Putin’s Favorite DOG-E

28 Friday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America, apocalypse, fiction, satire

Tags

Democracy, fiction, life, politics, truth, USA

When the Mushonauts landed on Kepler 69-c, they were surprised to learn that there was not only life, but that life that had evolved in ways similar to the way life had evolved on earth prior to the destruction of the entire planetary ecosystem. Indeed, the native life on Kepler 69-c had evolved civilizations, atomic weapons, politics, and even television! The Mushonauts, following protocol, cloaked their ship and listened in to some of the televised political broadcasts in order to learn how to destroy the inhabitants of the planet as painfully as possible. The crew sat agape as they listened, awed at the parallels to their home world. Here is a partial description of the program they happened to tune in on. Naturally, everything was AI-translated into English so they could understand it. None of the Mushonauts had learned more than a few words of the native language, X8TC-cha-ching-gla#%&.

(AI generated image to the prompt: An orange clown sits behind a desk. To his right, stands a man dressed with a black suit. The man in a suit has a small child sitting on his shoulders. The clown, the child, and the man each have a red star on their foreheads.)

Sycophant 344 announced, “Your Orangeness, Putin’s DOGGIE is here to see you.”

The Orange Side-Kick glanced at the cameras. He had forgotten why they were meeting, and, for that matter, that they were meeting, but he put on his Mussolini Mug face for the camera and arranged his face into the semblance of a supercilious smile. “I’m the greatest! Did you know that? Of course you knew that. Everyone knows that. Everyone will know that. We’ll destroy everyone too stupid to know I’m the brilliantest. The stablest genius who ever lived. Did you know the doctors made up a whole new category for me? I’m not just a genius. I’m a stable genius. I hate kids. Why are you here with a kid? Why do you always have a little kid with you. I hate kids. Kids are stupid. And weak.” The Orange-a-Tang shook his head a little sadly and a little arrhythymically. He glared at President Mush before asking, “Why do you keep bringing one of your kids with you? They are covered in germs.”

“I have my reasons. Papa Putin wants me alive at least long enough to finish destroying our country.” President Mush steepled his fingers like the “church” in a children’s game. He had read somewhere that this signaled dominance. It also gave him a chance to show off the length of his fingers. He noticed that his orange sidekick stayed seated. Mush snorted as he thought, the Orange-a-Tang doesn’t want to stand next to me because he’s repeatedly told his devotees that he’s six three and I’m six two and I tower over him. Whatever. We’re on camera so I’ll have to keep pretending he’s President for awhile longer. I’ll be happy when Papa Putin pulls the plug on this ridiculous charade and I can perch openly on my golden throne in public.

“Sir, I brought a few more Executive Orders for you to sign.” Mush smiled and thought, When the time comes, I’ll just slip an order for him to be executed into the middle of the pile and have him sign his own Execution Order framed as an Executive Order. How sweet would that be?

The Orange-a-Tang said, “Did you write the one yet where I get 72 virgins every time I steal—I mean invest— another billion dollars from the public?”

Mush began to frown and shake his head but immediately recovered and smiled to the camera. “Now, now, King Orange, we all know you mean that as a joke. Our priorities. Let’s remember Papa Putin’s priorities. First, we destroy trans people; then we destroy gays; then we destroy the old and the sick and the poor. We destroy the liberals. Then, and only then, do you get your pick of underage girls, okay? Let’s not rush things.” For a split second, Mush worried that he might have spilled too many beans but then he thought, Nah, the devotees will simply chalk it up to chump being chump and think it’s a joke. And when it comes to pass, just like every other way we’re destroying America, they’ll rationalize it. We’ll simply label it as a “teaching exercise” so girls don’t have to be embarrassed by their sexual inexperience and they’ll go along with it.

The Orange-a-Tang picked up the order on the top of the pile and scanned for a word he knew. He picked out: Natural [sic] Parks, Naval [sic] Americans, Drill, Oil, Hunt, and Money. He wasn’t sure what this was about but he came up with a lie he knew the base would love: “I am signing today one of the greatest best most important Executive Orders in the history of American, and frankly, to be honest, in the history of the universe. For too long Naval Americans have been squatting rent free on land that we gave them for free and not letting us drill for money and oil on their lands and outlawed hunting with assault weapons and bombing from airplanes. We have been so unfairly treated by them. So, today, I am demanding that all these immigrant Naval Americans be sent back frankly to wherever and we are opening up all our Natural our Notational our Navigational Parks to hunting, drilling, and money. This will save the average taxpayer about at least 20 million dollars a year, maybe more. You’re welcome! And, that doesn’t even count the millions more that the Bygone Admenigestration stole from you when you weren’t looking. They have the absolute worst record of any Ministation in the history, frankly, to be perfectly honest, in the history of the Republican. It’s going to be beautiful, beautiful, Notational Parks now with casinos and views—you won’t believe the views—because we’ll cut down all the trees so you can see the mountains from anywhere. I hate trees. And kids. Why do you bring your kids everywhere anyway?”

————

(AI generated image to the prompt: Ten white male astronauts sit in a circle watching a TV).

The all-white, all alpha-male Mushonaut crew sat in a circle jerking their heads rhythmically from side to side. They were amazed how much this world resembled the one they had left behind them.

In ashes.

Then, they began nodding in a circle jerking their heads up and down as they realized how easy it would be to conquer a world so corrupted by hatred, lies, cowardice, and greed.

Just as theirs had been.

————————

(A word about the AI-generated images. AI can be a useful tool. But it has a long way to go. Right now, people are being fired and replaced by AI. You can judge for yourself how much quality will be lost based on the examples I’m showing.)

Essays on America: The Game

Dick-Taters

The Red Tie

Where does your loyalty lie?

Life Will Find a Way

Bee Wise

Plans for US; some GRUesome

Math Class: Who Are You?

How the Nightingale Learned to Sing

Absolute is not just a Vodka

Thrumperdome

The Orange Man

At Least He’s Our Monster

Stoned Soup

The Three Blind Mice

Roar, Ocean, Roar

The Dance of Billions

Imagine All the People

Life is a Dance

Increased E-Fishiness in Government

26 Wednesday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America, essay

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Business, Democracy, DOGE, health, leadership, life, politics, satire, USA

Increased government efficiency! Sign me up! That sounds great!

It sounds especially great if your billionaire-owned media companies keep reminding you that you are paying too much in taxes! Not only that! The national debt keeps going up, up, up and your kids and grandkids will have to pay even more in taxes. And, hey—if billionaires don’t end up paying any taxes, that actually a good thing because that way they can create lots of new jobs! And, besides, if they weren’t doing something worth billions and billions of dollars, why would they be so rich? Of course they deserve it! And, if CEO’s weren’t paid outrageous salaries, they wouldn’t even be CEO’s and some second rate person would just run the company into the ground.

It all sounds so plausible. Yet, every bit of it is a lie. But it isn’t just a bunch of lies that’s been told here and there by a few people. It’s been propagated over and over and over and over again for decades on various media and on social media. It’s been propagated on podcasts, and books, and pamphlets.

“That old lady doesn’t deserve to steal your one cookie! Watch out for her!”

Here are some things to consider.

The very greediest people in the world are not necessarily the most competent. Most jobs are actually created by small businesses, not by giant corporations. Giant corporations often outsource jobs to other countries where the labor is cheaper and where they don’t have to follow any pesky child labor laws or safety in the workplace regulations. Increasingly, giant corporations look to automate more and more jobs and to use AI to replace people.

Highly paid CEO’s have often run giant companies into the ground. Remember that on your next trip to Montgomery Ward’s or Radio Shack. Who else? Lehman Brothers, Bank of New England, Texaco, Chrysler, Enron, PG&E, GM, WorldCom and a host of others. But wait! GM still makes cars. I can get gas at a Texaco station. How could it be that they went bankrupt. You bailed out GM. Texaco went bankrupt, but the brand name was still worth something. Chevron owns the brand.

Also note that in countries where the CEO’s are only paid ten times the average wage of their employees instead of a thousand times as much, the CEO’s do just as good a job.

Are government agencies sometimes inefficient? You bet your life! And you know what else is sometimes inefficient? Everything! Small businesses are inefficient. Large businesses are inefficient. Medium sized businesses are inefficient. Your car engine is inefficient. Your body is inefficient. Your furnace is inefficient. Your stove is inefficient.

You know what is 100% efficient? Things in your dreams. Things in your imagination. I’m not only efficient in my dreams—my God!—I can frigging fly! When I play basketball in my dreams, I can not only jump higher than I ever have in real life, I can hover near the rim! It’s amazing how well I can play various sports when I dream about them.

(AI generated image of an oldster jumping high in a dream.)

But that’s not reality.

In reality, yes, you can improve the efficiency of systems. But to do so effectively, you have to understand the systems you are trying to make more efficient. Here are just a few of the things you need to understand.

You need to understand what the purpose of the system is. How is its performance measured? Who are the stakeholders? What are the different roles that people play? What formal processes and procedures do various people have to follow? What are the unwritten norms that people follow? These are often more important than the formal processes.

You may recall the scene from the movie A Few Good Men when the attorney points out that “Code Red” is nowhere in the manual. He implies that if “Code Red” is not in the manual, it does not exist. Tom Cruise points out the absurdity of this by asking the witness to point out in the manual where it lays out where the mess hall is. Of course, it doesn’t say that because people learn from others where it is.

In almost every complex organization, people find critical short-cuts and work-arounds to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. In fact, one of the things people sometimes do to protest idiocy on the part of management is to “Work by the Rule” which means they will not do the things they have discovered make things easier but instead follow the written rules to the letter which typically slows things down considerably.

During the 1990’s, management fell in love with something called “Business Process Re-engineering.” This is how it often worked (or, to put it more honestly, how it often failed to work). Management consultants would come in and talk to a few third or fourth level managers to find out how the work was performed now. The consultants would then construct a map of how things worked (often called the “is map”) and then, they would figure out a more efficient way to do things and map that out; the “to be map.” Then, it was the job of management to make people use the new “more efficient” process rather than the old process.

(AI generated image of the Trumputin Misadministration.)

That seems like a good idea—right? Well, yes, in a dream, it’s a good idea. But in reality, the third or fourth level manager hardly ever knows how things are actually done. Their mental model is a vast oversimplification. To understand what is going on in reality, you must observe the people actually doing the work and talk to them as well.

Below is a link to a satirical piece I wrote some time ago that imagines “Business Process Re-engineering” coming to Major League Baseball to make it more efficient. It is meant to make it obvious how silly it is.

But what DOGE is doing is much worse that Business Process Re-engineering. Even putting aside the obvious conflicts of interest and the illegality of what they are doing, they are going about “improving” things without even understanding the high level over-simplification of what is happening!

Imagine you slipped on the ice and broke your arm. Sadly, it’s not a simple fracture. It’s a compound fracture. This means your bone is sticking out through your skin. You are in a great deal of pain. But no worries! While you are going to the emergency room, a group of teen-age hackers go on-line and examine all your private medical records. They discover that you were vaccinated for smallpox, measles, mumps, and whooping cough. Not only that—they look through a sample of other records and find that more than 90% of the Americans who break their arms have been vaccinated for these diseases! Voila! The vaccinations must be the real cause of your broken arm!

(An AI-generated image for the following prompt: “A man has a compound fracture of the upper arm. The arm bone (the humerus) is jutting out of his shirt and his arm. He is bleeding.”)

These folks don’t know diddly squat about medicine, but they sure know how to hack into systems in order to get data! What they are not so good at, however, is making valid inferences about the data they find. You cannot conclude anything from the fact that 90% of Americans who break their arms have been vaccinated without also finding out about other things. For instance, you also need to know what percentage of Americans who have not been vaccinated have also broken their arms. Suppose it’s 95%. That might mean that vaccinations serve some protective function about bones. Or not. We need to look at other things too. But, let’s suppose that they do look at that and it turns out that only 80% of Americans who have not been vaccinated break their arms. See! See! Surely, that proves that vaccinations cause arm breakage.

Not so fast. You still need to look at other factors. Suppose that people who do not get vaccinated tend to die at a much younger age. That could easily account for the difference. All sorts of factors have some influence on the incidence of fractures. Just to name a few, it depends on the type of fracture; it depends on age; it depends on the prevalence of certain activities (people who ski, or paraglide might tend to break more bones than people playing chess); it depends on diet; it depends on weight bearing exercise. If you lift weights and go to the gym, you help protect yourself from fractures. Of course, separating out all these factors takes time and takes expertise. You can’t expect someone, not matter how brilliant a hacker they are, to find an answer.

But hey! We left you in the emergency room! Sadly, we left you there all by yourself. There are no human experts at the hospital, as it turns out, because the hospital was closed due to lack of funding. You happen to be unlucky enough to have been born in a rural area of the country. There’s only one nearby hospital and much of its funding has been cut. It has to operate with a skeleton crew. But, as it turns out, skeletons, ironically, don’t actually know that much about medicine. They are, after all, skeletons. And while a hacker might come to the conclusion that skeletons are much more efficient than flesh and blood humans (lighter, no caloric requirements), it turns out that they cannot move or think without other parts of the body. To make up for that, DOGE put in some automation and AI systems. But they didn’t have time to debug the system before moving on to the next project.

The last thing you experienced before passing out and dying from sepsis was this little snippet of dialogue with the AI system.

“Hello! I am the brilliant AI system called MUSH: Multi-User System for Health. I am here to help you with your medical problem! What seems to be your problem?”

“I broke my arm. Can’t you see? My bone is sticking out through my shirt sleeve.”

“Excellent! We’ll have that fixed in no time. Please put your insurance card in the slot provided.”

“I can’t. It’s in my wallet and I can’t reach it with my left hand. And I can’t move my right arm at all.”

“Excellent! We’ll have that fixed in no time. Please put your insurance card in the slot provided.”

“I need a human operator.”

“Excellent! We’ll have that fixed in no time. Please put your insurance card in the slot provided.”

“No, you don’t get it. I have an insurance card but I can’t reach it.”

“You have failed three times to insert your insurance card. Next patient please. I hope you will fill out a short questionnaire about your experience with MUSH: Multi-User System for Health.”

—————

Destroying Our Government’s Effectiveness

Absolute is not just a Vodka

Running with the Bulls in a China Shop

The Truth Train

Essays on America: The Game

You Bet Your Life

Business Process Re-engineering comes to Baseball

A Day at the HR Department

Roar, Ocean, Roar

Dance of Billions

The Unread Red

25 Tuesday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America, poetry, politics

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Democracy, poem, poetry, politics, truth, USA, writing

The Red

The Tie

The Long Red Tie

Unread

Uncaring

Under the Pute

Does not Compute

Under the Pute

Of the Uncute Suit

Who got him put in

His color is Red

Blood Red

Chopped the Roses

Though they have thorns

They’ve flowers too

What a waste

Cut them down

Bleed them dry

Send them away

Pretend save day

He’s Red

Unread

Uncaring

Unaware

The Tie is long

Not strong

His power’s thin

A string of lies

And hateful ties

Threats for cowards

Easily cowed

The string can break

The mob can spot

The smile is fake

All it will take

To breach the dike

Is acknowledge the real

An empty suit

Thwart his pursuit

The Tie is Red

It’s made of thread

Thread can unravel

It might take travel

It might take pain

It might take many

It might take few

It might be soon

But not too late

The bells are clear

The signs are sure

The traitor is red

He’s out to destroy

He’s not too coy

The cadre of liars

May hide in briars

May bay at moon

May celebrate

A loony toon

May relish the rot

Of overripe melons

May pardon the boys

The violence of felons

The tie is Red

The tide will turn

His crowd will learn

And they will spurn

The unread Red

Who seeks to bleed

The nation dry

Who seeks to cede

Our love and joy

Who hides in dark

An undead shark

A putinate boy

A noxious weed

An empty suit

A tie of red

The land will bleed

If we let grow

Cancer will spread

Till all are dead

Bursting shells

Poison wells

Tolling knells

The tie is red

The truth unsaid

He knows not you

He knows not me

He knows naught

But nasty thought

The tie is red

He’s out for blood

Turns water to mud

Kills parks and trees

For parking lot fees

The tie is red

And made of thread

Thread can unravel

And tyranny flushes

Down the pipes

It’s up to you

It’s up to me

Restore the free

And liberty

Restore the brave

Forget deprave

Pull the threads

With a mighty heave

The tie unravels

The good word travels

We see the lies

Remove disguise

Beneath red ties

We all despise

Deadly surprise

Unravel red ties

We all despise

No-one will wear

A golden crown

Certainly not

An orange clown

Remove the red

Unread undead

He’s been caught

Never been taught

A million fought

To build us up

Don’t let red

Don’t drink the cup

Of poison and lie

Don’t be shy

Shred the tie

————

Where does your loyalty lie?

My Cousin Bobby

The Update Problem

Essays on America: The Game

Absolute is not just a vodka

The Ailing King of Agitate

What about the butter dish?

Life will find a way

Roar, Ocean, Roar

The Dance of Billions

Life is a Dance

Take a glance, join the dance

At least he’s our monster

Destroying Our Government’s Effectiveness

21 Friday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Democracy, life, politics, truth, USA

Hoodlums on the silent street

Breaking bottles seems so sweet

Smashing all to smithereens.

Thoughtless shards that slice a shin

Punch through shoe and sock and skin

Broken bits! Fantastic win!

Bottles broken; fickle fame.

“Soiled corruption is our game!

Death is Life and Hate’s our name!”

Crystal palace made to break

Knowledge built by brains awake

Destroyed by the Taker’s take.

Illness, Death, and Bombs await

When Greed trumps Need, it seals the fate

A nation crushed beneath a grate.

Yet…

Song of Freedom, hard to kill,

Sings from tops of every hill

Hate’s a deadly poison pill.

Greed discovers no new view.

Greed and lies: a clueless coup;

Nothing good will come of you.

Blowhard screams evaporate.

King is Naked, dense, third rate:

Putin’s Slave: the Obdurate.

Someday soon or maybe later,

Folks will toss aside the Hater;

We’ll rise again and even greater.

No longer blind to Putin’s lies.

No longer happy innocence dies.

America’s smarter than Putinate’s guys.

America hears the clarion call

We’ve naught to gain from Eagle’s fall.

Instead, trash traitors one and all.

————-

Where does your loyalty lie?

My Cousin Bobby

The Declaration of Interdependence

Roar, Ocean, Roar

You Bet Your Life

Imagine all the People

The Update Problem

What about the Butter Dish?

A lot is not a little

Essays on America: The Game

Absolute is not just a vodka

Running with the Bulls in a China Shop

19 Wednesday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America, apocalypse

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Democracy, politics, truth, USA

President Musk and his shady hackers are rummaging through government programs (in both senses of the word) in order to help Putin destroy America and line the pockets of the criminal gang that’s taken over the government. Without any in-depth understanding; without any knowledge of the history of these organizations or why they were set up; without any simulations or even thought experiments about alternatives; without any serious oversight by anyone without a vested interest and without seriously involving Congress (who is *supposed* to control the purse strings) it is exactly analogous to letting bulls rampage through a china shop and just as likely to result in increased “efficiency.”

Stoned Soup

The Three Blind Mice

Essays on America: The Game

Dick Taters

Absolute is not just a vodka

Imagine all the people

Dance of Billions

A Day at the HR Department

18 Tuesday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America, apocalypse, fiction

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Democracy, fiction, life, politics, short story, truth, USA

Large eucalyptus trees in the early morning fog

I worked in Corporate America for many decades. Something that always brought a smile to my face were conversations like this snippet of dialog.

“Hey, I know we’re supposed to meet at 9 am but I need to drop by HR and discuss something for a couple minutes.”

A slightly more realistic but still insanely optimistic version which I also heard numerous times:
“Yeah, I’ll be there in ten minutes. I just need to deal with an HR issue.”

The people who made these statements were not irresponsible. Nor were they stupid or uneducated. These were generally people with Ph.D.’s who had also worked in corporate America for years. They weren’t newbies by any means. How could their time estimates be so completely absurd? I suspect that part of the answer was that they had a very simple representation of both the problem and the solution in their head. Sometimes, a very complex problem can be posed quite simply.

The “Four Color Theorem” comes to mind. This is a major reason I decided not to pursue a degree in mathematics. Once I heard the problem, I was immediately convinced I could solve it. Then, I couldn’t sleep for about three days because I couldn’t “turn off” thinking about the problem. Finally, my body took over for awhile.

If even straightforward mathematic problems can be simply stated but difficult to solve, it might seem obvious that the same can be said for most issues involving people and organizations. That’s not to say people won’t try a seemingly simple solution.

For a time, I worked as a “Knowledge Management Consultant” at IBM. On one occasion, we visited a well-known and successful pharmaceutical company. They wanted us to design a computer system that would make their chemists share information more readily across their organizational silos. They wouldn’t change the organization. They wouldn’t provide any changes to motivate people to share. They wouldn’t give any time or space for people to share. But they were convinced that we could simply plunk down a computer system and — voila! — knowledge would be shared across the silos! Talk about a miracle drug!

Like other organizational functions, the people in HR varied considerably in their skills and ethical standards. I met some very good people in HR. And, sad to say, I also met some who were not so good. But I never met any as inept as the one in this purely fictional story.

Dealing With The Problem Child

Mr. Low-Cee belched loudly. He leaned back in his swivel chair, steepled his fingers, and put his feet up on the table. He felt a slight tickle in his amygdala. He had read somewhere that showing the bottoms of your shoes to someone from an Arab country was disrespectful. He scratched the tickle away with the stick of his well-used rationalization, Well, hell. Ishaaq isn’t really in an Arab country, is he? He’s right here in the God-Damned US of A and I’m doing him a favor anyway.

“So, Ishaaq, tell me more about this person you refer to as your ‘Problem Child.’ I’m sure we can find a spot for him somewhere. What are his qualifications, his background, his accomplishments?”

Ishaaq frowned. He pursed his lips. “That’s just it, Mr. Low-Cee. He doesn’t have any accomplishments in the usual sense of the word. He did manage to avoid the draft on numerous occasions. He managed to lose a ton of money that he inherited from his dad. He’s certainly famous. He’s sexually assaulted a lot of women. He’s cheated on his taxes and he ran a fake university and he ran a fake charity for kids with cancer. He managed to drive a casino into the ground financially and, as you may know, that’s not easy to do. They are legally set up with games designed to insure that the House wins on average.”

Mr. Low-Cee belched again. He vaguely wondered whether he was allergic to blueberry muffins and whether anyone was allergic to blueberries. He thought: Lots of people are allergic to strawberries. But then, why not blueberries? Interesting. “So, Ishaaq, I’m curious. Have you ever heard of anyone being allergic to blueberries?”

Ishaaq blinked a few times. “You mean…is our ‘Problem Child’ allergic to blueberries? I have idea. What does that…does it matter?”

Mr. Low-Cee shook his head vigorously. “No, no. Never mind. Was this so-called ‘Problem Child’ a good student?”

Ishaaq sighed. “I really have no idea. He says he was but he won’t share any of his official records. I don’t see how he could have been. But who knows? He likes to talk a lot. That’s for sure. He doesn’t always make sense, but he makes a lot of faces when he talks and he shouts a lot. Maybe a clown?”

“That’s an idea. Any other special qualifications? Anything?”

Ishaaq winced. “Well, he is a felon. So there’s that.”

“A convicted felon and a serial rapist. Challenging. Challenging.” Mr. Low-Cee hammered himself in the sternum and let out the largest belch so far. “Ah! Now, I feel better! And, I had a thought! How about a position as Figurehead? He sounds perfect for that! I’ll tell you why it occurred to me. Just this morning, I had a surprise call from none other than Vlademort Putrid. He wanted to talk about installing Elong Muskrat as POTUS. Muskrat has the perfect qualifications. He’s run a couple major companies into the ground and, like ‘Problem Child’ avoided paying taxes and lied about test results. Elong wants to come in like gangbusters and steal all the information and money from America and destroy the country for Valdemort, but Elong has no interest in kissing babies, traveling to disaster areas, etc. Maybe your guy would be just right for that? I’m just spitballing here, but it might be a good fit. What do you think, Mohammed?”

Ishaaq tilted his head. “Mohammed?” He turned around to see whether there was someone else in the room. He turned back and frowned. “I’m Ishaaq, not Mohammed.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Ishaaq. Ask your guy whether he’s okay with…hey! I had another brainstorm. Don’t even tell him that he’s applying for Figurehead. He doesn’t sound like a detail-oriented guy. Just tell him we want him to be POTUS! Elong, you, me, and Vlademort will know he’s a Figurehead, but why tell anyone else? What do you think, Isaac?”

———————

Essays on America: The Game

Where Does Your Loyalty Lie

What About the Butter Dish?

Corn on the Cob

The Self-Made Man

Absolute is not Just a Vodka

Poker Chips

The First Ring of Empathy

Tools of Thought

A Pattern Language for Collaboration

The Dance of Billions

The Four Color Theorem

The Ides of February

17 Monday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America, politics

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Democracy, life, poem, poetry, politics, truth

I took a trip to buy some eggs today.

I hear the price of eggs put Hate in play.

The promises of “Cheaper!” filled the air.

So loud that no one cared if lies are fair.

The eggs were not at all a cheaper buy.

In fact, the price is headed toward the sky.

But that’s okay because at least we’re free

To be like Putin tells us all to be.

As all our allies, all our friends depart.

The air begins to reek of rancid fart.

We’re told to care about ourselves it seems.

Our solemn promises were merely dreams.

Instead a dank and Musky stench so foul,

It must have come from Satin’s belching bowel.

An odor permeates the land and sea.

The stink of sweat and swill — false sanctity.

As cowards “lead” who never fought a fight.

Betray at every turn to wrong a right.

Where once grew trees that perfumed healthy breeze

A parking lot and chopping plot. Disease.

Behind the teeny golden glove of hate,

The puppet strings of puke and Putinate.

Beneath the empty words, the lies, the screams.

I hear the hushing rushing of the streams.

The air and water sing their song of love.

A secret sauce dissolves an iron glove.

We’ll think a link and find a way to join

With those whose highest goal is not mere coin.

For cancer always loses in the end.

The raging bull can’t see beyond the bend.

The dance of life cannot be stilled for long.

The Evil falters, fails when faced with Strong.

The Age of Darkness cannot dwell and last.

The growers and the pickers holding fast;

Explorers and the builders and the rest;

The singers, dancers, counters—All are blessed.

Symphonic teaming all across the land.

A polyphonic omni-chromic band

Will drown the clang and clatter of the brats

Who scream without rhythm, reason, or rhyme.

Their song of “ME!” and “Gimme!” is no song at all.

No act they take can ever make them tall.

Be gone! Crawl back into the Void of Hell.

The people hear the symphony, the knell.

That noise you bang upon your broken drum?

The people see it’s humdrum, glum, and dumb.

We sing to each and organize each note.

We work Together for the Good, not Gloat.

The people seek their choral symphony;

Forgo the rancid raunch cacophony.

The plumber, builder, doctor, driver, aide;

Accountant, artist, seller, teller, maid.

The people want to work to make life good.

Contributors through history who could

Made our life better; who would not do such?

The greedy few cannot begin to touch.

Cooperation is our human gift.

Our speech is there to bridge the natural rift

Of experts taught to see from different views.

We cannot let the greedy slant the news.

Some day, some year, some time that’s yet to be:

We’ll feel the power of humanity.

Each working, playing, helping, each to be.

A World of Worth, of Love, and Dignity.

——————-

How the Nightingale Learned to Sing

Essays on America: The Game

Dance of Billions

Roar, Ocean, Roar

Imagine All the People

Dick-Taters

As Gold as it Gets

Math Class: Who Are You?

Life is a Dance

Take a Glance; Join the Dance

You Gave me no Fangs

Snowflake

Come Back to the Light

Ohms Come in Many Flavors

14 Friday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in America, psychology

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Democracy, life, politics, USA

The higher the resistance, the less current flows for a given level of voltage.

The resistance of the intact human body is higher than you might imagine.

If current is applied where the skin is cut however, the resistance falls dramatically.

Dry, unbroken skin means the resistance of the human body may be as high as 100,000 ohms but broken skin can lower that to as little as 500 ohms.

What about the body politic?

Pure water is not such a great conductor as it turns out. But add a tiny amount of salt and it becomes a great one!

A copper wire is, as most everyone knows, a great conductor and offers little resistance. However, how much resistance depends on diameter of the wire. The greater the cross-sectional area, the less the resistance. They are inversely related.

These days, many people actually get more pleasure and spend more time “living” in the information space they inhabit than they do from the real world that they are actually living in. The result is less resistance to good information but also to misinformation.

The resistance is also directly related to the length of the wire. More length, more resistance. This makes me wonder about the length of the communication channel as well. It is now “shorter” than ever before. You can literally watch a video shot by someone else across the world with no intermediaries touching the content. Or, seemingly so.

Now, let’s introduce the fact that, for the most part, it is non-trivial to decide what is “real” and what is “made-up.” And, you’re subject to more of this stream and more instantaneously than ever before. Not so long ago, new information was vetted by experts and, in fact, multiple experts. This is what happens in scientific journals as well as journalistic reporting. The same is true of financial transactions (which are typically purely informational). No-one is ever expected to be the only source of verification. Everything is cross-checked.

Given this lack of resistance, people are much more susceptible to manipulation. Theoretically, they are also much more “susceptible” to learning more truth more quickly. But whoever controls the wire, controls the flow. For instance, if you have enough money, you can buy more bandwidth and hire entertaining people and collect & analyze data on your audience in great detail so that you can tailor your message for maximum effectiveness.

Given the choice, one has to ask:
“What sort of person with a great deal of wealth would use that wealth to misinform and mislead their fellow human beings?” They could choose instead to use that wealth to improve everyone’s knowledge, know-how, and creativity. This would result in a better world for everyone, including the ultra-wealthy unless their greatest source of pleasure is seeing others in misery.

Seriously though. Try to imagine that you had billions and billions of dollars to burn. What would motivate you to spend a substantial amount of that money to lie to people; to intentionally mislead them? I’m really curious.

——————————

Where Does Your Loyalty Lie?

Dance of Billions

Imagine All the People

How the Nightingale Learned to Sing

Tomorrow’s Dinner

13 Thursday Feb 2025

Posted by petersironwood in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

fiction, health, history, life, news

Main Scream Media Host Sandy: “Well, it looks like another exciting day of breaking news! Hard to tell what the Putinists will think of next. Chet, you’re right there on the Senate floor. Is Cyanide likely to be confirmed as the main ingredient in tomorrow night’s dinner or might some of the Putinists break ranks and defy President Muskmelon?”

“That’s an excellent question, Sandy, and no-one knows for sure. Several of the Putinists have privately expressed reservations since Cyanide is known to be lethal. Snoozy Callins has even gone so far as to finger her pearls. No-one knows whether she will actually go so far as to clutch them. However, as you know, under oath, Cyanide said quite clearly that he had no intentions of poisoning anyone. But we’ll be right here covering every minute so our audience will have up to the minute coverage about whether they’ll be poisoned in the coming days!”

“Thanks for the great reporting Chet and after this short commercial break, we’ll be right back to hear from our panel of experts about the impact and legality of putting Cyanide in food.”

AI generated image. Notice the ladder leans on nothing.

The camera pans to a shot of two men on top of a roof. The first man, dressed in blue jeans and a plaid flannel shirt swings he legs over the side and begins to descend the ladder, one step at a time. When he’s about halfway down, the second man, dressed in elegant and stylish ebony Ninja gear leaps off the roof, beating him to the pavement below by quite a margin.

Announcer: “Which is faster? Climbing down a ladder one step at a time or taking a Flying Leap? Our studies show that Flying Leap is just as effective in getting to the bottom as ladder climbing but ten times faster!”

The camera shows the ladder climbing man still descending and then pans to the Ninja who scampers off into a field of flowers and butterflies while orchestral music swells. A happy muttering voice, barely audible, says, “Some users taking Flying Leap may experience simple fractures. On rare occasions, ruptured spleens or sepsis inducing compound fractures may occur. Check with your health care provider if you are pregnant, plan on becoming pregnant, or are subject to the forces of gravity.”

The Announcer continues: “Ask your health care provider whether Flying Leap is right for you! Why climb down a ladder when you can take one Flying Leap instead?”

The golden sunrise glows through delicate leaves covered with dew drops. — My photograph from the real world: plants with dew in the sunrise.

Sandy: “We have here our panel of experts covering the political spectrum. Let’s start with you Mary. You’re an MD specializing in toxicology. What’s your take on Cyanide?”

Mary: “Thanks for having me Sandy. Cyanide reactions vary a lot depending on dosage and on pre-existing conditions. Generally speaking, Cyanide is known to be poisonous to humans. In fact, it is among the most deadly poisons. On the other hand, chewing one or two apple seeds won’t typically kill anyone. The poison damages both the brain and the heart. It has been used in warfare and in mass suicides.”

Sandy: “Thanks, Mary. That was very enlightening. Let’s move to Jim, an expert on Constitutional Law. Jim, what’s your take on whether or not putting Cyanide in tomorrow’s dinner is Constitutional?”

Jim: “Hi, Sandy. Thanks again for inviting me. Cyanide has been used for poisoning since ancient times. However, it wasn’t chemically isolated until 1782. Theoretically then, the Founding Fathers would have known that Cyanide was poisonous. However, there is no explicit mention of it in the Constitution nor even in the various letters of the time—at least none that I am aware of. Some have argued that this is clearly antithetical to the phrase in the Declaration of Independence “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” since dead people don’t have life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. However much we might like the Declaration of Independence, it does not have the force of law. However, both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution say that no person shall be deprived of Life without Due Process. Of course, therein lies a tale. Some of the current Injustices on the US Extreme Court have signaled a willingness to re-interpret personhood to refer only to their wealthiest donors and their spawn, born or unborn.”

Sandy: “Thanks, Jim. That’s very instructive if a bit esoteric. I’m afraid that’s all we have time for right now because we’ve just gotten word that Cyanide has been confirmed for dinner tomorrow. Let’s get back to the Floor and our reporter right there on the scene, Chet. Chet, what’s the latest?”

Chet: “Hi, Sandy! Cyanide has just been confirmed. Two Trumputinists registered a “No Vote” but that was not enough to block Cyanide. The Dems have introduced a bill to make poisoning the population illegal by any means, but that’s unlikely to go anywhere. However, they are asking for campaign donations and if they get enough money tonight and tomorrow, there will be plenty of speeches in the next twenty-four hours. Count on it.”

Sandy: “Well, that’s all for us this evening. I wish you all a wonderful time putting your affairs in order. Tomorrow, we’ll continue our coverage of these unprecedented times.