First Blog

Rational ignorance .  A state of mind where your analytical powers seem not to work and you know it.  This leads to an uncertainty of how to proceed.  It is an awareness of a state where you are powerless. It can affect your investment strategies, your job seeking strategies,  your relationships with others, or even your foundational beliefs.   Coming to grips with rational ignorance is but one step towards wisdom.  Know it. Understand it. Live with it.  Do all of these with the black flag of caution flying high.  Resist giving in to emotional responses, the alternative response. You have to just plain love this state.  This is certain uncertainty.   Delicious!

Dear Mr. President, Today I’m writing about health-care fraud.  Fraud is a fact of every ultra-large government program.  Careful observers of such programs or systems note that expertise develops on which requests will be approved and which do not.  It is a simple conclusion for applicants to tailor requests to fit the parameters of acceptance.  Fraud in Medicare and related programs is acknowledged to be rampant, costing taxpayers multiple billions each year. This requires increased budgets and decreased honest benefit approvals. The acknowledged capitols of such fraud are Miami and NYC, particularly for medical equipment.  In fact, I’ve read that organized crime is involved, with their view that such activities (fraud) are far safer than traditional venues.  The fraud here is that the equipment is never delivered.  Even doctors are involved. I recommend you declare a “War Against Fraud,” wherein you franchise an undersecretary to Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human

It’s in the DNA of both political parties.  When the Republicans lost the Presidency in 2008 and 2012, they blamed the candidates.  These two, McCain and Romney, were blamed on all fronts for the debacles.  Reps learned their lesson, through Trump, who was off the charts of the same-old-styles.  He was different; he was new breath of hope for many. The same brew-of-blame has been fermenting on the Democratic side, now for more than half a decade.  Lately, when Hillary lost, the blame was directed toward President Trump, not Democrats.  This persisted through months of various charges, particularly the Russian collusion investigations with no actual evidence.  Now after four straight loses to Republicans in special elections, the Democrats, true to their predilections, have turned blame upon their own Congressional leader Nancy Pelosi.  Many blame her for these loses. Her tenure is at risk.  Poor Nancy.  She may be a bit ruthless, but lately was trying to do what was expected:

In my teens I worked many part time jobs.  All of us did.  Nowadays, we see fewer teens working such jobs, particularly in the summer.  To me this portends long term consequences.  Why?  Because those part-time jobs were an inspiration.  How?  They inspired me to study hard and find better employment as an adult.  They helped me grow up. This hit home hard decades ago, when as a college freshman I got work at Allen-Bradley, a local electronics company in Milwaukee.  Sitting next to me at a heat-press to make resistors was the dad of one of my neighborhood friends.  We made the same wage, about $2.70/hr*, a fortune for me, a living wage for him.  I knew this made him uncomfortable, and me too.  Here I was doing exactly the same thing on a job that took only a few days to learn.  For me, it was study money; for him it was the last stop in personal advancement. Inspiration comes in diverse forms.  Sometimes in life, inspiration comes from discovering where you don’t want to be.

Analysis of recent presidential speeches. Trump: Discusses his version of the issues from his viewpoint, using his personal language.  Often he adds "bonbons." Interesting they are but often create news beyond their value.  After about 45 minutes, one tires of listening,  mostly because of repetition. Trump loves to meet his supporters in an open forum. Trump has learned to use the prompter.  Thankfully. Obama: Well crafted, well cadenced, well articulated speeches almost always based on ideology, not practicality, but extremely predictable. Very much like a college lecture, they simply drone on - and on. Eventually, one is unsure of whether he/she is tuned in or out.   Obama loves to give speeches to anyone. Obama relied on the prompter. Thankfully. Neither excel at spontaneous commentary.  Obama reveals ideology even further, sometimes sounding sophomoric; Trump sometimes expresses rather bizarre sentiments.

Social Media Standards We see more and more inciteful postings appearing on various social media sites.  These include of course recruitment to terrorism – the big one.  Social media sites state they are continually trying to reduce such postings, but they are completely on their own recognizance on how to do it and what to do.  Thus, little is achieved.  They don’t know what to do and simply do not wish to spend the resources to do anything. What is currently missing is a set of standards for what should not be posted.  Such standards for what cannot be transmitted on broadcast television do exist, and while they are mild they have worked for decades.  Ask anyone, I do not favor more regulations, but it is time the government should create an independent agency to first study this problem and then develop standards and guidelines.  Representatives of the the industry, elected officials, and media experts should be involved. However, unless and until there are standards, t

For the Brits, it's the 1930’s all over again.  It was Chamberlain vs Churchill: appeasement vs strength.  With terrorist events rampant,  i t is   now Corbyn vs May: appeasement vs strength.    One significant comment about Chamberlain is that he was reflecting widespread public opinion at the time which wanted peace.  Hitler viewed this as weakness.  In the election today, the compass of Brit opinion will move toward the current direction of thought. The Brits have a big decision to make.  Both will help in their own way.  But which is the correct and lasting way?  

What is tweeting?  A method to exhale an incomplete thought in a moment of haste.  Pro’s: Get your idea out there quickly.  Can make an important point transcendent of media filters. Con’s: Once written it is permanent, sometimes cryptic, open to misinterpretation, and incomplete. Ancient tweeting forms: interviews given to media, unprepared press conferences, off-hand comments, op-eds, letters.  Few have permanence in favor of the tweeter. It is easy to see a future book: The rise and fall of the twitter world .  Certainly a hundred PhD theses, dozens of books. History may record that tweeting is an existential threat to the presidency.   Will the current President learn this in time?  Doubtful. There is an old saying that the same tools used to gain power are used to sustain power. This applies in politics, not just business – to all players, independent of persuasion.  A universal law, it is reminiscent of the ancient aphorism about the proverbial “leopard tha