Category Archives: Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts on a Sunday Morning

Politics, Random Thoughts

 

In Mueller We Trust

Once again, Robert Mueller has shown he is several steps ahead of public officials and journalists.  The quickness with which he has filed initial indictments took most by surprised.  In an effort to catch up with the #realnews, cable news outlets have spent the last 48 hours speculating about arrests and perp walks based on what usually happens after a prosecutor files a sealed indictment.

I caution you not to be disappointed if this does not happen.  All the pundits are assuming the indictments were sealed in case the persons named are a flight risk.  But there is an alternative possibility.  Mueller may not want the next group of interview subjects to have the benefit of what he already knows.  If I were on Mueller’s team, I would hope to catch future interviewees in contradictions between their versions of what happened and what a grand jury has already determined as sufficient to bring charges.  It would be much easier for these interviewees to elude the truth without committing perjury if they had advance knowledge of what others have offered up or the prosecution’s interpretation of the evidence.

I’m “Mattis” as Hell and I’m Not Going to Take It Anymore

We’ve already seen how contact with Comrade Trump has corrupted one general as evidenced by John Kelly’s pathetic effort to defend the liar-in-chief by dishonestly smearing a member of Congress.  It now appears Trump’s stupidity is also a health threat to anyone in his proximity.

On Saturday Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis made two statements which appear to have come straight from Trump’s cranium.  First, he said, “I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power.”  I hate to break it to you, General, but North Korea IS a nuclear power.  You are not the father of the bride.  Kim Jung-un obviously did not need your blessing.  Recognizing this fact would go a long way toward crafting policy to lessen the threat of a no-win nuclear confrontation.

This non-starter was followed by, “Make no mistake, …any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming.” Duh!  Some things need not be said.  And while this statement is probably true, it could be said by any nuclear power to any other nuclear power.  Imagine Trump’s tweet-storm if Kim Jung-un had said, “Make no mistake, any use of nuclear weapons by the United States will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming.”  Trump’s tiny fingers would be on fire.

A Tale of Two Administrations

Carl Jung must be laughing hysterically this weekend.  I can hear him point to Friday’s news and saying, “Now you know what I meant by synchronicity, unrelated events which can have a deeper meaning.”  Is it a coincidence that on the same day CNN reported the filing of the first indictments in the Trump/Russia investigation, former President Barack Obama was called for jury duty?  In other words, while one man continues to honor his oath to “preserve and protect the Constitution” by fulfilling his public duty, the other is trying to figure out how he can sidestep his oath of office to save his own skin.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Mystery Revealed

Random Thoughts

 

Several of my readers have asked about the progress I’ve made on my book.  Not as much as I had hoped.

Others have asked about why I had decided to shift emphasis when being part of the “resistance” remains important.  My hope was to finish the book by today.  Why?  Because I wanted to posit my counter-intuitive theory (as opposed to conspiracy theory) about the Kennedy assassination before many of the lingering doubts as to what really happened are resolved.  And as you are now aware, the government will be releasing previously sealed documents today related to the assassination later today.  My fear is that the new information will either confirm my theory (which I seriously doubt) or will make the story less compelling.  NOTE: It is a fictional account of what happened based on the best available facts in the tradition of Gore Vidal’s Burr.

Of course, there is the possibility the newly released material will provide additional fodder which can be woven into the story line.  Assuming the narrative will still be relevant, I will continue to work on it as time allows.  To whet your appetite, today I am sharing the prologue with you.  The working title is, “In the National Interest.”

PROLOGUE

There was just one thing I never understood.  How could an operation involving so many players be kept a secret for 55 years?  And yet it was.  But knowing what I now know, it is obvious.  The truth was so implausible, anyone with knowledge of these events would appear either a delusional conspiracy theorist or a victim of dementia.

Just imagine yourself in their place.  What do you do?  Walk into the editorial board room of the Washington Post or New York Times and announce you know what lay behind the crime of the 20th century?  And everything ever said or written about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not even close?  And the reason you are now coming forth is you are the last surviving individual who helped plan and carry out the slaying of the chief executive of the United States.

Imagine the barrage of questions you would face.  How do you know this?  What proof do you have?  Is there anyone else who can corroborate your story? Do you expect us to believe a 92-year-old, former Secret Service agent who, for four decades, has been interviewed on the anniversary of Kennedy’s trip to Dallas?  And each time, expressed guilt that he was unable to protect his only charge?

Finally, imagine this human fount of undisclosed knowledge chooses never to reveal what he knows to journalists or historians.  Instead, upon his death, he leaves you the only existing written chronicle of this incredible account and tells you to do with it whatever you believe you feel is in the best interest of the country and history.

Much to my consternation, I now face that exact dilemma.  My name is Jonathan Sheppard.  And two days ago, my deceased uncle Mason Rhodes posthumously anointed me guardian of the best kept secret in the world.  What would you do?

Jonathan Sheppard
October 13, 2017

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Random Thoughts 9/23/2017

Politics, Random Thoughts, Uncategorized

 

EXPLAINING THE CONSTITUTION TO ANN COULTER

Image result for ann coulter witchOne of today’s great ironies is how often individuals who accuse others of violating the U.S. Constitution have little, if any, appreciation for what the the document actually says.  The latest example is none other than Ann Coulter who last week responded to Comrade Trump’s flip-flop on DACA by tweeting, “Who doesn’t want Trump impeached?”   Seems like everybody except his die-hard base and spineless Republican members of the House of Representatives.

Keep in mind the author of In Trump We Trust has no problem with Trump’s violation of the emolument clause or his increasingly evident acts of treason during the 2016 campaign and as oval office occupant.  What was the tipping point for Ms. Coulter?  Reversal on a policy decision.  Ann, I think it’s time you took another look at the language in Article II of the Constitution which governs removal of the chief executive and other public officials.

The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

I find it quite incredulous that someone who attended Cornell University and the University of Michigan Law School believes failure to keep a campaign promise qualifies as a “high crime or misdemeanor.”  If that were the case, every president since 1789 would have been hauled before the House Judiciary Committee to answer for their “crimes.”  I guess constitutional law was not a required course at the University of Michigan Law School.

IVANKA AND ME

I would have never believed this, but Ivanka Trump and I seem to have a couple of things in common.  On September 14, the poster child for “Take Your Daughter to Work for Four Years” said the following in an Interview with the Financial Times.

Some people have created unrealistic expectations of what they expect from me.  That my presence in and of itself would carry so much weight with my father that he would abandon his core values and the agenda that the American people voted for when they elected him. It’s not going to happen.

You may remember, last Saturday I suggested Comrade Trump take a different tack in dealing with Kim Jong-un.  Instead of ramping up rhetoric which would make the North Korean leader feel he needed a nuclear deterrent, U.S. foreign policy might be better served by ensuring Kim and his people they were safe from American intervention as long as they kept to themselves.  Based on Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, I know how Ivanka must feel.  Even if you have realistic expectations about my sphere of influence, let me assure you, “It’s not going to happen.”

Image result for obama helicopter leaving washingtonBut my affinity to Ivanka does not end there.  This week, she told us she suffered from postpartum depression following the birth of each of her three children.  I feel her pain.  I too have had bouts of postpartum depression since January 20th when Barack Obama departed the White House.

Now, if only she would follow my lead, and realize Washington, D.C. is not her place of most potential.  It took me seven years to figure that out.  One can only hope she is forced into that decision sooner rather than later.  And please, take “daddy” with you.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Random Thoughts 9/16/2017

Economics, Politics, Random Thoughts

 

In the continuing search for a happy medium between the demands of other projects–business, writing a novel and cleaning up after hurricanes–I have decided to move to a weekly post of random thoughts.

Today, I begin with two topics which were overshadowed by concern for the residents of SE Texas, the lower Atlantic coast and the Caribbean islands.  They are both related to the worn out mantra, “We need to run government like a business.”  It assumes businesses are all the same.  What if we ran government like a bait and switch scam?  Well, we are currently putting that to the test and how is that going?  Instead, what if we looked at specific business practices which might be adapted because they make the same sense in the public sector as they do for private enterprises.

Spousal Travel

I used to work for a major public interest group in Washington, D.C. which required almost weekly travel to meet with our clients.  I was allowed to take my wife on these trips under the following conditions.

  • I paid for her airfare.
  • Any expense which represented a cost above the travel reimbursement to which I was normally entitled came out of my own pocket.

For example, if there was no price differential between one or two people staying in the same hotel room, that was okay.  But if there was an additional charge for the second person in a cab or shuttle, that was my responsibility.  Of course, her meals and entertainment could not be charged back to the organization.

Now consider the recent efforts of Secretary of Creative Accounting Steven Mnuchin to bilk American taxpayers for his honeymoon and his optimal viewing of last month’s solar eclipse.  In both cases the use of a private government plane (at a cost of $25,000/hr) was dubious.  In the case of his European honeymoon there was no official business associated with this travel.  His excuse? As a member of the National Security Council (NSC) he needed to have encrypted access to the White House in case of an emergency.

But here’s the rub.  There are five categories of members/participants on the NSC in order of importance.

  1. Chairman (aka President)
  2. Statutory Attendees
  3. Military, Intelligence and Drug Policy Advisers
  4. Regular Attendees
  5. Additional Participants

Care to guess into which category the Treasury Secretary falls?  If you chose #5, give yourself a prize.

Image result for mnuchin and wife at ft. knoxAs for the trip to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, there was no scheduled event which required Mr. Mnuchin’s presence.  And he later claimed he had no interest at all in the solar eclipse. In an interview with Vanity Fair,  Mnuchin said, “You know, people in Kentucky took this stuff very serious.  Being a New Yorker and [living for a time in] California, I was like, the eclipse? Really? I don’t have any interest in watching the eclipse.”  So much for Republican claims it’s the Democrats who are coastal elites.

The solution.  Follow the same rules as my former DC employer.  Public officials (elected and administrative) should be required to reimburse the federal government for family members’ or friends’ airfare when using government transportation.  Use the standard already contained in Federal Elections Commission regulations.  If a candidate is offered space on a private or corporate plane, the campaign must reimburse the host individual or company the equivalent of an average first class airfare for a similar flight.  And unless the spouse is on official public business (one can imagine both Senator Mitch McConnell and his wife Transportation Secretary Elaine Choi having a role at an international event), all discretionary costs associated with companion travel should not be covered with government funds.

A Specific Business Approach Toward North Korea

I have a friend who for 20 plus years owned the third largest contractor in a business sector which is historically known for safety issues.  Workers compensation and liability insurance are major cost centers in this industry.  Most of the accidents are due to human error.  In other words, it was the employee’s fault.  Therefore, the traditional approach to work safety was to punish an employee if he/she violated safety regulations or procedures.  But as my friend soon learned that only ended up costing him more.  A disciplined employee was more likely to quit than change behavior, adding the expense of hiring and training new workers.

Instead, my friend chose a counter-intuitive approach and began offering bonuses to workers based on the number of days they went without a safety violation or incident.  Within months of implementing the policy, the number of safety incidents decreased significantly leading to reduced insurance premiums.  Employees now had a financial stake in the company’s safety program.

Image result for sam kinisonWhich brings us to North Korea.  For some reason, sticky issues always come back to Sam Kinison’s controversial declaration, “I don’t condone wife-beating, but I understand it.”  That’s exactly how I feel about North Korea.  I don’t condone nuclear proliferation, but in this case, I understand it.  Put yourself in Kim Jong-un’s shoes.  You watched the United States invade the sovereign nation of Iraq and overthrow its government.  What would keep the USA from doing the same thing in North Korea?  The obvious answer is nuclear deterrence.  History suggests it works.  Nuclear capability kept the cold war from heating up.  It maintains a relative state of peace between India and Pakistan.  And it remains Israel’s wild card as a weapon of last resort in the event of a second potential holocaust.

Following my friend’s entrepreneurial approach to workplace safety, one might say, “The stick doesn’t seem to be working; maybe we should offer a carrot.” Instead of backing Pyongyang into a corner, we should ask what could we do that gives Kim Jong-un a stake in defusing an escalation of more and more destructive weapons.  Didn’t John Kennedy do exactly that during the Cuban missile crisis in October, 1962?  Like Kim Jong-un, Fidel Castro was convinced the United State wanted regime change in Cuba.  A reasonable supposition following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. As part of the deal which resulted in the removal of Soviet offensive weapons from Cuba, Kennedy promised not to initiate or support any future attempts to overthrow Castro.

Instead of giving Kim Jong-un more reasons to expand his nuclear capabilities, maybe it’s time we give him a reason to start believing he doesn’t need them.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Great Non-White North

Culture, Random Thoughts

 

The title of today’s post is an obvious play on the SCTV sketch originated by a very young Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas in which they played the Mackenzie brothers, the ultimate stereotypes of clueless, beer guzzling Canadians.  Moranis is said to have disliked playing his character although he and Thomas appeared in 41 TV segments, two movies and commercials for Pizza Hut and Molson Beer.

Based on our experience the past two days in Winnipeg, either the parody was a gross misrepresentation of Canadian life or much has changed since Doug and Bob Mackenzie exited the airwaves.  Far from clueless, the Canadians seemed to have figured it out.  I could provide dozens of observations about the diversity which is visible throughout Winnipeg but I will focus on two specific examples.

Image result for canadian human rights museumThe first was a visit to the Canadian Human Rights Museum (CHRM) pictured here.  It stands in stark contrast to the American approach of individual halls dedicated to ethnic groups in Washington, D.C.  The seven levels of exhibits address the challenges and responses by the Canadian government and people to injustices based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientations.  The message is a clear and common theme.  EVERYONE DESERVES THE SAME HUMAN RIGHTS.  Equally important, the curators spared no effort in reminding visitors of past Canadian anti-human rights policies and attitudes that represent a stain on the country’s history.

One presentation was particularly striking.  It told the story of the Acadians from the time of the “Great Expulsion” of the Acadians in 1755-64 to their repatriation and the decision to make both English and French the official national languages.  One cannot help but see the parallels between the Acadians and Mexican-Americans.  An enlightened society would recognize that accepting Spanish speaking immigrants into American society is similarly repatriation of an ethnic group which lived in the Southwest prior to 1848.  Imagine if the United States followed a similar track, accepting Spanish as an official part of the American experience and culture.

There is also a hall which includes video testimonies from those who have been the beneficiaries of Canada’s current approach to human rights.  For me, the most touching was the story of Ali Duale, a Somali refugee who is now a member of the Halifax Fire Department and coaches a youth basketball team.  Too bad Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions have not seen this video.  Duale, when asked why he emigrated to Canada, replies, “It was not for a better life or money.  It was to survive.”

Image result for folkloramaThe second example is the reason we chose Winnipeg as a destination for this vacation.  The city is currently hosting Folklorama, a two week international festival with cultural pavilions representing more than 40 nations.  Last night we attended an event at the Cuban Pavilion for which all the performers were life-long Canadian residents who found outlets in Winnipeg and Edmonton to learn and perform their native music and dance.   The same was true of the “ambassadors” from several other national exhibits.  Whether Serbian or Polish, the answer to the question, “How long have you been in Canada,” the answer was always, “My whole life.”

In this morning’s Winnipeg newspaper, there was an article about the skyrocketing cost of housing in the area.  This should come as no surprise.  Want people to come visit and live in your community?  It’s simple.  Make them feel welcome.  And as the residents of the “Great Non-White North” have found, they can contribute much more than they take away.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP