First Blog

  Of late, I’ve been lied to, cheated, and swindled. Stocks, bonds, crypto, health, and politics lead the pack. Politicians lead in all categories. For them, it’s downright institutional. Only the lies and corruption are keeping up with inflation – in some caes racing ahead. Hearing all this, day after day, make me want to spit. There are lots more spitting events. Here’s my short list. ·        The next time I hear we are in a recession (or not in one), I’m going to laugh. We are all hurting, the retired and poor the most. ·        The next time I hear these carrots or those apples are organic, when there is no verification (impossible BTW), I’m going to spit. ·        The next time I hear China is our friend, I’m going to grind my teeth. The Chinese are total snobs about everyone else – always have been. ·        The next time I hear BITCOIN is going way up, I’m going to groan. ·        The next time I hear inflation is good, I’m going to gag. ·        The next time I h

Twelve Don’ts for Living 1.        Don’t waste time on revenge. It takes energy, but don’t forget it either. The possibility may come along. 2.        Don’t waste time on hate. It takes too much energy. 3.        Don’t cheat your employer. You are paid for the work. Do it well. 4.        Don’t fake it. Only those less intelligent than you will be fooled. At most half of them will believe. 5.        Don’t co-mingle your beliefs with your understandings. They are different. 6.        Don’t gossip. You’ll get a reputation. 7.        Don’t palaver your politics. About half will disagree, but you’ll never know who. 8.        Don’t proselytize. It makes you look bad. 9.         Don’t believe it even though you want to. Check it out. 10.    Don’t shirk responsibility to your family. You made them. You owe them. 11.    Don’t lie to your kids. They sense it and learn to lie back to you.  12.    Don’t lie to your spouse. They hear you far beyond mere words.  

  Do lies boomerang? As a kid, you learned this well. When you were caught, there was big trouble like no allowance, no TV, no going out.   Yikes, the lie boomeranged.   But everybody knows lies are part and parcel of politics.   This brings up… The age-old story: The lies are told; the lies are believed; the lies are exposed. So, we come to the age-old question: If a lie boomerangs in a forest and nobody sees it, did it actually happen? Nope! Politicians like to position their lies a step ahead of boomerang exposure, i.e. beyond recompense. This is the classic lie playing it safe. It is one of the most curious, almost paradoxical, ways of telling the political truth.   In politics, the lie becomes truth if exposure is delayed .

Political campaigns these days are different. They’re dirty, derogatory, and deranged.   All candidates must now prepare for ·        Pledging support for expensive and/or unrealistic goals, ·        Scandals, usually related to sex, though possibly fake, ·        Past sins, even back to high school, ·        Appeasing the base then pivoting to the middle, ·        Past lies (documented) and past lies (from weak testimonials), ·        Past or recent changes in policies or beliefs, ·        Income tax problems, ·        Illegal alien hiring. Given all this we give a question:  Who could possibly want to go into politics in this massive climate change?

Politicians have always been disappointing. Now, despite doing almost nothing, their quality of lies has hit new lows, basically at the high school level. On Stupidity Doing something stupid simply because it’s new does not qualify it as being innovative. The stupid solution and the innovative solution are different, though frequently confused. Stupid is still stupid, even when dressed in silk. She called her unplanned pregnancy a conceptual heir. Beware of false morality offered in the name of humanitarianism. A global world will not work if there remain only a few cheaters. Rich cities and states can survive globalism only because they can afford cheaters. The larger the organism, the easier is the opportunity for disease.

Over a century ago, British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli penned ,”There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”   So true this is I’ve advocated for years my all students should take a Stat course.   We’ve advanced and now it is safe to say there are Lies, damned lists, statistics, and campaign promises. You can tell because whenever a campaign promise is kept, it becomes actual news. Even the official remarks on it as though one finally happened.   A regular flurry of press releases issue forth as if from a snow machine.   Remarkably, every election season most people vote for these promises knowing all the while they will not likely become reality.   Elections, therefore, are the single greatest example of hope by mankind – or are they simply legalized gambling events?    (You bet your future on outcomes you don’t expect. 😊 )

When I was much younger, like an undergrad, I’d go out with friends for maybe a pizza and the discussion would be enjoined.   We’d argue this way and that, about one view or another.   We’d argue on and on until the pizza was long gone and bedtime or study time was upon us. Few feelings were hurt by the other. After all, it was just opinions shot back and forth.   The critical value of an opinion is in its flux of belief . It can or could be changed. Today, it’s different. When venturing onto websites of columnists, especially those of contributors, opinions are no longer changeable.   They are fixed, hardened, even cast as metal. Modern students are about the same, most with cast-iron views, not to be changed by anyone, any way, anyhow. The point here is you can’t call it an opinion unless you can cite something that someone can do or say to change it.   It rare we see this. What is slapped down on the page is not opinion but absolute truth in the mind of the contributor

I have long, as in long-in-the-tooth, tried to determine changes in the American society over several decades of observing. Today’s topic about is about one of them, lies and liars.   First, technology dominates the world scene, but reliance on knowledge has been diminished by instantly recovered resources. “Let’s look it up on the WIKI,” is a statement we often hear and rely upon.   Me too. So many say “I’ll look it up if I need it,” not understanding if they don’t know (of) it, they will not know to look it up.   Many machines dominate our world, most of which we cannot understand.   Repair your TV?   Impossible.   This skill was lost nearly 50 years ago.   However, not technological in any way is a rarely mentioned advent of all large civilizations, is that of large numbers and anonymity and loss of community. Anonymity allows countless outrages against us – from terror to thievery, and even to perversion.   Indeed, anonymity allows internal terrorists to breed unnot

Interesting idea. How do you neutralize  hacking and email problems?  Answer.  You fake hacks with fake emails damaging or helping whomever you want.  Alternatively, you edit actually hacked documents.  You just can't verify.  No one can.  (It does require a few minor technical skills.) Even the revelation of actual documents/emails will not work.  They will be claimed to be themselves edited.  The long-term result will result in the public ignoring all claimed hacked documents.  Nifty solution to an insoluble problem.  Look on the news channels for this suggestion.  To hack or not to hack.  That is not the question. To hack or to fake a hack, that can be the question. Listen!!  If I can think of this, so can anyone.  The smoking gun no longer smokes.

The world you grew up in is no more.  The world of reasonable honesty and reasonable lies has been replaced by abject dishonesty and blatant lies. Lies.  Yes. People have always told them.  You have told them; so have I.   We need lies; they are a foundational structure of social living.  They both deceive and protect.  Children tell them to their parents to avoid consequences, like punishment.  Adults tell them to their bosses, to enhance their position and/or avoid consequences of poor performance.  Our bosses tell them to their boards to suggest business is good, the project is on target, or the detractors are wrong.  The boards tell them to shareholders to protect their own credibility and most importantly, stock values.   Our politicians tell lies to their constituents, though sometimes innocently with them not actually knowing much more than they've been told.  They enhance their positions to the detraction of their opponents and to the inflation of their personal positi