Flooded
"Flooding the zone." They throw so much stuff at us, we are overwhelmed, unable to prioritize.
What should we deal with first? People kidnapped in broad daylight by masked thugs? Insane policies that make international trade nearly impossible, and cause prices to skyrocket? The end of life--saving medical research? Laws that prevent women from voting? The end of food safety? The destruction of national parks? Deliberate starvation of poor children? A president who openly takes bribes? People imprisoned, without trials, in foreign countries? Our personal data handed over to who-knows-who for who-knows-what purposes? Book-banning? Competent public employees fired, replaced by unqualified sycophants or by nobody? Deliberate erosion of air traffic safety? Lost access to health information? The erasure of historical records? Rising death rates for women and infants? Attempts to make dissent a crime? Arresting public officials for doing their jobs? Threatening judges? Extorting law firms? Representatives of the president blatantly lying to the public about everything? The end of product safety? Reporters afraid to report? Elected officials afraid to speak up? All the other nightmares I haven't listed here?
There is so much, it can have the effect of paralyzing people, because they just don't know what to do first. That's the idea. They want us frozen in place, unable to take action. One reason for flooding the zone is to present us with so much terrible stuff, that even if we do fight back, we won't be able to stop all of it, and many things will get by us.
It's like being attacked simultaneously by army ants, locusts, Hitchcock birds, and zombies. Some of them are going to slip through the cracks.
Tariffs Are An Outdated Concept
The original idea behind imposing tariffs on imports goes something like this:
- People are buying cheap foreign products instead of American products.
- This is bad for American businesses, and for the economy in general.
- If we make foreign goods more expensive, people will stop buying them.
- Adding a tariff (tax) to imports will make those foreign goods so expensive that people will buy American products instead.
Of course, it's never quite that simple. This doesn't take into account the possibility that other countries will put tariffs on American goods, or that there may be reasons why people buy the foreign products even with the tariff. It doesn't take into account that American companies will decide to raise their prices, so their products become just as expensive as the imports. There are many possible complications.
The world today doesn't operate like it did back in the 18th century. Because the economy operates differently now, the old tariff theory just doesn't fit in the modern world.
Many - perhaps most - of those American companies actually use a lot of imported products. Their machinery and tools may come from other countries. They may be importing certain parts or raw materials. When the price of foreign products goes up because of tariffs, it creates higher costs for American businesses. They may be forced out of business because they can't afford to purchase more expensive materials. Or they may go forward, but they have to raise their prices because of the tariffs, and now they can't offer a lower price than the imported products.
Tariff of 1790
Tariff of 1792
Tariff of 1930
Beyond the Peter Principle
In their 1969 book, The Peter Principle, Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull described how people working in organizations tend to rise to a level of incompetence.
A guy who is very good at his job gets promoted. The new job may require some skills that weren't part of his previous job. He may or may not have those skills, but if he is able to master the new position and make a good impression, he is likely to get promoted again. Again, the skills needed for the new position are likely somewhat different. If he is good at that job, he'll get promoted again, If this continues, the guy will be finally promoted into a job that is completely beyond his ability. His incompetence means that he won't be promoted again, so he stays in that position, performing poorly.
According to this theory, hierarchical organizations eventually become filled with, and run by, people who just aren't very good at what they do. The Peter Principle is expressed as: "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Its corollary is: "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties."
These principles are on very public display in our government's current administration, which has carried them to an extreme level in which incompetence does not prevent people from being further promoted, and may even be the reason some people of low ability are placed in positions requiring knowledge, skills, and experience that they lack.
Incompetent people in positions of authority feel threatened by those whose competencies are significantly greater than their own, and will, whenever possible, expell them and replace them with incompetents with whom they feel comfortable
A guy who is very good at his job gets promoted. The new job may require some skills that weren't part of his previous job. He may or may not have those skills, but if he is able to master the new position and make a good impression, he is likely to get promoted again. Again, the skills needed for the new position are likely somewhat different. If he is good at that job, he'll get promoted again, If this continues, the guy will be finally promoted into a job that is completely beyond his ability. His incompetence means that he won't be promoted again, so he stays in that position, performing poorly.
According to this theory, hierarchical organizations eventually become filled with, and run by, people who just aren't very good at what they do. The Peter Principle is expressed as: "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Its corollary is: "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties."
These principles are on very public display in our government's current administration, which has carried them to an extreme level in which incompetence does not prevent people from being further promoted, and may even be the reason some people of low ability are placed in positions requiring knowledge, skills, and experience that they lack.
Incompetent people in positions of authority feel threatened by those whose competencies are significantly greater than their own, and will, whenever possible, expell them and replace them with incompetents with whom they feel comfortable
Wounded
This is a summary of my research into "U.S. presidents' injuries and wounds." This includes adulthood injuries before, during, and after the time in office.
- Thomas Jefferson – Dislocated his wrist when he jumped over a fence; it wasn’t set correctly and caused pain the rest of his life.
- James Monroe – Suffered a life-threatening wound in battle during the Revolution; the bullet was never removed. In later life, he injured his wrist falling from a horse.
- Andrew Jackson – Before becoming president, survived bullet wounds when dueling or brawling, experienced lifelong pain.
- Franklin Pierce – During his military service, was injured in battle when his horse tripped and fell on him.
- Abraham Lincoln – Assassinated, shot in the head.
- Rutherford B. Hayes – Shot in the arm during a Civil War battle. Later injured when thrown from a horse.
- James Garfield – Assassinated, shot in the arm and side.
- Grover Cleveland – After a secret operation to remove an oral tumor, he suffered depression and apparent poor health the rest of his life.
- William McKinley - Assassinated, shot in the chest and stomach.
- William Howard Taft – Experienced relatively minor injuries due to several random accidents.
- Theodore Roosevelt – Survived assassination attempt, shot in chest. Seriously injured in a traffic accident that killed his bodyguard.
- Herbert Hoover – Suffer fractured vertebrae in a bathtub accident
- Franklin Roosevelt - was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down after diagnosis of polio.
- Dwight Eisenhower – Suffered a serious knee injury and infection while playing football. Re-injured the knee several times playing various sports.
- John F. Kennedy – Assassinated, shot in the head and neck. Also: Had been wounded while serving in WWII, received Purple Heart.
- Richard Nixon – While campaigning (1960), his knee was slammed by a car door, causing serious injury and infection, leading to chronic deep vein thromboses.
- Gerald Ford – Injured when an elevator door malfunctioned. Tripped and fell several times, extent of injuries (possible bruises or scrapes) unknown.
- Jimmy Carter – In his 90s, needed a hip replacement after a fall, then suffered a cut and black eye from a second fall, and a pelvic fracture from a third fall.
- Ronald Reagan – Survived assassination attempt, shot in the chest.
- George H.W. Bush – Prior to becoming president, was injured in WWII when he had to parachute out of his airplane.
- Bill Clinton – Serious knee injury from a fall.
- George W. Bush – After leaving office, suffered a facial cut and bruise when he fell after choking on food.
- Joe Biden – Had a sprained ankle and later a foot fracture, both incurred while playing with his dog. Experienced a couple of minor falls that did not cause injuries.
- donald trump – while campaigning, survived an apparent assassination attempt, claimed to have an injured ear.
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