tl;dr

There is a lot of bad news these days. Most people in power don’t want to hear about it. That is, unless it helps them. If they can’t kill it, they want to spin it. What is missing these days? Solutions, answers, and explanations are all missing. It is hard to locate when we lost this, but we have. The issue is controversy and point of view. Solutions, answers, and especially explanations are all loaded with both. They are complicated and the purview of experts. Society-wide, experts have been rejected. Worse yet, experts have standards. Today, the rich or powerful want to control things, and experts aren’t controllable. The real issue is that solving problems will work against powerful interests. Their power is vested in keeping those problems unsolved.

“Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

There’s A Lot of Bad News

“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” ― Douglas Adams

Things are not going well. The nation is in a multitude of crises. These go all the way from disappearing democratic norms to authoritarian rule. The growth in homelessness is a painful warning sign of societal stress. Inequality is growing. We aren’t sure if AI is a job destroyer or a massive investment bubble primed for a crash. The globe has several conflicts where masses of innocents are being slaughtered. To make matters worse, the USA seems to be on the side of those killing most of the innocents. The time is not good.

Meanwhile, if you listen to the US President, all is great. At least due to his actions, everything is awesome and great. Peace is around the corner. The economy is fantastic, and we will just sweep the homeless away. They’re not real people we care about. Democracy is optional and something to be controlled. His rule is notable by the appointment of sycophants and boot lickers to every post. Any dissent or admission of fault is punished. Only “yes-men” and Trump-cheerleaders are allowed. Moreover, if you cross the President, the retribution and punishment will be extreme, and use the full extent of executive power.

For a while, I thought this was a horrible example for all of us. Terrible leadership that will begin to seep down to society. The last six months have completely changed my view. The bad leadership has already become lodged in the bowels of society. I see it where I work and the places I am close to. The behavior is not as egregious as Trump’s, but echoes it. Bad news is never accepted, and if it can be hidden or spun changed. The problems underlying the bad news are often ignored. Why put effort into solving a problem that can just be messaged away? The mantra seems to be that reporting bad news is simply bad for whoever reports it. Plus, fixing problems is often difficult or a pain in the ass. This is doubly true if the boss’s dumb decisions caused the problem.

The result is a logjam of problems everywhere. The dam is going to break, and it’s going to be awful. Most leaders know they will be out of the way then, and some other poor SOB will be holding the bag.

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” ― Niels Bohr

Experts are Threats; Reject Them

“Throughout history, people with new ideas—who think differently and try to change things—have always been called troublemakers.” ― Richelle Mead

Of course, this post was inspired by something. Speaking broadly, it is the rejection of expertise by my institution. Worse yet, it was recognizing that expertise is being rejected by society. We see it at the highest level of government. Our top government jobs are currently filled by totally incompetent people (RFK, Hegsheth,…). Their only qualification is their subservience and loyalty to the President. Any expert who disagrees with them is simply a nuisance, or worse yet, an enemy. The advice will be rejected, ignored, or attacked if it doesn’t meet the demands of the incompetent leader. The problem is that this rot is present where I work, too. It’s probably elsewhere, as my engagements with Los Alamos have indicated.

I have come to realize that experts are not valued by my workplace. The depth of the problem has been sinking in. It has been a pretty awful realization. My current employer puts a very dim value on expertise. I have substantial expertise in a bunch of specific areas of interest to the Lab’s mission. There is no effort for me to transfer any of this knowledge as I step toward retirement. After retirement, the Lab basically tells you to get lost. At Los Alamos, retirees seem to have value, but I wonder if that will persist. At Sandia, they are definitely surplus to requirements. You feel this attitude growing as a dark cloud as you get older. This attitude has gotten more acute of late. It has found currency in a series of events.

Recently, there was a report of a study that found some problems with codes. I was a subject matter expert who reviewed the report. It was good work and the results were high quality. They were correct and even expected. The only missing element was explanations of the results and corrective measures. The manager responsible for the codes didn’t like this and basically censored the report. They made a bunch of critiques of the report. These critiques were naive and signaled a lack of expertise. Nonetheless, the censorship continued despite no technical veracity of the issues. The political desires were overruling the expert. Again, this is consistent with the basic values of Sandia.

Given Sandia’s responsibilities as an institution, you should all be alarmed. This is how they act. It is the culture. It is the management. It is the staff. At a recent project meeting, someone asked a question about computer codes at other labs. It is something I know a lot about this topic, so I spoke up,

“I’m an expert at that.”

The meeting moderator quipped, “Well, don’t you think a lot of yourself,” in a sneerin,g dismissive tone.

I thought to myself, “Go fuck yourself.”

Fortunately, the person asking the question contacted me outside the meeting. I could answer the question without this horrible disrespect. At least he wasn’t an asshole and just interested in answers.

Still, I was getting a firm read on the culture and attitude. Experts are something we don’t need around here. Granted, the meeting was for a code that is a living indictment of our nation’s gap in science and technology. It is used broadly in National Security work, and it is not a good thing. They could use an expert or three. The problem is that an expert would tell them that the code sucks. They would have to do something about it instead of being legends in their own minds.

“A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.” ― Robert A. Heinlein,

Bad News is Not Welcome; It will be Punished

One of the big issues with bad news is how it is given. It is often just naked bad news without context or explanation. This problem will likely get worse as the news gets worse. A “Holy Shit” bad news is harder to deliver with nuance. The reaction rapidly tends toward “Oh fuck!” Worse yet, those who deliver the bad news are simply punished. They serve as an example to others: “Keep that bad news to yourself.”

The most important fact to recognize is that our leaders don’t want bad news. The leadership class is increasingly filled with pathetic self self-serving people. They are not responsible for the stated purposes of their jobs. They are not responsible for the people working for them. They are not responsible for the future. Their responsibility starts and stops with themselves. They manage up and only care about their own well-being. They are not trustworthy. For years, we have worried that we cannot trust our leaders. Today, we truly can’t; our leaders are craven liars who exist within a system that punishes responsible action.

“For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.” ― Jasper Fforde

What I am seeing is a system that corrodes people. Well-intentioned people are hired into the system. They either become the problem or the system ruins them. Good people either become shadows of themselves or are ejected from leadership. I have seen it over and over where good people either become bad or leave leadership. When a bad person goes into leadership, they thrive and get worse. All the feedback is corrosive. People in leadership positions learn to be worse versions of themselves, or can’t lead. At this point in my career, I know many of the leaders in my World. Invariably, the good people are made worse. The bad people are monsters. The monsters become demonic.

Just think about the monster in the White House. A horrible person who is becoming worse with all bounds removed from any bad behavior. Notably, shooting the messenger is now the law of the land. What a horrible example!

Maybe we simply can’t give bad news anymore. This is simply not sustainable. With no bad news, no problems are ever solved. We are kicking every single problem down the road. Let tomorrow’s leaders solve it. We can see it in the massive budget deficits and debt. No current leader has any investment in the future of the Nation. The same attitude is present all the way to the base of society. It is the mentality of business; quarterly earnings are the focus. Everything is about being expedient today. The same can be said for the cuts to science and research, the future be damned. Someone else will have to deal with all this shit.

“The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

How To Give It Better

“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” ― Jonathan Swift

It should be self-evident that we shouldn’t allow our leaders to bullshit us. Yet we do allow it. Some even prefer to live in a self-delusional state, denying obvious problems. A question that should persist is “How to deliver bad news better? How to give the news so that it is received?” If received, can it be acted upon? Can we get to solving the issues and create a better future through proactive action?

Right now, the answer is that you can’t. We need new leaders who aren’t so pathetic. Leaders who act with responsibility for others over themselves. Still, even with the absolute dreck we have for leaders, we can do better. The key is to deliver more than just bad news. We need to deliver analysis and understanding along with potential solutions. The bad news should not look like an indictment of the leadership. Granted, if the leaders are awful enough (e.g., Trump), nothing will be accepted. We can’t work miracles. Still, we can do better.

The key is to deliver more than “I found this thing that sucks.” You also need to explain why this thing sucks, and how to make it stop sucking. A consistent problem is the default choice of inaction. You say that the “do nothing” solution is a problem. Solutions cost time and money. Leaders have different plans for the money (like their own pockets). Still, the basic understanding of the problems is important, along with a way out. You can’t just present a problem. The bad news alone never works. The rest needs to be included. It is harder and more effort, but in the long run, the only way out.

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” ― Albert Einstein

They Still Don’t Want It

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair

For more evidence of the rejection of experts, just look to the news. Bad job reports are met by the termination of the messenger. Correct and appropriate history is rejected. The Smithsonian’s correct historical content is attacked as being unpatriotic. America is great and perfect. Past crimes are to be forgotten. Like Trump, America can do no wrong. That is the mantra. Therefore, the horrors visited upon Black people in slavery are to be forgotten. The systematic ethnic cleansing of the Native Americans is overlooked. The only acceptable message is American exceptionalism.

I could see this as an anomaly if it wasn’t repeated locally at work. The same mantra, albeit dialed back, is true at work. At meetings, only good news is spoken of. When communicating with our superiors, good news is shared; bad news is buried. When problems are found and reported, the messenger is shot. We are great and successful all the time. We are world-class by definition.

For now, the bad news and well-crafted feedback are not wanted. It won’t be accepted, and those delivering it will be punished. At some time in the future, the “shit will hit the fan.” The disasters will come. The question is, how bad does it have to get before things change? I don’t know. The longer this horrible leadership persists, the worse the problems will be. People will eventually get fed up and demand different leadership. They will accept sacrifice and difficulty for a better future. It will happen. The sooner it happens, the better the outcomes and the fewer the catastrophes. For now, bewar,e calamity is coming.

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ― George Orwell

tl;dr

Culture is something that surrounds us all the time. It’s virtually invisible, but all-consuming. Every day we navigate cultures mostly without ever knowing it. Acting in step with it and things are easy. Acting counter to it is full of friction. These cultures govern our norms of conduct and ultimately shape our lives. Workplaces have a culture both broad and local. These cultures typically are born when the place is established,be it a location or workplace. I have seen these play out in my own life most acutely at the two National Labs I worked at. Although their origins are common, the differences persist and make them very different. These cultures are overwhelmed by the culture of the Nation. Lately, this imperils the Labs with overwhelming toxicity.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” ― Peter F. Drucker

Culture Envelops

All of us are swimming in cultures. There are the local and national cultures, organizational cultures, community cultures, and even family cultures. Each of these shapes our behaviors, norms, and expectations. All of these can have a positive or negative polarity. They influence our lives far more than most of us ever realize. They become so natural that they become imperceptible. The hardest thing to accept is when the culture becomes a limit on possibilities. That is a fact of life. Culture enables things; culture disallows things; culture assists you; culture gets in the way.

For me, this realization has been connected to the two places I’ve worked for most of my professional life. The places should be so similar, and yet the differences are maddening. These cultures are immersive. Both have great positive and energizing aspects. Both have terrible negative aspects. Some of the culture is timeless, and other aspects clash with modernity. The thing is that the two cultures were born together. The cool thing is you’ve all been introduced to it via a popular motion picture, Oppenheimer. Thus, the origins of the culture can be explained through things you’ve seen dramatized.

Los Alamos is the embodiment of Oppenheimer’s influence. Sandia is the embodiment of General Leslie Groves. The differences are profound, and the reasons are logical and deep. The consequences make these two places radically different in feel and basic performance. Both are also part of New Mexico and the United States. To varying degrees, these cultures clash with these organizational cultures. In recent years, the culture of the United States has been a drag on them, and to a large degree, has led to an erosion in most of what is good. Sandia has generally done better, being closer to American culture but further from New Mexico’s. Los Alamos has been savaged over the same time with a culture that is unacceptable in America today.

Now, let us delve into the origins of these cultures and what creates them.

“Biology enables, Culture forbids.” ― Yuval Noah Harari

Culture Lives Forever

“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.” ― Noam Chomsky

Cultures live well beyond the lives of those who establish them. Take New York City as an example. Before it was New York, it was New Amsterdam, a Dutch territory. At its founding and under Dutch rule, the city was inclusive and multicultural. It also had an aggressive business and merchandising nature. All of these characteristics persist to this day. Its transition to British rule, followed by American rule, did nothing to change any of this. The original culture of the city lives on to this very day. It will surely live on into the future.

The permanence of culture is something to notice. One of the things that culture does is provide seamless, smooth functioning of decisions that match the culture. Conversely, if decisions are counter-culture, they will encounter potentially endless resistance. Decisions that match the culture as easy and will go like second nature. Generally, management does not consider culture when coming up with its plans. They really don’t consider how to use the underlying culture to assist them or account for its resistance. The other thing that really stands in the way is a lack of willingness to be honest. Often, there are aspects of the culture that are negative or troubling. Management is often guilty of failing to recognize this.

“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.” ― Brene Brown

In the long run, culture change rarely works. Culture change happens in several key ways. The birth of a culture is usually from an epic or heroic period. If the culture goes on in the organization or place, it is because this epic struggle was a success. The other major way is in the midst of a crisis. If the entity survives the crisis, the culture that helped this survival takes over. Finally, the persistent action over and year or the action of a bigger culture will change things. The influence of the bigger culture, such as the regional or national culture, can change things. In the USA, the larger culture is evolving in terrible ways. It has been perverting most of what is good about National Lab cultures.

The most corrosive aspect of the National culture is the erosion of trust. This manifests itself as the rejection of experts and the turn away from Science and competence. The neoliberal embrace of money as the diety of worship only amplifies all this. This era is probably most defined by greed and the dominance of money over all. It has been building for 50 years. The labs swim in the toxic culture of today. Money and power are all that is good. Experts are to be suspect. The focus is short-term and myopic with self-interest ruling everything. In this environment, a culture of excellence cannot persist and becomes counter-culture.

“We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.” ― Alan Watts

Culture Has Power

“How power is used in organizations determines whether it unites us with trust or divides us with fear” ― Hanna Hasl-Kelchner

When I moved from Los Alamos to Sandia, I experienced culture shock. While similar in structure and mission, the two labs have huge cultural differences. Los Alamos is physics; Sandia is engineering. Los Alamos is oriented toward collaboration and cooperation. Sandia is highly structured and organizationally divided. Even though the organization structures are similar. Los Alamos is a place where ideas mix. Sandia maintains stratification and division.

“Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” ― Richard P. Feynman

It is the sharing of information and communication where the cultural differences become clear. Both Labs operate under the same laws and rules governed by the same agencies. The differences in information policy go back to the origin of the Labs. Robert Oppenheimer, the founder of Los Alamos was about sharing and mixing ideas and experts. General Leslie Groves was all about strict control and enforcement of need-to-know rules. If you work on Nuclear Weapons at Los Alamos, the need-to-know rules are broad and inclusive. At Sandia, the same thing is narrow and exclusive. The impact on the Labs and their culture is profound. It is also frustrating as a scientist. My belief is that it places security concerns over productivity and discovery. In the modern information age, the differences are deeper. Information is the real power of today. Sandia puts itself at a real disadvantage because of its culture.

“Life is rarely about what happened; it’s mostly about what we think happened.” ― Chuck Klosterman

A deeper conflict is afoot. The broader American culture is slowly strangling each Lab. Los Alamos’ culture has largely been crushed and deformed by the Nation’s culture. Gone is the freedom and confidence of its origin. This was typified by the “butthead cowboy” label by the incompetent former director, Nanos. Nanos was a failure from the beginning because he clashed with the Lab culture. He was absolutely hated by the Lab. Nanos was simply the vangaurd of society’s assault on the Lab.

This lack of trust and loss of societal faith in experts has damaged Los Alamos deeply. Sandia is not immune. The same forces that destroyed the engineering culture at Boeing are present at Sandia. These forces are delivered by the Nation’s culture, where money replaces competence as the organizing principle. Corruption and greed have replaced responsibility and duty. The Nation no longer allows a company or lab organized around technical excellence to exist. They only exist if they don’t conflict with short-term profits. The excellence of these cultures has been crushed by societal incompetence. Excellence and competence cannot withstand the assault from every direction by the broken National culture.

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” ― Ray Bradbury

The National culture problems are like an undiscovered cancer. It spreads unnoticed, and by the time you can see it, it might be too late. The cancer in our culture should be obvious. The problem is all of us are the problem. MAGA and Trump should be viewed as a pure malignancy. The whole movement is a rancid tumor on the national psyche. By the same token, Trump and MAGA are not the problem, but rather a mirror of a corrupted society.

All the things smothering the Labs are evident. The lying, bullshit, lack of trust, with rejection of expertise are present. The corruption and valuing of money over all else is obvious. The USA is a place where great National Labs cannot flourish. The broad devaluation of the rank-and-file person is there. Only the most powerful people matter, and the rest of us are expendable. No company, organization or Nation can thrive with these values, but these seem to be America today.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov

tl;dr

The habit of managers attacking the bearer of bad news is at the top of the news in the last week. The President “Shot the messenger” with the delivery of the latest jobs report. He didn’t like it and got rid of the bearer of the news. This does not change the reality, but it does keep work quiet. Unfortunately, this behavior is common. I have encountered it time and time again in my own work. Thus, it seems that the mantra of “shoot the messenger” is standard in the USA. One only needs to look at Boeing to see where this ends up. Eventually, reality will assert itself, and the failure to act upon the bad news will lead to disaster. It definitely did for Boeing. I foresee disasters across society from the prevalence of this deplorable practice. They will come randomly and unpredictably. There will be catastrophes.

Messenger Execution in the News

“But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” ― Khaled Hosseini

The recent jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was bad news for the US economy. It was weak and showed problems in the USA’s economy. They reflected poorly on decisions made in the White House. They should have been a warning that decision makers should take heed to. Instead, the message was attacked by the President, and the head of the Bureau was fired. She was called a liar and accused of releasing statistics with political bias. This was complete bullshit. This was a lie. The President didn’t like the news and decided the correct action was to “Shoot the Messenger.”

The world and sensible Americans recoiled in horror from this act. The end result of these actions will be the loss of trust in American statistical measures of the economy. This is the latest blow to the truth in the USA. We have seen our legal system come under attack. We see science under attack. If the people in power don’t like the facts, they attack those who speak the truth. The problem we don’t see is that this behavior is already everywhere. We have a ruling class that believes that it can simply ignore facts. Ignore the truth. They can use their power and control to simply silence reality. The truth is to be ignored and the consequences be damned.

Thus, Trump is not an anomaly. Trump represents who we are. He crushes the truth. He censors. He is openly corrupt. Everything he does is done openly and in plain sight. It is accepted because it is normal. We all see it in our own lives. The bosses from the owner and management class act like this every day. I see it where I work. I’m sure you do too. If you know what’s good for you, you tow the line and accept the truth they tell you to accept. Ignore the data and the facts. This can only lead to one thing in the long run. Disaster and catastrophe. People will die. Economies will crash. This will end poorly with death and despair.

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell

Shooting the Messenger in My Own Experience

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” ― Oscar Wilde,

I have seen this phenomenon in action at my work. I’ll be a bit oblique, but given that I’ve worked on the analysis of nuclear weapons for over 30 years, it should be taken seriously. It is a pretty common thing at both Labs I’ve worked at. It is also becoming more common and worse. Unlike the example of Boeing that I close with, the weapons aren’t tested. This should naturally lead to higher standards, but the opposite happens. Standards lower because reality’s chastening impact is denied. Reality causing a disaster is the means to a correction. You know when something is fucked up! In the current environment, the standards have become a race to the bottom. Maybe it is inevitable, but you’d think the resistance would be better given the nature of the stakes. Reality, creating a problem would be catastrophic.

I’ve written about it before in the form of its more benign cousin, toxic positivity. This is the filtering of any negative information out of the dialog. The entire public face of management is unremittingly positive. We even see this in internal communications, where problems and issues are simply not reported. Managers just pass up accomplishments and success. Problems are buried. This is most evident in our organizational meetings, where it is an endless stream of happy stories and good news. The problem is that whenever they touch on a topic where you know what’s going on, you know they’re full of shit. The natural question is whether they are full of shit with stuff you don’t know about? More than likely, they are. The message is that everything is going great, nothing to worry about, all is well. Sometimes, stronger medicine is called for, and the messenger of bad news needs to be executed.

A standard place where I see messengers getting shot is my work with verification and validation (V&V). Almost invariably, a V&V assessment is a critique. Quite often, the recipient is unhappy with it. In many cases, they fight back. In a modest example, they want the critique to be lightened and smoothed. In more extreme cases, they seek to kill the critique. This is done to remove the critique and then ignore the problems exposed by it. This is ethically suspect when you’re responsible for nuclear weapons work. Ethically suspect in almost any condition; unless maybe if you’re just modeling for a video game or movie animation, it’s okay. This sort of shoot the messenger attitude has become shockingly commonplace and routine. It is simply accepted as the standard way of doing our work. It shouldn’t be. For National Labs to accept this sort of conduct is absolutely pathetic.

To see where these pathetic standards come from, you only need to look to our leadership. I had a chance recently to engage our upper management about issues and possibilities for AI. The power of AI depends on access to data. The other computer resource that depends on data is search. Our internal search sucks. Why does it suck? The data is hidden from it. You can’t search for what you can’t see. Thus one of the most powerful tools of the last quarter century is lobodomized by lack of access to data. Data hiding is a basic cultural value that manifests itself as data silos and islands. For AI These data practices would be fatal. So, I asked about how we would avoid this for AI. The response was to attack the question. It was labeled as a “harsh” question. Eather than thank me for the insight and treat it seriously, the manager “shot the messenger.”

With management leadership like this, it’s no wonder V&V critiques are treated like shit.

That example is modest and lighthearted compared to what one previous Director of the Lab did. Before COVID, we had a vigorous discussion of the quality of the research environment at the Lab. On the order of 40 high-ranking senior staff engaged in a several-month-long discussion on the topic. Director Younger had seeded the idea in a seminar. At the end of the study an engagement the staff wrote a white paper and went to present their findings to the Director. I was part of the meeting with him. Each of us provided one example of the problems with the environment. I had a list of four possible things to mention, and chose the lightest and most obvious to present. It was the general lack of risk-taking in research and the impact of low risk on innovation. This problem is self-evident and pervasive.

“Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.” ― Mark Twain

There were 13 of us in the meeting, and we traveled around the table. Director Younger got angrier and angrier. The last comment basically asked him something important, but ultimately inflammatory. Sandia had hired 1000s of new employees in a short time. The senior staff member speaking implied (correctly) that these hires were generally substandard. She wondered what the Lab would do to mitigate this. In the wake of this, we were treated to one of the most unprofessional things I’ve ever seen. First, Younger treated us to a soliloquy about his brilliance and massive h-index. We were all basically unfit to sit in his magnificence. Then he turned to attack the staff. This included me. It was a moment of extreme professional misconduct. It was done in the presence of another executive who said and did nothing. In my 35 years at the Labs, it’s one of the worst things I’ve seen. As you might know from my requiem series, I’ve seen some heavy shit. The messenger got shot, and it was me.

Fortunately, Younger was on his way out. He was soon sacked. Good riddance to an abysmal leader.

I had forgotten my previous experience with Dr. Younger at Los Alamos. There, we had a division meeting right before a major security incident needed to be reported. Younger was the Deputy Lab Director for Weapons at this time. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Younger threatened the entire division with a closing thought, “If you know something, speak up now, remember what happened to the Rosenbergs.” He was referring to the Rosenbergs, a couple who were executed for treason. If you work on nuclear weapons, you know damn well who they are. This was a death threat. Despite this extremely unprofessional behavior, Younger was in leadership positions for the next 20 years.

With leadership like this, what hope do we have? Trump’s example is simply more of the same from an even higher position.

“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.” ― Rumi

Is This Who We Are Now?

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” ― Ernest Hemingway

Yes, it is.

Trump reflects America. He is the raw image of the American ruling class. Lying, corrupt, and full of shit. The best way to really understand what Trump is guilty of is to listen to his accusations. He doesn’t possess an imagination. Thus, whatever he accuses others of is what he is guilty of. His crimes are obvious and numerous. Underneath all this is an indictment of who we are. He represents America, and the picture is disgusting. Of course, this is a polarized view, so I’ll stop. Critiques of Trump is common and label me as a “liberal” and suspect to the MAGA cult.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” ― Aldous Huxley

It’s better to talk about a different example, the Boeing Corporation. It’s an ongoing disaster and an example of how “shoot the messenger” turns to shit. Unlike the National Labs, the Boeing products are tested. Every day, and around the World, Boeing planes fly. Recently, some of them crashed, or doors flew off midflight. They crashed because Boeing went from being an engineering company that focused on being technically competent to a money company. Engineering competence is expensive and doesn’t give shareholders the maximum value. The response was to get rid of all those pesky engineers.

I saw the hints of this back in 2006 at Los Alamos. A Boeing Engineer was visiting to find out about our turbulence research. The reason for the visit? They had shit canned almost all their turbulence people except Phillipe Spalart. Spalart’s model was deemed sufficient for future work. So, fast forward to the 737-Max and several crashes overseas, and you see the consequences of this attitude. Shitty engineering and cutting corners create a catastrophic reality. Eventually, the shit hits the fan. So while making their short-term shareholder value, Boeing destroyed their culture and legacy. They went from being the top of the heap in Engineering to a flashing red warning to society.

Now we can see the warning signs for the country as a whole. We all know it’s wrong, but shooting the messenger is now the norm. Catastrophe will surely follow as reality becomes unavoidable.

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche