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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: November 8th, 2023

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  • I have few teachers I can remember lessons from my high school days, 20+ years ago. The US was fresh post 9/11, patriot act era.

    AP History teacher, a Vietnam vet, took his time to explain why only “tinpot dictators” need military parades to show power and US armed forces Generals would never go for it.

    While teaching checks-and-balances, he firmly believed enough good men and women would remain in positions of power to never let a dictator override the constitution.

    Another time, he pointed out that the presidential election is never actually called until the candidate concedes (when asked about gore v w) and that fore conceded because that is what is done. When we pressed him on it, he said “You are teenage boys, and you think like teenage boys. Adults know what’s right, even if it means you lose.”

    All that is to say, I consistently see reminders that this current administration has the same mental thought process as a group of teenage boys, spoiled teenagers who started at third and think they hit a home run.


  • Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible.







  • I’ve thought about this a lot lately, especially since having kids. It really hit me how much non-verbal and indirect communication they pick up on. I want my kids to be good people, better than me, and I worry they are picking up on my short comings.

    I think society is like that. We say sharing is good and we teach sharing, but a disproportionate group that takes everything, that is selfish, that puts there priorities above others… that behavior is rewarded, intentionally or not. And generations go by and the behavior is normalized.

    I like (and shudder) to think alot of history is a series of these little oversteps that the masters of the universe are laughing about at the time… “trickle down economics, can you believe they are buying this shit?!” And 50 years later, after 2 generations the supporters forgot it was all a scam and are genuinely believers.