Meet Me
The only conversations worth having are those that can improve or increase your knowledge. All others are wasted time. - I’ve reached the point where I can't chat with anyone anymore. When you are the best at what you do, everyone depends on you and no one can help you. By the time I say something there has been optimal thought, and usually data research, before making the statement. If everyone knew what they were doing, I wouldn't have been needed to manage them. A teacher is simply someone who read the book before I did. I really didn’t want to be smarter than the people who are in control. I can’t do anything and they are incapable. When I went to school most of the technology I eventually needed to understand and use in my career didn't exist. So what advantage would it have been to have attended Harvard? Often I feel like a dolphin among the stupid fish. I had issues, and inferior parts. I fixed them I needed to live where people go on vacation. I don't want to be fit, good looking or whatever for my age. I want to be fit, good looking or whatever. Just because I’m right doesn’t mean I want things to be that way. When there is nothing to say, I'm one of the few who doesn't say it. If you put more than one person on my committee, you're making it less productive. If everyone agreed with me I wouldn't be smarter than them. Normal means like most others. I never want that. I'm only smart enough to know I'm not smart (see Dunning/Kreugar). I never wanted to be someone who “used to”. There were plenty of times it was a good thing I didn't have a gun. I was painfully shy, so I created my own personality. Consciously. I needed to catch up on the stimulus lost during the first years of my life. I couldn’t stay home and wait to die. Of course people should work. I supervised people who actually wanted to work and it was a struggle. How do we make people work who have zero desire? I'm in favor of capital punishment but our society won't accept that. In 1973 the population of the U.S. was 175 million. Today it’s over 350 million. By definition, half the population is below average intelligence. That means almost 88 million additional morons I’ve had to deal with in my adult life. I’ve always lived by the policy that, whether physical or mental, if a person can fix their inadequacies they are open to criticism. If they cannot, they deserve respect. I was a registered Conservative when younger. Now closer to a Democratic Socialist. Data, information (the Internet helped) processed with critical thinking and an open mind can do that.
Simulations & Bobo
I watched a goldfish named Bobo swimming in his bowl and thought "he thinks all that was built before he got there by others like him, instead of a vastly superior being who put him there with all that infrastructure, while being watched. So I started thinking… When we were young there were Ant Farms. We watched the ants scurrying about doing their ant-things completely void of us and certainly not thinking they could communicate with us for divine intervention. So I started thinking… We concentrate on mysterious clues as to unexplainable history; the Pyramid of Giza, the Nazca Lines, the Kailasa Temple, Derinkuyu Underground City, and so many ancient clues, missing the most obvious has been put right in front of us every day. The roads. the buildings. What if the answer to everything has been right in front of us the whole time? Roads, impossible engineering, buildings. All possibly put in the ‘tank’ while we were programmed to believe otherwise (see Bobo). Advanced AI exhibiting human-like intelligence and capabilities, such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving make it quite obvious that existing in a simulation is well within the possibility of our lives. Modern computers have only been around for fewer than 50 years. Imagine millions of years. Contrary to the current human mammal hubris way of thinking, evolution is still ongoing, although regarding the current state of intellectual capacity it seems to have stalled a bit. Miles and miles of roads, structures both ancient and modern, all built by the same mammals who can't seem, with modern technology, to fix a pothole in a reasonable amount of time.. Dolphins may be as intelligent as man (more than most actually), but Octopus are the closest in intelligence and in addition have capabilities beyond understanding. They are probably the closest to alien life form that exist on this planet. My original metaphor for our existence was akin to making tomato sauce. A huge pot with various ingredients that boiled over and landed on the stove. Just accidental - not anticipated or any part of the original plan. We’ve all met Alexa. How much of a stretch is it to believe we could eventually capture our personality and live electronically forever. Have you ever witnessed trucks hauling in the mass quantities of various substrate needed to build a road, after having cleared and leveled obstacles as imposing as mountains? Disposing of the rock and other materials far away from the road? I thought not. Given the time it takes numerous men with modern machinery to resurface a small section of over four million miles of existing road, it kind of makes you think… Consciousness may separate humans from other mammals but we are still mammals, who somehow think we are capable of understanding. We are not. Speaking of building roads, at an average of $6 million per mile and over 12 days per mile to build, times 4.2 million miles in the USA, at today's cost would total 25 trillion dollars and take about 138,000 years to complete. A lot happened simultaneously but those are both really big numbers. Just a question. When a new road is built, how is it immediately identified by GPS? Although ants are, in fact, 3-dimensional, much the same as we watch from above ants scurry around doing what ants do, without knowledge of superior beings watching, add a single dimension and it’s easy to understand how we may be being watched (see ‘Flatland’)
Things I Think About
Interbank network transfers total about $21 trillion daily, with consumer platforms process nearly $100 trillion per day. That’s seven quadrillion, six hundred sixty-five trillion annually. Yet, we can’t vote online? Can we be sure that all living things don’t possess sentienceness or at least consciousness? Most of us in the USA are among the 2% most well off people on the planet Earth. Be appreciative. The problem with being completely happy is there’s nowhere to go but down. Why do bad smells smell bad to everyone but we have preferences regarding the pleasant ones. We are born with two fears at birth: loud noises and falling - not sure about the loud noises but guys know all about 'the tingle' when fear of height kicks in. When you start believing your own press clippings the collapse isn't far off.. "I'd be afraid to ride in a self-drive taxi"... did you ever ride in a human-driven taxi? The greatest inventions of man should include the flushing toilet. If it tastes good it’s not good for you (and the opposite). Good thing sex is pleasant or the human race would be extinct. Some people drive you to drink. That’s the only thing you can thank them for. So we wouldn't use a fork or spoon again without washing it but we are perfectly willing to use a toothbrush to scrub our mouth, rinse it in cold water and store it in a room where daily defecating occurs, and doing it for months.. Speed, quality, service. Pick any two. Be careful of any business claiming all three. The lowest priced item or bid is never the best. You get what you pay for. A waitress often speaks in a voice an octave higher than normal, much the same as when one speaks to a child or dog. Just because it’s not right doesn’t make it wrong. It’s pretty much impossible to have even arrived at an airport without knowledge of how to use a seat belt. Why are they still explaining how to use it? Don’t welcome guests on a ship or plane with a description of what to do if there’s a disaster. If there is one, chaos will ensue anyway. Men are expected to wash their hands before leaving the rest room. I've never peed on my hand. Our hands are the least clean thing on our bodies whereas a penis is put away clean after showering. Seems we should wash before urinating (especially if eating wings with hot sauce). Your Uber driver may be a felon. It's not easy to get a job straight out of prison. If ‘Welfare’ is so desirable, why don’t the people complaining about it do it? Regardless of what Facebook thinks, you are fortunate to have two real friends If you went to a premier university half a decade ago, society confers permanent status and intelligence for the rest of your life (even though much of today's technology and information didn't exist then). Globally, motor vehicle accidents claim approximately 1.19 million lives a year - about 180,000 every two months. There have been 65 fatal crashes since 2013 while Tesla's Autopilot mode was engaged (about one every other month) That’s a 0.000555555% or one in 180,000 better chance of not dying in a Tesla in Autopilot mode. Machine efficiency vs. human. Love means “If you need it I'll literally give you my heart and no longer be alive”. Now, tell me how many people have you loved? The difference between good and exceptional usually requires minimal effort that people are unwilling to commit. The bigger the city the more there is of everything that is going to stimulate you, and piss you off. The problem with continually kissing someone's ass is there will be times there’s some shit there. Compromise means doing what you didn’t want to do. It’s easier to criticize someone else than to make yourself better. Humans bounce up and down when they’re excited. The wide disparity in human mammal’s intellect is difficult to fathom. Only about 2% even possess the IQ significant enough to affect society and a much smaller percentage have created the level of technology we all enjoy today. It took almost exactly 200 years to go from muskets and transportation by horse to the invention of the microcomputer. Now 50 years later machine learning has exceeded that of humans Always look up population and inflation when making comparisons. Beware of people who define themselves by the job they are paid to do. They will not leave it, even after their best years have passed and their persona will be their only personality.
Big Ideas
The ‘75 proposition: If we all planned on ‘leaving’ at 75, or thereabouts (an actuarial would need to be done) after having been supported by the government after age 55, we each would have about 20 years to infuse the money now being spent on a poor quality of life delaying the inevitable. The Second Amendment was created to facilitate a citizens militia due to concern of future need to defend the nation that had just been formed, essentially, by a citizens militia. How about continuing the purpose by issuing a draft card along with a gun license for automatic entry into the military (by people already trained in the use of firearms)?
People
Humanity is overrated. If aliens were to ask how to learn about humans, I would tell them that in my pocket I have a device that can access the sum total of all knowledge ever acquired by the human species. People use it to look at pictures of cats. The most vocal persons on a subject are usually the least educated on the subject. It's not just the person you're dealing with who annoys you but the cumulative effect of a lifetime of them. Evolution is still evolving, people forget that. Don’t think it's somehow reached a conclusion. You're still nearly a monkey. Civil protesting is akin to a baseball manager objecting to a call. In the nearly 200 years and literally billions of games since the first game, to my knowledge, no one has ever been able to convince the umpire to change the call. Yet they keep trying.. Around the time of the Olympics and elections, people become experts in figure skating and Constitutional law, and then don’t even think about it again for four years. Science is that which the evolved human mammal can understand. We are not remotely capable of understanding reality. Cumulative asshole effect: Every year we meet more and different types. When you're 20, you’ve met a few, then more every year. After 70 years, the cumulative quantity takes a toll on one’s patience. Not everyone who dies was a wonderful person. Either that’s not true or we are running out of good people. Then again, maybe it is true… that would explain the abundance of assholes in today's society. Every amazing technology we all benefit from was created by a few very smart people. Everything that matters seems to have happened before you graduated. The college you attended, whether you were on the High School football team and so on. It rarely matters to some what you’ve accomplished since then. The odds of finding a good someone as you get older diminish exponentially. There’s a reason most of them are available. By age 65, you've taken about 25,000 showers (hopefully) and a similar number of bathroom breaks (actually many more if you're a guy). It’s amazing how quickly someone you desired to share everything with can suddenly become the most detested person you know. It makes no sense that where one's parents had sex on the side of an imaginary line somehow determines a person’s value. Most people are more concerned about others getting something that they're not. Not what others are getting. We all enjoy administering fear or even pain to others. It's simply a matter of to what degree. One of life’s ironies: As you get older, there are more ages of the opposite sex available to you but fewer who want you. Today with the internet, one can learn anything at all but most people use it to ferret out unproven narratives supporting their often unsubstantiated view, instead of recognizing data to the contrary. If you had issues you’ll always have those issues. The best you can do is minimize them. If you're not getting better, you're probably getting worse. No one and nothing can remain the same. Not long ago we visited a library, read magazines and got news from a daily paper. We became unique. Our own person. The internet could have made each of us even more individually interesting but the opposite happened. Most people simply use it to find a resource to convey their preconceived opinion, reducing American society to two kinds of people - us and them.
50% Below Average
Arguing is useless. If someone is wedded to an idea they are already incapable of critical thinking. The less intellectual, and informed, somehow feel an intellectual superiority based upon an undefined intelligence, presumably absorbed from the ether, and nothing more. Just a mention of Covid. Under what internal intellectual process did individuals decide that they knew more than those who studied and dedicated their lives to such things? Unsupported, ignorant hubris. If you want to know the intelligence of the American population just watch a few minutes of Prime Time TV (or just consider who over half the country elected President). People have small attention spans, along with inability to admit error. For example, if gas was $3, then rose to $6 before stabilizing at $4, many will credit the leader with lowering the price of gas. Stupid has consequences. And there are a lot of stupid people. Never underestimate the stupidity of the American public. By definition half of society has below average IQ, but the real question is: how low is average? If the US has a midpoint IQ of 90, that means the lower 50% is really dumb and even the upper 50% doesn’t compare with other countries, despite the data skewed by some very intelligent people here. The level of ambition and intelligence of people is immeasurably disparate, which is why you can put a man on the moon but you can't get your hamburger cooked properly. The entire technology of the planet has been created by less than one millionth of all the people in existence at any point in time. Everyone else were and are largely unnecessary.
Bias & Racism
It bothers some Americans that dark skinned people might be taking what they believe is ‘theirs’. It doesn't matter that they'll never benefit, as long as someone else does not. Racism and bias are learned. Children have no concept of subtle differences. No one can change who their parents were, or where they were born. We all start at a different rung in life through no fault of our own. Being advantaged and thinking you’re superior because you were born on a certain side of an imaginary line at a certain point in time, is reprehensible. You are the product of two mammals having sex, nothing more. It's reasonable to be proud of one's heritage so we all are biased, even racist to a certain degree. It's really just a matter of how much and how you manage it. Only Irish and Mexican heritages celebrate nationally, each with marginal food and music, and an abundance of cheap drinks. Black Americans have the most derogatory terms, followed by Italians. Only Jews have their own term for bias against them (anti-semite). There's no special name for bias against other ethno-religious groups or nationality.
Religion
Religion is a function of geography (and time born). Religion is the kind of thing that can cause otherwise reasonable humans to fly planes into buildings (or burn others at the stake). As of 2023 there were up to 47,300 Christian denominations globally. At least 46,299 were created by man (possibly more). There were possibly over 3,000 Greek gods, 67 Roman gods, including 12 main and hundreds of minor gods. Today, there are approximately 4,200 different religions worldwide. Someone, many people actually, are wrong. Personally I can’t summon enough hubris to believe I could understand, much less communicate with a creator of everything. The universe is very big and very old, so it seems possible I suppose that an intermediate power or entity significantly more advanced than us could have manifested to exist as a Deity over cognitive mammals - levels under the big ‘guy' (which, of course, would have no gender). But surely not the Creator of all. What if everyone thought that this life was the only life. Maybe we would all want to be here as long as we can and exist as well as possible, instead of auditioning for the Big Show. Don't you kind of wonder what version of man first acquired a 'soul'? When white people have ten kids it's usually because they're Catholic. If there is a ‘god’, 'it's it, not 'he' it’s a thing. A thing our tiny brains cannot possibly understand, much less communicate with. Just as ants were to be communicating with each other that they talked with you last night. When people say we're praying for someone, do you think they really do? The Pope travels around in a bullet-proof vehicle. If he’s afraid to die, we’re all in trouble. Have you noticed a similarity between the Christian God and Santa? Think about it. There are numerous guides written, presumably by the only deity: the Bible (Christianity), Quran (Islam), Torah (Judaism), Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism), Tripitaka (Buddhism), and many more. Either one or none are right. Unequal distribution. If the ultimate entity exists, it gave us all the resources we could possibly need then watched as very few accumulated most of what was given, while the masses suffered and tormented others. Seems, according to the Bible anyway, the Deity needed to start over after the original plan. There was Adam and Eve messing things up, then the need to drown almost everything due to bad behavior, then the only way to correct the inadequacies of the ultimate creature became torturing and killing your own son. You can kill a human but you can't kill an ideology. If someone killed a Christian leader would you somehow turn to their religion (or maybe get more angry)? Travel times from Earth to the nearest star 75,000 years. At light speed (186,282 miles/second but impossible to reach), the nearest star would still take over 4 years. The closest galaxy, 2.5 million years,the edge of the observable universe: 90 billion years (all at 186,282 miles per second)! We are very very insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
Fitness
There is a direct correlation between a person’s laughing volume and their girth. I understand the anti body shaming initiative but even so, airplane aisles aren’t getting any wider. Although it’s mean to say so aloud, it’s also not ok to neglect one’s body. It’s not just about aesthetics or choice (although I don’t believe anyone prefers to be obese) - It contributes to the cost of health care in this country, for every one of us. And don’t stand behind a morbidly obese woman who is wearing yoga pants. Not because it’s nauseating, it’s way too dangerous- tights are not manufactured in that size, so you know it’s all stuffed into an insufficient amount of fabric that could give at any moment. Ozempic and the other fat drugs - for people with no self control. You can tell by looking at their arms that they’ve never lifted anything heavier than a fork. Steroids? In the U.S., they're on the same scale as heroin. We can take drugs to make you thinner but definitely not any that make you bigger, stronger, faster, or even feel younger.
colloquialisms & Grammar
"What's the news on the ground there? "On the ground?” Apparently it's distinguished from airborne news, but likely similar. "Well, it's __ 2.0". It always seems to be point 0. Whatever happened to 1.1, 1,2, 2.1 and so on? "The cost of the project has risen to two billion dollars!" That's ‘billion’, with a "B" (it has to be ‘with a B’. It's the only way to spell billion). “Anything you say can and will? …can and may, maybe. Any and all? Any or all, maybe. A ‘more perfect’ Union? I thought perfect couldn’t be improved upon. How about a “continually improving” Union. I want an ‘open concept’, the concept was before it was built. Open floor plan maybe. “If you know you know”, “it is what it is”; silly colloquialisms that make no sense and are universally lazy. Their, there, they're... to, too and two? Getting those correct can indicate a lot about a person. “Is it time to eat mom? or Is it time to eat (comma) mom? Punctuation counts. Literally. The most over, mis-used word.
Arithmetic
A billion is one thousand million. A trillion is a thousand billion or a million million. The problem is, few people can grasp volume at that level: One million seconds is thirty days. One billion seconds is 31 years. One trillion is 31,000 years Few people are cognizant of arithmetic anymore and that’s the problem with most things. For example, if you spend $1000 every day, it would take 3 years to spend $1 million. To spend $1 billion would take 3,000 years. Astrology implies that you are like 8.33% of all others
Sports
The average NFL game has more than 100 commercials and just 11 minutes of actual play. That’s just about 3 hours per year of activity. At an average quarterback salary of $36 million that’s 12 million dollars an hour - the total yearly income for over 620,000 minimum wage earners, most of whom will think that’s ok if their team gets to the Super Bowl. ‘Almost' only counts in horseshoes ...and American football. It’s the only sport where you get to do something else totally unrelated (kicking a ball through a target) when you can’t accomplish the original scoring objective. Why do we now have numerous cameras capturing every nuance of a game, ultra high resolution and stop action captured for review, then often are told “well, that particular call isn’t reviewable”? When Dr. Naismith created basketball, the object was to accurately aim a ball at a basket above your head. Apparently at some point someone said “hey, if we get tall guys with less skill, they can just smash it in there”. A pro sports official is simply someone who wasn’t good enough to play the sport at that level. Why watch NBA basketball? You know the score is going to be 100 to 100-something. The last two minutes is all you need. Regarding NASCAR. See NBA explanation. Americans consider soccer (and even hockey) boring because there isn’t much scoring. A game where a single error or great play can determine the outcome seems to me to be much more exciting. The court, rink and ring side commentators must have completely lost olfactory senses. I think soccer would be far more popular in America if they can figure out a way to have 40 or 50 more ads. Why must game analysis always include no fewer than five former NFL or NBA players trying to ‘out-comedy’ one another. Cameras and instant replay have ruined pro sports.
Pets
If you had a significant other who had no job, didn't shower or brush their teeth, made you prepare all their meals and doesn't use the bathroom, instead made you accompany them outside when they need to urinate or defecate (where you must pick up their waste), didn’t use toilet paper then returns to your living room sofa or bed, how long would you allow them to live with you... even if they gave you the "unconditional love" that a dog does? When did every canine become a service animal? Grocery stores, restaurants, airplanes. For $19 per month you can feed a dog, an elephant… or a child. You pick. When you acquire a pet you actually hope it dies before you do. People become immeasurably distraught when a pet dies. Then they get another one.
Lessons
The Butterfly Effect - Given a chess set in the third grade, I played with a neighbor, who years later had me hired for my first professional job. Treating everyone equally - I was told my car had been damaged at work and responded calmly to the person who told me, years later becaming our Superintendent and remembering the kind of person I had been. Treating everyone equally (part 2) - Be kind to those in all positions. We need our floors cleaned, refuse disposed of. Remember: they are doing things we would rather not. Doing the right thing: I recall asking “remember the time I told you that things will always work out for good people?” and the reply was “gee, dad, I don’t remember that”. I said “that’s because I never said it”. The ketchup effect: I was overwhelmed at the epic size and scope of everything my first time on a cruise ship. It took only a few days to become so accustomed to the opulence that I began focusing on minutia, such as the brand of ketchup. Imagine what growing up advantaged does to one’s outlook (see T-Rump) The African ballet effect: When one spends a ridiculous amount to attend a sophisticated event and find themselves disappointed, not understanding the cultural significance. So we join in on the praising of said event, prolonging that which we may accurately have been worthy of criticism.
'merica
Am I the only person in America who thinks that in over 250 years no one has come along who is smarter than the anarchist slave owning misogynistic ‘founding fathers’? It was easy to tell the populace that the USA was the best at everything for the first 200-plus years but the internet changed all that. China has the world's largest high speed rail network at 27,960 miles, Europe’s is 11,779 miles. The U.S has no high-speed rail lines, instead still using 21,400 miles of Amtrak rail, most of which was built between 1830 and 1917. It would cost about 8 billion per year to feed the 650,000 homeless in America - about one-tenth of one percent of the total U.S. budget. The military cost is 21% of the budget About 50 million people including 14 million children in America are 'food insecure’. That's about one of every seven people, hungry, in the “greatest country in the world". The U.S. leads the world in civil litigation (relative to GDP) and has the highest number of lawyers per capita. It also averages 7.5 lawsuits per 100 people. The USA is nothing more than a conglomeration of businesses. The USA, America, can’t do much without the cooperation of the Industrial Complex support (providing there is a profit motive).
Politics & Governance
Politics is largely about semantics not policy. People are unwilling to learn. Canada has reasonable politicians because they have no Southerners. Seems Republicans want more people to be born, but not take care of them while they're alive. I’ve heard talking head pundits couch unacceptable behavior by Americans by uttering “that’s not who we are”. Maybe that’s exactly who ‘we’ Americans are now (at least many of us). Why must being a Republican require suspending all knowledge of science and logic? Why must we support everything in a political ideology? For example, why can't you support abortion rights (D) and the death penalty? (R) We either need more political parties, or we need none. Two just isn't working. Education, labor rights, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and more. Seems everyone hates socialism in the USA but try to take it away. Socialism is why you don't need your own road to get to work. Just once I’d like to see a politician who lost, find a job in private industry rather than run for a different elected office. Regarding all this transgender public restroom rhetoric: at my house there's always been one bathroom for all sexes (yes, I said ‘all’, not ‘both’). Every country tells their citizens that theirs is the best. In America we do it by pledging allegiance at 4 yrs old, play the Anthem before every event and are constantly reminded of how much better it is to live in a country without universal healthcare, food, housing and education for every American. Regarding Cabinet appointments: Just because a person was elected somewhere for something doesn’t make them knowledgeable enough to then administer any department in government. The more obvious inadequacies become, the harder the supporters of indefensible politics dig in. The brilliant Founding Fathers gave King-like powers to the President (see 'pardon'). Wanting to do things to improve our country (‘progressive’), instead of doing almost nothing ( 'conservative'), doesn't make one anti-American. It makes you a patriot. After all, the founding Fathers were insurrectionists. Don't bother an ideologist with pesky data that proves what they don't want to believe. Affecting trade via tariff seems to be a rather Communistic solution to inadequate Capitalist practices. How about a test to be eligible to vote? I mean a modicum of knowledge of civics should be required. We require licences for endeavors far less impactful on society. If you pay people to live (‘welfare’) it cuts down on crime and infuses tax dollars back into the economy. I'm all for sterilization but our society frowns on that, so this may be the next best solution. Why must we divide American society into only two types of people? Individualism seems to have expired. Venezuela, Russia, other countries have resources. The US doesn’t have minerals, oil, other resources. It has companies that have resources (which don’t pay proportional taxes for the good of the public.
Money & Power
If you are an average American making $50K how much are you infusing back into the economy, to those in your social strata? Most of your income. $100K? much of it, but probably not all. One million annually? some. One billion? almost nothing, comparatively. What can you do with 200 million that you can't do with 100 million? At a certain point, once you and your kids are set for life, money simply becomes nothing more than a scorecard. No one ever made a million dollars by working hard. It's by working long - or others working hard. The US is home to 935 billionaires (as of January 2026), who collectively hold $8.1 trillion in wealth, a 21% increase from 2025. Seems something is certainly going right for those with significant means. The wealthiest Americans pay about 24% in federal taxes, 13% less than the 37% top income tax rate. This is because the federal tax system taxes income, not wealth, and billionaires derive most of their wealth from assets that grow in value without triggering annual taxes. Unrealized gain is the dirty little secret of American taxation. Billionaires' funds are mostly not liquid, so they borrow against their supposed (and temporary) value of stocks, bonds, investments, and spend those other peoples’ money. When money is no longer a necessity to exist, power becomes addictively intoxicating. I'm not sure what the monetary threshold is but, as soon as someone can have or do anything they desire, they degenerate into an asshole and power becomes the only thing that satisfies. Buying a yacht or McLaren doesn't benefit anyone other than others who can buy a yacht or McLaren. No one should be ‘worth’ a billion dollars. When they, their family and future generations are all assured of lives of luxury, anything additional should be used for the benefit of those who weren’t fortunate enough to have been born of the right parents on the right part of the earth. The ‘billionaire personality disorder’ could be avoided if most of that money, maybe after 100 million or so, was given to help those who don’t have 100 dollars. Let’s talk stock market and 401K. Taking all your money out will cost 20-30%. Then there’s inflation. So, unless you’re realizing a near 40% increase you’re breaking even.
T-rump
The man-boy President can’t get through a statement without bragging about something he has no knowledge of, followed by a sentence to berate an opponent, predecessor or interviewer. The third sentence will have something to do with how amazing the accomplishments are of the ‘unfairly’ treated twice trinket selling billionaire president - all embellished with overused hyperbole like “no one has ever seen anything like it”. I didn’t realize how far back in time MAGA wanted to take us. For Trump and his minions it's about 1965. The U.S. military budget currently is one trillion dollars (37% of the $2.7 trillion world total), more than the next ten nations combined. T-rump has requested a 50% increase. We know that the mentally inferior have been reproducing at a much higher rate than the average person. It seems they finally outnumbered us in 2016. If you could reason with a Trump voter, they wouldn’t have been a Trump voter. I can't figure out why Trump didn’t simply digitize and steal all those documents he illegally took from the White House to store in the Mar-a-Lago restroom. There was a Twilight Zone episode involving the child who is running the home inciting fear in the adults because he possessed powers. The Trump administration is exactly that. It occurred to me that in the Stormy Daniels porn star case a guy named Pecker testified on behalf of the biggest dick in the country. This is a country that elected a person with obvious serious and deep psychological problems. Twice. Four deferments for the macho ‘Commander in Chief’ on the basis of bone spurs on the same feet that 60 years later he still plays golf on nearly every damn day. Trump simply brought out that which was always rotting beneath America’s social surface. Trump doesn’t even deserve credit for destroying the social fabric of this country. He couldn't have done it without the sycophants in Congress proving at all times that they are in it for themselves, not the good of any one else.. They’re sending their worst? Most of those coming to the U.S. had to endure hardship we can’t conceive of - traveling on foot over hundreds of miles, enduring hunger, fear, exhaustion. Find an American willing to do that. They’re opening their prisons to send them here? Data showing arrests per 100,000 persons (in Texas, of all places): U.S. born citizens 48%, Documented immigrants 35%, Undocumented immigrants 17%. My mother always said “believe half of what you see and none of what you hear”. The T-rump minions are not allowed to believe either. The Founders were white men who thought only white men should have power, money and influence. Kind of like the Trump Administration. Ever notice that no one from Finland, Spain, Italy, actually any of those 'inferior' ‘socialist’ countries is an ‘illegal alien' in this country desperately trying to live here?
Military
In religious zealot countries, war against the infidels is life’s mission, with dying in the name of religion being a laudable outcome. In America it's basically “will it be over before the Super Bowl”. The military is a form of American welfare. The U.S. military has nearly 3 million people directly associated with it, just under 1% of the population. About 23 million civilians work for the government across all levels, with almost 3 million additional in the military. The working-age population (15–64) is about 212 million persons, making the government the employer of about 12% of the population. Kind of Socialistic I’d say. Only the USA would use multi-million dollar rockets to shoot down thousand dollar drones. The USA has the second highest military spending per capita (behind Israel) and third most military members behind China and India (in a population one-third the size). The USA has more than 750 bases in 95 countries worldwide. For comparison, China has one. The model used for war is not like that of policing. By that model the police should find all the bad guys and jail or kill them before they commit a crime. I'm for not sending our kids to die in places they can’t even identify on a map, so maybe some of that trillion-plus dollar military budget expenditure should be to support other countries (USAID for example) or for equipment to fight their own wars. The U.S. hasn't really won a war since the Revolution, unless you count the Civil one (and even then, only half the country won).
Policing, Laws & Guns
In 1776 muskets were capable of up to 3 shots per minute with accuracy of about 80 yards (with poor trajectory). Today’s rifles are capable of 1,000 yards and 900 rounds per minute. Somehow, the same amendment applies? You wouldn't need a good guy with a gun if there weren't so many bad guys with them. In England and Wales only 4% of the nearly 150,000 officers carry firearms. They carry a baton and spray (even tasers are usually not carried). This has resulted in only 83 killings made by police in the last 35 years - just over two annually. Last year in the U.S there were 1,281. In the U.S. 120% of the population owns guns (more guns than people). Iraq is at 20%, Afghanistan, Russia and Ukraine 11%, China at 4% and Great Britain 1%. In the past 22 years, there were 109 mass shootings in the US and 35 public mass shootings in 35 comparative countries. One per year worldwide, 109 per year in the U.S.. Think there’s a reason?
Things Other People Said
Bob Marley - “Everyone will eventually betray you, it’s just a matter of deciding who is worth suffering for". Jean-Paul Sartre - “Hell is other people”. The presence and judgment of others can constrain freedom and create psychological conflict. Theodore Roosevelt - “The Credit Belongs to Those in the Arena” true merit should be given to those who actively participate in life’s challenges, not to those who only observe or criticize. Voltaire: “God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh". Sums it up I think. When Keanu Reeves was asked by Stephen Colbert what he thinks happens when you die, Keanu replied: "The ones who love us will miss us". Keanu Reeves: When asked what he thinks happens when we die answered, "I know that the ones who love us will miss us”. Jackson Browne: Don't confront me with my failures.I had not forgotten them. Johnny Depp (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory 2005): When asked by a child if he wanted to know their names replied - “Can’t see how it would matter”. Joseph Heller (Catch-22): “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you” G. Gordon Liddy: known for holding his hand over a candle flame until it burned. When asked how he endured the pain, he said “the secret is not to care”. The instant you care about something or someone, you’ve empowered them over you. They or it can hurt you. Russell Lynes: "I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong," and a variation attributed to Robin Williams "Iff you were right, I'd agree with you." T.S. Garp (in The World According to Garp movie) buys a new home shortly after a small plane crashes into it, reasoning that it is safer because it has been "pre-disastered".