Israel’s presence in Lebanon was necessary due to terror groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and their various factions. Monetary help from Iran, Syria and the former U.S.S.R., funneled to Hezbollah, supposedly made the terror groups’ resources actually superior to the IDF’s. That’s why the death toll of soldiers in Israeli tanks in Lebanon was so high, and why soldiers were killed so much sooner than troops in other divisions, even sooner than those in the infantry.

Each Merkava tank was equipped with: “…one ton of explosives in the form of depleted uranium 120-millimeter missiles, hand grenades, two MAG machine guns, a crate of .5-caliber shells and five hundred 35-millimeter bullets.”

The younger generation did not understand the mentality of their grandparents because they hadn’t personally experienced the Holocaust. They had, however, heard about or seen needless deaths and ruined lives resulting from America’s meddling in Vietnam (plus Laos and Cambodia), and Israel’s own constant fighting against its Arab neighbors and Palestinians, and its aggression in Lebanon (1982)– and they wanted no part of that.

Every major Israeli leader whose name is known worldwide (especially by American Jews fifty and older), was an old-school war-hero who also worked in Israeli intelligence (except for Golda Meir) and saw major combat, right up through Netanyahu. Since the 1990’s, leaders of the U.S. have been draft-dodgers rather than war heroes. Apparently, times are changing in geopolitics, war-mongering and energy (oil) needs and usage.

Read the book to learn how the IDF fanned the flames of racial tensions (hint: it was not because the light-skinned Ashkenazi soldiers had their private jokes), how the author struggled with his own religious identity, and many more details on the late-1990’s culture of the IDF.

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If I Plead the Fifth, Man

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This is the song Donald Trump is singing now.

IF I PLEAD THE FIFTH, MAN

sung to the tune of “If I Were A Rich Man” from the musical Fiddler on the Roof, with apologies to the estates of Zero Mostel and Jerry Bock.

If I plead the Fifth, man,
yah dee yah dee yah dee yah
dee yah dee yah dee yah dum

All day long I’d keep things mum,
because I’m a victimized man.

I wouldn’t have to-rehearse hard,
yah dee yah dee yah dee yah
dee yah dee yah dee yah dum

if I pled a biddy biddy Fifth,
because I’m a victimized man.

I’ve built a biz with prah-per-ties by the dozen.
I’ve done great things for this town!

My fine accountant had IN-teg-ri-ty, I know.

There was one set of books just going up,
and one with numbers going down,
and one more with values, I won’t show.

I’ve filled my companies with greens and towers and clubs
and a school to play and learn,
recording just as profitably as I can,

and each great ca-ching bling bling ca-ching
would be written down just-for-me,
as if to say here is a wonderful man. Oh!

If I plead the Fifth, man,
yah dee yah dee yah dee yah
dee yah dee yah dee yah dum

All day long I’d keep things mum,
because I’m a victimized man.

I wouldn’t have to-rehearse hard,
yah dee yah dee yah dee yah
dee yah dee yah dee yah dum

if I pled a biddy biddy Fifth,
because I’m a victimized man.

I saw my REAL estate ful-filling my birthright
with lots of proper bonds and loans,
supervising deals to my heart’s delight.

YOU’RE accusing me and
you’re acting like a witch hunter.
Oh, what an unfair thing you’re doing,
harassing my family day and night.

All the great people came to work with me.
They asked to help ME with building.
They knew I was the expert.
They loved the Trump name.
Oh PLEASE help us.
YOU’RE posing accusations that are wrong in my eyes.

lah eeh eeh a rah rah

And here we have a big, big difference, because I know you’re WRONG.

When you’re me, they’re jealous of all you do.

If I plead the Fifth, I’d assert my RIGHTS,
and run for president again,
and maybe be-able-to build my WALL.

But I won’t discuss my books with prah-se-cu-tors seven hours every-day.
They’re doing the most unjust thing of all. Oh!

If I plead the Fifth, man,
yah dee yah dee yah dee yah
dee yah dee yah dee yah dum

All day long I’d keep things mum,
because I’m a victimized man.

I wouldn’t have to-rehearse hard,
yah dee yah dee yah dee yah
dee yah dee yah dee yah dum

So who made this evil, evil scheme?
You decree I can’t have the American Dream.
Would you leave my family and me alone?
You’re taking an outrageous tone!

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Breaking the Ice

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The Book of the Week is “Breaking the Ice, The Black Experience in Professional Hockey” by Cecil Harris, published in 2003. This wordy, redundant volume described the experiences of African Americans who have played ice hockey in North America beginning in the twentieth century. As is well known, Canada’s national sport is ice hockey.

The first African American player in the National Hockey League (NHL) was Willie O’Ree. Originally from New Brunswick, Canada, at twenty-two years old, he played one game in January 1958, was demoted to the “minors” but then returned to play in the 1960-61 season. Professional hockey saw no African American players again until the 1974-75 season, when Mike Marson made the big leagues.

In 1978, the World Hockey Association was competing with the NHL for talent. Tony McKegney, an African-American Canadian, signed a contract with the former, to play with a team in Birmingham, Alabama. When racist white fans found out, they said they would cancel their season tickets if McKegney played. The team owner felt pressured into breaching the contract with him. The player’s agent was a crook, too. That’s another story.

Some newspaper writer in Toronto reported that McKegney was okay with his canceled contract. But the lying writer had never even spoken with him. Anyway, fortunately, McKegney was later drafted by the NHL to play with the Buffalo Sabres.

One major measure of talent is total goals scored in a season. In the winter 1973 season, McKegney scored thirty-six goals and was still a young twenty-five. Yet he was traded a bunch of times, anyway– playing on six different teams (one of them twice) by the time he turned thirty-three. It is certainly debatable whether race was a factor in those circumstances. For the 1991-1992 season, he played hockey in Italy.

Grant Fuhr helped the Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup four times in the second half of the 1980’s and in 1990. He wore a plastic face covering for protective equipment– not because he was afraid of harm from opposing teams and racist fans, although that’s a justified fear. He was a goalie, so no one could see his skin color.

In March 2003, a racial slur led the coach and general manager of the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds (Ontario League) to resign in disgrace. One black player said in essence, that hatred is taught in families where insecurity abounds, and is a sign of weakness all around.

In the 2003-04 NHL season, there were roughly six hundred players, only seventeen of whom were African American. Canadian hockey players (of any ethnicity) who are professional-hopefuls, can be chosen to live with a host family near a hockey venue to do an internship of sorts, that pays their expenses.

In the early 1990’s, one of the first black NHL players who trained in this manner, at sixteen years old, was Jarome Iginla. He also got to go to New York City to play with NHL greats in a special program, and played in a major international competition in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Read the book to learn much more about racial issues in ice hockey, the crackdown on hate speech uttered by hockey insiders, the childishness of fans (such as the throwing of chicken bones and bananas at black players), and the bygone era of hockey-fighting as sideshow entertainment.

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A Storm Too Soon – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “A Storm Too Soon, A True Story of Disaster, Survival, and an Incredible Rescue” by Michael J. Touglas, published in 2013.

This suspenseful story recounted the abbreviated May 2007 voyage of three Darwin-Award candidates who began to sail from the northern coast of Florida across the Atlantic Ocean to Gibraltar. Hazards included, among others– sudden, unexpected storms, spilled contents of container ships and inaccurate maps (due to recently washed-away sandbars).

“Every screw, rivet, line, seam, porthole, and the rest of what makes up a sailboat has to hold under the assault of the seas.” Unfortunately, the entire contents of the captain and crew’s 55-foot sailboat had a difficult time staying afloat, when an unseasonable squall broke a window that immediately let in 80-foot-high waves and 80-knot wind gusts. Miraculously, the life raft stayed intact. However, the various tools they had for sending distress signals to the Coast Guard were less than ideal, for different reasons.

Predictably, the three men were at high risk for drowning, harm from sharks, dehydration and hypothermia. In a case like this, rescuers who approach them via C-130 plane and helicopter, risk their lives in numerous ways. First, the plane searches an area equivalent to the needle-in-a-haystack cliche.

Read the book to learn many more details, and the fate of the participants in the above story.

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Code Name Ginger

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“Now he was inventing a new story, in which I never told him that I was writing a book and in which he controlled anything I wrote.” Sounds familiar. “I” was Steve Kemper, the author of this book, and “he” was Dean Kamen, who became an amnesiac whenever it was convenient.

The Book of the Week is “Code Name Ginger, The Story Behind SEGWAY and Dean Kamen’s Quest to Invent a New World” by Steve Kemper, published in 2003.

Born in 1951 in Rockville Centre on Long Island, Dean Kamen is a spell-binding genius entrepreneur with some social blind spots. Nevertheless, he had a well-founded fear that “…scientific illiteracy would wreck the country’s economy, lifestyle and future.”

Anyway, by the time he graduated high school, he had become wealthy building cool audio-visual lighting systems that synchronized multiple slide projectors for rock bands and friends and family. By age 31, he was a multi-millionaire, after producing patented breakthrough medical products, horrifying other alpha males– ones who held graduate business degrees– with his drastic plans.

In the early 1990’s, some of Kamen’s company-employees began working on his vision for a new product– a wheelchair that adjusted the way a human being would, to different situations such as curbs and stairs. He was extremely possessive of his product, which was his heart and soul. He wouldn’t grant investors more than ten percent financial interest in the product. Ever.

In 1999, the creators planned to launch the new product, code-named “Ginger” early in the second quarter of 2001, and projected the construction of cookie-cutter factories on different continents that would build two million machines in ten years. However, Dean’s fellow employees felt he didn’t understand that high-volume manufacturing for a product like Ginger required hundreds of employees, a dozen loading docks, fleets of tractor-trailers, etc.

Kamen also reeked of overconfidence, even when presented with ample evidence that disproved his claims. In the late 1990’s, there was already so much competition from other products in the forms of various scooters and folding bikes. At a December 2000 meeting of investors, Steve Jobs told him that U.S. automakers would lobby against Ginger and the automakers would win.

Kamen’s ace in the hole was that he had friendly contact with nearly all of George W. Bush’s cabinet in early 2001. They had the power to grease the wheels of commerce in his favor.

Read the book to learn how the product turned into a toy for the rich but made mobility fun, and the personalities that shaped its evolution.

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Read About the Years – BONUS POST

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ALSO, PLEASE NOTE: Kent State should be compared to the Jan. 6 riot ONLY insofar as it really shocked the nation.

READ ABOUT THE YEARS

sung to the tune of “Reeling in the Years” with apologies to Steely Dan.

Your democratic freedoms, you can see them fading fast.
So you express your moral outrage with a social media blast.
Well, you’ve forgotten your history
of recent decades in this land.
Your panic and stress show that you don’t understand.

You need to read about the YEARS of Joe McCarthy’s time,
’68-and-Kent-State,
and why Nixon resigned.

You need to read about the YEARS of Joe McCarthy’s time,
’68-and-Kent-State,
and why Nixon resigned.

You keep forgetting there’s nothing new under the sun.
In your youth you were blissfully ignorant
and always having fun.
But the real world and politics
have made you cynical and mad.
The fears your elders grew by, you don’t understand.

You need to read about the YEARS of Joe McCarthy’s time,
’68-and-Kent-State,
and why Nixon resigned.

You need to read about the YEARS of Joe McCarthy’s time,
’68-and-Kent-State,
and why Nixon resigned.

Healthcare costs a lot of money
but democracy takes a lot of time.
GOP versus Hollywood is seared upon your mind.
The nation will survive this.
To lead, they’ll find another man.
History shows things aren’t hopeless.
Read– you’ll understand.

You need to read about the YEARS of Joe McCarthy’s time,
’68-and-Kent-State,
and why Nixon resigned.

You need to read about the YEARS of Joe McCarthy’s time,
’68-and-Kent-State,
and why Nixon resigned.

Featured

IS THAT A SHAME?

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IS THAT A SHAME?

sung to the tune of “Ain’t That A Shame” with apologies to: the estate of Fats Domino; and Joe Biden– shame on those who are blaming him for everything.

InFRA-structure, was passed, in a blur.

Is that a shame?
You’re winning the game.
Is that a shame?
Joe’s the one to blame.

Did COVID, re-LIEF, cause you, any grief?

Is that a shame?
You’re winning the game.
Is that a shame?
Joe’s the one to blame.

Oh well, jobs grew. And wa-ges, too.

Is that a shame?
You’re winning the game.
Is that a shame?
Joe’s the one to blame.

InFRA-structure, was passed, in a blur.

Is that a shame?
You’re winning the game.
Is that a shame?
Joe’s the one to blame.

Oh well, jobs grew. And wa-ges, too.

Is that a shame?
You’re winning the game.
Is that a shame?
Joe’s the one to blame.

Featured

North By Northwest / My Old Man and the Sea

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The first Book of the Week is “North By Northwest, A Seafaring Family on Deadly Alaska Waters” by Captain Sig Hansen and Mark Sundeen, published in 2010.

Born in the Seattle area in 1966, Hansen was of Norwegian ancestry. He was mentored in fishing for a living by his grandfather, father, and the Norwegian fishing community. His older male relatives had been sourcing seafood for decades. The community had been growing in the upper Midwest in the United States since the early 1800’s. It was a lucrative, male-dominated career– a subculture bearing a resemblance to military life in certain ways:

  • Teamwork was required of five or six men who lived in close quarters, doing rigorous physical work under life-threatening conditions at all times at sea;
  • There were numerous ways to: become seriously injured, and / or suffer serious financial losses rather than reap huge financial gains from selling expensive seafood;
  • The crew consisted of a hierarchy whose entry involved initiation rites in the form of practical jokes that were not always harmless; and
  • Even during the off-season, the men’s drinking fostered male bonding that allowed them to mitigate the emotional stress of their work, and maintain their relationships in the old-boy network.

After high school, Hansen apprenticed as a deckhand on his father’s boat. The men were away at sea from nine to eleven months of the year, using “pots” (large, unwieldy cages that trap the seafood) to catch: red crab in the Bering Sea and near Nome in Alaska and near Adak, blue crab at St. Matthew, and opilio crab at Dutch Harbor.

In the 1980’s, the fishermen were allowed to carry boxes of live crabs in the plane cabin on Reeve Aleutian Airways. When starting their winter fishing season, if they were extremely lucky, they could complete their flight from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor in Alaska on an icy twin-prop plane. They booked it months in advance, arrived at the airport in the wee hours of the morning, and prayed that the weather would cooperate.

Read the book to learn a little history about seafaring in general, including the context of the following quote:

“That winter he was killed by Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay, his body torn apart and burned.”

and much more about Hansen’s life and times in his community. By the way, he appeared on the reality TV show, “Deadliest Catch.”

The second Book of the Week is “My Old Man and the Sea, A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn” by David Hays and Daniel Hays, published in 1995. Father and son alternately described, beginning in the new year of 1985, their adventures at sea– sailing (with no motor) on a tiny yacht for fun from New London, Connecticut southward thousands of miles, and eventually, around the tip of South America from west to east (the less dangerous route). They began testing their boat in fall 1984, sailing through the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean Sea.

As they well knew, all kinds of discomforts and life-threatening dangers awaited them. That was the challenge of it. Even with all of their experience in purchasing the boat, making it seaworthy (over the course of two years), maintaining their (then-primitive) communications and navigation equipment (which required them to pack thousands of items for every possible scenario they might encounter), they still suffered injuries, seasickness, hangovers, etc. When sailing along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, the chart warned them to watch out for “… unexploded mines, rocket casings and torpedoes, and chemical warfare dumpings.”

On their voyages, they met with visiting family or friends to celebrate Jewish holidays such as Yom Kippur. They attended a service at a synagogue on the island of Jamaica. The ark and dais were at opposite ends of the sanctuary, on a floor comprised of sand (representative of a desert).

Much later, when they arrived at a port in the Galapagos Islands, local law allowed them to pollute the water there for only three days; then they had to ship out. The authors described the area thusly: “In the name of white rice and virginity, Western man spent a good two hundred years raping, robbing, and leaving neat diseases here.” It was rumored to be a gateway to Atlantis, and the approximate population was three thousand.

The onshore entertainment consisted of the American movie “Blade Runner” whose soundtrack was poor quality, and whose reels were screened out of order, but the native people in the theater were undemanding.

The authors related that it is easily conceivable that about a hundred men could have made the sculptures on Easter Island over the course of a few decades, thus blowing speculations of alien-artists out of the water.

Read the book to: learn additional info about the authors’ adventures at sea (including their crazy pets), about previous trips made by them and others, see sample pages of their log, a diagram of their boat, and much more.

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The Nation Got Run Over – BONUS POST

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THE NATION GOT RUN OVER BY A PLAGUE HERE

sung to the tune of “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” with apologies to Randy Brooks, Elmo (and Patsy) Trigg, and whichever other rights holders this may concern.

The nation got run over by a plague here
from years of White House gyrations election eve.
You can say political donors play Santa
and voters have no CLUE what to believe.

Some are drinking too much Kool-Aid
and others abuse their power so.
Still others scream for medication.
The hostility of some has reached a new low.

When they confined us in 2020,
they began a dangerous age.
We resented the intrusion,
and our State is such
we have yet to turn the page.

The nation got run over by a plague here
from years of White House gyrations election eve.
You can say political donors play Santa
and voters have no CLUE what to believe.

It’s less than A year until midterms.
Our leaders’ messaging’s a joke.
See no masks on players of football
while tests and shots are FORCED on powerless folk.

It’s not nice to fool the people.
All the nation’s mad as hell,
and we just can’t help but wonder,
how much more must we endure before we’re well?

The nation got run over by a plague here
from years of White House gyrations election eve.
You can say political donors play Santa
and voters have no CLUE what to believe.

Soon the voters get to DEcide
whose heads are going to roll.
All those blue and red state mandates
are going to change pursuant to every political poll.

I urge all my fellow Americans:
you need to follow politics and vote.
The government has taken license
to curb our freedoms
and make their enemies the scapegoat.

The nation got run over by a plague here
from years of White House gyrations election eve.
You can say political donors play Santa
and voters have no CLUE what to believe.

The nation got run over by a plague here
from years of White House gyrations election eve.
You can say political donors play Santa
and voters have no CLUE what to believe.

Featured

Every Town is a Sports Town

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“Its demise was caused by low attendance, conflicting agendas among the owners, and a number of very poor business decisions.”

MLB? Possibly, but definitely the USFL by 1985.

Regardless, the Book of the Week is “Every Town is a Sports Town; Business Leadership at ESPN, from the Mailroom to the Boardroom” by George Bodenheimer with Donald T. Phillips, published in 2015.

In September 1979, the Bristol, Connecticut-based cable-TV channel ESPN began televising sports-related shows, by means of deals with: RCA (regarding a space-satellite), the NCAA (regarding covering basketball games), and Anheuser-Busch (regarding sponsoring the programs). The initial concept of the then-shoestring operation was to dispense information on sports 24/7, to serve fans. ESPN won contracts to show March Madness games and the NFL draft to start.

The workplace was team-oriented with a family-feel, so everyone was a jack-of-all-trades. In 1981, the author, a recent college graduate, worked as a mailroom guy and chauffeur of sorts, for executives of ESPN. He was later promoted to videotape librarian. He was willing to relocate when the company opened new branch offices, including Denver.

Anyway, ESPN could not survive financially on ad revenue alone, as the company was paying cable operators to carry its channel. It saw a loss of $25 million annually until it negotiated in 1982 to have cable operators pay the company a certain number of cents for each household receiving its channel, and that figure could rise up to a certain maximum percentage during the term of a multi-year contract.

Due to the ultimate takeover by Capital Cities Communications, and a favorable change in media law– ESPN grew by leaps and bounds. Meanwhile, it added professional tennis, golf, NASCAR, World Cup soccer, the America’s Cup yacht race, and Sunday Night Football (for which ESPN had to pay the NFL) to its lineup in the mid-1980’s.

Globalization, recording devices, the Internet and mobile devices have made the negotiations over intellectual-property rights and sports programming between and among ESPN and other stakeholders, infinitely more complicated. In 1985, ESPN could be watched in about 30 million viewer-households in America; in 1999– in about 80 million in America and about 100 million elsewhere worldwide.

Read the book to learn: of how the author achieved a high position at ESPN, and how he boosted the morale, energy and innovative thinking of his fellow employees; what the company did when it saw its ratings plummet; what his executive team did to resolve the controversy that arose when ESPN made a movie in which the “F” word was uttered approximately thirty times; about the author’s business philosophy; and much more about the history of ESPN.

ENDNOTE: The author’s photo appears on the book’s cover with his head very slightly tilted. This flex is pleasing to the human brain, projecting the impression that he is a people-person. His boyish good looks probably served him well, too. [Total lack of head-flex, projects an unfriendly vibe.]

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We’re Trigger-Happy – BONUS POST

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WE’RE TRIGGER-HAPPY

This is what the “Let’s Go Brandon” crowd ought to sing if they’re honest with themselves– sung to the tune of the partridge family (sic) theme song (Come On Get Happy) with apologies to the estate of Wes Farrell, Danny Janssen and whichever other rights holders this may concern.

SHOOting our mouths off;
JOIN in our zinging.
WE’RE trigger-happy.
A whole lot of anger is what we’ll be bringing.
WE’RE trigger-happy.
WE’RE being mean, and we stick together,
and spread a little hatin’;
no IMpulse conTROL.
We engage in profanity
instead of conflict res-o-lution.
We spread a crude feeling
wherever we GO.
Playin’ along with our hate-speech phrasing.
WE’RE trigger-happy.
A whole lot of anger is what we’ll be bringing.
WE’RE trigger-happy.
WE’RE trigger-happy.
WE’RE trigger-happ-y-y-y-y.

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Beyond Hitler’s Grasp – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “Beyond Hitler’s Grasp, The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria’s Jews” by Michael Bar-Zohar, published in 1998.

Bulgaria lost a large amount of territory in WWI, and became a Constitutional monarchy after 1919. Its prime minister and other ministers served at the pleasure of its king, Boris III. Other sources of the nation’s power lay in its Army, the Communists and Macedonian terrorists.

In the 1930’s, roughly half of Bulgaria’s fifty thousand Jews lived in the capital of Sofia. They were productive members of society, and were treated just like people of any other religious group. There were only isolated incidents of anti-Semitism because most of the Jews were merchants, craftsmen or poor laborers, and so were not the victims of class envy.

When WWII began, Germany was able to help Bulgaria regain some of the land it had lost in the Great War. Germany was trading with and supplying weapons to Bulgaria, but the Bulgarians had more of a Soviet cultural and Soviet social mindset. So the king sought to keep his country out of the war.

Alexander Belev, an opportunist with hubris syndrome was the Bulgarian Commissar for Jewish Questions. In summer 1942, he collaborated with the Nazis in changing the definition of “Jew” based on ancestry rather than religion. This is one source of the notion that people can be “born Jewish”– have genetic traits that Jews share (For an additional source, see this blog’s post “In Search of Memory”).

Anyway, beginning in autumn 1940, laws went into effect that oppressed Bulgaria’s Jews by taking away their assets and sullying their reputations through hate-spewing and other actions of greedy, local bureaucrats who were taking orders from Hitler.

Read the book to learn how the common people, Christian churches, and circumstances determined the fates of Jews living in Macedonia, Thrace and Bulgaria (complete with romantic subplot, of course; hint: “The deep hatred for the Jews infected only the lunatic fringe of the wartime society, the Ratniks, Branniks, and Legionnaires and some sadistic police and army officers and KEV officials”), and of the mythmaking– historical revisionism of various incidents and events.

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Steinbrenner

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The Book of the Week is “Steinbrenner, The Last Lion of Baseball” by Bill Madden, published in 2010.

George Steinbrenner was born in July 1930 in Ohio. At fourteen years old, he was sent by his father to military school. He was groomed to inherit his father’s Great Lakes shipping company.

In late 1972, he got investors together to buy the New York Yankees baseball team from the media network CBS. His financial interest was the largest, however, so he was the face of the team. After the 1974 baseball season, he was indicted for committing felonies by making illegal, individual and corporate political contributions to the former late president Nixon’s reelection campaign. He never spent a day in jail, but was fined. The then-commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) Bowie Kuhn was out to get him for other reasons, though.

Nevertheless, in 1977, after just five years of ownership, Steinbrenner’s Yankees won the World Series, “… in spite of clubhouse dissension, a crazy manager [Billy Martin] and an even crazier owner.” This was due to overwhelming hitting talent. That is the most crucial skill required for a winning baseball team. The reason is– there is limited opportunity to score, unlike with all other major professional American sports (football, basketball, hockey and soccer). In baseball, a team must get its players on the bases and run around those bases in order to win the game. In all the other games, when there is a turnover, any player from the team on defense, can score on the spot.

Aspects of Steinbrenner’s character rubbed people the wrong way. His frequent dishonesty, temper tantrums, impulsive decision-making, micro-management, and excessive spending to recruit players for the Yankees caused emotional burnout and sky-high turnover among his employees. Even so, starting in 1976, there was a major change in the legal rights of Major League players– called free agency– that prompted the average player’s 1975 salary of $44,676 to rise by 1980 to $143,756. Steinbrenner was willing to pay top dollar for the players perceived to be the absolute best prospects for his Yankees, and also for his top executive team.

In 2004, the Yankees’ payroll was $185 million. Beginning in 2005, Joe Torre became the then-highest paid MLB manager, with a $19.2 million, 3-year contract. The following year, Brian Cashman became the then-highest paid general manager with a $4.4 million, 3-year contract.

Read the book to learn much more about Steinbrenner’s career as a professional baseball-team owner, and the constantly changing cast of characters who helped him navigate the Yankees’ ups and downs.

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World Class

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The Book of the Week is “World Class, One Mother’s Journey Halfway Around the Globe in Search of the Best Education for Her Children” by Teru Clavel, published in 2019.

Born in the early 1960’s, the author had very different educational experiences from that of her children. She spent her early childhood years in Greenwich, Connecticut; middle years in New York City, and teens in Westchester county, New York. She, her husband and their three children spent a decade in Asia, and moved back to the United States in 2016.

They began their stay in Hong Kong in the expat community, but the author wanted her children to see how the natives actually lived and learned. The rat race among the super-rich elitists had become tiresome. So in Hong Kong and later in Shanghai, she found a preschool and elementary school that were right for her then-two children. Even so, most local Asian schools demanded discipline and rigorous academics that were standardized nationwide.

In Shanghai, though, her family endured hardships in order for her children to get the best educations– authentic to the culture of that place and time. In Asia, teaching is a highly respected profession for which there is rigorous training and a highly selective hiring process.

Both the author’s family’s local public school and their residence were structurally dilapidated. The former had classrooms that were unheated, so in winter, the kids wore their coats all day. The grounds had no playground, only a concrete basketball court with a bare hoop. The family’s home had vermin and unreliable water and internet service.

At the elementary school, the teachers specialized in math, Mandarin, English language or other subjects, and were paid more than the homeroom teacher. The kids learned with pencils and paper; not tablets and videos.

Every day before preschool began, the kids were subjected to a color-coded health examination: red (a lucky color in China) meant the child was well, yellow meant slight illness but okay to be in class, but blue indicated that the child would spend the day at the school infirmary. Most parents of elementary schoolers work to support a multi-generational household: an only child, the parents, and both sets of grandparents of the child.

The author’s six-year old son’s report card was a 46 page bound book containing assessments in each subject including social skills– comprised of opinions of the parents, teachers and students themselves. According to the author, the Chinese education system is a meritocracy, with high school and college entrance exams the keys to the kingdom.

The author wanted her children to attend high school in the United States, so the family moved to Palo Alto in California– the best school district in the nation; but, as the author found out, only reputationally.

Read the book to learn: many more details of Asian education and cultures, and how they compare to the American system in recent years; the author’s advice and tips for how parents can seek out the best education for their kids; and biographical information on the author and her family.

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Flight of Passage – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “Flight of Passage, A Memoir” by Rinker Buck, published in 1997.

In July 1966, the fifteen-year old author and his seventeen-year old brother flew from New Jersey to California in a Piper Cub they’d refurbished themselves. For fun. They weren’t attention whores. It was their famous father who helped publicize their flight. Completion of the trip was a major feat, as conditions were life-threatening from time to time. Built in 1946, the prop plane had no battery, no radio and no lights.

The media thought it was a big story: “America just wanted a good dose of innocence that summer and we perfectly fit the bill. The Jack-and-Bobby look-alikes bouncing out to California in their homemade Piper Cub was a heartwarming tale for the masses.”

Read the book to learn of: the brothers’ adventures; the issues the author had to deal with, between and among his brother, father and himself; other information on his family; and how his father’s view of black people changed radically when they saved his life.

ENDNOTE: The author focused mostly on the flight and ignored the ugly historical events then happening in the United States. Times have changed on two fronts in 55 years: back then, there was minimal security and a lot of privacy for ordinary Americans.

Once the media began to follow the author’s story and he and his brother became momentarily famous, though, hordes of journalists engaged in stakeouts at every place the plane touched down. Even so, the pilots didn’t hire a publicist and didn’t try to stay in the spotlight in any way. Even their father didn’t try to keep their space in the news cycle going. That is the antithesis of the current social climate in this country. Here’s a little ditty that shows how times have changed:

EVERY SELFIE YOU TAKE
sung to the tune of “Every Breath You Take” with apologies to Sting and the Police.

Every selfie you take,
from the moment you wake,
every post you make,
every ID you fake,
spyware’s watching you.

Everyone you unfriend,
every text you send,
every photo you post,
every site from your host,
spyware’s watching you.

Oh, you emotional wreck,
you belong to Big Tech.

Your hypocrisy grows
with your privacy woes,
your attention whore ways,
your social media days,
hours of video-game plays,
every political craze,
spyware’s watching you.

ComplAINTS on privacy are a SLIPpery slope.
Lawyers spin disclaimers in ORDER to cope.
Look around, you’re hanging YOURself
on your own rope.
You feel so mad but can you TURN back? Nope.
You keep crying,
world– LOOK at me, LOOK at me, PLEASE!

Oh, you emotional wreck,
you belong to Big Tech.

Your hypocrisy grows
with your privacy woes,
your attention whore ways,
your social media days,
hours of video-game plays,
every political craze,
spyware’s watching you.

Every selfie you take,
from the moment you wake,
spyware’s watching you.
Spyware’s watching you.

Your attention whore ways,
your social media days,
hours of video-game plays,
every political craze,
spyware’s watching you.

Everyone you unfriend,
every text you send,
every photo you post,
every site from your host,
spyware’s watching you.

Every selfie you take,
from the moment you wake,
every post you make,
every ID you fake,
spyware’s watching you.

Everyone you unfriend,
every text you send,
every photo you post,
every site from your host,
spyware’s watching you.

Your attention whore ways,
your social media days,
hours of video-game plays,
every political craze,
spyware’s watching you.

Everyone you unfriend,
every text you send,
every photo you post,
every site from your host,
spyware’s watching you.

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How I Cracked the Alpha Code – BONUS POST

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“The new guys were preoccupied with being reelected, the demands of which were not well served by ridiculous fantasies like fiscal discipline.”

American politics? Rogers was actually referring to the money managers of the euro in the early 2000’s. He was cautiously optimistic about the euro when it was first launched. Oh, well.

The Bonus Book of the Week is “How I Cracked the Alpha Code” by Jim Rogers, published in 2013. This was a partially autobiographical, extended essay that gave tips on how to gauge economic prosperity and prospects in different places. At all times, Rogers is on the lookout everywhere for investment opportunities. He made his (take this job and shove it) money and retired from investment banking at 37 years old.

Born in 1942, Rogers and his wife and young children tried living in Shanghai and Hong Kong (where there was horrible air pollution) beginning in 2005, before deciding to move to Singapore from New York City.

Singapore requires no security at public events, so it is safe for children. He claimed that the education and healthcare systems are excellent. It has entitlement programs in those areas and in home ownership that are roughly equivalent to health savings accounts and 529 plans in the U.S. with contribution-matching through employers, but administered by the government. The public schools require parents to volunteer to help in various capacities. Medical treatment is a great value compared to that in the U.S. No surprise there. It also has the equivalent of America’s E-ZPass system on toll roads and for parking, too.

However, Rogers merely listed the positive aspects of Singaporeans’ lifestyle. He listed no negatives, except for potential, general economic threats that could affect any nation. Another glaring omission of inconvenient information was cryptocurrencies. But he did reveal his basic philosophy: one’s real worth is what one would be worth if one lost all of his or her money. And let financial entities fail so as to encourage creative destruction. Do not bail them out.

Rogers listed some of the kinds of policies and practices that bring a country down economically: wars, litigation, and incompetent leadership. This blogger would add one more: excessive deregulation. He gave tips on what a nation should do to try to reverse its serious financial position: reform the tax system so as to encourage savings and investment, not consumption; “change the education system” and reform healthcare and litigation.

Read the book to learn more cherry-picked information that bolstered the author’s too brief, too pat pronouncements.

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Fatal Subtraction

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The Book of the Week is “Fatal Subtraction, How Hollywood Really Does Business” by Pierce O’Donnell and Dennis McDougal, published in 1992.

“I asked myself whether this uncanny similarity and anticompetitive market was the result of coincidence or conspiracy. Thanks to my populist tendencies and a healthy distrust of powerful institutions, I opted for the sinister explanation.”

Politics? Big Tech? Medical, legal, music, sports or oil industry?

The above quote happens to refer (in various ways) to all of the major Hollywood movie studios, just after their most lucrative years. The skyrocketing size of the home video market in the 1980’s made movie studios richer and richer, what with cable TV, VCRs and global distribution. They retained the best entertainment law firms on an ongoing basis so that whenever any powerless parties who felt wronged, tried to hire those firms to bring legal actions against them, there were conflicts of interest.

In 1988, Art Buchwald and Alain Bernheim– respectively a seasoned humorous newspaper writer and lecturer who dabbled in the movie industry, and a producer– sued Paramount Pictures Corporation for thirteen causes of action; among them, breach of contract in connection with the movie Coming to America starring Eddie Murphy. They were fortunate in that they were able to hire a big firm and could afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire topnotch attorneys to fight a years-long legal battle.

The crux of the dispute involved the boilerplate contracts almost everyone in Hollywood was compelled by their agents to sign, in order to get work. The studios engaged in cartelizing behavior, so the powerless creative personnel were at their mercy at contract-signing. Only a tiny percentage of powerful elite stars reaped a ton of money for all movies they did, regardless of financial success. The agents claimed they were getting great deals for their less powerful talent, but that was a lie. For, starting in the 1950’s, the contracts evolved pursuant to the studios’ shady accounting practices, in a way that cheated screenwriters especially.

By the dawn of the 1990’s, big-name actors were allowed to behave like prima donnas, basically enjoying excessive expense accounts and reaping outrageously generous compensation from gross movie revenues. The movie idea originators and writers received net profit participation– i.e., the crumbs after all expenses had been deducted. The studios’ definition of “profit” was topsy turvy so when it came time to pay lowly workers, they claimed their movies were losing money!

O’Donnell and his legal team argued that certain provisions in Buchwald’s and Bernheim’s contracts were unconscionable, and therefore legally unenforceable. On principle, the studios’ oligopoly was economically bad not just for his clients, but for society (See this blog’s post “Wikinomics / Courting Justice”).

Read the book to learn every last detail of the case.

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You Can’t Trust Them – BONUS POST

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YOU CAN’T TRUST THEM

This is the song Steve Bannon is singing now.

sung to the tune of “You Can’t Touch This” with apologies to (M.C.) Hammer.

You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
No. No. No. No.
You can’t trust them.
Again, you made America GREAT,
makes me say, just you WAIT.
Thank you, for voting TRUMP
with a Wall to build
and a fist to BUMP.
We feel good, even NOW
we won again in this cheating TOWN.
We’re innoCENT.
So they can’t charge me with conTEMPT.
We beat the radical left.
You can’t trust them.
Yeah, that’s how we roll,
and you know, uh,
you can’t trust them.
Don’t look in my files, man.
You can’t trust them.
I ignore the subpoenas.
You can’t trust them.
We deflect their licks,
we keep it REAL.
We’re strong like that.
We say stop the STEAL.
So get out on the STREET
and get a big sign
and use your free SPEECH
while we’re polling.
On TOP.
Update a little bit.
Keep on fighting. Don’t STOP.
Like me, like me.
They’re hot on my trail,
so back me up.
They accuse us of trying a PUTSCH,
but we’re the winners, uh, they can’t TOUCH.
Yo, don’t even.
You can’t trust them.
Why they harassing me, man?
You can’t trust them.
Yo, let freedom ring,
election’s still on, sucker.
You can’t trust them.
Give me a rally and a MIC,
they’re so dull.
See we’re all PSYCHED.
Now they JUMP,
you mess with the Bannon
you’re messing with TRUMP.
That’s risky, and NAIVE.
Accusers are hatin’,
we’re not gonna LEAVE,
won’t CAVE IN.
We know, how to catch the next WAVE IN.
We’re LEGIT.
We’ll take over, so they might as well QUIT.
Sure thing.
They’re so not.
You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
We’re on a roll.
Stop. Bannon time!
I’m not guilty, this I KNOW.
If you can’t groove to my podcasts,
you’re too SLOW.
So wave, your arms in the AIR.
Take back the country.
The ballot-counting was so UNFAIR.
We can’t stand this any LONGER.
Stick with me and you’ll get STRONGER.
Now listen, Biden’s going down,
let’s open our eyes and look AROUND (around, around, around).
No. You can’t trust them.
Get with it.
You can’t trust them.
You’ve got lots of problems, ’cause
you know, uh, you can’t trust them.
Let freedom ring, election’s still on.
We keep it real.
Stop. Bannon time!
You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
We’re on a roll.
Stop. Bannon time!
No bones about it,
that Bannon’s just so DEFT.
I’m always on your phone
and I shame the radical LEFT.
Now they won’t ever, stop with their PLOTS.
To end this outrage, we can do LOTS.
I visited the world,
from China to D.C.
It’s Bannon GO
Bannon, Steve Bannon YO
Keep calm and follow ME.
You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
You can’t trust them.
No. You can’t trust them.
I’m bad. You can’t trust them.
So deft. You can’t trust them.
Yo, we’re on it. You can’t trust them.

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The Daughters of Kobani

The Book of the Week is “The Daughters of Kobani, The Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice” by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, published in 2021.

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“She didn’t have time to offer hourly updates to her family, who were tracking every moment of the battle for Kobani on Facebook and WhatsApp.”

No, the above referred NOT to an American political campaign, but a real-life war.

Violence in northern Syria resumed between Kurds (an oppressed minority in Iraq and Syria) and non-Kurds in March 2004 after tensions boiled over at a soccer game. At the same time, there was hostility over water-rights of the Euphrates river between Syria (a non-NATO member) and Turkey (a NATO member).

Turkey harbored anger and resentment toward Syria’s leader, and wanted him out. The Soviets backed Syria’s leader, as did the U.S. initially. In the 1990’s, a Marxist-Leninist activist named Abdullah Ocalan formed a violent (some might say terrorist) pro-Kurdish, pro-gender-equality group called PKK, that agitated for self-rule for the Kurds in Syria.

The decades-long cliche is: the latest terror group (ISIS) obtained modern war weaponry from Iraqi forces, who had received the equipment from America. As is well known, the region has been a foreign-policy conundrum for the governments of industrialized countries (with their strategic interests), for forever. The U.S. thought it needed to fight ISIS, but didn’t want to send in ground troops (and invite yet another “Vietnam” in the Middle East). But it did want to protect its physical diplomatic and military presence in northern Iraq– Kurdish territory, near the Syrian border. So it sent some in, anyway.

The author described a handful of females who volunteered to join one of PKK’s spinoff militias (YPK and YPG). From the city of Kobani in Syria, the females were resistant to their arranged marriages and limited educations decided on by their families’ patriarchs. Two of the females commanding troops engaged in guerrilla warfare that resembled “capture the flag” or paintball, but with real war weapons, real deaths and really widespread destruction of civilians’ communities.

During the early 2010’s, the U.S. decided to let the Kurdish militias on the ground do the most dangerous fighting. The YPG had communications devices of radios, cell phones and walkie-talkies, and U.S.-supplied guns. ISIS had rifles, rocket launchers, artillery, car bombs, snipers, IEDs, land mines and suicide bombers. In summer 2014, the U.S. launched tens of airstrikes on ISIS in and around Kobani.

Read the book to learn: the fate of the fight’s many stakeholders that included countries, groups and individuals, how ruling authorities furthered gender-equality for Tunisians and Syrian Kurds in 2014 and 2016 respectively, and much more about the tentative progress made by various parties.

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20 Years of Rolling Stone – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “20 Years of Rolling Stone, What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” edited by Jann S. Wenner, published in 1987. This volume was comprised of some of the best articles from the magazine on its twentieth anniversary.

One contributing writer who always delivered rich, colorful prose was Hunter S. Thompson. In April 1972, he described his beef with America’s brand of leaders thusly: “…crowd pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage to whup their supporters to orgiastic frenzy, then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards to the Conglomerate Loan Company for a nickel apiece.”

In March 1975, Howard Kohn penned a serious piece (headlined “Malignant Giant”) about Karen Silkwood, a nuclear-power plant worker and whistleblower who tried to alert America to the dangers of radioactive substances such as plutonium. Sadly, her story is typical for this country, on the nuclear power conundrum. The author provided (scary!) information on the link between radiation– especially that emanating from plutonium– and CANCER:

  • lab animals have developed cancer from as little as a millionth of a grain of plutonium;
  • all people on earth would very nearly certainly develop cancer from a carefully dispersed softball-sized parcel of plutonium;
  • “Silkwood learned that several [workers] had no idea that plutonium could cause cancer.”
  • When airborne plutonium is inhaled, human lungs cannot be decontaminated.
  • The cancer rate among employees of Silkwood’s workplace was seven times higher than that of the population of the United States, according to the Denver Post at the time.

The article causes the reader to wonder what the real cancer rates are from the toxins to which everyone is unwittingly exposed on a daily basis (never mind power plants), not only in the U.S., but in Japan, China and France.

Anyway, read the book to learn about or nostalgically relive the era of (excuse the cliche) sex, drugs, and rock and roll of Wenner’s crowd, and see (uncensored!) photo spreads.

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Exorbitant Privilege

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The Book of the Week is “Exorbitant Privilege, The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System” by Barry Eichengreen, published in 2011.

“Often these individuals had little professional training, there being no meaningful federal or in some cases, even state licensing requirements.”

No, the above refers to neither tax preparers nor life coaches.

The author was referring to the bandwagon-jumpers who worked for lenders taking advantage of the excessive deregulation that resulted in the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis in America.

The author listed some factors favoring, and some disfavoring the American dollar’s ability to maintain its global power as a currency and store of value. However, one major factor the author completely neglected to mention (a glaring omission) was that of cryptocurrencies.

Anyway, Brooksley Born, head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, raised the alarm in the late 1990’s on the excessive deregulation that was to lead to the subprime crisis. She deserves more of a historical footnote than she has since received, because sadly, greedy alpha males are better propagandists than prescient, conscientious public-officials such as she.

The author contended that one major reason the American dollar will continue to maintain its dominance in the world, is that other industrialized nations can’t agree on what financial instrument should replace the American dollar as a stabilizer of the world’s other currencies. The greenback has compiled a longer history of trustworthiness, value-consistency, related liquidity-maintenance, and other benefits, in connection with transactions and international trade balances, more than any other instrument. China’s policy of keeping its central banks’ foreign-reserves balance a secret, reduces China’s currency’s trustworthiness.

The powerful U.S. government backs up its currency through treasury bonds and bills, while a (sometimes contentious) collective of European countries (not one government) must agree on how to act when a monetary crisis rears its ugly head. It stands to reason that disagreement or indecision leads to uncertainty, which leads to instability, and a possible worsening or hastening of, the collapse of modern civilization.

The aforementioned are just a few reasons why 54 countries pegged their currency’s values to the American dollar, while 27 pegged theirs to the euro, as of 2009. As is well known, the George W. Bush administration did a number on the U.S. economy, as “… tax cuts and unfunded spending increases [on two extremely expensive wars and a Medicare drug benefit] pushed the budget from surplus in 2000 to a structural deficit of 4 percent of GDP in 2007-2008.” The next two years saw the American government’s debt explosion at its worst.

The author outlined several possible (yet raucously controversial) ways to keep the American dollar globally powerful, through cost-cutting:

  • In a period of non-war– less defense-spending;
  • Reforming healthcare;
  • Raising the retirement age– less pension spending;
  • Liberalizing immigration policy — helps fund Social Security going forward; and
  • Increasing taxes of all kinds.

Read the book to learn a lot more about how the American dollar has fallen in stature in recent decades, and about other geopolitical international: monetary, financial and economic issues; explained for laypeople.