First Blog

Going under the hood of American students reveals a corpus of young people with different ideas than in years past.    Less educated than ever before and loving it, freed from the shackles of critical understanding, flush with a new found power over flaccid administrations, American students see the world through highly personal and rather selfish viewpoints.  Risk avoidance is favored, both in action and in thought.   Mostly, they want to feel good about themselves, to make a difference, and to be allowed indifference to serious study. They seem to live in a world of talking points, to need scripted talking points for newer issues, and surely to follow the talking points of their often anonymous leaders. Reason must be combined in equal measure with emotion. Truth is also what should be so or could be so. Feeling good is isomorphic to being good. Restricting speech of some clarifies and helps deeper understanding of the real truth. Having safe spaces is important in a ho

Hypocrisy is a minor flaw swamped in the wake of pure hate. ---------------------  Left-Right-Left … We all know “left” and “right” are not colors.   This does not stop some people from painting everything in their lives, beliefs, statues, religion, and friends as left or right. Tiring, boring, and simplistic, but there it is.  --------------------- We are all slaves – but to what? The only old form of slavery absent in the US anyway is human ownership.    Other than that, we have bunches of new ones, many being self-slavery, together with the retinue of all the old ones.   Topping today’s list for tots of all ages are cell phones and video games. Withdrawal is experienced if their device is removed even for a short period. Another new category is the blogger, through which the writer communicates with unknown readers.   Detached friendship?    Television slaves, junkies, or bingers, come in types such as news, shopping, sitcoms, old re-runs, and sports.

Most pundits use poll/survey results that validate what they want to prove.   But… Remember the 2016 outcome? Totally missed by pollsters and pundits.   One reason is many simply don’t respond to polls any more. It is important to know that poll results are flushed into huge data lakes and combined with other information (about you) so that political social engineers can better manipulate Y-O-U.   If the pollster dials your phone, much is known about you already.   Forget random sampling – merely the newest fiction to create facts.   You might say, “I rely on RealClearPolitics for my data.”   Well, if you average the results of 100 bad polls you still get bad results. Bad does not average to good, much less accurate. What’s in your Data?   Garbage or Truth?

Innovation Meets Taxation With many cities and states needing more taxes to pay for unfunded liabilities and other pressing obligations, they are innovating new taxes to raise more money.   Some possibilities The Exit Tax.   For those choosing to leave the state because of high taxes, many states will propose an exit tax of 20% of their wealth.   Called final expenses , it will not be called   a tax   per se, but a service fee.* Virtual Wealth Tax.   For those with credit cards not charged to the limit, they have a virtual wealth obtainable by spending to that limit.   Some states are proposing a 23% tax on the difference between the credit card limit and the balance.   The neat thing about this tax is that it will be automatically charged to the credit card.   The Homeless Tax.   Now nearly in operation in Seattle, this flat tax of $275/employee will be charged to businesses to help with the expenses of housing, feeding, and medical care for the homeless.   Naturally, this

In the past weeks we've hear much about the morality of waterboarding.  Recently, the CIA’s Gina Haspel was pounded by members of the  morals-of-the-month  club.  By the great historian, Will Durant*, morality changes from generation to generation, depending on current conditions, greatest desires, and acceptable sins. He proved this with countless examples over all recorded history. Examples: a. Waterboarding - In the past there was no morality issues at all. It didn’t maim anyone, but it scared the victim into confessing revelations. Now its torture. b. Abortion - In the past it was abhorrent, not it's just plain ok, indeed encouraged. c. Spanking children - In the past considered a necessary tool of parental discipline, now questioned by sociologists on moral and many other grounds.  d. Homosexuality - Has flip-flopped in moral acceptance for millennia. e. Pedophilia – Remarkably it has the same history as the above, and by historical leaders, clergy, an

One of the current headlines in the news is about whether President Trump will agree to a sit-down  with Mueller's team.  This means he will meet with a bunch of lawyers out to get him and he comes with a bunch of lawyers trying to save him.  Oh, well.  The point here is such a meeting once upon a time was called an interview or a deposition.  Not no more, baby!  Mafia movies have so infiltrated out culture, we are using language from them.  In such flicks, a sit-down was when one party had a grievance against another, and permission from the mob bosses was needed before the administration of a redress, i.e. a hit.  Or is it because much of our public has no concept of what a deposition means.  As a nation of the intelligent, we are rapidly losing it. What's next?  A subpoena for a sit-down ?  (The law meets the mafia?)  Funny.

Princess Grace resisted you know.   She gave up her movie career to be the princess of Monaco and mother, even though movie offers poured with whopping fees.   The question is will the bride of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, be able to resist Hollywood and their offers North of $20 million to do a film.   My guess is there is a pre-nup in there somewhere that restricts this, but heck, she can do it anyway.   What can them dang Royals do? Meghan will be celebrated by women’s groups and the press. The movie will earn millions but demonstrate she can’t really act.   But that’s ok. Wait for the sequel. First film will be in 2020.   After all, she is getting a little long in the tooth for a leading lady with no real experience.

A hypothetical possibility Suppose a rare coin dealer offers for sale a newly discovered cache of mint condition silver dollars dating from the late 19th century.  The pitch says they were found in the ocean on some century-old shipwreck. Prices are $150 (minimum) per coin range.  Suppose the coins are kinda-fake.  They are genuine, in the sense they have not quite pure silver content, but identical to the real thing.  But they are fake, in the sense they were minted last week. (So cheap is the current price of silver in comparison. Less than $16 each at current market prices.)   So while they are counterfeit they are not quite fake - melt-value wise Note. The "mint" condition implies little post processing is required. Detecting such coins would require a rather serious and scientific assay analysis by metallurgists that can perform such tests.  You could buy one or twenty of these coins with the confidence of resale by your estate. I don't know, but I will not

An interesting point about our military leaders and those of any responsible country is that they are scholars of war, conflict, weapons, strategy and tactics.   They all attend a war college to learn their craft.   Almost all have read extensively on the subject.   Some are historians of their profession. Many are articulate communicators about their operations, needs, equipment, troup strength, training, and promotion practices. They are sincere professionals – whether you agree with them or not. Now contrast this with the typical politician, especially elected officials.   Few have studied politics.   Few understand much more than pre-written talking points on any topic.   Few have any training on compromise and the other crafts of legislation. Most leaders probably rely more on intuition and instinct than any form of analysis. Putting your faith in politicians is therefore a risky belief. Next contrast this with pundits and news commentators.   Now we are dipping down yet

Here's a tidbit for the very depressed. Even if Zuckerberg promised to wrap all Facebook data in some kind of digital chastity belt, the partners and friends who originally scraped the personal data still have it.  It is still being used, and it is still a marketing tool. And it will live as such a tool as long as it has value.  Years, probably.  You see, hacked or otherwise procured data is forever.  This is also true for hacked information from any of the hundreds of hacked servers worldwide. Modifying the old joke: What lasts longer than true love?  The old answer was venereal disease.  The new answer is your data . DATA IS FOREVER

Many cities such as San Francisco have a multitude of unsolvable problems such as poverty, ineptness, homelessness, and squalor. Yet each has a small population of wealthy and rich people with guilt problems. It is possible such localities have taken to heart the nature of “sanctuary” for the similarly impoverished group of aliens, sympathetic but small enough to manage as a substitute problem.  Cleansing guilt through sanctuary this way is little more than throwing crumbs at the real problem they are indisposed to solve.

I know I’m there with my kin in the “stockyard of investors,” waiting for relief, hoping for green pastures, but fearing I’m meant for the block. I moo a lot, but uneasiness is all around me.  Up a little, down a little more. Will I be totally corrected? Not just 10% but 20% or more. Signed, Small Time Investor