7-24-25

Nothing good ever comes from an action that is preceded by someone saying,

“here hold my beer and watch this”……literally. Nothing. ……but as bad as that

phrase is for starting something it may be even worse to hear someone say in the

aftermath: “Who’s idea was this?!”…….it’s a phrase that is steeped in regret and

bewilderment….a question that usually results in people immediately avoiding

eye contact…..pointing fingers….even lawyering up!.....”Who’s idea was

this?”….it’s a question that implies that an action, decision, or an utterance, was

believed at one time to have held such promise and in the aftermath is seen as a

huge debacle……..everything seemed great until it wasn’t and suddenly everyone

wants answers and no one wants responsibility…..sometimes its funny….and

sometimes it absolutely isn’t funny at all…..and the question of “who’s idea was

this?” is one that usually also precedes some form of accountability…..someone is

about to feel the wrath, or at least know the consequences of their decision

making…..

Here’s one for you……in 1962 an up and coming rock and roll band auditioned for

the Vice President of Talent for Decca Records in London…..he was not impressed

and told the bands manager, "We don't like your boys' sound. Groups are out;

four-piece groups with guitars particularly are finished.” That band was the

Beatles who went on to sell over 2 Billion Albums worldwide……someone

somewhere had to have asked…..who’s idea was it to turn that down?

One more…..In 1876, William Orten was President of Western Union , which had a

monopoly on the most advanced communications technology then available, the

telegraph. Orten was offered the patent on a new invention, the telephone, for

$100,000 (worth about $2M in current dollars). He considered the whole idea

ridiculous, and wrote directly to Alexander Graham Bell, saying, "After careful

consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have

come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities... What use could

this company make of an electrical toy?" …..you know how that story ended

up…..he was so in his own bubble that he could not see the way forward……

On the funny side, here’s one for you that I had never heard until

recently…..everyone knows and loves the ancient story of Pinocchio….little

Pinocchio, the wooden puppet made by the lonely old craftsman Ghippetto, who

had always wanted a son…..the Disney classic rendition with Jiminy Cricket and

the whole cast of timeless characters came out in 1940…..and the premiere of the

film was a really really big deal….Disney had sunk a lot into making this one…..the

audiences couldn’t wait…..it was an instant classic even before it hit the big

screen….and then someone had a great idea for a promo event at the big

premiere event……somewhere, someone, somehow sold the Disney team on an

idea that turned into a total goat rodeo…..the summary of it is that

In 1940 Disney hired eleven "little people" …..(formerly known to the world as

midgets, which is a word that is no longer considered appropriate apparently so

now we say “little people”)…….well, Disney executives made a boardroom

decision to hire eleven little people…..and then dress them up in Pinocchio

costumes, complete with a big heavy mask…..and put them up on top of the

movie marquis to wave at the crowds who were coming to the premier of the

great new animated movie…..little people dancing and cavorting in front of a

gawking crowd…..what could wrong?......everything could go wrong…..it was

apparently hot that day…..the little people got hungry…..and then they got

mad…..somewhere around midday someone sent up some food….and for reasons

no one could explain they also sent up alchohol….yep, alcohol…..whereupon the

little people, already hot and bothered, got soused…..drunk little people began

stripping off their costumes…..like, all of them…..down to the birthday suit….and

then they started gambling, and yelling profanity at the crowds……all inhibition

was gone as nearly a dozen little people sat up on a movie marquis in all their

naked glory and mocked innocent moviegoers mercilessly while shooting

craps…….and they refused to stop…..no amount of pleas would assuage the angst

of the angry drunken little exhibitionists……by midafternoon it had gotten so bad

that the New York Police Department had to send officers over with ladders who

climbed up, wrapped them in sheets and took them all into custody…..think about

that….who’s idea was this…..who thought it would be awesome to dress up and

exploit a bunch of little people as Pinocchio, leave them on a balcony in the hot

sun with and wine and sandwiches for the day, and then wonder why they got

drunk, mad and naked and start screaming swear words….it defies logic…..surely

someone had to pay for that one…..wouldn’t you think? Who’s idea was this? A

question that surely had to be followed by someone losing their job…..

But you see this all the time…..decisions made in a boardroom….totally in a

vacuum…..and totally without any consideration for the consequences because

the decision makers are so into their own bubble that they can’t imagine any

outcome other than the one they want…..let’s keep in mind that the enemy

always gets a vote in warfare…..any time I go to court as an attorney I try to

anticipate what the other side is thinking and planning……that’s how it

works…..but decisions made in a vacuum, inside the bubble….they usually end

with someone in authority demanding to know “who’s idea was this?”…..

The history of the world is replete with ridiculously bad decisions…..decisions that

once made cost someone, or some company, countless opportunities and

boundless riches…..but what about decisions that did more than just affect

property, or profit margins?.....what about the decisions that once made had the

notoriety of negatively impacting actual lives……even to the point of death….even

to the point of usurping the will of the people……

We are learning more right now about the infamous decision making that led to

an attempt to coopt the duly elected first term of Donald Trump…..what we are

now seeing in actual documentation is that there was a true decision making

process by people who sat in their ivory tower and decided that they knew

best….that they and they alone knew the way forward….that surely there would

be no repercussions……what we know now is something that we have long

suspected but never had the ability to truly get to the bottom of it…..now we

have the ability, and the authority, to ask “who’s idea was this?”……what we now

know is that millions of tax dollars, countless barrages of biased media, the full

force of the US Government, the jailing of innocent people, all in what became

known as the Russian Collusion narrative of 2016 was a lie…..what we know now,

because Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is publishing the

documents she has found…..is that in 2016 the intelligence summaries of the day

indicated that Russia had an interest in meddling with our elections but that there

was no evidence of collusion between the Russian government and the Trump

campaign…..UNTIL after Trump was elected…..on December 7 th , 2016 …one

month after Trump won…..the intel summaries said that there was no

collusion….but on December 9 th , 2016 President Barack Obama called in Susan

Rice (NSA), James Clapper (DNI), John Brennan (CIA), Andrew McCabe (FBI) and

John Kerry to meet about Russia…..after which, the memos uncovered now show

that Brennan went back to tell everyone in the intel community that “at the

direction” of the President (and that’s a quote by the way) at the direction of the

President the narrative needed to be revised….and suddenly we got the Russia

Collusion hoax,……followed by the Mueller investigation….followed by massive

media barrages and leaks…..followed by Congressional hearings…..this went on

for years…..all because someone had a really bad idea and decided to act on

it…..this is not losing money on a missed opportunity….this is not just seeing an

invention that could change the world and dissing on it……this is not drunk naked

little cursing at children……this is out nations sanctity…..this is abuse of

office…..this is an actual attempt to subvert the will of the people and undermine

the office of the Presidency……Who’s idea was this? It appears to be

Obama…..and we want accountability now……

Why am I telling you all of this?.....because we have a right to question, and that

right to question is based not just on freedom of expression, and freedom of

speech, but on the simple fact that history dictates that people make stupid

decisions about things that negatively affect others all the time…….

I’m not a doctor….I’m not a scientist….I’m just a guy…..a guy who sees that there

are people who become so arrogant….so sure of themselves….so steeped in their

own ideologies and agendas….that they can no longer see the outcomes of their

decision making……what happened on December 9 th 2016 was a travesty…..and

we now have the receipts……and we deserved to know “who’s idea this was”

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way