First Blog

A rule of life is, or should be, " Use what you got to get there ." The “got” includes good looks, strength, money, talent, inheritance, intelligence, and more.  The “there” is your goal.  What happens when you haven't got much is you make things up. You lie.  Sadly, it does work more often than we wish.  Especially in politics. And loosely connected... Mouth vs. Brain .  Many people are born with a mouth but not a brain.  Such are often attracted to politics and the media.  Similar are those with “style” but no talent.  Basically, the brain hears the mouth and forms its views.  Sounds like reverse and contradictory logic?  Nope.  ---------------   The class clown.   What does he/she want?  Recognition, notoriety, and position.  This is NOKO’s Kim Jong Un within the league of all nations.  This is why he may never give up his nukes, even to save his country.  He views himself as a true player in the world’s power game.  Mucho and macho, all in one, is the

The Luxury of Domestic Cats.  In 2017, the number of domestic cats in the US is estimated 95.6 million.*  About 35% of all households have at least one cat.  In fact, the average number of cats per household is 2.19 cats. Cats consume much food. An eight pound cat requires a daily diet of about 300 calories, or about five ounces of dry food.  This amounts to  10,950,000,000 pounds of effective dry cat food per year.  Eleven billion pounds of dry cat food is a lot of food, indeed enough to feed 14,400,400 people per year living on a generous 2000 calorie/day diet.  This implies the amount of cat food the US uses just for its cats would feed the entire populations and more of each of the following countries: Somalia, Burundi, Benin, Bolivia, Tunisia, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Belgium, United Arab Emirates, Cuba. Roughly speaking, every seven American cats consume the food of a single human being. In the great scheme of things, our domestic cats consume far more food, high protein

Drone surveillance.  It is only a matter of one year or two before drones are deployed as “eyes of the police” in troubled cities.  This may be a very good thing.   Drones will have a regular “beat,” just like foot police used to.  Each drone will patrol specific streets.  Once programmed they will need no pilot in control back at the station, just a monitor for activity. They will create video records, identify perpetrators, and probably indirectly reduce crime.     But these little city-size drones need power.   What we will see in the months ahead are drone-charging stations, located high above the city streets, on tops of buildings.  Drones will navigate to them automatically, charge up quickly, and be back on patrol.  Sort of like a coffee-donut break.  Remarkably, and this is only a guess, the charging stations will be called “nests.”  Cheap and tireless, these drone-cops will become a backup for beleaguered in situ officers. Watch carefully.  The possibilities are en

We have just learned that UBER was hacked more than a year ago of millions of customer identities.  They covered it up and paid a ransom.  The report came only today.  This comes on the heals of government, commercial, collegiate and other hacking of information across the board – throughout the country and world. Now consider the possibility that Amazon is hacked for all its information.  Such an event could destroy this massive firm.  I am not suggesting it has been, but I figure the probability at 1.0 (certainty) it has been attempted.  Ditto for Walmart,  Paypal, etc.  We must hope these companies pay close attention to cyber-invaders from afar.  However, cyber-security costs money, a principle reason so many other companies have been hacked.  They did not pay attention, were not vigilant, or fund necessary security.  It has been my experience that people at the top have little prior experience with these modern risks and are hesitant to fund them, much less understand th

As you may have heard, North Korea refuses to meet with the Chinese envoy.  Indeed, it is not clear why Kim Jong Un has snubbed China by not receiving its high level envoy.  Intransigence?  Maybe.  However, this may be a method for China to comply with Trump but support NOKO.  So tricky these people are.  The tea leaves from the East are difficult to read.   ------------------ Thanksgiving.  Don’t let politics thicken your blood and affect your family dinner. Of course, I don’t.  With my taser at the ready, all political disputes are dealt with quickly and successfully.  

Former FBI Director James Comey recently referred to the investigation of Hillary Clinton as a “matter.”  Now  suppose, some future Attorney General or FBI director drops an investigation of somebody.  Shall we call this an “anti-matter.”  Responses might be called “matter --- anti-matter” reactions. Would nuclear physicists be totally offended?  Would Sci-Fi fans be confused?  What would Mr. Spock do? Naturally, congressional leaders and news organizations would need a fresh page of talking points. So lost they would be. ---------------- Have you noticed how many of the big name stocks, such as Boeing, Amazon, Apple, and Google plus many more are selling at really high prices per share.  .  Can you afford to buy a 100 shares, the normal minimum, of any stock selling at $1000/share?  This implies these companies are simply uninterested in the small investor.  This implies only institutional and rich investors are sought.  This means they are courting only a very select

Goodness sakes.  Is China worried about a migration of millions of North Koreans crossing the NOKO-China frontier escaping a besieged Kim regime?  Believe me, no one will hear the machine guns a blazing in such an event. China may be worried about a ferociously armed Japan and South Korea, but a few million NOKO refugees is no problem at all.  In that part of the world there are no good guys or bad.  There are only special interests. Power and  money top the list.  Destroy your enemy and seek revenge come next.   Human rights and human sanctity?  Hmm. What are they? ------------------- Guinness Book of Records new category – the greatest time elapsed for raising a sexual molestation charge against a public figure.  Now held by Roy Moore of Alabama at 40 years. Roy is toast, life is ruined.   --------------------- I just heard the news about Senator Al Franken's miscalculation on groping.  And there's a picture - no less.   So, I went to my German mug

Deny or Die - the mantra of extreme policies and beliefs. This has been a central thread for religious and political conformity for centuries. The list is long. Let's list a few, just in Europe and the Americas. a. Bolsheviks to Czarists (and everybody else for that matter) Russia, 20th century b. Lutherans to Catholics, Germany, 16th century c. Catholics to reformers, Southern Europe mostly, 16-18th centuries d. Catholics to Muslims, Spain, 11-17th centuries e. Muslims and Catholics to Jews, Europe and the Mediterranean region, 12-20th centuries f. Protestants to everybody else, USA, 16-19 centuries g. Catholics to impure Catholics, Spain and elsewhere, the Inquisition Denial meant death.  All are forms of identity exclusion.  Add up all the deaths from just this short list comes to a staggering total. In particular, it seems that Dems have outlawed religion among its rank and file. It is interesting that Dems, the self-declared party of inclusion, have decided they

Feeling Good All of us need to feel good.  People, politicians, teachers, movie-star personalities, all of us have this fundamental need.  All or most are driven by this need – even if you or I think they’ve run astray.   Even psychologists need to feel good, and for them they need to feel they make a difference in their treatment of patients.  Rarely, will one tell us they tried and tried but nothing worked.  Indeed, they need affirmation, often self-affirmation, of treatment success.  And this makes them feel good. Only a few psychologists are in possession of the power to suggest the release criminally troubled (or insane) patients back into the world of us all.  To feel good they have been successful in their treatments is not enough in a such a totally subjective environment.  We must have strict criteria for the release of troubled people, particularly those with a proclivity to violence.  What can be done is unclear to me.  But something should be done.

Sears and Amazon – twins born decades apart What do Sears and Amazon have in common? Do you recall the reputation of Sears back several decades?  They were notorious for systematically squeezing small and even large business suppliers to reduce prices (and profits) to increase their own profits.  My cousin’s business suffered this heavy-handed tactic.  Such has become the  modus operandi  of Amazon.  Evidence is mounting with coming holiday shopping.   Watch and see.  Low prices today to be followed by higher prices to come. These days Sears, having fed off excesses for decades, is dying.  In twenty-thirty years, we may see Amazon suffering the same fate. 

We hear a lot about the “donor” states that contribute more to the Federal government in taxes than they receive.  New York is one, so they claim.  But there are a host of explanations of how and why.  Consider a business person in Iowa.  Eventually this person travels to New York for meetings or a conference.  So, maybe $3500 is spent on the trip. The $3500 becomes a tax deduction back home, and taxes will not be paid on that money from Iowa.   However, the $3500 is spent in NY on hotels, meeting fees, travel, and restaurants. This income goes to NY residents in one form or another. And this money is Federally taxed - but to NY residents.  Thus, the Fed govt gets taxes from money earned in Iowa but spent in NY. Now multiply by the millions of visitors each year from other states to NY.   As well, some of that $3500 is paid to the State of New York in state income tax. New York politicians parade their high Federal tax contributions, never mentioning this slight of hand.