As usual my musical selection; Devo’s Secret Agent Man .

On January sixth, 2021, President 45 incited some of his followers to bum-rush the United States Capitol protesting the electoral college determination the Biden won the election. Let’s not kid ourselves; this was an insurrection. One member of the Capitol Police department died as well as four others. Later on, GOP members of congress put forward their objections to the electoral college results.

In the aftermath of the insurrection, as it turns out, some of the insurgents were using popular alternatives- Signal and Telegram -to WhatsApp. Both provide end-to-end encryption for messaging. Of course, to use these apps, you have to pony up your phone number stored on one of their servers to use. What could go wrong?

My friends and I assume others, not hell-bent on overthrowing the government (myself included), rushed off and loaded both apps onto our phones. But why? These same friends (that I know of) don’t use them often, my wife doesn’t, and you can bet your ass my seventeen-year-old daughter doesn’t. Am I missing something?

If we need to turn our phones into secret decoder rings- some of us remember getting them from boxes of Captain Crunch or Cracker Jacks -we may have bigger fish to fry; it means we have fallen asleep at the political wheel; it may have become too late. 

We need to make sure we have learned our lesson from this failed insurrection, and just in case I hear going old school and using tin cans with a string between them pulled tight turns out to be pretty damn secure.

Note all grammar and spelling authors are the fault of House minority leader Kevin McCarthy

The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmad Aubery are the most recent examples of the oppression imposed on the black community. As of this writing, we are in the the ninth day of marches and protests across the country. I have to admit I am surprised these protests have gone on for this long.

For years the media has part of the public effort to document injustices; that’s a good thing. They should also take responsibility for propagating the fiction these uprisings, resulting from our social ills, can be done peacefully, without the incidental violence or looting they broadcast to us each night. They continue telling us this behavior diminishes the movement. I have to wonder if this narrative is an aspiration or willful ignorance of history.

The media should operate in the real world. They need to understand civil disobedience, looting, and violence come as a package. They should make sure people understand all three of these combine to make up the cost of oppression.

My usual opening.

Stats for the Covid-19 pandemic have continued to grow and fortunately my family has not had to make significant changes in our day-to-day lives and the are certainly nowhere near what have had to. What has happened so far is awful. What should be different going forward?

Damage to our social and economic systems will exist for several years. In some instances, parts of these systems will never recover, and in turn, the people who depend them. I can only imagine how this time in our lives will impact my daughter’s generation beyond.

The kill rate of this virus is between three and four percent globally. We should consider it a warning shot, an opportunity to prepare for others which most members of the public health community are sure to come. We need to learn the lessons available to us from this experience.

How do we manage a virus which remains latent for two weeks or longer while simultaneously being highly infectious? What sort of investment do we make in our medical infrastructure? Would such a venture even be successful preventing the disruption we have seen during this pandemic.

At the beginning of this missive I asked what needs to happen going forward. In any solution to a problem before anything can happen decisions must be made. Some of these decisions are supposed to be made by leaders, in fact, decisions in times of crisis are supposed to be the calling card of a great leader. The current individual occupying- when not cowering in a bunker below it -White House is not part of that club. Keep that in mind when you go to vote this November, elections have consequences.

Well, well, well, it has been a long time since I have written anything in this blog. Mueller’s investigation was about six months old, impeachment proceedings were a year off, and the Democrat primary season had not picked up steam. It has been so long I even forgot to link a song at the beginning of this post.

As I write this, the covid-19 pandemic is grinding along and notching up casualties. Italy, unfortunately, has taken the baton from China. The infection is continuing to progress and has landed in the states. It should come as no surprise that we are addressing it with our unique blend of alarm and hubris. And then, there our president adding his brand- literally -of madness into the mix.

During this time I often perform the mental exercise of sitting at the twenty thousand foot level and, in doing so, observe this pandemic is even more amazing; in a bad way. Early on, before Governor Newsom declared a statewide shutdown (bars, gyms, public spaces like movie theaters, and bars). I guess people have a hard time practicing common sense behavior unless forced to do so.

Many people struggle with the moderate limitations on our movements and behavior, telling themselves the numbers are only in the thousands, why worry? They’re missing the point. The idea is to put the hammer down now so that we don’t have to later. Maybe they should consider this an investment in the future, theirs and the rest of us.

Take care and be safe.

Some time ago I was watching the news and noticed trump using the phrase “politically correct”. I hand’t heard that phrase in quite a while and upon hearing it, I reflected on what, if anything it might or might not mean in today’s Silicon Valley.

The phrase “politically correct” showed in up in the late 80s. By my reckoning it became part of the the 90’s zeitgeist know as diversity. While there was some progress made in 90s around diversity and multiculturalism- another linguistic blast from the past -I’d argue that political correctness, especially that part of it which spent time policing language contributed to the slow withering on the vine of any meaningful progress the real diversity work attempted in the 90s might have secured.

Yet again, in 2016, here in Silicon Valley we find ourselves yet again in a similar situation.Words like retention, implicit bias, growth mindset, level playing field, are all terms that pop up in an around what is now called diversity work in the valley. 

The sad thing is even with all of this work around linguistic precision we seem to be manufacturing, that same rigor has been lost in identifying and being specific about what the real challenges are in the valley, and who they affect. 

Yes, language is important, however until we decide to come to terms with the underlying concepts and problems our linguistic gymnastics are trying to describe. We will always find ourselves left with nothing more than a collection of important sounding words. That is the failure of political correctness

Earlier this year venture capitalist Peter Thiel his announced support for Donald Trump and his run for the presidency. Mr. Thiel subsequently showed up as a speaker at the RNC in support of Presidential ticket. If you read the text of his remarks you he really wasn’t saying much that we haven’t heard before from a business leader here in the valley.

It’s funny the number of eyebrows that raised upon hearing Thiel’s position; that he believes policies in and around supporting business and innovation are more important when compared to the things he finds objectionable in both Trump and the Republican party.

Since Thiel’s sharing of his political leanings there have been grumblings as to whether or not he should be allowed to continue as a member of the Facebook board. Those grumblings managed to increase in volume such that Zuckerberg felt it necessary to address the issue directly. Zuckerberg argued the importance of diversity in thought and opinions. It’s certainly a valid- albeit hard to swallow – line of reasoning in this instance.

Zuckerberg and Thiel whether you agree with them or not, have decided to make compromises and prioritize the things they find are important to them. And that is not a bad thing, at least, let’s give them the benefit of using sort of of values based process to arrive at their positions.

The point in all of this is that both individuals think and act in ways  consistent with perceived values and norms at work in Silicon Valley. To be sure, it is reasonable to ask whether or not everyone (Zuck and Thiel included) is aware of and in agreement with these unspoken, informal norms. Based on the response from some in the valley when hearing  of Thiel’s (and subsequently Zuckerberg’s) position it’s reasonable to conclude that not everyone received and subsequently signed on to the values memo.

If we want to live in a place where there are certain non-negotiables around civility, if we want to live in a place where how we speak of, treat and act towards members of our community originates from a place of reasoned behavior. We will need to reconsider how aligned our perception of self is with our reality. That consideration may result in some discomfort. Assuming we can get past that discomfort, we then will need to articulate exactly what it is we want from members of this community. Finally, in order to hold ourselves accountable each of us will have agree to these values we perceive this community is collectively aspiring.

Self reflection is not a strong suit for communities like the valley. We might be well advised to investigate how other communities have managed their changes of sentiment in these areas. Before we do that however, we might be well served to admit that as part of the US business culture. We aren’t all that exceptional.

Grab your fork, and get ready for a little humble pie with some cod liver oil topping thrown in for taste. It won’t taste all that good, however, as those who have preceded us have admonished us, it will be good for for somebody ?