I was going to go quietly into the night on inauguration eve. Might have had a glass of wine or scotch and watched the news on PBS.I also watched NBC news the other night. More a force habit than a rational decision. Lester Holt is the anchor of the day at least until something drastic arises from his past. Then he can join Brian Williams in that high priced Siberia of MSNBC.

My final AAARGH moment occurred when his much ballyhooed Trek Across America started in Sacramento. He claimed to be gaining deep insights in cities from west to east. This group of five citizens of the Golden State were each given 10-15 seconds to spill their guts as part of a grand total of 2 1/2 minute segment of the news. Why bother?

Wolf Blitzer of course has his hourly “Breaking News” segments which are more mundane than sensational. Fox News has their “Fox Alert”. Fox seems to be the operative word as everyone from Roger Ailes to Bill O’Reilly are paying out of court millions for trying to bed down the staff. The thought of Roger trying to sidle up to Megan Kelly is beyond disgusting. As I move on remember these are the clowns that are supposed to get the stories right.

This whole Russia thing gets more bizarre by the day. Now let me get this straight. We are ticked off because Russia hacked us. Now can you tell me we don’t hack Russia or China or Germany and in turn no one hacks anyone else? Interfering in our elections? Do you think over the last several decades we have not tried through the CIA et alia to have an effect on elections everywhere from South Viet Nam to Israel to Venezuela to Cuba? Everyone howls in mock horror.

The point I have asked over and over is if we weren’t doing anything wrong then who would really care if our emails were hacked? Debby Wasserman Shultz and the Democratic National Committee was colluding with Hillary’s campaign to bring down Bernie. Donna Brazile was feeding questions to Hillary’s confidantes before the debate. I am sure the Republicans were guilty of the same missteps. Puuuhleaze, do not tell me you think someone is getting a raw deal. John Lewis is a great guy. Just look at what happened to him and what an effect he has had on the civil rights movement. But John, please don’t tell Meet The Press you think this is a vast right wing conspiracy and you cannot accept the outcome. Didn’t look good.

I have told you time and again that Washington is a cesspool. Look at how long pols reside in DC. They all come hoping to change the climate. Many leave in disgust but many find that the forecast of hot and steamy is to their liking. The place oozes influence peddling and hands extended for their largesse. It is slimy to the core. Why else would you pay an average of $11.5 mill to obtain a Senate seat that pays $175,000 per annum? The way they perpetuate their status and wealth is by creating more and more programs that require constant funding and contracting.

 
About 35 out of 435 congressional seats were considered competitive in the last election. Less than 10%. I have railed on about how long they stay. How can you possibly have creative ideas and be open to reducing government if you have been in office for 20, 30, or 40 years? And yet I watch them as they have their day in the sun taking prospective cabinet members to task for this or that. I am by no means an apologist for Trump but rather a critic of our manner of governing.

For example Sen Bob Melendez, who is the senior senator from the great state of New Jersey was grilling Rex Tillerson who would like to be Secretary of State. Now Bobbo has a close personal friend who is an eye doctor in Miami who out of the goodness of his heart gave him at least $750,000 in campaign funds. He also entertained him at his little hacienda in the Dominican Republic. I know you will be shocked but there was ample booze and ample women. No play on words. How would you like to have your sense of right and wrong questioned by this guy?

I derive a great deal of amusement in the goings on. Hollywood is boycotting the festivities as a matter of conscience. People everywhere are snorting their snuff and harrumphing in self righteous indignation. They are offended. Don’t worry, we go through the same soap operas at every swearing in. You didn’t like Obama or Bush or Clinton et al going back 20-30 years.You cry in mock protest. And then we fall back on this crazy sense of ritual and dignity and honor and to that I say, BULL SHIT! I hope you are not taping this.

The message is the same as it was in 2008 and 2012. The public is fed up. They don’t want to be lectured and dismissed. They are tired of being run over by the governmental, financial and academic cognescenti. When it comes to haves and have nots we want to measure by wallets but could just as much turn to grey matter as the standard. Just shut up and do what you are told. We know what we are doing. Unfortunately we are being exposed from Oval offices to Board Rooms to Faculty Lounges.

America has relied on leaders for centuries. Right now they don’t feel there are any. If electing The Donald was grasping at straws so be it. In this election we did not provide any viable candidates. If you are upset at the results look in the mirror. We have not encouraged leadership but prolonged mediocrity by our own neglect. We and I mean all of us are the Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight. By the above I am trying in a small way to start here.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

114th Congress The Senate had 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and 2 Independents, who both caucused with the Democrats. The average age of Members of the House at the beginning of the 114th Congress was 57.0 years; of Senators, 61.0 years. 79 have been in office at least 20 years.

Winston Churchill through the SIS, their intelligence agency worked for 18 months to ensure the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was believed that only FDR would send supplies and eventually enter WWII.
The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it’s done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000. That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile.

The United States Intelligence Community is a federation of 16 separate United States government agencies that work separately and together to conduct intelligence for the country. In 2010 that there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that are working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence.The intelligence community as a whole includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances. I am sure there is no eavesdropping or hacking going on here.

When one thinks of tradition our minds wander to scrapbooks and photo albums or old 45’s. It is the glue that gives us comfort in the midst of chaos. It is the security of knowing somehow it worked in the past and it will get us through. It is also a symbol of each generation’s work to sustain the lineage as we pass it on to the next whether they be Xers or millenials. If they accept it we have somehow succeeded. If they toss it back at us it is the ultimate rejection and no one likes that.

 
We are binge watching The Crown and nothing could be more appropriate as we near inauguration day. Brits are justifiably proud of their heritage but as we watch Elizabeth’s reign unfold post WWII, one can see how their intransigence to pomp and ritual might foretell their descent into comparative irrelevance. They all portray painful intellectual snobbery. It is only “They” who can deliver the unwashed masses from desperation. No one else has a clue. Pardon me but didn’t we just see this happen on this side of the pond.

As for us Yanks we have chosen a new course….at least some have. As we watch the stuffy and moldy Cabinet room at #10 Downing are not our Congressional halls and Cloak rooms similar? I watch the tottering and unstable Winston and the Ancients of the Senate and House come to mind. As I shout “Get with it, you old fool” at the Netflix, couldn’t that be at C Span as well?

His Hairness is shaking things up in lots of ways. I watched parts of the news conference yesterday. I have had just short of contempt for the Fourth Estate lately. With the multiplicity of cable channels it is obvious the true grit reporting has taken a back seat to Nielsen and bottom lines. The fact there is an unwritten code of how the Oval Office is to treat the press is comical. It was raucous, bawdy and probably a symbol of who we are. But have no doubts, things will not settle down quickly. Fasten your seat belts!

 
That is beyond disconcerting to many. Times have been crazy over the last few years. Bubbles have burst starting with the Second Great Depression.Banks and brokerages were the bastions of security and wealth. Now they must humbly submit to “stress tests”.Culturally we are now inclusive of LGBT sexual orientation. Technology has soared at warp speed and left many far behind. We crave consistency and civility but the genie is long out of the bottle.

And in the midst of all this mayhem fear has grown from an occasional thought to foremost in our minds.We worry about our health, global warming, our financial future, kidnapping, murder, molestations, and most importantly will the brass ring be ours whatever our age be? Whoever thought Clemson would beat Bama? The Donald as President Elect? George Soros is rumored to have lost over a billion dollars on that losing bet. Will things ever get back to the way they were? Don’t bet on it

.

Before we become apoplectic at the thought, let’s consider some of the plusses to change. By sheer evolution our world and its inhabitants have adjusted to change. Animals grow wings or gills to obtain food and survive. Cities have grown and provided for their inhabitants both spiritually and monetarily because of new ideas and infrastructure. Robert Moses was a pain in the ass and wild eyed to many but his creation of highways, bridges and parks in the New York metropolitan area was prescient if not brilliant.

The Edisons, Bells, Salks, Gates and Jobs were considered out of the mainstreams of science. If someone had not sought the secrets of the genome or the marvelous complexity of fiber optic cable where would we be? Tennis rackets, golf clubs, composite materials for planes and cars would never have occurred in a pleasant but dowdy existence.

Sure there are downsides. People used the marvel of the atom to create death and destructive capabilities. The internet has become a vehicle for theft, terrorism and malice. Institutions like banks and religion have become suspect. We have made a business out of making people well. Cures benefit the stock price. Oh yeah as a by product they help people too. But all this is maybe because we have been all to happy to derive the benefits with personal regard rather than seeing the ultimate outcomes for mankind.

I think a huge part of the problem is that we think tradition and change exist separate from one another. If you believe in one you are an old fart and if you want to blow things up intellectually of course that means you are a radical or terrorist. We need both. We seem unable to accept that.

I really chuckle when I think of where we are today. The right has taken to Trump. His unorthodoxy is playing well at the country clubs and the cooth squads are conveniently looking the other way. The progressives are trying to retain the status quo and the elements of creativity and innovation at least in government are looked askance. Fascinating isn’t it?

In golf they say every shot makes someone happy. So goes our body politic. Our country is in a bit of a maelstrom right now and that is okay. I am not an anarchist but I really do believe we have to shake things up. We might be greatly surprised or sadly disappointed but rather than cataclysmic it is a thing called life.Somehow we will make it. We always have and that is our tradition. On the other hand change is what has made us what we are as a dynamic and incredible nation. The new show is about to start. I am going to get a big bag of popcorn and watch. Care to join me?

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Change Is Hard Because People Crave What They Already Like. People as whole are reluctant to try new things be they food, books or travel.

Nearly 60 percent of projects aimed at achieving business change do not fully meet their objectives. Harvard Business Review … The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail. Doesn’t mean we can’t try.

It is our country’s tradition to have tail gate parties, watch Super Bowl commercials, give Presidential Turkey pardons, have Black Friday and Ground Hog days. In the South we give people crazy names. In the Northeast there are about 60 different dialects. In the West there are fruits and nuts. It is us. Maybe the Donald will give himself a Turkey Pardon.

Prince Charles’ personal valet, Michael Fawcett, used to squeeze his toothpaste onto his toothbrush for him.He is definitely the most high-maintenance of the royals: he employs well over 100 staff including chefs, cooks, footmen, housemaids, gardeners, chauffeurs, cleaners, and not one, not two, but three personal valets whose sole responsibility is the care of their royal master’s extensive wardrobe. A serving soldier polishes the prince’s boots and shoes every day, and Charles’s valets iron the laces of his shoes whenever they are taken off. Probably not tradition but I couldn’t resist.

From the great state of Marijuana I can report that things are gong swimmingly. I am probably naive but a couple of years of legality doesn’t seem to have much effect on the everyday workings of Denver. They are finding teenagers are turning more to alcohol than to the weed. Probably easier to raid the parents’ liquor cabinet than to break into their stash of hash.

The rise of heroin as a cost effective alternative to Oxycodone and Vicadin bespeaks a pain prescription dispensery run amok. One of the more curious aspects is its ehttps://www.themonastery.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/addiction-help.jpgpidemic proportions in rural America. Does that mean there is more initial pain there or is boredom and lack of “other” diversions contributing to the malaise?

That being said I heard a startling statistic in passing that caused me to perk up. Apple logged $28 billion in app sales in 2016, including $3 billion in December alone. Incredibly the sales for just New Year’s Day were $240 million. Currently they offer 2.2 million apps in the AppStore. Numbers can be boring but these are astounding for their implications.

25% of them are games, followed by business, education, lifestyle and entertainment making up 60% as a total. If you take out business and education it means there are almost 900,000 downloads for leisure time. I see my grandkids logging a lot of screen time and the latest edition of Super Mario should keep them entertained for some time to come. Today’s youth spend about 7-8 hours per week playing all sorts of strange stuff. Habits at this age are tough to break. We not only use them as babysitters but perchance should I bring up the word “addiction” of a sort. No TTG, it can’t be that bad. Sorry mes amis, tis true.

Getting back to dollars and sense to play on words, where does one get the money to buy all these things? Some are free but others cost x initially and y over a period of time. There is a thing called Clash of Clans that grosses $12 million per month in user fees.The answer to everyone’s prayers? A little drum roll please. Enter King Visa and Queen MasterCard and various other royalty. 80% of all purchases are put on plastic and that number grows exponentially each year. Convenience is wonderful but does it forestall reality?

It seems the average American(whoever that is) maintains a balance from month to month of $16,061. The average interest rate is 15.36% You can go from a low of 12% to 23% for the worst credit. That is $747 billion on loan with an annual interest payment of $111 billion. I have not mentioned, mortgage, autos, student loans et al but suffice to say that all comes to $132,529 per household or a grand total of $12.35 TRILLION in consumer debt. Should that be listed in the opiate or hallucinogenic form of treatment?

Another dirty little secret is the porn industry. Worldwide it is a $97 billion industry with $12 billon from the US alone.In America, the Beautiful, child pornography is tagged at $3 billion per annum and growing steadily. People spend more time on porn sites than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined. 30% of all data transferred across the Internet is porn related. No deviance here just people having some good clean fun.

Sorry if I have bored or boggled with the above numbers but I think it tells a lot about ourselves. Whether it is booze, boobs or gaming we have a variety of ways to while away our hours of leisure. I don’t say this so much in a moralistic way as much as reflective. You can do whatever floats your boat. You can also say it is the other guy or gal and not you. That might be very true. But in essence if we base our standards and expectations on who we are and how we act as a people doesn’t this become part of our national persona?

We constantly complain there are not enough hours in the day. We don’t have time to read, become educated on current events, volunteer, exercise, vote, pay attention to our kids or our spouses. Yadda Yadda Yadda. Really? Come on man I just want to kick back and relax. You are no fun at all. For instance,Children aged 2-11 watch over 24 hours of TV per week, while adults aged 35-49 watch more than 33 hours, according to data from Nielsen that suggests TV time increases the older we get. The average American watches more than five hours of live television every day. I am so sorry for interrupting your free time.

Trust me I am as bad as you are. I get borderline comatose on New Year’s Day watching bowl games or on Sunday watching my Broncos. I love playing solitaire or just beating golf balls until my hands bleed. In a big golf tournament on TV I can watch every shot. Do I feel guilty? Probably not but I do often admit to a tremendous waste of time. I guess what I am trying to say is no one should get nuts in overindulging in anything but when it becomes a regular occurrence we should have a talk with ourselves.

People who are alcoholics, drug addicts, overeaters or over spenders do so because it takes them into another world. They are not very happy with theirs. Whether it is poverty in a monetary or spiritual sense it feels good to get away. The only way to overcome that is having that heart to heart talk with one’s self. You deal with reality and embrace it, not run away from it. I am not sure we personally or as a country are very good at that. Probably time for an intervention.

As always
Ted the Great

Factoids:
I have already given you too many.

In this season I get to pick from many nocturnal activities. It could have been last night. We are in Vail for a couple of days and we took my brother and sister in law to dinner in town. We have been helping daughter Lindsey with her newly purchased but mechanically challenged condo. Uncle David is an electrician and out of the goodness of his heart is overhauling her electric baseboard system. I am the Gofer, which is appropriate.

Before dinner we walked up Bridge Street and what to our wondrous eyes should appear? A whole bunch of new lights on every tree and every crossbeam. A group of a dozen or so foreign speaking visitors barreling down the street with little concern of who was coming the other way. And as we were gazing up at unlit and unoccupied condos I tried to explain to my kin why people spend $4 or $5 million on these babies, to come only a few weeks a year. Did I make sense? Probably not. Especially after the $10 ice cream cone.

Dinner was great and as only can happen in the mountains our waitress was from Galway, Ireland. Arianna travelled across the pond around 15 years ago and after a short stop in Boston arrived in our winter wonderland and decided to stay. Young people seek time off here after college and parents pull their hair out after dropping a quarter million large on their higher education. I was riding on the Vail bus one time and the young lady at the helm was sporting a Harvard sweatshirt. I asked her who did she know that went to Harvard ? She laughed and said, “Me,” of course.

We will assemble LOFO,The Loyal Order of the Fat Ones, on Friday afternoon at Churchills. This emporium of smoke, whiskey and good fun seems appropriate for this crowd. I am bringing my brother in law to demonstrate to him how really nuts I am. I have spoken to you before of The Church’s many charms. I made the mistake of taking a good friend there last New Years in the early afternoon. The light of day did not do any favors to the worn rugs and sagging leather chairs. A fitting metaphor for the crowd there. Hey, who cares?

As I write I can’t help but think back about Xmases past. I grew up in a wonderful old colonial house with numerous fireplaces. The boys were responsible for maintaining the hearths. We had a wood room in the basement which was the old coal bin for the house. Just outside it was an old pot bellied stove, Unused but a great keeper of the lore of the manse.

Dinners were peaceful as we lingered, feeling the warmth of the flame and the sound of pine sap crackling. My father held court at the head of the table and he had a habit of asking leading questions. These were not fast food hit and run affairs and it is probably where I acquired my gift of gab. Grandma made a mean minced pie that was ceremoniously set on fire with a lit bit of Four Roses or some other high octane spirit. Top that with hard sauce and you were in seventh heaven.

We have moved so many times and been in so many places we are not particularly imbued with sacred rituals. In some ways one feels a lack but on the other hand we have had so many different experiences we feel very blessed. In the early eighties we took hay rides on our first sabbatical in Denver. We sang carols and the kids had huge smiles as we meandered through the hilly roads of Genesee. The cold crisp Colorado sky was tamed by a little schnapps or whatever and we always wound up at someone’s home for simple chow. Our first Noel there greeted us with three feet of snow. The Reverend TTG had to perform services at home that Christmas day.

One Yuletide we were in Perth Australia. Another in Boston in the Navy. Last year we were in Wimbledon, England with son Scott and family. The one constant for 45 years has been Kathy at my side. Best present of all. This year we will sit in front of the tree or by the fire and think of the many that have moved on in every sense of the word. Great friends who have been so much a part of our lives. Strange as it sounds it is not a sadness but a warm appreciation for all they have given to us. We are a very lucky couple.

I will pay my visit to Fr Michael at Samaritan House with a wad of $2 bills in tow.He thinks I am being generous. I am just trying to buy my way into heaven because I know it is my only hope. We are going to 10:00 mass on the big day. I will be doing the second readings and I will say a prayer for all of you.Nothing crazy just a gentle nudge to the Big Guy so He will look out for all of us no matter what our beliefs.

I am corny and sentimental in Ted’s Head on this day. I know there is mayhem in the world and in our fair nation. I just decided to not pay heed to murders, bombings, insults and slurs as I look out at the hills. Not wanton disregard for the pain and suffering but just setting a different priority for my cranium on this spectacular morning. I hope you might be able to do the same. And so for another year as I ride out of sight,Merry Christmas to all and to all a Holy Night.

As always
Ted The Great.

Factoids:
There is a village in Peru where people settle the previous year’s grudges by fist fighting on Christmas. They then start the new year off on a clean slate. Hmm, they may have an idea there.

Paul McCartney earns nearly half a million dollars every year from his Christmas song, which many critics regards as his worst song ever.

During the Christmas of 2010, the Colombian government covered jungle trees with lights. When FARC guerrillas (terrorists) walked by, the trees lit up and banners asking them to lay down their arms became visible. 331 guerrillas re-entered society and the campaign won an award for strategic marketing excellence.
Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names, such as Blitzen, Comet, and Cupid. However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh are likely not male, but female or castrated.

Each year there are approximately 20,000 “rent-a-Santas” across the United States. “Rent-a-Santas” usually undergo seasonal training on how to maintain a jolly attitude under pressure from the public. They also receive practical advice, such as not accepting money from parents while children are looking and avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch

Many of the most popular Christmas songs, such as “White Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” were written or co-written by Jews. L’chaim!

That little voice inside of me has been whispering lately. “Why do you always think about enigmas and try to solve them? Why don’t you let someone else do it. Relax.” The siren’s call has been getting louder lately. Then my daughter Megan planted an IED in my serenity. She lent me a new book by Tom Friedman, “Thank You For Being Late”. Then as I settled into the old leather chair in my office I am sure she remotely detonated it from her cell phone.

I happen to like this author so I was predisposed to his message but it wasn’t one but a panoply of insights into our world today. It was technical, political, practical and ethical all rolled into one.It is an mazing book. If you assume there are three great forces at work, technology, globalization and Mother Nature, he studies each one in detail. We are in a tectonic shift as the result of these powers intersecting. We have taken this relatively predictable world and turned it upside down.

Some may choose to deny it. They pine for the good old days but the genie is out of the bottle. Even status quo is unacceptable. He starts with technology and the application of Moore’s Law. The latter states that the computing capacity as we know it will increase exponentially as its costs decrease. In addition to breakthroughs as more and more people are exposed to the science, that capability will feed upon itself causing explosive growth.

As I read through this section I had the feeling of sheer breakneck speed and although I like to cruise around 80mph, it was little unsettling. Seems I am not alone. There is new term being tossed around called dislocation. When something totally new comes along it takes us a period of time to learn it and put it to use. Today we are working and producing at such warp speed that by the time we assimilate a particular piece it has already been rendered obsolete. To wit the various iterations of iPhones. You don’t email, you tweet. Thousands of apps come to the fore daily. What’s a guy to do?

So many things have happened that we almost take them for granted. Uber was ingenious but then we got LYFT. The first iPhone came out in 2007 and now it is the laptop for many. We used to have hard drives et alia and now we have the Cloud. We don’t develop software but go to a thing called GITHUB to select from a vast array of programs. We use them, adapt them and then leave it for someone else to improve upon. And that is happening in every square inch of our world.
With this enormous flow in place we turn to the Market or world we live in. It is hard to grasp population growth. Population grows at a rate of around 1% which doesn’t sound drastic unless you realize that is 75 million people a year. A major portion of that is centered in India and the African continent. Mobile phones and computing power are coming to all ares of the globe. They not only want to learn, they want to participate. The Web has enabled all sorts to collaborate regardless of skin color or uniform or garb. Like so much today there are no ground rules and we sail on in uncharted territory.

Mother Nature is throwing all of us a curve or should I say just acting up. Whether you believe in global warming or not things are in turmoil. Friedman goes into this in pretty good detail as it relates to displaced people.Not only from war but catastrophic drought. Now we are warm and cozy in front of our fireplaces with visions of sugarplums but there are 65 million displaced people on the move this very day or night in this orb we all call home. In subsaharan Africa there is route taken by Somalis, Eritreans whatever that literally spans the Continent. After weeks and months they end up in Niger and work their way northward to the Med and hopefully freedom of what ever sort.

Add in the Middle East that only exacerbates the problem with wars in Syria and Yemen. There is desperation for all these people as it becomes not a search for a better life but life in any fashion. If they stay they will die from starvation caused by whatever force of nature you want to use. Thank You For Being late takes you from awe to depression to reality and to hope. It is an amazing journey that I know I can’t do justice through this epistle but maybe it will at least tease you to look under the hood.

A conclusion is that the last 11,000 years have been the Holocene era and now we are passing into a new one. Let’s call it an outgrowth for the Garden of Eden. We have had things very well and the jury is out as to whether we have eaten the forbidden fruit too many times. Things are going to be very different for us in so many ways. That is not to be fatalistic or depressing as much as an alarm bell that  we have to open our eyes and get our minds and  asses in gear.
The best takeaway I got was the absolute need for an adaptive mentality. We have to say maybe we don’t have all the answers. It means giving in and admitting we might be wrong about this or that. Not acquiescence but the ability to connect and learn from others. In technology which is going to drive this world there is no prejudice and there are no real borders. Open to new ideas and a new way of thinking on everything from government to education to our definition of a good life.It’s is totally different model. Let’s at least take a test drive. We might wind up buying it.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

People in desperate situations have children. It sounds crazy but it is the one thing that can make them feel worthwhile. A father is able to procreate and a woman can suckle. Scary.
An AT&T experiment brings new ideas to solving problems. When new people are needed for a project they make every effort to hire from within. If an employee is lacking a certain skill they have on line courses in conjunction with Georgia Tech to bridge the knowledge gap. This may lessen the need for four year degrees.

In the Mideast we have seen people obtain freedom “from” but we haven’t given the freedom “ to.” In Iraq we conquered Hussein but did not have an adequate blueprint for people to take it from there.

Friedman makes a curious statement that people have taken to “collecting their wounds.” They seek pity long after the fact and use their ills as crutches and excuses not to move forward. This prevents any forward progress. Not just a few but becoming a method of living for many. Interesting.

I started out with one topic for this week’s missive and found myself wandering from place to place. Not ADD but so many thoughts to capture my attention. I am random by nature but this is ridiculous. Just for a moment, think of my plight. There is a plethora of fascinating parts to our lives if we are just smart enough to sit down for a moment and look. Not always the case, especially for me.
On Sunday there was a keynote speaker at our church. They have a discussion group most weeks and this one was filled to overflow. There was a young woman who spoke and she was a Muslim. My virgin voyage into Islam and it was not because I was promised anything in the afterlife. She probably presented more questions than she answered. I walked away wanting more and that was just fine.

I went to my Google and such, in an effort to fill in the blanks. Problem was I only created more. This is beyond complex as a religion or ideology or whatever is not easy to define. I could question Muhammed’s motives from the get go. Are you peaceful or a local chieftain that was looking for a following? Is violence a core belief or an ancillary? Is there a chance you were God given or just another huckster? Why do you have today 1.8 billion followers in this world?
I wanted to wax eloquently to my readers but I just felt like a moron after several hours of research. More to follow.

I am befuddled by our President elect. Not by his Twittering but his appointments. If you have ever read my previous meanderings you know I delight in hoisting the petard against sacred cows. Boeing? Carrier? Bring it on, big guy. My sane self says I can’t believe this will ever work. My Walter Middy says if there was ever a time to gore fatted calves, this is it.

There was a tragedy in Boulder Monday night. A body was found in a parking lot with a bullet in its head. Black man about 40 years young. Another senseless slaying? In a way. He had killed himself. He wasn’t a nobody. He was Rashan Salaam, a celebrity in these parts because in 1991 he brought the Heisman trophy to Colorado with his derring do on the football field. We are in the middle of this wonderful country and we don’t get a lot of press so when I say he was BIG, I mean really BIG.

Better yet he was a fine young man. He went on to the Chicago Bears. He was not a rock star type but someone whom you would have over to dinner. He worked with the University and was basking in the glory of one of our most successful years. From last to first in the PAC 12. What caused it? We will never know but it is a wailing siren to every troubled person on this planet.

I watched the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor tonight. It is wonderful to see these old guys getting their due. Imagine if you were in a gun tub on the Arizona and you could see some Japanese pilot waving to you as he was about to blow you and your ship to smithereens. That red dot on his fuselage would become etched in your mind for the rest of your life. You then had a choice. Jump into the water which was awash in fire laden oil or go down with your ship? Think you are having a tough day?

I worked out at the gym today. It snowed last night and the current temp has been in the single digits. Not very crowded. Only the hard core and oh yes, me. I saw people trying to get in shape or at least manage what they had. I also saw a beautiful young woman. I had seen her many times before. Hey,I am not brain dead…yet. But there was something different. She had had her lips puffed up and who knows what else?

It was sad because there was no need for it but she felt there was. What was lacking in her life? I looked at others that were a tad older. Maybe they could use a little help but whatever they got it was not to the plus side. Why do we always seek something better? Is it wonderful to want to be better or is it an absurdity as we try to beat the clock or show disdain to what God has given us? I decided to cancel off my liposuction surgery. This gut is here to stay.

Lastly I got a FaceTime from my granddaughter Ryan. Her mom and dad presented her and her two sisters with an early Christmas present tonight. Tomorrow morning they are all going to New York for the next few days. They were beyond excited and asked me places to go. I was reliving a time spent long ago. It was an absolute joy to see their euphoria over something not quite so tangible as a wrapped present. This was going to be an experience to be savored long after the batteries would wear out on this or that. Life is good.

That’s it. My poor brain can’t stand any more stimulation. I haven’t told you half of what is running around in there. I will sit back, maybe have a bit of Scotch and think about how lucky I am. I only hope your life is half as eventful and rewarding as mine

As always,
Ted The Great

Factoids: None. My cranium is flashing TILT.

I was reading a couple of articles the other day on China. One was from the perspective of Xi Jinping and whether his actions would eventually bring us to war. Sufficiently depressed I turned the pages to an interview with Henry Kissinger who has been in and out of our foreign policy for the last fifty years and at the age of 93 still holds some sway..at least with His Hairness.

Both have represented history. The former Secretary of State has been of counsel to several presidents from the whacky Dick Nixon to the more conventional Bushes. Interestingly he noted that Obama had never sought his counsel. I wasn’t sure if this was puzzlement or pique. President Xi is part of a 70 year actualization of the writings of Chairman Mao. There have been some interesting twists and turns.

I couldn’t help but muse on the whole concept of leadership. So many movements in history have been created and furthered by one man or one woman. We are not talking about this or that radical sect but entire nations with sometimes billions of people uniting behind one person. Why do we follow at all and often with such reckless abandon?

From all visible signs people want to be led. I am not sure if this is a human failing or if it is baked into our DNA. From birth we love being nurtured and shown the path. It is easier that way and you are not subject to criticism. Someone said man’s three primal needs are to be safe, to belong and to matter. A good leader could fulfill all of those.

But why does someone step out in front of the crowd? He or she has an idea or a creed and by sheer will and charisma is able to effectively convey that and generate enthusiasm for their cause. It makes sense to people. They like what they hear and bang you are off to the races. This can be true in business, Washington or cathedrals, temples and mosques. The election of Trump typifies this. For better or worse people were willing to follow and the supposed pros were caught flatfooted.

That firebrand, management guru or disciple has a choice. They can remember where they from or they can start believing their own press releases. The opiate of power is a strong one. Sensing the popularity of their ideas, they surround themselves with sycophants. The crowds get larger but their inner circle becomes smaller. They reap enormous benefits be they economic or psychological. The largesse and praise heaped upon them only serve to inflate their egos more. Then it is not the cause but themselves that becomes the reason for being.

It’s funny because most do not set out to amass personal benefit. Clergy do not strive to be archbishops and popes. A politico doesn’t eye the Oval Office from the onset. People feel something in their hearts but that falls prey to personal aggrandizement. Principals and morals are compromised and family, friends and decency fall by the wayside. An article in the Harvard business Review noted “The once great, have stopped listening and being open to input from others” The symptoms were:
▪ Lack of humility
▪ Not listening to others
▪ Withdrawing and becoming reclusive
▪ Justifying your position
▪ Lack of openness and objectivity
▪ Not allowing your decisions to be questioned or challenged

Oh ye in higher echelons, does this sound like someone you might know?

The ideal of service enters stage right as the counter to this. You are here because you want to give. You devote your life to helping make people better. You try to make yourself better. You develop leaders everywhere in your organization. They are not a threat but an enhancement. You seek not only value to the shareholders but to the entire entity. You understand the failure or success of your endeavor is the result of the whole team not your prowess as El Supremo. This is of course idealistic and from all sides in the recent election not necessarily in vogue but we have to start somewhere.

Further there is an omnipresent vision of who we are now and where we want to be in the future. There is an enthusiasm and passion to your message. Optimism abounds but is tempered by pragmatism. To this perfect organization there has to be a responsibility taken down to the least employee. They are not only a cog in the wheel they are an integral part subject to both reward and criticism. When they see the product they understand they had a hand in its design or manufacture. They feel empowered and that is an incredible force for innovation as well as ongoing pursuit..

Do these places exist? Of course they do. The top 50 best places to work compiled by Business Insider cover the spectrum from technology to energy to pharmaceuticals to consumer products. In perusing the list there seems to be a combination of factors ranging from a reasonable balance of work and private life to philanthropy and wellness. 3M has for many years fostered the ability among its workers to come up with new and different ideas. Leadership has been creative and practical and their stock price represents inherent value rather than squeezing every last drop of blood from the stone.

Leadership takes many forms from the management suites to the shop floors. You can see it in school boards to neighborhood associations. Enthusiasm in contagious and the results become all the more phenomenal if the majority jumps in rather than letting someone else do it. Get out of your seat and take part. As the saying goes, “If you ain’t the lead dog the view is always the same”.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
Leaders are not necessarily born. They rise in response to certain occasions.This is where some lead and some follow. In other words, to really become a good leader, one must be put in the position of having to step up to the plate.
Several Leaders of sorts had interesting starting assignments:

Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic was a record producer
Dmitri Medvedev of Russia was a street cleaner.
Pope Francis was a nightclub bouncer
Angela Merkel of Germany was a barmaid
Mark Cuban was a disco dance instructor
Adolf Hitler was a wallpaper hanger
Mao Tse Tung was an assistant librarian at the Univ of Peking

As per Mark Twain,”We are all perfect just at different things.”
As Per Groucho Marx,”Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other 999 follow women.

Speaking of women: A detailed study by the Harvard Business Review of some 7800 superiors,peers and subordinates ranked executives in 16 different categories of leadership. Women surpassed men in 12 of the 16. Today’s workforce starts at 50/50 men vs women but winnows to where women make up only 3-4% of CEO positions. Sorry guys but their effectiveness rate is far superior to men. Almost four in ten businesses in G7 countries have no women in senior management positions. Globally, the proportion of senior business roles held by women stands at 24% Not good. I guess all this will get me a one way ticket out of the fraternity house.

On Monday I dropped off a turkey to Fr Michael at Samaritan House, the homeless shelter where I used to volunteer. The padre was off doing good somewhere and I left a note saying that the gobbler was chosen from some of my closest friends. It was then off to Churchills for a cigar and a scotch or two with some dear amigos who of course were happy I didn’t pick them for the fowl donation.

For those who have been talked off bridges and have put the hemlock back in the cupboard as well as those who just shrug their shoulders at our recent democratic exercise,Thanksgiving conjures up some mighty strong emotions. There are those who love the traditional almost to obsession. Everything has to be just the way we have done it for the last umpteen decades. Not a ritual to be lost and God forbid we would accept anything but rigid conventionalism.

Then there are the rowdies and the upstarts who want innovate and try something different. Like substituting Mac and cheese for those God awful turnips. Perhaps a roast instead of a Tom. Gadzooks, this is the beginning of the fall of civilization as we know it. What would out forefathers think? All of a sudden I can see a nation at this dinner and we are all sitting down for the feast.

Seating is the initial step in the process. There is a kid’s table and an adult one although to some they could be mutually interchangeable. El Supremo sits at the head and everyone falls in line thereafter taking great note as to who is on either side. This can be meted out as to status or longevity but there should be no attempt to mix and match so as to avoid spontaneity or putting someone with brains anywhere near the top.

Don’t get me wrong, change is not always for the better. We have morphed major holidays into commercial events. People have gotten so carried away that they have completely lost sight of the original intent. For instance we have to eat at a specific time in order to fit into the day all the really important stuff like a football game or doorbusters at Macy’s. Sorry mom and dad, everyone is getting together the Ale House. Don’t want to disappoint.

In a totally perverse way holidays lead to both sadness as well as gladness. People conjure up detailed fantasies of how things should be and when they are not perfect in the slightest way they cannot accept that like life, it is not so. But then there is the joy of a separated friend or relative sitting at the table or at least sharing a call. And still others long for lost loves be they a broken romance or just someone who has passed on to a “better place”. By the way whoever came up with that concept? I don’t now about you but I have been pretty lucky. Heaven will have to be really special to beat this.

Ah, the repast! Now here is where it gets interesting. The bird is presented in all its glory and it is indeed a beautiful thing…that is before we start carving it up. Everyone wants this piece or that. Dark meat? Really? I have my standards. Okay kids let’s get this straight there are only two drumsticks. Have to compromise. Somewhere, somehow, someone’s nose is going to get bent out of shape.

As we continue to pass various goodies we always overdo. You know eyes bigger than your stomach.Pour on the gravy so your plate overflows. Some hog takes more than their fair share and you are left with the china reflecting a mere shadow of the heaping brimfuls that were there at the start. We thought there was enough for everyone.

Then comes desert and the age old question. There a lot of people looking for their piece of the pie. Barring a loaves and fishes miracle that circle is only so big. Now does everyone take a smaller wedge so that all may enjoy or do we let those at the top take what they want and let the cards fall where they may? Survive of the fittest, you know. Don’t worry. Next year we will just make a bigger pie. Yeah, we have heard that before.

Lastly after the feast we sit around the table with perhaps an aperitif. We wax eloquently and try to heal hard feelings. Some are filled with gusto and some are filled with self pity. Some wish they spoken up and others are glad they kept things to themselves. Thankfully most of us are just happy to be here. It is not just a feeling of contentment but of accomplishment. Moms and dads can look at their brood and say we done good. We welcome the new guard and pray their way will enhance and improve all aspects of life. Passages mes amis, passages.

We end on a note where we should have started. We are grateful for what we have. We can crow and say it is the result of all our hard work or we can forgo the personal huzzahs and say maybe there is a Higher Being that helped. Back in Plymouth they didn’t have a lot and were facing starvation. They saw the raw countryside and knew it held a plethora of life sustaining possibilities, yet they were afraid and in that fear did what all of us should do. They said a prayer of thanksgiving. Not only for what they had but the bounty before them that was yet to be reaped.

They did not rush out the door but sat and contemplated their plight and at the same time their good fortune. Whether at the table or just walking down the street maybe we should say thanksgiving to whatever God we know. Just be grateful for all we have and oh so cognizant of our fellow man and woman that helped us get here. I think that is something we should all drink to. Happy Thanksgiving,

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

In 2015, more than 233.1 million turkeys were raised. More than 212 million were consumed in the United States. We estimate that 46 million of those turkeys were eaten at Thanksgiving, 22 million at Christmas and 19 million at Easter.

If you feel groggy after an old-fashioned Thanksgiving meal, the bird on your plate may be partially to blame. Turkey meat contains tryptophan, an amino acid that the body uses to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that helps regulate sleep.

Thanksgiving was almost a fast — not a feast! The early settlers gave thanks by praying and abstaining from food, which is what they planned on doing to celebrate their first harvest, that is, until the Wampanoag Indians joined them and (lucky for us!) turned their fast into a three-day feast!

Wild turkeys can run 20 miles per hour when they are scared, but domesticated turkeys that are bred are heavier and can’t run quite that fast.The largest are around 35 pounds. Turkeys sleep in trees to avoid predators. Each gobble is unique.

I love shaking things up. An anarchist I am not but I love to look at the conventional and staid and place a hand grenade right in the middle of the discussion. In truth I am always looking for a different way, something no one has never thought of before. This Trump thing is turning people on their ear and I am relishing every moment. You know me, I fight against the elitists and higher authorities all the time whether they are political or ecclesiastical.

Why do I tilt at windmills? There is a beauty in thinking about innovation and more efficient ways. Dark alleys and dead end streets that finally break through. Researchers and professors do this but become so engrossed in their studies that they believe their own press releases and that no one could know more about a topic than they do. Each week we find an entity that claims to finally have the perfect theory on this or that. Then it is just a matter of time before someone disproves that theorem and it is on to the next one.

Now this should be healthy progress but we tend to hang onto flawed reason with a death grip. As we unlock all the secrets of cosmos and ourselves we become very susceptible to pride and arrogance. We never leave any room for further discovery or a totally different way of looking at things. Then comes the final declaration,“Well we have always done things that way” to put the kibosh on anything novel.I jumped out of an airplane a year ago. Rational people are not supposed to do that but the sheer excitement of doing the forbidden opens you up to more and more of that great molecule called discovery.

With all this freedom we have to have rules but let’s make them reasonable. We crave the reliance on edicts to bring order to our lives. People become so engrossed in minutia that they lose sight of the prize. That complexity also serves to perpetuate the bureaucrat’s existence. Obamacare has become burdensome from the idea of documentation alone. The law itself is 2800 pages long and just the regs are 20,000 pages. The IRS code is 76,000 pages long. You wonder why we need accountants and lawyers and then government staff to ensure compliance? And this is just the Feds.

When one considers what just happened on our political front you can see the frustration of a lot of people. The small businesses can’t support staff or service providers to keep up with all this paperwork and then is also forced to pay a minimum wage. Life is complex enough but we have now taken things to a new extreme. Entrepreneurial America is a slave to the insanity of government.

I have been listening to the news since we got home on Monday. Everyone is losing it because His Hairness has not yet announced his cabinet. I mean it has just been a week. What the hell is going on here? Wolf Blitzer after blasting Trump night and day hopes that the new administration will play be the rules and adhere to the decades of propriety when it comes to the Fourth Estate. I hope they don’t. Not as an apologist for the Donald but because I just want to see a different way of doing business.

As I peruse the WSJ lobbyists, hacks and even nations are scrambling to figure out what this all means? I think uncertainty is wonderful. Think about the last couple of years and all the life ending bullets we have dodged or at least kept down to a flesh wound. ISIS, oil prices, Crimea, EBOLA, Zika, Somehow we have made it. Go back in history to Y2K, Rock and Roll, Hitler, Martin Luther and of course the earth being flat. We are flooded daily with unending coverage of this crisis to that in order to properly report on our impending doom. Give me a break. We will be just fine.

In the long run there has to be a balance. Sure we are facing a crisis when over half the people of old age don’t have $10,000 in the bank. Granted we can’t continue on our road of entitlements and largesse without facing this mountain of debt that we have run up. But the solution does not lie in our current institutions where we throw just more and more money at things. This push to pour dollars into infrastructure can’t be carte blanche but rather with a keen eye to our most pressing needs. We had the chance in 2008 and we blew it.Let’s hope history does not repeat itself.

Long story short is we have chance to rattle some cages. This is not a testimonial to the Orange Man which is the farthest thing from my mind. It is a prayer that the powers that be might have finally understood what the hell is going on. We need incredibly creative people to come up with some shocking and even radical new ideas. The bitch is if you look in small towns and garages there are McGyvers everywhere that have figured out crazy ways to do things. It is called ingenuity and grit, not a PHD.

This election has demonstrated more than ever that the big shots really don’t have all the answers. Not only in DC but in news rooms, board rooms and executive suites throughout America. There are great minds out there but not everyone stands at the levers of power or with fat wallets. Let’s give them a chance.We need all the help we can get.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
I found this definition of Brainstorming:

Brainstorming is the name given to a situation when a group of people meet to generate new ideas around a specific area of interest. Using rules which remove inhibitions, people are able to think more freely and move into new areas of thought and so create numerous new ideas and solutions. The participants shout out ideas as they occur to them and then build on the ideas raised by others. All the ideas are noted down and are not criticized. Only when the brainstorming session is over are the ideas evaluated……Do you think people involved in our government think this way?

Rattling one’s cage:
Perturb
Astonish
Amaze
Mess With One’s Head
Discombobulate
Push One’s Buttons…..not bad for starters
Americans spent over 3.24 billion hours, which is about 369,858 years, preparing and filing tax returns in 2012. We spend well over $500 billion per annum just doing our taxes. This to me is the greatest example of useless enterprise.