First Blog

W e made it through the last election cycle, I think, finally. The balance of power has shifted just a bit.   Yet, it is in no way clear what will happen.   The three preceding sentences could have been written in many years past.   So, we at least biennially get the new crop.   Not chemically enhanced, genetically engineered, nor fertilized, much less vaccinated, this crop is much the same as always.   In the parley of cookery, we call the outcome pot luck .  W e’re at that time of the season to discuss what’s for dinner.   Our chefs are local and we trust their excellence.   Let’s suppose this time we’re preparing a (nice juicy) politician as the main course.   This happens you know.   When families get together, politics may not come from the kitchen but sit there at the table, offering food for dispute, often helping with indigestion.   L et’s make a top ten list of these political birds and what we want to see.   And let’s try to do it without politics.   Maybe that’s

How to run a city. This power model is a for a city, with a mayor, division chiefs, and political operatives.  In a previous blog we described a number of ways leadership manifests itself in our lives.  This is copied below.  The nature of this type of city leadership involves at least six components, with the mayor as its center.  All are important, and all are essential. 1. A quiescent public .  The public must be mollified to inaction on most issues.  They will only become involved, not when the wheels of power are wobbly, but when the wheels have actually fallen off. 2. A cooperative press . The press needs to focus on ancillary matters, distractions, deceptions, and diversions. It must not be investigative about any aberrations of city command. The press acts in the public interest only when the issue or story is unavoidable, and likely when it is pressed by the outside. The press is essential in its willingness to broadcast only "selected truths." 3. A single pa