Politics – Miscellaneous – education and deconstruction.com

Fear-and-Force – 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.]

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…

This Is for Everyone

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.

Nothing Random / In the Ring – BONUS POST

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…

The Calling

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.

Scenes From an Orwellian Juggernaut – BONUS POST

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…

Walter Ralegh

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.

Shady Donald – BONUS POST

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.

The Lords of Strategy

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.

Knocking Previous Prezzes – BONUS POST

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.

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…

It’s an Uncertain World – BONUS POST

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.