TheModernMoron podcast

The Modern Moron is very excited to have a high school senior as a guest on this episode. We talk about how it sucks to be a senior in a pandemic. How about that word… "sucks"? Expressions for what is cool or hip or "bad"... remember when if something was "bad" that meant it was good? But the term "sucks" seems to have remained a constant in the vernacular of teens everywhere. Doesn't that make you feel good?

We talk about being a student. What it's like to head into college not knowing exactly what you want to study. We also stumble upon the subject of "mean girls". From preteen through middle school and high school, there is this "mean girl" mentality. It really makes me curious about the why's of the mean girl mentality.

I have a couple of articles that I reference, the links are at the bottom of the show description as always.

One article is from WebMD, which I consider to be a reasonable source. The other is from Psychology Today Magazine. Here is one paragraph I found very interesting:

"Girls start from a point of weakened self-esteem: 69 percent of girls between the ages of 7 and 21 feel they are "not good enough," according to a 2016 Girls' Attitude Study. Many younger ones already know the pain of exclusion and instant reputation loss via social-media outlets. The same study done in 2017 revealed that half of the 7-to-10-year-olds worried about being bullied online. A University of Oxford study of boys and girls' technology use makes the concern over our daughters being bullied seem very wise: Girls aged 8 to 18 spend more time on their cellphones socializing than do boys, who focus more on playing video games."

This is obviously exacerbated by this pandemic. Our children are online more and there using technology to socialize to some degree. I think??? Video games have become much more of a social activity with online gaming… do you other old farts even know about this. I remember my guests brother playing Mine Craft 5 to 7 years ago online with his friends wearing a headset. That's the way kids play and socialize now. My daughter plays a bunch of games in a platform called Roblox. They socialize while they're playing. So far my rule is, no headphones or at least limit the use of headphones. I can't be looking over her shoulder constantly, neither of us wants that. But I can listen to what the hell is going on and if I hear something I don't like I can crash the party.

The following is in an article from greatschools.org titled, "Why are those girls so mean?"

"Of course, not all girls are nasty and belong to cliques. But whether or not they are "in" or "out," all girls will be affected by the actions of cliques because these behaviors are all around them. They need to understand how this social pecking order works, how they can act differently in their relationships and rise above it."

Technology makes it easy for kids to be anonymous in their meanness, and spread rumors and gossip like wildfire far beyond the school grounds. And with the ease of use, 1) they don't realize what they are doing, and 2) they can't take it back."

I'm not offering any solutions or even opinions really, just something to look at that we all know is already there, hopefully with some resources I've found that maybe you haven't looked at yet.

"They think they're better than everyone". I would say, since I know SO much about the opposite sex, that these "mean girls" don't think they're better than everyone. I have a feeling they might be very afraid and insecure that they aren't even close to being as good, as nice, as pretty, as funny, as ANYyone; they're not as good as or worthy. It becomes a panicked anxiety and the coping method that seems to work for them (temporarily) is to belittle everyone around them, to protect the what little low self esteem they have. They're self esteem rises relative to you after I put you down.

Any new person introduced to the group, especially another girl, represents a threat to their status in the group. If I belittle you, I preserve my status. If I allow you into the group, there is a chance you will displace me and lower my status. It's a survival mechanism. Maybe there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way we view bullies. Bullies are crying out for help. They're completely afraid of losing whatever status they think they've built up. They're very sad people and they don't need to be. Most of us… I mean them… did I say us? That was totally a … whatever. Um, what were we talking about?

But why girls more than boys? Is it that way? A lot of male bullying is structured and even sanctioned on the athletic field. Trash talking is a form of bullying isn't it? How far do you have to go… or how far can you go, before you get called for unsportsmanlike conduct? Quite a ways if it's team sports. If I can get inside your head and mess up your game, make you think I'm better than you or that you are going to fail, that's a psychological win isn't it? Icing the kicker in football is a legit strategy. Maybe they should call it bullying the kicker. I mean after all, it's the kicker right, they're not even real football players anyway right? See, I did it right there.

I wonder if this mean girl syndrome is as prevalent with girls who are active on athletic teams as with girls who do not participate in sports. And for now I'm going to say cheerleading doesn't count. Yeah, sexist right? But in the lexicon of the cheerleader, what used to be one of the first requirements? She had to be pretty. That might have been the neanderthal breeding grounds for the evolution of the mean girl. Or… I could be completely full of shit. Ha! That's impossible.

And why are boys perceived as being more laid back? Is it because of a male dominated society where they know they're going to get their share whereas females have to fight and scrap for every slice of the pie they get? I have no answers… only questions.

We join our conversation with my guest speaking about a nursing degree or some degree in the medical field.

CLOSE - Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Remember that book? Man, it ain't easy being a teenager… at any time let alone during a pandemic when you've been brought up to think life is going to go a certain way and then the universe says, "hold on… change of plans". I guess life is a succession of those types of moments, both big and small. Maybe one of the barometers of a good life is your ability to navigate those changes in plans with integrity…wow. That was gross. At least coming from my moron hypocrite pie hole.

As for the mean girl mentality, I think awareness that it exists is the first step in stopping it. I clearly don't know what I'm talking about. Tina Fey wrote the book on the mean girls phenomenon, or at least the screenplay…

Welcome to what is probably the last episode of The Modern Moron… for 2020. Maybe the best thing about this episode is that it's short! So why include it? I have a couple of reasons, one being that it's short. This episode covers the tail end of our conversation where the Senator is getting weepy about people who have died this year in the music entertainment industry and he mentions Eddie Van Halen's passing and I have be en working on an episode on just Eddie Van Halen which I will probably never finish. The second reason, and this is the main reason, is that The Senator, in his fantasy world, mentions in passing that people consider him to be a well rounded person. And I don't let this go. Most of us think about our selves most of the time… what's on my to-do list, what am I doing right now… what's my level of hunger, what should I eat… it's human nature to some degree. Think of yourself for example… right now. You may be driving or exercising or some other task. Most podcasts are listened to while multitasking.

But the Senator… in his delusion thinks that at some point in your day, your thinking of him. That's right. You're thinking of him and what a well rounded person he is. Do you think that's a preposterous notion? I do. My ego might think that someone is thinking harshly of me or kindly of me, but I have some common sense to snap out of that notion and realize: no one is thinking of me, nor should they. That's not low self esteem or high self esteem, it's just a fact. Most of us spend the majority of our day thinking about our self and we are doing, what we've done in the past or what we will be doing. Human nature. But the Senator thinks most people, at some point in the day, stop and marvel at what a well rounded person he is. Like a very stable genius might.

We start talking about musicians and it turns into a circle jerk about all the concerts we've been to in our lives, truly disgusting. Disgusting but relatively brief.

And we do mention a couple of documentaries that might be worth your time, especially if you like documentaries about musicians and the music industry. Netflix has several and two of them are about music executives, Clive Davis and the other is about a guy named Clarence Avant whose career spans not only the music industry but film, television and politics as well. It's called "The Black Godfather".

Again, we pick up the conversation with The Senator mentioning musicians that have passed away this year, af few of which include the great song writer John Prine, Charlie Pride, Hellen Reddy, Mac Davis, Charlie Daniels, Kenny Rogers, Little Richard, Bill Withers, jazz great Ellis Marsalis who is the father of 4 great jazz musicians including Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis, the great drummer from Rush, Neal Peart and many others including as the senator mentions, Eddie Van Halen…

Another music business based docu-series you might want to check out on Netflix is called "Song Exploder" in which they interview an artist and drill down into the elements of creating a particular song, from lyrics to sound design and production to the way it was received by listeners. I don't think this is a show you would necessarily watch every episode but that's okay because each episode is a stand alone with a different artist in every episode. I've only watched one so far and I thought it was really good. The artist is Trent Reznor who doesn't really fall smack dab into our demographic. He was the frontman for a group in the early 90's calle Nine Inch Nails. What we would call Goth or a 90's version of punk rock without the punk rock tempo. You know, dark suicidal teen angst stuff. Real wholesome stuff. Every generation has it right? Those teen years where no one understands you and you're questioning why you were put on this planet and no one gets it. You know, a good old ego trip. I never outgrew mine. As I said in the last episode, for me, it was Karen Carpenter and "Goodbye To Love". I'll put this song up against any teen angst in any generation… from the Who to The Sex Pistols to the Clash to… Nirvana! I mean, they named their band Nirvana for Christ's sake. That's a happy name! I think Mr. Reznor would agree about the that Carpenters song. And by the way, Trent Reznor was able to move past those feelings that many youths feel. He's won an academy award for best original score in the movie the Social Network.

Scraps: Island of Misfit Toys - Conan O'brien | YouTube

Carpenters Goodbye To Love - The Carpenters | YouTube

Welcome to part two of the Modern Moron's Holiday Special name that Christmas artist Extravaganzapalooza!

Our first song is by Ertha Kitt, which the senator gets without even hearing her iconic song "Santa Baby" even being played. Now, I have to down a rabbit hole before we even get to the episode.

I mention in this episode that we could do a whole show on Ertha Kitt. While in pop culture she is remembered for that song as well as playing Cat Woman in the last season of the Batman TV series, she had a very long and successful career on Broadway and other stages in the world as well as on screen and as a recording artist. But she was also an activist, primarily speaking out against the war in Vietnam, racism and underprivileged youth's. In fact, she attended a luncheon at the whitehouse hosted by "Ladybird" Johnson in January of 1968 which derailed her career by perhaps a decade or more. The luncheon was focused on crime and young people committing cirme… remember that. Ertha was in attendance because of her advocacy for a group in Washington DC called "Rebels With a Cause".

Ladybird Johnson welcomes everyone to the luncheon and at one point, President Lyndon Johnson comes in to applause and says a few words. As LBJ, turns to leave, Ms. Kitt… who is only a few feet away from him, stands up to ask the president a question. Actual audio from that luncheon was apparently uncovered just this year by the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas. The President was not going to take questions. This is 1968 and he thought he'd just come by and say hello to the ladies having their cute little luncheon. So here is the audio of Ertha Kitt asking President Johnson a question about delinquent parents… I believe that's the phrase you'll hear … delinquent parents who have to work and therefore cannot be there enough to parent completely. It's a little hard to hear, but LBJ responds and at the end I believe he says something to the effect of, "That's a good question to ask yourself and the women here and ya'll have a good luncheon… here's the recording:

So, LBJ walks away from on his last word. No handshake, no smile, no nothin'... it looked like she pissed him off. Purportedly she was shunned from that moment on at the luncheon, who knows. But I did read a couple of sources that said the White House staff car that brought her to the White House for the luncheon was not available to take her back to her hotel and she had to take a cab.

Supposedly acting and singing gigs dried up for her after that incident and she ended up moving to Europe or at least spending a majority of her time there as she couldn't find work in the U. S. It was later reported in 1976 in the NY Times that the CIA had opened a file on Ertha Kitt at the request of the Secret Service which produced an extensive report containing second‐hand gossip about the entertainer but no evidence of any foreign intelligence connections. I have a link to that 1976 archived article at the bottom of the show description. See all the fun stuff the Holiday's bring?!

Later in this episode the Senator and I have a wonderful Moron Moment when we discuss our mutual love for The Charlie Brown Christmas Special and the great Christmas music in that program from jazz musician Vince Guaraldi. The Senator mentions a song with no lyrics called "Skating"... it sounds like this… then he says the song doesn't have anything to do with Christmas in the lyrics. But we had just established that there were no lyrics in the song he's trying to recall. Typical morons trying to have an intelligent conversation… it just goes in circles, he ends up howling Hark The Herald Angels" like the end of the special. and neither of us are listening to the other. And we never… never identify the song the Senator was originally talking about because we're basically having a contest to see who can name the most moments from the special … no listening going on whatsoever… You'll see.

It will definitely make you grateful… that you don't have us drinking Egg Nog by your fireplace talking non-stop about all the crap we know about A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's The Modern Moron Christmas Holiday Special Extravaganzapalooza brought to you by Dolly Madison.

CLOSE - Have you ever listened to two people talking without listening to each other more than that? That was some serious two old men on a porch talk right there…

Regarding the Senator's comment about CBS cancelling the Charlie Brown Christmas Special because of references to Christianity… I could not find a reasonably credible news source or multiple sources to confirm that. What I did find on more than one site is that all of the Charlie Brown Holiday Specials for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas were not on broadcast television this year because the rights are now owned by Apple TV. ($$)

You know what we should have done? We should have done a show about Christmas Specials we watched when we were kids! From Rudolph to Charlie Brown to one of my favorites, The Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol. That Mr. Magoo was an incredible actor. Ah maybe next year...

I always forget to ask you to please hit like, thumbs up, subscribe, leave a great review… or even a bad review for that matter, retweet, repost, and blah, blah, blah Thank you for listening and if I don't post another episode before Christmas I hope you have a great one.

Erhta Kitt vs. LBJ - Newly Found Audio - YouTube | This Is The President

C.I.A. in '68 Gave Secret Service a Report Containing Gossip About Eartha Kitt After White House Incident (Published 1975) - NY Times Archive

Charlie Brown holiday specials will not air on TV for the first time in decades — they'll be on Apple TV+ - CBS News

Welcome to a Modern Moron Holiday Treat Classic Extravaganzapalooza. In this episode and in this Holiday season of giving, the Senator returns! And in that spirit of giving he denies any wrong doing in our breakup and even demands an apology. Remind you of anyone?

We really do try to make this episode about Christmas songs and the iconic vocalists who we immediately recognize. But as I said, the Senator returns and we spend the majority of the episode bickering over the breakup that he didn't even know existed because he was too busy We also go down a rabbit hole about hunting… specifically the use of alcohol while hunting. Neither of us hunt so naturally we... or I know all about it. I bring it up now because I have something to say about it at the end of the show as I did a little research about drinking and shooting. Also, we only get to a couple of Christmas songs at the end so this is part one of the Modern Moron Holiday Treat Classic Extravaganzapalooza! And thank you for listening.

CLOSE

Isn't it great to have him back? So much more material, it just grows and grows… like a blossoming algae or a fungus.

With all of his ranting about Burl Ives NOT being a folk artist, I have included the wikipedia link to his profile which starts:

Ives began as an itinerant (traveling) singer and banjoist, and launched his own radio show, The Wayfaring Stranger, which popularized traditional folk songs. In 1942, he appeared in Irving Berlin's This Is the Army, and then became a major star of CBS radio.

A popular film actor through the late 1940s and '50s, Ives's best-known film roles included parts in So Dear to My Heart (1948) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), as well as Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country (1958), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

I also need to take a moment here… to give a special Christmas wish to the family of the Senator and all you go through… I'm going to amazon right now and I'm ordering several pairs of hip and chest waders… you know, the kind fisherman use so they can wade out into water without getting their clothes wet? I'm getting some for you for all the bullshit you have to wade through in your home. I imagine you already have some masks to wear with the pandemic, so I'll just recommend you wear them in your own household so you filter out the bullshit generated by the fantasy world your husband and father lives in. I'm looking some up right now… and I'm going to make sure they are bullshit retardant. Uh oh…. Doesn't look like they have one's that are bullshit retardant. Oh no, the senator's bullshit will melt those things off in a new york minute. I'll keep looking.

I also feel the need to address an issue I brought up in regards to alcohol and duck hunting. As it turns out that can be a touchy subject so as an astute Moron I did a minimal amount of research on this, meaning I Google'd or in this case I used duck duck go… get it? See what I did there? Here are some responses I ran across on a hunting chat site with regard to consuming alcohol while hunting:

https://www.duckhuntingchat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=902088

If you drink and hunt(shoot) you are an IDIOT, an IMBECILE, a MORON!!! Sounds like someone should be advertising on duck hunting sites!

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110112091255AAnrxaG

"I limit myself to 14 beers while hunting with a bow, 12 with a gun, and 24 while fishing....unless it is catfishing, then the sky's the limit!"

"No drinking while hunting? What's become of this country? Next you're going to tell me you can't drink while fishing or drag racing."

While I'm fairly sure these two comments were meant to be humorous, and I'm all for the dark humor folks, but it also shows… perhaps…. That in some circles it's not taken as seriously as in other circles.

https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/explorer_reports/ny-legislature-lowers-limit-for-hunting-while-intoxicated

( March 27, 2019) "New York lawmakers have agreed to lower the threshold for hunting drunk, a misdemeanor, to the same blood alcohol limit for driving or boating while intoxicated."

From: https://unitedsportsmen.com/waiver/

"No alcohol permitted anywhere except on the USI Clubhouse patio, and only after shooters have completed their day's shooting. Shooters having consumed alcohol will not be permitted to shoot again that day, no exceptions."

Burl Ives - Wikipedia

Welcome to another Episode of the Modern Moron which I spend with my OP… my old radio partner down in Southern California. We hit on the expected post Thanksgiving / Pandemic chat about how things have changed and how they are the same, and how our kids are doing with distance learning or hybrid learning and "special ed" learning all new terms to me in the past 6 months… and some of it has been for the better in terms of educating our children.

We briefly discuss the effects of the recent Covid surge for which I will have a minor personal announcement about at the end of this episode… (stinger) no, it's not that big of a deal.

We do talk politics, after all we did have a presidential election last month, which leads to a discussion about the media and it's coverage of the president which leads me to go on my "per-episode" soap box cry for the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma" and to my regular listeners… both of you… I apologize. I'll find something new and shiny very soon.

But my OP brings up Parler… that's Parler with an "E". It's an alternative social media site launched in 2018 and it has become a home and a platform for more conservative views. This is what Wikipedia has to say:

Parler is an American microblogging and social networking service launched in August 2018. Parler has a significant user base of Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists. Posts on the service often contain far-right content, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories like QAnon. Journalists (which some of our listeners would replace journalists with Liberals or Lib-tards) have described Parler as an alternative to Twitter, and the service is popular among people who have been banned from mainstream social networks or oppose their moderation policies.

Parler markets itself as a "free speech" and unbiased alternative to mainstream social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. However, journalists and users have criticized the service for content policies that are more restrictive than the company portrays and sometimes more restrictive than those of its competitors. Beginning in June 2020, some users reported being banned from Parler for espousing left-wing viewpoints.

As of November 2020, the service had about 4 million active users and over 10 million total users. To put that into some perspective Twitter has 330 million active users. Facebook has 2.7 billion users worldwide with 223 Million in the U.S.

But my OP makes a great observation that Parler is loosing steam because there isn't quite enough diversity in opinions, Which also addresses a point brought to you in our last thrilling episode when I read you an article from the Atlantic titled "Reading Too Much Political News Is Bad for Your Well-Being"

But even when people agree politically, expressing intense views, or going on and on about politics, harms relationships. A 2018 data analysis in the journal Political Opinion Quarterly revealed that "even strong partisans dislike too much political discussion—even agreeable discussion."

We wrap things up with a few streaming suggestions from the Show "Silicon Valley" on HBO to The Queen's Gambit on Netflix to The Mandalorian on Disney which is in its second season.

It's Season's Greetings on the Modern Moron and thank you for listening…

CLOSE: Full disclosure… when I was getting this clip from the end of the movie "Rudy" and finding the section to use… this is at the end when Rudy get to dress with the starting football players and he gets to play at the end… this piece of music is called "Rudy's Victory"... I was in front of my computer crying… full tears coming down the cheeks crying as I was watching the final scene from Rudy. That movie gets me every time. We need to do one full episode just on the movie "Rudy". In fact.. To show you guys the moronic rabbit holes I go down… there is a great interview of Sean Astin on the Dan Patrick show about shooting the film Rudy and the "creative license" that was taken to make that larger than life character and film. I will include a link to that interview at the bottom of the description for you.

Sean Astin "Rudy" interview - The Dan Patrick Show (2015) - YouTube

Welcome to another episode of the laziest podcast in America.. Aka the Modern Moron. I have lost all desire to meet a self imposed weekly deadline, I again do not have a guest and I plan on putting as little effort as possible into this episode. In fact I'm basically going to read to you in this election week episode… or is it election month? I'm going with election month, because we sure as hell are not going to have a consensus by the end of the day or the week and once a consensus is reached you can be equally sure that outcome will be contested.

I said I'm going to read to you… not a bedtime story, although that would probably be a better bet. I'm going to read you most of an article published in …. Should I say where it was published? It will alienate some of you just by the source won't it? How about the author? The author is Arthur C. Brooks is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a professor of the practice of public leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, a senior fellow at the Harvard Business School. He is also the host of the podcast - great another podcast you should certainly listen to before this one - the podcast "The Art of Happiness With Arthur Brooks." Great.

The Article is titled, "Reading Too Much Political News Is Bad for Your Well-Being; Obsessing over politics could hurt your happiness and your relationships. If got a couple of opinions to interject here and there, which is ironic because the entire problem this article focuses on is our extreme toxic attachment to our own opinions.

Plus an homage to some of our past Presidents.

Reading Too Much Political News Is Bad for Your Well-Being; Obsessing over politics could hurt your happiness and your relationships. - The Atlantic

Welcome Morons or rather followers of a moron. I do have a real guest for this episode but I want to get to a couple of things first.

First of all… this is the first episode since the passing of supreme supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Relative to what there is to know about her, I don't know much, but I do want to share with you two things about her and her passing that I found to be extraordinary, the first being President Trump's initial reaction and response to her passing. I've tried to share this with a couple of non Trump supporters and they immediately told me that not only did they not hear it, but that they had no desire to hear anything about Trump's comments on someone with the integrity of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. And I'll bet all of you Libby McLiberson's out there are all up in arms over Trump's replacement being confirmed before the election and blah, blah blah… by the way Fox News, Yes Fox News has a story as of this recording and I'll read you the headline:

"Majority of Americans think winner of presidential election should select Supreme Court nominee, poll finds"

But now I'm already digressing… If you're liberal or a democrat or any kind of a non-Trump supporter and have not heard his informal response, you should… and will because you're about to hear it. It was as he was leaving a rally and it might be a little difficult to hear because in the background and in all of it's irony, you can mainly hear Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" being played to the crowd that had assembled….

Did you hear that? He almost sounded human! There was a statement of reverence for the work of what has to be one of the greatest Americans and greatest supreme court justices in history. You don't have to like Trump and you can go on hating him, but if you are not willing to acknowledge that moment of even slight humility, then you are part of the problem. I'll say this many times from now on, but if you are not willing to sit and listen to someone who disagrees with you… and not tell them they're wrong or convince them you're right… if you can't just sit, set your bullshit and your agenda down for a few minutes and listen… then how can you expect someone else to listen to you? In that regard, you are part of the problem.

Which leads me to the second profound and extraordinary aspect of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's life was that her best pal on the supreme court, was someone on the opposite end of the spectrum politically and opposed to views of the law. A person I found arrogant and pompous and that was Justice Antonin Scolea. But there they were good friends. Ginsberg spoke at his funeral…

Why can't we see some of that… any of that in the legislative branch of our government? And if it does exist, why don't we see it? If it does exist, for the sake of argument, we don't see or hear about it because negative news SELLS. It attracts eyeballs and ears and that means more advertising dollars for the bogus news sources from CNN to Fox and that takes us to our guest and more on the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma"... God DAMMIT what a brilliant segue!

My guest is a professional computer geek and I would go so far as to say he is like a supreme court justice of computers. His name is Paul Congdon… actually Dr. Paul Congdon because he has his doctorate in some form of computerology from one of the esteemed Universities of California where he was also a professor. He worked for Hewlette Packard for many, many years both in the united states and abroad. How do I know someone so intelligent? I went to high school with him of course.

I get his take on The Social Dilemma along with a few short clips from the documentary and some other stuff… it's Commentary from computer nerds about other Computer Nerds on Netflix on… The Modern Moron...

CLOSE - Dr. Congdon had a great point that I want to reiterate and that was "The tools Social Media and News Media companies are using to target you can also be used to vet out the story lines of the news you read." Do you want that? You should. Do you want to know that CNN is tainting their headlines with inflammatory jargon? Do you want to know that Fox is doing the same thing. Or are you fine strapping on the news feedbag and living in the "Willful Ignorance" that we are stuck in?

Also, from a regular segment we're starting called "Trumperceptions", which is a way to learn to accept this person by understanding a little about this Magnificent Moron and what makes him tick, or have ticks if you wish.

This is from Gwenda Blair, Author of the book "The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President". She is also a lecturer at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In her book she draws an extremely interesting connection between Donald Trump and author-slash-minister Norman Vincent Peale. Does that name sound familiar? If you're over 55 it should as he wrote one of the most famous self-help books of all time, before there was even the term self-help books. Remember "The Power of Positive Thinking"? Yeah, he wrote that book in 1952 and he was also a minister for 52 years at The Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, one of the oldest protestant churches in America dating back to 1628. Guess where the Trump family attended church? That's right... at the home of the Power of Positive thinking. Trump was married there on his first wedding and both of his parent's funerals were at that church. Here is Author Gwenda Blair on this subject courtesy of Business Insider magazine… (clip)

Knowing this isn't supposed to make you like Trump, but it should help you understand why he behaves the way he behaves and that should hopefully calm you down a bit over this whole nonsense. If it doesn't, maybe YOU have some work to do as opposed to everyone else?

Finally, the first presidential debate was this week and I had the incredible good fortune to NOT watch it. I will say this, the debate and every presidential debate for the last 20 years could have easily been reigned in by using the correct types of microphones and simply turning them off when either idiot reaches their time limit. There is a clock counting down the seconds they have left and if they go over American can watch them move their mouth and say nothing, which is probably what they were doing for the first two minutes they were trying to speak.

So why don't we do that? So simple, such common sense. So why don't we do that? Because the news industry wants you to hear Trump tell Grandpa Joe he's a senile old man. The News Corporations want you to hear Biden tell Trump to shut up. That makes for more eyes and ears for longer periods of time on their Network, their Newspaper, their website or their app… and that means you're looking at their advertisements just like Dr. Congdon was saying as well as the other industry experts on The Social Dilemma Documentary. It is a dilemma and we really need to educate ourselves. Thank you again to my guest, watch that goddamn documentary, click subscribe, and like and all that b.s. so I can get an advertiser and sell out like everyone else.

Majority of Americans think winner of presidential election should select Supreme Court nominee, poll finds - Fox News

The Trumps' family church explains everything you need to know about Donald - Business Insider | YouTube

The power of Trump's positive thinking – POLITICO

Welcome to another episode of The Modern Moron! I have a very, VERY special guest lined up for you in this edition. Someone I've known my entire life, we've been through a lot together. My guest is… me. Sorry, I couldn't get someone lined up for this week. Whatever. Don't judge me.

Okay, we're going to start off light and breezy and work towards dead serious. In my return to this podcast, not that anyone noticed I left… a few of you did though and thank you… but I would really rather not discuss politics anymore. Unfortunately that has become extremely difficult, so rather than treat politics as taboo, I'm going to try… TRY to just be curious about it. I got into a huge argument with the Senator over this… the Senator being my most regular guest on this program. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying friendships have been lost and certainly changed over the political climate both in this country and globally.

We've lost the ability to listen to an opinion other than our own, process it and come to an informed state of mind that is not completely RED or completely BLUE or BLACK or WHITE or RAINBOW. It doesn't have to be all one color. Please see an article I will post at the end of the description from the L.A. Times titled "The Decline and Fall of Nuance". Sadly, some of you may not do so simply because the L.A. Times represents something that has ZERO value to you. All information should have some value. Take all the information… turn it into knowledge… and then maybe we can apply it in the world with some wisdom and compassion. See what I did there? I'm so fucking Zen I can't believe it.

By the way in that article, the author recalls seeing a woman at a Black Lives Matter protest with a sign that read, "Not all blacks are criminals. Not all whites are racists. Not all cops are bad. Ignorance comes in all colors." How great would it be if we had a march or a sit-in with that as the central message.

Documentary recommendation… : The Biggest little farm on Hulu. The husband is a wildlife camera operator…. The wife is a personal chef, with a focus on healthy wholesome food. The husband, I believe was covering a property owner who had literally hundreds of animals, mainly cats and dogs, she was sheltering on her property. It was a public health issue and they had to gather all of these animals that were in some horrible living conditions.

The couple adopted one of the dogs from this situation. They truly rescued it. While they were at work the dog barked constantly to the point they got evicted. So they went for their dream of having a farm so they could keep the dog, whose life they had saved.

Very interesting how becoming farmers doesn't always mean growing and nurturing all life. They have chickens. The chickens lay eggs. The eggs provide one of their main sources of income… until the coyotes start slaughtering the chickens. They tried everything to deter the coyotes until they had killed literally hundreds of chickens. Tried everything except shooting the coyotes.

So finally the farmer felt like he was left with no choice. He grabbed the shotgun and killed one of the coyotes. Cross fade from the image of the dead coyote to the image of the dog whom they rescued from being killed… his name was Ross. And it was a great poignant moment where they guy admitted there was some hypocrisy involved. He had raised some baby pigs, became attached to them and then had to sell them off to market. He had to put down sheep in the pasture that had become so injured that nothing could be done other than to kill the poor animal.

You may say, eat a plant based diet and there won't be that problem. Well there were plenty of problems with other critters, specifically insects and snails specifically that were destroying their crops.

We have become sooooo unbelievably spoiled when we walk into our grocery stores and can pick up a styrofoam package with any kind of meat or seafood we want practically. And we take it for granted, at least I do. We loose perspective, at least i do. Multiple times a day, I lose perspective and get pissed or disgusted that my problems are not going away immediately, forgetting that the quality of my problems are luxuries compared to a vast number of people.

My first colonoscopy - Human jet ski and the water coming out of my ass was astounding. Despite the discomfort of drinking a gallon of that swill there was something good about being cleaned out from head to ass. I literally had nothing in me. Starting fresh… what was going to be the first thing I put in my body after it being completely clean as a whistle.

I know this is gross to some, but it shouldn't be gross to this demographic. Even to my gals out there who listen and at one point in your life you were like, "ew, this guy's gross with all the diarrhea talk and colonoscopy-isms. But when you hit our demographic? Sorry for the pun, but "shit gets real".

What was I talking about?

My colonoscopy prep and that wonderful experience, that's what I was talking about. If they're going to send you a gallon of that stuff to drink knowing that your going to become a human water turbine, they might as well send some jumper cables as well so we can generate some electricity from all that naturally created water pressure.

Another reason why we can talk about this - I can talk about this to you, is because it's just you and me right now, right? Probably anyway… if you are one of the rare few, let's use the word privileged. It's just you and me… no audience is listening to this in a group. Just me and you… nothing to be embarrassed or uncomfortable about, right?

Once I was in and wearing a fabulous gown that doesn't tie in the back because they don't want you to tie it in the back, I got my sedagive, and I was out like a light, didn't wake up until the recovery room/ group patient farting chamber and I was done. The prep was the worst part.

Next Item...

DOCUMENTARY ASSIGNMENT - "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix

I haven't been this adamant about a documentary you need to watch since 'The Great Hack' and if you still haven't watched that documentary about what happened during the 2016 election, sorry to say this but shame on you. Do you want it to happen again? Do you enjoy burying your head in the sand? Strike that… burying your head in the sand does have it's appeal in the short term. You have got to watch the Great Hack on Netflix and when you're finished with that as uncomfortable and inconvenient as it may be, you absolutely have to watch The Social Dilemma. Don't watch both in the same day though, that would overload your circuits.

For now, here are some of the people interviewed at length for this documentary:

First up is Tristan Harris

Wikipedia Page Biography - raised in the San Francisco Bay Area by a single mother. Later on, he studied computer science at Stanford University while interning at Apple Inc., then embarked on a master's degree at Stanford, where he joined a company called Persuasive Technology Lab. Harris studied the psychology of behavior change. Tristan was classmates with one of Instagram's founders, Kevin Systrom, and helped create a demo app with the other founder, Mike Krieger.

In 2007, Harris dropped out of the master's program at Stanford. He launched a startup called Apture, which was focused on bringing instantaneous search to content on the web. Google acquired Harris' company Apture in 2011 and he ended up working on Google Inbox.

His Opinions on technology use - While working at Google in 2013, Harris sent around a presentation to a handful of coworkers which was titled "A Call to Minimize Distraction & Respect Users' Attention". In that presentation, Harris suggested that Google, Apple and Facebook should "feel an enormous responsibility" to make sure humanity doesn't spend its days buried in a smartphone. The 141-slide deck was eventually viewed by tens of thousands of Google employees and sparked conversations about the company's responsibilities long after he left the company. IN his presentation he discussed five human vulnerabilities:

Bad forecasting - The first vulnerability highlighted by Harris was ″bad forecasting," where alert messages don't clearly explain what the user is about to give up in terms of their attention.

For instance, Facebook might show a notification that you were tagged in a photo. While this alert might suggest you'd quickly "see a photo," you're probably going to actually spend 10 minutes on Facebook.

"Intermittent variable rewards" - This is the idea that users keep performing an action in hopes of getting a possible but unlikely reward. Harris called this type of behavior the "most addictive and hardest to stop," just like playing slot machines in casinos.

His example: constantly refreshing an app like Twitter or Facebook to see new content from friends. "We spend lots of time -- are we getting the same value back?" he asks, before suggesting that Silicon Valley should design "to minimize the presence of intermittent variable rewards and reduce addictions."

"Loss-aversion" or the "fear of missing out" or FOMO as the kids call it.Because we're constantly afraid of missing an alert -- like a major event (and what are we calling a major event these days? When was the last time a Kardashian wiped their ass? -- we are continuously checking our phones as if running on a treadmill, Harris said. He suggested designers should "design to give users confidence that they can disconnect more often and not miss something important."

Fast and slow thinking - Harris suggested that creating tech that's too frictionless takes away our human ability to "consider before acting."

Our phones buzz, so we take them out of our pockets without even thinking about it, for example. Harris suggested designers should "leave enough friction for users to pause and consider" their actions.

Stress and altered States - Here, Harris warned that certain actions we take with tech products force us out of a healthy state of mind.

For instance, Harris said, we stop breathing while we check our email and that our sympathetic nervous system is activated, our liver dumps glucose and cholesterol into our blood and our heart rates increase "preparing us for a fight or flight response." He said designers should instead design apps to minimize stress and calm people.

Yes, designers should. The companies they work for should. But that's not why companies are in business. When does the ethical behavior of a company become more important that profits? OR as most companies would say although maybe off the record, when should the consumer take responsibility for what they buy? You would probably get a different answer from different companies. Whole foods might give you a different "off the record" answer than say, Monsanto or Exxon/Mobile. Should there be any regulation to protect us Morons from ourselves or is it Mike Brady again with the Caveat Emptor. Remember I hauled that one out in Episode 38! Titled: "Facebook & Free Speech, I'm with Mark Zuckerberg, Caveat Emptor & The Brady Bunch, Pixar's Wall-E & Costco Chickens. How about that? We were talking about Facebook again.

Wasn't that a fun trip down memory lane? Okay, I wanna wrap this up because there is so much more to talk about relating to this documentary. I will end with this clip from Tristan Harris where he talks about computers and the software or apps that we use and how they were tools. He compares that tool like any carpenter's tool and how the apps we use today are very different types of tools…

MANIPULATION BASED ENVIRONMENTS - that's what most of our social networking apps are on our smartphones that we have with us 24/7. And I'm sure you realize all your favorite flavors of News are all on social media as well, vying for your eyeballs.

Once again that was Tristan Harris who is a design ethicist with a non-profit organization he founded called "Time Well Spent". The documentary is called "The Social Dilemma", it's on Netflix and it is a must watch. Think of it like taxes or picking up your dog's poop when you take them for a walk. It's gross but you gotta do it. We'll definitely talk more about this. Until next time…

Sources:

Op-Ed: America has a terrible case of the screaming memes - Los Angeles Times (mediabiasfactcheck.com: Left-Center Biased based on editorial positions that favor the left and High for factual reporting due to a clean fact check record)

Google's new focus on well-being started five years ago with this presentation - The Verge (Techpublication skewed left-center as opposed to far left)

Google employee warned in 2013 about five psychological vulnerabilities that could be used to hook users - MSNBC (moderately to strongly biased liberal. MIXED on factual reporting)

"The Social Dilemma:" Lies Spread 6x Faster Than Truth on Social Media | Amanpour and Company - PBS | Amanpour and Company | YouTube

Welcome to the Modern Moron! Where I finish catching up with my friend Mike Schwartz. We reminisce about old comedians still around like Mel Brooks and other comics who have passed away, specifically Fred Willard. I don't know about you but I have sort of a bucket list of musicians I want to see while they're still performing and Mike and I have that same sentimentality with some of the comedians we idolized when we were young… when we were young… Jesus do I sound old enough right now?

Also, Mike was a bit thrown by my use of sound effects in the first episode. Now, you know i love my sound effects… but for this episode… I promise not to use any sound effects… right after this one…. See? Okay I lied. But there won't be any in the actual interview.

We go down a number of rabbit holes talking about films we love and directors who act in other director's films and we talk about Werner Herzog… don't act like you don't know who that is. He has a thick accent and people love to put him in their shows… from Parks and Recreation to The Mandelorian… you'll see.

Mike starts out by trying to tell me about the family of his favorite comedian Albert Brooks, who's family's real last name is Einstein. Naturally I get confused, not because of the obvious reference to Albert Einstein the genius physicist, but because I get confused, naturally…

It's a couple of getting older guys reminiscing on a front porch on The Modern Moron. Thank you for listening!

1987 Broadcast News: Aaron Loves Jane - YouTube

Welcome Back? To an episode of the modern moron! It feels strange to say that after saying it once a week for about a year and a half. I stopped doing this podcast in March and, I can't remember why… did something happen around March that I'm missing? Actually I did have a reason to stop doing this program and I will get into that another time. Because my guest on this episode is an old and very dear friend from, you guessed it, my days in Los Angeles chasing the elusive career in the entertainment business.

The friend I speak of is Mike Schwartz. Mike was a senior classman at the the Groundling's Theater school and it's Sunday company when I came in as a freshman. Mike went on to become a writer and producer for the very successful show Scrubs and for those of you who are big fans of Scrubs, Mike also played the character Lloyd. Lloyd, if you remember was a recurring character who was an EMT, a delivery guy, and also a patient at the hospital. There's even a wiki page for Lloyd and I will put the link to that at the bottom of the description.

But a big break for Mike came long before that and I got to be around him when it happened.

I ask Mike about Billy Crystal. Mike had the good fortune to be the writer's assistant for Billy Crystal's staff during some of the years he hosted the Academy Awards - specifically '97 and '98 when the best picture films were The English Patient and Titanic. Now if you're nestled right into our demographic you remember what a great job Crystal did as he's hosted the Oscars 9 times, second only to Bob Hope who hosted for a total of 19 Academy Award programs. Billy won 2 Primetime Emmy awards. If you'll remember, Billy was known for opening the show with a montage of scenes from nominated films that were put together where he would show up in each scene and then he did a musical number mentioning all of the nominees as well.

Mike was the writer's assistant for those broadcasts and he tells a great story or two about being backstage at the Oscars, because they would write jokes on the fly as events happened during the telecast. He has a particular memory he shares for I believe the 1998 Academy Awards which was it's 70th Anniversary.

Side note, one of Mike's comedy idols was and is Albert Brooks who has done so many great films you know him from... like Broadcast News, Modern Romance and Lost in America both of which he wrote, and of course the voice of Marlin in Finding Nemo… SO, Mike does a great Albert Brooks impression and Billy Crystal knows and loves Albert as well, so that was sort of the gateway of establishing a special place in Billy Crystal's heart.

Mike also tells a story about comedian Richard Lewis who was speaking at a reception following a funeral for a mutual acquaintance that involves Billy Crystal as well.

There, is that enough context for you? Now it's like you and Mike are good friends with an unspoken bond. Good. Now I'm stealing Mike's Albert Brooks impersonation.

We begin the call with Mike revealing to me that he just finished a therapy session and I immediately try to delve into his therapy with complete abandon and intrusiveness. Not a very polite thing for a host to do, but we'll see what happens.

It's my friend Mike Schwartz on the Modern Moron and as always, thank you for listening…

Scrubs Fan Page - Lloyd Slawski

Billy Crystal 70th Annual Academy Awards - YouTube

Olivia de Havilland presenting the 75th Past Oscar Winner Reunion - YouTube