• ‘BIASES’ IN MAKING DECISIONS AND TAKING ACTIONS result from our brains taking shortcuts in analyzing the flood of constant input, and based principally on emotion or fears. The most common biases include: “Confirmation – looking for and listening to input that’s consistent with existing beliefs; Naïve Realism – thinking we have a better grasp of reality than everyone else; Status Quo – tendency to like things to stay the same, even if change would be beneficial; Triviality – giving excessive weight to trivial versus more important issues; Anchoring – letting the first piece of info we hear influence framing or terms of an entire discussion; Self-serving – giving oneself credit for successes and blaming screwups on bad luck or others; Halo Effect – assuming a person with one observed positive trait (e.g. confidence or beauty) also has others; Familiarity – greater credence give to input from people who look/dress in a similar socioeconomic or cultural bracket; Blind Spot – thinking we don’t have biases.”  [INC.COM]
  •  WHILE PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS SOME VERY CLEAR VIEW ON WHAT ‘AMERICA FIRST’ FOREIGN POLICY MEANS, the broad range of views within five factions of his Advisors means likelihood for running battles and unpredictable outcomes. His core team involve: “(1) GLOBAL HAWKS who believe in U.S. primacy favoring aggressively containing countries which are destabilizing vital regions of Eurasia – Iran/ Russia/ China/ North Korea;  (2) ASIA FIRSTERS pushing to deprioritize commitments to Europe & Middle East, with focus on balance in the Western Pacific versus battling China for economic and technological primacy; (3) the COME-HOME-AMERICA group with main goals of slashing our involvement in the Middle East & Ukraine, slashing the defense budget, and getting out of the business of running the world;  (4) ECONOMIC NATIONALISTS who see foreign policy primarily as a matter of commerce and wielding tariffs as tools for combating unfair trade practices and attracting investments; (5) MAGA HARD-LINERS, hostile to foreign aid, favoring outright land grabs with issues like illegal immigration as priorities. The next four years will see a serious debate among advisers in a battle to shape the world.”  [BLOOMBERG OPINION]
  •  LEFTIST ACADEMICS ARE “FIGHTING TO MAINTAIN THEIR STRANGLEHOLD ON HIGHER EDUCATION. Organizations of professors, academics and students offer stiff resistance to salutary campus reforms aimed at viewpoint diversity, claiming that disagreements with their varying partisan statements and ideological positions are ‘right wing attacks on education’ – (1) demanding that prospective professors be screened based on explicit leftist orthodoxy & ideological commitments, and (2)  arguing that the concept of 1st Amendment free speech can ‘interfere’ with a professor’s ability to manage his or her classroom, since that law couldn’t hope to understand the academic environment, therefore never really be applied (while ignoring the fact that it has effectively done so for 60 years) … Public colleges & universities spend nearly $200 million yearly subsidizing faculty dues and conference fees to politicized associations enforcing a particular intellectual monoculture. At the very least, those who challenge intellectual diversity and free inquiry should stop being rewarded with taxpayer largesse.” [WASHINGTON EXAMINER]
  •  EPA CLIMATE REGULATIONS CONTINUE TO BE BASED ON A HOAX, according to professors in physics and atmospheric sciences at MIT and Princeton universities who say that claims used by EPA to justify cutting CO2 emissions in electricity generation: “(1) will be disastrous for the country, for no scientifically justifiable reason; (2) are based on political opinions and speculative models that have consistently proven to be wrong; (3) rely on unscientific models which cherry-pick data and omit voluminous contradictory data; (4) grossly overpredict the warming versus actual data; and (5) ignore ‘scientific method’ which proves there is NO RISK that fossil fuels and carbon dioxide will cause catastrophic warming & extreme weather.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/article/two-princeton-mit-scientists-say-epa-climate-regulations-based-on-a-hoax-5460699?utm_source=Morningbrief&src_src=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2023-08-14&src_cmp=mb-2023-08-14&utm_medium=email&est=Lh%2FfSfqPYFPfgruY3KFf8Hpv9FltQ3iiWq9Vrobuff1Qs7YmIzw7RLIhBINKNw%3D%3D

                    THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

  • The level of absurdity (and effectively fraud) discovered in first few weeks of DOGE audit is unbelievable and shameful – including millions for anti-Israel organizations that compared Gaza to Auschwitz and call Israelis Animals & Cannibals. Check this listing out:  https://townhall.com/tipsheet/miacathell/2025/02/13/usaid-congressional-hearing-n2652163
  •  As the tech industry continues rapidly shifting to A.I., software engineers & developers who for decades have been among the highest paid American workers (and living comfortably in Silicon Valley, one of the world’s most expensive housing markets) are now experiencing massive layoffs, a desperate job climate, with many leaving their cherished profession.  [FUTURISM]
  •  Societal pressure for picture-perfect weddings has allowed the ‘wedding industrial complex’ – dress designers/ venues/ planners/ bands & DJs/ florists/ photographers/ jewelers/ caterers – to have created a $70 billion U.S. sector, with average wedding cost last year over $33K.  [1440.COM]