Wisconsin Power Grab

I was born in the great state of Wisconsin, I hafta tell you right off, and though I moved away from there many moons ago I still keep track of the goings on there because it kinda represents The Homeland for me, due to the lack of home being found anywhere else, like I wrote about earlier. 
I'm going to say that I'm not being partisan here, I just wanna say that what is happening there with the outgoing governor is not how we Wisconsinites roll. 
We're not yokels and hillbillies and uneducated and welfare dependent, like some in the media would portray us. We don't need the heavy hand of government telling us to get to work because just the fact that you were born in Wisconsin and have to deal with the long, cold winters already says that you're a special breed. You've got heartiness built in. 
  The Wisconsinites I knew were hardworking, stable folk. Midwestern nice. Oh sure, there were some bad apples out there, but our bad apples were rather tame compared to the bad apples in other places I've lived. We Wisconsinites were religious, but not evangelical religious, tryin' to spread The Word. We tried to keep up and be hip but we were geographically isolated so we did the best we could. Fact of life was that we were always ten years behind the times, compared to those living in LA or New York. I, like all Wisconsinites learn to do, fully owned that when I lived there and felt no shame about it. 
      So when I see what is going on there now, in that beautiful state capitol in Madison, I wonder just what has come about to make the governor so contentious. It ain't the Wisconsin way, I'll tell you that. 
We got The Packers, man. America's favorite home town, publicly owned football team. No matter what harshness is going on in the rest of the world, you don't bring that sort of thing to Packerland. Vince Lombardi (Saint Vince, bless his soul) would not approve. Even though he said that "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" he wouldn't have stooped low to win. He wouldn't have played dirty pool. 
    Wisconsinites are chill, man. Do we produce famous people? Not many. We just don't have the ambition. How can you have ambition and a tavern at every four way stop? 
Wisconsin has a good balance. Much of it is rural and woodsy, but there is also a lot of industry too. People make things there. It's not anything like New England, though. We're hardly poets or intellectuals, but there is a lot of wisdom around. 
Wisconsinites are generational, with families that go way back. Ain't much of an edge to 'em, most people are just nice (maybe 'cuz lots of them are related).

They make fire trucks there.

Connor Betts- Unsplash.com

I guess all the factors that make up the Wisconsin outlook comes from the fact that the majority of them came from central Europe where they didn't have a chance. They came to the 'frozen tundra' (it's not really like that, it's only a few months out of the year) and carved out a living through hard work and learning how to get along with each other because they had to to survive. There's an understanding that threads through the populace that there is a proper way to get things done, the community way. This sort of life isn't for everybody, which is why the rebellious and independent fly off to places far away. For those that stay, the population stays fairly stable and struggling with the elements is what you end up doing a lot but they do that sort of thing in Minnesota and Michigan too, which to Wisconsinites, are different countries. Minnesota is populated by Swedes and Lutherans (think Garrison Keillor) while Michigan lies, for the most part, across from a great big lake. True Wisconsinites only know the upper part of Michigan, which they call 'The U.P'. (not the 'up', the 'u' 'p'. You say the letters separately). Ain't much up in the UP but woods.
So to over the last coupla years see this state of workaday folk portrayed as a 'decisive presidential battleground', was something I couldn't believe. Ditto the hard swing to the right. "Wha...?". Along with that came union busting the teachers union, as if those people were just a buncha benefits grubbing bums, and then came news that they were going to make the out of work pass through some pretty small hoops to get benefits, as if their being outta luck wasn't enough.....
  .....I also heard that the Repubs had been gerrymandering districts, which struck me as their bringing more ‘not nice’ to bear. Hasn't this poor state had enough?! I'm sure the talk at all the Dennys restaurants that populate Wisconsin is about how 'not nice' the outgoing governor is, ramming through his 82 appointees in one day and all. Shocking! But if he thinks he's going to permanently lower the bar, and that by his actions he's going to establish a new not nice playing field, I'm aftaid he's sadly mistaken. It just won't take. 
I know. I grew up there. Not nice people do not make it. The community will ostracize you. Oh, they won't do it in an in-your-face way, they're not that kind. Everybody will know that there’s a not nice person in the room, the word will get around. You won't be asked to leave, but nobody will talk to you anymore. Wisconsinites are like that. 
Doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. Over the last few years some serious outliers to the underlying protocol have risen to power- but I can’t help but notice that they’re now on their way out!

My How Things Have Changed

When it came to media or music, it used to be that you had to wait. A lot. Nowadays, you don't hafta so much. There is still a bit of waiting for your content to load, or for the ads on the video to play out beforehand, but that is nothing compared to the way it was before. 
TV used to be a long, drawn out affair. Popular shows came on at certain times and so you planned your free time around the shows you wanted to watch, these shows usually coming on during the evening. 'Prime time TV', that used to be called. The Sunday newspaper came out with the TV listings for the upcoming week, but if you didn't get the Sunday paper the daily carried the TV programming for that day. An archaic magazine called 'TV Guide' was for sale at the end of every supermarket belt in the land, so you could pull a copy out of the magazine rack and lay it on the belt at the same time you were loading your groceries. 
Music came on the radio and you just had to wait for your song, that hot new one that you really liked, to get played. After that you had to endure barrages of advertising between songs and lots of mediocre songs before the DJ would decide to play it again. There was no such thing as having control over the music. All you knew was that your song was in the station's rotation. Radio was like that. It was just the way it was. 
Movies played in the movie theatres, but if they were old enough and good enough they would be run on TV and so you keyed on that in the TV listings. Sure, the movies ran with loads of commercials. You couldn't escape those, but getting to see that movie you liked again was worth it, wasn't it?
"Nope", said The People, "it wasn't". They wanted choice- and boy did they ever get it. 

It’s 3:00 a.m.!

Victoria Heath- Unsplash.com

Choice built on choice until we have what we have today. First there was cable TV in the TV world, followed by premium cable channels that you had to subscribe to, followed by a groundbreaking phenomenon called VCRs. ‘Video Cassette Recorders’. Suddenly, all those movies you had to wait for you could rent out at a place called a Video Store. People flocked to these places and perused their aisles of offerings. You could see them there heavy in the early evenings and it was a competitive arena 'cuz after they had picked up dinner at the nearby grocery in the shopping center, they would pop in the video store to get a movie for the evening. Hopefully, the store had something they wanted to see, or there was new stuff. Nothing was worse, over time at these places, than wandering the aisles looking for entertainment. You'd come in to find the new stuff had all been rented out and what was left was stuff that you had seen already, which would cause you to give up after a wasted twenty minutes and walk out empty handed (which happened to me more than a few times). 
In music, choice was offered in the guise of more music being packed onto a platform with greater capacity or the music was made more portable. Believe it or not, cars did not come equipped with stereo systems back in the day. They came with AM radio installed and that was it! FM radio came out in the early 70's and changed all that, suddenly you could install (and they sold these everywhere) car stereos that you could mount under the dash which would play AM and FM radio, as well as eight track tapes, or somewhat later, cassette tapes. Tapes meant that your music was portable! I drove around for years with a briefcase full of cassette tapes I had recorded. Seems utterly ridiculous now but at the time I thought it was pretty cool. 
      CD's came out next and you could pack even more music on those, and the sound quality was better, so of course cassettes were dropped in favor of CD's. Cars by that time came with built-in car stereos, first with the cassette players built in, then with cassette and CD players built in. More speakers were added by manufacturers, and the stereos carried more base, midrange, and treble settings, plus the units had the ability to scan channels, and that was good- but it still wasn't good enough. 
      Satellite TV and satellite radio arrived at about the same time. Satellite TV duked it out with the cable providers for dominance and then.......
      Videotaped movies started getting put on slim, lightweight new platforms called DVD's and then a new company called Netflix started mailing these DVD movies to people which meant that they could get on their newfangled computers and simply order online which was the death knell for the once mighty video stores.
I Pods got birthed soon after and now suddenly people could store thousands of songs on tiny little handheld devices. CD's suddenly seemed cumbersome and quaint and the writing was on the wall with those too. 
Cable and satellite TV providers kept adding more and more channels until it got downright ridiculous. Some packages offered hundreds of channels but even that amount of entertainment wasn't enough. People wanted still more.
Technology said “We'll give that to you!” and so 'streaming' became available. Awkward and glitchy at first, it picked up speed as the nascent networks were able to provide more bandwidth and suddenly you could forgo waiting for your Netflix DVD to arrive in the mail and simply click Start to watch a movie on your computer and then on top of that social media arrived and You Tube as well and suddenly programming other than cable or satellite TV became available. Ordinary people started to upload content which could be watched anywhere at any time and that's why I sit and stare at the search block of letters to choose from and wonder where to go next on You Tube because I just watched Elvis' 1956 Ed Sullivan performance and some videos of cool industrial machines and sang some Karaoke. Over on the Roku streaming stick are so many other choices that I there too discover that I am able to quickly exhaust any immediate, in-my-head list and am tasked to make a list ahead of time, really put some thought into it. 
We certainly have come a long way, haven't we? From no choice to too much choice. Spotify. OMG! The amount of music on there will easily take me the rest of my life to listen to, and already there's way too much TV to watch in one lifetime. Where are we going with this?
We used to have lives outside of entertainment but those seem to have been discarded in favor of satisfying an unquenchable thirst for more music, cooking shows, concert footage, you frickin' name it. It's too much, and it's happened so fast. I really don't know what to think about it. I have to push back from the screen and the speakers and in silence think about it. Have to have some personal thoughts again. Gain some space, some distance, from the onslaught. 
Maybe it's like obesity. Given the choice, a lot of people will eat too much food and then somewhere down the line, when the fat they've accrued can't be denied anymore, diet time has to be endured. Is it the same with content? I don't know. I don't think the human mind has a capacity limit so it's up to the individual how much content they want to pack in. We as a race have never experienced this amount of data intake before. What are the ramifications? So far we seem to be doing alright. 
I have no desire to go back to the old days but you really have to wonder what is coming next. Probably some method of continuously interfacing with all of our devices will be offered up. Will we hear its siren song and be helplessly compelled to follow?
Haven't seen too many people saying no to anything up to this point yet, myself included! 

Pre-Christmas Sightings

Even in Hawaii we know that Christmas is near. Evidence started to show soon as Thanksgiving dinner was being put away in leftover containers. The first Christmas commercials started running on TV. 
The next tipoff that the yuletide season was fast approaching came a day or so later when I spotted a 'Reindeer Horns On The SUV' guy. I identified this 'reindeer' as Rudolf, 'cuz his SUV had a shiny red nose. 

The first time I ever saw this corny reindeer horns thing was a few years ago. It was startling to see initially, and then despite my fervent hopes to the contrary, it took off at a pace approaching viral. Now it's settled down a lot and become commonplace. Along with these guys and gals is the staid old 'Wreath on the front of the SUV, minivan, or pickup' look. Carryin' that Christmas spirit on down the road these folks are, "Ho Ho Ho" ing their way through midday traffic, a place where there's never a lot of jolly going on. 

Next thing I saw, 'cuz I got home from work at night a few times, was that the Christmas lights people (thank God for those) had been active. You know, the ones that every year dig the display and the lights out of the garage, set it up, and shoulder the additional charge on their electric bills to bring the Christmas spirit out into the neighborhood, these guys being the antidote for the non-display people whose homes stay dark, as dark as the deep night of winter. "Bah humbug to that!" the display faction says. "Let those lights of ours shine, and let them shine bright!" All through the night, even at 3:00 a.m., some of these displays are still lit, in case a lonely traveler should pass by, his spirits downcast, as if still reeling from an encounter with Ebenezer Scrooge. "Thank you" this traveler might mumble inwardly, and quite unconsciously, upon seeing Santa's sleigh upon some roof, giant candy canes and glittering snowmen in the yard, and mischievous little elves carrying packages right to the front door, which just might be his front door. You never know. Despite Scrooge's admonition that you had been naughty a lot during the year, sometimes you were nice. 

Moving on, it's still a little early, but I know these guys are coming. I'm just waiting for the first one to show. I don't know how the appropriate moment is decided upon but when it is, all the others seem to come out of the woodwork and then they're everywhere. I'm talking about the Santa hat people. I really don't know how to take them. For the most part I'm able to avoid them but.... ....every now and again I can't and we interact. Is this person representing Santa as his official agent of merriment while Santa is busy in his workshop? How should I act? I don't know. I guess I should be jolly, filled with good cheer, and "letting nothing you dismay", like the song. Giving hearty nods and a brisk handshakes, that sort of thing. Getting into the spirit. That good enough for ya? 

Hopelessly outnumbered! Gimme a hat so I can blend in already!

Jack Levick- Unsplash.com

You have to go to the mall to experience the next pre-Christmas sighting but sometimes I see them waving at me before I get to the mall. They're out on the street, perhaps in front of a tree lot, or a car dealership. Santas! I know this can be confusing for little kids, to see him out there on the lot, on a billboard, or driving in his SUV when he's (again) supposed to be in his workshop but Moms and Dads can readily explain such multiple Santa sightings away. 
At the mall, Santa is there on his throne (always a big, wide, sturdy one) while wide-eyed thumb suckers trepidatiously wait in line for their turn to talk to the big guy, the guy that grants wishes. Oooh, the power this magical being has! The little one on Santa's lap is whispering something into Santa's ear like he's the Godfather while the parents, between taking tons of pictures, give big smiles to their kid(s) to assure them that everything’s alright. It's a rite of passage. Every kid in America must go through it. 

Office parties. I have never been to a Christmas office party, because I have never worked in an office. But I've seen them in the movies and they always look like a frickin' riot. How come my company never throws a bash like that? Every place I've ever worked for the bosses bailed for lengthy stretches of holiday time off beforehand and left the employees lame catered food spread out on tables that they could consume while on break at work. That was our 'party'. No booze, no drunken debauchery, no suppressed-passion holiday trysts, no scandalous stories to relate around the water cooler for weeks afterward. Bor-ing!

Before I get to the last one, my partner and I did experience Christmas Carolers once. Was that ever weird! Outside, we could hear some kind of commotion coming closer down our street. It sounded like singing. Nobody ever sang in the neighborhood, not publicly, anyway, and here this unusual sound kept coming closer and closer until a knock was heard upon our door followed by a lot of rustling going on outside. I opened the door, my partner and I looked out, and a group of Christmas Carolers loudly wished us a “Merry Christmas!”, after which they sang us a song! Like they really cared about us! It was, well, shocking. Not used to such adolation, we have to admit we were a little bit uncomfortable- at first. But when they didn't stick around to adore us more, we felt let down as they showered the spirit of goodwill upon our neighbors next door. Oh well. It was good while it lasted. 

Finally, my fav-o-rite thing that tells me that Santa is almost here are those old school Christmas specials that they've been playing on TV since I was a tot. Frosty the Snowman. How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. I love those shows. Awkward animation! Narrated by Jimmy Durante! Super cool Cratchits and Marleys and Scrooge’s played by polished Shakespearean actors! Times were simpler then, and if you got stuff like Army men, a Tonka truck, a bike, or a Barbie set for Christmas you were positively thrilled. 
Nowadays during one of these shows they cut to the T-Mobile ‘flashing lights’ commercial that damn near blinds you by all the funky fun dancing young people that are getting so much data for their buck that they can't help but think they're the coolest and smartest people on God's green earth and then we're back to the show again. Talk about odd juxtaposition!

  But, that's Christmas 2018 for you. It's all good. Nice to see that the spirit is there. Enjoy it while it lasts, because right around the corner comes..... ….you know….
....January.

Rhythm And Rhyme And Harmony

     Spent the last three days listening to the radio and yeah, I got my wish of listening to mostly new music and/or covers I hadn’t heard before but it was a bittersweet affair 'cuz a lot of it didn't ring my bell ifyouknowwhadImean. 
     The DJ's playing these tunes didn't share that same opinion, they thought they were spinnin' the good stuff because during breaks in the entertainment they sometimes waxed long upon the artist, about how this or that song had personal meaning for them, or that they knew something about a particular song's history, how it was created, and they wanted to share that. 

Old Skool analog, no data plan required.

Eric Nopanen- Unsplash.com

Which led me to the thing I want to write about, which is the song creation process (and the creative process in general). 
Songs are mainly written by bands, which is plural, so there is involvement to varying degrees by mates within the band when it comes to accessing the creative magic from which the song springs which they then describe to curious magazine (nowadays podcast) interviewers in this way: "Me an' me blokes crafted a tune over some whiskey and beers that’s about a girl Johnny had a breakup with. It took us an hour to write it on a sotted Sunday afternoon when we were hungover from the LA gig", which gets you to think that that is how all rock songs are created. Easy! Just like that!
Somebody comes up with the lyrics, somebody else comes up with the rhythm, melody, or beat, and then somebody else goes "Hey mates- why don't we cut out that last lil' bit 'n put this in there" upon which he does a slight riff on his guitar and the other band mates go "Oye, mate! That is bloody perfect!" and the next thing you know 'Satisfaction' or whatever is gaining serious airplay and then interviewers swarm ‘round the band and hound them for further insights on their creative process (and extraordinarily un-ordinary lifestyles).

One astute guy I listened to casually talked about his life in the music business and related that he was part of a gypsy community that traveled the world doing gigs as part of this or that band. When he had a break from touring he would touch base at a certain studio where he had an opportunity to record all the songs he'd been working on as a solo project on the side, one of many such solo projects he'd done over the years. He’d collaborate with all kinds of other gypsy musicians that he knew and were in town at the time and I couldn’t help but think “is that the coolest life or what?" as he was relaying it. 
    He had gotten onto 'The Circuit' and once within it, contacts, connections, leads, resources, equipment, collaborators, and like-minded people seemed to abound. The people within The Circuit got along very well with each other because they all liked what they did for a living and were making good enough money to be able to forgo working at a regular job, or any kind of ‘job’ at all. 
Then, as if that wasn’t good enough, they also gained Satisfaction from having an impact upon the world that they could readily measure because they said that they could walk into a mall, a bar, an airport lounge, or whatever and hear one of their songs playing, a song that they had imagined into existence. How is that for having an effect? It's like creating a gift that keeps on giving to the world because, if it's a good song, it could be played one day short of forever. 
     Writing (wordsmithing, I call it) bares little similarity with songwriting. Not nearly as public, the words that are written in pages are only selectively read. They are not widely broadcast like the lyrics in songs are but then again, if you rethink it, are not all movies written and then broadcast to the public at large? All TV series too? Even the intensely private thoughts of a standup comedian can make it to the airwaves. 
So what am I getting at here? Other than in singer/songwriter solo acts, stand-up comedy, and book writing (there may be some others), there exists collaboration. This means that the person that holds the initial vision accepts a loss of control over a project and allows input and change that in the end may or may not match his/her initial vision. This tradeoff is necessary because in collaboration most of the big projects get done. You have to have the visionary, but you also have to have those ones who are good at what they do to take the project to the next level. In doing so, you are taking risk that the project will lose its way, yes, but in that collaborative risk taking there is the huge possibility that something can be created that can surpass anything an individual could ever bring about on their own. 
Maybe you and your mates collaborate and put an album together in the studio like four blokes in England did fifty years ago called The White Album or you have a cast of thousands and a budget of millions and end up crafting a masterpiece like Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Who knows? There’s magic in individuals not knowing everything.

Not Quite It

I worked on a piece yesterday and no matter how I tweaked it I didn't like it.
Being naturally lazy, my first, second, third, and fifteenth impulse was to continue to work on it, which I did, with the intent of salvaging it, but in the end I couldn't remove the flavor or aroma wafting from the thing and I thought that if I did publish it it would taint my writings, my body of work, forevermore as if in the future somebody would point to that particular one out of everything else I'd ever done and say “This is where artists fail, right at this point! They cross a line and that's it! You can never trust them after that!” or some wild claim and since I'm all about reputation and ethics and trying to do the wright thing through my wrightings (a little nod to fellow intrepid pioneers Orville and Wilbur there) I would be seen as doing the wrong thing or having a proclivity to do so and my readership would drop off and I would be labeled as 'that guy'. 
     But what if? What if I did publish that piece, which started out innocently enough and after all, it is Thought Of The Day and that was the thought train I was on. Can't fault a guy for that, eh?
And who's to judge as to how it would be perceived? Perhaps it would be just the thing for some people and by not publishing that work I would be denying those ones the opportunity to see things perhaps in a different way. 
    That sort of thinking didn't remove the flavor, though, of the piece in my mind, me thinking that I could have done better. 
    But so what? It's just words, water over the dam, flowing into the past, there for a moment and gone- unless I somehow write a classic that ends up gracing the shelves of every library in the land. 
     Articles, essays, and Thought Of The Day do not necessarily quality for such distinction however. These writings are meant to be fleeting things that someday may be compiled in a tome as a body of work that hopefully inspires and may even qualify for something like that. TOTD gives evidence that I did do something with my life other than watch SportsCenter and eat Almond Poppyseed muffins and drink craft beer like any other Joe. 
    So, after all that, here's 'Before Coffee, After Coffee', version 16, for your reading enjoyment (or not). Either way, it's only for a day.

Before Coffee, After Coffee

     Before Coffee (or 'B.C.') this morning I was heavily in thought about the opioid epidemic. The stats on this are truly alarming. The number of overdose deaths in the U.S. hit 70,000+ last year, which is the number of people in a medium-sized city or more guys than were killed in the Vietnam war. 
     A large portion of these overdose deaths were caused by Fentanyl, an extremely potent pharmaceutical developed to control pain. Used by anesthesiologists, this scary drug has made its way to the streets and can quickly take you out. The lethal dosage is ridiculously small, 2 milligrams, or enough grains of the stuff to cover the date on a penny. 
     This nasty white crystalline substance has got to be hugely troublesome for law enforcement 'cuz you can just forget about the movie cliche where the cops bust in and there's a pile of clear plastic bags containing a white powder, one of which the lead detective cuts open with a penknife, dips his finger in the powder that has spilled out, and tastes it. "Yup, it's cocaine" he mumbles. 
Do that with Fentanyl and "Bam!" you're on your way to the morgue.

Ain’t no tourists here

Linda Xu- Unsplash.com

But, an hour of searching Wikipedia and other such research sites later, I'd had my fill of the opioid crisis. This closely coincided with the After Coffee (A.C.) period, which perked me up a bit and cleared all those nighttime sleepy clouds from my mental sky. I hadn't wanted to think about the opioid crisis but morbid curiosity, shock, alarm, dismay, and WTF?! reactions to this bizarre social situation had to be experienced by social scientist me and once that was done, and enough coffee had been ingested, I took on the usual sunnier outlook that is the hallmark of A.C. time. 
'Cuz there's a big difference between B.C. and A.C., you know. 

Before Coffee I'm stumbling about, rubbing sleep out of my eyes, trying to remember the dreams I'd had the night before; perhaps I'm obsessed with this idea or that, but After Coffee I'm on much more level ground. You could say I need the stuff, that coffee is my 'drug of choice'. I could be a tea drinker, one that concocts a morning smoothie, a water drinker, or I could be the kinda guy that slams an energy drink for breakfast. Or I could, as some others do, start my day off with a soda, or a shot. But no, coffee it is for me. I'll pass on the hard stuff.

Through the ingestion of coffee I become alive, fully functional, and ready to meet my day. 
    It's just the way I am. I'm a creature of habit in this regard. It's my morning routine. I'm sure you have one too. My routine is unlikely to change, though at times I have strayed from it. Experimenting, they call it.

I tried to live the 'Before Tea, After Tea' lifestyle, back in the day when tea was all the rage. It didn't take. 
     I never wandered far into energy drink territory. After a foray or two I knew I was not that kind. I didn't like the idea of lighting the fuse on an inner rocket ship, but now that I think about it, maybe that's the stuff all the speeders on the roads around here drink. 
     Water? As W.C. Fields so famously statred, "During one of our trips through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew. We had to live on nothing but food and water for several days"
Er... maybe that's not the best analogy. But, I get part of my necessary daily water requirement filled through drinking coffee, right?
Smoothies to me are like injecting sugar directly into my bloodsteam, and soda is even worse, so my staring fluid of choice is coffee.
    I don't know why. 

But I do know this: Scientists research this sort of thing. There are people out there that are attracted to various substances and no matter what you do, you can't keep them away from them. This is certainly true in the case of hard drugs, for despite stringent laws against, there are still some people for, even for the devil's own drug Fentanyl, which has the unwanted lethal side effect of making you dead. The scientists say it's addiction that is driving the users. What is addiction? You don't really want to know, it's one of those things that is best known theoretically and not experientially. Addiction at that level sounds like hell, it's been described as an almost insatiable psychological craving coupled with physical symptoms to match. Sounds like a hard lesson, perhaps one of the hardest ones in the pantheon of human life lessons. 
"Moderation in all things" is the key to health and longevity. I've read interviews of wise and very old people from around the world and they always say that. "Not too much, but never too little! Enjoy life!" 
And that's what rings true for me. I'm there. No hard drugs anywhere near me, no thanks. Just coffee and craft brew. And as far as coffee goes, Before Coffee is too little while After Coffee is just right. I have learned to find that happy balance. 
And it's not like I drink coffee all day in order to maintain that balance, unh uh. There is Before Coffee, and then there is After, and then there is no coffee for a long while until the cycle starts again. 

They say that with any addict there is withdrawal and that a true test of addiction is that you try and not take the stuff and find that you're helpless in that regard, you will seek it out and seek it out until you find it, even if finding it finds you in some movie set dark alley somewhere with ominous music playing. Hooded characters who are totin' heat are passin' baggies and crumpled bills back and forth and you'd better grab your daily fix and get gone before something ugly goes down 'cuz there are sirens in the distance, multiple, some from cop cars that could be racing towards your location and others from ambulances that are carrying the afflicted away and damn how did I fall this far but I gotta have it and whew I'll be ok now 'cuz I've got my stuff.

Jeez! It's not like that! 

An' with me it never will be.

Conditioning

It has come to my attention that I have not been paying attention so much to that which is all around, because I have gotten sooo used to it. This is called conditioning. 
     Conditioning is ubiquitous in our society. It is a way to steer people and processes. Employers use it a lot. 
I would say in a lot of employers' cases, the overall conditioning is 'don't expect much'. ‘Don't think that the workplace can be like home’. ‘Block that possibility out, employees’- and employees do. Employees live in two worlds, really, the one they call home, and the one they call work. It is a rare one indeed who wants to be at work more than at home. Why? Because the work arena is anything but homey. No wonder employees can't wait to get off of work and that they race on the highways back to wherever home is. They want comfort, beauty, quiet, clean, and all the other things that home is. While they all understand that the workplace can never really be home, most of them sense that the workplace can be made more tolerable. 
But, making it better costs money. Anything that costs money has to be approved. Precedents may be set! Caring might be exhibited in an environment where caring is usually doled out by the spoonful. Think I'm exaggerating? Here's an example for you: Most workers want everything. And they want it now. The typical employer response to that is "I will provide you with just enough training, equipment, and manning for you to get your job done, and your reward for dealing with all that is I will buy you pizza!”
  No wonder employees run for the hills the moment they're freed, only to return in the morning for more of the same. 
This is conditioning and it is pervasive. Are many employees disgruntled? You bet. 

Lots of P. I. meetings today….

Amy Syiek- Unsplash.com

But from businesses’ standpoint, they have to have the situation set up in a way that enables them to run their processes safely and efficiently. Employees understand that. They know that the employers are not going to be able to have sofas in a steel mill's foundry, but they also know that they could put them in the break rooms. Could the employees receive some things that would improve their worksite experience, these things being site-determined? If that was done, maybe they wouldn't want to bolt at the end of their shifts. 
Employers can be notoriously cheap when it comes to providing such things, yet they promote 'job satisfaction'. From what I’ve seen and heard, they’re gonna have to do better than that. 
Perhaps if employers got away some from the spartan military barracks mindset, the 'just enough' mindset, and put a little of the comfort of home into their workspaces and areas, site specific, of course, employees would actually enjoy being at work more. Gonna have to figure that out, employers, facility managers. See what works. Here's a motivator for you- think of all the cost benefits of having less turnover, happier workers, less absenteeism, and the spillover effect of happier customers. All this can be yours by investing in visual and physical improvements to the employee areas. Noise reduction. Air conditioning. Better bathrooms. Cleaner facilities. Better seating. Maybe a little music. Better food choices. I could go on. In short, the types of things employees have at home. That's where your workers really want to be, so bring home to them. 
You don't have to go all the way to man cave comfort level, that would be counterproductive 'cuz once there they wouldn't want to leave. But make the break room more inviting than being in a bus station and I think your workers will be more productive. Give 'em restaurant-delivered food options for lunch instead of lunch pails and vending machines. Give 'em some space in the break area. Stuff like that. Ask them what they want and then invest a little money into employee comfort and you won't have to be hosting Process Improvement meetings in some sterile conference room over a coupla boxes of cheapo donuts. Sound good?

I think everybody would like that.

Race To The Top

The chairman of Nissan didn't feel like he was getting paid enough so, with the help of some insider within the company, he appropriated company funds to make up the difference. It wasn't enough that he had four houses, traveled the world on a corporate jet, and dined with heads of state. Scandalous, this was, to the Japanese men who had hired this guy so they fired him. Oh the pain. I guess he'll have to learn how to live on less that his multiple millions of dollars a year salary. 
A buncha expats from Venezuela came to the U.S. awhile back loaded with loot from that country and were livin' large, that is, until the indictments started comin' down. One guy had sixty horses.

The view above my dining room table. Rad, huh?

Jay Lee- Unsplash.com

Now and again, sprinkled throughout the news, are stories like this. But you don't have to plunder a company or a country every day to make up for the difference in newsworthiness between stuff like this and the boring old stories about the mundane lives of ordinary people. 
Take just one regular Joe or Jane and give them a thousand bucks and that is like an OMG moment, according to the news purveyors. "Waitress gets a $1,000 tip from a guy that just ordered coffee!" runs the headline. "Homeless guy gets a free car (that he can now live in)!" "Radio contest winner receives free plane ride to Disneyland, gets to meet members of her fav pro baseball team". Feelgood news. Stuff that makes the little people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
But for the people that have a lot, they need a lot more than that to achieve satisfaction. They raise the bar on what constitutes 'personal contentment'. Over the years I've read many stories about them and this thing called 'greed' continues to irresistably compel. So what is greed, then? It's definitely relative to one's viewpoint. I'm sure the former chairman of Nissan didn't think his actions were a big deal because he compared his salary to the salaries that American CEO's rake in, and sports heros, and figured "Hey! I'm turnin' around a huge company here, not just dribbling a basketball! I deserve more!" and you can't argue with that, can you? I mean, in the world of fat cat crony capitalism, you're losing street cred if you don't bend the pay rules and push the envelope further to keep up with the Dow Jones’. After all, CEO's universally think "I'm leading this thing and competing in the global economy! I should get a helluva lot more than the guy who is just showing up to pull another shift and has, in comparison, light years' less responsibility!" 
Or if you're the one leading the sports team, shouldn't you get more than a defensive lineman, a relief pitcher, or a second stringer that comes in off the bench when ace guard Yours Truly gets into foul trouble?
But what if you're running solo, and people around the whole country are watching as you study how to make your approach shot on the tricky par 5 14th where you got water on the left, a steep dropoff behind the green, bunkers in front, and out of bounds on the far right?
    Can't fault that guy for sidlin' up to the pay window and takin' home a million dollar check for four days of work, can you? After all, a million were entertained. A buck a head!
"But don't worry, average people" say the guys and gals on SportsCenter, on Wall Street, in The Media, and others. "After we dose you with enough shock therapy, you'll get used to it. You'll adapt". 
And amazingly, we have! We average folk have learned to find happiness in lesser arenas. And it is through that lens that we now look upon the Race To The Top with a great deal of curiosity. "What do they hope to gain there?" we wonder. "How much better can it be? I, we, could use a little more, 'tis true, but that much more?"
But maybe it's us commoners that need our mindset's changed, from the ultra wealthy's standpoint. Like when you're on a cruise ship, and that first couple of days you kind of feel guilty that your bed is made for you and the food is right there hot and ready and the dishes get magically whisked away. But, after only three days onboard, you experience a turnaround and start going "Yeah! This is great! and then by the end of the cruise you’re so pampered and lazy you find you're ridiculously ill-prepared to reenter reality, the work-a-day land populated by Do It Yourselfers (‘cuz nobody else will help). Next comes a week or so of post-cruise depression because you are suffering the effects of consuming a mere morsel of the good life. Imagine what being exposed to millions (or billions) would be like! 
So you can't fault the ones who have assumed the perils of huge accumulation and stumbled. Cruise ship commoners know how quickly the conditioning takes and how little resistance they are able to throw in the face of lavishness. Morals and ethics just have to fly out the window when piles of money come your way- or do they?
I guess that's something that can only be individually experienced. I have no direct experience with that (in this lifetime) so I don't know whether or not to thank God for my present condition but......
.....other people have volunteered. They are the guinea pigs, the wayshowers for us on how to handle hefty compensation, whether that compensation has been gained honorably or via some back alley method. Somebody has to embark upon the journey that no present day, present culture man or woman has gone on before, and report back to us.
Perhaps through their pioneering efforts they will be able then to satisfactorily answer the burning question we all have:
"Is it really so much better there?”

Race To The Bottom

        What happened? What is it with some people? What is their attraction for the darker sides of their natures to be experienced? Hasn't the world had enough of that?
What is this compulsion to create drama and spectacle? To pit the bad against the good? Are we stuck with this behavior being played out over and over?
Can they not stand to watch the Hallmark Channel and must instead turn their eyes towards the ultimate fighting pit? Must they always push the edges always in that way, and if what they have uncovered is abhorrent, is there within them the desire still to ramp even that up?

If there's no drama, it seems they become restless and must create some. All the tools for peaceful, harmonious, and abundant coexistence are at the human race’s disposal and yet dysfunction rules the day, at the highest levels, which then trickles down and infects the vulnerable in the populace. When even some of our role models model discord, as if that sort of thing is inevitable, as if there must exist the ‘necessities’ of strife, inequality, and injustice, and then they have the gall to chuckle at it, smug to be on the other side of that equation, is that not then the realm of madmen and fools? I say this kind of thinking is the result of an astounding and appalling failure to accept the responsibility to lead.
    For where can dysfunction and disharmony go but back upon itself to degrade the situation further? If fault can be found outside, in all cases, but not within, what hope is there for correction? Does nature operate in this way, do flowers and trees start out stunted and then flower spectacularly or produce branches and leaves suddenly devoid of imperfection?
  No. So what then can come of imperfect thought but more of the same? There is no 'method in the madness' in a lot of the present day socio-political sphere. 
Reason and compromise have given way to deceit and subterfuge and outright denial of reality. 

I ain’t gamblin’ on unsound versions of reality

Jonathan Petersson- Unsplash.com

     I saw all this coming years ago. I saw the path that certain groupings were walking and knew that it could only lead to this. Look to the recent past, the last dozen decades or so. Weren't there indications of this malaise heading our way? But only recently has it exploded into what is occurring now, an Orwellian nightmare that is desperately trying to establish itself as the 'new normal' if only the populace at large would buy it and if they do, all hope for the human race is lost because the foundation upon which reality is based- truth- will no longer exist. 
   Truth, fact, reality. Like that. This is how we build our foundation. We search for what is true, establish that as fact, build our reality upon it, and repeat. Step by step. 
     Truth has always been under attack by those seeking to subvert, but never so much as it is today. The present situation is like a weather system. The winds of untruth are rising in response to what is coming, a strong, cold, hard dose of truth that will sweep unreality out to sea. It could be the perfect storm, the way it's shaping up. All the forecast models are indicating this. 
    But, don’t worry, truth will prevail, as it always does, because truth is stronger than untruth. Truth is what the universe is based on and though mankind may choose to deny it for awhile and exist in an unreality bubble, that is no match for the greater power of The Universe. 
     So go ahead, fabricators. Create your fantasy worlds, altered histories, and alternative cosmologies all you want. Those will be whisked away by the clearing winds, to be scattered back into the nonsensical regions from whence they came.

I Am Relevant

I think I am. Or I was- yesterday….
Yesterday I was front page news. All the websites were running pictures of me, or at least the relevant websites were. Upon those sites my words carried weight. My image was telling- my gestures, my facial expression, the clothes I had purchased or somehow fabricated. The decisions that I had made, or was mulling over making, created buzz. 
Reporters clamored to hear my words. I was badgered in the hallways, sidled up to, pestered for clues about what I was thinking and where I might go with that thinking. I set policy. I was a decider, a kingmaker, a player.
Others looked up to me. I was a role model, something to aspire to, a leader. I had the right stuff. 
The press couldn't get enough of me and I often had to hide from them. I had bodyguards, read prepared statements, had aides, assistants, underlings, spokespersons, lieutenants, and (it was widely speculated) henchmen. The clergy was (sometimes) on my side. I had clout. 
But I also had my detractors, my enemies. Oh, did they rail against me to anybody who would listen, or read the stories they had written about me! I was endlessly analyzed, over-the-top scrutinized, and even though my history was thoroughly combed over they still couldn't understand what made me tick. I kept 'em guessing and stayed one step ahead. 
I was clever. Smart. Smarter than them, for I was above and they were below. Who was the camera pointing at? Me!
I was relevant. 

Picture books about my life and the impact I had

Designecologist- Unsplash.com

But then one day the camera pointed away. Somebody else had showed up with more interesting things to say or do and try as I might, I couldn’t capture the media's attention anymore. No matter what I did they weren't interested. Power was draining from my brand, my image, my camp, and accumulating in theirs.  
Oh, members of the media would come around from time to time, do follow-up stories on me, see what I was up to, sniff around to see if I had anything that might vault me back into the limelight for if I did their star would rise too but I had nothing of much interest to offer them. 
I had become irrelevant. Even though I was still respected, and would long be, I was not captivating anymore. My star had faded, and it had happened so suddenly! One day I was king of the world, at the head of the conference table, calling the shots, had the ball in my hand, was under the spotlight on stage playing my role, and the next I was obscure. Just another Joe. 
But it was fun while it lasted. I tell everybody in the club here about my former life, my many and varied friends, my family at home, and anybody else I can corral, or I just sit alone and reminisce about my days on top. 
  Lookit there, on the TV! The latest hot new personalities. I kinda feel sorry for them, they're going to get milked for every ounce of interest that they can provide then the machine will discard them. I oughta open a consulting business to help them capitalize on their fame but it's hard to get through, there's such a mob of helpers and enablers around the relevant ones all the time. Never know though, I might get lucky. I'll give so-and-so a call, lay my best pitch on 'im. Got to strike while the iron's hot 'cuz who or what's relevant today probably won't be a year from now. From obscurity to the limelight and back again is the cycle.

Whew! They were right about fame being fleeting!

Gratitude

Seems there is a genr’l lack of this these days, there is a massive sense of entitlement going around. I see it in young and old people but hey I was young once, unconscious once, and had attitude aplenty. 
     But if you've ever had to work for a living boy do you change that tune. 
Not everybody is gonna know what I'm talking about here, there are a few who have never worked in their lives and never will. To those, I say you cannot possibly understand (which is the same thing that parents tell people that don't have kids, interestingly enough). Because, in a way, when you have to work, it's kind of like dealing with kids all the time. The problem child might be your boss, or it might be your coworkers- a lot of working people can relate to that one- but most likely it's the customers you interact with. 
  Things need to get done, employees do it, and customers are the recipients of those efforts. Simple, right?
Should be. But when you throw attitude into the mix, the customer entitlement quality that workers find so annoying, well, that just doesn't make for a good exchange. Yes, we know you paid good money for this, your time is valuable, you're in a hurry, your elderly parent is waiting in the hallway, or the 1,001 other reasons you have but- say it nice. 
That's all you gotta do. 'Cuz I can guarantee you if you don't, that is going to slow things down. Hit the worker bee with not nice and his or her heels are going to dig in. Whatever process, transaction, or function that bee has to fulfill is now going to be done less than joyfully because they have to deal with you. 
Now while it’s true that there are some bad apple worker bees out there, it’s more likely than not that the one you’re dealing with is not naturally surly, woke up in a bad mood that morning, or is in the 1,001 other ways customers imagine, to be ‘shirking their duties', no. 

Dig- If you have to face hundreds of people a day, say you're a checker in a supermarket, a gate agent at the airport, or a pool attendant at a resort, the people with attitude and not gratitude wear on you until you get to the point where you're numb, uncommunicative, and just going through the motions. You’re not really there mentally though physically you have to be- which is the very definition of a zombie.
  This traumatized person is on the road to burnout and probably desperately looking for another job due to all the attitude that has come his or her way. Managers won't step in to curb most disrespectful customer behavior because they’re usually not around and even if they are the caveat 'the customer is always right' (they bring in money) applies, so weathering attitude is the (aptly named) 'front line' employee's burden to bear. This is soooo unnecessary, because all it takes is a little understanding on the customer's part on how to communicate their need(s) in the right way. Say it nice. Have a little consideration. Pour a little sugar on it.

People that work with the public understand how to do this, watch the pros and learn from them next time you're out in the field. They might be getting barraged by some unconscious lout's attitude but they'll never lash out in response. They know how to deal with the children of the world because over time they have learned that the problem isn't that they are being unreasonable. Truly, these ones have developed the patience of saints. Oh, they could tell you stories.....

‘Hey! Uniform! Where’s the bathroom?”

“#$!%#!”

Anna Dziubinska- Unsplash.com

We live in a very fast paced, internet-fueled, Do (a lot of) It Yourself world. It closely resembles a sort of instant gratification convenience store. People don't want to wait for anything. They want to grab and go, and pack in a crazy amount of experiences, but in order for them to do that there has to be other people manning the stores, restaurants, resorts, airports, and doing necessary maintenance and upkeep. The ones on the go should get up in the morning and thank God that these people are smoothing the way for them. While not exactly so grateful that they're stopping to wash these people's feet (the fantasy every worker bee has) the Grab and Go crowd should be awestruck by how blessed they are to be given the ability to move seamlessly through the world, all the necessary support functions being taken care of for them so that they can have their precious experiences. 
So, Me Firsters, the next time you interact with a person that's making it happen for you, try and muster up the ability to be genuinely grateful because that person isn't a robot, or your butler, or ol' Go an’ Gettit. That person is only playing a role for you and someday, if there is any justice at all in this world, it'll be their time to Grab and Go.

And when that time comes, believe me, those who have truly Been There will shower gratitude upon every worker bee that crosses their path.

Bell Bottom Blues

Of all the fashion trends I have ever seen, bell bottom pants were one of the coolest. They were absolute must-haves in the 1960's and '70's. Every teen and young adult wore them. To not have bell bottoms on was to be one of them- The Establishment- which was way uncool, man. 
Along with your bell bottoms you had to have long hair if you were a guy, you just had to. If you didn't, you were part of them. Talkin' 'bout The Establishment, man! 
Women wore hip hugger bells and those were hot, man, were they ever. Hippie chicks were groovy. 
And then......  .....just like that, it all ended. Groovy went out of style. Like overnight, man. 

But that's cool, that's alright, we figured at the time. Fashion never slept and those inventive clothing designers undoubtedly had introduced some (maybe even cooler!) trendy new stuff that had wowed 'em on the runways in the major fashion centers and was trickling down through the populace. This was the way of it. We all knew that. 
Bell bottoms being fashionable had run their course- for now. 

What happened?! We went from funk to Dockers.

Andy Kirby- Unsplash.com

There used to be an ad for Jim Beam whiskey, I think it was, that showed how everything that was in style at one time went out of style then came back into style years later. Trends came and went in a circle. Clothing was: In fashion, Dated, Uncool, Wouldn't be caught dead wearing it, Totally forgotten, Resurrected, Gotta have it at any price 'cuz it's the hot 'new' style. 
The ad was very perceptive and true to life for I saw this cycle play out with most apparel (and hairstyles). At one point early 1960's bowling shirts and shoes became fashionable again. Crew cuts. Capri pants. Bermuda shorts. Thick plastic framed glasses, or thick plastic frame glasses rimmed with wire on the bottom of the lenses, circa 1955, like Mr. Whipple wore (the "Don't squeeze the Charmin!" guy). Gaudy plastic sunglasses (Ferris Bueller's Day Off).
Beards came back. Big, bushy mountain man beards. Ponytails. Platform shoes. Elegant 1940's dresses. Satin sleepwear. Fedoras. Denim shirts. Paisley shirts. The list goes on. But never have bell bottom pants returned. 
Oh, women still wear them from time to time, they're around for that gender. Not as ubiquitous as they used to be, and not always in denim fabric, but they still make bell bottom pants for women. But for men? 
Ha ha ha ha ha! No man would be caught dead wearing bell bottom pants, far as I can see, even if they made 'em for men anymore, which they don’t. Straight leg is all that's on sale, which is the lamest look. 
If you wear Western jeans, you might be able to get away with something called 'boot cut', but that ain't bell bottom. 'Boot cut' is a slight flare, jest enough to get yer boot covered an' no more, 'cuz if'n it were more, you'd be gay or something. 
  "Ain't that right, Jeb?"
"Yessir Clem, that's fer shore right. I'll agree with you there". 

Bell bottoms existed way before Brokeback Mountain and I can guar-an-tee you, gay did not enter into the picture. At all. 
Bell bottom pants were the funkiest, coolest things men ever got away with wearing but some fashionista somewhere decided that men would be better off wearing straight leg jeans, which supposedly came from the punk rock scene, you know, the post-industrial, Euro-trash, gaunt and haggard junkie/squatter look.
Ug-ly! 
Back in the day, only geeks and nerds wore straight leg pants. Hep jive cat laid back dude hippie brothers wore bell bottoms. Shaft wore bell bottoms, and Shaft was the most Right On! brother ever to set hisself behind the wheel of a Lincoln Mark V, which was a boat of a car, so righteously big that you almost needed the Coast Guard's help to park it. 
The things young people don't know these days! You don't know of the rich history behind some articles of clothing and the options that could be available to you! I am so continuously amazed by this. People nowadays will cover their entire bodies with tats, shave their heads bald, wear piercings everywhere, choose nearly every conceivable piece of clothing ever known to humankind to create an 'outfit' with and not only that, they will wear it with pride. They will even walk around in florescent orange, green, and pink shoes and think nothing of it but men will not wear bell bottom pants!

  Why not?!

They seem to have no problem wearing everything else!

Undignified

Dignity is defined as the quality of being worthy of honor and respect. How does this apply to the overall American condition?
There seems to be a great lack of dignity these days, compared to the days of olde, which weren't so very long ago. The flowery prose of cultured English writers and the writings of American statesmen of the 17 & 1800's were awash in carefully crafted elucidations of the inherent nobility of man but since then we've backslid terribly, in my estimation. No longer are there high hopes that mankind, given the support of education, the guidance of chosen religion, and the nourishment that comes from proper governance, can grow into distinguished creatures. Nowadays man is just a commodity, common, and though we still claim to be setting the cultural standard- proudly saying that America is the 'Number One Country In The World', the actual way we treat our citizens shows that we have a long way to go. 

We’re not turkeys! We’re EAGLES!

Tof Mayanoff- Unsplash.com

We talk about 'basic human dignity' as if there was an acceptable level of this quality, and as competitive Americans are wont to do, we set the bar for such acceptability low and claim that the lesser ones are being treated appropriately. Are they? 
While 'tis true that some individual citizens can't be raised up very far due to their having non-conformity issues, say their mental abilities might be subpar, we seem perfectly able to classify whole groups of people as being not worth more than basic consideration. “To the most competitive go the spoils and it must be that way lest the competitive ones lose their edge and they themselves be dominated” is the belief.

There's a lot of fear there, fear is driving this. God forbid that any of the ultra-competitive should adopt a softer stance for to do so would be to expose a weakness. That's why we're Number One- we let no possibility escape our ability to exercise it, play with it, try it out in real life. This keeps us one step ahead of ‘the competition’, inside this country or without. Don't mess with me or us, 'cuz we're masters of the craft of craftiness. 
  Can we drop that sort of thinking? It has served us in the past, very well, but it hobbles us in moving forward. Many progressive countries in the world have shown that they can be competitive and raise the social standards bar. But never mind that, many Americans say. We've covered our messy moral obligations. What more do you want? The less capable, willing, or cunning have their 'basic human dignity’ needs met. 
At least they have that.
They have the minimal acceptable degree of honor and respect. That should be enough. Any more than that has to be earned by achievement. Greater honor and respect must be given those who advance themselves and/or the overall human condition. The more capable and active participants deserve it. 
Okay. I can see sense in that sort of reasoning but again, I would have to say that the bar that measures basic human dignity has been steadily lowered over time, and when in political, business, and social arenas there exist wildly divergent positions on what constitutes 'honor' and 'respect' it says a lot about where we as a country stand. When the gap between the rich and the not so is incomprehensibly vast, the justification is always "At least those at the bottom are treated with basic human dignity". 
Nah. Nobody really believes that. Basic human dignity is under attack in these times and what has been offered up as such is not what We The People would ever choose, if they were given a choice. It's that simple. 
Conditioning the populace to be content with meager and miserly shares blinds them to the glaring amount of honor and respect that this country is capable of providing. Fulfilling the vision, the lofty ideals the Founding Fathers had for this pristine and beautiful gift of a country, filled with so much potential, costs money so ‘be content with less’ is the message.

Be satisfied with your lot because at least you have your 'basic human dignity' needs met.

Hogwash, say I! We deserve much better.

Throwing Their Weight Around

Power has been in the news lately. Lotta people out there are doing a lot of big things. 

Farmers in North Dakota are sitting on huge piles of soybeans because their number one buyer, China, won't purchase them due to a tariff on that commodity issued by you know who. Wow. 
Elon Musk is busy boring a tunnel under Los Angeles (you can get permission to do that?) and, oh, building a mega factory in the Nevada desert and um, launching rockets into space. Triple wow. 
A cryptocurrency multi-millionaire wants to build a utopian community in the desert pretty close to Elon's mega factory, the kind of a place where drone delivery will be commonplace and all sorts of other innovative technologies will be incorporated into the city at it's inception, the list of those innovations being very long. A lotta stuff to think about, plan, and do- and a huge budget to do it with. 
China's leader is placing images of himself all over the country, and kind of being in people's faces about it, but you can do that sort of thing when you're the absolute ruler. 
Strongmen here and there are having their way and it ain't too pretty, what they're up to, but who's gonna stop 'em? Anybody around them cowers even thinking that.

Get it? I’m the boss.

Lopez Robin- Unsplash.com

Governorships changed hands in a bunch of states last night, people are going to be moving into 'the governor's mansion' in those states. Imagine that, moving into 'the governor's mansion'.

Or being on the news five nights a week, bringin' it home to millions of viewers just how things ought to be done around here. Or sitting on The Board of Directors, at the head of the conference table, deciding which corporate tasks are going to be delegated down to your lieutenants.

There's more. 

People are deciding who gets who's project funded, how the budgetary pie is going to be sliced, spending time in closed door sessions, trying to open closed lands for mining, passing rulings on contentious issues with nationwide implications, and then eating at some restaurant where the commoners go at the end of an impactful day. 
They're flying in private jets, or in chartered government ones, around the country or the world, to survey the damage from the latest storm, shake hands with foreign leader(s) who may or may not be hostile to their views, or to consult with the managers that are heading overseas operations.

Powerful people are heading delegations to third world countries that might be the recipients of massive infrastructure loans, those loans to be granted in order to receive some of the precious natural resources that those countries possess in return. 
They're at the helm of data giants, where global internet traffic is probably displayed in some sort of Hollywood-sized, gleaming, high-tech, multi-screened command center.
They're strolling onstage at mega churches, to packed houses, to deliver to the faithful the word that God gave them to give this day.
They're dangling the prospect of moving the headquarters or production or fulfillment centers of their companies in front of drooling city council members and county and state representatives. 
They're heading media and gaming companies, making high dollar decisions about funding a multitude of creative endeavors that are going to be seen by millions of consumers.

All this and more has been in the news lately, which I think is pretty amazing, because it's just happening and physically, I didn't lift a finger to assist.

But energetically,

well…..

….I might have had some involvement.

World Wind Map

A long time back I was searching for a website that featured the local weather. There were many to choose from and so I tried each one out. Because I live on an island, and can go to virtually any point on it, days out might have stormy, wet weather on one side, while on the other it could be nearly calm and dry. So it's good to know. 
The Weather Channel never really covers the weather on the island chain of Hawaii so you have to get local weather, and the best one I've found is one that I tell everybody about, and that is a simple site called Glenns Daily Weather Narrative. If you want to know what is going on weather wise 'roun here and why, this is the site to peruse. 
It's put out daily by a guy that knows his stuff and though I've tried for years to understand things he writes about called 'trough's and 'ridge's and other stuff I still don't quite get it because those things are invisible- plus they interact. I have seen evidence of them in cloud formations though, and can at least understand the basics of why it's raining and humid or partly cloudy and dry and all that. 

Trade wind direction

Jordan Ladikos- Unsplash.com

Anyway, what I discovered through this site is a thing called the World Wind Map. You can find it at earth.nullschool.net. Wind speeds and directions are shown in real time on a rotatable and zoomable map of the earth. This thing is fascinating to look at, you could hang it on the wall like it's moving art. Over the last few years I have tracked hurricanes, cold fronts, high pressure systems, and the like. I have also found out things about the earth that I didn't know existed: 
There are almost always thunderstorms just south of us in a belt that extends along the equator. 
The southern hemisphere's seas are windy. A series of storms continuously circumnavigate the south pole because there is no landmass to disrupt them. If I were a sailor, I would avoid the southern hemisphere's oceans. 
There's almost always a low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska. 
It's at least twice as windy on the open ocean than it is on land. Rarely is the wind on land moving at 20 mph, but on the ocean it's common. 

The World Wind Map displays in real time, all the time. Scientists put this thing together, I’m sure, because the technology was there and they wanted to know. For them it must have been a real eye opener. And thanks to their (and Glenns’) scientific bent, I was able to discover something that I never knew existed. But scientists measure far more than just the wind. There are a few other maps to peruse on Glenns’ site, and I think with a little search engine work you could find numerous other real time maps on the internet. 
Climate data is at these scientists' fingertips so I know they are tracking any anomalies. If they say the earth is warmer than it was twenty years ago I would be inclined to believe them, because they are tracking and charting so many things, quite fastidiously. 

Just sayin'

Day In The (waning) Life

"Ah yesss, yesss. Another fine day dawns. Hmm.... What shall I do this day? Ahh- sir! Sir! Could you bring me another jelly donut?"
"Right away". Waiter scurries over to the pastry rack. Coming back, he is met by another question.
"And could you refill my coffee, please?"
"Yes sir. More coffee"
Freddy Flounder looks out upon the street. He sees his pal Gabby Hayes strolling up to the gate, and entering the cafe’s entranceway. 
"Over here, over here, my good man" Freddy calls out. "Ahh. Yesss, yesss. Sit down. I saved a spot for you"
Gabby sits. "Howzit, Freddy?"
"Another glorious day of retirement. Ahh yesss"
Two more friends of Freddy's enter the cafe, Benny Dawson and Eddie Peters, making it now four at the table. 
"Waiter" Freddy yells. "Three cups of Joe for my friends here. And bring some creamer with you, please"
"Right away, sir"
Freddy turns to his pals. "Isn't this the greatest? The world turning without us having to lift a finger?"
Eddie Peters agrees. "You bet. I got all the time in the world now. Used to be I was pressed for time but no more. The wife and I are gonna take a road trip next week. Visit some friends over in Scranton"
"The beauty of retirement" Benny cuts in, "is that we don't have to do jack anymore. Everything is done for us! I feel like a frickin' king"
"You got that right" Gabby says, joining in. "For the rest of my days, lazy days! Lookit out on the street here at all the shmucks going to work! Not us anymore!"

Freddy and Gabby

Shane Rounce-Unsplash.com

An obviously still-working guy enters the cafe and strides briskly up to the front counter.
"Looks like that guy is pressed for time" Freddy says, pointing him out. "I can tell by the way he's desperately searching for somebody to take his order that he's in a hurry. I used to be like that"
"Me too" Benny says. "But now I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere! Except maybe off the first tee!"
Chuckles all around. 
"Say Freddy" Benny says, jabbing him in the shoulder. "Poker's at your house this week, right?"
"Sure. Same time as usual. 6:00. I'll have the room set up with hard liquor, ashtrays, and... uh... what kind of chow you guys want? Mexican?"
"Sounds good'
"I'm okay with that"
"Me too"
"Alirght. 6:00 then, my place"
The impatient patron at the counter gets his coffee and pastry to go and hurries towards the exit. Waitress cries out "Sir- you left your phone!"
Freddy, seeing this, laughs. 
"Lookit workin' man over there! I used to be like that guy, always rushing, never any spare time, for 37 years! And for what?"
"So youse could play poker with us on Tuesday nights?" Gabby jokes.
"No" Freddy turns serious. "I wasn't thinking about playing poker with you louts on Tuesday nights. I was just praying that I'd survive my time in the shark tank. Every week was a struggle, every working day a pain"
Knowing nods to this all around. Freddy continues.
"You know, if I had to do it all over again...."
Benny groans. "You'd probably do it different!"
"You bet I would" Freddy growls, in response to Benny's 'heard it all before' jab. "What a waste of time working was! I never understood if I was making a profit for the company or not, how they calculated my worth to the company. I still don't know what my 'worth' is. Damn company brainwashed me....."
"Yeah, uh, me too" Eddie pipes up. "What exactly was my time worth? Not a heckuva lot, compared to some people"
"And that poor schumck headin' for the exit without his phone a minute ago probably doesn't know what he's worth either" says Freddy. “Nobody knows. Each company sets a value on your time compared with a bunch of factors- what other employees in the same line of work are paid, the availability of labor, whether they have to pay for general labor or skilled, the various and sundry costs of doing business like advertising, raw materials, maintenance, and packaging, the number of employees they have, the greed or generosity of upper management, the lease on the building, or on the fleet, the cost of equipment, the taxes they have to pay, you name it. It's pretty easy to be devalued when you're on the shop floor or out on the road, away from the office and the actual profit and loss statement. Accountants and managers- some of them- are privy to that information while the rest of us live by the old saying "Employees are like mushrooms. Kept in the dark and fed s___”.
     Put a pile of cash, physical or virtual, in front of a management team and how much of that do you think makes it past their outstretched bonus-and-perks hands? Not much. There's a massive lack of transparency in business, it's built into the system. I woulda like to have seen that change in my time working for The Man but true transparency is probably the last thing that's ever gonna happen"
"Why the hell didn't you start your own business then, like I did?" Gabby retorted. "I've heard sob stories like this all my life"
"I thought I had it good, compared to what people around me had" replied Freddy. "I didn't feel that changing jobs was a good idea, and starting a business seemed too risky"
"Serves you right then" Gabby smugly replied.
"I had bills to pay, there were things I wanted to buy" Freddy continued. "Unlike you, I wanted my weekends free so I could go out on dates and party"
"Ach, it's all water under the bridge" Eddie jumped in. "It don't matter anymore! You get old, you sit around, and you end up thinkin' too damn much. Who wants more coffee?"
"Not me" Benny says, rising from his chair. "I gotta get going. Gotta take the wife shopping today for gardening stuff"
"Uh, yeah, I gotta get goin' too" Gabby says, taking Benny's cue. "Gotta knock down about a week's worth of grass"
Eddie too decides it's a good time to push back. "Guess I'll see you all at six" he says, looking around. "I gotta go take a leak, then a walk"
Freddy says his goodbyes then watches his buddies go. "Sure woulda done it differently back then" he thinks. "If I only woulda had the gumption to do it! Coulda, woulda, shoulda! But, it don't matter now. Good or bad, it's all water under the bridge. At least I can make what's left of my life count by trying to drop all that unworthiness crap I was conditioned into believing about myself!"

#@$!+!# Socialists!

Somewhere inside lies the salon d’elegance

David Svihovec- Unsplash.com

  Security Adjunct Cedrick Floom addressed He That Shall Not Be Named.
       "Sir?"
      An aide quickly jumped up and whispered in Cedrick's ear something about using the correct protocol, to which Cedrick nodded.
"Sire?”
"Yes?" Replied He That Shall Not Be Named
      "Faux News has alerted us to the presence of numerous Socialist camps within our borders!"
"Damn! As if we didn't have enough trouble with the Immigrant Caravan! Where is that disgrace, anyway?"
      "At present, just south of Guajalhara, a day's walk from the border checkpoint at Brownsville, Texas"
      "Keep 'em there until just before the election. Now, about these Socialists. Who are they led by, what are there intentions, and how in the hell do we either A. Get rid of them or B. Turn them into election worthy newsbites?"
"There is no per se 'leader' of the Socialists, Sire. But there are those that the Socialists look up to, and at the top of that list is a man named Dwendel Apfulshuk" 
"What do we know about him?"
"Well, Sire, in Socialist circles he's kind of like their hero, their legend. Living"
     "Can we make him not living?"
     "Is that a joke, Sire?"
"Of course it's a joke! Tell me more about Apfulshuk, his beliefs, and all that. Hurry though- I've got a 1:15 tee time"
"Mr. Apfulshuk refuses to adopt a mortgage, and urges his followers to do the same. He eschews traditional American home ownership in favor of a nomadic existence. He is at present camped on the outskirts of Fairville, Kentucky, and is surrounded there by many of his fervent followers. They appear to be the kind of people we should be very careful in handling. Most of them are white, and approaching retirement, but are not quite there yet"
      "Voters!"
"Precisely, Sire."
"Christian?"
     "Many are, some aren't. We have tried to plant agents in their camp to subvert and convert. It's just not taking. They seem to be very fired up by Aphulshuk's views"
      "They won't buy into the system? Real estate is my system! It's been very good to me. So many of my crony pals depend on their income properties, and the tax breaks those generate. Can the military be called in?"
      "To forceably move Apfulshuk and his followers? Super bad P.R., Sire. They are totally law abiding"
      "Isn't there a law somewhere about taking on a mortgage?"
"No, Sire. Mortgages are not yet a requirement"
      "Then let's get my people in the Senate to work on changing that. Meanwhile, isn't there something we can do? Hate to see the Democrats latch onto a rallying point. Can we starve them out?"
"No chance, Sire. They're living comfortably on Little Caesars $5 pizzas, 2 for $5 Burger King Whoppers, and $1.49 Costco hot dogs. Benefactors bring them food from these purveyors, and many others, from time to time"
     "Hate to piss off Costco.... ....hmm...  ...Okay, I've thought about it for a minute, time to Tweet something...."
     "Perhaps you should wait, Sire" 
     "I never wait. Give me my phone!"

     It was right at the moment that Apfulshuk was adressing a crowd of ne'r do wells in the middle of the Fairville County campground. 
     "You, you band of beautiful ruffians and modern day Artful Dodgers! This is your time! Time to bust the system that has failed you! Decades of inaction by the States and Congress has created the unaffordable housing crisis that plagues our nation this day. Investors and home flippers have only aggravated this problem by taking the available supply of homes totally out of the reach of the working class. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. We don't need to march on City Hall though- City Hall needs to march to us! They need us to buy houses, assume mortgages, pay our property taxes, and support their corrupt system. No more, say I! I would rather live in my RV! Are you with me?!"
    "Where shall we settle? cried a far thinker in the crowd.
"We shall summon our bretheren across the country and journey with them en masse to Mexico! Across the border of oppression we'll flee where we can live in a less expensive clime and once there, realize the fruits of our pensions and savings! No more shall we simply exist!"

     And so it was that now two caravans, great in number, approached the border.

     One wanting in, the other wanting out.

She's Got Legs

Watched a show about the DCC last night, and everybody knows the DCC- the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. 
Usually when they do football game promos, or live broadcasts of games, the DCC are shown, but only briefly and from a guy perspective that is never enough so “Kaboom!” along comes a show about the DCC where you get to watch 'em all you want. 
As you can imagine, it ain't easy to be one of the DCC. Tears are shed aplenty for only a few can make it to the squad of 36. Years of cheerleading practice beforehand is what you gotta do if you want to make it to the top. Long, wavy hair is a plus, and good looks definitely, but critical are the long shapely legs that you must be able to do high kicks with, and full extension level-with-the-ground squats, because as a member of the DCC, you gotta represent.
Represent what? Every guy football fan in the stands’ fantasy, I guess. Supermodels that can dance and smile and are there for ya, and whew boy one of these ladies on your arm would be like hittin' the lottery. 
I'm sure that for the ladies it's the same way. You're gonna date the best if you're on the squad, which may or may not be for very long because sooner or later you're gonna cash in and leave and then the next DCC cheerleader will show up to replace you. It's a lot like life. Fresh talent- and many still single!- appears every new season.

Cheerleaders dress like this

Bruce Mars- Unsplash.com

Along that line of thought, as if the early twenties dating scene wasn't hot enough already, why not make it incandescent? Those peak physicality cheerleaders decorating the field down there just might be available. They are packaged by the league as wholesome, down home young women so why not make your way down to see if any of them are interested in going out? Or, where are those nightclubs that they go to located and can I get past the ropes? 
The answer to those three questions is that fan access to the squad is probably made nigh impossible, those hidden nightclubs aren't open to the general public, and even if you came across one you wouldn't get past the ropes. There's a secret parallel world called the sports celebrity world where all of that Xanadu and Great Gatsby stuff the players partake in takes place and the entrance doors where those fat bankroll folks hang out are probably opened wide to any members of the cheerleading squad. 
Maybe that's why all the DCC members were giddy with happiness upon making the squad because they just got their golden ticket to the jet set ride of a lifetime which is so fast moving that ordinary people, upon seeing it, would only see a cloud of activity, those within the cloud moving at or near the speed of light.
But you can't say the cheerleaders didn't work and train for it for oh yes they did. They had to compete against each other for a spot on the squad, and every year they have to requalify. The two old hand cheerleading coaches overseeing things, I think they were former DCC members themselves, know what to look for, know what the right moves to make are, what the right qualities to beam out are, what the right attitude to proclaim to the world is, and some cheerleader candidates got it right off the bat but most of them only got some of 'it' and gain the rest by experience. 
Confidence, presence, and physicality to the Nth degree.  

Why, as a football game ticket buyer, if I came into Texas Stadium and saw a bunch of white hot pants wearing, white cowboy boots sporting, blue star-studded halter top jiggling, long hair waving, perfect teeth smiling, super athletic long legged women dancing and totally into it I would think that I had either A. Died and arrived in heaven or B. Had a chance because, hey, they're looking right at you, actually paying you attention, and that is every man's fantasy. it'd be hard as hell to take your eyes off of 'em and watch the game. 

While players dress for the elements

Jeremy Lin- Unsplash.com

I'm awfully glad that somebody had the idea to make this show because it gave me a behind the scenes look at the DCC world, which is the equivalent of a private tour of the Vatican or getting an invite to a series of parties after Oscars night. 

What just might be coming up next, since Netflix and Amazon and the others are hot to produce these expose shows, might be something like: 

'Private Clubs Of The Super Athletes' 

where a camera crew gives us an inside look at that hyper-exclusive world, full of athletes and rap stars and cheerleaders and tech guys and actors and the like. It would answer a burning question that has been on a lot of viewers minds, which is: "How do they spend their Saturday nights?"
And could we follow some of them as they went through the rest of their week? (but pul-eeze don't give us fake stuff where a bunch of B actors are hangin' around the pool at somebody's lush crib pretendin' that they are livin' the life 'cuz that is unreality TV).

  I'd really like to see something like that. I know it would cause me and many other viewers some serious pain and might even trigger moments of outrage because the subjects would be fully flaunting their insanely large incomes but you know the old saying: "If it don't kill ya, it'll only make ya stronger". Also, seasoned producers would know to occasionally throw in shots of the featured person hanging with family and friends so as to make it the old 'the one lucky member of the family' scenario and bring things down to a level that viewers could actually relate to. It could be your brother or sister!

So lay it on me, content providers. Surviving 'Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders'- Making The Cut' was tough, but I think after seeing this that I'm game for anything else you might want to throw my way.

Hostile Territory

I left my hideout wearing the appropriate uniform and carrying an attitude to match it, which would hopefully fool everybody for I was to be an infiltrator this day. Deep within enemy lines I was going to go. 
Dressed as a member of the Operation Center's motor pool, I drove away from my hideout but was tailed near immediately. I was not used to operating during daylight hours and maybe I had already blown my cover so I accelerated coolly but briefly, then pulled over slightly and waved my (now two) tailgaters to pass. They passed me by and kept going- while I breathed a sigh of relief.
Driving towards my objective, the stream of traffic I found myself in was heavier than I had anticipated and it was moving fast so I blended into the pack and matched their speed to remain unnoticed until abruptly peeling off, like they often did, indicating that their (and now my) objective was in sight. I pulled silently into the Operations Center's vast parking lot, and made my way towards the facility.

Just one of the gang

Gabriel Amaral- Unsplash.com

A few officers and some enlisted personnel eyeballed me curiously, or gave me hard stares, as I entered the Operations Center. It was not normal to see ones of my rank checking out equipment at this hour but it occasionally occurred, due to some ranking member being Away On Leave or even AWOL, so even though I was a curiosity, I wasn't challenged. Were I to be, I knew the appropriate lingo to use for I had been studying my target for quite some time. 
Leaving the Operations Center two minutes later, I climbed into a transport, started it, and began to drive. Personnel at the Operations Center Exit Gate eyeballed me for second, then waved me through. I or someone like me had been seen driving a transport before, it was nothing new, though it was unusual to see a motor pool member other than one of the usual few. 
Whew. I was in. Making my rounds between the airport landing site (Adam 17), base (Charlie 16), and a few others, I called in the appropriate radio codes. My voice was unfamiliar to the long-term personnel at the Ops Center but my delivery was flawless for I had practiced calling these radio codes back in my hideout, and due to that, I was not challenged in any way. 
A few hours in, I knew I was likely to ace it because so far, my mission had been a success. I actually found myself getting bored. Infiltrating the OPs Center motor pool had been easy, but I knew I had to stay sharp. Eyes were occasionally on me, studying me, perhaps thinking that I would attempt to return again (should I be so bold) on the morrow. These watching eyes I could not trust for I sensed malice in them and they made me very nervous. I told myself to remain aloof and act natural, but it was difficult. I could feel them scanning me, puzzled as to why I was there, and maybe going so far as to approach me and ask questions, or check the duty roster. I had my alibi at the ready and was prepared at any moment to use it but this game of cat and mouse continued in a tense, unspoken way, neither I nor they giving any clue as to what the next move would be. 
It was in this way that the remainder of my time behind enemy lines passed, until I had gathered up all the resources I had infiltrated the base for. Exiting much the same way I came in, I saw ones of my rank walking my way. I dodged them until I was safely again in the parking lot, lest they accidentally identify me through hailing me in greeting and break my cover. 
Soon I was racing away from the Operations Center, my mission a smashing success! I had achieved my objective-

  Pulling a shift on DAYSHIFT.

It's All Made Up

All of it is. The whole damn thing. There is no right way or wrong way there is just what was decided upon by whoever was calling the shots at the time, and then that guy or faction died, was overrun, was deposed, died out, was succeeded by _____ and then he/she built on what was already created or tore it all down or burned it or an earthquake took it or whatever and it was rebuilt and so on. 
Three hundred years ago, give or take, there was nothing here in the ol' U.S.of A. 'cept bands of Native Americans but they weren't called 'Americans', they had other names they called themselves and they had their thing own going. 
In Europe things were different. There were more permanent structures built by people who had lived and ruled there from before, but now were only ruins, as the shifting fortunes of various wannabe rulers had expanded and lost empires and such many times, so much so that the mapmakers of the time had been kept busy drawing the currently agreed-upon borders. This river, that range of mountains, that strategic valley or pass was 'ours', or maybe it was 'their's, but not for long- or for forever- by any means. 
In Asia it was the same way pretty much 'cept for Japan, protected by the sea from invaders and marauders. India had been protected too, with the Himalayas along their Northern border. 
Vast Africa had been hostile to invasion and empire building due to desert, disease, jungle, and no real network of transportation. It was hard to conquer, and even harder to rule, so why bother?    
Few did. 
Australia! So isolated that nobody went there for centuries, and when they got there, they had to build everything from scratch. 
And who knows if any civilizations preceded the ones historians have evidence of, those lost civilizations buried under sand, ice, and sea.
As of this writing, the only thing agreed upon worldwide that I can readily think of is time. What time is it? Other than that, nothing else is as universally accepted or kept exactly, precisely, the same. Cars are cars but each country has different makes and models. Food is food but each country, and region therein, cooks it or throws it together differently. Electrical voltages, systems of measuring volume, temperature, and speed vary from place to place. What the exact same item is even named.
Nothing is static, all is evolving (or de-volving, sad to say, in some areas) and the show goes on 24/7, 365.

Nice to look at but no street parking

Aldric Rivat- Unsplash.com

It would be interesting to see the entirety of this in time lapse, which is what historians try and do for us, documentarians try and visually present to us, they try and distill this lengthy process into comprehensible bites that we can take in. They bring us the short version, the salient points, the synopsis of events. Not the 'How It's Made' but "How It Was Made' for enquiring minds want to know those kinds of things. 
Take the gentrification of a city. If we know how that occurs, we can prevent it from happening, nip it in the bud, stop the process, reverse it, and keep the city vibrant and alive. 
How did San Francisco, a favorite city of mine and a good example, become overrun with homeless? Why are rents spiraling out of control there? 
City planners didn't have the analytical tools to alert them to such potentially undesirable outcomes in real time before but they have them now. They can collect data and track trends. They don't have to let systems devolve in order to understand them later, which was sort of the old, slow way of doing things.
  Case studies of neighborhoods becoming overtaken by wealthier residents go back to Roman times. Crowded working class neighborhoods became neighborhoods containing only villas there, thus the term 'Gentry' as in 'having the dough to buy you bums out and renovate' which was turned into the term 'Landed Gentry' of Olde England and has become the 'tech giants/Airbnb passive investor phenomenon' going on in San Francisco today. 'Gentrification' is the catch-all term which covers this seemingly non-understandable, highly complex, and politically volatile issue, yet it, like everything else, is totally malleable. Causes and their resulting effects can be pinpointed more easily these days and solutions can be proposed, enacted, or at least tried out.
Delving into the fine details of the process of gentrification as it applies to each unique city ain't exacly my forte, I'm more of a theoretical kind of guy, but there are people of such bent who can show you on the internet the reasons they think San Francisco has devolved into the city it has become today. (New York too. And many others). 
If there was ever a maxim that applies to how society functions, that simplifies the seemingly complicated, it is this:
"Remember- It’s All Made Up!” 
(And in real estate's case, cause and effect is not shifting around like in three card monte, that game where you try and guess what's under one of the cups when the street hustler stops moving them around. Real estate is a stationary target) 

The Great Immigrant Caravan

They came from all over, looking for a place with manicured neighborhoods, nice cribs that would handsomely shelter them from the elements, jobs that would give them spending money far above just necessities, and uber-security from rank criminal elements. Their goal was to reach Fat City.
     By boat they came, by land, and by air. Catching sight of the Statue of Mr. Moneybags in the harbor they felt like they were almost there and then those in the halls of power closed the door. "Not In Our Backyard" said they.
"Where shall we go?" said the leader of the caravan, for they had by then assembled and elected a leader to represent them. 
      "Back to wherever you came from" said those representing Fat City.
"But...."
"No buts. Go"
     And so they went, back to where they came from. They blended back into the countries that they had tried to emigrate from, and things were all good and well for the people in Fat City, for they were safe. No gang thugs, anchor babies, stealing of jobs, contrarian political views, clamoring for unearned benefits, or being burdens on the existing system in any way.
        Life went on. 
        And then one day, not long afterward, the people in Fat City started noticing a decline in vitality. Necessary services weren't being provided in a timely manner. Even though those service jobs were heavily advertised almost nobody in Fat City wanted them. Of any actual candidates to fill those positions there were very few, and then to further the malaise, Fat City and other cities needing people to man their many and varied open positions got into bidding wars with each other, and the bidding was intense. Yet still the shortage of available labor was great. A.I. was supposed to have prevented this but A.I. could only fill so many slots, and it was expensive. What to do, what to do?

“I’m not seeing a welcome sign. You said there’d be a welcome sign”

Scott Dukette- Unsplash.com

     Perhaps the door should be opened somewhat, said some, the door to immigration again, but those few brave ones risked censure for uttering such heresy. Their reputations could be attacked, now that they had spoken. 
     "No" said the ones in positions of opening the door. "We cannot. Our standard of living is threatened by any change in the social order (and balance of power) that we have established. We would rather struggle with the labor shortfall than allow residency. Our solution is we will offer temporary residency. For a time, they can live here, then they must leave"
         "Who wants that?" said the concerned. 
          "They that want to live here do. We will offer them jobs that don't pay very well, but.... ...compared to the wages in their home countries, they will feel like kings. We will rotate them in, then rotate them out. Don't worry- they'll be 'rich' when they get sent back, they’ll take their savings with them. While they're here they will live in zones that we will establish, contract labor zones, though they won’t be mentioned as such"
          "Sounds totally impractical and frightfully expensive. Are you talking labor camps? Who would ever want to live in a place like that?"
         "Our way or the highway"
         "I think they'd rather keep going on their caravan. They don't want temporary anything".

And that's the crux of it, isn't it? Whether it be neighborhoods as welcoming as labor camps, or tent cities, or homeless shelters, or 'outpatient mental health treatment', dealing with the problem of human affairs in a half-assed manner only keeps people on the road (or living next to it).
      As to the mobile ones, on the road they will be, heading for whichever country will take them in, until they can get to a place where they can actually have a decent sort of life. No place like Fat City or any other wants to deal with the problem, but people keep being born and the problem only gets bigger. The current immigrant caravan story that’s playing out now won't stay on the front page very long but it, and others like it, show no sign of going away.