Tag: Free Will

Ann Becker Wins, Patti Alderson Loses: A new dawn for a Constitutional Republic–not turning the other cheek

For me it was the best election I’ve enjoyed in quite some time.  All my people didn’t win but the one I most supported did—and that was Ann Becker knocking out Patti Alderson off the Ohio State Central Committee.  Patti is part of the party establishment that speaks about Republican values but behaves like a Democrat and she along with several like her gave us John Kasich.  There were several Tea Party challengers to the establishment State Central Committee candidates who are all just as bad as Patti relative to political philosophy—and few of them broke through like Ann did—but now Becker can begin to do valuable work from the inside that will help guide the Republican Party back toward real conservatism instead of just RINO namesake—using the party to win elections then run like their more progressive rivals.

It never fails to shock me even knowing all that I do about how things work—to learn to what extent the Republican Party led by John Kasich in Ohio had a lock on voters through the machine of politics.  I have been supporting Donald Trump for president and was happy with his wins on Tuesday, March 15th.  I was hoping he’d get Ohio but based on the feedback I had from area Republicans attending a Trump event recently I was continually baffled to hear them talk about how they feared to let it be publicly known that they liked Trump.  I mean these were grown adults and they were fearful of the wrath of some little hunchback progressive who could get his ass kicked by a falling leaf.  There is nothing to fear about John Kasich.  Yet politicians afraid of harming their rise to power within the party did not want party leaders to know that they were at this epic Trump event but only to get an autograph of the celebrity.  The head of the Republican Party was supposed to be seated next to me, but he never showed up because obviously the party was in the bag for Kasich and he was expected to strong-arm his party members into supporting the current governor over Trump.  That is precisely what is wrong with politics.  Those politicians didn’t represent the people who elected them—they represented with real anxiety the desires of the party bosses and largely that temperament has been shaped over many years by people like Patti Alderson.  So it was wonderful to see her go down in flames to someone I know will truly steer the State Central Committee into the direction of a constitutional republic.

As the nationwide results came in I was embarrassed for Ohio and the Republican Party that was so proud of their ability to turn out votes for John Kasich—in spite of him being an extreme loser who has no chance nationally of winning anything outside of a complete insurrection at the National Convention.  Trump and Cruz are the clear favorites among voters leaving all the establishment types in the dust of recollection.  Listening to Kasich talk you’d think he just won the Super Bowl.   What was painful to me was what many of those area Republicans and their donors said to me just a few days prior at the Trump event.   If given a choice, they’d vote a different way.  I’d say to them that nobody knows how you vote when it’s just you in the booth.  That’s when they’d say to me—“yes they do.”  They didn’t want it to ever be discovered that they supported anybody but Kasich for President in 2016—even though the guy had no chance to do anything nationally. With all that strong-arming by party bosses Kasich won a measly 66 delegates.  To date he has barely broke 100 which is deplorable.  Only career politicians would think such a thing was something to celebrate.

Patti Alderson in spite of the people who will tell me and you dear reader that she’s a pinnacle of virtue is exactly the type of person who is bad for the Republican Party.  She supported increases in taxes—has used charities as a means of extortion against children by blocking out people who actually tried to help then smeared the people who were really trying to point a light on what she was doing with the unionized educators embedded deeply in our community.  I know firsthand what she’s like behind the smiles and the charity—and she went after my name rather viciously once all other means of stopping my anti-tax group ran out.  In a lot of ways what she did locally was a lot like what the Republican Party is doing now to Donald Trump.  They don’t know how to stop him so they are attacking him.  And like him I have a similar social policy—I never forget, I do hold grudges and even if it takes 100 years, I look to get even against those who have done me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with that type of animosity—it is the difference between winners and losers.  All this turning the other cheek stuff in my view is a stupid position to take on anything—it certainly isn’t a path to any kind of victory.  If they hit you, you always hit them harder and harder until they stop and give up.

It was four years to the day that I had to dig in like Trump and defend my record by an onslaught of media and public sentiment coordinated by Patti against me to essentially preserve all that she had built connecting the Republican Party to Lakota Schools and the tax increases that she wanted.  I encouraged all my Republican friends to stand with me, that what Patti was doing with her tax increase support around the community using charity to help sell it would lose in the end in spite of the mudslinging—that all she was trying to do would backfire if everyone would just hold their ground.  But they listened to her because she was a party insider instead of me and history told the rest of the story.  I am proud to be the first that I know of in modern politics to do as Trump is now on a national stage.  I tried to tell area Republicans to dig in and stand for something and some did.  Most continued listening to Patti—like Judy Shelton who was strong-arming local Republican members to hold the line of the party even if the party was wrong philosophically.  (CLICK TO REVIEW)  Thankfully good people have been challenging the Republican establishment ever since and many have broken through.  Ann is only the most spectacular and recent example.  But many before her have been pounding away at those fences and now they are starting to break through.

Trump is a result of that offensive strategy, he would not have had the kind of success he is now prior to 2012.  I said to an NPR reporter for WVXU at that Trump event standing in front of the Bernie Sanders supporters that politics was changing forever.  Trump was paving the way for a new kind of politician—part entertainer, part private sector success story, and part WWF.  It takes those entertainment attributes to break the party lines and establish yourself independently from any collectivist rule.  I proved that 100 days after an onslaught that Patti Alderson led against me within the Republican Party to remove me from her plans by using a little authentic theatrics to gain supporters away from her way of thinking. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  I was astonished by all the people who were happy that my methods had actually worked—they stopped me everywhere and thanked me for what I had done—which was simply to stand my ground when everyone else literally abandoned me at Patti’s direction.  I wrote about my experiences extensively and now many thousands of people have read about that strategy.   I said it in 2012—the way to win as a Republican was to hit back at Democrats harder than they hit you.  Many being good Christians couldn’t get their mind around it.  But the Saul Alinsky playbook exposes that tendency among Republicans to turn the other cheek and that’s how liberals have continued to beat conservatives time and time again, and there has been no end in sight, until that moment in 2012.  So it gives me great satisfaction to see Ann Becker beat out Patti Alderson and to see Donald Trump using that same strategy on a national level.  Not that Trump adopted any of my ideas; he’s certainly his own man.  But enough people have been thinking about these things and a chain reaction within politics has taken on a life of its own.

It was quite enjoyable for me to watch Trump’s speech after he won essentially all the states on the March 15th election except for Ohio—knocking out Marco Rubio from the presidential race.  Trump attacked the media, the GOP establishment and showed that he was standing by his campaign manager when there were calls for his head—and he did it with a smile on his face to the outrage of the media.  I remember how it felt for me March 12th through March 15th of 2012 when Patti Alderson led her group of people to attack me in every way that she could without actually getting her hands dirty.  I remember my hatred of Michael Clark from The Cincinnati Enquirer, the betrayal of Scott Sloan at WLW, and my supposed friends within No Lakota Levy who abandoned me while speaking to hundreds of thousands of people on the air in the moment when I needed them most.  They did what they did because Patti had led them to their actions—I have the emails to prove it–still.  But I stood my ground as hard as it was.  Professionally, if I had been anyone else I would have been finished as a person in Butler County—but people like Patti didn’t care in the least.  For her the needs of the many out-weighed the needs of the few and if I was getting in the way—even if I was technically correct—then disposal was the option.  It was a hard period of time for me.  But I dug in and stood my ground and people thanked me for it.  And now, just four years later my friend Ann Becker has replaced Patti Alderson from her Central Committee seat and Donald Trump is running for president and is essentially using the same methods I did to advance his tactical position.  And this time the Republican establishment can’t stop him.  Because those of us on the cutting edge have seen the weak spots in the party system and now it is coming apart.  And that gives me great satisfaction for really the first time in over thirty years of political observation.  March 15th was a good day for our Constitutional Republic.  And things are just getting started.  It’s not that anger and flamboyancy are the proper means to defending a republic, but when fear is used to keep party members in line and to force people to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t on their own—the best way to deal with it is to throw it back in the perpetrator’s face and stand up to the bully—whoever it is.  There is one thing in this world that I have no tolerance for and that is a bully.   Trump isn’t the bully—it’s the people who use party members to hold people to a worthless vote that goes against the voters.  And of that class—Patti Alderson was one of the most frequent violators.  She didn’t bully people with force—she does it with a smile on her face and a large check book.  But the methods are conducted under coercion nonetheless—and that has to end at every level of government, from local to international.

So how did Ann win that important election—well, I’ll tell you.  She was at the Trump rally in West Chester even though she’s a Cruz supporter—she went where the people were and she talked to those many thousands who were standing in the rain trying to get into the packed venue.  Those were people who were definitely going to vote in West Chester for Trump and she gave them her name on the ballot.  Most people reading through such ballots have no idea who Patti Alderson was, but they knew Ann because she handed them literature with her name on it working the crowd.  She went door to door.  She was on the nightly local television news.  She had write ups in the newspaper.  She was on the radio.  And she had commercials on 55 KRC.  In short, she took nothing for granted and she actively worked every angle possible to the largest extent possible.  She simply out-worked the incumbent Patti Alderson who sat back and expected her reputation to carry her through the election.  That is how you beat these incumbents dear reader.  You simply outwork them.  That is how Trump is doing it, and that is how Ann won.  If everyone who is a freedom lover did the same—the establishment would cease to be.  You don’t have to play party politics and fall in line with the leadership.  You simply outwork everyone else and stick by your guns no matter what.  That is the best path to success in any endeavor—and it needs to become the standard mode of operation in politics.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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If You Voted for John Kasich in Ohio–You’re an Idiot: George Soros gave over $200,000 to the establishment Governor

If you voted in Oho for John Kasich—you are an absolute idiot.  If you have not yet voted, there is still time to save you.  Kasich is one of the most progressive politicians in both parties.   He is closer to Bernie Sanders socialism than he is to Hillary Clinton politics and the proof is in this–George Soros—the extreme leftist billionaire who seeks to sink America as a sovereign country and convert the nation into a socialist utopia gave over $200,000 to Kasich’s campaign to help him in Ohio.  That and only that disqualifies him to even run as a Republican.  If you want many more reasons why not to vote for Kasich CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  But any support from George Soros is a shot at anyone who considers themselves “conservative.” 

If for some reason you don’t know who Soros is, then CLICK HERE to learn more.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/14/report-soros-money-funding-john-kasichs-presidential-bid/

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Sign up for Second Call Defense here:  http://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707  Use my name to get added benefits.

Donald Trump’s Visit to the Savannah Center: West Chester becomes the center of a new day in American politics

Trump4Of course it was a spectacular day in West Chester when Donald Trump came to speak at the glorious Savannah Center.  The whole event was born while I was getting yard signs down at the Cincinnati office and happened to meet Robert Scott who is the Ohio State Director for Trump’s campaign.  It should be noted to those who were there how the elements came together the way I suggested they would many months ago—even down to a local Sheriff Jones endorsement and opening speech.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  But it wasn’t so smooth to get it started—there was a lot of looseness of feet needed to make it all happen and I can only say that I was very proud of all the people it took to pull the event off, starting with Robert Scott.  I don’t normally get very excited about these kinds of events, and I hate the security, and formality—but for this occasion I was willing to put that all aside so that Donald Trump could make one last big impression in Ohio prior to the March 15th vote where he is poised to beat Governor Kasich..  

It was surreal all day on Saturday, just 24 hours ahead of the big town hall with Trump. John Boehner had come out with an endorsement of Governor Kaisch, which was understandable.  After all, that was John’s golf buddy who famously lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in that now illustrious golf game in 2011 where the four played each other in the way that the game is really played.  It wasn’t so much about who hit the ball in the hole with the fewest strokes—it was who gained leverage over all future deals between Obama’s desires and Speaker Boehner’s.  Obama clearly won. Boehner became a lapdog for the president while Kasich betrayed us all, including the Ohio legislature and chained our state to Obamacare ignoring the Health Care Freedom Amendment that was passed just a few years prior by the same people who put the governor in power in 2010.  The day was surreal because area republicans were obviously not supportive of the arrival of Trump to their bastion of conservativism—Butler County.  Area GOP leaders would have rolled in the mud like pigs at the trough if Mitt Romney were coming, but Donald Trump represents all the things that they fear.  For instance, when Trump plays golf with whomever in the future as President, you can bet that the GOP won’t be losing on the deal the way Boehner and Kasich did. That is precisely why with only 24 hours of advanced notice the venue at the Savannah Center filled to a bulging crowd without any official backing by area GOP members.  I get emails from the GOP about every time some politician sneezes–looking for money or time—but there was nothing about Donald Trump put out by the party ahead of the Savannah Center Town Hall.  If I had not been close to the situation—I wouldn’t have known until after it happened.  Even so there were lines over a mile long in the drizzling rain and most people couldn’t get in–and those people showed up three hours early–and still couldn’t get inside. Trump3

It was a big deal years ago when Mitt Romney came to speak in West Chester roughly just a mile south of where Trump spoke.  I was not excited about Mitt Romney in the least, and I did not attend—even with VIP invites to be there.  I thought he was a lot of what was wrong with politics.  He was another do nothing guy who would show up and speak, then turn away from the microphone and do nothing about anything.  During that speech Kasich was there, Boehner was there, and several popular Republicans from all across the country came to show their support of Mitt Romney.  With Donald Trump—there wasn’t the same type of establishment enthusiasm—and that was precisely why I went out of my way to attend—because this speech from Trump was different.

That is not to say that Trump didn’t have GOP support from winners within the party.  Sheriff Jones endorsed Trump, which wasn’t a surprise.  But so did George Lang, the area hero who has managed to create a wonderful business environment in West Chester making it one of the finest communities in the nation with such a large demographic population.  Lang did it with all the means that any defender of capitalism should, and it shows.  The Savannah Center is a representation in many ways of Lang’s rise within the Republican Party.  It is a practical place built during his tenure as an area trustee—yet it’s opulent to best represent the community it is in the center of.  It has a feeling of hope within it—and in many ways Donald Trump and the Savannah Center were made for each other.  After a series of hard rallies where communist insurgents sought to derail Donald Trump ahead of securing the presidential nomination, the Savannah Center and the crowd was an obvious relief for him—and a chance to really put a period at the end of the sentence as to why he should win Ohio ahead of Kasich.  It looked great on television and represented our community to the nation in a really spectacular way,  and the GOP leaders who normally run everything didn’t play a part in its fruition at all.  Which is why they win a lot of elections but do absolutely nothing once they obtain the seats—and is why such a large venue was able to fill up just by word of mouth in favor of Trump.Trump 2

The crowd which gathered up to well over a thousand inside for a “small” town hall experience was poised with so much pent-up energy that I hadn’t seen such a thing since I was at the football game where the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Seattle Seahawks in OT during the regular season.  In Cincinnati with regard to the Reds baseball team and the Bengals football team, we have become all too accustomed to losing in critical moments.  The GOP in southern Ohio reflects that trend unfortunately.  People get excited about things, but often get let down at the end—just like the quadruple overtime game that the UC basketball team played against UConn on Friday—where the Bearcats just ran out of gas. 

Cincinnati fans of politics and sports have witnessed so many near misses that they get rapturously excited when they begin to taste victory—but are always a bit reserved expecting to be let down at the end.  For them, seeing Donald Trump in person was just too much to handle—and they were obviously emotional about it.  Trump is a winner and that in itself is something to behold.  He may not win every single time he does something but what’s different about him is that he “expects” to win.  That presence was even more intense in person than it was on television.  Trump loves to win, and gives off an impression that he expects it in everything he does—which is very unique for any person over 60 years of age.  Trump at nearly 70 has the energy of a teenage kid—and the swagger of one who has never yet lost and learned to accept it.  Trump is obviously an unconquered soul who has not yielded in life to defeat—and the crowd knew it.  They went way out of their way to be near such energy—and that enthusiasm was certainly on full display at the Savannah Center.Trump 1

It was a good day for West Chester not only because a presidential candidate came to our town to solicit votes—but because Trump is a massive celebrity who is on the front of a movement against traditional politics for the preservation of our country.  For a community and Cincinnati in general, it was a chance for our friends and neighbors to actually be near a person who expects to win in everything he does—and that was exciting.  I remember the Kasich rally that was conducted at the Ronald Reagan building just a few miles to the north from where Trump spoke.  That was a fairly small room and Kasich couldn’t even fill that—and he is the current governor.  I was at another event with Kasich in 2011 and the fields of Carriage Hill in Liberty Township were filled with cars eager to hear him speak.  But Kasich lost a series of important issues starting with that golf game with Obama—and the writing was on the wall.  Governor Kasich was just another do nothing politician who talked a good game, but couldn’t deliver in the end.  Kasich in the same area couldn’t fill up a McDonald’s let alone the Savannah Center—and that is precisely why Donald Trump coming to West Chester was such a big deal. 

Because even with a skeptical crowd used to hearing a lot of tough talk but always being let down at the very end—Trump is different.  People were able to be near him—which they needed.  And by the look on his face—I think he needed it too.  For a few short hours during an emerging spring a battered warrior candidate for President of the United States and a skeptical public fed off each other for the better.  And a new dawn for America broke just above the horizon—and we all had a sense that soon that bright sun would be high in the sky with a scorching heat and that America would be great again—because Donald Trump for a change would be at the front to inspire victory where nobody previously thought it was even remotely possible.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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Ann Becker’s Endorsement for Warren Davidson: Standing up for the people who put themselves on the front line

 

It doesn’t matter if it’s Donald Trump running for President, or Warren Davidson being the only qualified candidate to run for John Boehner’s old seat—Ann Becker from the Cincinnati Tea Party made a great point in her below observation and comment as to why America’s best people do not run for public office.  The consequences are that the worst of our society ends up running and winning the seats of government which most effectively runs our society—and the results have been dismal.  During this particular March of 2016 there are several really good options—and Ann is one of them for State Central Committee.  To my mind she’s the only option.   And that is additionally the case with Warren Davidson. For the sake of brevity and effectiveness, I have included Ann Becker’s endorsement of Warren Davidson in the following paragraphs because her reasons are nearly identical to my own.  If you really want good people in government—then we need to support them when they come under fire—because they always get attacked.   When they put themselves out in front the way Warren is offering, we need to have their back—because they will need it.  There is a reason that good people get so attacked in public office—it is to protect the many bad guys effectively destroying our republic.  So when you get a good one—give them a little cover fire.

I have been in politics for 7 years. One of the questions I get asked all the time – when are people going to wake up?  When are the principled people going to take a stand?

I have been looking, searching, supporting and teaching people how important it is to find politicians that will put the Constitution first.  Many people have stepped up to the plate, and it has given me hope.

A few months ago, after Speaker Boehner stepped down from his Congressional seat, my search for the right person to replace him went into overdrive. I live in the 8thDistrict.  Finding someone who I could consider a leader, someone who I would trust to represent me and my views was a tall order. 

Several candidates emerged to run for the seat.  I took it upon myself to research and vet the candidates, this is not an official Cincinnati Tea Party endorsement, just a personal endorsement coming from Ann. The man who I chose to endorse was Warren Davidson.

Warren is a former Army Ranger. His military background helps him to understand the scope of the problems we face in the War on Terror and issues overseas.  He also cultivated a deep sense of duty and discipline in the military that has carried over into his work in the private sector.

Warren is a small business owner of a multimillion dollar company. He came back from his military service and wanted to build something. He is the owner and President of Global Source Manufacturing in Troy, Ohio. His experience with his business has given him first-hand knowledge of how the government has hindered the growth of his business, from Obamacare and taxes to regulation and unions. 

Beyond that, he is a good man.  There aren’t many of those running for office. 

There is a reason good people don’t run  – the attacks.

Over the past week, a PAC called Defending Main Street has started to attack Warren Davidson.  If you listen to the radio or live in the 8th district, you have gotten the mailers.  They are vicious.  At first, I thought it was kind of interesting.  I must have picked the right candidate if he is getting attacked.  It’s kind of a badge of honor in politics.

Yesterday, they crossed a line.  They sent a flyer, big enough to wrap a gift to every Republican in the district. It was ridiculous. Who are these people?  Why are they meddling in the 8th district race?  I did a little research.

What I found made my blood boil.  Defending Main Street is Steve LaTourette and John Boehner’s ‘I hate the Tea Party so I must destroy them’ PAC.  Their website says, “The goal of the Republican Main Street Partnership is simple; to find commonsense solutions to problems that people are wrestling with each and every day. In short we represent and support the governing wing of the GOP.”  In other words, if you don’t support the establishment you must be taken out.

I did a little more research.  Defending Main Street raised most of its money from labor unions. “These unions include the National Education Association (the superpower of unions in America, along with the public employees unions), the operating engineers, the Teamsters, the air traffic controllers, transport workers and other building and trades unions,” from the Washington Times.

The accusations they were spreading in their flyers bothered me. The ads accused Warren Davidson of ‘Shipping jobs to China’.  I knew his company was called Global Source Manufacturing, and China is on the globe – but after I got several messages from people asking what these flyers were all about I decided to talk to Warren himself and get to the bottom of it.

The answers were very simple.  Warren said, “I do not have a manufacturing plant in China.  I have not shipped jobs there.  My company employs over 200 workers in Ohio – none in China.”  I asked him about the website www.cheapasiantools.com. “The site is nothing but a marketing tactic meant to show up in search engines. If someone looked up tools in China, they would come to our American made tools company.”  He also encouraged me to look at the website. It took me to Global Source Manufacturing’s buy American page.

This is another example of the establishment spreading lies.  Telling people things that will make them questions a man’s character.  This is why good people don’t run for office. 

Don’t give into the lies. Stand up to the establishment. 

Yours in Liberty,

Ann Becker

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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Moveon.Org Attacks Trump Supporters in Chicago: Read a firsthand account who witnessed the violence and its perpetrators

The purpose that the political left, in this case sponsored by Moveon.org (George Soros), has in conducting violent protests such as they did at Donald Trump’s rally in Chicago—is to shut down arguments that they have no other way of defending.  Through violence and intimidation, they intend to erode away American’s republic until there is nothing left.  That has been their strategy for years, and now with Donald Trump showing that he will in fact be the Republican nominee for president—the violent desperation of that reality is taking full effect—and the Marxist oriented insurgents within America are now desperate.

Trump smartly cancelled the rally and received much more press than he otherwise would for the event.  The difference between Donald Trump and every other Republican politician for most of a century is that he knows how to turn the tables on those who stand against him.  In this case, Trump took a rally intended for several thousand people and exploded his coverage leading into a weekend news cycle only talking about him—and sounding very presidential in the wake of these Chicago protests.   I have been to Chicago several times, most recently about a month ago.  Outside of the immediate downtown area—Chicago is a socialist experiment gone bad.  You can really see it most spectacularly while landing or taking off out of O’Hara.  Those protestors were poised to move against Trump in Chicago in the same say that the communists took over Russia during the revolution of 1917.  Young people today are raised to embrace socialism and communism from their public schools, so college campuses especially in downtown areas are particularly dangerous to any ideas other than socialism—and the results were as follows.  The description provided comes from a first person perspective of a cognoscente participant who witnessed the trouble brewing and correctly identified the true villains in the escapade.  Read what they have to say to understand the truth.

At 2:30 p.m., I arrived at the Donald Trump rally located at the UIC pavilion in Chicago, IL. There was light police presence at the Blue Line station, and the pavilion was short walk away. There I waited in line for about an hour until making it to the front doors, going through a security scanner, and finding a seat in the main hall.

For nearly two hours the pavilion filled until it neared capacity. It was clear that protesters were seated around the room, given easily away by their manner of dress. Most of the Trump supporters, being suburbanite or small town white people from outside of Chicago, were dressed strikingly normal—jeans and t-shirts, yoga pants or dresses, and the occasional suit.

The first protestors began around 5:30 when two young white males pulled off their coats to reveal t-shirts with anti-Trump slogans. At this point I noticed the police presence inside the rally was a mere 8 police officers, bolstered with hands-off event staff.

Before 6:00 p.m., a man spoke on the microphone and requested that rally attendees do not touch or harm protesters who interrupt the event. He reminded the protesters that Donald Trump supports the first amendment as much as the second.

Following this was a string of smaller incidents, such as people holding up improvised signs and shouting.

  • One entire bleacher row was filled with protesters and they began chanting and throwing around torn up signs.
  • A few people who began standing up and screaming, and were slowly escorted out by police. The police kept leaving the protesters unattended throughout this, taking 4-8 officers to escort protesters out one at a time.
  • A black man in a black jacket ran up to the front stage, bumped into the podium, and attempted to speak, but was wrestled down by two men in suits. As they escorted him through the crowd, he took a swing at a Trump supporter. The men escorting him were incredibly gentle and restrained themselves from using any force.

Then voice came on and declared that the event was postponed. A few minutes later, they informed us that Trump had landed in Chicago and spoken to Chicago Police officers, and that due to safety concerns, the rally was canceled.

At this point, the protesters began to descend into chaos. Aside from a few mild “TRUMP” and “USA” chants, the Trump supporters were mostly quiet and bewildered as the protesters began to scream, chant, and run around the main floor area in a huge pack, flipping off the rally attendees and swearing at them. There were a few tense altercations between the two groups, but from what I saw at this point, no violence.

The rally was instructed to leave the pavilion, and I have to admit, the Chicago Police messed up bad here.

We walked straight out of the building and into enormous packs of protesters screaming at us, with little police presence to protect the Trump supporters.

Following this, I wandered the protest grounds to see what was going on. My memory is a bit jumbled at this point because I was so pumped up, but let me string together the events as clearly as possible:

  • Many of Trump propaganda signs, most commonly depicting him as Adolf Hitler, but others showing him with a small penis, simple signs of text English and Spanish, signs.
  • Young women shouting anti-white racial epithets.
  • “THE PEOPLE ARE UNITED. WE WILL NOT BE DIVIDED” being shouted at Trump supporters who holed themselves up in a parking garage, quietly fearing for their safety. Another good one by the protesters was “FREEDOM FIRST! FREEDOM FIRST!” Strangely enough, there were a good amount of signs calling for peace and freedom. Lots of peace signs being flashed with the fingers.
  • A single white Trump supporter who held up a sign and stood quietly as three dozen people surrounded him, smiling and screaming, snatching and pushing at him until he had to run for police cover. Someone grabbed his American flag and threw it on the ground and he fought to recover it. The police escorted him away.
  • Two young men, perhaps 17-19, standing quietly as they waited for a ride home. They were wearing their MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN hats, looking terrified as people cursed and swore at them, and occasionally threw furious challenges for debate. The two young men held their ground. Only once did one of those hats come down, and it quickly went back on again.
  • A general atmosphere of pleasure and happiness from the protesters. A common chant was “WE WON!” and “WE STOPPED* TRUMP!” It honestly felt like a social event for the protesters. There was plenty of mingling
  • Plenty of shouts at Trump protesters that Trump and his supporters are not welcome in Chicago. I challenged one on the first amendment. He said he does not consider himself an American and continued insulting the grizzled old white man he was arguing with.
  • Extremely inefficient police presence. The cops were lined up on their horses or standing behind barricades, but generally were not present where Trump supporters were being hounded and occasionally struck by protesters.
  • The protesters were primarily composed of millennial-aged: white hipsters, African Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims. Some of the protesters were teenagers below voting age.
  • The protesters flew a big set of American, Mexican, and Puerto Rican flags. There were lots of small American and Mexican flags too. *The Trump supporters mostly fled for safety immediately. You have to understand, they were outnumbered by thousands of protesters.
  • There was media presence, but not as much as you’d think. Plenty of areas where chaos was going on had no media nearby. The reporters were mostly getting people to talk to them off to the side where nothing was going on, or focusing ongoing debates between Trump supporters and rally members.
  • A small amount of the protesters were smoking weed. (I have nothing against this personally, just included for accuracy.)
  • Plenty of chants for “BERNIE! BERNIE! BERNIE!” Some Trump supporters looked at each other in bewilderment. “But Bernie Sanders isn’t even running against Donald Trump,” was the common sentiment.
  • Edit: The Trump supporters had a general trust for the police, while the protesters saw their presence as antagonistic. This is especially interesting to me, because as a foreigner and person of color I am generally afraid of police.

Closing statement:

Obviously I did not see everything that occurred as I wandered the protest grounds outside the cancelled Chicago rally. What I did see, however, was fear. Fear from the rally attendees for their immediate safety, and fear of Donald Trump from the protesters.

More than that, I feel that I experienced today, for the first time in my life, true totalitarianism and authoritarianism, expressed laterally from citizen to citizen, in order to silence opinions from being shared. This enforcement was shared through sheer numbers and intimidation, and in a few cases, violence.

People brought their children, loved ones, and friends to attend the Trump rally. I saw an older Asian man and his white wife in attendance, and the looks on their faces when the rally was declared cancelled almost broke my heart. I saw scared children clinging to their parents’ sides as they exited the building to the screams of protesters. I saw a quiet, but excited crowd of Donald Trump supporters get thrown out of Chicago.

Worst of all, I saw the first amendment trampled, spit on, and discarded like trash.

This cannot go on. As I finish this, I feel a sense of utter dread and hopelessness for what is becoming of the youth in this country, particularly those of the regressive left. So polarized has political opinion become, that dissenting thoughts on college campuses are now seen as hateful. These people deal in absolutes. They are right, and whatever means they must take to achieve their ends, they will do it. They will not stop themselves from violence or censorship. They will do it, and they will call hell down upon you if anyone dare does upon them the same.

Tonight I went to the Trump Rally to hear the thoughts of not only the man who was supposed to come and speak, but the people who support him. I found respect. I found calmness. I found peace.

The truth is, I am a legal immigrant, not a US citizen. I am not American. I am not white. I cannot vote.

After tonight, I support Donald Trump.

Lastly, for anyone who thinks the protesters didn’t incite violence tonight, I offer you this.

Updates:

Tallon5 posted a bunch of images and videos that match up to my personal accounts

Super Hat Bros FOUND! Personal friend of theirs speaks out

Another account from the PoliticalDiscussion subreddit

Thanks for the gold and all the kind comments. I hope you guys stay safe. Remember that the best way to make America great again isn’t just voting, but making yourself great too. That goes to anyone who reads this, regardless of who you support or what you believe.

https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4a2bu9/what_really_happened_at_the_chicago_rally_my/

 

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Sign up for Second Call Defense here:  http://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707  Use my name to get added benefits.

Trump’s Shangri-La Cincinnati Office: How to find it and what you can do to help

 

So, you’ve seen the last debate before the massive votes across the United States—specifically Florida and Ohio—and you want to know what you can do to help Trump have a big night.  Maybe you want to help walk neighborhoods in Ohio to keep Kasich—who has been an epic failure to those who know him best within the state—from winning on Tuesday, March 15.th   Maybe you want to do one little thing to rob him of that diminutive joy of at least winning Ohio during a primary process that has turned out to be a massive failure for him.  Kasich started running for president in 2013 and spent much of his second term positioning himself essentially as a Democrat to expand his influence to the northern part of the state just to run for president in 2016.   In the process he let down the people who helped elect him and that deserves some rectification.  Trump is the best chance we have of setting many things right, especially robbing Kasich of the Tuesday night prize.  Perhaps you want to make calls on behalf of Trump, or maybe you just want a yard sign.  Well, here is the information you need to make all those things happen over the next couple of days.

I went looking for yard signs for Trump and whatever else I could do to help and found that the Cincinnati office was nestled in a neat little business park behind Chuckee Cheese right off Kemper Road near Tri-County.  It was the second building south of the complex and on the second floor.  I noticed immediately in the windows facing north the Trump signs advertising the Shangri-La of American politics—the epicenter of the most exciting political movement in over an American century—perhaps longer.  Literally stepping into the building after parking on the west side of the building was a magnificent water garden with office complexes facing inward toward the lush atmosphere—a little bridge extended over a babbling brook filled with fish paved the way toward a Trumpian paradise beyond.  It was quite a majestic feel complete with all the elements of heaven.  I followed the path to its conclusion and found an elevator which took everyone upstairs to level 2.  Once there a short trip down the hall, a left turn for about 10 feet and the Trump campaign office was on the next door on the right.   Here is the information I used to find the office.

From: Robert Scott [mailto:Robert.Scott@donaldtrump.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2016 6:19 PM
To: Robert Scott
Subject: TRUMP CINCINNATI OFFICE OPEN

Greetings. The Cincinnati Trump Office is now open and we have only 6 DAYS!!! I personally, Robert Scott, the State Director of Ohio, will be manning the office until Election Day on March 15!

Here is what we need ASAP.

(1) Volunteers in the headquarters. We will be open from 9 AM to 9 p.m. starting tomorrow. If you would like to bring anything to hang on the walls and decorate the headquarters. We have snacks and other goodies!

(2) Volunteers to make phone calls from the headquarters. Please bring your Cell Phone and Computer/Tablet with you.

(3) Volunteers to walk their neighborhood for Mr. Trump immediately until Tuesday!

The office is located at:

1329 E. Kemper Rd., Suite 4212 (Second floor) Cincinnati, OH 45246

I found Robert Scott there who was busy setting up the Saturday Trump rally in Dayton where Trump will glide up to a Wright Patterson hangar to give one of his airport speeches by stepping straight out of his private 757 and up to a podium to address fans.  Then a quick jump up to an arena in Cleveland to a packed house there.  Robert was busy also arranging a Sunday rally.   We spoke about the Duke Energy Center down in Cincinnati and we talked about Lakota Schools.  Lakota wouldn’t return the phone calls, and The Duke Energy Center emerged as a possible venue for Sunday just ahead of the election.  He and I spoke strategy and he loaded me up with campaign items and I left feeling that the Trump people were very well-organized and committed.  But they do need the usual help, so the days ahead of Tuesday will be a fight that will require as many people as possible that should be in on it.

I was reminded of the Perot Campaign office in 1992 which was on Montgomery Road years ago, next to Camargo Cadillac.  It was a very vibrant atmosphere that had the feeling of a revolution about it.  Another location that I remember well was the Greenup Street location right next to the Suspension Bridge in Covington, Kentucky.  Even all these years later I remember the camaraderie of going to war with those people in that time under those tenuous conditions.  It felt important and it was–it actually paved the way for where we are today.  I have been around other campaigns and there is a commonality to them—but nothing was quit like those experiences on Montgomery Road in the fall of 1992.  With that said, the energy I felt at the Trump headquarters in Cincinnati was surging beyond that Perot experience—because there was a feeling in the air that finally one of these elections would actually make a difference.  Most of the time, the kind of people who show up to volunteer for these kinds of things are full of love and passion—but the candidate is mostly all air.  Ross Perot certainly wasn’t—but he was nothing like Donald Trump.  Leaving that place and walking back through the indoor water garden back to my car was like the Trump candidacy itself.  A lush landscape of unexpected possibility surrounded by multiple businesses thriving with energy always looking toward opportunity—it was probably the most bizarre, yet all-encompassing place for Trump to have a southern Ohio headquarters.  What a great place to be a part of an emerging movement that carried on its back the hopes and dreams of a nation.

There are only a few days to make a difference.  So get down there, pick up some signs and spread them around town. Get them in front of voting places around Cincinnati on Tuesday.  Better yet, volunteer to go door to door.  Kasich and Cruz will certainly have their people out and Trump needs to have that ground game in place to advance the cause.  Even better than that, go down to the headquarters, order up some carry-out and make some calls under Scott’s direction.  You will never forget the experience.  It’s an opportunity to be a part of history and the memory of it will last a lifetime—regardless of the outcome.  Fortunately for this particular ground shaking movement—the stars are aligning in the favor of reform—for really the first time in American history without an armed revolt to go along with it.  And that is big news.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Sign up for Second Call Defense here:  http://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707  Use my name to get added benefits.

A Controversial Chuck Yeager Endorsement of Donald Trump: Whether or not he did or didn’t is irrelevant

There is some debate about whether or not Chuck Yeager actually put the following endorsement of Donald Trump up on his Facebook account.  Yeager is someone I personally admire, and I’ve been a fan of him for most of my life.  He’s certainly one of the greatest American heroes we have, not only as a World War II ace fighter pilot, but as a test pilot, most spectacularly being the first person to break the speed of sound. Reading this endorsement it sounded like him.  But, he is a military man, and I can see a scenario where he might have posted it but was told to take it down for all the same reasons that Mitt Romney came out against Donald Trump.  Regardless of its authenticity, it does make a very compelling case in favor of Donald Trump and is worth consideration ahead of the upcoming statewide primaries across the nation.  I’m inclined to believe that Chuck Yeager believes what is aforementioned written, but the words are worth their weight free of official endorsement because they capture the essence quite well of what the Donald Trump phenomena is really about.  God bless the World War II generation for their logic and resolve.

Chuck Yeager’s endorsement is printed below, in full.

Donald Trump……..who he REALLY is….The criticisms of Trump are amazingly missing something. They are lacking in negative stories from those who work for him or have had business dealings with him. After all the employees he’s had and all the business deals he’s made there is a void of criticism. In fact, long term employees call him a strong and merciful leader and say he is far more righteous and of high integrity than people may think.

And while it may surprise many, he’s actually humble when it comes to his generosity and kindness. A good example is a story that tells of his limo breaking down on a deserted highway outside of New York City. A middle-aged couple stopped to help him and as a thank you he paid off their mortgage, but he didn’t brag about that. Generous and good people rarely talk of charity they bestow on others. But as much as all this is interesting, the real thing that people want to know is what Donald Trump’s plan is for America. It’s funny how so many people say they don’t know what it is, or they act like Trump is hiding it. The information is readily available if people would just do a little homework. But, since most Americans won’t do their own research, here, in no particular order, is an overview of many of Trump’s positions and plans:

1.) Trump believes that America should not intervene militarily in other country’s problems without being compensated for doing so. If America is going to risk the lives of our soldiers and incur the expense of going to war, then the nations we help must be willing to pay for our help. Using the Iraq War as an example, he cites the huge monetary expense to American taxpayers (over $1.5 trillion, and possibly much more depending on what sources are used to determine the cost) in addition to the cost in human life. He suggests that Iraq should have been required to give us enough of their oil to pay for the expenses we incurred. He includes in those expenses the medical costs for our military and $5 million for each family that lost a loved one in the war and $2 million for each family of soldiers who received severe injuries.

2.) Speaking of the military, Trump wants America to have a strong military again. He believes the single most important function of the federal government is national defense. He has said he wants to find the General Patton or General MacArthur that could lead our military buildup back to the strength it needs to be. While he hasn’t said it directly that I know of, Trump’s attitude about America and about winning tells me he’d most likely be quick to eliminate rules of engagement that handicap our military in battle. Clearly Trump is a “win at all costs” kind of guy, and I’m sure that would apply to our national defense and security, too.

3.) Trump wants a strong foreign policy and believes that it must include 8 core principles (which seem to support my comment in the last point):
American interests come first. Always. No apologies.
Maximum firepower and military preparedness.
Only go to war to win.
Stay loyal to your friends and suspicious of your enemies.
Keep the technological sword razor sharp.
See the unseen.
Prepare for threats before they materialize.
Respect and support our present and past warriors.

4.) Trump believes that terrorists who are captured should be treated as military combatants, not as criminals like the Obama administration treats them.

5.) Trump makes the point that China’s manipulation of their currency has given them unfair advantage in our trade dealings with them. He says we must tax their imports to offset their currency manipulation, which will cause American companies to be competitive again and drive manufacturing back to America and create jobs here. Although he sees China as the biggest offender, he believes that America should protect itself from all foreign efforts to take our jobs and manufacturing. For example, Ford is building a plant in Mexico and Trump suggests that every part or vehicle Ford makes in Mexico be taxed 35% if they want to bring it into the U. S., which would cause companies like Ford to no longer be competitive using their Mexican operations and move manufacturing back to the U. S., once again creating jobs here.

6.) Trump wants passage of NOPEC legislation (No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act – NOPEC – S.394), which would allow the government to sue OPEC for violating antitrust laws. According to Trump, that would break up the cartel. He also wants to unleash our energy companies to drill domestically (sound like Sarah Palin’s drill baby, drill?) thereby increasing domestic production creating jobs and driving domestic costs of oil and gas down while reducing dependence on foreign oil.

7.) Trump believes a secure border is critical for both security and prosperity in America. He wants to build a wall to stop illegals from entering put controls on immigration. (And he says he’ll get Mexico to pay for the wall, which many have scoffed at, but given his business successes I wouldn’t put it past him.) He also wants to enforce our immigration laws and provide no path to citizenship for illegals.

8.) Trump wants a radical change to the tax system to not only make it better for average Americans, but also to encourage businesses to stay here and foreign businesses to move here. The resulting influx of money to our nation would do wonders for our economy. He wants to make America the place to do business. He also wants to lower the death tax and the taxes on capital gains and dividends. This would put more than $1.6 trillion back into the economy and help rebuild the 1.5 million jobs we’ve lost to the current tax system. He also wants to charge companies who outsource jobs overseas a 20% tax, but for those willing to move jobs back to America they would not be taxed. And for citizens he has a tax plan that would allow Americans to keep more of what they earn and spark economic growth. He wants to change the personal income tax to:

Up to $30,000 taxed at 1% From $30,000 to $100,000 taxed at 5%From $100,000 to $1,000,000 taxed at 10%$1,000,000 and above taxed at 15%

9.) Trump wants Obamacare repealed. He says it’s a “job-killing, health care-destroying monstrosity” that “can’t be reformed, salvaged, or fixed.” He believes in allowing real competition in the health insurance marketplace to allow competition to drive prices down. He also believes in tort reform to get rid of defensive medicine and lower costs.

10.) Trump wants spending reforms in Washington, acknowledging that America spends far more than it receives in revenue. He has said he believes that if we don’t stop increasing the national debt once it hits $24 trillion it will be impossible to save this country. Even though he says we need to cut spending, he does not want to harm those on Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. He believes that the citizens have faithfully paid in to the system to have these services available and that the American government has an obligation to fulfill its end of the bargain and provide those benefits. Therefore, he wants to build the economy

http://www.catholic.org/news/politics/story.php?id=62911

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Sign up for Second Call Defense here:  http://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707  Use my name to get added benefits.

The Facts About Trump University: Ambulance chasers and political hacks trying to stop history at the expense of truth

Many people from the Republican establishment hope and pray that the legal issues surrounding Trump University will sink Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.  However, unlike them, Trump has put himself into contact with thousands and thousands of people who want to sue him at the slightest provocation—because he is so incredibly wealthy.  Public sector politicians really don’t understand that kind of risk—yet Trump has thrived in spite of that treacherous trend.  Even so, it is hard to find people out of literally the many tens of thousands who have been in direct contact with him as either employees, or customers who can say anything bad about him.  I’m a really good person and it would be easy for people to find two or three hundred people who hate me and would love to bury me anyway they could.  Trump runs an even greater risk of that kind of attitude, yet even on such a large stage, very few can actually step forward and say anything against him.  Those that do are obvious ambulance chasers and that is the situation surrounding Trump University.  Here is Trump explaining the situation with evidence to provide clarification to the controversy. 

When it comes time to vote for Trump in your state—do it!  It’s not just a vote for a really good guy who doesn’t say enough about all the people he’s helped.  It’s a shot in the hull of a really corrupt band of pirate outlaws holding the GOP hostage—and they need to be driven out.  Trump is our best shot at doing it—so don’t waste the opportunity.  Send this to someone you know who wants to learn more about Trump University and Donald Trump in general.  If they are on the fence—get them off it and into a voting booth to vote in for Donald Trump.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Sign up for Second Call Defense here:  http://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707  Use my name to get added benefits.

Black Ops III: Life in 2065 and the future of human evolution

It’s been a while since I have played console games.  For several years now my wife and I played Star Wars: The Old Republic on our PC and loved it, until the new Star Wars movie pretty much ruined my love of that George Lucas creation.  So I was looking for options and finally picked up a PS4 for all the obvious reasons, and the unit I bought happened to be a Black Ops III bundle specific for the popular Call of Duty video game series.  I know Call of Duty is a very popular title, but I haven’t played it before primarily because I thought it would be too “military” based, which I hate.  I can’t stand the mission dialogue about sacrifice and duty trumping personal honor and all that crap—so the title to the popular console game turned me off.  However, since Star Wars is now off-limits I’m willing to try a few other things, so I thought I’d give it a try to could quickly see why it’s so popular.

These video games continue to impress me with their immersive science fiction stories that are quite sophisticated.  Going all the way back to the first person shooter Half Life, things have come a long way to this latest Call of Duty offering.  But what continues to impress me is the exploration of science within these games and the possibilities of what life will offer us over the next one hundred years.  I was surprised to find that the story was set in 2065 and it involved several elements of advanced robotics and nano technology.  It also weaved a fairly sophisticated political plot within a story suitable for a House of Cards episode.

My life is unique in that I do things in the real world that are considered, “important.”  I have hobbies that are very, “physical.”  Yet I enjoy quite a lot to step behind a technological veil and explore worlds bridging the best of modern science fiction, science and art and mixing them all with contemporary politics and a Millennial skepticism of authority—and viewing the world from that vantage point.  Not many people my age successfully go back and forth like that.  They evolved in their thirties to playing golf by their forties.  It is difficult play a round with important people on a Friday afternoon, then go home and play some Black Ops on PlayStation for the evening.  I can do it, but not many can.  I find that the ability to enjoy all aspects of modern life to be more valuable than just specializing in one particular thing during sectional moments of a lifetime.  I value the childlike playfulness of harboring many interests and not regulating those passions due to a social context.  Given that, I find the stories of modern video games to be very important mythologically into preparing our society for the massive changes that are about to occur over the next two decades.

For many years I have played video games and we’ve had just about every system since the Atari 7800 back in the 80s.  I raised my kids on video games and I have played them a lot.  Over the last few years, I’ve been very busy and I haven’t kept up with the big technological breakthroughs largely because I wanted to see where everything was going.  4k televisions and these incredible sound developments from Bose were poised to change the home entertainment industry a few years back, so I sat on the fence to sort of watch things before making big investments.  A few of our family members have personal home theaters with projection televisions, which I thought were fantastic, but I was skeptical that they’d hold out to the strong resolution that gaming systems, and streaming services like Netflix were offering, so we held on and didn’t get a PS3 or an Xbox One.  My big problem with the Xbox One was the emphasis on online content and downloadable offerings.  I like to own things and if you lose your hard drive—which happens, then you lose your downloads.  And I’m not a big fan of cloud storage systems, because they don’t exist within my control.  So it was a bit of a treat to play a PlayStation 4 for the first time.  It’s probably been three or four years since I last touched a PlayStation controller—so it was nice to turn it on again and see the throbbing lights which are new on the PS4 as it came to life.

In that regard, the story of Call of Duty Black Ops III pulled me in instantly and I found it to be a great adventure.  The robotics and the ability to simulate reality I found most compelling.  I really don’t think we are that far away from a day when we can download ourselves into new bodies or machines—whichever we see fit and that we as a human species will exist not as biological entities, but as an essence.  In that way I found the story of Black Ops III to be extremely compelling.  As I played it I couldn’t help but think of how these video game stories are changing the way that Millennials see the world.  As of this writing, we are on the cusp of commercial space travel and nano technology as things are changing very quickly.  It’s easy for me to see just in watching the evolution of PlayStation from the PS2 which I played like crazy during the first decade of the new century to the PS4.  The creative use of lights on the console and controller along with the evolution of storage leads the mind to easily see a day where the stories in these video games will actually manifest into a reality—whether its alien life as seen in Half Life, or the future tech of warfare in Call of Duty Black Ops III, the options to us are going to be quite extraordinary.

The best science fiction of our age isn’t coming from books, or movies—it is coming from video games.  I know a lot of young people buy Call of Duty for the online multiplayer content, but seriously, the campaigns on those games is very interesting.  The science is “compelling.”  It’s one thing to read these kinds of things in science fiction novels, but it’s quite another to interact with high science concepts in a 3D environment.  In the case of Call of Duty, I’m glad that I have been mad at Star Wars, because I gave Black Ops III a chance I might have otherwise not had given it.  While it would be fun to take a few weeks of my life and just sit around playing video games–it’s not very practical for me.  I have to manage my time very carefully to fit everything in, and that kind of luxury is hard to find.  So I appreciate a good gaming experience when I can get it and Black Ops III was certainly that.  The science alone does it—the empowerment of interacting with objects within a virtual environment ahead of actual scientific invention is a marvelous attribute—and a necessary step toward the fulfillment of the next leap in mankind’s long evolution.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Sign up for Second Call Defense here:  http://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707  Use my name to get added benefits.

The ‘House of Cards’ are Falling Down: People voting for Trump and Cruz likely because of the popular Netflix series

I have been asked so much over the last two years which role I played with my blog site here, that was comparable to the popular Netflix series House of Cards.  Well, I couldn’t give an answer because I don’t watch much entertainment television.  Movies haven’t been very good for the last half of a decade and television series have not been a priority.  I can’t relate to most of the plotlines.  I’ve lived too much life to feel sympathy for most plot devices—so the stories are often boring to me.  I do enjoy that type of entertainment from time to time, but it’s not very often.  I watch CSPAN a lot along the various news channels—and typically don’t get very much out of dramatic television.  But the question persisted, what role did I play in the real life House of Cards?  Well, my wife and I recently made an audio/visual upgrade and we were looking for something to watch that could stretch the legs of the new system.  House of Cards was on my mind—it was broadcast in the highest current video format which was very colorful, so we watched the first couple episodes and enjoyed it.  I found it to be pretty realistic, but too simplified to what really goes on in politics.  But still, the writers of the show did something that was very difficult to do; they captured roughly how life in the Beltway really is through the Kevin Spacey character.  And my role with this site was shown in several characters—primarily the conspiracy theorist web writer who was living in a trailer park, and the reporter for The Washington Herald  who broke stories on her blog site that her bosses wouldn’t touch otherwise.  It was an enjoyable experience to watch because it let viewers into a world that I have learned to understand all too well.  And its effect on the popular electorate is quite obvious as the election results from Saturday March, 5th 2016 poured in late at night and the establishment candidates had bombed badly.  Marco Rubio and John Kasich had barely hit the registered vote while Trump and Cruz ran away with the night.

The “Washington Establishment” is defined in the Netflix show.  It’s not just one person leading the nation from a back room, or a conglomeration of bankers running the world from the basement of some ancient pyramid dedicated to gods long-lost to our written record.  It is the Kevin Spacey character—a congressman who is the majority WHIP of his party who is manipulating Washington at every level, from the guy who owns the ribs restaurant in the hard streets of a black neighborhood to the President of the United States.   House of Cards captures the culture of the Washington establishment quite well, and accurately.  Obviously when Mitt Romney was sent out to do several hit pieces on Donald Trump, the scheme didn’t work.  Trump withheld the barrage, although Ted Cruz certainly benefited.  During the unique Saturday election, nobody ran toward an establishment candidate and that clearly baffled the Frank Underwood types.  Fox News was mystified and several guests on the other shows literally looked as if they had been shot out of a cannon.  The establishment and all their tricks were dead, and it may very well be the television show House of Cards that finally killed it.

Netflix has around 34 million paid domestic subscribers and roughly 6% to 10% have watched at least one episode of House of Cards which is the flagship show offered by the streaming company that essentially destroyed Blockbuster Video.  That means that at least 3 million people have at least watched some of the House of Cards episodes at some point in their subscription.  However, that is likely a very conservative number.  The numbers are likely higher if the IMDb ratings scores are considered as a statistical sampling.  House of Cards has over 275,000 votes which are much higher than other popular shows on more traditional networks.  Since Nielson Ratings don’t have a good way to account for ratings on streaming services over the Internet all this is so new and game changing that nobody but Netflix really knows how many people are watching their most popular show.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/importance-house-cards-netflix-202608552.html;_ylt=A0LEV7lEE9xWAmsAMX0PxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw–

The Tea Party has been around now for about seven years and it has certainly made its imprint on politics.  As I’ve said before, even in the video game industry, anti establishment plot lines which deal with the nuances of corruption at the highest levels are typical.  Assassin’s Creed comes to my mind regarding this topic. The story is a fairly complex one that takes game players to pinnacle moments in history that is being simulated against a dystopian future which makes classic stories like Brave New World and Animal Farm look overly simplified as a result. The world is moving very fast now technologically, and people from my age and older are missing it, because it’s all coming in so fast that classic media is resisting the implication—so they are under reporting it.  If you add all this up you essentially get what voters have decided for themselves–they want to destroy the Washington establishment one way or the other.  The only real difference is whether they want to do it with someone like Donald Trump who represents someone who could out-fox anyone in the Beltway for several years, or a constitutional anchor in Ted Cruz who would say no to everything.  That is what came out of the really pivotal vote on March 5th.

When Mitt Romney came out against Trump just days before the big vote, on a day when Trump was facing down his rivals on the Fox News debate where Megan Kelly for the first time since a major feud with Donald Trump had erupted, would ask the New York billionaire hard questions in front of tens of millions of people—few thought the results would be as they turned out.  The bets were on Marco Rubio to get a spike, followed by John Kasich and that hasn’t happened at all.  In fact, Rubio was literally trounced on Saturday.  With all that was said, Trump not only survived, he won his two targeted states and split with Cruz the other two.  In the delegate count, Trump is just shy of 400 going into the winner take all states which he’s poised to do well with while the other candidates are well behind.  The establishment really doesn’t know what to do because Ted Cruz is the closest to Donald Trump at only less than 100 back.  This was not part of the plan.  If this was the House of Cards, Kevin Spacey would be having a meltdown because these rules of power and politics were not from the world he understands.  Everything has suddenly turned on its head and nobody in the know understands where it came from. 

That is precisely why I have written so much on this topic for years.  People watch these shows, they play these video games and the do research on the Internet to find out for themselves what’s really going on.  The traditional media is not a part of that revolution so all this is happening outside of their control.  But it is clear to me that shows like House of Cards is waking people up to a truth they may not have otherwise considered.  They might come to a site like mine for additional information to validate their suspicions, but House of Cards is bringing the average person a level of insider sophistication that they didn’t know existed before by just watching CNN or reading The Washington Times.  And America has made a decision to pull out the foundation of that house and to let the whole thing just topple down.  They don’t want a House of Cards running their nation-and they have voted to move in that direction.  Even the popularity for Bernie Sanders explains the same on the side of Democrats and other left-winged people.  People are tired of the tricks and the manipulation, and they want to bust up the system at its very core.

This all brings us back to my role in all this.  Well, my job isn’t really covered in the Netflix series.  There are some characters that are similar, but nobody is doing what I’m doing for the reasons that I do within that story.  To get to that, it would require several layers of sophistication more, but that is not the fault of the writers of House of Cards.  They have done a wonderful job putting all these pieces together within Washington culture.  They certainly deserve their Emmy Award victories.  They have brought to life in the Frank and Clair Underwood characters, who unfortunately really do exist in all the viciousness that House of Cards shows, a representation of a truth—and American voters are ready to turn away.  So they watch House of Cards on Netflix, or they play Assassin’s Creed and want to know more.  That’s when they find me and all this voluminous material.  Then they check the sources I list and watch the videos, and they start changing their minds about things because they have source material from several different places starting with art, and then seeking out validation with journalism, then in opinion by measuring their reaction to others.  My job is to be that middle offering.    That element is missing from House of Cards because in that world—not many people are watching television except for the news.  But it’s close enough to make the needed changes that we are witnessing—and that is a very good thing.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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