Donald Trump: The Paragon of Genetic Inheritance

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BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,699
1,448
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You, on the other hand, are a bit embarrassing to watch when you post sometimes.

I'm just saying.

Ditto -- per the post addressed by your response.

I've been watching intently since the 2008 election. I could offer my observations here, but it would be preaching to the choir with the one exception.

Even before the dust settled, I found people writing letters to the editor in December, '08, saying "The stock market took a dive [on such and such a day] -- It's Obama's fault!" One laid-off, homeless formerly-high-paid network technician ($100,000/annum) told me his father complained that Obama caused him to lose his job -- in summer, 2008.

Less than six months into 2009, some fellow grocery shopper kept insisting to me "Obama's the worst president -- ever!"

In spring, 2009, Boehner stood up before Congress to say "Where are the jobs, Mr. President?" That's dumber than blaming Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs disaster.

Between Reverend King and John Brown, the John Brown side of my psyche isn't going to forget this last seven years. I'll look for any legal way to visit it again on the heads of the perps.

Every card those folks play is marked on the backside, when they turn up the face. It hardly requires the rest of us "playing the card" in response.
 
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tweaker2

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
14,478
6,902
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You know, I think that if people devote themselves solely to the task of making money and accumulating wealth -- they are likely to succeed in making money and accumulating wealth.

But there are many other worthy goals for a life, and some of those goals may attenuate wealth accumulation. And that's why I think you'll find more dummies in the wealth-accumulating category than you would expect.

It's a pretty simplistic ambition, and in pursuing it, there may be a lot less room in a person's daily thinking for other matters or even common-sense pursuits.

Your post reminds me of a childhood friend of mine, who, in his quest to make a million $$$ before age 30, invested his very soul into said endeavor.

I got involved when he needed my help (gratis, needless to say). He decided his niche, his path to riches, was for providing top level "gunsmithery" services as he described it, to discerning enthusiasts, concentrating in the area of olympic level target riflery.

After exceeding his goal at the local level, he found it necessary to move to Colorado to expand his reach. In this, he also succeeded.

While on a short vacay back home, we talked some and then he asked me a question that to this very day I have kept in mind: "Why is it that I have such difficulty in having life-long friends that I can trust like the ones that you have?" I pondered on that some, and then I asked him just how much of a priority that was for him, and what sacrifices he was willing make to forge such coveted friendships.

After a few moments of self-reflection, his answer was that he was so engrossed in achieving his goal that he never asked himself those questions, nor did it ever occur to him that the pursuit of his goal would be an obstacle in that regard.

Of course, the moment he uttered those words he realized he answered his own question.

Thing is, he then realized what a comfort it would be to have such friends, what advantages it provided AND the selflessness required to cultivate those bonds and keep them.

Needless to say, he needed to make changes in his priorities to achieve that and, sad to say, I saw in his face that it was just a melancholy moment that passed in his mind before he got back on that steep uphill track to fame and fortune.

I am somewhat surprised though that he managed to marry and keep a family of four what with his initial goal seemingly being his top priority.
 
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BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,699
1,448
126
Your post reminds me of a childhood friend of mine, who, in his quest to make a million $$$ before age 30, invested his very soul into said endeavor.

It occurs to me just at this moment that this dovetails with my thoughts about ideologues, perhaps even -- evangelicals.

If your life is so busy in "The Quest," you need a ready-made body of thought or a belief-system to save yourself the time and trouble in understanding. Examining them all could be time-consuming and troublesome.

I should think through that some more, because it's a broad stroke, and it "just occurred to me." Otherwise, picking one book off the shelf and buying into it wholesale is just unforgiveable laziness.

So a person can be astoundingly persistent about one thing or some few things, and just as amazingly lazy about others.

There was an economic paper or idea called "Day's Theorem," offering a flow-chart of incremental adjustment made by successful, competitive business decision-makers. You would attend to all the little decision-points and processes over and over all week long, then adjourn to the church on Sunday to be told what to think in other respects.

Again -- just off the top of my head.