For me, the most significant revelation of the now famous Trump town hall meeting that caused so much controversy was not the Muslim comments which soaked up all the news, it was the announcement that the billionaire would refuse to draw a salary as President. He’s rich, he makes over $400 million per year in a salary anyway, so what does he need a few hundred thousand more dollars for? Most people in congress, the senate, or even the current president, a six figure salary is a tremendous appeal to receive as a public servant. But to a guy like Trump, such a salary is nothing—literally. This puts Trump in an entirely different category as a presidential contender. I want a person in the White House who could care less about what he gets from the office, and who has the potential to bring to the table the kind of mentality where even millions of dollars is no problem to generate. The number one problem in America right now is no other issue but the health and potential of the economy. That has to be fixed before any other issue is tackled. If people have money in their pocket, their morality becomes much more robust—and society improves dramatically. Nothing else matters more than the money coming in and going out of the United States. With that in mind, Trump is the only option and his attitude toward the salary of the office is a perfect affirmation of that assumption.
More stunning is that the media is so desperately keen to talk about everything BUT the economy. And more and more, I see Trump getting pulled into the vortex of commonality which is so represented by those who make up the collective body of the media. Arguing with Carly Fiorina over business experience when she was terminated by a board of directors simply isn’t a comparison when it comes to Trump. Like Trump or hate him for his bombastic style, nobody can take away his vast success in the real estate market. Some failed casinos in Atlantic City and a few other places do nothing to quell the massive success Trump had in building Trump Tower at a time in his life when it was quite a large gamble. With all that was against him, he managed where many, many others would have failed. Trump Tower is in fact a President Trump’s greatest resume highlight. He should force everyone to focus on that because when he gets in these petty squibs with average people, he diminishes him and is accomplishments to something equal with a Fiorina or a Rubio—an average person trying to get into an extraordinary office where a six figure salary has some meaning.
Trump has always been above the fray, and that’s where he should stay. He’s not a politician so he doesn’t need to do politician things. If he gives stump speeches, he doesn’t need to pretend to know every Arab in the world by name, or recite the Chinese alphabet. All he needs to do is be Trump and force the world to look at his marvelous tower in Midtown and comprehend that building such a thing is greater than building just about anything in the world. It’s not like Trump Tower was built by a whole bunch of people in a corporation, it was built literally by him for his own use. That is very important–one individual man was able to garner together the resources all by himself to build the tower.
Now of course Trump didn’t actually build the tower, it took teams of people from all walks of life to make it happen, but Trump was undeniably in charge. It’s an example of what he would be able to do if given all the resources of the United States at his back. The possibilities are really unlimited when it comes to him. With his energy and ability to pull people together, he really is the best option there is out there.
Of his debate performance, it should be interesting to note that he was able to turn extreme negatives around on that stage and to get rivals to high-five him with sheer magnetism. That’s not a skill that the media understands, but then again, nobody in the media could have built Trump Tower. In negotiations you always hit hard to feel out an opponent, and then once you have them, it’s OK to be nice and to build an alliance. That’s the way negotiations work. But it takes a powerful personality to come out on top of that exchange, and up to this point, Trump really hasn’t exploited that skill. He’s been trying to mold himself to the political establishment instead of playing the game his way.
Trump has a chance to redefine the whole political process, including setting a very high bar in not taking any public money for his work. What does Trump and his wife gain by living in the White House? For Barack Obama, it’s like moving into a palace. But Trump lives in Trump Tower—and it’s a lot nicer than the White House. There is nothing for Trump in Washington. All he gets out of the deal is a chance to create and build with the nation’s resources. He could build walls, roads, and revive the economy I think pretty easily whereas everyone else would struggle to do just one thing. For Trump, I think he could be president for 8 years effortlessly building the nation back into a powerhouse—and I think at the end of it he would have lots of bipartisan support.
Trump is a doer, so it’s hard for him to articulate to a bunch of know-nothings why he is so skilled. It is a case of the Metaphysics of Quality where Trump is at the front of the train and everyone else is clearly in the back, and presidential debates, even polling is taken from the back. Trump is and has always been on the cutting edge, whether its real estate, WWE wrestling, or golf courses, he built his wealth the old-fashioned way and that is precisely what America needs to solve the economic issues.
I get invited almost every day to some business seminar on how to improve investments, how to hire the right kind of people and how to increase yield and profit margins. The sad reality to those classes is that there is nothing any of those people can teach me. I could teach them, but they have nothing they can teach me. So I stopped going to them years ago. When it comes to hiring and finding the right people for a job, I’m really good at it. I can often read things about people just by the way they walk down the street, so it is easy for me to fill job openings with a raw instinct that nobody can teach in any class, anywhere. Trump has that same instinct and he knows that the secret of management is not in doing the work himself, but in putting the right people in place to do the work for him. That’s the essential core of what a President of the United States is supposed to be doing. But Trump can’t explain any of that to the media, just as I couldn’t. People who live in the back of the train don’t and will never understand—until they come up to the front.
Trump Tower is an American representation of what happens at the front of the train, when s superior manager is left in charge of their wildest imagination. When resources are plentiful there is no limit to what they can do. The Trump presidency is not something that can be summed up by a Muslim comment, or an emphasis on women’s empowerment, or even a political party. His is an opportunity to have something that nobody has ever been able to see before. He doesn’t need to get mad at Fox News or anybody else—he’s Trump and his tower is just a physical manifestation of what the power of imagination, hard work and an indomitable spirit can achieve when it’s unleashed. And really, Trump should be president just because of that one accomplishment. He’d be crazy not to more fully utilize it.
If there was any doubt ever about the depth of the corruption of our federal government by forces not committed to traditional America, the Muslim issue smoking off of Donald Trump’s recent town hall meeting is all the evidence anybody needs. A person at that town hall asked a question about Obama’s Islamic faith, which was a conclusion that Obama himself has fostered with his actions—particularly with NASA and his position regarding the Middle East where he favors Palestinian and Iranian positions over those of Israel and even Egypt. Trump listened politely. He had questions about Obama’s birth certificate in the past, which still are unanswered, as the document Obama eventually provided under pressure from Trump turned out to be computer generated—as proven by Sheriff Arpaio of Arizona.
So the issue never was settled, but the national and international media was quick to accept it so that they could move on to another issue—mysteriously. They called Trump a birther and the Department of Justice sued Arpaio for his border enforcement techniques which was obvious harassment as a direct result of the birth certificate investigation. The rest of the world moved on leaving lots of questions unanswered, propelling conspiracy theories which a significant portion of the American public are now asking, the guy at Trump’s town hall being one of them. Trump didn’t fan the flames, but he didn’t quell them either, because anybody with any reasonable mind knows something is wrong on the issue—but at this point it’s no longer relevant. The condemnation from the political right and left was truly baffling. It was the lead story for four consecutive days propelled mostly by Republicans. It was evidence of just how far off the rocker we have all fallen as a nation.
Then over the weekend, Ben Carson got into all kinds of trouble by saying that a Muslim should not be elected president, which started a firestorm of its own. Carson’s position is a logical one, the Islamic faith is producing much of the violence seen throughout the world, and America doesn’t need to accelerate that violence by putting a Muslim in the White House. Maybe someday when terrorists aren’t using the Koran to justify beheading infidels—but until there is a good century of violent free behavior, a Muslim in an American White House empowering the radicals fueling terrorism in the Middle East even more is not a good idea. This is something any rational, well-educated mind should understand—easily.
Then on every channel, more than usual was a real hatred of Donald Trump. The endearing nurturing of his candidacy was gone. No longer was he a thorn in the side of Jeb Bush and other establishment Republicans—Trump had suddenly become a threat to everything every progressive had built a public dialogue around. Without Trump’s town hall, nobody would have thought to press Ben Carson, about what he said about Muslims in the White House. Now the cat of distrust about the Islamic faith is out of the bag on a national forum, and establishment types from all walks of life in unison are flustered and acting well out of accordance of what should be American interests.
I’ve known a fair share of Muslims. They are generally peaceful. Their need to pray to Mecca each day gets irritating, but as long as it doesn’t interfere with what I want to do, I’m fine with it. It’s weird to me, but so are a lot of things. Religion should be a private thing and people are free to practice whatever they want. But like all religions, including the Catholic one, they have elements of collectivism that is dangerous to our republic style of government. The current Pope is using global warming and other aspects of the church he heads to spread a socialist agenda he learned from his home country of Argentina. If the current Pope who is touring America right now is the representation of God on planet earth, then that God is an idiot—because the Pope is not a friend of capitalism or the American way of life. If an American president were excessively Catholic and wanted to turn over the White House to the Pope for guidance, I would have a big problem with that as well. So it’s not just the Muslim faith. It’s any radical religious type who thinks through the collectivism of the church instead of their own free—individual will. We don’t elect religious nut cases in the White House—at least we shouldn’t. We need in America self guided, philosophically sound, individuals who are capable of leadership. We don’t always get that, but we at least have attempted to strive for that objective.
Trump said all the right things in the wake and is fully aware of the challenge he posses. But I don’t think even he understood the depths of the sinister persuasion of what he terms a “dishonest media.” The media is dishonest because they are too concerned with bending logic to fit the story of their establishment. In this case their story is that Muslims are a peaceful people not prone to radicalized behavior. Yet the truth is that it is from that specific group of religious lunatics that most terrorism stems. Even radical Christians and the worst Bible thumpers are docile compared to the terrorist groups spawned from Islamic faith and their assumption that their religion is the only one of value. For instance, on the Cartoon Network late at night on Fridays is a show called Black Jesus. Such a show would never be produced called “Black Muhammad.” There would be death threats and probably someone would lose their life in response. It is because of that reality that Ben Carson said he was uneasy with a Muslim in the White House. And that is also why a question about such radicalism was asked at a Trump event. Denouncing the question as all the pundits suggested Trump should have done does not solve the problem. Ignoring the question is not what good journalism should be doing. It should be the media asking those questions, not some dude at a Trump rally. The reason why the media isn’t is why Trump says the media is dishonest, and why Republicans are supporting outsiders for the White House. Because people know something is wrong, and often the truth is hidden behind religion and the media that doesn’t cover the real facts. Among those facts are that the religions of our day are softened versions of a long forgotten pagan past. What they share in common with those distant relatives is a desire to sacrifice life essence to undefined spiritual entities. In the Catholic Church, that sacrifice is most notable during Lent and the ritual of communion. In Islamic faith, it is too often interpreted these days with the actual taking of human life, much the way the Maya, Aztec and countless head hunter cultures have for centuries. An American president needs to be free of this desire to sacrifice our country to the wishes of the uncharted, and unseen. And that is the million dollar desire of our day and the type of provocation that only Donald Trump is free to bring forth. That’s also why his poll numbers are so high because too many people are asking questions these days that nobody else will dare answer.
For a long time my wife and I have missed our old Jeep Grand Cherokee. She lost it in 2005 to an accident where the airbags went off during a wreck actually induced by the Lakota school system’s cut of busing during a levy fight. There were too many people on the road at Lakota East and my wife was driving our children to school. It was wet out and there was an accident. The Jeep held up wonderfully. Hardly any physical damage to the vehicle—but the airbags did deploy and that put the cost of repair well over the price of the Jeep’s worth. So it was totaled and wasn’t worth covering the extra cost to repair ourselves. We had the Jeep for a long time, and it was time to get a new car anyway. We picked up a Chrysler Town and Country which was perfect for us, and our large family. We drove it everywhere for the last ten years. We tend to buy vehicles and keep them for a long time. We don’t lease throwaway cars. We buy to keep, and we take care of them when we get them. So it’s a big deal in our family to make a car purchase. But its time again for my wife to have a new car and she is really, really, really picky. Let me emphasize, she is very hard to please. She has very specific tastes that are hard to satisfy. Her standards are extremely high. Picking out a car with her is very difficult.
I had been looking at buying a GMC Yukon Denali myself with the extended back and showed them to her, but she wasn’t going for it. They are just too big for her. She wanted a Jeep, but now that they are owned by Fiat she wants nothing to do with them. Additionally we loved our Town and Country but after Fiat acquired Chrysler that was the end of having any possibility of buying a Chrysler or Jeep. My wife may be an old country club girl, but she is probably more patriotic than I am when it comes down to it, and she doesn’t want to pay good money for foreign cars. Her very first car was a BMW. We had a Toyota Camry once, back when she was in college, but she resented having an Asian car, so since then it’s always been American cars—which I personally think are too expensive due to the labor unions and short-cuts that are often made to compete with foreign markets. I didn’t want to look at any General Motors cars because of the bailout in 2009, and Ford wasn’t making anything all that great in my opinion. They weren’t dynamic enough for us. So shopping for a car was hard for us. She didn’t want to look at any of the Mercedes products, which I tried to bring up—because she didn’t want to support German manufacturers over American even though I think they have the edge in engineering presently. But my attitude softened as I started looking into the new Yukons. On that car GMC was starting to build a good reputation again, and I was impressed.
My wife refused to drive a Yukon so we gave up on the discussion as we were at an impasse. What I didn’t know was that she started to consider the smaller versions of the Yukon on the GMC line and found that she loved the Terrain quite a lot. I was aghast because I thought the car was too small, but knowing she had done a lot of homework, and how hard she was to please, I gave it a shot—reluctantly. After all, we weren’t buying for me, it was for her. We went down to Fiehrer Motors at Bridgewater Falls to let her sell me on the merits of the GMC Terrain and I walked away rather impressed. The only drawback for me was that the Terrain wasn’t a Yukon, which wasn’t fair to the Terrain. After driving them around and looking at all the options it was clear why she liked the vehicle, it reminded us of our old Jeep, and it was made by an American company trying to give birth to itself once again—and the front end of it was smashing cool. Inside there was a lot of room and it’s technically quite a leap forward in engineering development. I was impressed with the 6 speed transmission that actually has the ability to go manual if needed, so she sold me on it and we bought one.
But this article is not about buying a new car or reviewing the GMC Terrain. It’s about a revelation I had while going through finance and signing all the paperwork. Buying a car is a very important part of the American economy, so I pay attention to aspects of it that measure the greater aspect of national GDP. I enjoyed greatly my experience at Fiehrer Motors as they have been in business for three generations now—which is very unusual. They used to be on Route 4 for a long time across from the Hamilton Plaza, by the old Richard’s Pizza place. But my wife and I would never shop for a car in that type of location because it’s too busy there to think right, plus the area is surrounded by impoverished has-been homes. Not a good way to usher in an expensive car buying experience. When we have bought cars in the past, it has been at Kings Automall. We like it over there for all the reasons that we prefer that Costco over the one in Tri-County. There are fewer slack-jawed losers over on Fields Ertle, and it does matter. People who have purchasing power don’t want to hang out with people whose life goals are to buy a pack of cigarettes and win $10 on a scratch-off lottery ticket so they can buy a case of beer. It matters even if it’s not politically correct. If the new Fiehrer dealership at Bridgewater wasn’t so nice, my wife would have never convinced me to go car shopping in the first place. So we were there buying the new Terrain, the sun was out on a nice 68 degree day after a bit of rain. There was some college football on the big screen behind me in the lounge area which I enjoyed watching as we went over all the contract details. It was clean, everyone seemed professional, and it was a good productive atmosphere that was conducive to the proper exchange of money and product. The finance guy was finalizing the details and I had positioned myself so I could see his computer screen just enough to read. That’s when I asked him if he was a drug addict.
I’m not going to give away a lot of personal details especially on a purchase that costs half of a small house. I’m grateful for good terms when I can get them. I’m not complaining on an individual basis. But what I saw was alarming to me. Keep in mind that I used to do what this finance guy was doing, so I had some experience on the matter. That was over twenty years ago, and back then I even helped paint on the front window of our dealership a giant sign designed to entice people to come in and buy a car—“4% on all cars and trucks.” I remembered back then that almost nobody had credit good enough to qualify for the 4% interest rate. They usually walked out of finance at somewhere around 6% to 7% if they had really good credit. Only people with “gold” credit were able to actually get what was on the window. So here I was watching the Sooners stomp all over the Golden Hurricanes, my wife had found a car she liked, and we were getting Chick-fil-A for my grandson’s birthday on a nice fall afternoon once we were finished with buying the car. It doesn’t get any better than that—except for the interest rate that I saw on the computer screen of my finance guy. It was less than what I painted on the window of the dealership I worked at decades ago. I thought he had made a serious mistake and was trying to hide a drug addiction.
But he wasn’t on drugs, and it was a legitimate interest rate. While my wife and everyone else was happy, I wasn’t. Something was dreadfully wrong about that. Things were not alright, that interest rate should have been much higher. As we signed the paperwork, I thought about the Fed’s decision to keep interest rates where they were, which are artificially low. Sure its good for the economy, it’s good for people to spend money, but it essentially means that any investments made in bonds or other long-term holdings are not increasing encouraging investors to continue dumping money into risky stocks further flaming a volatile market. This meant that the economy was in far worse shape than anybody was willing to acknowledge, including the most conspiratorial talk show hosts on AM radio. Banks were giving away money at a very low profit to them just to get people to buy products—and that artificial stimulus was a direct correlation to the true state of our economy that is dangerously perilous.
Look people, America is about to hit $19 trillion dollars in debt, wages are stagnant, inflation is unbelievably high, and there isn’t enough GDP to stave off complete economic collapse. There is really only this next presidential election to get it right where both the House, Senate, and the Executive Branch can increase GDP, pay down the debt so the United States doesn’t choke on foreign interest rates itself, and put the country back on course again where buying cars is a routine exercise, along with many other factors of a national economy. Failure to solve this problem means there is no future. Interest rates can’t be lowered any more than they are, and if that’s not getting people out to the stores to move products, then nothing will do it. That is not a good situation.
I’m proud of GMC for getting their act together and producing a nice series of cars, particularly the Terrain. I am impressed, and it deserves a look by anybody in the car market. I am proud of Fiehrer Motors for relocating into a really nice store in a really nice area—because I otherwise wouldn’t have went car shopping—so it’s a factor in national GDP—nearly as much as interest rate shopping—for me anyway. Without their decision to move off Dixie Highway, I wouldn’t have visited them and they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sell me a new car. I’m proud of the Sooners for playing a fun college football game that sold lots of beer and fast food options to hundreds of thousands of viewers. And I was proud to spend $100 at Chick-fil-A on food that day. These are all wonderful things for our economy. But, the bank shouldn’t have to feel like they have to give away money. They need a chance to make a profit and while some people will say that banks make enough money, profit is what they need to stay in business. And they deserve to make money on their services. Based on that interest rate, it was clear to me that they weren’t making enough. For my situation, I won’t complain. But the fact that they felt compelled to offer it makes me worry about their future. Good things aren’t always good things.
Overall, it was a fun day, but many of the things I write about became quite evident to me. I don’t always like being right, even though I am most of the time. Unfortunately, not enough people listen in time to help themselves. That is frustrating to me. For that reason my wife and I did get the subscription to XM radio. No matter what happens, we’ll have a good life and we’ll enjoy it. However, I want many others to have a taste of the good life too-which is why I put so much time into trying to teach people—if only they’d listen.
Kids make you most proud when they do things that adult experience dictates are productive, and memorable exchanges destined to build positive intellect. For instance, no parent wants to hear that their child got drunk and ground the night away pointlessly with some member of the opposite sex at a night club. Not only is the behavior useless and primal, anyone can do it—so there’s nothing unique about the act. For every baby born is the hope from a parent that the little life will grow up and do something significant—that is unless the parents are the typical lottery ticket, chain-smoking trailer trash types who only go to the mail box hoping for the next welfare check—for which children mean additional benefits from the government. Everyone else in the world hopes their children will do something good with life and not waste the opportunity to pave their own path through the roads less traveled and do something special with the gift of life they were given.
My kids often give me much to feel good about. More than other parents even, I expect my children to be unique and to make the most out of every day. And within the restrictions of reality, they do. My oldest daughter and her husband just returned from Iceland over this past weekend which was an unusual trip for a couple of twenty-somethings that illustrated a number of interesting parallels worthy of note. When I discuss how the destruction of American culture by the progressive intelligentsia class is intentional, it is one thing to say it, it’s quite another to have proof to compare to. It should also be noted that some people who know me best know that I have a soft spot for people who are foreign, and I am rather hard on people in America who grew up taking for granted the wonders of capitalism. I once got into a pretty significant fight with an old friend of mine when I told him he had a “Hamilton attitude” which was reflective of a type of blue-collar mentality that evolved in my hometown as I was growing up that I personally find reprehensible. Even thirty years ago when I said the term, I saw where it was taking our culture and I didn’t like it. A “Hamilton attitude” reflected the limited global perspective of the typical Fisher Body worker, or Armco employee from Middletown. It was a glass half empty reference as opposed to my perpetually glass half full outlook. I see people with a “Hamilton attitude” as destroying our nation. And I didn’t limit the designation to just friends and associates but family members as well. Those people are on a slow decline toward a place our society can never recover where sex, drugs, alcohol, lottery tickets and bad living destroy families, political structure, and economic growth. However, most foreigners who come from someplace else in the world who believe in the type of the American dream shown in motion pictures remind me of what we all used to be like. Most foreigners remind me of the type of people my grand parents were, hard-working people who believed strongly in family, personal intelligence, and responsibility. So my personal record is that I’m very hard on people whom I designate have a “Hamilton attitude” and very accommodating of people who come from other cultures to pursue the American dream in the traditional way.
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Listening to my kids tell the story of their trip after their plane finally landed back to our hometown of Hamilton, Ohio after two weeks of back country struggles, high winds, glaciers, lava fields, freezing oceans and serious car problems I heard my kids tell a story that America could learn a lot from. I’m sure my daughter will go into more detail about the specifics, but for my purpose I’ll stick with the philosophical aspect that should be considered a warning shot for American culture. Iceland would be nothing if not for the American military base that was established there in Reykjavik. England built another airfield and from there Iceland assimilated with the rest of the world as a mixed culture of those two countries. The people of Iceland have evolved into the type of people who are often found within the United States in rural areas—determined, responsible, kind, and with an emphasis on tradition. They are not like the typical New Yorker—progressive, confused, and scribbles of human flesh dancing into an eventual fire for which they will eventually be incinerated. Iceland and its people are examples of the type of society you get when you get government out of people’s lives and let them live relatively freely. My son-in-law who is from Canterbury, England about an hour west of London enjoys aspects of European sentiment and ritual, while my daughter is all about the wild west of capitalism. As they told their story it was clear that Iceland had evolved into a nice mixture of the two without all the progressive nonsense.
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But why Iceland? Well, my daughter is a professional photographer who does quite well for herself with commercial jobs around Cincinnati. She travels quite a lot throughout the year photographing for money, but that doesn’t quite do it for her. As a baby she was practically raised by National Geographic magazines. I used to actually read them to her before she knew anything about how to read a word; she’d look at all the pictures with me. When she went to bed, her mother and I used to watch the Discovery Channel religiously—back when they had an emphasis on science. And as one of the first big trips she remembered, I took her to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C. to essentially show her the gates of Heaven where some of the greatest photographs on planet earth have been taken for that publishing empire. She strives to take National Geographic style photographs, so Iceland was the best opportunity to do such a thing—which was the purpose of their visit.
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But my son-in-law being from Europe, who traveled a lot over the last decade, and watched the gradual decline of the American TSA system knows better, and he didn’t want my daughter—his wife—accosted in the embarrassing fashion that they suffered through once while returning from London via Raleigh North Carolina. The TSA agents were aggressive and ridiculous leaving him to proclaim never again. The next time they left the country, they decided to avoid the American TSA all together. They drove up to Toronto, Canada and flew out of there for nearly a half priced ticket. There the security was much better, and professionally accommodating. To make a long story short, it is more reminiscent of how America used to be during the 50s and 60s—professional, eager to serve, and bright-eyed—not half dead like some gage-ringed malcontent at JFK in New York.
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My kids drove 8 hours out of their way to avoid the American TSA agents and to save half the money on an oversea flight, which was more than worth it. The gas to get there was about a $100 which was about the tax on an American ticket on an airline to a foreign destination. No wonder foreign markets are expanding so rapidly. American airlines within the states are choking on regulation and union regulations have driven up ticket prices treacherously. So people like my kids vote with their feet—and they saved a lot of money and had a much better experience.
Landing in Iceland, it was one lonely security member who stamped their passport. No physical accosting, no harassment, just a hello, and a stamp. They drove around the island for the next two weeks photographing shots that belonged in National Geographic, which was of course the point.
They camped in caves, in the tent bought from the Cabela’s in West Chester on opening day, and bounced around from one rustic village to another eating food mostly grown on the island because there just wasn’t enough population on Iceland to attract many American corporations.
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So everything is pretty much homegrown and authentic regionally. Iceland is about the size of the state of Ohio. But the population is only about 329,000 whereas Ohio has over 11 million people. So my kids traveled for vast spans of terrain without seeing many people, and the villages they did stay in were like little Wild West towns with populations of only a 100 people or so.
That’s why the end of their trip after two weeks of trail food, soup, water and freezing winds brought them to a little oasis that I have long talked about, the influence of America throughout the world and the hope that it has brought people. They ate what they think is one of the best hamburgers they’ve ever had at the Chuck Norris Grill in Reykjavik on Laugarvegur. Obviously the owners of the restaurant are fans of Walker, Texas Ranger but it was one of those little treasures that speak for itself.
Out of all the global influences in the world open to Iceland’s economy, the Chuck Norris Grill is a thriving hot spot highly sought after by weary travelers who just want a hamburger and a cup full of fries. A timeless American tough guy has substantial appeal throughout the world, still, and there is a serious lesson to be learned from that. It surely wasn’t lost to my kids. They understood it and immediately sent me pictures. After all the brilliant scenes they had witnessed, that little western style hamburger place had put a nice exclamation point on the essence of their trip. Iceland had become more American than most of America. They are what we used to be, tough, kind, enterprising, intelligent, and creatively ambitious.
My kids landed in Toronto then drove back down to Cincinnati staying on the north side of Lake Erie the whole way until Detroit. The security on the way back was professional. Not lax, but certainly not intrusive. There was a sense of quality in Toronto that impressed my children. And when they hit the American border, it was by car. So it was just reasonable questions and the stamp of their passports. Not the kind of thing that would let terrorists in, but not the harassment that weary travelers should have to endure when all they want to do is get back to their home and lay down in their bed after a hard trip. Within a few hours they were back home and at our house for a long needed get together. It was one of my grandchildren’s birthdays. My wife and I had been out all day buying her a new car, which was an interesting and positive experience that I’ll write about in another article. To celebrate all these fine events I picked up about a hundred dollars worth of Chick-fil-A food and we had a nice little party—looked at pictures, and compared stories.
Our evening and the time we spent together was the opposite of that “Hamilton attitude” that I have said so much about over the years. Even though we still live in Hamilton, and I was born there, I am not happy to surrender what I remember best about it to this new age behavior of negativity that often comes from people who smoke way too many cigarettes and have an idea that a good time centers around a cheap 12 pack of beer from a gas station. It’s about hope, determination, and all the things that Chuck Norris represents to American culture. And behind all that is a love of family and the bonds of a life well lived together. The way it used to be, and should always yearn to continue. Other places in the world understand it, but America has clearly forgotten.
There really isn’t any reason to say anything against Chuck Cramer after watching his performance in the following video debate with George Lang, the sitting president of the West Chester Trustees. Chuck sounded like a good man. But he was certainly out of his league as the clear winner of the debate was my friend George. George Lang graciously helped Chuck through the ordeal without embarrassing the challenger, which was respectful even if it was unnecessary. In politics you can’t take anything for granted, but after watching this video–George will easily win re-election as Chuck–as well-intentioned as he was–doesn’t pose a challenge at the level it would take to remove Lang from his current position. Lang did reveal during the debate that he plans to run for Governor of Ohio sometime soon, and has higher political ambitions so West Chester better enjoy him while it can. He won’t remain as accessible as he is now for long. He’s just too politically talented.
I don’t like politicians, but I do like George. Because of politics I don’t have many close acquaintances. I know a lot of people, but I avoid close attachments because you have to reserve the right to act on your own accord when needed. In politics there are often hundreds if not thousands of people who expect something from whoever is in a public office, and it becomes clear really quick that you can’t please them all. So you have to stay very true to your own inner compass and navigate the mine field accordingly. I don’t trust career politicians who have been in the business very long because after a period of time, it becomes nearly impossible to listen to that inner compass while at the same time satisfying all the social requirements of the people who donate money to your campaign. I know George to the point that I know his core function isn’t very far from mine and that he wants ultimately a small government that does not want additional tax money, because as he says, government will spend it. As a trustee he has done extremely well in West Chester and I have no doubt he will have success wherever he ends up. Independently, he’s quite successful, so politics is not his primary endeavor. But he enjoys “the game” and believes he can do well there and I see him as the best option to penetrate those depths in a search for treasure that has thus far been hidden.
Daily I live a rather complicated life myself, which I share with George to some extent. The reason I trust him more than the average politician is due to parts of George that I have seen under duress. I’m a pretty controversial person and if George really wanted to “play the game” in the typical way that politicians do, without merit—then he would not have come to some of my private Overmanwarrior meetings (located in the back room of the Liberty Township LaRosa’s) that we’ve had for people who have most supported this site over the years. I have never asked for any special favors from George, but he has supported what I’m doing under his own free will even through it may not have been politically expedient to do so for him. Not everyone gets to see that side of him, and it may have been a huge political gamble for him at the time, but when gambles pay off, they usually do big. And working with me is always a safe bet, which many people have come to learn over the years. So I benefit from knowing George under pressure and under duress and therefore knowing more about his true character than many people have the opportunity to see.
Politics however, especially for people in leadership is a tricky field. When you are in charge of something, there are thousands of nipping parasites called second-handers who loom in your wake waiting for a mistake by you to exploit for their own advantage. They are second-handers because they often do not have the courage to live out in front, so they exclusively make their livings in the wake of people in a leadership role. The trick in politics, whether it’s in a public setting like what George is doing, or whether its being the head of a company, is to not get caught up in what the second-handers want or need from you. When politicians get corrupt it is at this point, when second-handers begin to take over the decision-making of the leadership of those out in front. A leader has to accept that they will be hated often by somebody in their wake at some point, if not constantly. That hatred is not necessarily against a leader, it’s really against themselves for lacking the courage to live their own life authentically, depending on someone else to give them something. Politicians go bad when they start giving in to this relationship which then degrades them into a second-hander themselves. Often, donors are these second-handers because they want something from government, so politicians who may start off as valiant leaders who need money to run campaigns have to step out of that leadership role to solicit funds. The business is tricky on a philosophical level, and without good philosophy a leader loses their authenticity, and potency.
It is lonely at the top, not because there are always people who want your attention. When people pass you in the parking lot there is never a stranger, because most people are second-handers who are nice to your face hoping for a favor down the road, whether it’s in a job, or a political mechanism in their favor. It’s important to know that they aren’t being nice to you out of a human need for kindness. To best articulate this phenomena the Clint Eastwood western High Plains Drifter best illustrates this issue in the most defined way possible. For the person in the leadership position, the best way to maintain their sanity is in accepting that deep down inside, most people do resent you and would cut off your head to suck out all your blood in a second if it were legal and they could get away with it. As cynical as that may sound, it’s correct, and resembles best what is in most people’s hearts—truly. It’s a bad reflection for most to gaze at in the mirror, so they avoid the characterization, but if a politician or leader of any kind is to remain uncorrupted, then they must accept this reality. And to a large extent, I see that George has.
I see in George potential, but I like him not for what he does or what he may do, but because of who he is. I see in him a little boy who wanted to grow up and do something really good, and that same enthusiasm is present even in polished campaign speeches. There are of course those who want something from him that they may not get, and they will be upset with him. If I had a dime for every person who is upset with me on a daily basis, I’d have more money than Donald Trump, so you can’t get caught measuring the worth of somebody based on their popularity within second-hander social groups. That is not an accurate way to measure worth—only merit can determine the value of a leader. The masses will always want what falls off the wagon of true productivity and will like or hate a leader based on what they can get from them. So it does no good to pay them any mind, but to stay on target with the objectives often only the leader can see. If people lose faith in that direction, they can vote the politician out of office. If they sense that they’ll gain an advantage by keeping a politician in office, then they’ll continue to vote for them hoping for success through someone else’s leadership.
Regarding West Chester, there is little not to like. Sure, George has enemies, he gets sued constantly and there are hoards of people in his wake who would love to knock him off his pedestal in a fraction of a second because they fantasize that they might do better. But George knows how good he is and when the chips are on the table through all the smoke of wheeling and dealing, I know what’s in his heart. And what is there is gold, which is the reason why West Chester is currently flourishing. One person does make a difference, and West Chester is the direct recipient of the gold that flows out of George Lang in ways that some resent, others overlook, and many others want to consume for their own advantage. But without George, nobody would have it, and deep down inside, I know that he knows it. That’s why I trust him.
By no fault of his own, Chuck Cramer didn’t have a chance.
The people who run for school board, such as those at Lakota in Butler County, Ohio, should be people who truly want to save the system and make the best management decisions possible. So for this article, I’ll cover the election of 2015 for two potential school board seats in the fashion of neutrality. In my district there are four candidates, two who currently sit on the board, Julie Shaffer, whom I’ve had my share of spats with, Lynda O’Connor that I’ve supported, along with Ernest D.Gause and Tom Tran. They had a Meet the Candidates night down at my old high school building on Taylorsville Rd on the night of the big CNN debate—which was hosted by the valuable West Chester Tea Party. Refreshingly, quite a few people showed up to watch the event. However, not enough did, so a video of the candidates at that forum can be seen here:
There was some pressure on me to run for one of those spots, but as I explained to everyone who asked—I’m not a public servant type of person. I don’t really care to shake hands, when people call me who I don’t want to talk to, I like to ignore them and when I get mad at something, or someone, I like to be free to unleash my inner T-Rex on them. I don’t like being beholden to a community established set of values. Plus, I feel I’m too young to do anything like run for an office. But most of all, in regard to Lakota, I’m not a public education supporter. I think public schools should be profit based, the unions should be crushed and made illegal, and the government should be completely out of education starting with the DOE in Washington. I don’t want more money from the state to pay for higher collective bargaining agreements for the teacher’s union just so busy parents can have a free baby sitter for their children. If I ran for school board it would be to destroy the system, which isn’t necessarily the best thing for those who do support public education. I have enough respect for the republic system of government that we have to have a vigorous debate instead of imposing my personal views on the masses. So my belief is that people who want to work together to manage a good school system should run for office, and by my appraisal those are the kinds of people who are running in 2015 within the Lakota district.
This time around there aren’t a bunch of crazy lunatics, as there have been in the past running for office, so there really isn’t a downside to any of them. Julie and Lynda have I think done a good job of adapting to the tax opposition and try to avoid reckless tax increases. Listening to Julie, she has come a long way over the last four years. I don’t forget things, but I will put things aside to make a fair comment, and she is better now than the person who debated me on 700 WLW four years ago. That largely comes from experience. I personally liked the spunk of Tom Tran although I don’t think he can apply that gumption to reality on the board. He’d likely assimilate to the current culture uneventfully and be a standard vote. I did talk to Ernest Gause after the debate and was very impressed with his bright-eyed professionalism. He is a professional educator deeply committed to learning. He said some things that were obviously progressive to me and likely weren’t very conservative. But I could tell that he really cared about education. He probably deserves to be some new blood on the school board who could at least elevate some debate regarding the allocation of resources. My friend Ann Becker used to be a very pro levy, pro education type, and he reminded me of her which isn’t at all a bad thing. So there are some good choices for school board that voters have to pick from.
Due to the declining enrollment at Lakota even with the cuts in state funding, the increased tax revenue from commercial endeavors and diligent fiscal policy should prevent Lakota from seeking a tax increase from property owners for the rest of the decade. But, as I’ve said before, the current trajectory of spending and over priced government employees at well over 60K per year will put stress on logic and create the temptation to put another tax increase on the ballot by 2017. Out of all the candidates all of them sound like they’d be supportive of voting for that tax increase. The only way to avoid that is for three conservatives to make it on the board during the next election to out vote the current members. Otherwise, that fight is inevitable. For the sake of this Lakota forum, everyone was peaceful, because tax increases have not yet been put on the table. When the school board does move in that direction, then its time to take away the handshakes and glad tidings and go to war—which we will.
But it’s best to avoid war, and even better to provide good management so that unfortunate incidents in the future can be avoided in the present. And that’s what elections are all about. Of the choices, there are some promising ones, so take advantage of them, communicate with them, and let’s see where it takes us.
When politicians use the word progressive, be clear that what they are talking about is essentially Bernie Sanders socialism. They intend to “progress” society toward collective salvation to nearly a religious fervor. That’s why they don’t have any hard opinions about North Korea, China, Iran, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela, Greece, France or even Russia for that matter, because socialism and communism are the modes those countries are functioning under, and they want the same for the United States. That is what politicians mean by “progressive” when they indicated that society needs to “lean forward” toward it.
Clearly one of the most progressive areas of the United States is Seattle, Washington. The massive union culture of the Boeing employees contribute largely to that, and the music culture that has evolved through their garage bands were undeniably socialist in orientation. They have an actual city council person who is a socialist. It is a highly liberalized part of the country and was one of the first places to attempt a $15 per hour minimum wage for fast food workers. So they have serious issues against capitalism and are certainly as a city leaning well toward pot smoking liberalism of the most severe version of progressive. With that said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the teacher’s union in Seattle went on strike at the start of the school year holding the tax payers to the fire until city management—which is already on the same side as the progressive labor union—buckled just to get the teachers to go back to work again. Here’s what the school employees received in the deal followed by a short report from the Seattle Times.
Highlights of tentative 3-year contract:
Raises: 3 percent in first year; 2 percent in second; 4.5 percent in third (state cost-of-living raise is additional). More in 2017-18 for some teachers for collaboration, and eight hours of “tech pay” for all school employees.
Discipline: Half day of training on reducing disproportionate discipline for all school employees. Equity committees launched in 30 schools.
Testing: New joint union-district committee to review and recommend testing and testing schedule.
Teacher evaluations: Test scores will no longer play any role.
School day: Will be longer, but not much for students, and teachers will be paid for the additional time.
Specialist caseloads: Sets limits, which union says is a first, for physical therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and audiologists.
Source: Seattle Education Association
After four months of negotiations, a five-day strike and one final all-night talk, the Seattle teachers union and Seattle Public Schools reached a tentative contract agreement early Tuesday, and school is scheduled to start Thursday for the city’s 53,000 students.
The Seattle Education Association’s board of directors and its elected building representatives both voted Tuesday afternoon to suspend the strike, recommending the union’s membership approve the deal. The agreement will go to a full vote of the union’s 5,000 members at a Sunday meeting.
The building-representative vote came after hours of deliberation, where cheers and fervent discussion could be heard outside a packed room at the Machinists Hall in South Seattle.
Union bargaining chair Phyllis Campano, exhausted after one hour of sleep after the marathon negotiation session, declared victory.
“Let’s be clear,” she said. “We won the fight on this contract agreement.”
What a bunch of communist idiots. That is exactly why education costs so much in America, and why our children are being liberalized during that institutional training. There are no rational conservatives in the process, and even if they did manage to get elected to a board seat, progressive politicians have skewed the table to always favor the labor unions. To properly negotiate a deal against labor unions you really have to be an ass, and enjoy it, because it’s tough. But with a 5 to 7 member school board, one will always be out-voted by the rest, as those who typically run for such offices are liberalized types themselves. I would argue that the best education the kids of Seattle could have had was a few more days at home as these progressive teachers went on strike for more money and power.
This strike was not about any kids. Kids were clearly used as extortion pieces to secure higher wages, lower testing expectations, and more secure livelihoods. To hell with the kids, which is what the Seattle Education Association declared when they went on strike—there’s no other way to frame the debate. It was about money at the expense of the kids for the progressive aims of further substantiation of a communist agenda spreading across the world.
However, this story is an old one. We’ve covered it many times before. We’ve covered it on radio broadcasts, many articles, public debates and anywhere that the issue has been raised. Yet in Seattle, the situation is clear, the politics are grossly progressive and the aims of the insurrection directly applicable to the region. The apparatus for political theater has a well-known cast and everyone benefited except for the kids, because a liberal education is not necessarily better than not having one at all. I would argue that children could learn far more from the popular Leap Frog devices so popular now at the local Target store than a K-12 education in a public school. Such educations are as dirty and disrespected as public libraries where everything is shared and stagnate. The value of such education is clearly deficient. As pollsters like to announce often during the presidential race of 2016, college graduates support Hillary Clinton whereas blue-collar non-college graduates generally support Donald Trump. The accusation is that highly educated types are more able to understand “higher concepts” of progressivism. But such a term is purely marketing and has no basis in reality. It could be just as argued that 16 years of liberalized education is detrimental to a conservative mind and they will leave college prepared to support progressive platform points such as gay rights, open borders, and socialist wealth redistribution. Whereas those who make their own way in life work hard from the ground up and go to bed tired each night, they don’t like to have their money stolen from them by progressives—so they vote with their wallets. The Seattle Education Association is clearly attacking the hard-working as opposed to the unionized slugs and the wealth redistribution that they most support in Seattle, so it’s no surprise that the government school union got what they wanted so quickly. There really wasn’t any opposition, just political theater that showed clearly that the children were not the priority to the teachers.
It’s a hard reality for many to realize, but the educations we all go through within the public education system is nearly worthless. It exists for these unionized teachers to mooch off of, as they provide very little of any worth for a young, inquiring mind, except a radicalized progressive education. Kids don’t learn about the value of cowboys and Indians in public school, but they sure learn how to stand in line, organize in a collective unit, and get voluminous exposure to the progressive religion of global warming. It’s hard work to unlearn all the crap we learn and for those who reject the experience, it’s easier for them. But for all, the reality couldn’t be clearer. If you support the teachers in Seattle you essentially support Bernie Sanders socialism. The people who won in that case were the socialists represented here by the Seattle Education Association. And they pulled it off because there is no free market competition for their services and it’s nearly illegal to avoid the reach of public schools. So they have a government backed monopoly on building future progressives with tax payer money and every year the price tag goes up. And nobody does anything to stop it because they are afraid of being called names for identifying the behavior what it really is—which is a diabolical socialist scheme that would make the communists of the world bulge with pride. And today in Seattle, they are.
I had just been complimentary of the 2015 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in spite of my concerns that they had picked the right quarterback in the draft, but trusted that Lovie Smith knew what he was doing. As the Tennessee Titans won a game epically 42 to 14 with the quarterback I wanted, Marcus Mariota being pulled in the third quarter so not to rub the nose of my favorite team in an opening day disaster—it was obvious Lovie Smith had not prepared his team. Smith was stuck in the past when the Bucs were successful, when the Tampa 2 defense was created, and an era that built several Hall of Fame players reigned supreme. Tennessee drafted Mariota and let him play virtually the same spread offense that he won with at Oregon. Mariota, who had been picked two in the draft, was clearly the better quarterback. The negatives on him were that he wasn’t NFL ready as a rookie, was not a pocket passer, and that his stunts would not work in the NFL. Well, Tennessee ignored all that, let the kid play his game, his way, and the Bucs weren’t even competitive. Mariota had a perfect QB rating for his first NFL start. Lovie got caught looking toward the past and adhering to the unspoken rules of NFL coaching—where Cover 2 defenses are still respected and pocket passers at quarterback are tickets to playoffs.
It was discussed all preseason that Mariota was not NFL ready, yet while playing a pretty good Tampa Bay defense, he was baiting defensive ends and line backers to jump off coverage and defend him leaving often three receivers in single coverage down field as the safeties pulled up to cover the linebackers. He looked pretty NFL ready, and the stats proved it to be. But as good as Mariota was that day, Lovie Smith made him look far better by preparing the Bucs incorrectly for the game. Obviously the Tampa Bay coaching staff assumed from the tape provided by Tennessee’s preseason games that Mariota was going to be forced to adhere to the unspoken NFL rules. But in reality, within 2 minutes of playing, it was obvious that the Tennessee Titans pulled the reigns off Mariota and let him play the way he won in college with the Ducks. Innovation gave way to tradition and the Titans won in a big way.
As I was thinking about that game and writing off another Buccaneers season before it ever got started, two Republican insiders contacted me for the first time in a long time. These were people who had been critical of my aggressive political approach on things and people I had relegated to ineffective wimps in the past. They assumed that my fight first strategy against political opponents was wrong, because the majority in the Republican Party wanted to play nice and expand the base through appeasement—to slowly win over Democrats and other moderates to the Party of Lincoln. I have always been against that strategy and have written much about how to win women voters, minorities, and the youth, and I have been at odds with the general strategies of orthodox political behavior. This has been going on for a number of years with pretty public spats involving Chairman of the Republican Party Carlos Todd, Commissioner Michael Fox, Trustee Bob Shelly, the Lakota School boards of 2004-2005, 2010 through 2015 and of course Judy Shelton and Patti Alderson. Generally the assumption was that my approach was reckless and unprofessional. Then Donald Trump became a political sensation in 2015 and the orthodox was beginning to understand what I’ve been talking about for two decades. If they had only listened instead of fighting me on every little thing they would have won more often and maintained a much more conservative Republican Party as a result, instead of curbing their party to the weakest links of political philosophy.
This article was published during the mighty CNN debate which was poised to change history as Donald Trump—who has always been an original, was essentially doing what I have said to do for years—and he’s winning—big. The presidential debate brought huge numbers to CNN, well beyond even their fantasy of beating Fox News for a change, and it’s essentially because Donald Trump has been a fighter and is offering that to the political landscape for the first time in most people’s lifetimes. And people are responding. As the debate started it was obvious all the other Republican candidates were gunning to put an end to Trump, but the New York billionaire staved off the threat in much the way that Marcus Mariota had avoided the Bucs defense and Lovie Smith’s game plan to dominate easily over a political establishment who had been following the wrong strategy for the past four sitting presidents. I couldn’t help but see a correlation between Donald Trump’s run for president in 2016 and the terrible defeat of my favorite team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on their opening day by a creative and outside the box quarterback in Marcus Mariota. Lovie had picked the wrong guy in the draft and now the Republicans were trying their hardest to pick the wrong guy to run for president in 2016 by destroying their best option.
Currently the biggest issue on the table of the world is the lifestyle of America versus the rest of the world which is leaning heavily toward socialism and the sense of collectivism that fuels it. There isn’t a single policy or law which could be created under the next American president which could save the world from its ridiculous commitment to social collectivism. Nothing said on the debate stage for CNN will manifest into action by any of the candidates other than Trump, and here’s why, because he represents the pronoun I, and every other candidate represents the “we.” America needs to feel good about itself again starting with individual achievement, not through collective “team work.”
The Tennessee Titans without Marcus Mariota would have probably lost to Tampa Bay and Lovie Smith’s “team concept.” Tampa drafted a team leader who could elevate the other players through motivation. Mariota on the other hand easily beat that same quarterback in the college playoffs earlier in the year when Florida State had been undefeated at the time. Mariota beat that player with all different team members on the field in precisely the same basic way, with an unconventional spread offense that favored the intelligence and physical attributes of Mariota. The offense had been built to accommodate the individual who Mariota was.
On the other hand, Jamies Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was molded to an NFL style of play that is quickly becoming extinct but features “team play.” Obviously that approach was wrong and lost to the innovations of the Titans who catered their entire team toward the individual of Mariota. While Smith insisted all preseason stated that the young Winston would need time to acclimate to the NFL, the Titans turned their player loose, and expected immediate results. Time will tell if this approach will last, but for one game anyway, it worked marvelously well and the results were grossly obvious. Winston was picked to be a typical pocket passing quarterback in the style of Payton Manning and Tom Brady. But the game is changing, and Mariota is part of that innovation, and Smith just didn’t see the truck that hit him on opening day.
The Republicans are making the same mistake with Trump. The way to fix America is not through a leader, it is in making people leaders of their own lives, and to do that we need someone who won’t apologize for being proud of their efforts. The self-boasting and pride obvious by Trump in himself is exactly what America needs to feel about itself. That is the innovation of the future in politics, advocating the proper political philosophy, not just going after votes at the booth by appeasing pop culture into participating enough to get Party support for their candidates. It doesn’t matter if Trump was a Democrat, or was a typical New York progressive, or if he is the scum of the universe. What matters in Trump is that he loves himself and America needs to have that guilt removed from them so that they too can feel good about themselves once again. That is the only way to fix anything. I have said so for a long time, and now Trump is really the first to show how powerful such an approach can be. The key is in not allowing the other side to use guilt to paralyze us into inaction. That is the strategy of Democrats and it has worked. The way for Republicans to win is to stop feeling guilty and just let the truth do its job. If Republicans would do that, they’d win a lot more in the game of political theater. And like Trump, and Mariota, they make it look pretty easy because it is. Trust in the pronoun I, and let that “team” crap die with Lovie Smith’s approach to the game of football.
The game plan is now out and there is no going back. Now that Trump has done it, every liberal celebrity who thinks they can run for president will. Mark Cuban might very well be next, so if Republicans don’t seize a celebrity who is currently a conservative, they may very well lose the opportunity to take the White House for the next five decades. There is no going back to a Mitt Romney, or a George Bush. Politicians have abused the system so long that the public is done with them. So Republican Party people who should have listened to me years ago better listen now. You better embrace Trump. If you do you can have the White House for probably the next 16 years and in 2024, you might just get someone like Ted Cruz. Learn from Lovie Smith of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and don’t get caught looking at what worked in the past. Embrace what will work in the future, and seize the opportunity when you get it. For Republicans, that opportunity is now.
I have watched a lot of very smart people over the last several years throw up their hands in frustration because the political class will not listen, or let them in, to help solve the problems of our states and our country. The desire is there from those smart people to give it everything they have to fix very complicated problems, but they are purposely kept on the fringes to allow the entitlements that come with public service to continue like whores in a Port Royal brothel. Those same people are angry and frustrated that Donald Trump is poised to bring CNN more than 30 million viewers hoping to watch the billionaire presidential candidate bring a smack down to his rival Republican contenders on the debate stage on Wednesday September 16th.
Their frustration is very similar to those who refuse to believe that big time wrestling is fake—because they want to buy the story line that political theater can somehow be solved with logic. But it can’t. The system is too far gone for anything like that, and as well intended as Rand Paul and Ted Cruz may be, the political establishment is against them to the death. So for a president in 2016 to be successful they have to be good at two things, they have to understand “big time” wrestling, and they have to know how money works. It is well-known that Donald Trump understands money. He is a mostly self-made man built the old-fashioned way. But he’s also an entertainer who knows the value of a brand—and his brand is so strong that it has even survived the testosterone filled banter of wrestling fanaticism. Out of all his accomplishments, the sentiment that Trump is an inductee of the WWE in the celebrity wing of the Hall of Fame likely makes him most equipped to be President of the United States in the years following the embarrassments of Obama, Clinton and Bush than anything else.
Trump has always been a fan of the WWE and is good friends with Vince McMahon in real life. Trump hosted both WrestleMania IV and V from Trump Plaza. This marked the first and only time a WrestleMania has been held at the same venue in consecutive years.
Younger fans will probably remember him best being involved in WrestleMania 23. It was billed as the “Battle of the Billionaires”, with Trump’s representative Bobby Lashley beating McMahon’s representative Umaga. Trump got to shave McMahon’s hair off at the event.
There was even a storyline when Trump bought Monday Night Raw off of McMahon in 2009. He staged a historic commercial-free version of the show, which was one of the highest rated Raw shows in many years at the time.
Most notably with that “Battle of the Billionaires” was when Trump body slammed McMahon and punched him in the face several times. It was obvious choreography, but think about a 60-year-old Trump actually body slamming McMahon, even playing around. What is important about that event is that the Trump brand was so well-known and respected, that millions of fans supported Trump as the winner of that engagement where McMahon had his head shaved on stage. It was all entertainment theater agreed upon ahead of time, but the fact that McMahon agreed to allow a relatively old man billionaire to beat him in front of millions of people shows to what extent Trump protects his brand.
Trump with all the gusto of the entertainment value he learned through his support of the WWE is promising to release prisoners from Iran, make Mexico build a wall to seal off the American border, and has shown open support of Israel against Iran. He’s promised to cut taxes, save Social Security, and to make America great again—and rich. And a lot of what he has said is done in the same fashion as a WWE wrestler. Now when I showed some of the clips included here to my wife she was immediately turned off by Trump’s participation in the activity. But I found it fascinating. Not only did he fill the seats of his Trump Plaze, protect his investment in WWE, help his friend Vince promote great ratings for his Wrestle Mania events—Trump also increased his own personal brand which is known throughout the world as a quality—larger than life—persona. Trump worked a relatively simple deal at multiple levels to have world-wide impact, and he even participated as a wrestler. He didn’t just sit up in a glass box and watch; he was ring side with McMahon playing along. It was quite a business transaction—fascinating to watch.
The pressure on Trump for the CNN debate must be overwhelming. Everyone on that stage will be gunning for him. Everyone in the audience is carefully waiting for him to body slam someone. And the moderators want to be the ones to go down in history as the one who stumped Trump’s 2016 campaign. And he knows that’s what’s going to happen in front of nearly as many people who watch the Superbowl ever year. Talk about pressure—it doesn’t get any heavier. But Trump has set this whole thing up for several decades, and I wouldn’t doubt it if it didn’t play out in his mind when he and Vince McMahon were setting up “The Battle of the Billionaires.” The Beltway types will look at these clips of Donald Trump at Wrestle Mania and consider it low brow Entertainment Theater appealing to the trailer trash of America—as they sip their white wine during the appetizer portion of a tax payer funded dinner. But Trump knows that cultures around the world don’t care about debates or fancy talk. They will know when he comes to the table to negotiate that the 6’ 3” man from America in the blue suit and red tie that body slams celebrities in front of millions of people Trump is not going to play nicely. When people like Hulk Hogan and many other WWE greats will likely be part of Trump’s body guard entourage from the White House, Trump will have built up a mysticism that no body else could have dreamed to match.
Who would little 5’ 7” Vladimir Putin respect more, the chain-smoking John Boehner with the fake tan and fake courage—who gets pushed around by the skinny communist bastard Obama, or the larger than life Donald Trump who is seen on video, recently, body slamming Vince McMahon? What about negotiations with Iran? Iran doesn’t understand American culture, they don’t watch the debates. But they will watch the tape of Trump at Wrestle Mania—it will likely scare them because they respect that type of bravado. How about Mexico, a country filled with drug lords and corrupt politicians. Do they respect false words from the Beltway or someone who openly scolds El Chapo and fights giant men in front of thousands of people?
I think what Trump has done is brilliant and it all culminates at this CNN debate. It will be the fight of the century, and this one isn’t as planned out as the one between Trump and McMahon—this is a real fight. But the theatrics are what Trump knows and understands and he’s already working at many different levels well ahead of everyone else. To me its clear Trump has been building up his brand to perform this task for a long time. The brilliance of that strategy is to use an unlikely source, such as the WWE to catapult that brand to a voter base that has not been participating in elections—and to also use that footage to gain footage for future capital. There are all kinds of capital. Most of the time we think of capital as money, but there are other kinds. And Trump is planning to use that capital to break through some things that have been in a stalemate for a long time. And it is fascinating to watch. That is for sure.
All this gives me hope for those smart minds who have been trying to fix things. In the wake of this political destruction, which is going on presently, there will be room from those bright minds to flourish in the wake. When Trump avoids specifics it’s because he won’t be the one to solve all the problems of the nation. His role is to clear out the opposition. But the fixes have to come from the best and brightest that America has to offer. And we need a president who understands how to unleash that talent. Ironically, the best way to learn how to do that is by watching Wrestle Mania. There is more truth in a typical WWE fight than all the political speeches on CSPAN collected over a decade. And that’s the sad truth.
On Force Friday as my family was in acquisition mode for new Star Wars merchandise, my brother sent me a picture of the new book, Aftermath by Chuck Wendig to show that he had put his hands on the long-awaited book. I politely dismissed the innuendo that the novel was a “hot item” to purchase even though in our house we have EVERY single Star Wars novel ever produced up to this point. My family loves the Expanded Universe and is on the fence as to how much of ourselves we’ll invest in this new day under Disney. I’m personally hopeful. I think millions of young people will love it. I think it’s mostly a slam dunk of positive infusion culturally. But I’ll have to see how the movie turns out and how much they wreck the continuity of the story which at this point takes place over thousands of years. So I have not yet read Aftermath. I certainly will at some point, but not until I have some basic questions answered—such as, why is Chewbacca alive in the new film—those kinds of things.
However, apparently there is a gay character in Chuck Wendig’s new book, and while a galaxy filled with crazy aliens, species that convert to female when it comes time to mate, and literally thousands of primary and secondary characters—some of which are bound to have some unique sexual habits, Star Wars is NOT about sex. Not in the least. Yet Wendig chose to respond to criticism over his character the Imperial turncoat Sinjir Rath Velus with the following diatribe on his blog, Terrible Minds. Wendig hit back at readers who accused the author on Amazon of “blatantly pushing a gay agenda” and suggested that the franchise was no longer “children friendly”.
“If you’re upset because I put gay characters and a gay protagonist in the book, I got nothing for you,” Wendig wrote. “Sorry, you squawking saurian — meteor’s coming. And it’s a fabulously gay Nyan Cat meteor with a rainbow trailing behind it and your mode of thought will be extinct.”
“You’re not the Rebel Alliance. You’re not the good guys. You’re the fucking Empire, man. You’re the shitty, oppressive, totalitarian Empire. If you can imagine a world where Luke Skywalker would be irritated that there were gay people around him, you completely missed the point of Star Wars. It’s like trying to picture Jesus kicking lepers in the throat instead of curing them. Stop being the Empire. Join the Rebel Alliance. We have love and inclusion and great music and cute droids.”
He later told a reader who attacked his confrontational approach to his critics that he would not engage in a conversation on the issue. “Because on this, I am not interested in conversation. If your problem with the book is only the inclusion of gay characters, then no conversation is possible. Because that’s homophobia, that’s bigotry, and there’s nothing to be done or said. Someone wants to talk to me about the writing style or whatever, sure, I can have that discussion. On this, no.”
If I were Disney execs and Kathleen Kennedy at Lucasfilm, I’d be very concerned. You really can’t have an author for a kids series dropping “F” bombs and proposing that gay meteors are coming with trails of rainbows to follow. Because the use of a gay character in Star Wars clearly was political, and agenda based, otherwise he wouldn’t be so quick to come unglued. Also, it is disturbing that as a Star Wars author, Wendig assumes that the definition of Star Wars resides along the lines of inclusion of gay people within the Jedi Order of Luke Skywalker. While Star Wars can mean lots of things to a lot of different people, the space opera is about good, old-fashioned story telling based on the Saturday morning serials of George Lucas’s youth. They are westerns set in space and if they become anything less than that, then the profit-making machine Disney hopes the property to be will quickly fade away. I’ve loved Star Wars all my life, but I will be the first one off the train if that’s the direction Disney decides to go. Star Wars is not about where one parks their male sex organs at night. Any romance that does emerge from the stories has direct connections to furthering family lineage. Star Wars is not Game of Thrones. If there is sex and romance, there has always been a point to it. Star Wars is not the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and if Disney thinks they can expand their market share by 2% then they’ll lose 40% who just will drop interest. Times have not changed as much as Wendig thinks based on his comment that conservative modes of thinking will soon be extinct. Miley Cyrus recently said something similar, and I’m sure around San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and places where progressivism is rampant, it’s easy for them to think so. But in Kansas, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Dallas—people aren’t going to rush out to buy the next Star Wars product if they feel a gay agenda is being forced down their throat. They’ll drop interest before Episode 8 hits in May of 2017 and Disney will be in trouble.
Here’s how it works, Disney considers the Avengers: Age of Ultron to be a box office failure even though it made $1.4 billion dollars world-wide. While I enjoyed the movie, I walked out disappointed—I knew how Disney would view the profits from the movie. It wasn’t as good as the first film and it had noticeable progressive influences in the movie that just don’t play well with traditional audiences. Feminism and gay pride may be topics now because of the progressive influence of studio projects, but those are not enduring traits that will still be beloved many years from now. Star Wars is a mythology that should have the same resonance 100 years from now as it does in this decade. And I’ll bet money that 500 years from now, we will be laughed at as a culture for even entertaining all this gay pride stuff. For instance, the two best Star Wars movies are A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Without those two movies, there wouldn’t be a franchise. Obviously the romance in those two stories was the one between Han Solo and Princess Leia. Leia in A New Hope was a raging feminist who was slowly conquered by a strong male archetype typical in most westerns, Han Solo. Over two films he melted her into submission and made a real woman out of her. That is a story point that will endure with human development for hundreds of years and will sustain the growth of billions of dollars in action figures. But if Princess Leia were to stave off Han Solo and start a sexual relationship with Mon Mothma, the whole mythology would have been rejected by the movie going public in seconds. If Disney turns Star Wars into Broke Back Mountain, then there will be hell to pay. They may gain 2% approval from the gay community and the rainbow weirdos who cheered when Obama colored the White House in pretty colors after a Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. But straight people—who will always be in the majority based on biological function, will reject things that they are uncomfortable with. Disney will not be happy when they learn that Star Wars movies won’t make them $2 billion each and the book market dies from a lack of demand for the product. People go to Star Wars to get away from progressive politics, not to relish in it. For me it’s a traditional storyline that is similar to a western—so I love it. Take that traditional element away and I’m not interested. And there are millions who think just like I do.
Just a word of warning to Disney—I love the company and its products. Part of that love comes from the traditional family values that it represents. If traditional value is removed from the product, I’m not inclined to spend money on it. There have been many times where obvious gay people perform at Disney World, and I put up with it to be inclusive, but when they are flamboyant about being males pretending to be women with high-pitched tones to their sentence structures, it just gives me a headache. If some hot chick dressed up as Sleeping Beauty wants to stand next to me for a picture, I’m fine with it. But if a dude dressed up as Sleeping Beauty wants to cuddle up next to me to satisfy their own sexuality—that’s not OK. I don’t want to explain that kind of thing to the young people around me, and I don’t want to be put in that position if I’m spending a $1000 dollars a day at an amusement park. And I’m not going to rush out at midnight to buy a book about gay protagonists. Star Wars is not a sure thing. It can be screwed up, and based on the comments from Chuck Wendig, that apprehension is well justified.
I’m completely alright with expanding the role of women in Star Wars. Jaina Solo is bigger than God in our household. I’m also alright with heroes of different skin colors. But when it comes to sex, I don’t want to know about it. Heterosexual activity can be gross at times, but gay sex is just unappealing and I don’t want to be reminded of it when I look at an action figure. If Disney wants to kill Star Wars, then let these “artistic” types have their way with the traditions of Star Wars by turning it into the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fans of the series will be turned off, but the real terror will come to Disney execs who measure box office receipts—when they find out that their cash cow just laid an egg—and that’s not something that’s supposed to happen in a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars is not about gay pride, or inclusion. Sex is a “collective experience” something that is shared. Star Wars is about following the bliss of the individual and in saving yourself you save the galaxy. When many people follow their “bliss” evil is conquered and good resumes its work in the world. That has nothing to do with sex. But it has everything to do with what goes on in the human soul. Based on Wendig’s comments, he needs to go back to Star Wars school and Disney needs to re-think who they let drive the car of the franchise—because artists like Chuck are bringing that car back with lots of new dents, scratches, and sticky seats. And that’s just gross.
