First Blog

  Two great actor appeared on stage to discuss politics. Remarkably, both were brief. Actor A. People should not fear their government. The government should fear the people. Actor B. People should trust their government and government should trust the people. Fear vs Trust, the conflict of our day and of most days, with interludes fondly remembered in brief chapters on human progress.

One of our big problems is separating what is true from what should be true. A consequence of our multifaceted brain, it shows amazing conflicts we live with, sometimes unsuccessfully. It is one important source of doubt, the generic artifact of conflict.   In sci-fi   movies, the contrast often shows a robot or android without this problem. (See, http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-truth-about-truths.html ) S enior’s lament. Feeling Good. Trying to be bad. Not succeeding. In government, only the bad apples rise to the top. Beautiful is the spline of the spine. What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Ans.  A pumpkin pi.

I guess everyone knows this by now... The only way to eliminate corruption in government is   to control the press. 

1. Usually the revolution  is antipodal, with two heads, faces, and modalities - like much of everything else. 2. For much of what we think we control, we are merely servants. 3. Often, the seat of government is called a swamp , a dark place with greedy and hungry  creatures.      What would be worse is if it was called a circus , a bright place with distractions and illusions, with clowns, high flyers, trained beasts, and prancing ponies.

The latest news is that Facebook has been hacked again, this time for a mere 50 million users.  Is this cause for alarm?  Not for those that don’t use it.  But for others, organizations, politicos, and others it might be. Counting to Billions!! An old question asks for the identity of the world’s best con man.  The answer is the one(s) never detected. Yet the question is reflected from con men to hackers.  Who’s the best?   The answer is exactly the same. Note that Facebook has unlimited resources to protect their data as do other large-scale companies.  Most have also been hacked. What we do not know are those companies that have been hacked and haven’t reported it.  More significant are those hacked companies that don’t know it and maybe never will.  If the hacker is not greedy, and extracts data in a disciplined manner, it may never be detected even with competent IT people available. The other problem is that most IT people have not the skills of dedicated hackers. It

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

Characteristics of most western governments.   With the emergence of what may now be called virtual political system, it seems not to matter who is in charge.   It only matters they think right. Eliminate Trump – get another Trump (though difficult).   Eliminate Merkel – get another Merkel.   Eliminate Clinton – get another Clinton.   Corruption has become a small form factor, being unfortunate but of little significance.   Incompetence is another small form factor, but the narrative is supremely paramount.   You gotta say the right thing.  Basically , governments have individually become systemic forces under recognizance only to themselves.  On the government ... ·        It appears to be not responsible to the people, but it follows its own code.  ·        It demands a universal PPM manual (Policy and Procedures Manual with massive regulations) for every function.  ·        It demands huge legislative measures that no member of congress can understand.  ·    

The setting:   The government is an enterprise of millions of employees, led by politicians, who really don’t know how to do anything.   Below them are political appointees, sometimes skilled at something different and at a vastly smaller scale.   Below them are civil servants, who function as highest level operational administrators.   They are normally paid substantially less that commercial counterparts.   Thus, not the highest quality folks are retained.   Below them are the midlevel administrators whose abilities range from very good to terrible, biased toward the lower end.   Since they have total job security, there is little incentive to perform well, even if they could.   This higher level structure diffuses to the entire government enterprise.   Making it bigger will simply require hiring more lower-quality administrators entrusted with higher-level functions.   Will not work. Government service summary: At the higher levels: fish out of water At the lower