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Stupid, Pointless Observations

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Some things will never change.

Modern politicians spend more time gaining and keeping power than legislating. Ask any of your elected representatives how much time–and money–they spend on redistricting, fund raising, campaigning, and then sitting on their hands in their elected offices. It is a bi-partisan effort but mostly fueled by people who do not believe a central, federal government is of any use to its citizens. Regulatory controls and safety limits are not needed. Let The Moguls be free to make unlimited profits in any way they can.

What better way to make that government useless than by getting elected to a majority and then doing nothing? At least those elected are getting some of their taxes back. Plus the bribes, pay-offs, and future employment from The Moguls.  Do a little research and thinking. This might be the “Five Dimension” chess all the Republicans are talking about.

Voting for a party instead of a person in all elections is the stupidest thing, ever, and the main reason we are in the mess we are in. It’s another bi-partisan effort that has been going on for years, and who started we will never know. But American voters are the problem for letting it happen. The public ends up with government by party leaders* instead of government by the people**. While the fault is with us all, own your vote and fix it next time.*** Vote for the best person to do the job.

You can’t run a civilization like a business. If we were a business, who would you lay off to help control out of control expenditures? And what would you do with them? Start a new, unfunded state for non-citizens? Do you let ailing citizens who can’t work and are near death just…die to save money? Could we hire citizens from another country? Transfer useless citizens to another country? Would we stop elections and hold “investor” meetings? It is really, really stupid to think of America as a business entity. Stupid and pointless. And cruel.

Have politicians and business leaders completely lost the meaning of money? Do all the new zeroes behind personal wealth mean those without the zeroes are doomed? How much a dozen of eggs costs means what to a billionaire? Even a millionaire? Even thousand-aire?

It’s hard to say exactly how many or in what percentage they exist, but there are a lot of people to whom the dozen of eggs means more than just the cost. People who can only afford a little of everything have to give up something when prices rise. Rich people might not know that, or care to know. Maybe a rich person who was poor once, might. Or maybe not.

But it is really stupid and pointless to not consider the plight of poor people. These days, just not being rich makes you poor. Watch advertisements and see how many businesses target poor people. Maybe the pharmaceutical companies…and beer…and unhealthy snacks and fast food…and cigarettes.

And where do the billions of dollars The Moguls have come from? Money trees? Cannibal Capitalism will not work. Google the French Revolution.

Final thought from Mark Twain in 1897: “There is no distinctly American criminal class except congress.” 129 years ago.

*Or in our current world: by the Leader, alone.

**Google party “whips” and see what that job does. Its name reveals all.

***This does NOT mean vote Democratic. But it does suggest voting independent. Note the small “i”.

***Mogul: “a very wealthy, powerful, and influential person.” Among other things. What a great diverse, word, right skiers?

Is It Politics Or Something Else?

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I’ve written many times about how I don’t understand Donald Trump. He is a draft dodger, convicted felon, sexual assaulter, porn star user, serial marriager(sic), serial divorcer(sic), and so good at making deals he filed bankruptcy 6 times to get out from under those very good deals. So, is he the Second Coming of Something for certain people? Yes.

This is a case of that Duality of Life essayed(sic) about on February 19, 2026. The Hangers-On who profit from Trump’s presidency are easy to understand: they are making money off Trump, a true case of Trickle-Down(slightly) Economics.* The more Trump makes the more they make, so those people are Pragmatic Capitalists. But what about people who don’t make money off Trump? Little people like you and me? Why do they support Trump? A favorite economics phrase: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” But most of us can’t afford a boat.

I can’t remember directly “profiting” from any president. Ones who lowered taxes, of course, left me with a little extra, but we all learn early, the less you pay in one spot the more you pay in another. Research the fees, licensing costs, local taxes, registration costs, etc, in low- or no-income tax states. But in Trump’s case, with ballrooms, new jets, all the gold thingys, kickbacks; and payoffs going to rich people, what are poor people getting out of a Trump Presidency? Can’t they see what is happening? Trump historically says one thing and then does whatever makes him the most profit. Period. Are poor people living a separate, dual life through Trump?

A Texas professor, A. Michele Dickerson, explained the phenomenon on the Daily Show, Monday, February 23, 2026. She wrote the Book, “The Middle-Class New Deal”, but in her talk gave a clear answer about why Poor People are not revolting against Rich People, like the French Population did in 1789. No, I am not advocating for guillotines and head-lopping, but it is a wonder how anyone with less than two nickels to rub together would support the rise and enrichment of not one billionaire, but the entire billionaire caste.** The Professor’s answer, paraphrased: We have been taught to look sideways, inside our own castes, for the problems facing us. She calls it “Looking Horizontally”. We have been trained to look at people who are in our same lower- or middle-class situations as the very people causing the problems. Example: immigrants take all the jobs.

Meanwhile, the Upper Class, The Rich, gather up all the money and power with impunity. The solution? “Look Vertically” says the professor. Her point is a variation on Information Silos, Tribe over Truth, and the phenomenon of families splitting over adoration for one Rich Man or another. Why is this happening?

Because it works. In many essays through the years, I have stated if you blindly believe in ANY candidate from ANY party, at ANY time…you are being snookered. Had. Fleeced. Taken for a ride. Grifted. Conned.

Political passion has always been a part of every election, but the virulence of recent times is the result of Rich People controlling Mainstream, Off-Stream, Mid-Stream, and Legacy Media, with the occasional podcaster or loudmouth pilot-fishing*** a profit off the backs of the Rich Man’s Media Strategy. They have used their soapboxes to make us look the other way, the Horizontal Way.

Spread your news consumption around. Watch something new. Look for The Manipulation. Personally, I watch Fox News at least once a week to see if anything has changed because they are the best at supporting the “Horizontal Look” and ignoring the Vertical. But they are not the only ones. Do this: find a news place where you disagree with what you hear and never stay with media that tells you what you want to hear.

Last word? Think. Please.

*Ai: “David Stockton”.

**Yes, we have a Caste System in America. Ai it.

 ***Beautiful symbolism, if I say so myself. Look it up.

Bidets and Bemusements

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Mark Twain wrote in 1869: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness, and many of our people need it solely on these accounts. Good, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

It’s easy to read this quote and understand its practical, real-life application but it works metaphorically as well. Read on.

We have 232 American Athletes in Milan, Italy, for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Reports are that some of them don’t know what to do with an oval-shaped, probably porcelain, floor mounted, water spitting “accessory” on the floor of their Italian lodgings. Wonder how many of you readers know what a bidet is and what it is used for, mostly.

As with any device designed for one activity, it is never guaranteed the device will not find an alternate use.  In the case of the bidet and young people, especially young men, contemplating the alternate uses of the bidet will not happen, here. Do it on your own time.

Imagine the prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness being “wiped away” (Pun. Hope you get it.) by our athletes’ exposure (Another pun?) to this device. Keep in mind it might not be a learning moment if they aren’t instructed in the original intent of the bidet, and enjoyed its alternate uses, only. Let’s hope there is one responsible, experienced adult somewhere near the athletes.

There is an ongoing controversy about whether Hip-Hop* belongs in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Let’s forget for this discussion Hip Hope has its own Hall of Fame and ask: what is “Rock and Roll”? For once, AI has a great description: “It is a high-energy collision of cultures that defined the 20th Century.” It is a surprising remark from the usually staid and stuffy Ai but captures what this old man knew about Rock and Roll from its beginning’s way back in the 1950s: it’s a “Screw You, World” movement. Rock and Roll told us to have a good time while you can because the world is going to start trying to make sure you don’t. Fight it. Feck them all. We didn’t trust anyone over 30 and never imagined we would ever be that old. Until we were. Sigh.

What about Twain’s quote and the Hall of Fame Controversy? Hip Hop is an indirect descendant of Rock and Roll attitudes and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is correct in offering the Hall to anyone who wants to upend the world’s status quo.

But some old rock stars are disagreeing, hoping to exclude Hip Hop, and keep the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just…rock? No Roll? One 70 year old rocker said: “Hip Hop doesn’t speak to me. I’m not from there. I don’t understand its language.”** He essentially was saying because he didn’t have the same life experiences, he didn’t “get” Hip Hop. One has to wonder if he had travelled to the urban areas, the inner cities, and outer cities where Hip Hop happened, would it have made the Rocker think differently?

Twain was informing us just because something isn’t part of your life, doesn’t mean it has to be bad, dangerous, or unworthy. Once you get to know someone or something, your mind may change. Even better, do not let YOUR ignorance*** of a “thing” get in the way of knowing the truth about it.

Sounds a lot like the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Drama.

*If you don’t know what it is, google it. Add The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to your search.

**Cherry-picked paraphrase, not a word for word quote, so no attribute. I like the guy who said it and feel he may see things differently, eventually.

***The good, “accidental” Ignorance we all suffer from before we know or learn. Not the bad, purposeful ignorance of not caring enough or being curious enough to learn.

Of Shifts and Quarks

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We are in a time when paradigms are shifting rapidly and in great quantities. Almost every paradigm we know is being challenged.

From Ai: “a paradigm is a distinct set of concepts, thought patterns, or standards that shapes how we perceive and interact with the world. Think of it as a mental map. It doesn’t just show you what to look at it;* it dictates how you interpret what you see.” Ai goes on to name different types of paradigms and differentiate between Scientific Paradigms and Social Paradigms. That makes sense since modern Scientific Discoveries change the current Scientific Paradigms and updates them. Think quantum Mechanics, Quarks and Muons, things not known in 1926, for example. But what changes Social Paradigms?

Our current government took office in January 2025 and quickly “blanket” pardoned people CONVICTED of crimes—by juries–for their peaceful and patriotic participation in the All-American Protest of January 6, 2021. Did this change a Social Paradigm?

The Pardoner in Chief was himself CONVICTED of crimes and due to be tried on more charges before our educated, morally aware, and personally responsible American Voters re-elected him, allowing him to escape further** judgement. Did a convicted felon’s election to the highest office in America change any paradigms? Judge for yourself.

Our current government is keen on restoring law and order to America. The administration knows the best the way to do that is arrest anyone who commits any crime and make them pay the price for their unlawful ways. But what is the price? A CONVICTED sex-trafficker is moved from her full-security prison cell to a medium security facility with perks and benefits not known by her prison mates. Does that change the Punishment Paradigm? No judgement. Apply your own.

Politicians used to say one thing privately and another publicly. They called it “diplomacy”. They knew the more they talked the more trouble they made for themselves. Our current government likes to talk about everything,..almost. Paradigm Shift. Strong period.

The modern American used to fret about not being heard. Now every American has a loud voice. An obvious Paradigm shift, but good or bad?

America has a System of Justice meant to punish the bad people and make sure the good people aren’t wrongly harmed. Our current government is using that system to charge good and bad people with crimes. The government makes a big show of indictments and charges, often with press conferences and non-diplomatic press releases, briefings, social media claims, and staged presentations. When was the last time they “staged” a CONVICTION public event? Are all the people being investigated and charged, being CONVICTED?*** Shift?

One of the biggest paradigm shifts happening, now, is the disrespect current politicians and officials are showing to the American People. Those professional politicians think we are idiots. Why do they think that? Because we are.

For America’s entire history, the American People have never really known what was going on and politicians did their dirty work—and their good work—behind the scenes: the less we knew the better. But now, politicinas don’t care. Paradigm shift? Of course, but what happens next? There are signs another paradigm shift may be in the works. Good or bad? Let’s see.

*Why Ai used a semicolon here is un-understandable (sic). Ai says the semi-colon is “stronger than a comma but not quite as final as a period.” You judge.

**Further is correct. It is a metaphysical distance. Farther is actual distance.

***Yes, the word is continually being capitalized for a reason.

The End of Civilization…Maybe? A Minor Rant

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It’s hard to know who to blame, but modern Western Civilization is coming to an end. If there are textbooks in the future, the demise of Democracy and the 21st century world will be written by whoever survives. Historical museums and archives of apolitical thought will all have gone the way of the Edsal, and history will be whatever the New Order says it is. Research will result in facts dominated by the Group-thought of the Cults who survive and pour out of their bunkers after the mild-mannered Armageddon.

A paragraph like the one above usually starts a science fiction novel which begins with a sudden, apocalyptic fireball, world-wide pandemic, or alien invasion. But our current president and his minions are reshaping American Life without germs, radiation, or pointy-headed anal probers. And some of America supports them.

The dismantling of a federal Government that has historically held people together, kept them safe from external forces, won world-wide wars, and met nature’s tests, means…nothing. Nothing will be left for workplace safety, protection from predatory billionaires, bird flu, brain-eating amoebas, and the rest of the small things trying to kill us. Pollution will become the dominant problem before climate change, and both will conflate to end mankind. The Trump Administration will crow to the rooftops about how great they made America right to the bitter end.

Eh. Maybe not. This might be what you would call Trump Derangement Syndrome so it’s best to avoid any Trumpian news stories, but The Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts issue is astounding, prescient, and indicative of The New Trump World mentality. Trump made his usual off the cuff rants about The Kennedy Center not being Trumpian and then fired all 17 members of the Board of Directors and made himself temporary chairman. He then made the Kennedy Center into what he wants it to be.  You can read detailed reports of how it all happened for at least a little while longer since Trump monitors have not been able to erase all bad news, yet. But the funny-not-funny part is Trump put a butt-kissing crony in charge. The new MAGA governing body now has control of The Kennedy Center and will make it “great” again, “for everyone”…in their own, political image.

Oddly, some people disagree with the New Director and the New Board, and plan protests.

Ha. Funny, right? Wait, you haven’t heard the funny part, yet. The new, very sensitive and self-aware director of the center had this to say: “Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliations, won’t be welcomed. In fact, we think it would be important to “out” those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they hire—and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.” Is that irony or hypocrisy?

The Kenedy Center was named after John F Kennedy, a war hero, and former Democratic President. It was established in 1971 and “serves as a living memorial to John F. Kennedy, and hosts world-class performances, offers extensive educational opportunities, and is a unique public/private partnership.” -wikipedia.* And it has been for over 50 years without complaint or adverse action or lawsuit, or—screw it. It doesn’t matter. It catered to a world-class audience and Trump felt excluded. Something had to be done.

The astounding tone-deaf-ness of the new director’s statements is the problem, read it again. No one is right, correct, and morally sound but him. Now, with the old 17-member board and old director, and old programming gone, the New Board will get it Right. Literally.

For more, fun, Trump is even after Wikipedia and wants to put that impartial, publicly edited and monitored information source away.

We’ll have Trumpedia and The Trump Performance Center in our future.

Who’s vapid and intolerant?

And what a start for that End of World novella…

*The wiki entry has been edited since the date of this post.

Political Growth, a Personal Story

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In the 1960’s I was a very young news consumer in a very small market when news sources were very limited. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), ABC, NBC, and CBS convinced me to become a Democrat. There were three TV broadcast stations, AM radio, and newspapers, both daily and Sunday, delivering news of the town, county, state, country, and the world. And sports. All of us in my world heard the same news from the same places but often reached different conclusions. It was a perfect information world.

Books became a new source. The first mistake was Ian Fleming and “Bond, James Bond” books where an entirely new amazing world was revealed. Classics were read, too, like “Robinson Crusoe”, “Swiss Family Robinson”, and “Tom Sawyer” when the young brain wasn’t ready for Twain’s message. The world of print was an escape from farm life and a fantastic enhancement to the rote memory of 1960’s public schools. All of which did nothing to change my adolescent political belief.

Attending Earth Day Celebrations–including the very first national one in 1970–  and “No Nukes” rallies further cemented my Democratic Leanings. But subtle damage was done to the rabidness of those “leanings” by exposure to two books: “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile”, by Ralph Nader, 1965, and more importantly “The Hidden Persuaders”, by Vance Packard, 1957.  They planted seeds of doubt, both of them, seeds fitting the rebellious nature of a young man looking at a world he did not understand.

But…with limited news sources, and a clearly defined two-party-only political landscape, it took several years for the seeds to grow. In fact, it took many years for the tree of Independence to grow higher than the bush of partisanship. It was at a Liberal Arts College, on the third floor of the girls dorm, when the evils of political purity began to be exposed. College students often argue just to argue. We called it “Debating”, and considered it an essential, unstructured part of a normally de rigueur education. It was during these ad hoc sessions the words of Twain, Nader, Packard, and others finally came into focus. This budding New Belief System (NBS) wasn’t earth shattering like The Moral Imperative of Kant, but it was more secular, more relevant, more down-to-earth, and a complement to philosophical mind bending. It became apparent a Capitalistic, Democratic Society needed both Naders and Kants to make sense. Great. Now what?

Life took its course with marriage, family, births, and deaths without the NBS fading but also without NBS making a big difference, except in my personal life. The faults of both political parties had been revealed by the NBS but so? Didn’t an intelligent person have to be a D or an R? It was simple inertia keeping me a responding member of the Democratic Party, and when Republican thoughts entered my mind, a feeling of disloyalty often followed. Ugh.

This long story needs quick completion, and a point, so here is my opinion, and mine only: No one should be a fanatical, devoted supporter of any political party. This morning’s on-line newspaper’s “letters to the editor” contained one praising a certain individual for voting consistently with the individual’s party. When I researched their voting record, it had evolved over time from nearly bipartisan to highly partisan, voting over 90 per cent of the time for the party line. My amygdala, part of the limbic system, lit up immediately and produced an audible: “That’s ass-backwards.”

I am now a devoted* Independent with Liberal Leanings**. It’s a result of the process engendered by the NBS: growing, learning, thinking, and applying. NBS was also nurtured by more information and more knowledge about politics. It is a rough and tumble business driven by money, fame, ego, and power. The Moral Imperative? Bah humbug. Public service? We measure it in dollars, now.

The reason for a two-party simple is clear: Money works with and against other money. Period. Imagine how hard it would be if there were three political hands*** dipping into the political pot.

With the advent of the internet and instant communication, there is no reason for anyone not to see the corrupted, misdealing, self-serving, nature of our two political parties, the system, and their candidates. So why support them? We have to support someone, yes?

No.

NO!

*Is it ironic, given my point?

**just means more liberal than conservative leanings, but I am ambidextrous (sic).

***Or more. It’s harder to “politically profiteer” in parliamentary governments.

 It’s The Rich, Stupid

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Have you noticed the higher status of actors/citizens in all advertising, lately? Even the prostate cancer ads feature people who seem too well-off to be sick*. Car ads are for cars so expensive I can’t even afford the sales brochures. Medicare ads…why are those seniors always smiling, laughing, and well-dressed even in the pool? Is my economic inferiority complex simply an age thing? All my grand-kids have started jobs with salaries seldom seen in my entire working lifetime. Am I getting poorer or simply financially older? (Imagine a sad, sad face.)

It’s been mentioned, before, that income inequality is starting to skew financial-life planning for “normal people”. Here’s a (paraphrased) idea of what is happening:

Costco’s controversial new policy says something worrying about the economy

FAST COMPANY 11-4-2025  Jessica Stillman

New perks for some Costco members have received a decidedly mixed reaction from customers, employees, and analysts.” 

“It’s a decision that more and more leaders seem to be weighing. As management consultant Daniel Currell noted in a fascinating essay in The New York Times on the rise of pricey upgrades at Disney theme parks, companies are increasingly looking for ways to cater to–and extract more profit from—their most upmarket customers.” 

“Extract”? What a great word for what is happening. David Stockman and Ronald Reagans’ (and others) original “Trickle-Down” economic theory, where the benefits accrued by the rich will trickle down to the rest of us, appears to be working in the opposite direction, these days. The middle class of America has shrunk so much businesses are faced with the choice of marketing to the lower-class poor, or marketing to the upper-class rich. If you were running a business, which class would you want for customers? It is the logical result of a free-market capitalist society. Its effects, however, are anything but free. Those effects are easy to see in real estate where rich buyers purchase entire neighborhoods and gentrify it until no one but rich people can live there.

Now it’s seeping into all areas of life. If Costco can sell hamburger meat for $10 a pound because rich people will pay that much, what are poor hamburger buyers to do **? An upper-class customer base does not shop the same way a frugal middle-class or desperate lower-class shop. The upper-class rich don’t waste time with sales and coupons, often making purchases just to buy something, no matter the cost.

In the old days the free market focused on the savvy-shopping middle and lower classes simply because those people were the majority of purchasers. A simple chart would reveal why larger discretionary spending will beat lower, necessary spending anytime there is “competition” for markets.

Trickle Down is finally lifting all our boats, just not the way it was intended. The next few years will be interesting as there is no enforced government regulations or rules to limit the amassing of personal wealth.  Hopefully, all the new billionaires will let us have some crumbs. Forbes says “288 new billionaires entered the list in 2025.”  That gives America a total of over 900 billionaires. Ai says America had 13 billionaires in 1980. Imagine all that money…

*Don’t they get the best healthcare, with screenings and tests, whether they need them or not?

**Google “Model Pricing Strategy”.

Trifles

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After the post about Tariffs, the Trump Administration added “Port Fees” and plain, old taxes to an escalating trade war with China and other countries. China used Port Fees first  (I think) so our fees are retaliatory. According to Ai, the owners of the “shipping vessels” docking in the ports pay the Port Fees. There is no consensus on the new fees’ effects except to say nothing is going to get cheaper in the near future, if ever.

Donald Trump needs and–in the case of the Middle East—deserves praise. I won’t even add the phrase “if it all works out”. Well, I did, but in a good way because it will work out. We will have a new paradigm in the Middle East in the next few years, thanks to DJT. He may even get that Nobel Prize when he is eligible next year*. But he reminds me of my father. Dad was a gregarious, drink-buying, do anything for you, “loved by the public” person who was an entirely different person at home, behind four walls. No more about dad, but DJT is fostering peace out in the world while acting differently at home. Why?

A phrase heard a lot lately, in community discussions: “Some people always ruin it for the rest of us.” It was repeated in discussions about free performances and open spaces. The remarks were from civil authorities and disgruntled citizens who know the process where a community tries to make life better for all, and an “ungracious” few take advantage and scuttle the opportunity. Think bad graffiti on a newly painted park mural, or unruly attendees at an open-air movie event in the park. We all know it happens. Why? It appears there is a certain part of the population dead set on being selfish, ignorant, greedy, insensitive, stupid, thoughtless, self-destructive…ungracious. This segment of the population has always been part of life probably in the world, but more obviously in a free country like the United States of America where self-indulgent, self-centered, shameless, ungracious people are free to show just how ungracious they can be. It is important to remember this fact when we think about Government, and all it entails. For example, law enforcement where a few “bad apples” can ruin a police department’s reputation and harm its efficiency. Citizens stop supporting the department and all respect for law and order is lost. This type of selfish behavior is sometimes illegal, but more often just unpleasant, unproductive, and…ungracious. What do we do, just live with it? Factor it into our daily lives? Given our current social climate, citizens now have to be aware an ungracious person may also be exercising his or hers or their Second Amendment Right. Most non-ungracious(sic) citizens can then see the sense in sporting their own defense…and so it goes.

This is not an attack on that Second Amendment, but a grim statement of “Some people ruin it for the rest of us.”

Constitutional “Originalists” have a unique problem in their views on The American Constitution. The writers of the Constitution purposefully included Article V to allow for change, or Amendment. Google the first sentence for Article V and enjoy. It should be added that Originalists can rely on the words of Article V to offer support for their own interpretation, but the design and inclusion of the Article theoretically opposes an inability to be flexible in Constitutional Judgments. IMO. Plus, modern American Common Sense would admit what was written as a design for the new government in the musket-heavy days after the American Revolution might not be the best advice to follow in AR-15 America.  I own a gun so don’t think the worst of these last two paragraphs. Just think.

*Cut off time for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize nominations was January 31, 2025. Trump will be eligible in 2026 to win for his work in 2025.

Things Hard To Understand

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A 90,000 square-foot ball room next to the White House? In these uncertain and unnerving times when the government might be closed and DOGE is slashing budgets? After already paving over the Rose Garden and turning it into a social club for rich people? A reckoning might be coming along the lines of the French Revolution or the Domus Aurea. Ask Ai. Ask about “decadence”, too, while you’re at it.

Income inequality. Period. Aren’t rich people smart enough to know there is only so much “poor” the rest of us can take?

People who don’t want government or taxes. Really, who needs roads, police departments, fire companies, sewer systems. Maybe we can get our cities and towns professional sports teams and stars to fund everything? An outfield “star” for the New York Mets makes more money per year than the entire budget for the upstate NY city I live in. The national “tax” that keeps the NFL and others paying millions to players for a game,…think about it yourself. Don’t make me say it.

Why aren’t firemen, teachers, police men, and even garbage men more respected than Aaron Judge? Or Juan Soto? Should public servants start their own trading cards? Allow betting on how soon a police department might catch a criminal? How much lead is in the water? Vegas will handicap anything, set odds, and offer SGPs galore. Googe it but ignore the first three examples.

Why people don’t know more about history. Because of a long-standing national cognitive crisis, we are doomed to taking one step forward in one generation and then falling two steps backward when the next generation has no idea what the preceding generation did. That is a generic statement that, however, holds true for almost all our current problems. This innate genetic and systemic fragmentation is why we still fight and argue over broken legal systems, immigration, elections, and health care systems, to name a few, after hundreds of years.

Why people don’t realize they are being manipulated? It’s time we all said this about ANY and ALL information suppliers: some of it’s true, some of it isn’t. Letters to the editors and online comments reveal most people think they have the only true source of facts and information, and everyone else is an idiot. This first appeared years ago with the new Fox viewers, but now every political ideology and fringe group has its own information supplier with its own baked-in bias. How long will it take the entire country to realize this and read each different bias and sort out the truth? Hm. That is impossible, so let’s at least admit our favorite sources of news might not be right all the time? And maybe then we can see the ones who purposely try to fool us and lead us by the nose.

The world is an interesting place if you look at it and see it. It’s human nature to let the grind of life wear us down and make us think bad thoughts but remember this is your only shot. Don’t blow it by burying your head in the sand. Look up, look out, and be aware. As the good Doctor Wright once said: “Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm,”

And for good measure: What did the grape say when the elephant sat on it? Nothing. It just let out a little whine. If you get the joke, you’ll be okay.

Things Seen and Heard By Older Eyes and Ears

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I heard—and saw in black and white–The Lone Ranger say this during an original Lone Ranger episode, recorded sometime between 1949 and 1957: “Any public official who abuses the public trust for personal gain is worse than any common criminal.” It was Saturday morning and I had tuned to my free over-the-air channels to get away from constant cable news about current public officials reaping Billions of dollars of benefits in the first 8 months of our new Administration. Ironically, it was the episode where The Lone Ranger and Tonto thwart a bank robbery, save the bank’s money, and return it.  Let’s make America great, again.

Interesting side bar: the Lone Ranger was filmed in color in the years 1956 and 1957 but had to be broadcast in black and white because…wait…very few viewers had a color television. The OG days?

All of the early western heroes had a “Moral Code”. Jim Hardy, the handsome, quick-drawing Wells Fargo Special Agent of “Tales of Wells Fargo” was constantly offered a split of the money he recovered from robbers. He never took a cent. He also had to investigate gun smuggling on the Texas-Mexican border. In 1897. Hope he is still getting royalties from his acting.

It’s becoming clear the differences in our modern political parties. You may not know it but Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The Democratic Party at the time was split by pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions.

History needs more attention. Think no one trusts government, now? Look into the history of the 18th Amendment, the one banning sales of alcohol. No level of governmental trust could ever be lower than what happened after the 18th was passed. Nearly everyone looked for ways to obtain booze, usually by breaking the laws related to the Amendment. The subsequent years of illegal adventures are credited with elevating Organized Crime to new national and international pandemics. Payoffs, bribery, corruption…we really needed a DOGE back then.

Stop wasting valuable time on social wars, first amendment issues, and trying to debate each other, these days. We should be watching the billions of dollars(cryptos and greenbacks) of activity surrounding our new administration, his family, Tech CEOs, and wannabe richies. It’s become obvious our political system is now the Democrats, and the Richies. Current Republicans are not just okay with The Richies but want to be just like them. The Democrats might be envious, but they are the only hope for the moment, of stemming the high tide of money flowing to the top of our society, and world. Soon, laws, facts, elections none of them will matter. Just money.

In watching the history of the United States and remembering my own exposure to it the turbulent 60’s ands 70’s, one can become complacent with how resilient American Democracy is, and think everything will work out. It still might but the mess the 18th amendment caused led to The Great Depression, and we may have not ever recovered from that if it hadn’t been for World War II. The German and Japanese Empires united Americans, and we all worked together…for about 10 years. Make America Great Again?

We may need an Alien Invasion to fix things.*

Full disclosure: I have A Wells Fargo Credit Card.

*Thanks to “Independence Day”, The Movie, showing us in 1996 the our 2026 future.