• BEING THE BEARER OF BAD NEWS IS NEVER FUN, especially if it results from one’s action or inaction. A few tips to at least lessen the stress on yourself, and hopefully the recipient: (1) Fess up and don’t procrastinate delivery, while they get the news late and/or from someone else; (2) consider an advance warning to avoid blindsiding the person, and let them pick a timeslot; (3) If it’s your responsibility or fault, take accountability, versus the temptation to throw others under the bus; (4) Give them the punchlines accompanied by a brief & concise outline of the important facts, impacts & implications; (5) Advise that you have some suggested solutions or next steps, if they’d like to hear. There’s seldom a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ best step, but always a better-than-worse option.
  • CYBERSECURITY UPDATE: 99% OF ATTACKS CAN BE DISRUPTED, by utilizing multi-factor authentication, versus single factor, according to The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The other riskiest. “exceptionally dangerous” mistakes involve (i) using Unsupported software, allowing use of default usernames & passwords; and (ii) using end-of-life software that no longer receives updates or security patches. [ZD NET – 8/31/21]
  • THE EDUCATION OF 600,000 LOS ANGELES STUDENTS IS EFFECTIVELY CONTROLLED by LA Teachers Union, whose president, with support of NEA, has kept schools closed “based on an ideological agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with Covid-19 or improving their quality of education… Instead of advocating for better wages/hours/working conditions, their Union has become a ‘social justice’ organization that cares more about pushing Marxist ideology (intended to tear down the most prosperous and just society in the history of the world), to be replaced with a customized version of Utopia affected through politics of resentment… Their agenda includes universal health care, critical race theory, boycotting Israel, support for illegal immigrants, housing for homeless and eviction relief… When asked about potential learning losses from shuttered schools, the UTLA president’s response was ‘It’s okay that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. They learned resilience & survival, the difference between a riot & a protest, the words insurrection and coup.” [FREEDOM FOUNDATION – 9/1/21]
  • “THE ESPOUSAL OF NEW VOCABULARY IS ONE SIGN OF A SOCIAL MOBILIZATION that is affecting ever more areas of American life, penetrating politics, the press, sometimes spilling out into the streets… The credo which links these ideas – known as left-liberal identity politics, social-justice activism, or wokeness – has a clear common thread: belief that (a) any disparities between racial groups are evidence of structural racism; (b) the norms of free speech, individualism & universalism which pretend to be ‘progressive’ are really camouflage for this discrimination; and that justice will persist until systems of language and privilege are dismantled.” [ECONOMIST -9/4/21]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”  – Oscar Wilde “There’s a distinct possibility that our culture has become so fragmented, with heightened sensitivities on all sides, that large swaths of the American public can’t even agree on what’s funny anymore, and free TV devolving into nothing more than a way of filling time between commercials.” – Time Magazine

   Singapore now uses autonomous robots “to patrol public areas for surveillance and displaying messages to deter and educate the public on poor social behavior, such as flouting Covid safety measures, smoking in prohibited areas, and improper parking of bicycles, as well as law enforcement during their trial.”  [REUTERS – 9/6/21]