Month: July 2022

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S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?

Feeling lost, I followed 5 why’s  to regain my bearings, ending with Patreon as the single focus for all my writing, as an income subscription model, as a tax expense for Schedule C and with a goal of attracting a target of 826 introverts out of 3526 acquaintances“views,” “likes,” “shares” and “followers.”

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“3”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Trying to push something out of your mind is a sure way to drain your willpower quickly. You’ll have greater wells of self-control when you face what’s going on and create some if/then strategies.”  Aries

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 33 of the Second Season’s  My Pandemic Year’s Natural Experiment, on April 23rd in the spring of 2020 here in California.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave?; S2 E31 — Getting Charged from Box Automattic-aly; S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t? 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

It’s been a pretty mundane, Work-on-the-Business kind of day.

    • Resolved the problem of missing names floating somewhere between spreadsheets and the Contacts app on my computer.
    • Documented alphabetical blocks of names for my mass emails to proteges. 
    • Emailed A-L’s to my list of former Proteges as a test.

Feeling lost, I followed 5 why’s  to regain my bearings, ending with Patreon as the single focus for all my writing, as an income subscription model, as a tax expense for Schedule C and with a goal of attracting a target of 826 introverts out of 3526 acquaintances“views,” “likes,” “shares” and “followers.”

    1. Why? I needed 2000 fans to support my self-publishing. It’s a rule of thumb I’ve adopted as I’d been writing the Knowledge Path series, Volume One and publishing to my 6 websites as a way to attract fans.
    2. Why? I didn’t advertise or promote with SEO the published chapters on any of the website blogs. The only comments I received were SPAM messages that I didn’t allow on my pages.  
    3. Why? I didn’t have that many fans on any social media platform except my LinkedIn 1st degree network-audience. And a growing number of followers to my Flipboard digital magazines.  Adding both numbers up I got to over 2000.  But, like Sue D.  said one time when she posted to LinkedIn — where I received 400 to 500 views of Know Laboratory, Best West Road Trip and Western Skies & Island Currents — nobody visited her sites.  So even with Sumo forwarding potential followers to MailChimp lists, one to each of the 6 blogs, it didn’t work. 
    4. Why? My 36 Flipboard magazines only have 100 +/- followers, but when all of those are counted at the @knowlabs master level the total 1686 as of today.  All grown organically over time.  They can like, flip into their own magazines and follow.  On LinkedIn future trends summaries in a variety of formats drew more views than the places and vacation stories did.
    5. Why? I assumed that before I published and bundled Books 1 — 5 of the Knowledge Path Series on Apple Books as the path of least resistance by converting “Pages” chapter content I could entice Patreon supporters to pay $1, $3 and $5 a month to generate income now and in the future as evidence.

Evidence

From “Whys” to “Wise” we turn, hoping to find just the right TauBit of Wisdom to steal, so on to the Steves.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Yup.  I can’t tell you how much I’ve procrastinated this “Work-on-the-Business” chore. And, I’ve drained my energy and willpower as your Holiday Tau points out.

“3”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Trying to push something out of your mind is a sure way to drain your willpower quickly. You’ll have greater wells of self-control when you face what’s going on and create some if/then strategies.”  Aries

I’m a believer CM&W, but it’s not what’s on my task focused brain today.

“2”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “All people are both equal and unique and there was never a time when you believed otherwise. Money and status may change the power dynamics of a situation, but they don’t change the value of any person.” Leo

Yup, Aoki I’m a-okay with your Holiday Tau, but not today for the same reason I explained to CM&W.

“2”  Steve Aoki, 41: “The ones who love you have already seen you through many incarnations in this lifetime and are happy with each different version that comes along. You afford the same grace to them.” Sagittarius

If only Coach Nash, I’m almost in the mood to swallow your Holiday Tau hook, line and sinker — but it wouldn’t be a very pleasant thing to actually do.

“2”  Steve Nash, 45: “You are openhearted and curious. Once you decide what you want to do, you’ll quickly gather up everything you need to know to make it happen.”  Aquarius

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 1628 to 1654.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Just picked up “Bob Dylan In America” by Sean Wilentz.  Maybe because of the subliminal messaging like the times are a changing and the answer is blowing in the wind, but I kinda like Sean’s fanboy becomes music critic becomes historian surrounding Dylan’s life and times.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave?

“Consider what it means to feel trapped. If a person believes there is a lack of options, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not; limits are in place. Ask the question and repeat: What is really true here?”

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “Thinking of the future gives you pleasure. The difference between an escape fantasy and a powerful visioning session is the intent to realize the dream and the steps you take afterward.”  Taurus

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 32 of the Second Season’s  My Pandemic Year’s Natural Experiment, on April 19th in the spring of 2020 here in California.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E31 — Getting Charged from Box Automattic-aly; S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t?; S2 E29 — Three Months That Changed the World

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Context

On Patreon published, “Trapped and Bored. Or Are We Unleashing a New Wave of Creativity?”

The Tau: Week Ending 4/18/20

Here’s a sample of headlines from a week’s worth of our daily “Top 30 Digest” of stories and trends, brought to you, “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.” 

Join 1654 followers and see what you may have been missing.

“Consider what it means to feel trapped. If a person believes there is a lack of options, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not; limits are in place. Ask the question and repeat: What is really true here?”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

What if … ?

Trends

              • ”The Influencer Economy Hurtles Toward Its First Recession” 
              • “Fears of Ventilator Shortage During Coronavirus Pandemic Unleash a Wave of Innovations”
              • ”AI Uncovers a Potential Treatment for Covid-19 Patients”
              • ”Special UV lights could kill coronavirus on surfaces“
              • ”What if Covid-19 Returns Every Year, Like the Common Cold?”
              • ”Apple CEO Talks Covid-19 Crisis, Return to Work Plan at Company-Wide Meeting”
              • ”Apple, Google clarify how their coronavirus-tracing technology works”
              • ”Yet Another Consequence of the Pandemic: More Plastic Waste”
              • ”New Age Of Stock Market Volatility Driven By Machines”

It’s OK to dream about future plans. When the time is right to escape, you’ll be more than ready to make your move.

Where … ?

Regions

              • “Hoag Hospital seeks recovered patients’ antibody-filled plasma for coronavirus treatment”
              • ”Help Us Keep Journalism Alive in Santa Barbara”
              • ”Catalina Island Just Sent the Mainland a Moving Message”
              • ”Napa Valley Opens the Wine Cellar”
              • ”Download California Backgrounds for Your Next Zoom Call”
              • ”So, what do kids say about living in San Francisco?”
              • ”Open and shut: Ventura County farmers try growing with doorstep delivery, online markets”

Mountains

              • “Online Outdoor Education Is Popping Up—For Free”
              • ”5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near Mammoth Lakes”
              • ”Proposed water policy could change the future of water in Prescott”
              • ”Off-grid tiny house-style carpool kiosk is just the ticket”

Islands and Currents

              • “Scientists try ‘cloud brightening’ to protect Great Barrier Reef”
              • ”New Species Of Melanistic Black Iguana Discovered in The Caribbean”
              • ”Oasis Tiny Home in Hawaii by Paradise Tiny Homes”
              • ”Restoring Kāneiolouma, an Ancient Hawaiian Village Lost to Time”
              • ”These hotels offer guests the opportunity to give back through volunteering”

Outdoors

              • “What’s open and closed this weekend? Trails, parks, beaches in Southern California”
              • ”Trout in doubt: Coronavirus could delay California’s fishing season”
              • ”Scientists say Joshua trees may warrant listing as a threatened species”
              • ”12 photos: Coronavirus closure returns Yosemite to the animals “
              • ”Angeles National Forest closes some popular trails until April 30”

The Tau 12 Months Ago 

“You are seldom more creative than you are just after being truly, deeply and profoundly bored.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Tags : creativity, travel, trends, crisis, recession, influencers, jobs, opportunity, regions, mountains, islands, outdoors

Evidence

Sorry Zahnny, your Holiday Tau isn’t the one I led with on Patreon, mostly because I really didn’t get it.

“2”  Steve Zahn, 51: “In the past, you’ve assumed that if you weren’t succeeding with a person, there was something about you or your approach that you could change to fix it. Consider another way. What if you engineered what works for you?” Scorpio

Maybe if I were to reconsider my Patreon article, I would have added this forecast, though it clearly isn’t.  With Zoom Schooling taxing kids and parents alike the subtleties may fall on deaf ears, but I like the evolutionary perspective, learning versus schooling, curiosity and how to prevent reinventing the wheel. 

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead:  

“Learning is among the pleasures of human existence. To consider it a function of the higher mind isn’t quite correct, as even at our feral core we are wired for the specific thrill of figuring things out. It’s been this way since the beginning of our kind and is one of the most important adaptations to our survival as a species. We often confuse learning with schooling.” 

“Schooling has to do with accepting a series of disciplines imposed by others. Learning is organic and born of an inner spark of curiosity. One can be inspired by schooling to become curious, and this makes schooling easier to master. Or one can work from the spark and seek schooling to facilitate the thrill of learning.” 

“Schooling without learning is a joyless prison of a situation. Learning without schooling is natural, though it can be frustrating in a “reinventing the wheel” kind of way.”

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Researcher’s note: It ain’t my birthday no how.  Right.  A sense of control over the year (I hope it won’t be that long), but I like the passion project sense to it.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:  

“You’re the boss! Enjoy an increased sense of control over the content and pacing of your year. Relationships are exhilarating; work is a slow and steady climb. A project will take you through much personal development. You’ll commit deeply to get the most out of each stage while staying on task and on purpose.”

You nailed me guys,  your Holiday Tau describes my internal weather.  Publishing on Patreon is a start, right?

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “Thinking of the future gives you pleasure. The difference between an escape fantasy and a powerful visioning session is the intent to realize the dream and the steps you take afterward.”  Taurus

Oh Howey, do you know Emma the Baroness?  If you did you’d understand how prophetic your TauBit of Wisdom really is!

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “You will get to spend time with the one who makes you laugh and feel valued — the one you go to when you want to strategize or just dream. This relationship is worth more than gold.” Cancer

Hi there, Stephen and welcome to the Steves.  Why did you guys have to go and ruin the setup with a downer punchline highlighting my major weakness?

“4”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “The special project on deck will require you to be organized, forward-thinking and resourceful. You’ll have fun with this one — as long as you don’t wait until the last minute.” Virgo

You surprise me Coach Kerr.  I would have expected your TauBit of Wisdom from Sam Harris given the theme of several recent podcasts about consciousness and how we mistakenly believe we are just one person.  But Tau is Tau and I thank you for letting me steal it.

“5”  Steve Kerr, 54: “You’ll be several people throughout the day — a quiet, contemplative conversationalist, the fun and silly one, the expert, the student. However you’re feeling, honor it and play to your strengths.” Libra

Is this the person I’m speaking to?  Who is the self in yourself? Ask Coach Kerr or better yet subscribe to Sam Harris’ podcast

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Being alone is an opportunity to have a meetup with yourself and catch up on the current status of your own head and heart. Ask, ‘How am I really doing?’ and ‘What matters now?’” Sagittarius

Talk about serendipity and coincidences I updated “How to Thrive in an Age of Accelerating Uncertainty“ which originally appeared as “Why Careers are like Real Estate Markets” in the Wisdom and Strategies section of “Adapt! How to Survive and Thrive in the Changing World of Work”, co-authored by Steve Howard in 2009. 

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62: “You don’t have to challenge yourself every single day. Today, it’s better not to force yourself to do the things that drain you. Go where you thrive, avoid where you merely survive.” Capricorn

Hey Coach Nash, is your Holiday Tau about what this pandemic is requiring of us like a transformation in our lives?  And, how we’ll be able to appreciate lessons we can’t yet now?

“5”  Steve Nash, 45: “Relationships are teaching and changing you, though some of these lessons won’t be obvious to you until the transformation is complete and you can look back and see the ‘before’ and ‘after.’”  Aquarius

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 1594 to 1628

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Chasing the Dime,” by Michael Connelly describes the inner workings of a (fictional) commercial research laboratory which fits the Paradoxy-Moron organization type. “(In the lab) is where you find time for more AE work. Analyze and evaluate. When the unknown or unexpected came up in the lab you stopped and went into AE mode. What do you see? What do you know? What does it mean? In the lab everything was clear … simple. Quantifiable. Scientific theory was tested and either proved or disproved. No gray areas. No shadows.”
    • Just picked up “Bob Dylan In America” by Sean Wilentz.  Maybe because of the subliminal messaging like the times are a changing and the answer is blowing in the wind, but I kinda like Sean’s fanboy becomes music critic becomes historian surrounding Dylan’s life and times.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S2 E31 — Getting Charged from Box Automattic-aly

I’m exhausted as any introvert can be — energy, ambition and overall level of caring about this passion project depleted.  Just grunt work left.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “We don’t get to decide what’s empowering. You’ll get a charge from unexpected places, and watch others be revved up by things you’d have expected to be draining.” Virgo

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 31 of the Second Season’s  My Pandemic Year’s Natural Experiment, on April 18th in the spring of 2020 here in California.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t?; S2 E29 — Three Months That Changed the World; S2 E28 — Hosting Norwegian Zooms While Trump Eliminated the Virus in April

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E28 — Day 28 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

Spent the afternoon yesterday using my LinkedIn network to update Contacts and “Friends of Steves” emails.

Boring.

Until, one of my former Executive MBA students reached out to me.  

She messaged me in LinkedIn because she noticed I landed on her profile and clicked on her contact information and copied and pasted her into my contacts.  

I thought she had moved back to Silicon Valley from Orange County but in a couple of message volleys discovered she’s operating from the UK, having relocated her strategic marketing and customer experience consulting firm.

The exchange boosted my energy level. 

But, what really got my creative juices flowing was stumbling across an article profiling the CEO of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, who had been interviewed on my Sam Harris podcast.  

His company is behind WordPress and having acquired Woo Commerce and Tumblir and, get this, he’s got 1,1170 employees in 75 countries “speaking 93 languages … The company does not have an office.” 

Steve Glaveski wrote about him while introducing levels of remote work citing the pluses and minuses on Medium, The Five Levels of Remote Work — and why you’re probably at Level 2. 

In his three dimensional pyramid leading to a blue tip of the of Nirvana (which very few any reach, he works his way down to asynchronous communication 

(4) Nirvana 

(3) down to adapting to the medium and 

(2) down to recreating the office but online and

(1) at the bottom non-deliberate action. 

Of course you climb it from 1 to 4 if you know what you’re doing.  

You can probably guess tech companies like Automattic and “Box, Amazon, Airbnb, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have all told their employees some variation of ‘work from home.’” 

Evidence

Oh, oh.  How am I coming across?  Does Zahnny’s Holiday Tau hit too close to home?

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “A story can be an instrument of control. That’s why you have to be very careful about how you cast yourself in your own stories. Make sure you’re the hero, not the victim.” Scorpio

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Haha.  We all know this isn’t my birthday.  Not even close.  Nor is it Emma the Baroness’ but we’re not above faking it.  Not to the level of paying for fake IDs or passports, but more like a misdemeanor offense.  Chaos? Check.  Intention? Check. Transformation?  I’ll check into it and report later in the year.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:  

“You have everything you need to take on this exciting year. Do plenty of brainstorming and experimenting to figure out what you like and want to pursue. Once you have strong intent, all will organize around that. A patch of chaos you weren’t sure what to do with will turn out to be the source of an exciting transformation.”

Again with your spot on TauBits of Wisdom, G&G.  Drudgery turned into an energizing coincidence via LinkedIn and then Glaveski’s Medium article about Matt Mullenweg’s approach to making Remote Work, well work boosted my serendipity-fueled adrenalin higher.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “We don’t get to decide what’s empowering. You’ll get a charge from unexpected places, and watch others be revved up by things you’d have expected to be draining.” Virgo

Would you agree with our Patron Saint, Emma the Baroness?  We started off that way, but have we settled into habits?

“3”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “For a relationship to succeed, all parties should be self-reliant and yet willing to ignore that and rely on one another anyway, not because they have to, but because that’s what relationships are for.”  Aries

Wait, is this a companion TauBit of Wisdom to McQueens?  Are you three trying to tell me something?

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “It’s amazing how doing the right thing in general will lead to many very specific correct actions. The situation that most needs improvement will fall right into place.”  Taurus

Needy is as needy does, but I’m not risking a small fine for stealing yours.

“2”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Approval, attention, affection, recognition — to pretend you don’t need these things is silly, but to appear to need them too much is off-putting. So you’ll play it rather cool, choosing your moments to be direct.” Leo

Hi Harvey, you Holiday Tau is timely and on display as MAGA folks demonstrate against anything forcing them to change their habits for the good of the Huntington Beach, California.  Separately, I’ll make sure I include your TauBit of Wisdom in my Report of my 1-year experiment.  Thanks, Steve.

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62: “You’re not looking to be consoled by things that affirm what you already believe, at least not consciously. To stay aware and honest, keep questioning what you think is true.”  Capricorn

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 1594 to 1628.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Chasing the Dime,” by Michael Connelly describes the inner workings of a (fictional) commercial research laboratory which fits the Paradoxy-Moron organization type. “(In the lab) is where you find time for more AE work. Analyze and evaluate. When the unknown or unexpected came up in the lab you stopped and went into AE mode. What do you see? What do you know? What does it mean? In the lab everything was clear … simple. Quantifiable. Scientific theory was tested and either proved or disproved. No gray areas. No shadows.”
    • Just picked up “Bob Dylan In America” by Sean Wilentz.  Maybe because of the subliminal messaging like the times are a changing and the answer is blowing in the wind, but I kinda like Sean’s fanboy becomes music critic becomes historian surrounding Dylan’s life and times.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S4 E14 — Lies and Lost Causes and Repeat and Repeat

There’s something about how we are wired, how we evolved as the Homo Sapient species which renders human memory to be a “fragile instrument and that what we ‘remember’ of an event can easily be influenced by what others tell us to believe by the constant repetition of lies about it.”

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Minefields just look like fields until something blows up. It’s a good day to respect hidden history, read all the signs, follow all the rules and heed all the warnings.” Pisces

Hi and welcome to Friday’s 14th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 25th day of March in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season 4 continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E13 — Was Trump Putin’s Puppet?; S4 E12 — Why Did Trump Sue Deutsche Bank?; S4 E11 — Were Putin and Trump Dipping into the Same Piggy Bank?; S4 E10 — Who’s the First Person You Wanna Tell? 

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E14 —How!; S3 E13 — Why?; S3 E12 — You Can’t Cure Stupid, but There’s a Cure for Ignorance; S3 E11 — Looking for a New Predictive Belief System?; S3 E10 —Feeding the Beast for Sheila in Fantasyland 

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E14 — Reading Tea Leaves Bottled and Set Adrift; S2 E13 — Slipping on a Bar of Dove Soap and other Ripple Effects; S2 E12 — Too Anxious to Meet and Eat; S2 E11 — Waiting for the 3rd Shoe to Drop; S2 E10 — Cats, Ladders and Shaking Salt …

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E14 — Day 14 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E13 — Day 13 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E12 — Day 12 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E11 — Day 11 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E10 — Day 10 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

The “stolen” election is the new-and-improved Lost Cause myth, according to Jamie Raskin in his book,  “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.”

As a key member of Congress during both impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives — the first directly related to the Quid Pro Quo withholding of defense funds earmarked by Congress for Ukraine, and the second for the Incitement of Insurrection on January 6th in 2021 Raskin fills in many of the missing pieces in what now is widely seen as a vast conspiracy by Trump to hold onto power for a second term.

    • He describes four years of continuous norm destruction and daily shredding of the Constitution by Trump that went far beyond the threat and  danger was on the eve of the Civil War, in February 1861.
    • Abraham Lincoln’s electoral count was never violently challenged by his vehemently pro-slavery vice president of the United States, John Breckenridge.
    • Breckenridge carried “the electoral votes from the Senate over to the House and proceeded to execute his duties faithfully.”
    • Even though John Breckenridge went on to take up the cause of the Confederacy as its Secretary of War.

The Trump Years showed how he and his fervent followers in his administration and on Fox News were “willing to make war on scientific facts relating to climate change or COVID-19, and on historical memory.”

Raskin’s own colleagues in the House of Representatives began and continued “denying, obscuring, or lying about specific historical events—like the Holocaust, slavery, the 2020 presidential election or the January 6 insurrection.”

There’s something about how we are wired, how we evolved as the homo sapient species which renders human memory to be a “fragile instrument and that what we ‘remember’ of an event can easily be influenced by what others tell us to believe by the constant repetition of lies about it.”

“… unrepentant champions of the Confederacy and apologists for slavery promoted what came to be called the Lost Cause myth … glorified Confederate generals and soldiers; romanticized life in the antebellum South (and) falsely claimed that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery.”

Lost Cause myth became ideological cover for the country’s abandonment of Reconstruction and its embrace of Jim Crow apartheid, according to Raskin.

History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes or at least beats to the same rhythms  so much so that Trump’s outrageous lies about the 2020 election mirror the basic form of the Lost Cause myth.

Trump’s political purposes and propaganda connect directly to the substance of the Lost Cause myth.

One campaign strategy which continues is to speak for an aggrieved, downtrodden (and obviously white) majority of the country seek permission to believe their votes were canceled.

The ‘stolen’ election is the new-and-improved Lost Cause myth Raskin says citing one of Trumps many Tweets —

“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”

Trump’s multimillion dollar investment in mobilizing and “valorizing a movement unified diverse white supremacist groups to work together toward common goals.”

“… went from being a band of 500 isolated extremists at the ‘United the Right’ Rally in Charlottesville in 2017 to the front lines of a mass right-wing street movement of 40–50,000 people in 2021.”

Raskin didn’t want to believe that it was possible for our democracy would ever flirt with  becoming an authoritarian society, a dictatorship, or a failed state.

Me neither. 

But will it happen? 

How close are we? 

Can we overcome what is already in place to overcome the true results of the 2022 Midterm Elections and the 2024 Presidential Election?

Evidence

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “You could use some faith. While a naive abandon of thought process isn’t your style, you could surrender your skepticism for a more practical reason. It’s heavy. Traveling light is faster.” Scorpio

Okay, the day is still before me, so I’ll look forward to faster, lighter traveling.  

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Like the snap of a puzzle piece coming together or the satisfied rush that comes with a row of green Wordle squares, you’ll often have the thrill of filling life’s blanks. Your wins will build up and you’ll get to wear them like a cape of confidence. You’ll be made a leader and you’ll use your power to make things better.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The other person’s account of the events in a relationship may differ substantially from your own. Be receptive to the other person’s point of view.” Aries

Nowadays it’s a miracle we can agree on anything, right?  But, even as we filter our experiences on a daily basis with loved ones who remember the highlights completely different than you did.  I first “discovered” the phenomenon in Law School of all places.  I sat near the back of a shell like lecture hall with the professor in black rimmed glasses and curly short black hair pacing slightly trying to make a point. 

“Did you like the movie?” he tried as an example.  Our impressions come first.  But then if you probe with “Why did you like the movie?” you may be hard pressed to remember specifics to defend your first answer.  And they may be entirely different than your date’s or spouse’s recollections, so much so that you walk away wondering if you saw the same movie.  “I don’t remember that.” 

His point was about how we as lawyer wannabes can take advantage of the discrepancies between our Experiencing Selves living in the moment free of any thing else and our Narrating Selves which will edit and tell a story worth remembering in the future.  Craig Ferguson, former late night talkshow host summed up it better when his memoir was challenged by someone he wrote about over an incident that the celebrity claimed never happened that way.  Ferguson dismissed his allegation by saying, “This is my memoir, if you don’t like it write your own.” 

Of course, this flies in the face of “Be receptive to the other person’s point of view.”

“4”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “A curious, experimental mood takes hold. You won’t have to pursue it for long before you find yourself in a magical place. Perception alters the lighting scheme of the world.” Gemini

It’s not even 8am, so I’m looking forward to finding myself in a magical place.

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Minefields just look like fields until something blows up. It’s a good day to respect hidden history, read all the signs, follow all the rules and heed all the warnings.” Pisces

There’s something else about not wanting to believe what we see because what we see is so outlandish it can’t add up to what we don’t want to believe is really happening.  The signs were there warning us that the long fuse had been lit, but we were too busy to notice.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12252 this week to 12344 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 234 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy within almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected President. 

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CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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S3 E22 — What’s the Experiment Got To Do with the Exodus from Barb’s Bunny Ranch?

Bunny Foo-Foo, the second of our back patio baby rabbits, hit the road for greener pastures. The first died on our cement up against a 12 inch green hedge.  Maybe Foo-Foo’s joining the nomads who left Barb’s Bunny Ranch when Bronco, the new sheriff hit town? Yip, Yip, Yippie.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “The solution comes from seeing the problem in different ways. One new idea is a start — proof of the magic difference perspective can make. Don’t stop there. At 25 alternatives, you’ve only begun to scratch the surface.” Gemini

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 22 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 3rd day of April in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after. 

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E21 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and My Curiosity Whisperer Walking a Yip-Yippy Dog; S3 E20 — Celebrate the Anniversary of When Things Seemed So Normal; S3 E19 — Thought Flickers, Cosmic Swirling and Exacted Costs

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E22 —Paranoid Rose Review and Traffic-Copped Check Out Lines; S2 E21 — Cycles of History Rhyming with Endlessly Disruptive Rhythms?; S2 E20 — Panic, Fertilizer and Least Expected Meaningful Moments; S2 E19 — What’s Percolating in Our Collective Unconscious?

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E22 — Day 22 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E21 — Day 21 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E20 — Day 20 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E19 — Day 19 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

How did the day start?  Killing ants. It gives me no thrill like shooting rabbits does.  The ants are winning in record numbers.  

And, Emma the Baroness frowns upon my attempts to drag the green yellow striped hose from the back yard inside to shoot the ants, like I do at our front yard grazing rabbits, in the remodeled kitchen.

Bunny Foo-Foo, the second of our back patio baby rabbits, hit the road for greener pastures. The first died on our cement up against a 12 inch green hedge.  Maybe Foo-Foo’s joining the nomads who left Barb’s Bunny Ranch when Bronco, the new sheriff hit town? Yip, Yip, Yippie. 

Record numbers remind me about making sense of the evolving 1- year experiment.  

This is the section of the experiment’s outline labeled Methodology:

    1. Each morning with blurry eyes I scanned through the days offerings in the print edition of The Los Angeles Times. Old rabbits die hard.  
    2. We might unsubscribe later, because we dip into their online edition to save articles however comma I couldn’t during the course of the experiment, for consistency’s sake.
    3. For those of you who expect a full accounting — 365 days worth of Tau — I apologize, but for reasons I’ll disclose in the full report, only the four days a week — Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday — of home delivery provided the data. 
    4. Spending less than a 3 to 5 seconds per 12 Holiday Tau possibilities or skipping over some without even reading after a few lines, I marked those that struck a cord in me. 
    5. Both Emma the Baroness and I kinda like the texture and the layout of each newspaper page as we turn each and fold them in our hands.  And cover our identity by washing the ink from our fingers in case the FBI comes searching for finger prints.
    6. But, to limit selection or celebrity biases, like today,  I then compose, by day and date, what was happening without re-reading the Holiday Tau’s message.
    7. Finally, I pull up each of Steve’s Holiday Tau and compare the saying to my situation and score the most relevant “5”. Usually the “1”s and even the “2”s as time marched on didn’t make it at all. 

Evidence

So, yesterday turned out to be a Holiday Tau bonanza with 5 out of 8 “5”s and 3 “4”s.  Today, there ain’t no TauBits of Wisdom for us four — Zahn, Winkler, Emma the Baroness or me.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

What’s the opposite of a bonanza?

Haha guys, this must be one of those days.  I’m not feeling the rain yet.

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It is possible to go through days without feeling completely awake. Today, when your brain enlivens and the ideas drop in, it’s a gentle high — like the plants must feel when the rains begin — perked up, more than alive.”  Taurus

So, is it because Nicks, Wonder and Winwood could finish the lyric, “Raindrops keep falling on my head …” name the singer and movie it was featured in?  And you’re saying I need at least 25 idea drops?

“5”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “The solution comes from seeing the problem in different ways. One new idea is a start — proof of the magic difference perspective can make. Don’t stop there. At 25 alternatives, you’ve only begun to scratch the surface.” Gemini

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines jumps from  7650 to 7742 this week organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life 

Long-Form

    • “Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” by David Enrich.  Before myriads of LLCs and questionable business dealings with Trump, Deutsche Bank wanted desperately to compete on Wall Street which grew out of “scandals related to money laundering, tax evasion, manipulating interest rates, manipulating the prices of precious metals, manipulating the currencies markets, bribing foreign officials, accounting fraud, violating international sanctions, ripping off customers, and ripping off the German, British, and United States governments.”  Enrich’s account fills in details missing from Mary Trump’s  “Too Much is Never Enough”, “A Warning” by Anonymous; “Very Stable Genius”  “Fifth Risk” by Michael Lewis,  “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership” by Jim Comey, “Devil’s Bargain” by Steve Bannon, and “Fantasyland” by Kurt Andersen
    • “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History” by Kurt Andersen Both of us, Emma the Baroness and I, have been processing the acquittal of our ex-President — not really being surprised by the “Big Lie” promoting followers in the Senate, but more disappointed after seeing new video documentation of the insurrection and detailed evidence time lines.  I return to Kurt Andersen’s book “Fantasyland” to help me through the process of filtering the unfolding events. 
    • “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” by Bill Gates. I love how he starts off with “There are two numbers you need to know about climate change.  The first is 51 billion.  The other is zero.  Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases … zero is what we need to aim for.”

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S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t?

Was it triggered by all our neighbors working remotely and their kids attending “zoom school”?

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “The messiness of life is the best part. Maybe it won’t make the edit for social media, and that’s why the insider’s view is always the best. Intimacy is about knowing another person’s mess.” Virgo

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 30 of the Second Season’s  My Pandemic Year’s Natural Experiment, on April 17th in the spring of 2020 here in California.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E29 — Three Months That Changed the World; S2 E28 — Hosting Norwegian Zooms While Trump Eliminated the Virus in April; S2 E27 — Why I Have to Keep Leo da V on a Leash and So Should You

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E28 — Day 28 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E27 — Day 27 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

Cox WiFi kept dropping — it’s been off more than it’s been on — so yesterday I worked on correcting bogus “Contacts” emails one-by-one via LinkedIn changing them in my “Friends of Steves” master spreadsheet.  

    • I still required online capabilities for copying and pasting them through the hot spot feature on my iPhone — as my sister showed Emma the Baroness and me when we last visited months ago in Michigan.  
    • Later in the evening I  tested Internet access with Apple TV.  Why did Amazon Prime work, but Netflix didn’t?  Maybe it wasn’t WiFi in that case, but Netflix popularity and T-Mobile capacity?  Netflix is free on T-Mobile as a perk for signing up.

Meanwhile I wasn’t looking forward to my next call with BC (which turned out fine as a Zoom video session) and, to be honest, my mild anxiety compounded my low-ebb feelings from the mind-numbing WiFi work arounds.

Sure, BC lashed out about his favorite local restaurant’s forced closing potentially for good.  

He dropped by for lunch in the charming plaza in La Quinta where he moved from Newport Beach.  

His move was longer go than I realized triggered by two events, his mother passed away and he had heart by-pass surgery.  

“What happened? I don’t recognize my country,” he said.

His local La Quinta gym closed where he treated his ailing back in its jacuzzi and swam laps. 

For as long as I knew him he competed in the Masters program at the University before his relocation to the exclusive California desert.  

Once we got past our rants and reactions to coronavirus business closures, it only took a couple of minutes to find our conversational groove like old times.  

Mostly through his love of rock and roll and former training in anthropology from Stanford and my wondering aloud if there was a half-life for wisdom.  

He thanked me at the end of the call for realizing as an executive coach, why I had recruited him in the first place, he found an angle for approaching the local restaurant owner and offering business advice.

I should have thanked him for the boost in energy I felt from reestablishing a common ground in our personal and professional relationship.

Enough to slog though the excruciatingly slow process of listing emails of my 1840 LinkedIn 1st degree network in my “Contacts” once again.   

But the boost dissipated as I realized it will take 4 or 5 weeks at 5 days a week just to complete my LinkedIn updates.  

Ouch.  Yawn. 

So, somehow I need to schedule that without stopping Patreon postings and with adding consistent email messaging to Proteges, Mentors and Friends.  

Yawn again.

Evidence

How about a Holiday Tau boost?  Game. Set. Match.

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Visualizing alone can’t make things true, but it can motivate action that feels natural and familiar instead of labored and difficult. As you visualize the future, you lay its groundwork.” Scorpio

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

I know this is Friday, so Steve is this a randy suggestion — your Holiday Tau — one I should whisper to Emma the Baroness tonight?  Or are you hinting at something else entirely?

“4”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You’ve been thinking about how to get what you want, and it’s clear you’ll need to make a special request. Timing is everything. It will be better to ask after nightfall or tomorrow.” Aries

So, Smithy I’ve tried several attempts to understand the gist of your Holiday Tau.  I stood up, stared at the middle ground out my office window, walked to our front lawn, bent down and pulled a dozen weeds, came back to my office and reread it, but I can’t quite grog it.  Sorry.

“2”  Steve Smith, 30: “You are coming back to a part of yourself that has been long abroad. It’s not that you outgrew or rejected this aspect of you, but you have not been able to prioritize it. That will change.”  Gemini

Aha.  Funny this is your Holiday Tau, Howey.  As I was walking, staring and weeding while contemplating Smithy’s TauBit of Wisdom I settled on the essence of your’s instead.

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “Life has its own set of navigational rules. To understand it, you have to look backward; to live it, you can only go forward. Also, you can only feel what it’s like to be inside it when you’re standing still.” Cancer

Wait guys.  Is this all about the time I was out of work for almost a year?  That stretch defined a long, very long learning curve about transferrable skills and understanding new careers operationally, but most importantly by learning new jargon for describing what I had accomplished in previous jobs — you know like how long it takes to learn a new language.

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “There was a time you didn’t believe that you could actually change your circumstances by merely observing them differently. Now you believe it, and you do it on a daily basis. Today brings proof.”  Leo

Okay G&G your Holiday Tau can be taken two ways.  The last part about knowing and enjoying another’s mess intimately is about our life long love affair — me and Emma the Baroness.  The second could be about what I took away from a chapter in “Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives” about how Brian Eno lives his life like and art form developing several passion projects at the same time.  If one doesn’t work out he jumps to another.  Either way, it works.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “The messiness of life is the best part. Maybe it won’t make the edit for social media, and that’s why the insider’s view is always the best. Intimacy is about knowing another person’s mess.” Virgo

Here’s how I’m relating to your Holiday Tau couch Kerr, I mean coach Kerr.  I’m trying to squeeze about 1840 people into a room through that small Interned door when Cox WiFi keeps shutting it on and off all day.

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “It’s like you’re trying to move a couch into a room with a small door. Once inside, everything will work out nicely. But getting through this tight squeeze will take some doing. What needs to be released in order to move forward?” Libra

Ha.  Easy for your Holiday Tau to say.  I realized it will take me four or five weeks of swimming trying to keep my head above water once I dive in to get it done!

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “Why return to projects that were not enormously successful the first time around? You’d rather move on, and move on you will, after a brief bit of business is handled. Dive in and get it done.” Aquarius

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 1594 to 1628.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “The Fifth Risk,” by Michael Lewis  describes how the thinkers in federal departments were targeted by Trump’s administration, especially the scientists and researchers. “‘I was fucking nervous as shit, Bannon later told friends. I go, Holy fuck, this guy [Trump] doesn’t know anything. And he doesn’t give a shit.’ Even in normal times the people who take over the United States government can be surprisingly ignorant… The United States government might be the most complicated organization on the face of the earth. Its two million federal employees take orders from four thousand political appointees. How to stop a virus, how to take a census, how to determine if some foreign country is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon or if North Korean missiles can reach Kansas City: these are enduring technical problems.”
    • “Chasing the Dime,” by Michael Connelly describes the inner workings of a (fictional) commercial research laboratory which fits the Paradoxy-Moron organization type. “(In the lab) is where you find time for more AE work. Analyze and evaluate. When the unknown or unexpected came up in the lab you stopped and went into AE mode. What do you see? What do you know? What does it mean? In the lab everything was clear … simple. Quantifiable. Scientific theory was tested and either proved or disproved. No gray areas. No shadows.”

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CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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S1 E176 — The Cliff Hanging Season One Finale

Nothing to see here.  Last week’s daily progress towards my Patreon goals was an epic FAIL.  So, there’s nothing left for me to do, but … no not that… 

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “The opening gambit is usually fun, filled with hope and promises.  Things become less interesting after that.  So in the case that the beginning isn’t great, don’t stick around for the sagging middle.  On to the next.” Leo

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Final Episode 176 in the first season of “My 1-Year Natural Experiment” on this 23rd day of February in winter of 2020.

 Context

After all I’ve got all the Holiday Tau earmarked for Steves to look forward to, right? If you skip ahead, you’ll see we have way too many today.  Except for the official one Emma the Baroness and I can claim.

Oh well, let’s pull a “Groundhog’s Day” the movie starring Bill Murray, and focus once more on the following tasks of my project plan.

      • Sunday:  Plan Patreon Special Offer for Spring priced at $3 Cambria Tier 
      • Monday:  Prepare for interview with Steve B. questions (legacy) as a test case for the Tau of Steves — what’s in a name? DONE
      • Tuesday: Fix website access and embed Patreon badge 
      • Wednesday: Launch close friends trial email campaign; click, visit, share and follow for free 
      • Thursday:  Set up Facebook page and plan a Friends of Steves “Tau” group 
      • Friday: Publish “Nouns, Zips and Horoscope Heists” on Patreon

Evidence

To inspire and enlighten us, we’ll swipe from today’s birthday and almost all of the Steves in our small corner of the cosmos.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Well there you go.  Funding.  Who doesn’t love funding?  Yay, springtime.  What can go wrong?

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

“Funding comes for a project, and soon after you’ll enter a brief period of wonderful solo interior discovery.  Your focus on unraveling a problem will end in an exciting breakthrough and fresh interest. Then you will love — go all-in.  And then it’s springtime, your whole heart wide as fields, alive in flowers and buzzing bees.”

Look our Patron Saint is back.  Has he been looking down on our political scene?

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You’re trying to get at the truth, some kind of understanding, an insight into the motives of others.  You can learn from those who argue with you.  It’s much harder to learn from those who dodge your questions.”   Aries

I expect lyrics like these from two musicians, but your Holiday Tau is just a little too sweet for my taste today.

“2”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “The best things in life — shifting clouds, opening flowers, children’s faces — are as familiar and comfortable as what’s always been, yet wondrous because they haven’t really and never will be this way again.”  Taurus

Less sweet and more filling is how I’d sum up why I love your Holiday Tau today Smithy.

“5”  Steve Smith, 30: “You’re willing to work, and so you will get there.  The trick now is keeping to the course.  Faith helps and so will the reminders about why you embarked on this journey in the first place.” Gemini

So Howey, your Holiday Tau feels like two things don’t go together.  Where’s Elmo when I need him?

“3”  Steve Howey, 42: “You’re going to do things in the order that feels right to you, and that is the best order possible.  Things don’t have to make sense to be correct.  Don’t waste time explaining, arguing or doubting yourself.” Cancer

Okay, now you tell me after I wrote today’s opening gambit.  Maybe I’ll need to hang on to your Holiday Tau for the next time.

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “The opening gambit is usually fun, filled with hope and promises.  Things become less interesting after that.  So in the case that the beginning isn’t great, don’t stick around for the sagging middle.  On to the next.” Leo

Geez, how many Steves did I collect making up for no legitimate TauBit of Wisdom for me?  I don’t know about yours G&G,  A self-assessment near the end of this month seems dangerously close to procrastination and not in a good way. 

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “To put in the time without putting in the heart is waste; the reverse is equally wasteful.  You’ll do a self-assessment in the name of efficiency.  Action that fortifies you — that’s the goal.” Virgo

Hi Harvey.  I like your Holiday Tau, but can I swipe it for inclusion in my Volume Two manuscript about talent cultures (organization tribes) to find your best fit?

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62: “Every tribe has an indigenous language and culture.  You’re learning the rules of a new group.  You’ll watch and learn, taking small risks, asserting yourself to when you know you have something to add.”  Capricorn

Finally, counting down to the last two of too many Steves in one day.  

So this is your Trust the Force, Luke Tau Bit of Wisdom, eh?  Sure, the cost is one thing, but I’ve always taken the long way to understand how something works. 

“5” Steve Nash, 45: “Though in reality help and options are there for you, you still feel there’s something you must do on your own.  Trust that instinct.  Perhaps you are sensing that the cost of ‘free’ help may be expensive.”  Aquarius

Now I get it.  The why of so many Steves on one day.  Distractions.  I’ve got many.  Figuring out how to make them work for me and differentiations between them makes your Holiday Tau worth a high ranking.

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Time will reveal the difference between a beneficial and a detrimental distraction.  What’s good for one era of life brings little benefit to another era.  You’ll intuitively find the right thing to chase at the right time.” Pisces

End of the Week “Knews” for FOSs

Trends — 

Short-Form — Headlines and Highlights from Fresh from the Labs

Long-Form — 

    • “Is ‘The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For,’ with its scenes of youthful triumph and predictions of a savvier political class, too optimistic? I’d say not, because the coming tribe really does bring hope of breaking the gerontocracy — time is on their side, of course. Is it a book only for young people, as opposed to “oldsters” (to quote Alter)? I would say the book needed to be written by someone her age, but it holds lessons for everyone. Along with the compelling personal narratives, there is historical context and acknowledgment — much of it from the subjects themselves — that every innovator stands on the shoulders of those who came before.

Progress and Procrastination — 

    • Procrastination — Lost a full day replacing my 2000 Toyota 4-Runner with a leased Honda CR-V

Speaking Volumes — 

    • My interviewed Friend of Steve offered more feedback at the right time for both volumes, Two and Three manuscripts.

Banking and ATMs — 

    • Today 1,277 Flipboard users follow one or more of my 35 digital magazines.

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Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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S1 E175 — Where’s the Finish Line? Is This Ever Going to End?

Today’s one of those low ebb kind of days after trading in my friend of 20 years for a new model.  Except the sexy new thing didn’t perform as expected.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “Before you sign up for a class or throw money at a situation, maybe what’s needed is another way of thinking about what’s goin on here.” Virgo

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 175 in the first season of “My 1-Year Natural Experiment” on this 22nd day of February in winter of 2020.

Context

I couldn’t get CarPlay functioning.  Nobody at the dealership could either after troubleshooting my iPhone 8 power cord with their power cords and newer model iPhone.

Look it said so in the features on this vehicle when I conducted my comparison searches.  I asked Siri for a solution.  She was no help.  I typed in the problem statement a variety of ways into the Google browser.  

Lot’s of similar problems, but not with an iPhone 8.  

Story of my life.  

I returned to making sense out of publishing articles to Patreon, desperately trying to reference posts like about Dave McCoy, the entrepreneur who build Mammoth Mountain. Well, the mountain was already there, but you get the picture.

Didn’t complete any goals for the week, except for meeting with Steve B, but I didn’t follow up with him. I gave up and returned to the LA Times.

So I turned to Michael Hiltzik who wrote about a 1979 demonstration for Steve Jobs at PARC by Larry Tesler, who died at age 74, 

“But his most important contribution to computing history may have been his role in giving Jobs a front-row view into PARC’s technology. I told the story in my 1999 book about PARC, “Dealers of Lightning,” “

Evidence

Yesterday turned out to shine as far as our legitimate Holiday Tau — Steve Zahn, Henry Winkler, Emma the Baroness and me.  How about today? I wonder why I’m so reluctant to follow today’s TauBit?

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Every stage and room of life is different.  What plays well on one doesn’t look so great on another.  Get help setting things up.  Another eye on things won’t be a bad idea.” Scorpio

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Most of this is true for me except for the last sentence, but the least amount of truthiness is this is my birthday.  You already know it’s not.  

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

“You’ll discover secrets inside yourself and others.  Knowing how things work makes you more powerful in the world.  You’ll love what it feels like to go where you only dreamed of going before.  A relationship grows more dear to you.  And this team will create interesting things together.”

Rooms, what’s with rooms today?  A cage?  Sorry Jobs, I don’t get it.  But, you certainly did at Xerox Parc (Palo Alto Research Center) when Larry Tesler hosted their GUI interface.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “As beautiful or gilded as a room may be, if you can’t get out when you want to, it’s still a cage.  It’s a day to test and protect your freedom.” Pisces

Don’t I wish your Holiday Tau rang true during this low ebb day.

“2”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “To know you’re getting something good even when the indicators are mixed — this is the art and talent you’ll have today.”  Taurus

Okay, my mother behaved in a way consistent she said with our heritage — neither one of us wants to throw money at something if we can get it cheaper or figure out a better way.  Thanks for your TauBit of Wisdom guys.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “Before you sign up for a class or throw money at a situation, maybe what’s needed is another way of thinking about what’s goin on here.” Virgo

Making room, a room can be a cage, every room and stage of life is different.  Is that the theme for today’s Holiday Tau?

“3”  Steve Aoki, 41: “There are things you have but no longer need, things you need but don’t have.  Get rid of the excess to make room for the new.” Sagittarius

End of the Week “Knews” for FOSs

Trends — 

Short-Form — Headlines and Highlights from Fresh from the Labs

Long-Form — 

    • My notes from the introduction in “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari:  Sapiens, surveyed the human past, examining how an insignificant ape became the ruler of planet Earth. Homo Deus, my second book, explored the long-term future of life, contemplating how humans might eventually become gods, and what might be the ultimate destiny of intelligence and consciousness. What is happening right now? What are today’s greatest challenges and choices? What should we pay attention to? What should we teach our kids? Thinking about the big picture is a relatively rare luxury. A single mother struggling to raise two children … 
    • Michael Hiltzik wrote about 1979 demonstration for Steve Jobs at PARC by Larry Tesler, who died at age 74, 

“But his most important contribution to computing history may have been his role in giving Jobs a front-row view into PARC’s technology. I told the story in my 1999 book about PARC, “Dealers of Lightning,” “ 

    • “Is ‘The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For,’ with its scenes of youthful triumph and predictions of a savvier political class, too optimistic? I’d say not, because the coming tribe really does bring hope of breaking the gerontocracy — time is on their side, of course. Is it a book only for young people, as opposed to “oldsters” (to quote Alter)? I would say the book needed to be written by someone her age, but it holds lessons for everyone. Along with the compelling personal narratives, there is historical context and acknowledgment — much of it from the subjects themselves — that every innovator stands on the shoulders of those who came before.

Progress and Procrastination — 

    • Procrastinate — I should have been crafting a Special Offer campaign as a way to move $1 Tier (Balboa Island) to $3 Tier (Cambria), but I didn’t get to it yet.
    • Progress — Published how go sign up instructions  for receiving your $1 Balboa Island benefits, “Trouble Claiming Your Digest? Take These Steps.”
    • Progress — Published “Ask Me Anything” for new followers that included, What does being an introvert have to do with anything? We come in six temperament flavors. We’re easy with solitude. In fact, many of us prefer mountain cabins, if given the choice, which inspired me to write about quality-of-life communities in the Sierra and Rocky Mountain Ranges. I happen to be one that I call SPIP short for Systematic-Professional, Idea Packager. 
    • Progress — Interviewed a Friend of Steve and gathered his feedback on my passion projects, especially The Tau of Steves.
    • Procrastination — Lost a full day replacing my 2000 Toyota 4-Runner with a leased Honda CR-V

Speaking Volumes — 

    • On hold until Patreon’s up and running.  My interviewed Friend of Steve offered more feedback at the right time for both volumes, Two and Three manuscripts.

Banking and ATMs — 

    • Figuring out a campaign for moving $1 Tier Balboa Island supporters to $3 Tier Cambria patrons sets the stage from a specific start date to a deadline in spring.
    • Friend of Steves interview checked off a task for the week and provided a partial proof of concept. 
    • Today 1,277 Flipboard users follow one or more of my 35 digital magazines.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

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S1 E174 — Isn’t the Lesser of Two Evils Still Evil?

Dang, my Toyota 4 Runner expired, or at least spending money on a rebuilt radiator and all of the belts and water pump that goes with it just didn’t make sense anymore.  I couldn’t drive it any further without causing engine damage.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “Before choosing, make sure the lineup of options is the best you can do. ‘Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.’ — Jerry Garcia.”  Taurus

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 174 in the first season of “My 1-Year Natural Experiment” on this 21st day of February in winter of 2020.

Context

Is this a good enough excuse for only completing one out of six tasks on my Patreon project plan?

At 7 am I curated my digital magazine stories so any Tier One (Balboa Island) followers wouldn’t miss their daily digest “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.“

By 8:30 am I pulled Motor Trend comparison reviews for RAV4, Mazda CX-5, and the popular Honda CR-V.  

Beginning at 11am the lovely and talented Emma the Baroness spent the next 90 minutes negotiating the best deals she could from Costco’s auto discount center. After weighing all the options we showed up mostly bright eyed and bushy tailed, except my pants hid that, at Norm Reeves Honda with our Costco emailed copy of their best deal.  

I’m placing that at around 12:30 pm.  

We left and returned by 2:30 pm to negotiate our lease and warranty coverage for the entire time frame.  We closed the deal after threatening to walk away again at 5:30 pm.

It turned out Honda’s President’s Day discount for a lease bettered Costco’s for a purchase. 

    • Getting the maintenance package which we figured would be included cost us $2
    • Because we qualified with Emma the Baroness’ Acura family price instead of $400 plus a month.  
    • The trade-in amounted to $500. 
    • We came away with payments of less than the $357 or more we walked in with from Costco.

What a team effort by fellow lovers and Scorpios — Emma the Baroness and Me. 

Evidence

How did our Holiday Tau size up for the day, even though none of my week’s tasks were executed?

Dang, my Toyota 4 Runner expired, or at least spending money on a rebuilt radiator and all of the belts and water pump that goes with it just didn’t make sense anymore.  I couldn’t drive it any further without causing engine damage.

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Getting out of a stuck place will be the same no matter what kind of ‘stuck’ it is.  Move until something about the situation changes.” Scorpio

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Let’s celebrate today’s birthday wish.  Extending a hand and adventure and all the great explorations we’ll notch under our belts this glorious year!

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

“In this year of exploration, you’ll see many things you never did.  The spirit of adventure will be your guiding light.  One key starting point will be the moment you extend a hand to someone outside your circle.”

Wow, getting the best advice from three iconic musicians is excellent today.  Choosing among vehicles turned out to be difficult, but none of them was evil, right?

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “Before choosing, make sure the lineup of options is the best you can do. ‘Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.’ — Jerry Garcia.”  Taurus

You have no idea how much I’ve been pushing on meeting the Patreon challenges over this last month.  Sounds good, right?  If it feels wrong, then it’s okay to procrastinate that one part of my brain whispers and that’s all I need.

“3”  Steve Smith, 30: “The difference between challenging yourself and forcing things can be subtle.  Anything that feels pushed is probably wrong.” Gemini

Okay, Howey.  I’m not getting the connection to your Holiday Tau today.

“3”  Steve Howey, 42: “Once the thing you love gets popular, you’ll have less access to it.  It’s pretty wonderful to love something that others don’t get yet.”  Cancer

If this is a health question, I’ve pretty much eliminated the play hard portion except for the pain.

“3”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You’ve been working hard and the temptation will be to play just as hard.  What can you do to make both work and play easier on yourself?” Leo

Hmm.  Listen Steve I’m pretty sure I could have really used your TauBit as I worked my way up the corporate ladder.  Maybe I’ll earmark this for consideration in my Volume Two Manuscript.

“2”  Steve Aoki, 41: “When you’re new, you have to work a little harder, smarter and more creatively.  There will be a way to defer to the big shots and still be powerful.” Sagittarius

Sorry Steve for the same reason I gave to Aoki, only not in a corporate work setting (Volume Two Manuscript), but in my Volume Three Manuscript instead.

“2” Steve Nash, 45: “Thinking of who you might have been were certain turns not taken is only helpful if it changes your thought process for next turn.  Otherwise: no regrets.”   Aquarius

End of the Week “Knews” for FOSs

Trends — 

Short-Form — Headlines and Highlights from Fresh from the Labs

Long-Form — 

    • My notes from the introduction in “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari:  Sapiens, surveyed the human past, examining how an insignificant ape became the ruler of planet Earth. Homo Deus, my second book, explored the long-term future of life, contemplating how humans might eventually become gods, and what might be the ultimate destiny of intelligence and consciousness. What is happening right now? What are today’s greatest challenges and choices? What should we pay attention to? What should we teach our kids? Thinking about the big picture is a relatively rare luxury. A single mother struggling to raise two children … 

Progress and Procrastination — 

    • Procrastinate — I should have been crafting a Special Offer campaign as a way to move $1 Tier (Balboa Island) to $3 Tier (Cambria), but I didn’t get to it yet.
    • Progress — Published how go sign up instructions  for receiving your $1 Balboa Island benefits, “Trouble Claiming Your Digest? Take These Steps.”
    • Progress — Published “Ask Me Anything” for new followers that included, What does being an introvert have to do with anything? We come in six temperament flavors. We’re easy with solitude. In fact, many of us prefer mountain cabins, if given the choice, which inspired me to write about quality-of-life communities in the Sierra and Rocky Mountain Ranges. I happen to be one that I call SPIP short for Systematic-Professional, Idea Packager. 
    • Progress — Interviewed a Friend of Steve and gathered his feedback on my passion projects, especially The Tau of Steves.

Speaking Volumes — 

    • On hold until Patreon’s up and running.  My interviewed Friend of Steve offered more feedback at the right time for both volumes, Two and Three manuscripts.

Banking and ATMs — 

    • Figuring out a campaign for moving $1 Tier Balboa Island supporters to $3 Tier Cambria patrons sets the stage from a specific start date to a deadline in spring.
    • Friend of Steves interview checked off a task for the week and provided a partial proof of concept. 
    • Today 1,277 Flipboard users follow one or more of my 35 digital magazines.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Posted on

S4 E13 — Was Trump Putin’s Puppet?

Today, the shadow of that scandal lingers. How much did Trump’s toying with Ukraine, cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and, ultimately, Trump’s acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress influence Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine?

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Prescient information pops to mind. What’s the difference between intuition and imagination? You’ll get the sense of knowing something immediately without understanding how you could. That’s intuition.” Scorpio

Hi and welcome to Thurday’s 13th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 24th day of March in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season 4 continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E12 —Why Did Trump Sue Deutsche Bank?; S4 E11 — Were Putin and Trump Dipping into the Same Piggy Bank?; S4 E10 — Who’s the First Person You Wanna Tell?; 

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E13 — Why?; S3 E12 — You Can’t Cure Stupid, but There’s a Cure for Ignorance; S3 E11 — Looking for a New Predictive Belief System?; S3 E10 —Feeding the Beast for Sheila in Fantasyland; 

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E13 — Slipping on a Bar of Dove Soap and other Ripple Effects; S2 E12 — Too Anxious to Meet and Eat; S2 E11 — Waiting for the 3rd Shoe to Drop; S2 E10 — Cats, Ladders and Shaking Salt …;

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E13 — Day 13 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E12 — Day 12 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E11 — Day 11 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E10 — Day 10 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Context

And of course, questions swirled about Trump’s real relationship with Putin leading up to the famous holding up of funds Congress had earmarked for Ukraine in his Quid Pro Quo phone call with Ukraine’s newly elected President Zelensky.

His acquittal in the sham Senate impeachment (1.0) trial was another such reward for bad behavior.  And a clue that no guard rails could contain his lust for clinching a second term in the White House. —  David Enrich

Tracy Wilkinson and Sarah D. Wire probe the question most on my mind from witnessing the daily streaming of the Putin’s Ukraine invasion and from reading “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman and more recently, “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” by David Enrich.

Given that Trump delayed weapons to Ukraine and praised Putin, did that trigger Putin’s war? 

Wilkinson and Wire remind us that, 

“Trump in 2019 threatened to withhold weapons deliveries to Ukraine — caught even then in a simmering war with Russian proxies — unless President Zelensky helped him dig up political dirt on probable 2020 election rival, Joe Biden.” 

Today, the shadow of that scandal lingers. How much did Trump’s toying with Ukraine, cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and, ultimately, Trump’s acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress influence Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine?

Numerous experts and current and former officials say Putin was emboldened by the Trump years. The former KGB officer turned president ably manipulated Trump into publicly backing his denials of having interfered — to Trump’s benefit — in U.S. elections. And, according to former aides, Putin convinced Trump to accept his claim that Ukraine was part of Russia. 

By most accounts, Putin stewed in grievances for years — the expansion of NATO farther east into his sphere of influence, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and a post-Cold War world order that marginalized Russia — waiting for an opportunity to build back his vision of a grand Russian superpower empire.

Marie Yovanovitch, a former US ambassador to Ukraine said Putin saw “that we had an administration that was willing to trade our national security for personal and political gain.” 

Fiona Hill, a highly regarded Russia expert who served on Trump’s National Security Council noted at a “critical period,” when Ukraine was fighting Russia and needed weapons, Trump had his own political future in mind. It sent “a message to Putin that Ukraine is a plaything for him … and for the United States.”

During the Obama administration, Putin invaded parts of eastern Ukraine, annexing the Crimean peninsula and installing Russian proxies to fight Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region — with minimal US or international rebuke.

Still, Trump’s actions, and the lack of significant consequences he faced, represented a unique opening, a bright green light for Putin in Ukraine. 

According to Adam Schiff, 

What that told Putin, tragically, is the United States doesn’t care about Ukraine, it doesn’t care about its people, it doesn’t care about its democratic aspirations. It doesn’t care if Ukrainians get killed by Russians. I think that’s the message Trump’s conduct sent, that we would use Ukraine as a political plaything

Schiff added “that Putin anticipated if he started a broader invasion of Ukraine, he could count on Trump either to praise him or to criticize Biden.”

“Trump has done both.”

Evidence

Turning away from Trump’s and Putin’s consequential relationship to today’s TauBits of Wisdom shifts my gears a little.

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Prescient information pops to mind. What’s the difference between intuition and imagination? You’ll get the sense of knowing something immediately without understanding how you could. That’s intuition.” Scorpio

And, that’s me.  Elsewhere I described what happens during one of my advisory sessions.  I’ll listen to what my client or executive or MBA executive student describes about a current situation until pieces of their stories click into knowing something that’s the difference maker in their dilemma.  Sometimes it arrives as a mind-video, sometimes it takes a probing question to trigger it with their answer.  Sometimes it arrives a sentence or two at the beginning of the session.  The imagination part kicks in when together we consider scenarios and strategies to solve what’s blocked their success.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “If you’re not sure why you’re so popular lately, it could be the charmingly unpredictable element you bring to conversation. Quite the opposite of the usual interactions, your contributions are unexpected.” Sagittarius

When it’s not about helping someone else to help me to help them — I so hated that expression — and it’s just a conversation I look for the pun.  Something somebody just said in the middle of the conversation sparks a slight smile and then there it is, an unexpected twist that tickled me and causes laughter.

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;  Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “A lot of people have ideas, but far fewer have the bold determination to follow through. Consider yourself among the elite. Planning is a pleasure. Get as much on paper as you can now while you’re thinking clearly”  Capricorn

So Emma the Baroness threw a party for two of her closest non-sorority sister long-time friends last night. She hosted a Bachelor Party Viewing night — that either just ended or just began — as an excuse like a book club to drink wine, or in this case lemon tear drops, catch up, eat and drink and eat and talk in that Experiencing Self space all close friends occupy when they get together.

I volunteered my banishment to our upstairs master bedroom and somehow stumbled across an PBS documentary that inspired me.  I wonder if Aldwyth is still alive, because the show aired a few years ago. 

But, here’s her official story that played out and moved me — 

Aldwyth is a single-named South Carolina artist who defies categorization. She is a painter, a sculptor, a box constructionist, and an intricate collagist. Like her artwork, the trajectory of Aldwyth’s artistic life has been anything but simple. ALDWYTH: FULLY ASSEMBLED follows her remarkable creative journey, documenting her challenges and obstacles and telling the story of her inspiring “second act.” 

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12252 this week to 12344 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 234 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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