Tag: education

Cracker Barrel: Memories of an America yet to be

I was visiting a whip maker friend of mine in Middletown, Ohio who is working on a special project for me. It was Sunday around lunch time and we were early. So my wife and I elected to stop by the local Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast. Many people find it humorous that I often refer to Cracker Barrel as fine dinning, because for me it is. Now I have dined in many great restaurants, but I prefer Cracker Barrel, especially on a long trip because of the country setting and general store. The food and service to my experience has always been great and I love the “old west” feel of them when I step inside.image

My very first exposure to a Cracker Barrel was in Northern Kentucky. My grandfather who was the son of an active moonshiner from the sticks of coal country invited me as a very young boy to go shooting with the men in the family at his childhood home. His father at the time had long been dead, but as a boy he ran the hills from the law smuggling moonshine during prohibition. Their home was about the size of a modern bedroom and it was back in a valley about 30 miles northwest of Buckhorn Lake—a pretty remote location, especially when I was a kid. Back then there wasn’t much development between Lexington and Cincinnati, so if you didn’t gas up in Northern Kentucky, you might run out of fuel before Lexington. It was winter and I rode in the back of a pickup truck with some older cousins, some of whom were already men. I was by far the youngest. It was the day after Christmas and all the men were going shooting. It was my first time firing powerful weapons like a .38 special and a 30-30 rifle.

Cracker Barrel had one of their very first national stores in Northern Kentucky and it looked a lot like they do now. It was 6 AM, the sun wouldn’t be up for at least another hour and it was cold. We were all dressed in gun holsters, long hunting knives and day packs when we stepped inside to have some breakfast next to a roaring fireplace. It set in my mind for life a love for the place. It was the nearest thing I’d ever get to an authentic cowboy experience, wandering in off the open range, armed to the teeth to stop into a saloon/general store for some grub. It was a testosterone driven occurrence that shaped me for life. The waitress and manager could have turned us away at the door because we looked like we were there to rob a bank. I have worn a cowboy hat since I was in the fourth grade, so I had mine on feeling like a western drifter—and I loved the feeling as snow rushed in behind us as we stepped inside. They could have told us to leave the guns and packs in our car, but instead they asked if we wanted coffee next to a roaring fire. Years later when I saw the Clint Eastwood western The Unforgiven, the first saloon scene reminded me explicitly of that moment in my time—and it stayed with me forever. That was America. Cracker Barrel for me would always represent the best that America had to offer.

Most of the people on that shooting trip with me are dead now. Some died of old age, some from not meeting high expectations in life, some by personal destructive behavior. I could see much of it back then on that shooting trip. In the back of that truck where it was so cold ice formed on our noses, the older men passed around a whiskey flask. They offered it to me even though I was way too young to drink it. I turned it down. And if you traced their lives with mine and noticed how far apart they are now, you could trace it back to those types of decisions on a shooting trip on a cold December morning. They looked down at me a bit for not wanting to share the whisky, but my grandfather thought it took guts, which is all I really cared about. Once we started shooting, nobody thought anything about who drank what, or who said a curse word. Guns made all men equal and respect was derived by that realization. When I showed I could fire the 30-30 without being knocked down due to my small stature there was respect, and I would carry that lesson with me for life. The whole experience started with a Cracker Barrel.

My wife had never been to such a place as a Cracker Barrel before meeting me. But we went to one just north of Knoxville on our honeymoon as we traveled back from Gatlinburg. For her it summed up everything we had experienced on our first days together as a married couple and she fell in love with it for life. For years we would take our children there while vacationing and make a big deal about each visit, no matter where we were. One time we were on our way to a Star Wars convention in Indianapolis and my kids were dressed up as Jedi. We stopped at one about 45 minutes outside of Indianapolis. My kids had the experience I had as a young man, stepping in dressed as warriors. They had some unique looks, but everyone was friendly and it was a fun experience. They never forgot it. Then there was a time while traveling by motorcycle to a film festival in northern Ohio. My oldest daughter had never ridden a motorcycle before and this was her first experience—on a long road trip up north. Cracker Barrel just north of Columbus on an early summer morning in the middle of the week was an oasis of pleasure—a cozy place that always said “home” as you step into its doors.

One thing about Cracker Barrels is that they are almost always busy, especially in the noon time hours. People are often willing to wait for 30 minutes to get something they could get at McDonald’s in a fraction of the time. The reason is that most people have a special relationship to Cracker Barrel similar to mine. The restaurant chain has built their brand around American tradition for decades and people respect it enough to wait.   That was the situation my wife and I found ourselves in on a Sunday afternoon in late August, 2015, before we met on business with our whip making friend David Crain for a “special project.”

I have been thinking about guns a lot these days. The Obama administration has caused great unrest and unsettled the most rational by unleashing the insane, corrupt, and perpetually dependent to collect what the president promised during his campaigns, redistributed wealth in trade for a vote. And the results have been menacing. Police are being executed all around the country. Border violence is disturbingly common. And religious fanatics are going on holy wars against infidels with the apparent support of the American media. Long gone are the days of the Saturday morning westerns, and heroes of tradition. Those wonderful attributes are missing during our nightly news, but they are quite alive and flourishing at Cracker Barrel’s across the country, and that is what my wife and I were seeking.

As I waited for my breakfast I looked around the room at all the unique paraphernalia that they customarily have lining the walls. Most of it looked like the kind of items you might find at garage sales, but typically they speak of traditional American items, old Coke signs, early gas station markers, looms, spindles, scrubbing boards. However on this particular visit, I noted how many guns were displayed on the wall. Above my head was a Winchester lever-action and around the dining room where several musket style weapons from what looked like the pre-Civil War period. Then my attention was pulled toward an advertisement from perhaps the 50s from a drink called NEHI. It said, “What’s getting into kids these days.” Around the picture of a girl drinking what looked to be a healthy beverage alternative were kids playing. Of note was one kid dressed as a frontiersman another as a cowboy complete with a six-gun. Then another picture was of an Indian. It reminded me of the days when kids actually played cowboys and Indians and it wasn’t considered an act of insanity requiring counseling at school for wanting to play with weapons. I realized looking at that picture that the magic of Cracker Barrel was essentially represented in that picture. The family restaurant was a timeless portrayal of the type of America that many in the core of the country still love, and desire desperately to behold. That’s why many of the customers on a Sunday afternoon after church were willing to wait up to an hour to have some eggs and bacon—something they could easily get at home. But what they couldn’t get was the essence of Americana that Cracker Barrel truly is—and will always remain.

The meeting with the whip maker David Crain went well. He is very crafty and during our business dealing he showed me a little side project he was working on. He had been using his wood lathe to make some really marvelous wooden ink pens, the kind of items you might find at Kenwood Mall for $55. He sells them for $20 dollars, which I think is too cheap, but it’s his business. So I picked one up, since that kind of thing is sometimes important to me. If anybody else wants some, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with him. It’s a really good deal. Meeting with David reminds me of the kind of Americans we used to be. Behind his house David has a wood shop, and in it he makes lots of really neat crafts—the kind of things that will probably someday be on the wall of a Cracker Barrel. But with David, we are living tradition in the present, and that made that particular Sunday one that I will not long forget. It was a reminder of what we fight for and why. Much of it can be summed up in the advertisement by NEHL from a time long forgotten–except on the wall of a Cracker Barrel in Middletown, Ohio looming over eggs, bacon, and good memories.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Donald Trump from 1988: What he said then and what it means now

For those who think that Donald Trump is a policy swapping former Democrat, the below clip from 1988 is rather telling, and astonishing. Trump was critical of the Reagan administration because of its policy on exports—for not being conservative enough. This is Trump as a young man shortly after writing The Art of the Deal on the newly created Oprah Show extremely confident and riding on top of the world. What is even more astonishing is that Trump has stayed on top of the world really his whole life. Aside from a few marriages, he’s been remarkably successful for a long period of time without any kind of emotional meltdowns along the way and it’s due to his extraordinary confidence. This is the Donald Trump that I grew up with, and he is the reason I think he would be a great president. What’s really interesting is the very political answer he gave while talking about the field of candidates in the 1988 presidential election, from Bush to Jesse Jackson. I think many people hold his non-committal political positions against him because they don’t understand business. For successful people, one very key ingredient is that you have to know how to navigate around people who might get in your way. Trump showed that he was hedging his bets no matter who won the nomination because as a business man, he knew the consequences of a government aligned against him. And he wanted to continue to be successful. Watch for yourself.

Being in business is very dangerous. Politicians are always looking for a contribution and you have to be careful who you say no to. If you give to the wrong guy and the other person wins, that person might come after you legislatively. It happens all the time. Regulations are used to extort vast billions of dollars a year from business people. A lot of the reason that business people use the Chamber of Commerce and other community organizations to keep orthodox politicians in their seats of power is to protect their businesses from activist government regimes. Market fluctuations and political fall-out are two of the most troublesome elements for a business person’s career. Those who have not had to deal with a zoning board, they don’t understand how difficult political tides can work against you. In Donald Trump’s case, New York is notoriously progressive. It has been for years, so there has always been a lot of liberalism associated with those city government positions. If a rich businessman like Trump gives money to both parties, the zoning issues get resolved quickly. If he only gave to Democrats or Republicans then there would be trouble during subsequent administrations. That’s a ridiculous fact of life in the world of commerce.

Government should not have that kind of power over commerce. But it does and will for quite some time to come. It’s a game all business people have to play. If you don’t play it, you will lose your business. What’s remarkable with Trump is that he has survived for so long with so many parasitic politicians always looking to soak up every last dime that they could extract from him. People have to understand the nature of a politician, and for those who are not rich, or even wealthy and in business, they likely believe that politicians do good things on their behalf with each election. They don’t. All they want is to get elected. Their primary function is to raise money for more elections and they owe the people who give them money constant legislative favors. The vote occurs with donations, not the voting booth. Business people do not give money for any other reason but to protect themselves from intrusive government. Sometimes money is given for more government interference so to perhaps destroy a rival. But the money given is always about getting something. It’s not given for fun.

Trump in that 1988 clip understood this concept very well and he was commanding those around him with the leverage he created even back in the Reagan administration, which was comparatively very business friendly compared to what it is today. When Trump’s father warned him that the family business did not have what it took to make it in Manhattan, it wasn’t the business of real estate that he was talking about, it was about being an aggressive enough mover and shaker to survive that political environment. Jesus would not make a very good businessman. He was a good man, but sometimes when playing aggressive games, you have to be an aggressive person.   Trump is often criticized for his use of eminent domain occasionally as a fault—which it is. But it’s a tactic developers often use to get what they need done. I’ve been on both ends of that kind of dispute—and if you think you are right, you have to fight them—the developer. They respect when you fight them, because it either strengthens their position or it shows them the faults of their proposal. Ultimately, they are often grateful even though things do sometimes get violent.   I wouldn’t have done to the guy in Scotland what Trump did when a homeowner refused to move the junk off his property so that an exclusive golf course could be built with all the lush trimmings near it. But I’m not a billionaire like Trump is. One of the elements of the great book on strategy called The Art of War is that you must have the heart to take hearts. And if you are in business, you sometimes have to think like that. There are lots of times where I’ve had to run down nice people because they purposely put themselves in the way of something I need to accomplish. Is that right or wrong—well, the Pope might not like it, but capitalism says it’s morally correct. Jesus might turn the other cheek, but that’s not necessarily the right thing to do. Being successful is about more than money, it’s about having the heart to take hearts when such a thing is needed. The result of conquest often results in victory for all—because everyone gets better due to the competition.

Donald Trump represents a different kind of politician. I would vote for him just because he managed to build the Trump Tower in Manhattan where it overshadows Macy’s. The politics involved in that deal would have been enormously difficult. For Trump to purchase the air rights next to his proposed tower design was extremely creative. Without question Trump made decisions on where to purchase concrete from, what anchor stores would be inside the tower and how it would fit into New York politics based on his strategic intentions. He really is a master strategist, which is showing in the presidential race.

As a president, you really can’t afford to paint out half the country the way Obama has. Republicans have been happy to limit themselves to those limits much to their own detriment. Trump is uniquely positioned to recruit voters who might otherwise vote for Democrats as he has knowledge of the entertainment industry that is very unique for a presidential candidate. He may have shown various sides of himself over the years, but at his core, he is the person who appeared on Oprah in 1988 and knows how to get things done. He telegraphed it way back then, he said he’d run for president if he felt the country was too screwed up for anyone else to solve the problems. Well, that’s where we are, and he’s positioned to do the job—best positioned. The world is a mess and internal politics is a disaster. Nobody else has what it takes to get the job done. So why not? If Jesus Christ were running for president, I wouldn’t vote for him. We don’t need someone who will sacrifice themselves to the cross and turn the other cheek declaring love for all. We need someone who knows how to win, any way possible. And that’s what Trump is an expert at doing. That might sound harsh to people who don’t think about life in competitive terms, but for people who are used to winning, they understand what it takes, and how important victors are—even when others don’t see the value as quickly as they can.  Those people just enjoy the benefits of someone like Trump and his towers along with the wealth they build for the American economy.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

It Will Always Be Mt. McKinley: The hidden reason behind a mountain name change

Consider that I am from Ohio and that President Mckinley was from that state, I will always think of Mt. McKinley in Alaska as the name it was before Obama and his progressive activists sought to change it to Denali. I don’t really care that since 1975 radical tree hugging hippies and pot smoking losers wanted to rename the highest mountain peak in North America after some “Great One” known by “native” language. If Obama wants to get technical, the Indians of the pre-Columbian era were just as guilty of migration as the European settlers—as the original story of the “Native American” are still being pieced together. Likely it was primarily the Chinese who were the real “Native Americans.” That story does not match the premise of the modern progressive who wants to use Indians as a springboard against American colonialism—and indirectly—capitalism. Here’s how the story was reported by USA Today:

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s three-day trip to Alaska this week will literally change the map of the nation’s 49th state.

Mount McKinley — the 20,237-foot mountain and the tallest in North America — has been renamed Denali, as it was originally known by Alaska Natives before it was renamed to honor President William McKinley.

The mountain, which sits in the 6 million-acre Denali national park, has been known as Denali in Alaska since 1975. Under an order signed by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, the Denali name will also take effect for all federal usage and, therefore, on all official maps.

The order was signed Friday, but the White House asked that it be announced Monday as part of Obama’s trip to Alaska to highlight the effects of climate change in the Arctic. The White House said the name change “recognizes the sacred status of Denali to generations of Alaska Natives.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/30/obama-rename-nations-tallest-mountain/71426656/

Denali (/dɨˈnɑːli/), officially called Mount McKinley from 1917 until it was formally renamed in 2015, is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,237 feet (6,168 m) above sea level. At some 18,000 feet (5,500 m), the base-to-peak rise is considered the largest of any mountain situated entirely above sea level.[6] Measured by topographic prominence, it is the third most prominent peak after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_McKinley

I have been to the top of peaks a third of that. I understand the cold and loss of oxygen at those altitudes, but as a statement of natural achievement, I’m not that impressed. I could climb to the top of McKinley right now, in my current health without any conditioning, so I’m not impressed with it. Sure it’s pretty to look at, but I wouldn’t be crying to reach the summit like some climbers do. McKinley has been conquered many times, and it’s no longer a big deal. And from space, it doesn’t look like much. However, to a bunch of primitives wearing animal skins in the hard winter months, climbing to the top of Mount McKinley was an ominous task, not really feasible to them. So from their perspective, it was a “great one.” But to a culture that routinely sends satellites into earth orbit and has settlers on the International Space Station all days of the year looking down from space—and has airplanes that travel at twice that altitude on routine flights across the country, McKinley is no longer a “Great One.”

The reason for the name change now is to incite among the American people a love for nature and a reversion back from the gains made through capitalism back to the primitive focus of indigenous people who function best from tribes always in need of a leader. That is why progressives are trying so hard to make a religion out of the “green movement” and why they think of the Indian as something of our national sacred history.

In 1896, a gold prospector named the mountain McKinley as political support for then-presidential candidate William McKinley, who became president the following year. The United States formally recognized the name Mount McKinley after President Wilson signed the Mount McKinley National Park Act of February 26, 1917.[22] The Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain to Denali, which is how it is referred to locally. However, a 1975 request by the Alaska state legislature to the United States Board on Geographic Names to do the same was blocked by Ohio congressman Ralph Regula, whose district included McKinley’s hometown of Canton.[23]

To progressives like Obama, money and the creation of it is a bad thing. Money represents value and progressives hate value, or any identification of it. So of course Obama and his greenie weenies are against gold prospecting and everything that the Old West stood for regarding westward expansion. Alaska and the settling of it by the United States to him are all about oil and gold at the exploitation of Eskimos. But without the development of capitalism, Alaska today would be nearly as useless of a terrain as Siberia is right across the Bering Straight. Without gold prospecting or oil drilling Alaska would just be more earthly land not being applied to any productive task. To conservationists who are against human invention and development, that is a grand crusade worthy of sacrificing many to the gods of Mother Earth. But to capitalists who use free enterprise to improve the conditions of human existence, the gold from Alaska, and the wealth discovered through westward expansion set up the United States as an economic powerhouse throughout the world during the Twentieth Century. Of course Obama wants to erase that history—which he has been trying to undo through his economic policies, his EPA activism, and his desires to openly revert North America back to the times of the primitive.

Denali is the name of a primitive group of people who held the mountain in high regard due to their perspective victimization witnessed from their village huts. There’s nothing miraculous about pointing to a big rock on the horizon and declaring that it’s so large that man cannot climb it. But the wealth extracted from Alaska gold mining and oil drilling have created an economy that took mankind well off planet earth to look down on that small rock from space and point out Mount McKinley—a Republican that didn’t last long in office, but was reminiscent of a time when wealth was built and mankind stepped out of the shadows of their village huts. Mount McKinley isn’t a “great one.” It’s just a rock in the middle of Alaska, a state defined by its economic wealth and individualism. That extracted wealth is what sets Alaska apart from Siberia and makes all the difference between a great one and a mere rock on the horizon. And that’s what Obama and his gang of lost tribes are really desiring, a regression back to the time of the village living under the shadows of “Denali.” What they fail to understand is that mankind has overtaken the mountain and their limited perspective. And there is no going back now.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Becoming a Gunfighter: How Howard Darby is saving America

For many years I have worked nearly exclusively with bullwhips to be one of those few handfuls in the world who can be considered an expert. It has always been my thing and I will always enjoy it. However, much of that has been out of necessity. Even further back I was part of a martial art school that was a rather vicious enterprise. The owner was corrupt and he instructed his students to be bad people. He was essentially like the bad school owner in the film Karate Kid. He stole money, ran around with young women, and taught his students to be killers so he could win more trophies in tournaments—and thus, sell more classes for his enterprise. I never liked the guy, and he never liked me. One thing I learned from that experience was how to use nunchucks and other melee weapons. To this very day, there may be people out there as fast as me with nunchucks, but I haven’t met them. If I really get loosened up, I can swing them around the way Bruce Lee did in Fists of Fury.

Martial arts to me was always an oriental practice, and I was always distinctly American. I never wanted to be a samurai, a ninja, or a black belt martial artist. But I did want to be a gunfighter. But the problem was ammunition was expensive and I had no way to really practice it. But I was able to practice with a bullwhip and carry a lot of my melee martial arts training directly over into that western art to a point where I felt I could use it in any combat situation with great precision to the point of invincibility. For the last three decades that’s what I’ve done and it worked out well. I have lived in neighborhoods where practicing with firearms was just out of the question, but practicing with bullwhips was doable. So my love of western arts evolved along those lines.

But times change and always in the back of my mind was the desire to be a real gunslinger. I have done pretty much everything I ever wanted to do with bullwhips. There are several of us around the world who are very good with bullwhips and on a good day we can all beat each other at the various competitions, but you get to a certain point where you either level off, or you take another step. For me, that evolution will be toward a gunfighter.

I share obviously with Howard Darby a specific love of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. They are American martial art films that are significant, and they hold up to time quite effectively. It has not been lost to me that modern society has been distinctly anti-gun which is an insult to American culture, because guns are very much an important part of the United States. Criticizing guns is like insulting an oriental of the merits of martial arts. Don’t tell a Japanese person that their Samurai culture is stupid, because they will be insulted. So why is it that in the United States when someone of authority wants to criticize an action, they make derogatory references to the “Wild West.” The reason is that they want to change the United States into something else—so they attack the art forms that define it.

I’m at a point in my life where guns aren’t so expensive, and I can certainly afford the timing equipment, the holsters, and I have time to practice. Up until a few years ago I worked 16 to 18 hour days so I didn’t have time to pick up on a new skill. But now I do, and I can’t think of a better one for me than that of a gunfighter. I have spent considerable time defending traditional America. I have friends in high places and if I wanted to, I could immediately be a part of any political insider movement and work at a high-profile position. But I don’t want to. I’d rather be a gunfighter.

Each year as I’ve said I use the Annie Oakley event in Darke County, Ohio as a kind of reference point for re-centering my moral compass. At our annual dinner it has been increasingly apparent that the world is hungry for western arts, but people feel guilty for wanting it. In our group we haven’t done much with guns, really due to the stigma behind them—but since our Western Arts Showcase has moved from the fairgrounds to the York Woods area, the regulations have loosened up quite a lot leading me to consider livening things up a bit with actual gun fire. But it takes a lot of practice, and money to get even remotely close to where Howard Darby is. But like a lot of good people in the western arts professions, Darby is promoting his sport so that people like me will enter the field and push things forward. Just like in the whip world, there really aren’t that many people who still perform as gunfighters. It’s been a dying art form. Most who do are older people and that needs to change.

Meanwhile everyone wants to be a black belt in martial arts because there are fewer stigmas in the effort. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are common loves for young people whereas all the old cowboy heroes of days long gone are considered fringe worthy, and that is just appalling. I see Fast Draw as a sport that most adequately promotes the Second Amendment and that makes people like Howard Darby important ambassadors to Constitutional preservation—and I’d like to expand that considerably in the years to come. I think it’s about time that America stop apologizing for being so good, and that all things categorized as Western Arts lose the stigma given by progressive society as outdated, Indian hating, unintelligent, traditionalists. American westerns built our nation into something unique and are much more influential and powerful than martial arts—and I think it would be best if Fast Draw was as common in the future as fishing is today.

With the tools available today, there should be more people like Howard Darby. With Cabela’s superstores two or three hundred miles apart all over the nation, there are plenty of resources for modern shooters to enjoy. It’s not like it used to be, there are plenty of ways to get access to equipment and supplies. That’s another aspect to this desire to become a gunfighter that is so appealing to me now as opposed to several years ago. Back when I was doing some gunsmithing work and had a FFL, Brownells was about the only place you could get really good supplies for such a sport. But these days, Bass Pro and Cabela’s has most of what you need right off the shelf. And it’s a great excuse to shop at those places more often—which represents the best that America has to offer.

It is time to stop apologizing for the gun culture that we have in America. I have no desire to be more like Europe and I certainly don’t want to be more like the mystics of the orient. The American Gunfighter is an art that is rooted in capitalism and honor. It is unique to a free society. And its time that we defend it properly instead of relegating it to western events like the Annie Oakley Days in Greenville, Ohio once a year. I think its time to open things up a bit and let people know that practicing with guns isn’t a shameful experience. Its part of our heritage and that is something we should all cherish. Because it’s ours and nobody else’s.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Trump, Carson, and Cruz: The resurrection of a John Wayne America

Over the weekend Donald Trump gave speeches in South Carolina, Massachusetts and then to Nashville, all to big crowds. Out of all the nearly 20 presidential candidates from both sides of the political spectrum, nobody came close to out working Trump. Additionally the billionaire from New York gave a wonderful interview to Sarah Palin and announced that he was going to team up with two other presidential candidates, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz for a major policy protest regarding the Iranian deal recently signed by the president. Trump indulged many of the topics I would typically cover here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom leaving me for the first time in years time to begin working on a new hobby of mine, Western Fast Draw. The guy in the videos below is Howard Darby, and he has worked really hard to become as proficient as he is. I spent some time during this year’s Annie Oakley events in Greeneville, Ohio watching the guys at the Ohio Fast Draw Association International compete between my own bullwhip events. And I decided this year that I’d start developing that new skill for my own pleasure. It will take a while to get to the level of Darby but it sure will be fun practicing. And I’m thankful to Trump for doing what he’s doing, because for the first time in about 15 years, I actually think there is someone better positioned than me to bring up all these topics—which gives me time to do other things. Here are some video clips of Darby. I love this guy.  

Under a Trump presidency I can actually see a day where John Wayne will be more celebrated as an American icon once again than Lady GaGa. The slow decline that we are seeing from the music industry by artists like Miley Cyrus may very well turn around into something much more positive because Trump as divisive as the media accuses him of being is bringing people out of every known crack to capture their interest in this upcoming election. If Trump sticks with it he may very well eliminate the entire field of Republican candidates and I really don’t think there is a Democrat who can run against him on the horizon—unless a liberal celebrity steps forward. The political hacks that have been in the system for such a long time just don’t have the work ethic, the strategic implementation, the nimbleness, or funding to do what Trump is doing.

Trump’s open embrace of Ben Carson and Ted Cruz is really a brilliant move. Those two guys would never have a chance at breaking through the establishment barriers without Trump plowing the way. For all the Ted Cruz supporters, without Trump there is no where for the Texas senator to go for support. The media will not give him a seat at the table of political discourse because he’s too smart, too holier than thou, and certainly not part of the Beltway culture. Cruz is clearly a Tea Party politician and everyone hates him for it. Trump smartly is setting not only a stage for the 2016 elections, but the 2024 field. These are young men relatively speaking, and in Trump’s wake, they are succeeding where they wouldn’t otherwise. It’s a classic game of good cop bad cop, and Trump clearly knows what he’s doing and what his role in it is.

A lot of people forget that Trump is a Tea Party guy. He has been for a long time. For a celebrity he’s the only one that I remember—besides myself and a handful of others, who refused to concede that there was something really wrong with the president’s birth certificate. Everyone ran away from the media designation of Obama “birthers” except for Trump. Back in 2011 and 2012 Donald Trump attended Tea Party events and flirted with a presidential run back then. If not for Trump, Obama would have never released his birth certificate even though Sheriff Arpaio put together a team which showed the document to be a fake—generated by modern computers because of the layered software that was not available in the 1960s, when the president was actually born. Arpaio is one of those John Wayne traditionalists who made America what it is today, but at over 83, as of this writing, there aren’t many behind him to take the baton. That is something I am always personally concerned about. Each time someone tries to emerge, the media class clearly following the strategies of The Naked Communist shut down proper coverage of such good people leaving us a field of candidates to choose from who are just terrible.

Remarkably in Nashville, Trump went out of his way to promote the Tea Party as a political movement. Of course this stunned the political establishment who has been trying to shut down the movement for years. I have seen this first hand in my own community. Political insiders from the Republican party infiltrated the Tea Party and slowly took the edge off until that silent majority became frustrated and went back to sleep. I still do what I do, but the meeting places slid away into oblivion, and many of the original Tea Party members stop going to meetings and turned back to God on Sunday for some sign of improvement. Meanwhile progressive society marched on unmolested showing itself to be seemingly unstoppable.

Of course I am used to being in the extreme minority through my support of western arts. My decision to start learning fast draw after thirty years of whip work essentially came from the fact that I am now a grandfather and I see the hungry light from behind the eyes of those young children and it reminds me of the old-fashioned America that I love so much—which Donald Trump is dusting off—an America that is good for all races and nationalities. One that black Americans can get excited about and cause Frederick Douglas Republicans to emerge once again. Many blacks do not know these days that the baseball great Jackie Robinson was a Republican as was Martin Luther King. Robinson actually endorsed Richard Nixon for president over John F. Kennedy. Today it is assumed that a person with dark skin will automatically vote for a Democrat leaving Republican politicians looking to join the socialist’s efforts of the Democratic party by throwing benefits to minorities to win their votes. Nothing could be further from the truth. People of all walks of life want to respect themselves in a way that traditional America established. They want self-reliance; they’d rather have a job than to suck off welfare, unless they are essentially lazy people. But most people aren’t. They want government off their back and they want to keep what they work for. Those are essentially Tea Party values which central committee political hacks sought so aggressively to shut down.

When I was in charge of getting signatures for a right-to-work movement in Ohio, which Governor Kasich was against in 2012 it stunned me how many Tea Party leaders locally followed the mantra precisely to Kasich’s political desires. Kasich ran as a Tea Party governor to get the votes and after a major defeat from the public sector unions, he decided that he didn’t want to take on the unions, and had lost his will to fight. It was then that Patti Alderson, the local socialite put me on her radar list and came after me personally—which was a huge mistake. As a Wild West supporter I’m used to being the only one in the room doing what I do, so I didn’t care when Patti’s people stopped sending me emails. I get an average of 150 emails a day now, back then it was nearly 400 and I didn’t have time to read them all. I still don’t, but I did notice the attempt to paint me off the stage. It wasn’t just me, it was everyone associated with Tea Party activity as the Republican Party hell or high water was going to unite the party back to the values of progressives. But Trump is ruining those plans and I’m very happy about it.

For the first time I can actually see a day that America might be proud of itself once again. During this fight even Glenn Beck lost the will to keep swinging leaving much of his audience left to a three-hour daily radio show that sounds more like church than a Tea Party meeting. But some of us love fighting. I do, the more people against me, the more fun I have because it gives me more people to fight. And Trump is certainly that kind of person. Beck obviously isn’t. He wants to be the next Martin Luther King or Gandhi. I just want to be a gun fighter out of a spaghetti western. Beck is happy if people show up and pray with him at some public event. I am happy to see that the modern Star Wars movies are putting a modern spin on the classic Spaghetti Western. But because of Donald Trump, I can actually start thinking of the things I want to do, because what he’s doing every day is what I have been committed to on a smaller scale for a long time, and its nice to see someone more positioned for effectiveness doing the good work of decimating the old political order that never was for representing the old John Wayne America. But for me, that is the only kind of America—a time where westerns were the key inspiration for young kids, black leaders were Republicans, and families stayed together and had money in their bank accounts. Donald Trump looks to be committed to not only bringing that America back to life, but he’s setting the political stage for the next two decades and he really doesn’t have any competition. And that allows people like me to do the kinds of things I really enjoy, which is a very good thing.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Trump, Trump, and More TRUMP: The strategic importance of moral capital

The only person I have met who works as hard if not harder than myself, and is doing precisely what I said over four years ago that Republicans should do to re-capture the hearts of America, is Donald Trump which is why these days I write about him it seems every day. He is a relief to me to see someone take the national stage and say the kinds of things I have written about with millions and millions of words. Trump is taking things to a completely new political level. I have watched really smart people over the last five years get eaten completely by the political machines, and watched really stupid people declare that the status quo would once again rule the day. That is until June of 2015 when Donald Trump announced he was running for president. And over the last couple of months before Labor Day even arrived, Trump had molded himself into a really good political candidate. Watch his South Carolina speech from the last week of August.

We are watching history being made and things are being said that until Trump were only said as boisterously here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. Trump’s never back down approach is so refreshing. And nearly every day he has found a way to make news. I know how difficult it is because I have been asked often how I found enough topics to write about every day—and how I can write so much. Trump is going to the next level, every day he finds some injustice to challenge and he seamlessly weaves it into his speeches with no Teleprompters, political handlers, or caution of any kind. His platform is undeniably conservative, strong borders, pro second amendment, pro business, pro military, against Common Core, etc,. but unlike other candidates, he actually gives the impression that he can do something about any of those topics. He’s a doer, not just a talker, and that is the reason for his dominance in the political arena.

Until Trump, I was one of the few people who called people like Anthony Weiner names like “sleazebag” and “perv” based on his behavior. A lot of people thought about it, or danced around the subject jokingly, but only a person who does not live in a glass house can afford to throw rocks, so most people don’t. After all, as the Ashley Madison incident recently exposed, there are millions of men looking to cheat on their wives discreetly and only a few women, who were likely professional prostitutes. So a lot of people were shamed into stepping off any high horse that they may have fantasized of having to formulate an opinion, and they let Anthony Weiner off the hook. Trump being a man free of drugs, alcohol, or financial concern can rampage through a jungle of political hacks because he knows that he can throw rocks and nobody can toss them back because as public as he is, he does not live in a glass house. He can afford to be holier than thou, which is exactly what I have always said is the type of person who should be president.

Even I was a little surprised that Trump went after Huma Abedin, who is married to Anthony Weiner in a speech in Massachusetts. Abedin as it turns out is part of the Hillary Clinton email scandal so it was a topic that Trump had a right to expose—and he did it in a grand fashion that sounded just like something I’d write. And there it was on the front page of USA Today stated in a way that sounded like one of my articles. It was very refreshing because Trump continues to show that he isn’t afraid of any demons from his past coming out to expose him as a hypocrite, which is why he can call out so much bad behavior.

What a lot of people don’t understand about moral capital is that there is a good tactical reason not to get drunk or show other people in friendly settings your weaknesses. It came up with me while talking to a friend recently why I know so many people yet don’t maintain very many close personal relationships. The reason is that I don’t want to get too close. You don’t want to hesitate if you have to go after someone aggressively. You don’t want to not do something that’s right because you shared a sin with them at some point in the past. Getting drunk with someone or worse yet, getting stoned, dancing, and extrapolating sexual impositions all might make you hesitate later when you discover that you have to go after someone’s jugular for the sake of doing the right thing. I don’t have that burden, I don’t do bad things, I don’t open myself to weakness and share them with others so to make them not feel so bad about themselves. I often purposely use a ‘holier than thou’ moral position to get what I want from people who do live in glass houses and it gives perpetual leverage for attack if there comes a time where such things are needed. I always liked Donald Trump but I assumed that he lived a life where occasional drunkenness was shared with others and that he had a bit of a playboy lifestyle. As it turns out, he didn’t, and doesn’t. He’s just an overachiever who never has a motor that turns off, which I can relate to. But it also makes him free to go after true evils and to extrapolate from those perpetrators what he needs.

What Trump said about Anthony Weiner’s marriage to Huma Abedin has the Beltway terrified because it’s the first hint they have had at what a Trump in the White House would be like. If Trump wants a bill passed he’ll know who slept with whose wife, who solicited a prostitute on the previous Friday, who in congress is attending swinger parties, and who woke up on a Sunday morning in a park without their pants—and he’ll use that leverage to garner cooperation. He can, because he will make sure he always has the high moral ground over his rivals, and that makes him a very dangerous potential president. At the heart of inaction between Barack Obama and John Boehner is that they both love cigarettes—so they share that little sin together for the detriment of our country. As soon as Boehner won the speaker’s seat, Obama exposed that shared sin to his advantage and it has persisted to this day. Boehner lost his leverage on Capital Hill before he ever got started with the public knowledge of just a few sins that people want to keep buried in a closet.

Jessica Estepa who wrote the USA Today article about Trump and Weiner during the lonely hours of early August 29, 2015 was noticeably distraught by exposing Abedin in the way that the presidential candidate had in Massachusetts. After all, how many women in the world were just like Abedin, who were in bad marriages where their husbands were perpetual horn dogs cheating on them like there is no tomorrow. But they are too insecure with themselves to leave such bad men for better opportunities. So they take progressive political positions to justify their weaknesses. They might even walk on the wild side every now and then like getting drunk at a club and gang molested by strange people captured on hundreds of cell phones for all time to remember. They might cozy up with a lesbian politician who wants to be president herself and find solace as an abused woman with an older woman who has an equally slimy husband. Trump knows that secrets were shared, because that’s what people do, and he is using the situation to create leverage. That’s what you want out of a president. In a world of sin, which the Beltway is full of; put a man in the White House who refuses to commit sin so that he can maintain leverage over them for the good of strategic positioning and wonderful things can happen.

Trump’s candidacy is a dream come true for me for all those reasons and more. I can forgive issues from his past where he politically wavered just because I understand the importance of leverage in a society of evil and how valuable it is to club opponents over the head with their own misconduct to achieve strategic necessities. I don’t go “out with the guys” ever, for any reason. I go home to my wife every day and live my life cleanly on my terms.   I don’t share friendships with people for the benefit of the mutual keeping of secrets. And other than myself, I have never seen anyone similar such as Trump, let alone able to conduct himself on such a large national stage. I simply love it, because I know how powerful of a tool that behavior can be, and he will be able to use it, and appears extremely ready to perform the task in a way that has never been done before by anybody in a high office—in history. So I become more excited about a possible Trump presidency day by day—a run that will expose the buried bodies and illicit acts of corrupt politics for the betterment of our nation. And that is truly something to get excited about.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

A Gay, Black, Progressive Murderer: Where the blame for violence really belongs

So a gay, black man, built intellectually by a progressive society to believe he had been victimized—and oppressed by the dialogue of the day, committed an ultimately heinous crime. This is how MSN reported the incident which occurred during the day on 8/26 2015.

MONETA, Va. — The fatal shooting of a reporter and cameraman unfolded on live TV during the early morning show, as tens of thousands of viewers watched a horrified anchor struggle to comprehend what had happened.

Within hours, the carefully scripted carnage carried out by a disgruntled former colleague spread to millions of viewers gripped by what had transformed into a social media storm. The governor initially described a car chase on his weekly radio show, with police on the shooter’s tail on an interstate highway.

Then, social media posts referencing the slain TV pair surfaced on an account under an on-air pseudonym used by the gunman — culminating with a first-person video of the ambush filmed by the shooter.

The 56-second clip shows Vester Lee Flanagan II quietly approach WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, gun in hand, as they conduct an interview. But Ward’s camera was aimed at the mini-golf course nearby instead of the reporter. So the shooter waited, cursing Parker under his breath, for 20 seconds until the live television picture was back on the reporter. Then he fired eight shots without saying a word.

The attack seemed carefully planned. Flanagan was captured in a rental car he reserved at some point before the shootings; his own Mustang was found abandoned at the local airport, Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said. The interview was done at a shopping center not yet open for the day at a remote lake in Moneta, some 25 miles away from WDBJ’s studios in Roanoke. The station promoted where the reporter would be, including a plug on Twitter just a half hour before the shooting.

http://www.msn.com/?cobrand=lenovo13-comm.msn.com&ocid=LENDHP&pc=MALCJS

The shooting was an act of pure hatred and took viewers on a journey they were not quite ready for. It’s not often such evil is so obvious, and immediate. Flanagan had been told that the world would give him special privileges because of his skin color, and his sexual preference and at mid-life he finally discovered that people didn’t like him because he was just an asshole. It had nothing to do with who his parents were or where he likes to park his phallic intentions. He was a difficult personality who used race and sexuality to justify his vile hatred—and society allowed him to hide that anger behind a mask of progressivism. Society allowed him to not be accountable as an individual giving him a collective focus on social victimization, instead of forcing him to look at himself as a way to be better as a human being.

Immediately after the attack progressives of all shapes and sizes immediately called for more gun control with the same lunacy that they declare that black lives matter while also supporting Planned Parenthood abortions. The same society that would think it was marvelous to discover a single strain of bacteria on Mars as evidence of life, is the same that looks at the selling of aborted fetuses to research companies as hacked up body parts and declares that life begins at birth. Progressives just can’t take responsibility for anything. They created the murderer Vester Lee Flanagan II through policy and the first thing they want to legislate regarding his behavior is guns. What a shameful misdirection of responsibility.

Guns were illegal in France but that didn’t stop a radical Muslim extremist from trying to take over a train in Belgium all in the name of Allah. The only thing that stopped him was four brave passengers who overtook the threat with good ol’ fashioned bravado, something that isn’t being taught anymore to young people. France had already taken the steps of making guns illegal. All of Europe in fact is pretty much gun free where even the mere mention of a firearm is taboo, like saying a curse word in church. It’s just not something they do in progressive riddled Europe, yet a gunman still had a gun and was on a train ready to take lives until the unexpected happened. Four heroes stopped him with personal initiative.

Alison Parker’s father shouldn’t have been on camera talking so soon after his little girl had been shot dead by a cold-blooded killer. He shouldn’t have been talking to the governor, or the press. Yet he did, he was on with Megan Kelly that very night on Fox News speaking about more gun control! Amazing. I felt sorry for him, but then wondered how he was even able to talk about his daughter on such a public stage after such a grotesque murder. It was reckless to put him on the air—anywhere—and even worse for him to speak from a grieving heart. Yet the progressives were happy to use him to advance their gun grabbing agenda—immediately.

But the gun argument is just a diversion from the real problem—and that is the type of utopian society progressives have tried to build. Their values, such as the White House’s hiring of the first transgender employee, or the media obsession with Bruce Jenner’s freakish foray into womanhood—progressives advocate freakish behavior then wonder why the product of their philosophy explodes under the pressure of reality—which flies in the face of their decisions most of the time. One fine example is the progressive support of radical Islam while those same lunatics routinely abuse women and kill gays—just because they believe a book of religion told them they could commit those crimes. Progressives support evil in every form then feel they can preach to the rest of us how we should live and think. Embarrassingly, we are supposed to believe from them that gun control would help in some way when it clearly hasn’t worked in Chicago, or France. Bad guys still kill people. The only difference is that they knew that nobody would shoot back.

Vester Lee Flanagan II cursed Alison Parker’s name under his breath just moments before the shooting, it is a good bet he didn’t think any of the three people standing at the interview scene would have a gun to return fire. So his plan could be hatched without being foiled—much to his liking. In all reality, all three people should have been armed and ready to shoot back the instant there was an indication of violence. People in the vicinity should have also been armed. When they heard shots, they should have been ready to discover the trouble and had the weapons to put an end to it. But Vester was allowed to believe through his homosexual temperament and race baiting past that he’d be able to commit evil without ramification—so violence occurred on live television shocking the world—and the fault rests completely on progressive society.

The reason that progressives blame the gun is because the gun doesn’t look back at them in the mirror each day. It’s much harder to look at the real problem, and for progressives, it’s the society they have built for themselves. When they realize they can’t have the world they imagined they have nowhere to turn. Most of them turn toward drugs and alcohol hoping to numb the reality. But in extreme cases, such as with Vester Lee Flanagan II they intend to hurt those who won’t allow them to be parasitic victims of vile filth and debauchery. That’s when they lash out. And by that measure if insanity is a measurable criteria for Second Amendment participation, then gun control of the type Alison Parker’s father is proposing should be established based on whether or not a person is gay or a Democrat—and if they happen to be both, they should be on a watch list for the safety of us all. That is how you get to the heart of the problem.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Wear the Best Sunglasses in the World: The official sunglasses of Rich Hoffman

img_6972When I’m out in public I get two primary comments. People want to know where they can get a hat like mine, the Australian oil skin hat I wear so much. But even more than that hat they ask me about my sunglasses—my Classic style Gargoyles sunglasses, the type I have worn now for nearly thirty years. I have always been a Gargoyles sunglass wearer, exclusively for all three of those decades. I won’t wear anything else. I’ve tried $400 Oakley sunglasses and other variations of Ray Ban, but for my lifestyle only Gargoyles are up to my standards, which are high. I am the type of person who always wears sunglasses if the sun is shining. I wear sunglasses just to go outside and get the mail because I love my eyes—the Gargoyles sunglasses offer an ultraviolet light protection on their lenses that keep that damaging byproduct of the sun from burning out your retinas and I take it very seriously. I have maintained 20/10 vision for my whole life up to this point, and I take care of my eyes with added protection. However, I have a very rough lifestyle that is very dangerous to eyes. I ride motorcycles, spend a lot of time outside, I shoot guns, crack whips and have lots of activity around dangerous projectiles. I want sunglasses that protect my eyes from everything, but I don’t want my vision obstructed. So what other pair of sunglasses could I have that look just as good with a suit, or a cowboy hat? The only answer is Gargoyles Classics. The trouble is, they have been discontinued by the Gargoyles Company for several years only coming back occasionally as a kind of retro offering. Well, this happens to be one of those times. They are now being offered once again by the Gargoyles Company. The specific technical specs and link address can be seen below.

The iconic rimless style incorporates tradition and cutting edge innovation. Make no mistake, Classic’s are back. Light weight but robust, Classic offers outstanding ANSI Z87.1+ level protection with anti-reflective and oleo-phobic treatment to repel water and resist smudging to make cleaning easier. Additionally, Classic’s famous toric shield lenses provide the user with a fully unobstructed vertical viewing pane. All Gargoyles lenses are ballistic-rated – meeting or exceeding ANSI Z871.1+ impact standards. For more information on ANSI Z87.1+ or Protection+, click here. (Available in both tactical ratings)

Sunglasses have a job to do and blocking the sun is only the beginning. Gargoyles sunglasses don’t just shield your eyes. They provide sharp contrasts and accurate depth perception, so you can see what you’re supposed to see and your day can continue without interruption. Every detail of Gargoyles lens design and execution is geared toward improved optics and better vision.

A good lens isn’t just made – it’s crafted. At Gargoyles, the Z87.1+-rated lenses are made of ballistic-designed, high-index polycarbonate for incredible strength without added weight. From there, they’re optimized and treated to reduce glare while enhancing protection. The result is a lens of unparalleled quality and durability.

No matter how good they look, sunglasses aren’t worth much if they can’t protect your eyes. All Gargoyles lenses meet or exceed US and ANSI regulations and standards for UVA, UVB and UVC protection and the Z87.1+-rated products’ impact resistance is ballistic tested. They’re designed to provide optimal coverage and block ancillary light. With Gargoyles, your eyes aren’t just protected – they’re shielded.

Gargoyles provides protection from both the sun and unexpected projectiles. U.S. soldiers put themselves in harm’s way every day, and the equipment they wear must provide them as much protection as possible. When the U.S. Army needed a higher level of protection from their sunglasses, it sought out experts in the field of optics. ANSI created new high-mass and high-velocity impact standards based on this new market need and on the necessity of having regulation and consistent quality. The US sunglass industry uses the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as the governing body and rating system for sunglasses.

All Gargoyles Z87.1+-rated sunglasses meet or exceed high mass and high velocity impact standards as specified by ANSI and described below:

Wearers must be able to see 20 lines of resolution clearly from 20 feet away, and pinpoint a vertical/horizontal prism from 35 feet away.

WHY THIS MATTERS  The act of covering the eyes necessarily leads to a loss in visual clarity; the only question is how severely vision will be compromised. By meeting this ANSI spec, the impact of Gargoyles sunglasses on the user’s vision is negligible.

The lens and the frame of the sunglasses need to have the same size and protection DNA, with each lens individually cut for the frame in which it is housed.

WHY THIS MATTERS  If the lenses of a pair of sunglasses aren’t balanced and measured properly, it could lead to reflection and distortion. By meeting this standard, Gargoyles sunglasses provide the wearer clear, precise visual optics while reducing or eliminating the glare depending on the lens you choose.

The lens must be able to withstand a 1.1 pound mass dropped from 50 inches, as well as a quarter-inch projectile shot at 150 feet per second from ten yards away, without breaking, cracking, coming out of the frame, or in any way touching the eye or the surrounding tissue.

WHY THIS MATTERS  From gravel to shrapnel, anything that reaches the eye could be catastrophic. By meeting this ANSI specification, Gargoyles sunglasses are guaranteed to keep the wearer’s eyes safe from any projectile that might otherwise cause significant damage.

http://gargoyleseyewear.com/4fa28358d6984d0e551420103831bd58

I was riding a bicycle just this morning and I cut through a marshy lowland area that was full of mud. I managed to get through alright but on my way out of the pit was gravel. Once I got back out on the open road that gravel started flying off my knobby tires, some of which flew up and hit me in the face. Because of my Gargoyles sunglasses I did not have to worry about that gravel finding its way into my eyes—and I was able to press on. About six weeks ago I was in a major motorcycle accident. Certainly nothing I did, but things happen and my motorcycle sustained over $10,000 worth of damage. I was wearing a suit at the time that ended up covered in blood, I had torn cloths, broken bones in my wrist and ankle, but guess what didn’t get hurt as shattered glass pelted my face…….my eyes. No I wasn’t wearing a helmet—it was a nice day. Just my Gargoyles sunglasses. Occasionally when riding motorcycles down the highway behind large trucks from construction sites, rocks fly off their tires. I never worry about that debris hitting me in the face. I can take the pain if it hits me in the forehead or someplace else, but I have to be able to see through an impact—and my Gargoyles always provide more than adequate shielding.

When shooting guns, it happens often where projectiles from target impact sometimes fly back and hit the shooter. Just a few months ago while shooting my new .500 Magnum from Smith & Wesson the unthinkable happened. Given our position from a top down position, my family was shooting in a way to see if we could split a large river rock in half. Now that’s not a recommended shooting procedure, but I wanted to conduct a test to measure just how powerful a .400 grain bullet was traveling at such a high velocity backed by such extraordinary muzzle energy. You don’t get a good indication of what that is by shooting at paper targets. You need to see the bullet interact with something ominously stable. In this case it was a very large sedimentary rock pulled out of the river that was very thick. Because I was wearing my Gargoyles I stood about thirty yards from the target confident that there wasn’t any danger. The .500 Magnum punched the rock in two, which surprised me. A moment later debris rained back at us. I didn’t think much of it as I thought it was pieces of rock. But my daughter grabbed her forehead and blood was running down her face. Checking her out, a piece of the .500 Magnum bullet had bounced back and embedded itself about three inches above her eyes. She was not wearing Gargoyles—but sunglasses typical of the type you find in convenient stores. I sometimes assume that everyone is as protected as I am, and took a deep breath as we pulled the shrapnel out of her head. She was fine, but it was proof that anything can and does happen when dealing with dangerous things. Life is meant to be lived, but it’s important to take as much opportunity to give your body parts the tools to protect itself the best you can.

Some might argue that a helmet is the best way to ride a motorcycle, but they essentially encumber your senses entirely too much. Gargoyles offer protection without encumbering anything. They are so comfortable to wear that you forget they are on, but they also provide a complete line of sight in all directions. They are unique to say the least. After three decades my Gargoyles sunglasses are as much a part of me as my legs and arms. They are an inseparable part of my attire under all circumstances. So for those who have always wanted a pair, they are now available once again. They can be obtained for around a $100 so they aren’t outrageously expensive. But they feel like a million bucks, and will give you years of loyal use. Gargoyles are by far my favorite sunglasses, not just because they are reasonably priced for the quality they provide, but because they have proven to me over time to be a superior product. I never leave my home without them, and the sun rarely shines on my face without Gargoyles providing some level of protection. They are the ultimate sunglasses for an active person under any circumstance. And now they are available once again.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Why the Trump Bankruptcies Would Make him a Better President: The billionaires behind the federal government

One of the most common rebukes to the Trump potential presidency is that his companies have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy several times, the Atlantic City Taj Mahal 1991, the Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and casino Resorts in 2004, and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009.  The cause of those bankruptcies was due to over-leveraged assets which can happen when financing speculative endeavors, and on those he came up short.  Casinos are dangerous endeavors, because they are essentially parasitic business practices that rely on strong economies to consume expendable income.  If a society does not have expendable income, it won’t spend money on casinos—which has led to trouble in places like Atlantic City.   However, what I find very interesting about Trump is that he has still managed to build up a personal wealth of billions of dollars in a very traditional way which makes him for me even more of an Ayn Rand hero presidential candidate than virtually any other possible billionaire who could run for president.  To see to what extent he is qualified watch this interview with Judge Jeanine from Fox News.

For me the fact that Trump is a billionaire who is willing to identify with Tea Party politics makes him gold in my book.  He’s willing to put himself out there to break down a bad political system.  Because the real fight is not on Capitol Hill, or even American politics, it’s in the billionaires who work behind the scenes to advocate progressive endeavors that politicians are expected to dance to.  Nothing will change so long as George Soros is pouring his money into left leaning causes, or Bill Gates is trying to advance common core.  Gates has a net worth of $67 billion dollars.  Michael Bloomberg who is a bleeding heart leftist has $27 billion.  Mark Zuckerberg is worth $13.5 billion and is the golden boy for the millennials, and these are all people who are politically active.  Rupert Murdoch is worth $11.2 billion.  Charles Koch is worth $34 billion and his brother David is worth an equal amount—personally.  These are the people who are shaping American politics from the political right and left.  Trump during his recent speeches has stated that Carl Icahn wants to work in his presidential administration—Carl is worth $20 billion dollars.  In comparison, Donald Trump doesn’t even make the top 100.  But he is willing to stick it to the entire system, fund his own campaign free of all their input and turn the entire system completely on its head.  That is something I can get behind in a big way. It’s a unique once and a lifetime opportunity that may not come again.  Billionaires like to stay in the shadows.  They don’t do what Trump is doing, and this is a key strategic opportunity to advance our political system beyond the control of the two-party system in a way that Trump is leveraged to do.

Most of the billionaires listed have managed to get their wealth through stock investments—such as Gates, Soros and Zuckerberg.  If Trump had done what they had, he might be far wealthier than they have become, because the wealth is created by anticipated value of their products as opposed to a tangible asset.  Trump is an old-fashioned guy—he has largely stayed out of stocks and has built his wealth nearly entirely on actual assets, such as golf course, real-estate developments, beauty pageants, entertainment media, etc.  Trump actually owns things, and he has done it in a sole proprietor way as opposed to diversified investments managed from afar.  Trump has remained throughout his career remarkably hands on and to this day has respectable access to liquid cash and very little personal debt.  The Trump brand is actually worth more than his personal assets ranging around $3 billion dollars.  In a brilliant move by Trump and his organization he looks to be aiming to accomplish two things, increasing his personal brand as President of the United States—which will likely triple, perhaps quadruple that brand value, and he will be able to as an insider increase market forces which will increase his holdings with a healthy economy.  As president, Trump could exceed his personal wealth well beyond that of Bill Gates, which is likely the real motivation for his presidential run.  How better to leave his kids with a great company?  But that’s not a bad or selfish thing.  For Trump, he has remained extremely traditional as an investor which has left him vulnerable to market fluctuations, such as what he saw in the early 1990s, and again in 2008.  With the national debt at nearly $19 trillion Trump has the most to lose in a collapsed economy which is inevitable under the current market trajectory.  So for a healthy “A-type” personality, there is no better way to kill two birds with one stone than to do the job yourself.  And I believe that is what Trump is doing.

Then there are the other motivations.  A good negotiator will align their needs with those they are dealing with.  Trump may be the only person available who can fight against these billionaire investments while increasing his own wealth and still helping America find its way again.  I believe those intentions are 100% real and there is nothing wrong with trying to do all those things at the same time. If Trump wasn’t in the game than what would be the option?  A government ran by billionaire leftists, or a government-run by billionaire conservatives.  Both have shown that they aren’t completely authentic in their adherence to the American Constitution and are philosophically weak to the founding ideals of the United States.  Trump made a choice to maintain his personal integrity in spite of the risks associated so that he could own his assets personally—without the usual protections of being able to sell off anticipated value quickly on the stock exchange.  Physical property is much less liquid but Trump made a choice to deal with that in exchange for personal ownership because of ideological commitments that could easily translate to the core problem within the United States—the national debt.

The next president of the United States will have to tackle that $19 trillion-dollar debt, the bankruptcies of the Medicare system, Social Security and the tragic implication of Obamacare starting in 2016.  Much of that debt is in perceived value—anticipated liabilities based against devalued currencies and projected forecasts.  Strategically, Donald Trump is tackling the brand of America and trying to increase its perception globally, by declaring that we need to limit immigration, so to make American citizenship perpetually of an increased value  Once that is accepted, he will gain bargaining leverage with other countries as a president that will make them pay for tariffs that they wouldn’t accept under an open border policy, which is right now most advocated by George Soros—the billionaire most aggressive in advocating for the progressive destruction of America so that he can capitalize off the hedge funds generated off that destruction.  There isn’t another American presidential candidate except for Trump who can actually increase the value of the United States brand to off-set the penalties that will incur if the national debt climbs up over $20 trillion.  At that point bankruptcy is the only way out, and that would cause America to lose its sovereignty to other nations.

From what I see, Donald Trump is all in, his investments are real and his risk is high.  Unlike his fellow billionaires he can’t just have a massive sell-off.  He is taking a gamble as we speak; his companies are buying low hoping for a market turn-around.  Trump, being a patriot at heart—if you don’t believe it, read his books, has jumped all in with no turning back. There won’t be any bankruptcy to save his companies from complete collapse this time.  He’s doing the only thing he could do, he’s stepping down from the billionaire Mount Olympus to fix the situation himself.  His ego wants to be the richest man in America so he doesn’t have any issues with attacking his rival billionaires by out-maneuvering them.  But he wants to save his companies from an economic collapse so that his children will have something left when he’s no longer around.  And to do that he has to save America from that collapse—and the only way he can do that is by becoming president.  There isn’t anybody else who is in his position who can do it—because it is fellow billionaires who are actually running the government anyway.  Donald Trump is a traditional guy who believes in personal ownership almost to a fault, he is chained to the destruction of America with the rest of us.  But unlike the rest of us, Trump is a billionaire who can actually make a difference, and he’s all in to do it.  He’s come too far to turn back and he’s going to need our help.  I think he shares with us the knowledge that 2016 is a do or die moment.  He can either take the party system out of the hands of the billionaires from both the right and left for the good of the country.  Or we lose our country, he loses his wealthy status, and we all go down the drain together.  Donald Trump has a lot more in common with most of us than anybody has yet given him credit for.  And it really comes down to his personal belief in ownership—which he likely inherited from his father and older brother.  Thus he is now taking the biggest gamble of his life.  For the benefit of us all, I hope and trust that he knows what he’s doing.  Because I see his maneuver as the only strategic way out of a minefield of destruction set by the billionaires who really run the federal government.

Also consider this, Barack Obama will be far more destructive as an ex-president advocating socialism and returning to the political scene as a community activists.  He will become very wealthy as a public speaker and will be given a platform to really advance the global intentions of Socialist International within the United Nations.  There isn’t a Republican in the party presently except for celebrities like Clint Eastwood and Donald Trump who can steal away the potential air of a dangerous ex-president Obama in the news cycle.  Trump would have something new happening ever day as president forcing Clinton and Obama to struggle for attention—which would bring an end to their efforts.  If Donald Trump has learned anything over the years with all the hard knocks he’s endured, it’s how to survive this current time.  And for my money I will bet on a tangible asset—Donald Trump—a proven commodity in every way who is highly motivated—and leveraged—to be successful.  Trump is my guy—and like him—I’m all in.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Throwing Off the Cloak of a Coward: French collectivism, Islamic radicalism, European socialism–still American heroes emerge

For some bizarre reason French President Hollende called President Obama to think him for the heroics of the three American passengers on a high-speed train in Belgium who stopped a knuckle-dragging Islamic radical from committing terrorism.  At the first sign of trouble French employees on the train locked that particular car to isolate the terrorist essentially imprisoning all the people in that part of the train.  Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone took immediate action to subdue the slug and their childhood friend Anthony Sadler helped beat the terrorist into unconsciousness.  That type of bravado is common in people born free in a society that advocates that kind of behavior.  Stone additionally had military training in the Air Force whereas Skarlatos was from the National Guard.  But their heroics was home-grown in spite of President Obama’s attempts over the years to turn America more into France with collectivist endeavor and passive approaches to danger.

Obama if he had things his way would have done as the French employees did, and that would have been to sacrifice the members of that particular train car so to save the rest of the passengers—which is a collectivist mentality.  Hollende is an open socialist who somehow believed that Obama had something to do with the heroics by some American policy, just as he spoke on behalf of all France for thanking the three American heroes from saving their progressive country from their own failed policies.  Europe is breeding these terrorist idiots because of their lack of a philosophy that is centered on individuality.  A collective based society, which France is, is not far off ideologically from the collectivism of radical Islam, so these young religious fanatics like this terrorist on the train can feed off society’s passivity.  In this case it was 26 year-old Ayoub El-Khazzani from Morocco who had been on a French intelligence watch list since February of 2014.  Somebody obviously missed the fact that the Islamic terrorist had bought a ticket for the high-speed train complete with bags of weapons.  Not a very effective watch list.  El-Khazzani had been radicalized in the southern Spanish city of Algecians at a mosque which had been under surveillance due to its extremist teachings.

Obviously there were a lot of fails, El-Khazzani slipped through security, the French employees on the train behaved like a bunch of wimps leaving a couple of American guys trying to have a good time in Europe to quell all the failures with their bravado.  The heroic actions are something to feel good about for all Americans—but I would remind everyone that it’s also expected.  That’s not to take anything away from what they did, it’s just that America shouldn’t be the only culture on earth with some testicular fortitude left in its up and coming heroes.  This kind of thing should be a lot more common—specifically, somebody should have kicked the snot out of Ayoub El-Khazzani way back in Spain well before he ever got on a train in Amsterdam.

Collectivism in every aspect breeds the kind of cowardly behavior that made Ayoub El-Khazzani possible and put him on a train to inflict danger to innocent people.  France, and essentially all of Europe functions under that same brand of collectivism as a culture believing that the needs of the few must be sacrificed for the benefit of the many.  That’s why French employees isolated that train car—to protect the rest of the train.  Such people make easy targets which empowers radicals seeking to impose their version of collectivism on the masses.  Lucky for the French in this case, there were Americans nearby to stop the furtherance of such terror.

This brings us back around to why the socialist President Hollende would even call Obama.  I can understand him thanking the guys who stopped the terrorist attack.  But why would he even think to call Obama—as if the American president had done anything to contribute to the endeavor.  That is an insult to the heroics of the young men.  Rather, they behaved heroically in spite of Obama’s efforts in creating a socialist utopia hell-bent on extreme leftist political positions.  Those young men went to American schools which teach socialism these days, but thankfully they had a love for American film and had in their minds a little heroics put there by an art that still relishes individualism.  I saw a picture of one of the boys with their mom which featured Clint Eastwood from the Fist Full of Dollars films.  Probably not a coincidence.

It is good to see the young men so happy after they discovered that they wouldn’t die from their heroics.  I’m sure Spencer Stone would not trade his nearly severed thumb right now for a comfortable night in a Paris hotel, and without question Alek Skarlatos is proud of the blood on his shirt and may never wash it again just so he can remember it.  This is something that President Hollende and Obama do not understand about this terrorist attack.  Sure the young men saved lives, yes the terrorist son-of-a-bitch nearly shot Stone and luckily the gun was jammed.  But those young men are happy to have proven themselves under duress and that is something they will live with for the rest of their lives—and it will carry them all to lofty highest for which no amount of money can ever provide.  The injuries Stone endured he will tell this story proudly each time he gets the opportunity. Most young men would trade these three, even with the possibility of death, for a chance to feel what they are feeling right now—and that is a foreign concept to Hollende—obviously.  Those guys didn’t attack that terrorist thug for any other reason than raw heroics—the need to do what was right.  They didn’t do it to save France from the embarrassment of another terrorist attack by Islamic radicals.  They did it because it felt good to act heroically rather than cower like a chicken in a seat trapped by French employees to seal their fate awaiting an afterlife—totally at the mercy of a 26-year-old Moroccan who wanted to kill innocents in the name of Allah.   Being a hero is the best feeling in the world.  It’s worth doing even if death is the result—because no young man wants to be condemned to a lifetime of suffering knowing they were too wimpy to face down danger when it presented itself.

I’m proud of those boys, but they didn’t do it for me, America, or France.  They did the right thing because it felt good to do.  All it took was for Alek Skarlatos to tell his friend to get the terrorist, and those guys in that moment got the monkey off their back which plagues all young men—the nagging question of whether or not under a dangerous situation they would have the courage to act heroically.  And thanks to a radical Islamic terrorist, those American heroes can now carry with them a badge of honor that will last a lifetime.  And they deserve to be proud of it.  Because in American culture we still have as a standard that an individual life lived under the cloak of a coward is far worse than death.  And young men, and old in America because of their focus on individuality—still know that when such an opportunity presents itself—you do what you have to in order to remove that cloak from personal identification forever.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.