Cenk Uygur Running for Congress

Well, that's it.  I am cancelling my Hulu and Netflix subscriptions.  Nothing is going to be more entertaining than watching Cenk Uygur in the congressional race in California's 25th district.

Cenk Uygur is an extremely intelligent person who has built a media platform on YouTube called The Young Turks that is very strong, very supportive and vocal.  There, Uygur has been calling out the leaders of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Congress for many years and just got sick of waiting for change, I guess.  It is not my congressional district, but I will give him some money anyway.  This show will be worth it. His other accomplishments include starting a political action committee, giving a platform for progressive candidates across the country, and siccing his audience on groups.

Uygur's insightful political commentary was always a reason to watch The Young Turks.  It will be great to see him use his command of facts and policy in debates.  He excels at breaking down issues to explain to his YouTube viewers.  He also delights in exposing the political back-scratching behind policy decisions.  Listening to Uygur's analysis creates a picture in my mind of competing factions, interests and resources, which makes it much easier to understand the dynamics of what is really going on.

The Young Turks' viewers trend younger, which will be an advantage as younger voters are often overlooked in polling data.  Uygur's progressive politics resonate with a generation of people who feel cut up by the current economic system.  His vision will offer hope, but more than the mere slogan of Obama.  When he speaks about laws, it is often with specifics.  When Obama ran on "hope and change" and "yes, we can" it was like buying a soda or a pair of sneakers, only instead America voted for a box that we could not see inside.  Later, we found out what was in it: surveillance, foreclosures, mass deportations and assassination of American citizens, and to be fair, an attempt at universal health care.  Uygur is not vague in his policy positions.  He has years of commentary outlining his views.  Nobody is voting for a mystery box when they vote for him.

But one of Uygur's strengths, strong feelings about policy, could also cause him problems.  He is very excitable and can start yelling when he feels strongly about a topic.  That may not translate very well on the campaign trail, but it will make great t.v.

And his t.v. advertising promises to be very watchable.  Remember his anti- Ted Cruz ad?  He told Texas voters that Cruz had been unmanned by Trump.  That kind of campaign rhetoric is what California voters will enjoy once this race really gets started.

In the end, win or lose, the race for California's 25th Congressional seat will be high entertainment.

My Media Diet and Vivid Dreams

I forgot about this:  when you temper your media intake, you start to get very vivid dreams.  It’s been happening to me every night now.  When I wake for my morning meditation and fill in my bullet journal, I write my latest dream.  Wow.  Some doozies that I do not want all over the internet.

Consuming media without a media diet plan puts a big fuzzy wall between me and my reactions to events in my life.  I don’t understand all these dreams or what they mean, but something is waking up inside me and kicking my insides.  And it was there all the time, just not being heard.  That’s the scary part.

Like any dreams, if they are not written down, they are forgotten.  And each morning I try to convince myself that this dream will be remembered.  It is different today - but it isn’t.

If you follow this plan, be prepared for all manner of weirdness in dreams.  Not scary, just odd.

My Social Media Diet or Creating a Mind Sculpture

We Need a Social Media Diet  

Don’t flinch just yet.  Everyone needs to think about and plan what our minds and attention will consume.  So much content is available:  YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and more.

I read online that the last hour before going to bed and the first hour getting up should be without any electronic screen time.  Before going to bed, lay out your clothes and prepare for the next day.  Sounds like the habit of a winner, so let’s include that as part of the plan.

The guy also talks about spending his time creating content, rather than consuming it.  Not everybody is up for that, but with three blogs and a podcast and two YouTube channels, I have no excuses.

Goals of a Social Media Diet

So what would be the goal for a media diet?  For a food diet, there is a weight goal.  For a media diet, there should be goals, too.  Like hobbies, interests, entertainment, education.  Historical videos are fun.  Shouldn’t there also be production goals?  If you have them, that is.

We make a choice about what to eat, and how that will make us feel.  Shouldn’t we also do the same thing for our minds and mood?  Wouldn’t it be a good idea to step outside ourselves and take a meta look at what we want out of our life before deciding what to watch or read?

My Social Media Diet

I don’t know what is right for anyone else, but my social media diet will be one part production for four parts consumption.  It will be split into one fifth pure fun with animals and jokes and silliness.  Everyone needs that in their lives.  Another three fifths will be news and politics - from all sides.  I enjoy listening to Ben Shapiro and Jimmy Dore.  So what.  The last fifth will be hobbies: ham radio, knitting and making soap.

“Social Media Diet” 

Maybe “diet” is the wrong word.  Diets are notoriously ineffective in the long run.  “Media Plan” sounds too corporate.  “Media sculpting” means you are doing the creating.  “Media sculpture?”  There are some artists out there who already claimed that phrase.

I hesitate to use the term “information” since it is so long and cumbersome to say.  We need to make this snappy.  “Brain food” comes to mind, but its already been taken.  Or “Brain growth plan.”  Too long.  OK.  “Mind sculpture.”  Yes, that’s it!

By consciously deciding what I feed my visual senses, I have a “Mind Sculpture” plan.  I think about what I want the end result to be, and plan, roughly, how that will happen.

Let’s see how this goes.  Will keep you updated.

Tulsi Gabbard For President

Tulsi Gabbard for President

The recent "Tulsi works for Putin" schtick can be understood best as a fight between old media and new media.  A classic power fight between wheezing old talking heads, their younger clones, and new media power brokers will show where the new election lines are drawn.  Newsflash: Tulsi will win.

Hillary Clinton is running a '90s media smear campaign that really worked for her and her husband in the past - the way past.  Clinton whispers her vengeful stories to stooges on cable tv and foolish New York Time op ed writers.  Feeling safe, they repeat them without fearing real consequences.

Old Media and The Clinton Playbook

Why not?  It is the same playbook Clinton used in her failed 2016 election campaign:

1. court mass media, 
2. take voters for granted, 
3. rely on proxies to say nasty things for you, 
4. insult and dismiss half of the electorate. 

It didn't work last time, but as Clinton apparently never took responsibility for her role in her own defeat, she blindly uses the same approach again.

Court Mass Media

The '90s media landscape was exclusively mass media, so a strategy targeting those influencers was smart.  Prescient was Bill Clinton's focus on alternate paths to voter attention, like talk shows. It was how he got around the universal dismissal of him as a serious candidate by the "serious" political press after his sex scandals.  

But this approach is outdated.  There are thousands of information sources for voters now.  The personal relationship approach will not control political watchers because there are simply too many thinkers in the political space.  The rah-rah for the "weapons of mass destruction" leading to the Gulf War and Russiagate undermined credibility for mass media outlets anyway, and people look to other voices to trust.

Take Voters for Granted

Hillary Clinton neglected Michigan and other rust belt states during the 2016 Presidential election.  She dismissed HALF OF AMERICA as "deplorables."  Not very persuasive.  Clinton took the voters of the rust belt for granted because of their union affiliation, not learning the lesson that Reagan taught:  people make up their own minds.

In the frame of this Tulsi Gabbard dialogue, Clinton assumes that the support of the media "elites" will lead to the sheeplike support of Americans.

Rely on Proxies To Say Nasty Things For You

Bakari Sellers accused Tulsi Gabbard of treason on CNN.  This charge has been supported by Hillary Clinton by getting other people to repeat the accusation.

Tulsi Gabbard shows her understanding of modern media when she pins the "Russian asset" smear directly on Hillary Clinton.  Clinton is used to dodging the stench of a shit show by getting others to say her insults.  Part of that tactic was the pretense of cable t.v. hosts that she didn't really say it at all, but that somebody else did.  Now, Tulsi Gabbard's voice can appeal directly to voters, much like Bill Clinton did in playing the saxophone on late night television.

Insult and Dismiss Half of the Electorate

"Deplorables."  

Clinton also insults everyone in the military by implying that one of them would betray their country with treason.

In this message struggle with Tulsi Gabbard, Clinton is dismissing anyone under the age of 50.  Younger voters don't believe that the New York Times is always right.  They don't have t.v.'s or watch cable "news."

The Tulsi Gabbard Winning Strategy

Tulsi Gabbard takes a sniper shot approach to a crowded Presidential candidate field.  One by one, she takes out a frontrunner.  It worked for Trump, and it is working for her.  

Tusli Gabbard is an underestimated candidate.  She won't be the Democratic nominee, but she will beat out almost everybody else that is running.  Her best weapon are her deadly barbs that really stick.  Ask Kamala "I put people in prison for doing what I did" Harris.  Gabbard is better at this tactic than even Trump.  

Tulsi Gabbard knows how the current information ecosystem works. When she hits something, it reverberates.  All the Clinton machine can do is get their flying monkeys on cable television and op-ed pages to repeat what she tells them to say.  Too bad they are no longer influencers like in the '90s.  

Tulsi Gabbard will beat the Democratic Party machine because its relevance and power are sliding out from under them.  They are using a playbook of a bygone day.  What is supposed to be a kill shot will only show everybody their irrelevance.

The Democratic Party relies on big donors, reporter relationships and endorsements.  Stronger tools have been forged, and they are about to find out the hard way.

As I like to say to people I hate:  "I wish you the best of luck."

Susan Wojcicki and PhillyD and the Suggestion Algorithm

Changing the YouTube Suggestion Algorithm

PhillyD and YouTube Discussions

PhillyD has had discussions with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki about their list of trending videos, which have long weighted corporate content unfairly. If you have the most views, then you should be on the most-viewed list. If you can’t created content that most YouTube users want to see, then you shouldn’t be on that list.

As long as YouTube is listening...

I am on YouTube far more than is good for me or anyone.  The algorithm goes in tight circles, recommending the same people and videos all the time.  It is tiresome.

YouTube Suggestion Algorithm Problem

By setting the YouTube recommendation algorithm to “following the buzz,” Google is only setting up its own failure. They may not know it yet, but if the only thing people are getting out of their product is buzz, it acts like mental candy. Sure, you want it all the time. Who doesn’t? But one day you will be sick of all the candy and reject the whole thing. It is inevitable. If human beings forever chose the buzz, we would not have survived as a species. So this proposal is a long-term survival strategy for the Alphabet Corporation as well.

There is an alternative.

Let users change their suggestion algorithms in user preferences.

I always want to see more content from smaller YouTubers and nothing about sports. Why can’t I choose that? Surely the YouTube algorithm can allow user input in terms of what percentage of smaller channels are suggested to me. I want to support local businesses rather than large chain stores, and my google search results should reflect that.

The Econo-Girl Suggestion Solution

It would not be hard to implement this change. Just break the code into sections, and make user input the driver of the algorithm.

So let the content providers set their video categories. Then, within those categories, let users define their preferences:

• NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS - I ALWAYS LIKE TO TEST OUT CREATORS WITH LESS THAN 20,000 FOLLOWERS; OR,
• MOST RECENT - A CATEGORY I REALLY MISS; OR,
• CORPORATE VS. NON-CORPORATE CREATORS; OR,
• BALANCE OF PRO/CON; OR,
• TRENDING TOPICS IN THAT CATEGORY; OR
• NOT TO SEE THAT CATEGORY AT ALL, OR TO SET A FLOOR FOR SEEING VIDEOS IN THAT CATEGORY, LIKE IF A VIDEO IN THIS CATEGORY HITS THE TRENDING TOP 100 LIST, SHOW IT TO ME.

The goal is to maximize value to the consumer.  The current suggestion algorithm is based on feeding rats a sugar-based diet that will make them obese and starve them at the same time.

A rabbit hole is a waste of time.  Humans are going to dump something that wastes their time, eventually.  Survival demands it.  

Harvard Says 27% Earn More Than 4 Year College Graduates...

Christine Axsmith

This idea goes against conventional wisdom and lots of google search results.  

But if you look through the top Google results for "earning more than a college graduate," the web sites are tied to colleges, or companies selling advertising to colleges.

There's no shortage of people who are success stories without a college degree.  But the most recent research is showing that a college degree is not necessary for success.

A report of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University states that 27 percent of people with post-secondary licenses or certificates—credentials short of an associate’s degree—earn more than the average bachelor’s degree recipient.  

Pathways to prosperity: Meeting the challenge of preparing young Americans for the 21st century is a report from Harvard University talking about the failure of the "college-for-all" policy, and how that cheats some young people.  "We fail these young people not because we are indifferent, but because we have focused too exclusively on a few narrow pathways to success," referring to college.

Other experts agree with that conclusion:

“Employment rates for the nation’s teens and young adults are at post-World War II lows—a true labor market depression. Based on experiences both here and abroad, Pathways to Prosperity points to the need for expanded employment and work-based learning opportunities for young people, closer ties between post-secondary education/training and the workplace, and expanded youth apprenticeships. The need has never been greater, and the report provides a clarion call for action now.”

Andrew Sum, Director, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University.

Conventional wisdom, and google search results, are sure to follow these conclusions.  Young people are not one big clump that are exactly the same as the other.  As they are different, their needs are different.  Not everyone needs to be an accountant.  Our economy requires all types of skills.  Many of the in-demand skills can be learned while working or through a certificate program.

Paths to success without college means entering the plumber, firefighter, carpenter or other trades.  And, yes, math will be needed.  But it will be a direct, problem-solving math with direct, visible results.

$uccess Without College Publications has published $uccess Without College - Roadmap to Software Developer and $uccess Without College - Roadmap to Plumber to show people that there are alternatives to college to get success.

Buying one of our $uccess Without College Roadmap books will empower you to choose your own path to success.

The chances of success without college are better if you think for yourself and decide what is best for you.  Students who have success without collegedo the work to find out about different career paths and match them to their temperament.  

Other books about success without college focus on calming anxious parents, and not on solutions.  Buy $uccess Without College Roadmap to Plumber or Roadmap to Software Developer by Christine Axsmith for solid advice on launching your successful career path.

linkedin:  Christine Axsmith

podcast:  $uccess Without College

Instagram:  SuccessWithoutCollege

Twitter:  SuccessWithoutCollege

In Defense of Megan Markle

In Defense of Megan Markle

As an ARWFA (Amateur Royal Watcher From Afar), I read with reminiscence the recent criticisms of the Duchess of Sussex, AKA Meghan Markle. It saddens me that this happening all over again.The press has once again resorted to creating drama to sell newspapers, or more accurately, advertising. I’m not suggesting that theses reporters are engaged in pure fabrication. I’m suggesting that they are applying all the analysis of Judith Miller of the New York Times in the lead-up to the second Iraq War. That is to say, none.

Megan Markle

One Legacy of Diana, Princess of Wales

One of Princess Diana’s enduring legacies was a glimpse into the challenges of a Royal 

with “the little grey men” who run the palace. It is not inconceivable that the Duchess of Sussex has upset courtiers, who may have been
hoping to manage her. Unrealistic as it is to
think that a strong, mature, successful
woman could be guided in the same way as
an overwhelmed teenager, it seems that was the expectation.

Piers Morgan’s Bad Character

Piers Morgan wrote a little piece in The Daily Mail calling the Duchess a “ruthless social climber.” His basis for that opinion is her discontinuation of all communications with him after her engagement to Prince Harry. He clearly was hoping for some sort of inside track of information from the Royal Household. She, of course, displayed appropriate boundaries by her actions. Piers Morgan claims she only uses people, when it is he who had that intent. When he didn’t succeed, he stood on his media platform and jeered like a boy in a schoolyard.

There’s good reason to be wary of Piers Morgan, which most Americans do not know.

Piers Morgan was largely unscathed by the Milly Dowler controversy. He was editor of a major
newspaper that hacked into the voicemail of a missing girl, listened to the messages, then deleted messages to make space for more eavesdropping on future messages. The Dowler family had
false hope of their daughter’s survival because they thought she was alive and deleting her own
messages. What cruelty. And illegality, since it also interfered with a police investigation.

Megan Markle’s Wise Choice

So this is the character of the person the Duchess of Sussex distanced herself from upon her
engagement to Prince Harry: the Editor of the same media outlet that eavesdropped on phone
calls of the Royal household to distribute private information to the public. Now he laments,
publicly, their loss of connection, which only demonstrates her good sense.

Random and public insults on the character of the Duchess of Sussex because she doesn’t
return your calls is not responsible. By using public airwaves and right-of-ways for your
speculations, you have agreed to, and failed, your duty to the public, who provide the
infrastructure and public property rights that your business uses.

So the news of the discontent in the Royal Family, and associated bitter commentary, has no other dimension than “Hey, if we say this, we will sell advertising!” Certainly, that is Piers Morgan’s
level.

So long as there is a dividing line between social media and “the media” there should be a
responsibility one as well.

And is it really “news” when a disgruntled father, or whatever his problem is, has yet another public musing about his daughter refusing to talk to him?

Courtiers are always going to complain. Media figures are always getting “hot tips” from the
attention-seeking or revenge-seeking. We simply ask that this time, some discernment is
employed before another princess is killed while being chased by you.

Frankenstein - The Robot That Hires You by Christine Axsmith

Robots Get You a Job Interview

Interviews are hard to get. Robots, Frankenstein-like creatures, keep your resume from being seen by decision-makers.

Success Without College book series by Christine Axsmith

Part of the $uccess Without College Roadmap book series, Frankenstein - The Robot That Hires You by Christine Axsmith shows you how to hack those barriers to a new job or a new career.

About the Author Christine Axsmith and Success Without College

Christine Axsmith grew up in a area where most people didn’t go to college. Later, her career took a sharp left turn after taking a stand against waterboarding at the CIA. From there, she reinvented herself as the owner of a successful dog walking company, a guardian for the elderly and disabled, a trial attorney and a writer. These experiences taught her how to learn from successful people and to draw a roadmap to recreate their success. In recent years, as lawyers started getting replaced by software, it sparked Christine Axsmith’s interest in this topic.

Success Without College book series author Christine Axsmith Background

Christine Axsmith uses her extensive research skills to provide a roadmap for non-college success in her books by interviewing self-made millionaires and other people in the software field.

There are many media reports about success without college statistics, and many of them will tell you that the income a person earns is dramatically increased with a college degree. That was the old days. More than that, only a little over half of college students get a four year degree. Now, when calculating whether college is a good "investment," you need to include the cost of student loans. 


Christine Axsmith has been published by NIST and NSA regarding information security law, has presented papers at MIT conferences and the International Bar Association, and actively participated in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law - Electronic Commerce Working Group. Her research on encryption export became required reading at Harvard Law School. 

What are your chances of success without college degree?  

In this $uccess Without College Book series by Christine Axsmith, investigate how to be a success without going to college with Christine Axsmith.  There are many media reports about success without college statistics, and many of them will tell you that the income a person earns is dramatically increased with a college degree.  That was the old days.  Now, when calculating whether college is a good "investment," you need to include the cost of student loans.  $uccess Without College Roadmap gives real success stories without college degrees, and improves your chances of success without college by providing a roadmap for you to follow the people who have already done it.  The goal of $uccess Without College Roadmap books is to increase your percentage of success without college.

​

Students who have success without college are people who work hard  People who have success without college think outside the box, which means they have the courage and intelligence to do what is right for them. Stories of success without college provide paths to success without college.  

Tuition is up, and college tuition is up, too.  

While college tuition is increasing, it many seems like a tuition scam is going on.  Students in debt, and some can't afford college at all.  Students can't afford college are people our country needs for the future of our economic wealth.  When people can't afford college, and college tuition is too high, traditional education as a path to a successful career needs a rethink.  Debt-ridden students from higher education will not be able to fuel our economy by buying cars and houses.  

While some say higher education is a scam, and there is a decline of college enrollment, $uccess Without College Roadmap books are not a diatribe against college.  It just suggests that college is a choice, and not necessary to be an American success.  College is also not the only way to succeed in many occupations.  Maybe you can go to college in ten years, or five years, after you are established financially and professionally.  That is fine.  The $uccess Without College Roadmap series only gives you suggestions, and roadmaps to alternatives.

Tourism in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Tourism

Saudi Arabia has a wealth of natural beauty on its shores with the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The coastline is as original as it was ten thousand years ago. It is completely undeveloped desert wilderness. You are stepping back in time.

And now Saudi Arabia wants to become a beach holiday place. It is long-term thinking. After all, the world will turn away from oil soon enough and their economy needs something to stand on. In that sense, it is not a bad idea.

The Saudi beach experience will not be like any you have had before.

The Saudis built roads along the beach that extend far beyond any houses, or any building of any kind. Many roads were built to set up the infrastructure of future growth based on oil money Saudi Arabia has now.  Their religious police don't go there.  And they certainly don't go farther than the road itself. Yet that is what an adventuring friend and I did.  There, I wore a bathing suit.  It was just myself, my friend and Phillipino servants who went there to drink.  Alcohol.

We put our snorkels and flippers on and set out in to the Dead Sea.

It was like a public television adventure, but I was in it. The fish and the coral were all around us. The water was clear and cool, quite unlike my experiences in Wildwood, NJ.

Saudi Arabian tourism could be a fantastic idea, based on my experiences there.  The big obstacles to Saudi tourism are the scorching sun, the religious police, separate and awful facilities for women, the media diet, and the desert itself.  

Scorching Sun

You don’t know what a scorching sun is until you’ve been to the Saudi beach.  The sun will burn under the top layer of skin, and you can feel it for a few days.  And that is without any redness on the top of your skin.  Seriously.  Now, I am what I like to say is “skin cancer candidate number one.”  Me be pale.  Very pale.  So my experience may be extreme compared to most of the planet.  But if you are a human being, you will need sun protection at the Saudi beach, and I slathered that stuff on every 15 minutes.

Religious Police

They are going to be there somewhere.  There is no way they would let go of that power for what will be a major economic influx for the country. In fact, some of their powers have already been curbed.

The religious police were an interesting experience for me.  The first Gulf War had just ended and most of the troops had been withdrawn.  During their time there, I heard more than one story about a female soldier hitting a religious policeman and then hopping in her vehicle and driving away.  The religious codes are enforced by religious policemen, always men, hitting women with little switches if they violated the dress code.  So one of them decided to hit this American soldier with his switch because she was wearing her uniform.  That’s when she decked him.  

Now I am not going to say that the dress code will be addressed like this by every Western woman, but the Saudi religious police need to be ready for more resistance than usual.

Separate But Equal

If Saudi Arabia is serious about tourism, they can’t have the “separate but equal” accommodations for women.  Just as the phrase meant historically in the United States, one side has vastly inferior options to the other.  Even the Saudi houses were divided between male and female, with the male side being much nicer than the woman’s.  

Maybe Saudi Arabian women put up with it, but none of the rest of us do.  

Like with any changes, you can’t just change one thing and think everything else is going to remain the same.  Saudi Arabian religious police must adjust to a reduced power status, and there's bound to be some backlash.  Imagine having the power to admonish almost anybody on the street, and to hit women who offended you, justified or not.  Then, enter tourism.  

After Saudi tourism, they will not have to power to arrest and punish on the spot.  They will be in a business of attraction, not punishment.  It will be a major adjustment for those policemen, many of them skinny, short men.  

The Media Diet

You will see no pictures of women’s bodies there.  It was very weird at first, and then a little funny.  The most skin you got was from Egyptian soap operas, where middle-aged women fell in love with hunky young men all the time.  And yes, they were fully draped with gobs of makeup.  So much makeup, in fact, it was like an abaya for the face.

But this media diet of “no female flesh” had an interesting side-effect:  I stopped feeling fat.  It was the first time since I was 8 years old that I didn’t feel fat.  

It was also the first time I was introduced to the idea of a media diet - that what you consume with your eyes is a diet too.  And that visual diet will affect how you feel about yourself and how you see yourself.

To my mind, the media diet in Saudi Arabia is going to be the surprise benefit to Saudi tourism.  I have always thought that Saudi Arabia would be a perfect place to recover from eating disorders.  I must mention that to the Saudi Ambassador the next time I see him.

The Desert

The mighty Saudi desert destroys anything in its path.  That shit will eat up concrete and decay metal.  Good luck building there.

But there is gold in that there overheated sand:  adventure.

I am truly one of those high-risk personalities.  I walked away from the shore, found my camel bones, and explored tiny huts that had been abandoned not long ago, but long enough for the desert to eat them up.  The wind and the sand are brutal.

A Saudi desert vacation paradise has lots of opportunity for visitors to ride camels, lunch in a desert tent like a nomad, watch a fake harem dance, bargain in a fake souq, watch sample sword fights, and have midnight picnics.

About the midnight picnics:  damn, those were fun!  One thing about Saudis - those people are WAY into picnics.  The idea of a picnic was introduced to Saudi Arabia in the 20th Century by the British, and was adopted with the relish of the converted.  Now, any visitor to Jeddah, Riyadh or Dhahran will see Saudis picnicking in CVS parking lots. Yes, there’s CVS in Saudi Arabia, along with Pizza Hut, McDonalds and Safeway, which for international legal reasons is called Safestway.  As a note, American cashiers are not generally interested in knowing this.

Saudi Arabian picnics, when done right, are something that cannot be missed.  It seems the real party starts after dark on the shores of the Persian Gulf.  All sober, of course, at least as far as I could tell.  There were wedding parties on the beach at midnight - dozens of men singing and dancing and collapsing with laughter on the sand.  The hidden joy of life came out late at night in Saudi Arabia.  You have not experienced Saudi Arabia until you have been on the beach under the full moon with little kids running up to you and wanting to touch your hair or shake your hand.  And, of course, running away at the last minute, only to do it again. And again.  And again.  It was really fun.

I am optimistic about tourism in Saudi Arabia.  If it is done right, tourists could have an unique holiday experience that is different from any other place on Earth.  I hope it works out for them.

Note to The Young Turks

Note to Young Turks

Actually, this goes out to all media, but The Young Turks and The Intercept will be the only ones who care.

There’s a German book “Der Desinformant” (“The Disinformation”) that describes how the East German government got disinformation into Western media: they bribed journalists.

Let’s get specific.  Journalists working for Western media outlets got monthly payments from the East German government to float stories that the East German government wanted told.  They didn’t know the payments were coming from the communist Germany.  They thought the information, or “news,” was from the CIA or Mi5.

In fact, “Der Desinformant” tells how many informants aren’t even aware that they were sources for intelligence information.

Back to the Plan.

I propose that The Young Turks establish a policy that its reporters do not take money from other sources that aren’t being disclosed.  This is not an attempt to get people to give up their weekend bartending gig.  It is just a test that, if this book is correct, other media organizations will not be able to meet.

It would be one hell of a rallying cry.

“The Young Turks does not let its reporters take payments from undisclosed sources.  Can the New York Times say that?”

I’m guessing they can’t.