I rarely watch television, greatly preferring books and their thought-richness to in-my-face entertainment, but the other day while reading an advance copy of Daniel Bradford's outstanding western, BO HENRY AT THREE FORKS (Savant, in press), I noticed out of the corner of my eye ABC's  "The Shark Tank." Humans posing as monetary sharks. The epitome of economic Trumpism, but, in fact, nothing at all like real sharks. 



We have plenty of real sharks in Hawaii: sand, white tip, black tip, even tiger sharks. Most most go placidly about their business, rarely interacting with humans, and when they occasionally do, it's usually because the human looks to them like a floundering turtle or fishy treat. They don't, to my knowledge, cruise about seeking victims to rip and tear, either bodily, or thank God, economically. What an ocean that would be!

I recently read on Savant author Daniel Janik's blog a posting about investing being more like outright gambling, the implication that one will at least preserve his or her principal, being a modern subterfuge. I would go a step further: Gambling is something for which humans are hard-wired from the start. Using that innate propensity for personal gain, is not at all sharky, it's inhuman, and undeserving of any animal, especially an outrageously educated and experienced, top-of-the-heap predator like us. It's actually about trickery. Not the slight-of-hand type, but onerous, premeditated, carefully calculated, strictly applied trickery, always biased to the advantage of the instigator or "house." The famous actor and screenplay writer W. C. Fields said it best: "Never give a sucker an even break" though it was the Disney corporation in "Pirates of the Caribbean" that said it in the most contemporary way: "Take what you can; give nothing back." Now I ask you, what has this to do with the maligned shark? Nothing. It's a purely human construct, and I fear what this period in American history will be know for is exactly that. Nothing except unrestricted greed extending beyond anything every known before. 


That's not much of a legacy, I fear, so I'm going to go back to do my part: continue writing the base manuscript for a seventh Koski and Falk adventure, "The Bridge at Vittorio Veneto," with my dear friend, A. G. Hayes. In the meantime, don't let his and my book, QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) slip by you, or, for that matter, William Maltese and my book, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009). They make great holiday gifts as well as outstanding stocking stuffers! #sharktank #Trumpism #gambling #quantum