Category: Religion

The Fed’s 2% Inflation to Lower Wage Rates: Micromanaging employers and causing quite a mess

There is a dirty little secret that the Federal Reserve has about its role in mass society that needs to be discussed in relation to interest rates and what it considers managed inflation.  The Fed recently met at its annual Jackson Hole meeting, and it reminded me of many things, particularly the time when my grandkids wanted chicken nuggets from McDonald’s and their dining room was closed.  We were in my RV, so the only way to place an order and collect the food was to use the drive-thru window, which I barely fit through.  The McDonald’s in Jackson Hole is very close to where the Fed meets against the backdrop of the Teton mountains.  For a tourist town with one of the largest concentrations of wealth in the world, it’s a small McDonald’s with a pretty small parking lot.  Certainly not RV friendly.  However, I managed to make it work with less than an inch on all sides of my vehicle, and it’s a story that has gained a lot of popularity in my family.  “Remember that time grandpa did this?”  And everyone says, “Which one?” because there are a lot of things to talk about.  The town itself is one of my favorites, and I can understand why all the bank presidents who are members of the Fed want to meet there to discuss monetary policy.  It’s a really good place to go and is America’s version of Geneva, Switzerland.  I think the Tetons are better, though.  So after the Fed meeting there, Jerome Powell indicated he was going to do what I said he was going to have to do, and what J.P. Morgan had been pressing for, along with President Trump, and that was the Fed was going to lower interest rates.  Not happily, but because they have to.  The economy is too good to hide phony interest rate profits for the banks behind artificial inflation numbers meant to frighten the world away from Trump’s presidency. 

However, there is another issue at play that we need to address regarding employment.  The Fed believes that in managing money, it must bake in 2% inflation per year because that is the only way to offset the erosion of wages that employers provide to employees, which dilutes the actual value of labor.  Because the Fed believes, which is one of the reasons for its existence, that employers will not incur the hard cost of paying employees less for their labor as they age and become less valuable.  Therefore, the Fed believes that it must step in and manage the economy because employers won’t do so on their own.  Often, when a company gets out of step with its cost structure, it has an obligation to reduce its costs, either through a reduction in force or wage cuts.  However, most employers are hesitant to lose their legacy talent and invest a significant amount of money in retaining them, when in reality, they should consider letting them go on the open market and replace them with cheaper and younger workers.  The NFL has to do this all the time with salary caps, which are imposed on teams to keep them fresh and relevant.  If a player wants to leave a team for more money, then that team can turn to free agency to replace that player.  If the market wants to pay a lot for that experienced player, they certainly can, but there is a salary cap, so that team won’t be able to pay a lot to other workers as well. 

That’s why we should operate in America with some gold standard, because value has to be protected. Instead of the Fed having the temptation to print more money, it would micromanage the economy with continuous infusions of cash, ultimately diminishing its buying power and hiding the inflation it creates in the process.  And try to hide it behind other economic conditions as a justification, which had worked until Trump came along and called the Fed’s bluff.  And because the Fed believes that free market pressures won’t manage the economy effectively, they have baked into all their assumptions about economic flow that they must micromanage employers who won’t trim their fat with inflated wage rates at their companies, as they fear losing talent to their competition.  So, the Fed bakes 2% inflation into everything.  That’s why, when reviews are conducted with employees, a standard minimum of 2% is required to maintain your wage value at the same level as the previous year.  The trick is that as you get older, you actually lose buying power in most cases because inflation eats up whatever increases you manage to get for yourself.  The goal is for Americans to earn less over their working years, not more, because the actual value of labor must be managed by the Fed, which introduces all kinds of problems, as it’s not really employers who are the problem.  That is just the excuse that the Fed applies to cover a lot of liberal politics, for which they are prone.  Labor unions, for instance, are very guilty of propping up wage rates that are artificially too high, which then feeds the Fed’s argument for mass micromanagement of the economy with incremental inflation to let people believe they are being paid a certain amount on paper, but in truth, the money is worth a lot less.  People don’t notice because it happens over time.  However, every three years, at a minimum, workers lose 6% of their buying power if they do not receive raises in their pay that are well above 2%.  To receive an actual 2% raise, employees would need to obtain a 4% raise with each yearly evaluation.  Which certainly isn’t the case for most people. 

Consider the problem at the McDonald’s in Jackson Hole that I mentioned, which had its drive-thru window closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  And the government was pushing for a minimum wage increase that inflated the real value for entry-level jobs, such as McDonald’s workers making $15 per hour, when the real value for their jobs is likely under $10.  When politicians interfere in the process of manipulating market values, the Fed must attempt to cover up the mess with interest rate hikes to conceal the inflation it creates, which often exceeds 2%.  Our goal with inflation should be zero, and if we held it to the gold standard, it would have to be.  These are the problems you get when you let pin-headed bureaucrats micromanage an economy with Marxist ideas instead of free market capitalism, and it’s a real problem.  So Jerome Powell knows all this and is reluctant to lower interest rates, even though all the parts of the economy that they usually hide behind at those Jackson Hole meetings are too good, forcing his hand.  So he’s not happy about it.  But a lot is coming that he won’t be pleased about.  There has been a significant amount of tampering that has impacted wage rates, and employers have not been the primary source of the issue.  It’s too much administrative mess that comes from the Fed, and short-term politicians who have caused all the problems.  McDonald’s workers, like the one in Jackson Hole, should not have employees making over $20 per hour.  Wal-Mart should not have employees making $20 to $25 per hour because all other labor has had to increase their wage rates to obtain workers.  But the money is all on paper.  People are not actually making those actual wage rates because the Fed has had to hide the impact through inflation.  And now they are being forced to lower interest rates, which will expose the whole mess.  Although the meeting in Jackson Hole might have been very scenic, it wasn’t enjoyable.  There will be a lot more to happen with monetary policy in the coming months.  And the Fed is going to lose a lot more control, as they very well should. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Jennifer Gross Goes to Washington: The importance of redistricting

When I say that Jennifer Gross is not very well-liked, I mean it in the manner of a compliment.  I think it’s a great asset to have people who don’t like you or who are very angry when your name is brought up.  Many people certainly dislike President Trump.  And I would say that I am one of the most hated people in the world.  People typically like you when you do what they want you to do, and their acceptance of you in some way is the way they gain leverage over your authenticity.  So, that makes Jennifer Gross an effective politician in a dynamic intellectual sense, where a static order has to compete, and they don’t like it.  In Ohio, Jennifer is my Representative in the 45th district, and she works hard to do so; I appreciate people who work hard.  And in the course of that work, she found herself in Washington, D.C. with Lee Zeldon, director of the EPA under Trump’s administration, asking questions directly to him about an issue I have been very concerned with regarding the EPA.  I would say that among Trump supporters and people who dislike RINOs, Jennifer Gross is very popular, so it depends on the crowd and what they want out of relationships, which often determines likeability.  I believe cordial relationships can be a liability.  However, it was interesting to hear about Jennifer’s trip to Washington, D.C., where she met with several Trump administration officials, including RFK, over MAHA issues.  So, once her plan was in place, Jennifer and I discussed a number of topics that we would typically talk about.  However, for this audience, I happened to record it so that others could share in the experience.  And, as much as I am concerned about the EPA issue, the conversation we had, which came straight from the Trump administration, was about the need for redistricting. 

The primary thing that Jennifer wanted to tell me about the Trump administration was that they weren’t a bunch of phonies.  The people working for Trump were all successful individuals in their own right, who could take or leave other politicians.  Jennifer can relate because she has always been very independent when it comes to politics, and that makes it hard for her to deal with when it comes to deal-making.  Much of politics is a collaborative effort, and I know several people I would call good friends who spend a lot of time collaborating with other politicians, only to accomplish a fraction of their wants and needs individually.  But that’s part of the process, and one of the reasons I thought the Trump presidency would be a good thing was his self-control over his wealth and ability to walk away from anything he didn’t like.  And his administration is very much the real deal, and Jennifer was pleased to report that they were not a bunch of phonies like we often learn people really are once these political campaigns are over.  So she couldn’t wait to tell me how authentic people like Lee Zeldon, Secretary Kennedy, and Commerce Secretary Lutnick were in real life.  It’s not usual to have people like this in any administration, and to meet them in real life after the honeymoon is over for Trump, doing everyday work, it was good to hear that they are everything they say they are.  Politically, many people dislike them as well, but, as all successful people must learn, that comes with the territory. 

The primary concern on everyone’s mind is the fairness of redistricting, so that Republicans can have more seats in Congress.  There are a few that we can pick up in Ohio, and several other states. The Trump administration is playing hardball on this issue, as it should.  Trump is right, Republicans should not play nice with Democrats over any election issues.  If we genuinely want a representative republic, which is what we are, we must trust the American people to choose who they want to represent them.  Not what a party wants us to adopt for their convenience.  That’s where things get tricky with playing nice to get along, and being a stick to poke in the eye of those who are too quick to compromise.  My point in the matter is that there is room for people like Jennifer Gross in politics and room for plenty of mainstreamers who enjoy the process of collaboration, if we didn’t have such a close margin of majorities.  I think that if we had guarded our elections more closely, there would be 60-plus Republican votes in the Senate and over +50 in Congress.  It is only close in America because of election fraud, and Democrat gerrymandering for many years has given them the appearance of a 50/50 country, when actually it’s a long way from being so.  Democrats are a minority party at best, filled with misfits and broken toys.  It’s one thing to have compassion for their poor state.  It’s quite another to have them destroy our entire society to appear fair.  In Ohio, there are 15 congressional seats, and Republicans have 10 of them.  There are opportunities in Ohio to improve upon that, and without question, Republicans should.  Don’t listen to the cries of Democrats, play hardball and defeat them everywhere. 

And if we did that, as Republicans, the world would be a lot better off.  As Jennifer and I discussed after her trip to Washington, fairness, or the appearance of it, often leads to inauthentic corruption, and righteous representation usually falls by the wayside as people who pay money for representation in the form of lobbyists end up running our government from the shadows.  And that is what we have been trying to get away from.  It’s what I always hoped would be the case from independently wealthy people like Trump, Secretary Lutnick, Zeldon, and Kennedy —that they would do the job for the right reasons. They could make a lot of money if they weren’t in politics.  However, as successful people, they can best represent the public that needs it.  And through redistricting, we can elect more people like that in the future, which would properly represent our actual society.  We don’t have an obligation to play nice with people who want to destroy our country.  And we owe Democrats no illusion of fairness.  If we can secure an additional 20 seats for the 2026 midterms, then let’s do it.  Meanwhile, it’s good to hear that Jennifer was being treated with sincerity by the Trump administration and that doing the right things for the right reasons was more than just an empty promise by politicians who usually disappoint us.  If too many people like you, that’s usually a bad sign, and that’s the case in any level of society.  And the Trump administration couldn’t care less; they can afford to be independent of such popularity concerns.  And because of that, they can actually accomplish some things.  Based on Jennifer’s report, they are willing to do the work and are solid in the promise category.  And these days, that is a scarce commodity.  One area we could significantly improve if we were more aggressive with redistricting. 

Rich Hoffman

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Anna Paulina Luna and Her Interdimensional Beings: Understanding the politcs of creatures beyond time and space

I think it’s time to discuss the politics of interdimensional beings and their impact on our terrestrial existence.  And she’s certainly not a whack job, U.S. Representative from Florida, Anna Paulina Luna, who recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and discussed interdimensional beings that can operate through the time and spaces that we currently have.  Moving outside of time and space, and she said all this based on classified photos, documents, and witness testimonies she reviewed as a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which investigates Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs).  Those witness testimonies include Air Force pilots who reported phenomena defying current physics, suggesting the presence of non-human technology.  Anna Paulina Luna is interested in a wide range of subjects and is very logical.  As a U.S. Air Force airfield management specialist, she had posed for Maxim as a Hometown Hottie and was a semi-finalist for Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  And now, as a member of Congress, she is always interested in several topics on which she has opinions.  What she isn’t is a tin-hatted conspiracy theorist.  It was pretty remarkable that she would go on to one of the most popular podcasts in the world and talk about the impact interdimensional beings have on our existence as a person who has observed vast amounts of evidence pointing in that direction.  And it’s interesting timing, because recently Tucker Carlson, a reporter whom many people find credible,  He’s not a crazy lunatic.  However, he has recently stated, just a few weeks before Anna Paulina Luna made her comments, that he believes supernatural forces are controlling many members of our government, who are deeply invested in appeasing those forces for various reasons.  And he has reached a point where he no longer wants to know any more.  There is too much evidence pointing in that direction and the ramifications of that possibility are overwhelmingly ominous.  These kinds of stories are also why I am working on a new book called The Politics of Heaven.  These forces have always been with us, and we need to understand their motivations and political ambitions from their perspective to understand the impact they have on our lives. 

One of the best things I have done for myself was to go to the Mothman Museum with my family in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, this year.  That is an exciting place where people are starting to put together all the pieces, and as intelligent creatures ourselves, we want to understand these interdimensional characters.  We discuss them in many of our religions.  I can report from personal experience how Japan goes to extraordinary measures to appease the creatures it calls the kami.  In Islam, it’s gin.  In Christianity, we refer to them as demons, angels, and gods.  However, their movement has been chronicled over vast amounts of time, and sacrifices to them have been made from temples as long as time has been recorded, to appease them.  When you visit the Mothman Museum, you gain a unique insight into the mystery of one of the most significant events in which a Mothman-like creature terrorized the town during the 1960s, ultimately leading to a catastrophic outcome.  Wrestling with this mystery has become a pastime for many people, and the work of the reporter and writer John Keel, who has since passed away, has involved earnest investigation into these topics. The museum reflects that effort.  I love to read John Keel books, which ask more questions than they answer, but the trend points toward a lot of smoke coming from a raging interdimensional fire that is very interested in our lives from their perspective of wants and needs. 

However, my experience with these kinds of things doesn’t lead me to believe that any of them are more intelligent than we are.  Just because they can operate outside our dimensional space does not mean they have developed an intellect superior to our own.  I think the Bible addresses this issue very effectively in Ephesians 6:12, and that the phrase and contemplations accurately describe the problem.  Just because something has better technology, or that they seem older, or operate in dimensional space beyond our four dimensions, that doesn’t make them smarter than we are.  From my own experience, I think of them more as animals with technology, and not very wise.  If we think of time as just one dimension, what is it to them to operate in the 5th dimension, or the 11th?  Time is just a unit of measure that is different relative to the relation gravity has on it.  Time dilation is common when dealing with elements in space, so time is not the same; it’s relative to where it is experienced.  And that could easily be the case with the interdimensional beings Anna Paulina Luna is talking about, or the appeasement of big government types to supernatural entities that they seek to placate through sacrifice and ritual, which is as old as time itself.  Eternity as we think of it would exist outside of the measurement of time, and may be more real than just a hopeful idea.  And with that in mind, we have to deal with the part of ourselves that is connected to eternity, and not the limited measurements of our dimensional space.  We should not assume that reality is all that we can see, but instead that it is determined by the behaviors we observe and how much of that is a result of the world we live in, or from a world that is not in our dimensional reality but only interacts with us as a sliver of that impasse, such as the flatland metaphors used to describe the life of a 2-dimensional being witnessing a 3-dimensional being. 

But we are not as helpless as we have been led to believe.  I don’t question why Anna Paulina Luna is discussing this topic now, as are Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, along with many others.  Or why there is even a Mothman Museum that people can visit and think about these mysteries.  Or why right now there are Harvard scientists who are claiming we are going to be attacked by aliens from another planet in November of 2025.  I believe all of these sources.  But considering the motivations of these interdimensional beings, what is it about this time in the human race that has timeless beings so concerned?  Why now?  Because it is evident that the story is spiraling out of control very quickly, our ability to discuss this topic freely on the open internet for the first time in history has a purposeful political element that has a payoff beyond our measure of time and space.  And understanding that is something we should endeavor to embrace.  We’re not debating whether Anna Paulina Luna is correct in her observations, based on testimony that suggests the existence of interdimensional beings.  Our need to know is what they intend and how their political needs compete with our own.  Just because we are a four-dimensional being, should we assume that they are superior because they live in higher dimensions?  Or are they dumber than we are, and need to feed off our lives for their very sustenance.  Which is what I am inclined to believe.  These are the questions that matter, and, interestingly, we are discussing these topics now as the world is shifting in a populist direction.  I would say that, as Tucker Carlson pointed out, the temptation for governments worldwide to engage in supernatural worship is to appease those unseen forces in all kinds of diabolical ways.  And that much of our misery on earth and during our lifetimes is self-inflicted to appease those forces.  But is that necessary?  And, or, should we turn those tables, and perhaps have, which is why all the desperation now?  I think perhaps so.  And as we untangle all this, I think there are a lot of opportunities that have previously been concealed.  And I’m looking forward to the results.  In a political fight with these interdimensional forces, I think we can win the great elections of cosmic concern.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

I Have Personally Saved Lakota School District Businesses and Residences Many Hundreds of Millions of Dollars: What the next generation looks like

I don’t talk about it much or think about it in any significant way, but I have had at least three school board members tell me what someone reminded me of this past week.  I have personally saved the Lakota school district, businesses, and homes many millions of dollars in tax money because of my stance against Lakota schools.  Its pretty unusual for a school district the size of Lakota schools to go as long as they have without a request for a tax increase and the hidden element that doesn’t get discussed by the school and the media that reports hand in hand with them is that it has been my name that they don’t want to deal with in their public relations efforts to extract more taxes from the public.  Going back to the No Lakota Levy days, from 2010 to 2013, it was me and a few business owners who got together and put forth a resistance to tax increases proposed by Lakota schools in the form of levy initiatives.  And I was the spokesman who did all the radio spots, television and wrote articles for the media, and even produced my own material.  So much so that the reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer told me directly that I was his biggest competition, as he was interviewing me for my anti-tax positions.  We defeated three consecutive tax increases until school board member Julie Shaffer and some of her cohorts devised a scheme with the same Enquirer to try to destroy me personally.  Of course, it didn’t work for a lot of the same reasons. After they finally got a tax increase passed in 2013, by the slimmest margin they could have had and still call it a win, they haven’t tried since, until recently.  This year, in 2025, they will try again, starting with a facilities plan.  Then, after it cools off a bit, they will push for an operational tax increase.  However, I am happy to say that these days, it’s not just me who is resisting. 

Following that win in 2013, many members of No Lakota Levy were tired of feeling socially excluded.  They were primarily people who attended all the social functions, which, at that time, Lakota controlled exclusively as the region’s largest employer.  And the longer I was the front man, the more rhetoric that would come my way.  And I do not tolerate intimidation from anyone.  So I dug in for a fight that would last for another 15 years, and it has become very vicious.  It started for me by simply discussing how Lakota’s wage structure was out of control, with too many six-figure salaries inflating the budget, which caused them to take money from property owners.  But Lakota’s plot to deal with me was to get rid of me.  And because they weren’t able to do that, they haven’t been able to put a levy on the ballot all this time, even though they have wanted to.  They’ve been dipping their toes in the water since 2019, but wouldn’t, fearing the mess it would cause and the potential for a levy fight they knew they couldn’t win, with declining enrollment keeping them from having to.  Yes, I have personally saved the Lakota school district’s businesses and personal residences many hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, and I have been happy to lend my name to that endeavor for that purpose. 

It’s better to pay for lawn signs than the high taxes of a Lakota levy passage

At many social events, knowing that Lakota schools planned to go for a tax increase at some point, we have been talking about getting the old ‘No Lakota Levy’ band back together again.  And there is a lot of hope in putting this facilities plan first, as many of those old members probably won’t want to join against a tax increase going forward because they want to be part of the construction of new facilities.  And while we’re all community members who generally like each other, I have been that one person who couldn’t care less what anybody at Lakota schools thinks of me, and that conflict has kept them in check to a large degree, not wanting the public relations nightmare that a conflict with me will undoubtedly cause them.  So we have been able to prove in the Lakota district that schools do not make communities great.  They are essentially free babysitting services to busy parents.  The reason the part of Butler County where Lakota schools are located has continued to have excellent resale value, and numerous businesses have come to the region and stayed, is that we have kept taxes low.  And to that point, we have kept Lakota schools from requesting additional funding every couple of years, unlike most schools around the country.  Making the Lakota district very attractive to investors in commercial and residential opportunities, not for the schools, but for the lack of taxes.  So in that way, my name has been worth many millions of dollars in gained opportunity costs that high taxes would have otherwise destroyed.  However, in the same conversation where I was being given credit for stopping Lakota schools from tax increases over 15 years, I was also asked what I considered success to be, if I was being a bit reserved in taking all the credit.  And I said what I have said to many successful people, hundreds of consultants over the years, lawyers, and media professionals: how do I define success?  And my statement has been, when you work yourself out of a job. 

I am very proud of many people over those 15 years who have found their voice and are stepping up to take all this to an entirely new level.  Of course, I will always be involved in these kinds of fights.  And I am involved in a lot more fights than just this Lakota thing.  I am happy to see that some brilliant people, who are very ambitious in their own way, have started to meet the new tax increase from Lakota schools with the next generation of No Lakota Levy.  They have signs going to the printer as I write this and are ready for a vicious campaign in September and October of 2025, and beyond.  They have started a PAC called Citizens PAC, where people can donate money to cover the costs of signs and mailers, which can be pretty expensive.  And that PAC isn’t just for this levy, but to fund at least the next 5 to 6 attempts, so that we can keep taxes down in the district, as they have been.  I would dare say these guys are better positioned than we were at No Lakota Levy all those years ago, where so much good did come out of it.  This next generation is much more vicious, articulate, and engaged than previous ones, because back then, nobody knew what this kind of resistance looked like.  However, we now have a wealth of history to draw from, including what works, what doesn’t work, and the cost of such resistance.  And what it saves.  Saving hundreds of millions of dollars in lost taxes for these public schools is a huge deal that wasn’t as well known back in the day.  However, in the future, we will be much better prepared, with years of history to draw from.  I’m thrilled to tell everyone that not only will there be resistance to these new levies from Lakota schools, but also from other schools.  But I think the coverage will be much better.  And it fits my model for success.  How do you know if you’ve been successful?  If you work yourself out of a job, you can pursue other interests.  You should never make anything all about you.  And while I appreciate the nice comments and credit, I want to see success.  I think the members of this new Citizens PAC will do a better job and be more successful because they now have a track record and know how to utilize it.  Of course, I will always do what I do.  However, there are now many more people doing it.  I would encourage donations because the goal is to save the millions more in tax increases, which a few yard signs here and there are more than worth spending to save massive amounts of money that Lakota schools want to confiscate and waste on a terrible product.  But to answer the question, will No Lakota Levy get together for a new tour?  And the answer is, it’s time for the old band to retire.  A new band is rising to the occasion, and the music they play I think will be much better.  Nobody wants to see David Lee Roth in concert these days.  They want the latest and greatest, and that is what the Lakota school district is going to get.

This situation makes me think of David Lee Roth, and watching him sing recently, it makes it abundantly clear that people need to know when to hang it up. I have a fascinating personal David Lee Roth story I’ll tell sometime. He should have retired years ago.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

‘Sketch’ is a Great Movie: Disney goes against Trump supporters

You would think that Disney would have learned some hard lessons about its role in the world and the financial problems it is finding itself in.  However, I don’t like discussing negatives all the time, because a fantastic movie called Sketch hit theaters a few weeks ago and is a sign of many good things to come from Angel Studios, showcasing a much different movie world on the horizon.  The Hollyweird crowd has lost all its influence and power and is on a dramatic downward trend.  Sketch was an excellent film that was on limited release, so it’s not a box office titan, unlike the way Disney distributes films. However, coming off the success of the fantastic Chosen series, Angel Studios, I think, is fair to say, is replacing the role Disney used to play with families.  I thought Sketch reminded me of a modern version of E.T., Goonies, or even Gremlins, movies produced by Steven Spielberg in his prime.  And it shows that markets determine success, not PR firms and lawyers who run these big studios these days.  The CEO of Disney came a bit unglued this past week, doubling down on his decision to release films that continue to fail to excite the public as they once did.  The recent movie, Fantastic Four, which I thought was pretty fantastic, has not performed well.  It will be fortunate to collect $500 million, half of what was expected to be made, and that is because Disney has lost the trust of the public. Bob Iger now sees the problem I have been pointing out for a long time, much more clearly.  It’s safe to say that his hopes for the upcoming movie Doomsday are in serious trouble because all the films building it up are not performing well at the movie theater.  

It just goes to show how little the entertainment industry knows about the psychology of the movie-going public.  And I love this topic because movies are something most everyone can relate to.  Most of us watch them whether on television, streaming services, or at the movie theater.  So, in many ways, buying a movie ticket, as I have always seen the experience, is like voting.  People vote for their values by spending money.  But there was a communist movement, as outlined by Cleon Skousen in the famous book, The Naked Communist, to take over the movie studios and the message that they broadcast to the world, and that has undoubtedly happened to Disney through the mask of woke culture.  Now that people have seen just how much Disney resembles the Democrat Party and how anti-Trump they have been, they have stopped spending money on Disney products and have turned toward other entertainment options, such as those provided by Angel Studios.  Currently, they are not financially comparable, even though they may show movies side by side.  I think the movie Sketch cost around $ 3 million to make, and it is considered very profitable, having doubled that amount in returns.  Whereas something like the latest Fantastic Four movie costs half a billion dollars by the time it’s made, and some media is created for it.  And it’s poised to break even, maybe.  So it’s not apples to apples, but more like apples and apple sauce.  However, the message is clear: people are leaving Disney and seeking alternatives, which is evident in their declining park attendance as well.  And in anger over their bad decisions to support woke agendas as an entertainment studio, Bob Iger and the stars of Fantastic Four, like Pedro Pascal, have been complaining about Trump supporters, which didn’t help their case.

Disney assumed that people would support whatever they put together because the public had to.  And that is not the case.  Trump supporters have taken themselves off the grid because they dislike the products that Disney has released, or even traditional cable.  I have been talking about emerging streaming services such as Truth Social, Trump’s personal social media platform, and they have good television that breaks the cycle of traditional cable services, leaving CNN, MSNBC, and all the networks struggling to maintain their audiences because they are all fleeing to outlets they trust more even if they are brand new.  Such as Angel Studios, which earned its audience with great projects like The Chosen.  And successful films at the theater, such as The Sound of Freedom.  However, it’s not just Disney; Warner Bros. has been more successful and less woke than Disney, as evidenced by its box office performance.  However, their recent update to Superman didn’t perform well at the theater, falling well short of expectations, which James Gunn was very dismissive about.  Superman is all about “truth, justice, and the American Way.”  Not the “human way.”  The world looks to America to be a beacon of hope, and that’s what the world wants out of American entertainment.  They don’t wish to communicate messages that put out the fires of hope.  And this Superman just wasn’t that “super.”  He was an all-too-human global citizen, and audiences rejected the premise.  It might have been a pretty good movie, just as Fantastic Four was.  However, the messaging was off-target for the intended audiences.  And when Bob Iger is mad, it’s because he thought he understood elements of market trends that he didn’t.  For all the same reasons people voted for Trump, they also vote with their market dollars on where to spend their money on amusement parks or movies. 

Bob Iger and many others believe that people go to see movies because they like the actors, such as in the upcoming Doomsday with Robert Downey Jr. They are investing massive amounts of money in these actors, thereby inflating the budgets.  There will be approximately 100 cameo actors in the upcoming big Marvel movie.  But the gamble on Pedro Pascal is scaring everyone at the Mouse House because it hasn’t turned out the way they planned.  I personally liked Pedro Pascal in The Fantastic Four.  I think he is good as The Mandalorian.  But he’s too woke to replace Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis as the new Hollywood leading man.  Because Hollywood thought it controlled the message, and that people loved the actors, but that is not turning out to be true.  A movie like Sketch features a cast of actors, none of whom are stars, and yet the movie still performed well for its small audience.  It will stream well, and people will remember it far longer than these Marvel movies.  And rather than learn their lesson, Disney is only digging deeper, indicating that they are going to double down on their woke agenda.  And that’s the problem.  Nobody cares about their product, and the more they push an openly gay agenda, which they did in The Eternals, people will drop them as an entertainment option, and that includes the $20k vacation to Disney World.  Eternals, with its openly gay scenes, was the dagger that halted Marvel’s successes at Disney.  The longer they avoid addressing that issue, the more financial damage they will incur.  When a studio and its actors go against the political trend of a nation like America, they can’t survive.  To fill the void of family entertainment left behind by Disney, there is the wonderful Angel Studios, which is producing great entertainment.  Sketch is just one example.  And for Bob Iger, a hard lesson that he will learn too late: the market is in charge.  Communist leaders are not.  And studios, if such assumptions capture them, will lose money in that marketplace because of free choice. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Nuclear Power on the Moon: The world we could have, if only we had the courage

Yes, I told everyone what was going to happen when Trump was back in the White House: that space travel would be a priority, along with a lot of technology that nobody had thought much about until now.  It has been revealed that, as part of the Artemis program, NASA plans to put a 100-kilowatt lunar nuclear fission reactor on the moon by 2030, which is just around the corner at this point.  Only four years from now.  It’s the first big step in settling space, as a reactor like this will last for about 10 years. It would be about the size of a small car and produce enough energy for a small outpost, including habitats, science labs, and resource processing, with some surplus for redundancy and expansion.  When people first heard this story, they thought of a nuclear reactor as seen on Earth, with the large noticeable cooling stacks.  However, this will be a small unit, and people will be surprised to learn how effective and independent it is.  For instance, nuclear submarines can operate for roughly 15 years before they need to replace their cores, allowing them to remain operational for 90-120 days without returning to port.  And then, they only dock to restore food.  Their energy needs stay powered for all those years.  That’s what we are talking about on a moon base, and it will be relatively easy to take off into space and start producing power.  Remember when Elon Musk launched that Tesla car into space? This moon reactor will be about the same size and weight.  This is the kind of technology that will allow moon-based employees to live relatively the same way they do on Earth.  The power will be good and sustainable.  And will be relatable.  And it’s going to provoke a lot of good questions for people who will be learning about these things quickly.

I have been a strong supporter of personal nuclear energy, such as thorium reactors, for private homes.  I have argued for years, like many of the technical innovations in health and science, that absolute personal independence comes from personal energy.  And, going back to Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse and how electrical infrastructure was envisioned, we are more than ready to put a thorium reactor on every house to power it for 70 years without being attached to a larger, centrally managed grid.  When a storm knocks out the power, we should not be dependent on a monopoly carrier to fix the power lines so we can have power again.  But every house, like every car, should generate its power independently.  Nuclear energy is the best way to achieve this goal.  I know Elon Musk loves solar power, and I do too when you aren’t near any infrastructure that can produce energy.  I have my current favorite solar-powered flashlight.  I also have some camping equipment that is solar-powered, so you can get enough power to run a laptop and charge some phones while on a distant mountain.  If you can get power from the sun, that’s great.  However, nuclear energy is the way to go for clean energy that has some power behind it.  And the technology is now available to provide every human being on earth with independent power for their homes.  Just as there are cures for cancer, but our current healthcare system can’t accommodate the innovation without its destruction, so it avoids the change for its survival. 

Speaking of cancer, you might have heard that honey bee sting venom can kill all the cancer cells in the body of a woman with breast cancer in about an hour.  That is pretty big news, but not surprising.  That is the case with most things; science has long been figured out, but the economic models for achieving absolute independence are holding us back socially.  When people see us build a moon base very quickly that is powered by nuclear energy, and that its comfortable, people are going to be asking a lot of questions, like, why can’t I have my nuclear reactor in my neighborhood if it’s only the size of a small car and can give me all the power I could ever want, individually.  This moon base is going to change a lot of things culturally for people, as it will eliminate the question of whether the Apollo missions were ever real, given the ongoing debate about the trustworthiness of government information.  Going to the moon and establishing a small base will prompt many questions on Earth to be asked.  If we can do it there, why can’t we do it here?  And from there, the question becomes one about how we view infrastructure.  Should all individuals own gold to protect the value of money, or at least have money attached to a gold standard, or can the Fed control economic standards as central planners?  Is education more effectively taught centrally or through individualized efforts?  And should we make everyone sick to justify the infrastructure of healthcare, because of the insatiable need it has for fixed costs to feed its bloated network of insurance and care that also has unionized labor attached to it?  At the heart of all those discussions is whether our homes should be connected to a centrally managed power grid, and of course, the answer is no. 

Most of what holds us back from tackling the engineering challenges of personal nuclear reactors for homes and communities is public acceptance, which has been shaped by all the infrastructure planners who have tried to demonize nuclear power in general.  Regulations on atomic power are harsh, making it technically unfeasible and cost-prohibitive even to develop the technology on such a scale.  However, nuclear power at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, or on the moon, where regulators haven’t been able to create such a restrictive environment, allows technology to develop in response to necessity.  And we will discover that many of the rules we create for ourselves have a cost to innovation that could dramatically improve our lives.  But it will be shocking to people watching just how quickly all this happens, and that by 2030, we will have a presence of human life on another celestial body.  And they will be able to live much as they do on Earth, with nuclear power making it possible.  However, people will be correct to ask why they can’t have the same technology on earth, with free, reliable, and robust energy, that is available off the costly grid on earth. And the answer is that they could.  But regulations protect stagnation; they do not inspire innovation, and if you want to get away from the limits of human averages, you have to go on adventures where their rules have not yet made a mess of the world and attempt to use regulations to make easy careers for themselves.  Innovation and independence are more frequent where people have not yet made rules to protect themselves from challenges.  Many of the rules we have are not for the safety of society, but rather to protect the way people make a living and to shield themselves from innovative challenges to their established professions.  And that many of the economic problems that we have are that too many people write rules to protect themselves from change, rather than embrace change in the spirit of adventure that might be acceptable on the moon, far away from government interference.  However, in civilization, the preservation of old ways becomes the priority.  That is why we still have dirty power controlled by centralized forces that behave like a monopoly and are unreliable, especially during storms.  We could have done better if only we had dared to take on the adventure.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

The Dinosaurs Will Eat You: More killings in Over-the-Rhine, in Cincinnati

It has been a sick experiment to watch, but the continued denials about the nature of the big, violent fight in downtown Cincinnati recently, in attempting to show that it was a racist incident, and that the white people had it coming, was the attitude.  While just a few blocks to the north in Over-the-Rhine, there were back-to-back killings in an area that Cincinnati has been trying to reform for years into an economic zone.  The shootings on one night, just a few days after the music festival fight at 3 in the morning, involved one guy, 35 years old, who was shot to death in his car just north of Liberty Street by a person in the car with him.  He was shot in the chest, head, and other places violently by a shooter dressed all in black who left the scene.  The next night, a young woman, 34, was shot many times in the back by someone shooting out of a car in a particular direction, just a very short distance away from the previous shooting.  Police say it was an accident, that she was not the intended target.  The shooter was shooting at someone else and accidently hit her.  She was shot 15 to 20 times, which is an awful lot for an accident.  But these shootings received very little national attention because they were all people of color killing each other.  But they display a much bigger problem that has been brewing in the background for many years, and is the reason that President Trump has federalized the police in Washington D.C.  Many cities are suffering through this problem and Cincinnati has been getting national coverage for how poorly race relations are in a town that is supposed to be ideal throughout the nation.  This is a much bigger problem than the fight that has received so much coverage, and there has been an attempt by many involved to justify it.  The bar is so low because of the mass killings that go underreported, that if people live through a brawl like we witnessed, the expectation is that everyone should be thankful.

The two killings point to a much more violent Over-the-Rhine than the City of Cincinnati wants to advertise.  However, that is nothing new; I have warned many people over the years about the dangers of creating an enterprise zone in that region to provide economic stimulus.  I have informed two mayors and many other politicians over the years about the risks of redeveloping Over-the-Rhine into a commercial millennial hotspot, comparing it to Jurassic Park.  The dinosaurs will eat you; they can’t be kept in a cage on adjacent streets to Vine Street, as it runs through Over-the-Rhine.  That’s what I would say to everyone I described the situation to.  And it wasn’t a skin color kind of thing; it was behavior acceptance, and I would know well.  I used to buy my car tires from a place that would change them on Liberty Street, right in the vicinity of these recent shootings.  I used to do a lot of rough work, and I drove a kind of tank that always had its tires destroyed because I would frequently enter rough neighborhoods. As a result, I would buy $5 used tires all the time.  My perspective was not one of isolation, looking at everything from the suburbs.  I spent a lot of time in the belly of the beast, and when I say that the people there are like dinosaurs, that is to say that they behave like animals hungry for the destruction of other people with a kind of mindless violence that erupts suddenly and brutally.  It’s almost amusing to watch the nightly news attempt to humanize these stories, making them more relatable to people not living in Over-the-Rhine. 

I have a couple of daughters, and would hear their stories and stories of all their friends who enjoyed the mystery and rawness of visiting OTR as it was sold to the world as an enterprise zone, hoping to lure young millennials to come downtown to see their many restaurants and microbreweries.  I would tell them that if they had to go, they should ensure they carried their guns.  One of my daughters practically lived in the OTR for a few years, and she always took her weapon, and it’s probably the only reason she has survived all those visits.  Police have managed to keep Vine Street somewhat reasonable regarding crime up to Liberty Street, then over to Findlay Market, and Music Hall.  However, I know many people who have tried to go to the OTR to socialize with other hipsters, and they have had many horrible experiences.  I warned my daughters, and eventually they understood my concern; the idealism of youth wore away as they realized the harsh reality that everyone else was facing.  The dinosaurs will eat you if you go into the OTR.  Most people feel lucky to come away from the OTR with just a car that occasionally has its windows knocked out, and carjackings or theft would happen all the time.  Because of the political sentiment at the time for white people to prove they weren’t racist and would be happy to socialize with black people in Over-the-Rhine, people would take the risk to visit as an almost thrill to survive.  It was more exciting than just going somewhere in the suburbs and having drinks with friends.  Because going to the OTR proved that white people weren’t racist to black people, even if in proving it, they risked their lives. 

The truth of the matter is that many of the people who have caused the problem have attempted to introduce dangerous enterprise zones into these communities without changing their behavior.  And the police know who’s in charge.  The police likely know everything about those two shooting cases mentioned, but they don’t want targets on their backs, so they leave the shootings unresolved.  Likely, they were both gang-related and or drug-related directly.  And police have no prospect of getting control.  The unions don’t want the trouble.  Recruiting is horrendous because nobody wants the job.  And the political characters are unsupportive and wholly disconnected from reality.  Investors were suckered into proving they weren’t racist by investing in businesses along Vine Street north of Central Parkway, only to realize that the violence loomed just a few blocks over on all sides, especially north of Liberty Street.  As a dare, I once walked up Vine Street at 2 AM from Central Parkway to McMillan Street on the University of Cincinnati campus, and from what I saw, there is no saving the people in that region without a significant behavioral change.  Crime ran the zone, and no amount of love from people moving in and proving they weren’t racist by living alongside people barely able to function as animals changed anything.  Crime goes underreported, even mass killings, because everyone wants to believe they can tame the dinosaurs.  And they can’t.  The dinosaurs will eat anybody they want, any time, and in any place.  And that’s the kind of attitude that was confronted on the streets of downtown Cincinnati after that music festival.  There is an entitlement to violence that is validated every time some gang kills someone in Over-the-Rhine, and that level of violence has been accepted.  Because liberal society doesn’t want to admit to itself just how bad it is, it wants to believe that reform is possible.  And it isn’t.  Only law and order will work, and that starts by kicking in the doors to the people who did these killings and arresting them, prosecuting them, and probably giving them the death penalty.  Because anything less, they don’t and won’t respect.  They reside in the shadows of the night, awaiting more politicians to lure innocent people into their neighborhood to rob and pillage ruthlessly.  And they have nothing to fear, because they don’t fear anything, especially the law.  When people ask me why my carry gun is a Desert Eagle .50 caliber, I have a lot of experience in those kinds of neighborhoods.  And it’s the only thing they understand.  The only law they obey.  And it is the only way that reform in those crime zones can bring about peace.  All the police and politicians know it, but nobody dares say it.  And that’s why the crime continues.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Why I Never Go To Bachelor Parties: The Temple of Astarte and the sex rituals of collectivism

Several times a year, I get invited to a bachelor party of some kind, and one of those times was this past week.  And I always say no, which hurts the feelings of the people asking.  But for context, I never go to bachelor parties.  I find them reprehensible and socially destructive.  I would go as far as to say that I hate them.  But of course, people never understand why, because bachelor and bachelorette parties are accepted practices, and my policy is wildly out of step with social tradition.  Many people are unaware of the origins of bachelor and bachelorette parties, so they observe them without understanding their history.  However, I do know, and I’m just telling everyone, that the premise was created for all the wrong reasons, and that nothing good happens to them that is conducive to a good marriage with someone who is supposed to last a lifetime.  When I had my bachelor party over 37 years ago, it entailed a few friends from the wedding party coming over to my house and watching The Empire Strikes Back.  The most outrageous thing we did was go to Kroger and get some snacks, chips, and pop.  And that’s how I liked it.  You can’t start a good life with someone if, at the start of it, you are doing serious mischief. That’s the way bachelor parties are thought up – as one last fling with friends and family before bringing in someone with whom you will share a life and build a family around.  There is a purposeful anti-family construction to these social reiterations that dates back a long time in human culture, specifically in this case, to the primary conditions found in the land of Canaan.  One of the main reasons that God Yahweh targeted that land for destruction was that it was to be given to the people of Israel. 

We’re talking about the widespread worship at the Temples of Astarte, where once a year women, all women, would prostitute themselves to perfect strangers and pay the church the wages of their disgrace.  Women were to step outside of their social status as married women, moms, daughters, granddaughters, and would have sex with perfect strangers to show that there was nothing greater than admission to the collective sum that was outside of the individual choices a person makes.  To become married to one person and build a family with that person, excluding outside social influences, is an affirmation to the gods that they are still acknowledged as greater than individual choices.  And so it was with the fertility goddess Astarte, a consort of Ishtar.   Having sex with perfect strangers was an appeasement to the cosmic forces that predated Yahweh and were commonly practiced all over the world, even to this very day.  The sex with perfect strangers ritual has migrated into what we now call our bachelor and bachelorette parties of the modern age.  The hope has always been that by aligning our integrity with the cosmic order, we might find rain for our crops, fertility for our women, and good luck for our offspring.  And this was the kind of thing that Yahweh was rebelling against in the Biblical narrative.  The Temples of Astarte were common in the Holy Land, and most everyone accepted them as usual, just as we do bachelor parties today.  And the sexual practices were personally disgraceful, but were viewed as necessary for the greater good.  That individual choices must always yield to the forces of collectivism.  And that the Goddess Astarte would be pleased by such a public disgrace to appease her whims. 

I have refused this tradition for all these reasons and more, and I have always said no to the invites.  I have known a lot of people who have gone, and they do the Vegas thing that involves strippers and all kinds of terrible behavior, and often sex with strangers is involved.  And women are no better, it is not uncommon for women attending these sexual rituals to see grandma sucking on a penis shaped popsicle and everyone laughing about it.  Granddaugters raised by those same older women get to see their ideas of childhood debased in public by sexual rituals, such as a stripper getting a tip put into his G-string by that same grandma, or mom, in front of all her peers, and the guys penis slips out for all to see and she grabs it under the peer pressure of the mob to show that she still has it, sexually.  The point of the ritual is for all the women to bond around the secrets of the bachelorette party.  And from then on, at every Thanksgiving Dinner, or Christmas gathering, all the women will share the secrets of the disgrace that shows that the commitment to the collective whole of disgrace is more potent than the personal commitments of the individuals involved.  At the heart of the bachelor’s and bachelor rituals is the assurance that sin together trumps personal obligations to the participants of a family and their personal decisions toward each other.  At those same Thanksgiving dinners, the men remember when they touched the boob of a stripper as their wives cook in the kitchen, and they snicker about it while they watch football games.  The common practice is not to discuss what happens at these parties, because the ritual is thought to be greater than the individual content. 

Not that we are looking for the boogeyman of Marxism everywhere, but now we can see why that collectivist-based thought process took root in human cultures. It essentially goes back to the beginning of how human beings maintain a relationship with the universe.  Astarte, as a goddess, or Ishtar and her sexual proclivities then and now, was thought to have the ability to grant relief to those who appeased her.  Whether it’s just in the form of good luck, the appeasement of her through sexual practice is a collectivist affirmation for those not strong enough individually to stand on their own in life.  And seeking the benefits of hiding in the herd is very tempting to the timid mind.  But that has never been me, nor will it ever.  I have always thought less of the people I know who have done these rituals, especially family members.   I find them repulsive and anti-God, and anti-American.  And they are certainly anti-Family.  It is ridiculous to expect to start a marriage with debasement to the powers of collectivist sex as opposed to individual commitment to one person for a lifetime, which is the ultimate rebellion against the cosmic forces and their expectations.  This was one of the reasons why Yahweh wanted the people of the land of Canaan crushed and destroyed utterly.  And we still see those same forces at work today, for all the same reasons.  The same people planning their next bachelor party to Vegas are the same people who can’t make up their mind toward the creation of a Palestinian state or the creation of Israel, because at the heart of their decision-making processes is a yielding to the forces of nature and how they are greater than any individual sum.  It might be personally fun to indulge in a striptease while sitting in a chair around all the men of your life and let them watch you in a state of weakness to satisfy some ancient goddess.  The men aren’t thinking about Astarte or Ishtar; they are thinking about boobies and pornography as a stimulus to collective notions of masculinity.   But the forces at war with the human race want their desecration to validate their tyranny; they love to see appeasement toward their power through personal and purposeful weakness.  Something that I will never give them.  Under any conditions.  That’s why I don’t go to bachelor parties. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Yes, We Need a Ballroom at the White House: Setting an expecation for the rest of the world to follow

I recently visited the White House with my wife in 2025.  With Biden or Obama in the People’s House, I had no desire to go anywhere near it.  But with Trump in the Executive Branch, I am pretty proud of the place, and I have taken time this year, with Trump back, to enjoy it.  But for what the White House does on the world stage, it’s too small, and I always thought that would be a problem for Trump, who is used to big settings for deal-making in all aspects of his life.  For what he has made use of at Mar-a-Lago and his many golf resorts, Trump is accustomed to lavish settings, where he feels most at home.  I am glad to see him investing his own money in fixing up the White House and leaving a personal mark on it that matches how the residence has evolved on the world stage.  I love the gold in the Oval Office.  I love the large flag poles for the American flags.  And I love the idea of a new 90,000 sq. ft. ballroom being built for around $200 million of privately invested money.  It’s the right kind of message that the American White House should project to the world when hosting significant events.  As it stands now, the White House is too small inside for large gatherings.  When making deals with people, it is essential to communicate effectively and have a clear understanding of who you are dealing with.  And Trump is all about setting those expectations at the start of a deal, with proper attire and a focus on economic viability represented by gold. These designs are going to cross over into the new ballroom construction, which is set to begin as early as September 2025. 

I get it, when my wife and I were last there, we spent some time enjoying the area around the White House, really for the first time.  And we went to the Visitor’s Center on Pennsylvania Avenue just east of the White House on the south side of the street, and I geeked out on history quite a bit.  The White House was built to be unpretentious for world leaders and to convey that it was not the palace of a king or a ruthless dictator, but the temporary residence of the people’s representative in an executive capacity.  The White House was built small to convey to the world that the people living in it were unpretentious.  It’s a nice idea that represents the founding of our country as a small set of colonies that just wanted to be left alone by the outside world.  But that’s not how things have turned out, and perhaps, that’s for the better.  We are the idea that the rest of the world has for civil government. We essentially do rule the world, and we have learned over time that the best kind of presidents to put in the White House need to be more like Trump and less like Jimmy Carter.  When you are the best at what you do, it’s okay to take pride in your accomplishments and let others know about it.  They need to know there is a specific expectation, and our White House has evolved into being that symbol for the world.  Many people visit there, and the premises themselves are in dire need of renovation to accommodate the growing demand in a world hungry for it.  And if you are going to build something like that, it needs to be opulent and comfortable to facilitate people talking to each other.

We are living in a time where there is always a Marxist assumption to downplay everything, including how we dress.  I’m not a casual Friday kind of person.  I find the practice of dressing down on any professional occasion disgusting because it shows a lack of respect for the work being done.  But when Chuck Schumer says that we don’t need an opulent ballroom at the White House where everyone dresses up in their best to speak to each other, that he’s a hamburger at his desk kind of guy, he’s trying to appeal to the socialists of his party who want to overthrow expectation itself.  And our culture has deteriorated tremendously as a result of those efforts to the point where it has contaminated nearly everything we do.  As individuals, we need to expect more of ourselves, and it’s a very Marxist assumption.  Dress-down days are similar to the kind of people who say on Friday, “Thank God it’s time for the weekend,” because the association is that work equals unhappiness and that American culture needs to work less to be happier.  So we should dread Monday because we are going back to slaving for the “man.”  And we should love Friday because we get freedom from work.  Historically speaking, all of those assumptions were built into our culture by Marxists who wanted to attack the premise of capitalism and take away the management of companies and give the means of production over to the workers of the world, who are supposed to unite and know how to make a profit in a work endeavor.  But America was built on the back of hard work, and that is the kind of president that Trump is.  And when you work hard and smart in a free culture, you can afford nice things, and we should show them off to inspire others to do the same. 

When attending these types of social events, it’s essential to be in large spaces that inspire people to greatness.  And when you go to an event at the White House, it shouldn’t be to see the President of the United States, but some critical person who is at the top of their field who might help advance something you want to do along the lines of new and improved work.  That is the real definition of management in the workplace: to provide workers worldwide with an opportunity to exchange labor for a livelihood.  And the more work people are willing to conduct, and the more critical it is, the more money people should be able to make.  And to showcase those inspirational traits, people should gather dressed in their finest attire to demonstrate to the world that they have something to offer and are worth listening to.  People need space to rub shoulders with a lot of others without feeling pressed together.  So, a 90,000 sq. ft. space to meet in will be fantastic and has been much needed for many years.  We need to set the expectation that the rest of the world must follow, and Trump is making the White House into what it always should have been.  As Americans, we have to stop catering to other people’s lazy natures and their tendency to gravitate to socialism to hide that laziness from the world.  And we need a White House that tells the success story of capitalism, not some non-pretentious younger sibling in the world that doesn’t want to make other countries feel bad about themselves.  We have the greatest economy in the world, and it’s about time that the White House projects that to all the visitors who attend.  People need to be inspired.  Not eating a sandwich at their desk in a t-shirt and a pair of flip-flops.  People need to step it up, and that starts in America at the White House, as Trump is living there by our choice and expectation.  And we need the White House to set a standard that the rest of the world must live up to. 

Rich Hoffman

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The Fantastic Four: It all comes down to the Statue of Liberty

The new movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps, was pretty fantastic.  Disney attempted to create a film for the Marvel franchise that would bring people back to the level of the first Avengers movie and the Iron Man film that preceded it.  Fantastic Four was wonderfully not woke, and the characters were all well done.  The acting was top-notch, with significant special effects, music, and story that was all good; it was a lot of fun.  So it is a shame that people are not rushing to the theaters to watch it.  The movie is set in a kind of idealistic 60s art style set into an unknown future, and it had a cool vibe to it.  And it had a great point.  I think the sacrifice of the baby plotline to save humanity is one of those key issues in the human race that should resonate much more than it has at the box office.  But we are talking about trust here, and Disney has lost it.  Marvel has lost it.  After the movie, The Eternals, which features homosexual lifestyles and men kissing in it, Marvel sealed its doom.  Hollywood, in general, was politically way off base and divided the movie-going public from their products, sealing their doom in the process.  I was able to see The Fantastic Four with my grandchildren.  They were interested in it because of the video game Marvel Rivals, so we agreed to take them. The movie turned out to be a fantastic family film, full of excellent ideas and old-fashioned filmmaking.  And the Fantastic Four family itself was one that audiences could all like.  I would recommend the movie and give some credit to Disney for listening and stepping away from their woke agenda as much as possible in this environment.  However, there are some lessons to take away here that might improve things in the future if Disney is willing to listen. I think it’s too late for them; their audiences are never coming back, which is why Fantastic Four is underperforming at the box office.  But it’s always worth trying.

One of the things that is hurting these Marvel movies is that they are too comic bookish for most audiences.  Most people lack a strong interest in quantum physics and the concept of multiple universes.  Comic writers, and now all entertainment writers, have found that the multiverse concept gives them a great deal of creative liberty, allowing them to set their stories within any known historical timeframe.  For instance, this Fantastic Four movie does not take place in a timeline and universe that overlaps with the original Avengers.  Technically, they don’t know about each other, leaving the audience to not invest in the characters.  The story might be neat and fun.  But does it matter to their belief in the reality of the previous storyline?  And I think for most people, the multiverse storylines are just too much for them to invest in emotionally.  Like a dream, people might have them, but they wake up from them never to remember them again, and they become meaningless in waking life.  And that is the problem with the Fantastic Four it doesn’t take place in a world people can relate to.  It’s just far enough out of reality to become prohibitive.  In the original Marvel movies, such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Avengers, people could accept the superpowers as long as the universe itself was part of a narrative world built around a historical timeline, allowing them to invest emotionally in the characters.  For instance, in Captain America, his story takes place during World War II, a conflict that people have a grounding in.  And it was patriotic and gave people what they wanted, a defender of American ideas, which the world is very interested in. 

However, Disney and Marvel in general have been pushing for a post-American world of the global citizen, and that element was certainly present throughout the Fantastic Four.  They essentially have a world where the United Nations is in charge of everything, and Sue Storm from the Fantastic Four is in charge of the United Nations.  In many ways, the Fantastic Four was in charge of the world as a government power, which runs counter to the trend of individual lives being self-governing.  That is an idea that people will reject at the ballot box, and they will certainly reject it with their entertainment dollars.  People do not want to be told what to do, especially from the Fantastic Four.  That’s why it’s dangerous to let these Santa Monica types write these movies from the pier, talking to their friends at a bar.  That lefty political view of existence might be fashionable among 20 to 30-year-olds in sanitized settings, such as in the hip Santa Monica region.  However, the world doesn’t like that idea and will reject it completely, and it has.  They did everything they could with this movie to make it as enjoyable as possible, and it’s fun.  People don’t want the Fantastic Four to govern over them as gods.  That is a rejected premise in the world, and it certainly hurts the emotional investment that people are willing to give to these characters.  The movie doesn’t take place in our universe; it’s an alternative universe to the other Marvel stories.  And it doesn’t have a message that people enjoy; it assumes that movie audiences want to be saved by superheroes.  Not that the audiences want to be superheroes themselves.  So that is a fatal flaw. 

However, the biggest mistake was when the villain, Galactus, who was the size of Godzilla, came to New York to retrieve the baby born to the Fantastic Four, and he looked at the Statue of Liberty with some disdain.  Just saying, nobody is going to get away with that kind of thing these days.  The world wants to believe in the light of liberty coming from a free America.  And that is represented by the Statue of Liberty.  Having a massive villain that eats planets come to the Statue of Liberty as if to say that there are much bigger things in the universe than the idea of America is a bad move.  It might be the view of radical, Santa Monica lefties, but it’s not what the world wants to hear.  They want someone who likes America fighting bad guys.  Not something bigger than America looking down on our country as if to say that the scale of the fight is beyond the political whims of nation-building.  That’s a line that people won’t cross, and they have rejected it at the voting booth and the box office receipts.  It was a dumb scene.  Galactus didn’t try to smash the Statue of Liberty.  He just gave it a look that was demeaning but did not provide commentary.  Yet, audiences picked up on it; the liberal writers of these movies aren’t going to get away with that kind of thing.  People will see another film.  And that is what they have been doing.  The Fantastic Four is a great movie, but people have better things to do, and if the story is not aligned with the politics of our day, it’s unlikely to do well.  The fantasy that artists can rule the world through liberal politics behind commercial films is a thing of the past.  It was never a good idea, but now there are just too many entertainment options.  People tend to overlook things that do not align with their values.  And that is why The Fantastic Four is not doing well, despite being an excellent movie.  It’s too far outside the known world for people to invest emotionally in.  And that’s a shame. 

Rich Hoffman

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