Clarity and the 12 Sins of Poorly Defined Outcomes

It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion. - Rene Daumal

At some point, a flash of sustained clarity reveals the difference between what someone would have you believe is true, and what you know from the depths of your own heart to the peaks of your soul to be true. What happens after that is up to you. – Aberjhani

A couple of weeks ago, in the middle of some intense frustration over some  business intentions that have refused to cross the finish line no matter how much nudging and force was applied, I stepped away from social media.

I put my 25 million connections across different platforms on hold, exchanging the useful and the useless (read: mundane or inane) chatter for quiet and replacing the incessant online chatting with people I’ve never met with more high-quality, in-person time.  An observation I made to CBC Sunday Edition regarding this was read (in part) on their show last week.  It is at 43:43 of hour 1 and was in response to this interesting piece - The anti-democratic reign of Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon.

I also went on a diet from mainstream media.  With President Trump dominating most conversation channels any, I didn’t think I would be missing much.

And in the blessed quiet that ensued, I applied a technique not often used in my industry to explore the delays plaguing my project.

As an uber-left-brained, ultra Type A personality, it is sometimes difficult for me to get the analytical side of my brain to just shut up, stop analyzing everything around it and allow the creative right side of my brain to have a go at something that intense logic alone can’t figure out.

Using a process that borrows from techniques that artists use to maximize their potential, I set about exploring the dilemma that plagued my teams.

The process goes like this, utilizing key strengths of each side of the brain in a structured, strategic way:

1. First Insight - Back away from deep analysis of the problem and explore key insights with the right side of the brain (non problem-solving mode), allowing the brain to wander “aimlessly” around the problem.
2. Saturation - Overload the left side of the brain with the background data, context, rules, constraints and other things associated with the issue but but do not try to solve the problem.
3. Incubation - Wander away from the problem and work on anything BUT the problem, allowing the right side of the brain to creatively wander through the space, unimpeded by the analytical, logical side of the brain that insists it has the solution (an assertion unproven to this point).
4. Illumination – AHA moments arrive suddenly and out of nowhere as the issue that has been bothering you suddenly has solutions presented from the creative side of the brain.
5. Verification – Bring the left side of the brain back into play and verify that the AHA solution is appropriate, relevant, viable and actionable and use the left side of the brain to create a new strategy, guided by the creativity from the right side of the brain.

For a deeper explanation of how this process works, I recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition.

In the clarity and grey-matter wandering that ensued, I came up with 12 sins regarding outcomes that were being committed by all parties involved in my current project and armed with the list, I presented them to inside and outside teams this morning.

Here are the 12 sins – how many are you or your organization(s) guilty of?

1. Unknown Outcomes – they have been defined but for a variety of reasons, are unknown to some key individuals or have been forgotten by them.
2. Hidden / Obfuscated Outcomes – an outcome important to one or more people has been intentionally hidden from some people for reasons that benefit the owners of those outcomes.
3. Poorly Defined Outcomes – almost better than having no outcomes but potentially also more dangerous than having no defined outcomes as they are missing key elements of evidenced-based assumptions, specific measurable components and date-sensitive completion targets.
4. Undefined Outcomes – some people didn’t even bother to define them for their team(s).
5. Conflicting Outcomes – outcomes from different individuals / teams are running at odds with each other because of execution or interpretation.
6. Competing Outcomes – poor prioritization or focus has allowed outcomes to compete within the brains of a single person or team.
7. Fluid Outcomes – outcomes that constantly change based on observation, perspective and the current weather forecast
8. Rigid Outcomes – outcomes that should be redefined when data, context and situation call for an intelligent adjustment but people get locked on course, even if they are heading for an open pit.
9. Immeasurable Outcomes – outcomes based on fuzzy things, emotions or feelings instead of being evidenced-based.
10. Passive Outcomes – from the “I hope this happens / works” camp even when the data screams otherwise (if there is any data at all).
11. Aggressive Outcomes – the steam roller approach, ignoring the negative impact on people, organizations and anyone / anything else touched by the results of such outcomes.
12. Timid Outcomes – leaving important things on the table, unexplored and unleveraged, because a lack of assertiveness, confidence or information.

In my early morning presentations this morning, I could have hammered and insulted everyone involved by actually pointing out who was guilty of one or more of these sins (myself included).

But great teams don’t need to be lectured – they know how to solve their own problems once they are pointed out.  The book Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is, written over 20 years ago but still relevant, has some useful information on how to encourage intelligent people to solve their own problems.

Having set my team back on course towards a successful completion of the tasks at hand, I took a look at what is trending on mainstream and social media this morning based on social media’s “what’s trending” links.

Let’s see … in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein debacle, I see that Ellen DeGeneres lit up social media with this item.

@TheEllenShow: Happy birthday, @KatyPerry! It’s time to bring out the big balloons!

Sure it’s only in jest and we are hypersensitive about everything these days.  However, if a privileged Caucasian male (a certain President comes to mind) said this, Twitter would burn to the ground in indignation.

Consistency and fairness are important when we are addressing issues in our world, are they not?

Meanwhile, HBO severed ties with Mark Halperin over his own indiscretions and yet defended a comedy that they ran a few years ago that showed a child drinking from a penis-shaped water bottle. 

Apologies for the offensive picture but it is offered to make a point.

I also explored this in the post Duck Dynasty, Phil Robertson and Ignorance Run Rampant.

I see also that Hillary’s “The Election Was Stolen from Me” tour continues to trend highly and is either a form of therapy for her  (Hillary Clinton’s Book Tour Is a Dose of Much-Needed Therapy for Her Fans) or a source of anger (Fear and loathing on Hillary Clinton's grievance tour).

And finally, I see that the US Intelligence community continues to control the nation as President Trump acquiesces and allows certain JFK assassination reports to remain classified.

Not to be outdone, President Trump continues to stoke fears in many that we are all about to be wiped out in a mushroom cloud.  Whether that cloud is nuclear or ego-based is still being debated.

On the social media side, I see a lot of conspiracy rants and an invitation to determine what my porn star name would be or if an algorithm can guess my age based on my song interests.

There are many useful and important conversations happening in social media but items similar to the ones shown above are the things being fed to many people who consume what is put in front of them rather than choosing to selectively digest that which improves their lives and the lives of others.

It’s too bad that irrelevant and nonsensical drivel drown important things out and that such noise prevents many people from seeing clarity in their own personal or professional situations.

It would be entertaining to reexamine measurable outcomes of society-at-large as it pertains to social and mainstream media, politicians, business and the like.

I would but I have accepted the caveat that such analysis will unlikely move the masses who prefer to deflect attention away from their own worries, laziness, ignorance, apathy or sense of inadequacy (the latter often being untrue or unwarranted) by filling their mind with such distractions.

The Bottom Line

Clarity matters and often to obtain it, we need to create a gap between ourselves and the noise that prevents us from acquiring it.  Unfortunately, too many people are afraid of quiet, solitude and the chatter within their minds.

That’s too bad, because many people have great things aching to be revealed that could make a tremendous, positive difference on this planet.

Measurable outcomes matter and those who refuse to define and communicate them appropriately often bore and irritate others who get tired of hearing them moan about results desired but not assertively, appropriately created.

Consistency in addressing our world problems matters – we can’t be offended by what people say or do if we say or do similar things, somehow holding people to a higher standard that we refuse to hold ourselves to.

And what we fill our brain with matters in regards to the results we create for ourselves and others.

What do you fill your brain with?

I wonder if your answer and your actions express the same thing.

Does it even matter?

In service and servanthood – create a great day because merely having one is too passive an experience.

Harry

Vladimir Putin: The Useful Puppet

The hardest part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch. - Scott Glenn as Captain Bart Mancuso - The Hunt For Red October

The #1206 “fiction” series continues …

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In a well-lit, expansive boardroom, a group of agitated men and women argued around the boardroom table in the JFK Conference Room.  The meeting facilitator standing at the head of the table pleaded for order.  This was not an uncommon sight in this room these days, a room better known to the outside world as the White House Situation Room.

“Can we have one conversation here?”, the facilitator yelled above the din.

He waited patiently for about a minute as people gradually returned to their seats before clearing his throat and beginning to speak.

“Thank you”, he said. 

Turning towards the large screen behind him, he pointed to the presentation displayed before them.  “Now as you can see”, he continued, “In our effort to distract the people from the reality that we are unable to solve our education, healthcare, law enforcement, military and infrastructure needs, we have pretty much exhausted the list of deflections.”

He paused and then continued.

“The Black Lives Matter movement was useful but turned more violent than we anticipated”, he said, “The promotion of gender equality was useful but we allowed it to get too complicated to be useful.  I mean, who in the hell thought of 31 allowable genders for a driver’s licence in New York City?  Our leverage of folks in Hollywood has produced a backlash claiming hypocrisy since many of the people we have tapped to step up for us have become mired in their own personal shit about their own demons and indefensible positions.”

He advanced to the next slide in his presentation.  It showed lyrics from a Beyoncé song and photos of Miley Cyrus.

“Can you lick my skittles, that's the sweetest in the middle, pink that's the flavor, solve the riddle”, he read. “These are lyrics by someone the First Lady is calling a role model for young women?”, he asked.

“And this picture of Cyrus at a concert riding a giant ….”, he paused again and shook his head.

He advanced to the next slide.

“And this stuff about Trump”, he said, “It seemed effective at first but his band of dedicated idiots seem unswayable.  Even leveraging storms and telling people that this one is the one that will kill all their families and make parts of the country uninhabitable didn’t frighten too many people.  Running political commercials on the weather channels as people were trying to get updates probably didn’t help us either.”

“Anyway”, he said, “This stuff with Putin had better be working.  We need something to take people’s mind off of our lack of effectiveness.  Putin’s a hot head and it shouldn’t be that difficult to get him riled up and rattling the war sabres.  The key that I must stress to you is that while we publicly threaten to bomb places like Iran and Aleppo, we must constantly keep in contract with the Kremlin to assure them there is no real threat.  That way the people fear a war is imminent while it really isn’t.  Fear and anger, my friends, is the way to manipulate people the best.”

A voice from the back of the room spoke up.

“And where does this take us?”, she asked.

“Excellent question”, replied the facilitator, “It provides us with two useful options.  Either we get Hillary elected to the White House as planned or things go off the rails with Trump and we use Putin’s war cries to justify the invocation of Executive Directive 51 and we retain power.  For those of you not familiar with the directive, here is the brief summary.”

He advanced the presentation to the next slide and waited for the participants to read it.  It read:

The Presidential Directive defines the power to execute procedures for continuity of the federal government in the event of a catastrophic emergency. Such an emergency is construed as any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions. 

The Directive gives full executive, judicial and legislative power to the President of the United States, with full control over food, water, energy distribution, transportation and communication mechanisms in the country, including the Internet.  It also provides for the dissolution of Congress and the Senate if required as well as the waiving of any elections until such time as the President believes the nation to be safe.

After waiting for a minute or so, the facilitator broke the silence.

“Fully legal as defined under the law”, he said, smiling, “We just need our puppet in the Kremlin to play along.”

“But aren’t tensions between us and the Russians getting extraordinarily high?”, the same voice asked from the back of the room.

“Absolutely”, the facilitator replied, “But we need to take Russia to the very edge to make ED 51 look like the only legitimate option.  We’ve played chicken many times in the past and it always works.”

He started to speak again when the phone in the middle of the conference room table rang, interrupting him.

The facilitator nodded to someone sitting closer to the phone and the person pressed the speakerphone button.

The entire room listened quietly as the voice on the other end of the phone, in a quick, breathless, nervous voice, explained how an accident had occurred and the Volgodonsk, a Russian warship deployed off the coast of Yemen, had just been sunk by a nuclear-tipped Tomahawk missile.

“How did this happen?”, asked the facilitator as the color drained away from his face.

“We don’t know”, replied the voice on the phone, “Some idiot over there made a mistake on our side and let it fly.  There’s almost too much chatter to keep up with what’s happening.”

The voice paused for a moment.  “I gotta go”, it said, “There’s too much going on here.  Someone will call you when we have more information.”

The phone line was cut and the person next to the phone turned it off.  The room buzzed with nervous tension as multiple conversations exploded simultaneously.

“People, people”, the facilitator yelled once more, “Please, may we have one meeting at a time here?  This is probably a minor incident.  Cooler heads will prevail.”

He was still trying to get control of the meeting when one of the Presidential aides burst into the room.

He bent over and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“The President …….. taken to PEOC”, he said in broken sentences, “Bogies approaching over the pole ….. more on Atlantic and Pacific coasts ……”

A thousand questions for the aide came from all directions.

He didn’t have much time to answer.

It didn’t matter anyway.

To be continued.

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© 2016 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background

The PEOC, or Presidential Emergency Operations Center, is one of many bunkers where the President can go in times of emergency.  While it is not the ideal location, it is the best one if you have less than two minutes before a catastrophic event.

Executive Directive 51 is real and perfectly legal.  It would be politically unpopular but desperate times call for desperate measures from desperate people.

People who say that there are too many checks and balances in place that would prevent an accidental launch of a missile should recall what happened with the USS Vincenees when it shot down an Iranian commercial jet liner.

The other stuff is conjecture.  As a long-time Wall Street strategy guy, I and people I work with know that anger and fear are the most powerful tools available.  Feel-good moments can inspire others but if you want someone to act quickly without thinking, it is best to make them feel afraid or angry.  Both emotions cloud logical thinking and people will do things against their better judgement and character as long as others don’t give them time to stop and think rationally. 

As for distractions and deflections used by politicians, ask almost any politician any difficult question, even repeatedly and notice how the question is answered …. and is not.  The intention is that you will eventually give up and walk away. “Mission accomplished”, thinks the politician when this happens.

By the way, there is an interesting treatment of this subject in the 1984 movie “Countdown to Looking Glass” where things go from routine to out of control very quickly.  Thirty two years later, it is still an interesting, relevant and disturbing movie.

I’m not a pessimist.  I’m an optimistic realist, who believes that a better world is within our grasp only when we acknowledge the difficulties and imperfections around us.  We must neutralize difficulty in order to realize a better world that we are capable of creating.

As a strategy guy, it is my role to identify all plausible scenarios, including the unlikely, the unpopular, the unsavory and the unpalatable.

Risk mitigation requires people to understand all the risks, otherwise it is often the risk ignored, played down or hidden that proves to be the problematic one in the end.

We need to call out the people who put us at risk and hold them accountable for if such risk becomes reality, we die and they live.

I don’t think that’s a fair exchange.

What do you think?

You may now return to worrying about what color your next iPhone or Android phone will be or what the latest memes are on Facebook.

That is all that matters, after all.

Isn’t it?

Series Origin

This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy advisor and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” (note the quotes) and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

The Presidential Election: The Real State of the Union

By way of deception, thou shalt do war – Motto of the Mossad

Life is the art of being well deceived and in order that the deception may succeed, it must be habitual and uninterrupted.- William Hazlitt

The #1206 “fiction” series continues …

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Using his credit card, he deftly laid out the lines of cocaine on the small mirror he had placed on the dining room table.  Laying the card aside, he grabbed a small straw and snorted up the fine white powder.  Within a minute or so, his worries began to fade away.

He staggered into the bedroom and climbed into bed next to his girlfriend.  She kissed him lightly and he snuggled in to her.

“Thanks for putting gas in my car”, she said, “I don’t think I could have gotten to the abortion clinic without it.”

“No skin off my nose”, he said as the room began to spin around him, “I used the company credit card.  They’ll never notice.  I’m sure the guys at the top steal from the company all the time.”

“And besides”, he continued, “It’s no good if my wife finds out that I’m a dad to someone else’s baby, is it?”

“That’s true”, she said as she laughed.

She got serious for a moment and then asked him, “Do you think there will be any complications because it’s my third abortion?”

“Third?”, he asked, surprised by the number.

“Nah”, he replied, shaking his head, “Doctors know what they are doing these days.”

She nodded, reached over for the remote control and turned the TV on.  It blared the latest controversy about Trump and Clinton as they prepared for the next Presidential Debate.

“I’m so disgusted with both of these people”, he said, “They’re both full of crap with all the dishonest and immoral things they do.”

“I know”, she replied, “When are we going to get someone who represents the people and not their own selfish, stupid behavior?”

“Exactly”, he said as his phone chirped.  He glanced at it, reading the SMS from a friend of his who had picked up a few guns “off the radar”.  He replied that he would reach out later and placed the phone back on the nightstand.

His girlfriend stared at the TV screen, her eyes seeing but not seeing the brief note on the ticker about the Russian military sending more nuclear weapons towards the Baltic and Mediterranean, another about India and Pakistan inching closer to a nuclear war and a report on the number of people killed in Haiti by Hurricane Matthew.

“I just don’t know”, she said, sighing.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked, momentarily glancing at the TV as he rolled over towards her.

“I’m picking up my new iPhone after I go to the clinic tomorrow”, she replied, “and I really don’t know if I should get the white one or the pink one.”

“Hmmmmm”, he said, pursing his lips in thought, “That’s a good question.”

---

The two “men” sat in a coffee shop, leaning in towards each other and speaking in low voices.

“Fascinating”, said the first, “The planet economy is in tatters with no solution in sight, Russian and US militaries are repositioning their assets for an all out war and all these people can worry about is which one of two immoral people is the most or least immoral.  It’s a race to the bottom and no one is the winner.”

“I know”, replied the second, “The government leaders they elect train and supply terrorists who come back to them with hostile intentions and even though the terror threat is not significant, with more people being killed by drunk drivers every year, the so-called leaders then sell to the American people the idea that they can save them from the very people who were created by their own policies and actions in the first place.“

“Yes”, agreed the first, “Tax returns and missing emails seem far more important than the economy, healthcare, education, safety from nuclear, bio and cyber weapons and the myriad of other issues requiring attention.  People even fall prey to statistical manipulation, not knowing or caring that the means by which unemployment is being calculated has been changed to omit those who would have been included in the unemployment ranks years ago, putting the real unemployment rate at over 20% while 48 million people need food stamps to survive and 98 million people are not in the ranks of the employed at all.  It wouldn’t be as easy to control their minds if it weren’t for a news media long since having given up its soul to the highest bidder.  People watch the news not to be informed but to feel good about being superior to or luckier than the poor schlep they are watching.”

“What about that rumor that Trump is actually a mole for the Democrat party and that a fix is in for the election right under the noses of the people?”, asked the second, “Isn’t that the craziest thing ever?”

The first one laughed at the thought.  “It sounds to me like you have been watching too much of their news media.”

“The really sad thing”, said the second as he stood up to leave, “Is that while the American people complain about their choices for President, they fail to recognize that the two choices are not aberrations of their society but are in fact products of it.  Given that, what else could they choose from other than those who represent a natural evolution of their society?”

“True”, agreed the first as he also stood up to leave, “Maybe if they didn’t numb their brain sharing the mundane on social media, they might have the interest or ability to figure this out.”

He looked around at the people sitting at tables around him and shook his head quietly.

“It’s easy to see issues in others that people don’t see in themselves”, he said quietly, “while waiting for someone else to be responsible for their own problems.”

The second nodded and then noticed a teenager listening to some music on his phone.

He waved at the kid to get his attention, waited for him to remove his ear buds and then asked him, “What are you listening to, kid?”

“Armageddon by Prism”, he said before placing the ear buds back in his ear.

“Well at least someone has a grasp on where they are headed”, the second man said to the first as he laughed.

The first man joined him in laughter and clapped his hand against the back of the second.

“So true”, he said, “It would be nice to help these people but their history shows that they only learn when their backs are up against the wall.”

The second pushed the door open before observing, “Hopefully for them, the lesson doesn’t come too late or deliver a punch that cannot be survived.”

They walked out of the coffee shop and vanished into the night air.

To be continued.

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© 2016 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background

There are a lot of parables buried in this story and within the parables, there is both fact and fiction.

If you need the parables explained to you, you may be part of a larger problem.

If you don’t understand them or don’t care about them at all, you are part of a larger problem.

If you are in neither of these two camps, then the world, with its amazing beauty and unlimited potential is waiting for your voice, your gifts, your talents, your strengths and your leadership.

What are you waiting for?

Series Origin

This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy advisor and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” (note the quotes) and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

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Addendum - An Interesting Question - October 9, 2016

Holly Simon asked this question, which I found to be very thought provoking:

@HarryTucker people are a product of their own actions? Or a reflection on their own actions.

Interesting question indeed!

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Addendum 2 - Another Interesting (Albeit Blunt) Opinion - October 10, 2016

Here's an intriguing, albeit blunt, opinion that follows a similar theme to this blog post. It's not an endorsement of any political candidate.

Feel free to be offended if it suits your need.

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President Obama Preparing for Third Term

If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal. – Emma Goldman

Politics have no relation to morals. - Niccolo Machiavelli

Power doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt power. - William Gaddis

The #1206 “fiction” series continues …

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May 30, 2016 ……

Deep within the bowels of an unnamed building in Washington, DC, a group of men sat around a large boardroom table centered perfectly within an opulent boardroom.

On a large screen at one end of the boardroom, a headline indicated that Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton was facing potential racketeering charges for issues related to the Clinton Foundation and the email server debacle created during her time within the State Department.

The President listened intently to the presenter who was making observations regarding the developments around the Presidential candidate.

When the presenter finished, the President leaned forward and cleared his throat.

“What I need help in understanding”, he began, “is the impact of this development on my Presidency and on the Democrat Party’s chances to retain power in the White House in November.”

“Don’t worry about that, Mr. President”, replied one of his advisors, “We have that covered.  Shall we move on to the next topic on the agenda?”

The President frowned when he realized his question had been dodged but turned his attention to the next item on the agenda.

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June, 2016 ….

The President sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, reading his briefs for the day.  The issues with the Clintons continued to grow daily in the media and with it, his frustration that his Administration advisors continued to assure him that things were under control while not telling him how they knew this to be the case.

He made a mental note to ask them specifically what they had in mind when his executive secretary stepped into his office and began her daily ritual of overloading him with reminders of the mind numbing responsibility carried by a President. 

The Clinton issues slipped his mind …. again.

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July, 2016 ….

Air Force One flew smoothly across the Atlantic Ocean as the President continued his farewell tour.  He stared out through the window, lost in thought, reflecting on the past 8 years and wondering about the future of the great nation that he led.

A thought came to his mind and he fished out his Blackberry.

He typed out a quick SMS:

I still don’t know what we are doing with the Clinton issue and I am concerned.

The reply came back quickly:

Recommend we schedule a meeting in late August to discuss.  I will set it up.

The President frowned but texted back an ok.

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August , 2016 ….

“Excuse me, Mr. President?”, a voice asked, interrupting his train of thought.

Looking up from his desk, the President saw his executive secretary standing before him.

“Yes?”, he asked wearily.

“Jim just called and told me that he needed to move the Clinton meeting to late September”, she replied, “He sends his regrets but told me to assure you that it will not be cancelled again.”

The President pursed his lips and furrowed his brow as he digested this.

“Thank you”, he said to his secretary.

“You’re welcome, sir”, she said as she turned away from him.

“I’ve never had such a difficult time trying to get a simple question answered”, he thought as he watched the secretary walk out of the Oval Office.

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September, 2016 ….

The President stood behind the podium, preparing to address the reporters before him.  Meanwhile, in a room behind the press room, his advisors sat around a conference room table, watching him on a large screen.hissed

“I didn’t think we could pull this off”, came a voice in the back of the room.

“Shhhhhhh”, someone else hissed.

They stared at the screen in silence.

Back in the press room, the President cleared his voice and began to read a statement prepared for him and placed in his hands less than half an hour before.

“Good afternoon”, he began, “The White House has been observing with concern the developments surrounding allegations against the former Secretary of State as well as those against the Foundation that bears her name.  It is out of concern for the allegations and the potential impact of those allegations that I informed the former Secretary this morning that she must suspend her Presidential campaign immediately.”

There was a gasp from the reporters gathered in the room but the President raised his hands to silence them.

“In asking the Democrat nominee to suspend her campaign”, he continued, “We now have an unprecedented situation before our great nation.  With a Presidential election around the corner, we, ahem, excuse me, I, believe that there is insufficient time for another Democrat candidate to be selected in such a way that a fair election can be held.”

He paused again and looked at the reporters before him.  He felt nauseous as he contemplated the words he was about to read.

“When a fair election cannot be held, it is my duty as the President of the United States to assess what the impact of this could be upon our country.  After deep and careful thought, I have decided to invoke Presidential Directive 51 effective immediately.”

He paused again and noticed the reporters looking at each other in confusion.  He knew that most of them didn’t even know what Presidential Directive 51 was.

“For those who are unaware”, continued the President, “This directive grants my office with the authority to execute procedures that ensure the continuity of the federal government in the event of a catastrophic emergency. Such an emergency is defined as any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”

He paused and swallowed hard.

“It is my belief that the extraordinary events unfolding in this election will adversely impact the ability of our government to function properly and for this reason, I have invoked the directive”, the President said, a slight shake in his voice.

“The terms and conditions under which the nation will operate will be revealed in the coming days”, he continued, “but for now, the important element to note is that the upcoming election will be cancelled until such time that a fair election can be held.  To support this intention, other civil liberties will be suspended as well while we assess what to do moving forward.  Executive Directive 51 also gives me the power to dissolve Congress and the Senate and so I have informed the Vice President and the Speaker of the House that I will be making use of this clause of the Directive.  Details will be announced shortly.”

The room exploded in questions and shouts of surprise, dismay and anger but in the confusion that ensued, no one noticed a dismayed President as he stepped down from the podium and left the press room quickly.

In the back room, shouts of victory suddenly burst forth as a group of unelected officials congratulated themselves on their brilliance.

“I better get the reward I’ve been promised”, one of the observers thought.

"Ahhhh, the things that can be accomplished while the American public lays sleeping", thought another.

To be continued.

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© 2016 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background

The day before this blog post was written, stories started appearing in the press regarding potential racketeering charges being laid against one or more of the Clintons.  It is unclear how accurate the story and its claims are and perhaps the entire story is fiction or a dream held by someone.  An opinion piece about this can be found here.

Executive Directive 51 is real and provides the President with supreme authority in the event of potentially catastrophic developments as noted in my blog post.  More about it can be found here.

While I’m not a conspiracy person by any imagination (being entirely fact / data driven), I was intrigued by the possibility of these two events colliding.

It was that intrigue that inspired this “fictional” piece and I couldn’t resist poking at the conspiracy-filled brains of some people.

A third consecutive term is illegal under term limits of the Presidency. However, term limit rules can be overridden by Executive Directive 51 and everything I said here could happen and would be entirely legal if it did happen.

All of that being said, it is impossible to conceive that such a thing could happen.

Isn’t it?

Series Origin

This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy advisor and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” (note the quotes) and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

The Democratic Party–Nothing Democratic About It

Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process. - Hillary Clinton

If you get so unequal that people believe they don't have a chance, that the field isn't level for them and their children, that puts democracy at risk. - Hillary Clinton

American politics is always an open competition. - Hillary Clinton

As I looked at the current delegate count for the Democratic Party this morning, I noticed an intriguing statistic:

Despite a virtual tie in Iowa and a sound thumping in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton is leading Sanders by a significant margin, thanks entirely to the Democratic Party’s superdelegate system.

Of the 4763 delegates that will vote in the Democratic Party caucuses and primaries, 2,382 are required to win the Democratic Party nomination.  Of those, 712 delegates are superdelegates,

These superdelegates are an interesting group, being made up of current and former presidents, vice-presidents, congressional leaders, and DNC chairs, Democratic governors, Democratic members of the United States Senate, Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives and elected members of the Democratic National Committee.

So while 2,382 delegates are required to win the nomination, 30% of that total, if one’s cards are played well behind closed-doors, come from a select few people and not “the people”.

It sounds like an unfair system at first blush so it would make sense that one could turn to the leadership of the Democratic Party to allay any concerns that this system could be used to "fix" a result.

However, when DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz notes that “Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists”, one realizes that the Democratic Party knows nothing of democracy and anyone who subscribes to such a system knows nothing of it either.

If Sanders and Clinton come to the finish in a dead heat or even with Sanders running a slight lead , Hillary Clinton will be handed the nomination, removing the voice of the people from the Democratic Party candidate selection process.

This doesn’t seem to bother many people or maybe they don’t care enough to ask.

Perhaps we should examine it another way.

Let’s assume that the most recent Super Bowl had the Panthers leading by 6 and they had the ball on the Denver 1 yard line.  It’s first and goal for the Panthers with 1 second left on the clock.  Since there is only time for one more play (ignoring the rule that a penalty on the last play may allow another play), the game is pretty much a slam dunk for Carolina.

Now assume that as the ball is about to snapped, an announcement is played over the loudspeaker.  It is this:

The NFL has ruled that in the interests of a Hollywood ending for Peyton Manning, the game will be awarded to the Denver Broncos.

Football fans would erupt in anger and people would be demanding someone’s head.

And yet when the same thing is happening in regards to the selection of the individual who may become the next President of the United States (once the most powerful person in the world but no longer), no one seems to care

It’s an interesting thing to note that what is unimportant can elicit such outrage yet what matters doesn’t seem to matter to most.

The Bottom Line

Many people in America have tuned out of the political process for a variety of reasons, including finding themselves being crushed as they fight for day-to-day survival, being cynical about their political representatives or benefiting from the way things are.

Ironically, while few people care about the process of selecting a leader, many people have much to say when things aren’t going well.

Maybe if they took more time to care early in the leader selection process, they might choose a better leader or at least understand what the leader is dealing with the next time something happens or the leader makes a choice that upsets the voters.

Unfortunately, most voters don’t care or are so uninformed that they keep proving Winston Churchill’s observation correct when he noted:

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

To implore the voter to make democracy something better than “two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner” as noted by James Bovard is a useless waste of time.

The average voter couldn’t care less who or how someone comes to power but they have lots to say when things go wrong.

As a strategy guy, I think this is insane and it makes the average voter insane as a result.

Are you insane or merely an uninformed, misinformed, indifferent, apathetic, rabid follower unable to think for yourself and thus a waste of a vote?

Does this mean your right to vote should be taken from you since you don’t care how it is used?

How would you like it if someone denied you the right to vote as a result?

After all, if you are misinformed or uninformed, what difference does it make if you vote or not?

How can you prove that you are worthy of expressing your opinion at the ballot box?

Do you even care?

If you don’t care, fret not.  You will likely pay little penalty if any at all.

Your children and your children’s children on the other hand …..

…. well, that’s another story.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS For those offended that I said that the President is no longer the most powerful person in the world, they should recognize that the POTUS is only halfway up the chain when it comes to the security classification system in America. This means that there are people who are ranked higher than the POTUS in regards to national security and who have access to information that the President is not permitted to know. Since information (and knowledge when information is applied) is power, who do YOU think is the most powerful person in America?