How Ted Cruz Screwed the Pooch: Going the way of Mike Huckabee

Prior to the Iowa caucuses I liked Ted Cruz; I thought he’d be a good running mate to Donald Trump. But his strategy in winning there certainly raised my eyebrows. When Donald Trump first started complaining about it, I thought he sounded like a sore loser—a second place runner-up. But as more facts emerged regarding the Cruz campaign floating a CNN report about Ben Carson dropping out of the race after Iowa, and the look of the Cruz campaign literature, it was clear the supposedly honest Ted Cruz—the Christian conservative from Texas, was running a guerrilla warfare campaign designed to sway voters a few percentage points in his favor. And it worked. He needed to win Iowa and he managed to sway enough voters in his direction to pull it off. But the way his campaign purposely misled voters in the final hours is something to take notice of.

In the end, it was his Mike Huckabee moment; Ted Cruz will be remembered for his win in Iowa then his sharp drop off in the subsequent primaries. I can’t say I blame him for trying to win, but to even do so with a tinge toward deceit is not the way to do it. He should have known better and his bad judgment makes me question him as a person. I do not any longer see him as an honest option. It has changed my opinion of him as a viable vice president. The measure of a man—or a women—is how they behave under pressure. Under pressure, Ted Cruz folded and compromised his ethics—clearly. Would he have won without the little schemes—probably, but he should have trusted his ground game without the antics—his victory wouldn’t have been this tainted.

Should Trump have pointed all this out looking like a sore loser? Actually, yes, he did have a point. Republicans are too often way too conciliatory toward loss. It is refreshing to see Trump get angry and to lash out at the proposed cheating. Cruz either has scandalous characters running his campaign, or he personally knew what was happening. Either way, they are Cruz people and the boss is always responsible for the content of the people working for them—whether or not it’s fair. Cruz because his people have shown a propensity to manipulate the facts, is guilty because of them.

There were several interesting issues that emerged after the Iowa caucus. First was the overwhelming joy that the mainstream press and politicians had toward Donald Trump in “losing” in Iowa. This was a pretty baffling sentiment to me; the presidential primaries are a lot like a NASCAR racing season. You don’t always have to finish first; you just need to average consistently high marks to win the season with points. Trump got a lot of delegates in Iowa, and he’ll get a lot more in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and Arkansas. He doesn’t have to win every one of those states outright. He just needs to finish in the top three, and he could still win the nomination. You’d think before everyone from the Cruz camp ran their mouth, they would have considered those elements.

But they didn’t, Trump gave a gracious speech congratulating Ted and he moved on to New Hampshire pretty fast. But the media and other politicians decided it was time to swipe at Trump and he got pissed off. Look, I understand Trump. The more he talks the more I think he’s a long-lost brother of mine. After a few hours of prodding, he blew up and started lashing out, and I would have done the same. Cruz won under questionable circumstances—by his own doing, and he deserved to have some bombs thrown in his direction. On the delegate count, Cruz is not poised to do well in the next couple states, so the small lead he gained from Iowa will evaporate quickly so his arrogant speech and actions after the victory were misplaced. He should have played it much smarter.

I have a general policy, when I have a great victory; I tend to play it like I’ve been there before—because I have. To get all animated over wins is to show the world that you don’t feel such things very often. I believe in the adage, act like you’ve been there before. On occasions when things don’t come out the way you want them to; don’t cry about it like a baby. Just move on. If someone gloats in your face, knock them on their ass. In my assessment, Trump was willing to be gracious. He congratulated Ted and was moving on. But Ted and his supporters gloated about their victory and it pissed off Trump. So he knocked Ted on his ass, and Cruz deserves it.

Then of course came the revelations of impropriety the following day, and many who hoped that Trump had been humanized into compliance for the first time in his life were shattered to learn that he was fighting hard at what had occurred. They called his behavior a Trumpetantrum. Cruz went so far as to call Trump more immature than his young girls. Actually, he used the words, “well-behaved.” Well, we all know what that means to a politician. Well behaved is an insult, it’s an assumption that people will do as they are told and act in accordance to the laws of orthodox. I don’t want a well-behaved president in the White House. I want an ass kicker and a rugged individualist. I’m not looking for a king to tell me what to do; I’m looking for someone who is capable of thinking like me in the Oval Office. Someone who won’t get pushed around and someone who is willing to call out misconduct. I’m not looking for even temperament in a president. Ted Cruz attempted to paint Trump as a reckless maniac who should not have his hands near a nuclear option—from what reference is the Texas senator representing? What experience does he have under duress, to stand in front of the senate and read Doctor Seuss books? Trump has actually built structures worth many hundreds of millions of dollars and he navigated a delicate minefield of politics to perform the task. In several decades of being a top dog in the real estate world, Trump never “lost it” over anything. Sure he has a temper, but he’s always in “control.” What stress has Ted Cruz experienced that dictates that he has the temperament to handle a nuclear option? Who between the two, Trump and Cruz has the best ability to out-wit a potential enemy country? Trump is a LOT more qualified if we are comparing apples to apples.

The established order loves conquered people. They like people who have faults and are aware of those follies. They are failed people themselves and it hurts them to write about and consider a person who is not a guilt riddled idiot. The world was praying for a beaten Trump, a person who had fallen on his sword and was willing to yield. Well, he was gracious, but he’s not a beaten man. And because of that, he has the authority to call out Cruz for misconduct—because he plays things straight and aggressive. Cruz should have seen the terrain and stuck to it, but instead he got power-hungry and showed his cards too early. Now he has ruined himself. Yes, he got the win, but he lost the war. He should have been loyal to a winner by acting like one himself, instead of a school kid who scored his first hockey goal. In the process of his celebration he cheapened himself in ways that are irreparable. Now he’s worthless to the freedom movement—and that is something I didn’t want to see. Yet, for all the embarrassment that is coming his way, he should have known better.

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.

Vote No on Issue 4 on March 15th: Taking your money back from Lebanon City Schools

Do you remember dear reader all the shenanigans a few years ago regarding the Lebanon School levy in Ohio? CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW. There was a lot of resistance to the tax increase and when it failed the district kept putting the issue on the ballot again and again until they wore down the opposition and it eventually passed. It’s the same game that every district plays over just about every issue. It doesn’t matter if it’s gambling in Ohio, or marijuana legalization. When progressive activists want money or something legalized, and that’s what school levies are, they do not respect the law of a previous vote. They are “progressives” they seek to destroy tradition and ultimately private property by taxing it so high that ownership falls eventually to the state because the cost of maintaining it is prohibitively high.

Well, the Lebanon City School Board of Education is proposing a renewal of a 5-year emergency levy that will raise $3 million a year for operating expenses on the March 15 ballot. The levy first passed on Nov. 8, 2011. A renewal would cost taxpayers the same amount they have been paying since then. The board was also scheduled to consider hirings and resignations and other staff issues.

http://cincinnatinewspost.com/warren-county-lebanon-school-voters-face-renewal-levy/

The taxpayers in the Lebanon school district should take notice. This again is a rare chance to lower their taxes. If enough people go out to vote this levy down, it could save hundreds of dollars in property taxes. Only on rare occasions do voters get a chance to lower their taxes by simply voting. You should call all your friends and neighbors dear reader and make sure they get out and vote on Issue 4 March 15^th 2016. We all love children, we just can’t afford to love them this much by dumping endless amounts of money into a babysitting service that seeks to ruin their minds with liberalized educations. You can vote down this levy and put a lot of money back in your pocket that was taken back in 2011 through coercion by the Lebanon school board.

It is a patriotic obligation to turn down school levies. It is the best way to force a district to control their costs. You cannot allow them to hide behind your children utilizing a progressive tactic to destroy private property ownership in America through taxation. The best thing you can do for yourselves is to vote to put more money back into your pockets, the kind of money you had before the levy passage in 2011. That money was stolen from you if you voted no and it went to the overpaid babysitting services of your neighbors who wanted to believe they were wealthier than actuality because they had free daycare for their children while they worded dual incomes within the household. Saving the daycare expenses for their children gave them the illusion of wealth management instead of just another welfare program designed for the middle class.

Kids aren’t learning the value of their educations. Public schools are liberalized institutions instructing kids to vote for crooks like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as opposed to a conservative GOP member. Schools teach kids to have reckless sex, to question their parent’s authority, and to experiment with drugs. So what value are they really, do they justify the enormous cost of that institutionalized instruction? Absolutely not, if children were coming out of high school pushing against Einstein’s equations or solving really complicated problems in economics and physics, I might have a different opinion of public schools. The kids coming out of public school these days are stupid at best, at worst they are diabolical idiots and menaces toward an electorate. There is nothing special about public education except that it’s free—it’s a massive wealth redistribution scam designed to liberalize children and provide free babysitting to neurotic parents.

Others reading what I have said will argue that through public schools children have access to team sports. Well, that’s not such a great thing. Whereas I love football and baseball, as well as basketball, I don’t like the team concept. I like telling people what to do, but I don’t like taking orders. I’ve always admired coaches in sports as opposed to the players, they come and go, but coaches and their strategy win the games. Public schools like team sports because it fulfils their mission of breeding nice little communists who function as a collective whole as opposed to individuals functioning from their own impulses. While there are some exceptional athletes that emerge from the public school system, most of the children raised within sports organizations turn out to be unimaginative douche bags having their individualized brains beat out of them by the team concept. Many parents wish for their children to suffer through that process because they hope it opens up scholarships for college, which gets the parents off the hook for paying for tuition. But in the process of that pursuit, children are destroyed often for life. It is good to feel the blood and battle of winning and losing, but the process of destroying minds along the way is the unfortunate byproduct. Parents of these children are bad because they seek organized sports to teach their kids about team concepts as opposed to individualized pursuits, then when their child gets a scholarship and goes to college; liberal professors destroy that youth with progressive instruction politically motivated. The parents looking for relief of responsibility in paying for college and in caring for their children during the day while both parents are out working hard to make as much money as possible only to piss that money away on high taxes on property and other consumables, have set their bright young children up for miserable unhappy lives due to their inherit laziness. So there isn’t much good about sports offerings at public schools. They may entertain the adults and give them relief of responsibility, but they philosophically destroy children for life with a focus on collective input as opposed to individualized redemption.

So don’t feel bad for not voting in favor of Issue 4 on March 15^th 2016. You have a chance to save some money and you just might save the mind of some children by limiting the liberalized influence they are being bombarded with within a public school environment. Don’t feel bad about it for even a fraction of a second. The Looters of Lebanon have already stolen your money once, now you have a chance to take some of it back. I suggest you do so and enrich your own life and let the Lebanon school board rot at their expense. By throwing more money at them you aren’t helping children, you’re hurting them. There is no good reason to do so. Vote No on Issue 4 and take back the money Lebanon city schools stole from you in 2011. If you want to teach your kid about team sports take the money you’ve saved on your taxes and buy them a PS4 and let them play Madden Football or some other sports program. Screw the real life interaction, save them from the embarrassing locker room shenanigans and the demeaning hazing rituals and just let them learn to play the game. We live in a new age and the old public education values have proven to be detrimental. It’s now our responsibility to walk back the money and defund their tyranny. You can begin that process by voting No on Issue 4. Click the links throughout this article for the history of the Lebanon levy issues. That way you can in good conscience know that by voting No you are doing the right thing. The information and radio broadcasts we did just on Lebanon were voluminous.

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.

Ted Cruz is like Light Beer: Donald Trump is the real thing

While I think Iowa blew it by not putting Donald Trump out in front during the recent caucus, the first of the primary season, the game is far from over. Cruz may be able to ride some momentum but in actuality he likely blew his wad. I don’t dislike Cruz. I think he would make a good president someday, but he does not have what it takes to run the dysfunctional Oval Office in 2016. Constitutional purists and other Glenn Beck conservatives are smoking crack if they think he does. A better framework of a more functional government is needed before Cruz could run the White House.

However, from the Cruz camp a lot of arrogance was exhibited after the senator came out on top of Trump in Iowa. Cruz had obviously spent a lot of time and resources in Iowa, and it paid off for him, but there are a lot of states left, and he’s a long way from first place in a lot of them. So arrogance is not the proper response—in fact it’s disingenuous. If not for Trump, Cruz would be nowhere. He would have been crushed by the very large foot of the GOP establishment right out of the gate. It is only because Cruz has been drafting in the wake of Trump that Cruz is now positioned to be a legitimate candidate. Don’t ever forget that Cruz fans. You should be licking the testicular fortitude of Donald Trump and thanking him for Cruz’s first victory in Iowa. While the GOP fought with Trump, Cruz ducked fire and lived long enough to have Trump destroy everyone else. Trump likes Cruz and purposely sissy slapped him up to this point. Consider Iowa a gift from Trump.

A failure to understand these kinds of things is the reason why Glenn Beck has stalled and Freedom Works in general has not been able to advance their position over the last five years. They did their jobs and have delivered Tea Party presidential candidates to the top three of the primary season, but really only Donald Trump is able to take the freedom movement to the next level. Trump is an Alex Jones conservative whereas Cruz is a Glenn Beck purist. One is better at combat, the other is better at crying. Cruz as president might be able to give nice speeches and appeal to America’s sentimental tradition, but he will be powerless to reform K-Street, and that’s where the real fight is. It’s nothing against Cruz, but he’s way too nice and ideological to advance that fight to a conclusion in favor of liberty.

I don’t think a lot of people really understand what is at stake and who the real enemy is. I think they are blinded by ideology and sentiment. The most important issue of this election season is the $19 trillion dollars in debt that literally just occurred as the Iowa caucus went to a vote. There are only two legitimate candidates based on the voting results, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Of those two only one is able to tackle the complicated and contentious issue of dialing back the national debt—Donald Trump. There is no other option. That issue is certainly outside of the Ted Cruz wheel house. If we were talking about issues of Constitutional law or Supreme Court nominees, Ted Cruz would be the guy. But the first priority is to organize our finances. Constitutional law will mean nothing if our economy collapses under the weight of overwhelming national debt. It’s very, very simple.

Trump would be wise to change-up his message and to focus on issues that Cruz cannot compete with, such as The Donald’s abilities with financing and international trade. In those areas Trump flourishes and no other candidate can compete. With a healthy lead in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Trump can only lose ground by getting angry at the media for not respecting his platform and his Iowa results. He comes out of Iowa with one less delegate—big deal. If he can maintain his lead after the next two primaries, it won’t even be a competition any longer. But Trump has to make sure his poll numbers translate into voters—and to do that, he needs to refine his message to the centerpiece of economic Armageddon, which is very real, the national debt.

But as for Cruz, the supporters of him should be bowing at the feet of Trump. If not for the New York billionaire, there would be no Cruz—and that includes Glenn Beck. How ungrateful have he and Stu been on their radio show on The Blaze—something that I once very much supported but can now no longer listen to. Trump paved the way for Cruz and delivered the Washington newcomer with a legitimate win in Iowa, and Beck should be grateful. When Cruz announced his presidency at Liberty University Beck was very happy, but the senator had no chance then of becoming a front-runner until Trump entered the race and forced people to look at Cruz as a “moderate,” it’s the overton window trick in the favor of Republicans for a change. Cruz supporters are simply people too chicken to vote for Trump. He is the soft version of a true outsider candidacy.

They try to hide their cowardly behavior by declaring that Trump is not a true conservative, or that he had the Clintons at his wedding. Heck, Glenn Beck worked at CNN, do people want to hold that against him in the same fashion? What they don’t tell you is that they are just too chicken to support Trump so they lean toward Cruz as an “outside” candidate that still feels to them like a traditional politician. Cruz is the safe second choice hiding in Trump’s wake as he mows down opposition toward the liberty movement. Like a NASCAR racer drafting behind a faster stronger car during a race, Cruz has hidden in the aerodynamics of the frontrunner, and now his supporters cheer as if he were always a champion. No, he was just hiding like a snake in the weeds waiting for opportunity rather than shaping it himself.

Ted Cruz is like light beer, and a lot of people like light beer. Trump though is the good stuff. The issue really comes down to what people want, but with $19 trillion in debt and rising quickly, there isn’t much time to play around. Ted Cruz just doesn’t cut it for the problems of our times. He might make people feel good, but he is a light weight. He could have never survived the primary process without Trump, but Trump could easily survive without Cruz. And that tells every voter everything they need to know.

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 Feather from a Mountain Temple: Manifestations of thought and culture for future generations

Sometimes the details are not important. To ask why I was in Japan doing something extremely important for my part of it would be to miss the internal reason for traveling there. The mind has a way to unleash whatever it is that you most desire and it will manufacture the circumstances of your contemplation—so it is always good to mind your thoughts—even in the middle of the night in a far away land. The products of your thoughts will manifest into reality at some point in time. If you are skilled enough to keep your thoughts very good then eventually your mind will produce into reality whatever becomes the sum of your contemplations. So be careful what you think about.

I have talked about it before, but I’ve spent well over two decades now studying a pretty small book written by Miyamoto Musashi called The Book of Five Rings. I can’t say that it’s my favorite book but I can say that I don’t think a single day has went by since I first read it that I don’t draw from it. So as fate would have necessitated I was in Japan doing Musashi types of things on a big scale, but that was not the intention of the trip for me. There were a cast of characters who had worked very hard together to bring me to a temple atop the mountain Shosha and specifically to the statues of the Shitennō protectors within the temple Maniden. I was doing the kind of things that were the products of my mind that were very specific to all my lifelong efforts so I was living in the moment. There was nothing for me to pray to standing atop that mountain temple isolated from the world that resided far below in Himeji City. I was very impressed with the Maniden structure, it was massive. I couldn’t help but think of the time when Musashi climbed a similar mountain to confront the Buddhists gods then came down spending the rest of his days as an undefeated samurai conqueror uniquely individually based.

The Maniden temple was dedicated to the national religion of Shinto Buddhism which was an inherited mythology from the long forgotten Indus Valley as far over to the east as India. The gods Shitennō are classic examples of Indus Valley mythology which I believe is a remnant of a long lost civilization predating all known history and religion. During his early travels I believe Jesus Christ ran into aspects of Buddhism and took it back to the shores of his birth with his own spin on Zoroastrianism. That religion would of course be Christianity which would become one of the world’s largest religions. But, it is a watered down version of what came before and there is nothing to say that Buddhism was the first thought of rationality concerning religion. It too just as Christianity experienced, is a hand-me-down religious philosophy. But in Japan Shinto Buddhism works and they revere their ancient heroes like Miyamoto Musashi without apology. After spending many years reading books about all these topics it was quite refreshing to see the spirit of Miyamoto Musashi in everyone I met in Japan—literally. From the airline stewardesses to the cooks of Kobe Beef in some of the highest end Steak Houses in the world, it was Miyamoto Musashi who used a foundation of Shinto Buddhism to become one of the greatest swordsman who ever lived and a mythological rock that all of Japan had been able to cling to empowering them to take a tiny island and make it one of the world’s most dominate economies.

So there I was in a remote Shinto temple atop a high mountain just as Musashi had visited well before me, and I had to realize that my thoughts were on my next generation. I was looking for something very unique to bring back to my grandchildren and within the temple as is rather common at such temples around the world, there were little souvenirs that were supposed to bring good luck to those fortunate enough to have them. The story goes that with such items that the god who protected the Buddha years ago would also protect those who made offerings within the temple. So in full ceremony and with the help of a professional guide who said a prayer to the Shitennō on my behalf through the smoke of incense, I brought off the mountain gifts for my grandchildren. For my two grandsons, I brought blessed arrows that will ward off and conquer Jyaki demons—whom I call ultraterrestrials. Different names, same embodiments of corrosive spirits. However for my granddaughter who at this time is still an infant not yet crawling I brought a specific ornament that she can hang in her bedroom for all years to come. The ritual is that you write a wish on the back of this ornament and present it to the Shitennō statues and they will carry out the request. So I wrote my wish on the back and my guide prayed to the Shitennō for me and even carried my items down off the mountain since he insisted that the gods would recognize me as a lord for having a servent to conduct this business between gods facilitating harmony and the fulfillment of objectives. So this is what I wrote.

To rule the earth with grace and persuasion making everything your feet touches an addition to your kingdom without bringing harm to a single person. Make it so Shitennō and bring justice to the world.

The Shitennō are Buddhist protectors of the four directions. They ward off evil, guard the nation, and protect the world from malicious spirits, hence the Japanese term Gose Shitennō 護世四天王, literally “four world-protecting deva kings.” Each represents a direction, season, color, virtue, and element (see below chart). They originated in India as deva generals protecting Lord Indra, but were later adopted into the Buddhist pantheon in China and Japan. Each dwells in and protects one of the four continents surrounding Mt. Shumisen 須弥山 (Skt. = Mt. Sumeru), the mythical home of the Historical Buddha and other Buddhist deities. In China and Japan, they are venerated as temple guardians and protectors of the nation. In China, statues of the four are often placed near temple entrances, but in Japan, effigies of the four are more commonly placed around the central deity on the main altar (the main dais is befittingly called the Shumidan 須弥壇). The four are commanded by Taishakuten (Skt. Indra), Lord of the Center. They are nearly always dressed in armor (yoroi 鎧), looking ferocious (funnusō 忿怒相), and carrying weapons or objects (jimotsu 持物) said to eliminate evil influences and suppress the enemies of Buddhism. They are also typically shown standing atop evil spirits (known as Jaki in Japan), symbolizing their power to repel and defeat evil. Sometimes they are depicted with a fiery halo behind them. Their attributes, however, are not rigidly prescribed and thus differ among Buddhist nations. Shitennō iconography is related to the Four Celestial Emblems (dragon, red bird, tiger, turtle) of China, who also guard the four cardinal directions. In Japanese statuary, the Shitennō are almost always portrayed in animated warrior poses rather than static postures of ease or meditation. Among the four, Tamonten (aka Bishamonten) is considered the most powerful, and over time, supplanted the other three in importance. Indeed, Bishamonten is the only member of the four worshipped independently in Japan, both as protector of Buddhist faith and as one of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods — one who brings wealth and prosperity. Bishamonten also supplanted Taishakuten (Lord of the Center) as an object of worship, but Taishakuten never enjoyed great status in Japan.

Guardians of the Four Directions, Protectors of Buddhist Law, Protectors of Human Kind, Protectors of the Bosatsu and Nyorai. Most often found standing at the corners of alters. Ferocious looking, sometimes with fiery halo behind them, often stepping on demons called Jyaki. They protect the Buddhist realm for Taishakuten (Skt. Indra), serving as his generals to guard the territories inhabited by humans. Originally from Hindu mythology, and later incorporated into Buddhism. In the Lotus Sutra, they vow to protect those who believe in the Dharma (Buddhist teachings). In Japanese artwork, especially in the mandala form, the four typically appear in a set order, starting with Jikokuten (East), followed by Zōchōten (South), Kōmokuten (West), and Tamonten (North). All four are described in Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese texts, but their attributes, colors, and names often vary.

Jaki is the name of the tiny creatures the four kings stand upon. Classified as members of the Yaksha in Japan; also referred to as the Amano Jyaku (Heaven Jyaku). In a tradition unique to Japan, the Jaki demons are sometimes represented by two creatures known as Tentōki (Tentoki) 天燈鬼 and Ryūtōki (Ryutoki) 龍燈鬼, which translate literally as Celestial-Lamp Demon and Dragon-Lamp Demon. Japanese legends say these two creatures were originally evil, but after getting trampled by the Shitennō, they repented, were saved, and now carry lanterns as offerings of light to the Buddha, or to light up the road in front of the Shaka Nyorai (Historical Buddha). The Jaki and Tentōki / Ryūtoki symbolize the power of the Shitennō to repel and defeat evil. Two wonderful sculptures of Tentōki and Ryutōki can be found at Kōfukuji Temple in Nara.

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/shitenno.shtml

We carried out the rest of the trip visiting also the nearby Himeji Castle and eating on the grounds of a former Samurai camp. All this put my mind in the proper place to complete the objective of this particular visit. So I have to thank all the many people who made it possible. There were many kind people involved who took such an epic event and played a part in a stage play that had been written by my mind for many years manifesting now at a time in my life where intellect had become the author of reality. It was for these reasons that I think anyone visiting Japan should embark—because within those two monuments is the heart of a culture and the reasons for its massive global success. Unlike Miyamoto Musashi however, I differ in that I have a family that is getting larger by the moment, and I have expectations for them to do better than I have—and I have set the bar very high. But it’s good to have goals so that the mind knows how to formulate reality around the desires that are most embraced in daily thinking.

I don’t believe that the Shitennō will do as the prayer to them instructed. But what I do believe is that my granddaughter will read that wish for years to come and formulate her mind into a reality that will make it so. For that is the aspect of religion that never has quite found itself as a root of contemplation—too often the belief is that something has to give you something to make it happen. That luck and empowerment come from somewhere else and is given based on sacrifice. It’s not. It comes from the strength of thought and the manifestation of those contemplations into reality by the nature of human endeavor. As a very grown man who has read books about such things for years, I understand that the magic of the Shitennō doesn’t reside in heaven; it is within our own minds. So if I could give my grandchildren a way to think largely early enough to still make a difference, then perhaps their lives will reach those lofty peeks with sheer ambition. Sometimes a young, immature mind needs a feather as Dumbo did to convince him that he could fly. Humans need their religions and other emotional crutches to maneuver their thoughts to higher places. But eventually you come to realize what Miyamoto Musashi obviously realized later in life—that we are the authors of our own fate. The story that evolves comes from what we allow ourselves to think and how that manifests into reality. Given that knowledge, it is good to think big—as big as possible. And it is my hope that in the future, my granddaughter will read that wish from the mountain of Shosha and use it as a feather to realize that she can really fly—as far and often as she wishes—for as long as she cares to over the millennia.

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.

Is Kobe Steak Worth It: Celebrating a moment free of nonsense

Occasionally, after a lot of hard work I enjoy indulging in a nice steak to sort of put an explanation point at the end of a sentence. It’s kind of like spiking the football after a long drive toward a touchdown. It’s the appropriate thing to do. In the normal course of things that for me involves either Jag’s Steakhouse in West Chester, or the Rodizio Grill at Liberty Center. When at Jags I typically get the Big Oscar Fillet to serve as that ceremonial spike. Executive Chef Michelle Brown at Jags knows just how to do it all right and the food quality is always consistently high, so when you are celebrating a personal victory—that’s the place to do it. But I am open to new experiences and I will give a new place a chance when the occasion provides. It just so happened that I was in the neighborhood of Mouriya Steak in Kobe, Japan as there was a reason to have a good steak so I had dinner with some very hard-working people who all deserved some fine food.

I had been hearing with an ear toward skepticism that Kobe Beef is the finest in the world—and the most expensive. My thoughts then and now were that anywhere that there is a restricted market and a gigantic supply need around the world, of course the price would be high—but that most of the mystic was generated with perception, and not actual quality. So I was impressed with the Mouriya Steak House and their very exquisite detail to the quality of the experience. The bottom line is that I had a very good steak—and I considered it a rare treat. I have had Kobe Beef at other places around the country, but learning more about it, I am convinced that they were all fakes. The real deal was quite extraordinary. The meticulousness under which the beef is purchased by each steak house was something I couldn’t help but admire, but it was the delivery of it to my plate with all the love and care of the finest specimen on earth that captured my respect. If having a steak is equivalent to a much deserved football spike in an important game, this Kobe steak was equal to scoring a touchdown, with no time on the clock, on fourth down, in the Superbowl. It was a treat to say the least.

http://www.mouriya.co.jp/en/mopr/index.html

Kobe beef (神戸ビーフ Kōbe bīfu^?) (KO-BEH) refers to beef from the Tajima strain of Wagyu cattle, raised in Japan‘s Hyogo Prefecture according to rules as set out by the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association.^[1] The meat is a delicacy renowned for its flavor, tenderness, and fatty, well-marbled texture. Kobe beef can be prepared as steak, sukiyaki, shabu shabu, sashimi, and teppanyaki.

Kobe beef is also called Kobe niku (神戸肉^?, “Kobe meat”), Kobe-gyu (神戸牛^?) or Kobe-ushi (神戸牛^?, “Kobe cattle”) in Japanese.^[1]

Cattle were introduced in Japan in the second century as work animals used for rice cultivation. Because of Japan’s “difficult terrain and sparse arable land” due in part to its mountainous topography,^[2] cattle were bred in small, isolated regions, yielding herds with unique qualities in their meat.^[3]

After the Meiji Restoration, beef consumption remained low, but it has steadily increased since the end of World War II. Kobe beef grew in popularity and extended its global reach in the 1980s and 1990s.^[4]

In the late 19th century, native Japanese cattle were interbred with European breeds, including Brown Swiss, Shorthorn, and Devon.^{[citation needed]} The cattle originally recognized in 1943 as “Kobe beef” were cattle from herds in the Kobe area of Japan, and could be any of four breeds of Wagyu cattle—Akaushi (Japanese Red/Brown),Kuroushi (Japanese Black), Japanese Polled, and Japanese Shorthorn.^[5] Tajima is a strain of the Japanese Black, the most populous breed (around 90% of the four breeds).^[6][7]

In 1983, the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association was formed to define and promote the Kobe trademark. It sets standards for animals to be labeled as Kobe beef.^[8]

In 2009, the USDA placed a ban on the import of Kobe beef to prevent the Japan foot-and-mouth outbreak from reaching US shores. The ban was eventually relaxed in August, 2012 to allow limited amounts of Kobe Beef into the country but regular shipments didn’t resume until March, 2013.^[9]

Prior to 2012, Kobe beef was not exported. The first exports, in January 2012, were to Macau, then to Hong Kong in July 2012.^[15] Since then, exports have also been made to the United States, Singapore,Thailand^[16] and one chef in Canada.^[17]

The increase in popularity of Japanese beef in the United States has led to the creation of “Kobe-style” beef, taken from domestically raised Wagyu crossbred with Angus cattle, to meet the demand. Farms in the United States and Britain have attempted to replicate the Kobe traditions.^[18] From the first Wagyu cattle imported in the 1970s, 150 US ranches now raise “tens of thousands of Wagyu cattle”.^[19]

The meat produced by these cross-breeds is different from the “authentic” Kobe beef, though this is “often by design”, due to the perception that American palates do not actually want the richness of Japanese beef and would prefer a more familiar flavor profile.^[6] Some US meat producers claim any differences between their less expensive “Kobe-style” beef and true Kobe beef are largely cosmetic.^[20] Cuts of US “Kobe-style” beef tend to have darker meat and a bolder flavor.^[21]

In Europe, UK grocery retailer Asda, owned by Wal-Mart, introduced Wagyu beef at the end of 2011 under its Butcher’s Selection line using meat from a herd in Yorkshire, “bred from Holstein dairy cows impregnated with Wagyu semen“. This not only made the beef more affordable, but it also resulted in less marbled meat more familiar to UK consumers.^[2] In June 2014, the German discounter Aldi announced that it was going to introduce Wagyu beef steaks, “with every store receiving a limited number of 50 steaks, priced at a very competitive £6.99 for an 8-oz (225-g) sirloin and rib eye“. However, Aldi’s Wagyu beef was sourced from New Zealand, where the exclusively grass-fed cattle are allowed to roam, more in keeping with changing norms around animal welfare (in Japan cattle are “confined in small pens and given much more energy-dense feed”).^[2]

The proliferation of beef outside Japan marketed as Kobe beef is an issue for Kobe beef farmers. Due to a lack of legal recognition of the Kobe beef trademark in some countries, it is possible to sell meat that is incorrectly labeled as Kobe beef.^[22][23] The Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association planned to publish pamphlets about Kobe beef in foreign languages.^[24]

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

Mouriya’s Steak House Special Selection was the superior quality beef less than 32 months old. They have never given birth, and come from the bloodline of Tajima Cow that is the original family of Kobe Cow. They have been steadily reproduced without close-cross and they grow up in the Mouriya’s contractual ranch in Yabu City, Tajima Cow’s hometown, eating the same fodder that the pure blood Tajima cows eat in the same cowshed; and the taste and relish of the meat are as wonderful as the Kobe Beef. Needless to say, the taste of Kobe Beef is marvelous, but the shortcoming is high price. (Recently, the price has risen again.)

Tajima Cow is the ancestor of Kobe Cow. The name “Kobe Cow” does not mean species or category, but is the name of the brand. Original Tajima Cows that have passed the standard, i.e. those raised by the registered cattle farmers in the list of the Kobe Meat Promotion Association, those slaughtered at the specified Meat Center in Hyogo Prefecture, and those that are ranked A and B, and the BMS value (numerical value that shows marble condition of the beef) is more than 6 are called Kobe Cow.

To start with, Tajima Cow used to live in the country of Tajima (presently northern part of Hyogo Prefecture) as shown by the name eating the wild grass that grew in abundance with clear water in the clear air. The meat of Tajima Cow has been originally good quality, and has become the wonderful brand through cattle farmers’ zeal in raising them as the beef cow. Moreover, the obvious difference comparing to the brand cows in other prefectures is keeping blood line inside Hyogo Prefecture avoiding hybridizing with other ones. This system of maintaining the pure bloodline has been employed only by Hyogo Prefecture’s cattle farmers in Japan. The Kobe Cow and Tajima Cow are basically small, so the beef is fine and not fatty, as well as the relish and flavor are delicious.

While eating the Kobe Steak I couldn’t help but think of the cow and the way the beef was created. In the United States PETA would have had a fit, but they’d be unjustified. These cows were born and raised to be served to people of thought, to make hard-fought victories of economic expansion taste just a little bit better. That type of activity is far superior to just having a cow standing in a field eating grass. It reminded me yet again of how too much emphasis on the wrong type of regulation can stifle a business, whereas part of what made the Kobe Beef so good was the excessive yearning for quality that the farmers pushed for—to satisfy that market demand.

It had been a hard week so the steak was the best way to cap it off. Sometimes it’s the little things in life, sometimes it’s the big ones. And sometimes it’s just good to be surrounded by wonderful quality for a few hours and take a deep breath. Mouriya Steak House is the kind of place that gives you all three experiences at the same time, and it was certainly worth the expense. But then again, life is too valuable to waste it on nonsense—and Mouriya Steak can’t be accused of that.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Zecharia Sitchin Was Right All Along: Caltech reveals something big, exciting and menacing which impacts us all

I had to think about this information for a few days before commenting on it, because it’s a fairly massive revelation—literally. It is a true game changer regarding science. You might have heard that Caltech researchers have discovered the gravity signature of a 10^th planet (I still consider Pluto a planet). This fairly rocked my foundations as it harkened back to a writer I like quite a lot, a man who researched legitimately some wonderful archaeology in the Middle East, Zecharia Sitchin. He was one of the few scholars in the world able to read ancient Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets. So I enjoyed several of his books namely The 12^th Planet. I read that book years ago and all of the ones that followed. They were compelling reads that I often considered with an eye toward science fiction. He asked enough unanswered questions to convince me that there was more to just about everything regarding the origins of life on planet earth. My biggest problem with Sitchin was his theory that Sumerians declared that there was a giant planet that was in our solar system which occasionally came into the path of other planets with a long elliptical orbit that took many millennia to rotate around the sun. I figured that if such an object existed modern astronomers would have discovered it by now. Well……………………………………………………..the Caltech discovery just made Zecharia Sitchin into a man way, way ahead of his time. Before delving further watch this short video about Sitchin and his 12^th Planet, (the sun and moon were considered by Sumerians to be planets). This is not a conspiracy any longer, this is now apparently science fact—or at least it will be once somebody puts a telescope on the planet as they know where it should now be in an elliptical orbit.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/01/20/scientists-may-have-just-found-ninth-planet-and-its-massive.html

The predictions early on, as this discovery is extremely recent news as of this writing, are that this new planet rotates one time around the sun anywhere from 15,000 years to 20,000 years. The Sumerians knew about this planet eight thousand years ago so this certainly falls in line with many mysteries that are heavily speculated about in the time frame of 12,000 to 10,000 B.C. There are thoughts that the Egyptian Sphinx dated back to that period and many other visible archaeological evidence left behind, and this would likely put this new planet within the celestial bodies visible in the night sky to those ancient cultures. It would also likely be responsible for strange gravitational anomalies and other effects felt on earth by whatever species lived at the time.

This resurrects many of the mythologies of that long ago Sumerian period where there was talk about planets colliding and many other tragic events which occurred that didn’t make any sense unless there was some undiscovered planet floating around in space somewhere within the sun’s gravitational pull. This also brings forth a lot of new thought on the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which likely now is the remains of a destroyed planet that collided with this celestial object. If there was life on Mars at the time—as I believe that evidence will eventually show, this may have provoked them to move toward earth for their own survival giving rise to a whole new species that suddenly evolved. A whole lot of new theories built from mythology needs to be reanalysed.

Of course the green movement is in trouble. When this planet enters the elliptical orbit of the inner planets, with earth being one of them, there will be major tidal forces pulling at our planet and really causing damage to our environment. There are thoughts that there will be tidal waves thousands of feet high striking all the major coastlines and the plate tectonics around the globe will be shoved around like puzzle pieces on an empty tabletop. That suddenly provides a lot of motivation for the various mountain ranges seen from the air where they look like coils of land masses pushed up against each other—like a rug that needs straightened out in a hallway foyer. The forces that made those mountains would require tremendous gravitational force. They are not something that would happen under normal orbits around the sun. When this new planet swings in for its long multi millennial journey back out around the sun it will likely have a violent reaction to every planet in our solar system. Maybe not catastrophic, but certainly it will affect the climatic balance of our terrestrial existence.

You have to consider dear reader that all of human life has essentially evolved since this planet was last seen among the orbits of the inner planets. All of our religions and all of our recorded history. The emergence of this planet points more toward the reality of Zecharia Sitchin’s theories which really forces us to look hard at all the archaeology currently being destroyed—I would say on purpose—by ISIS in the Middle East. There have been numerous conspiracy theories about the planet Nibiru (otherwise known as Planet X) emerging for a long time—many of them fans of Sitchin. The theory indicates that the Illuminati and many government entities have known about this for years—and that the Caltech report was the slow way to reveal to the global population that something of great concern is emerging outside their parameters of understanding. What matters to me is that Caltech revealed the information and that NASA is going to back it up with evidence soon. That is the good news. The bad news is that earth may go through some serious stress. Conspiracy theorists think that this planet will flying into the inner planet orbits in 2016. In all likelihood, it is probably several thousand years away, otherwise amateur astronomers would have been talking about it in a more mainstream fashion—but who knows at this point.

The shock for me is that yet again evidence points toward how little we really know about anything—yet our education institutions have closed the book of understanding on way too many things. It actually angers me to learn what I have about the mound cultures of the Ohio Valley—the complete lie politically motivated regarding American Indians, the source of human life, and the celestial bodies. So be sure to watch the videos included with this article with the openness of a child. You do literally have to unlearn what you’ve learned, because that is the only way to deal with things like this. In a lot of ways this is like learning that you’ve had a spouse cheating on you when Zecharia Sitchin was showing you the pictures all along. As a society we have not wanted to know the truth, but eventually it catches up to you. Sitchin turned out to be right—at least a whole lot more than I would have thought when reading his books. I think I told my wife years ago that Sitchin was a neat person, and smart, but that his thoughts were outdated and not supported by hard science.

He traveled the globe for many decades gathering a lot more evidence than most universities applied to the task. But based on the Caltech report, the biggest problem there was in Sitchin’s report of what the ancient Sumerians believed—has turned out to be a valid theory. No wonder so many ancient societies were concerned about the stars and their positions. A planet like the one recently discovered would really cause complications to any life living nearby as such a planet passes through our orbit radius would cause. Likely there were times in the distant past that the planet was really close to earth while other years it was relatively far away. What’s stunning is that there is actually merit to the conspiracy theories shown on this article. So watch them all and stay tuned. Things are really going to get interesting on this story. This is bigger news than a lot of people yet realize.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

It’s Up to You Iowa: A chance to make Donald Trump president and why you should

Iowa, this is your time on the stage. Really, the next election for President of the United States begins and ends with you. If you were to take a moment from preparing for the spring planting period, from life on your farms and industry to vote in the Republican primary on February 1^st, you could put this thing to bed right now. This particular site that you are reading gets particularly busy during election periods because most people don’t have time to pay attention to critical issues regarding politics. Prior to elections they usually do an internet search, and they run across my articles. They read them as opposed to other publications because I usually provide 1500 word articles that cover the details of an issue deep diving into the psychology and politics behind whatever is on the ballot. People have lost faith in the mainstream news, and their local newspapers, but they do tend to trust me and it shows up in voting results usually with a small swing in percentage to the passage or failure of an issue. In close elections—sometimes that’s all it takes. At this point, I’m not sure that Iowa will be close for Republicans but just in case, you should take the opportunity to go out and vote and you should cast your support behind Donald Trump. If you watch the following videos about Trump, you can see easily that he is already more presidential than anybody we’ve had the opportunity to vote for in several decades. And he is the best option for 2016 on either side. But, it takes feet on the ground to actually vote and you should after you’ve watched the following videos completely. Then, pass them along to a friend to make sure they vote for Trump as well.

Trump is a successful person and as just a candidate he has shown that he can hold massive rallies. It is easy to see what kind of president he would be—all encompassing and hard-working taking up the charge personally to jump-start our economy in America once again. The best way to do that is to make the American brand something of value again just as Trump has made his family name nearly household recognizable before he ever ran for president. If Trump can repair the American brand across the world, instantly, many of the things he is declaring that he’ll fix will resolve themselves. Part of the concept of building a wall between Mexico and America is to make entry into the United States more valuable. Any time there is market saturation of something its value goes down. Open border advocates do not like the American concept so they count on lowering the value of the United States so that Mexico can diffuse Constitutional limits through elections and changing demographics. Trump has the experience to ensure that limited access is the best way to command respect of a nice penthouse apartment in one of his buildings in New York. Nobody respects something they get cheaply, or even worse for free. Trump is the most poised of anybody to restore value to what being an American truly should have always been.

There are other good candidates running in the GOP primary. But they just don’t have that next level of ability that Trump has. Not only can Trump identify a problem, but he knows how to talk to people, even those who don’t like him. I think he alone would make the House and Senate work properly with his sheer charisma. I do not think I will always agree with him, but I think he will be very close to what all conservatives have always wanted because as a private sector guy, who owes nothing to any lobbyist, he can actually afford to resist the temptations to enrich himself with K-Street deals where every other candidate must acquiesce to some extent making them much less effective on a day-to-day basis.

The great power struggle in the beltway–what they really fear about Trump, is in losing power to a person elected by a majority of the voters for really the first time in over a century. K-Street truly rules the beltway of Washington. It’s not the House and Senate—it is the lobbyists who run our government and nobody has an opportunity to end that rule better than Donald Trump. For the sake of our country this process of lobbyists controlling our politics in a constitutional republic has to stop. If we don’t end it during this next election cycle, we will lose our country. There is only one way out of our impending fiscal crises—which $19 trillion on the United States debt clock is looming over all our futures—and that is tremendous GDP growth that can only come from a dynamic personality like Trump.

Just prior to the Iowa vote the conservative publication National Review committed an entire edition to hit pieces against Trump from people like Glenn Beck Dana, Loesch, Bill Kristol , and other so-called conservatives. Let me tell you something dear Iowa voter—nobody on that list is more conservative than I am. Not a single person writing for the Nation Review beats me on conservative values. I like a lot of those people the way I might like a typical liberal. I might talk to them about a football game, or a popular movie, but they don’t want to talk politics with me. They are not more conservative than I am. I am extremely pro Second Amendment, anti-abortion, anti-entitlement, pro-American exceptionalism, anti-drug, and I’m against men crying…………..Bill O’Reilly to me is a bleeding heart hippie liberal. My wife is a happy housewife who brings my dinner to my chair every night and we are happy in that traditional role. I’m so conservative that I don’t even show up on a graph measuring conservativism—because I’m to the right of even that. And I’m too smart to be considered a right-winged loon so that description doesn’t fit either. These people, many of whom came into the national stage through Glenn Beck and are simply backing his vision of a constitutional republic that falls in behind a George Washington presidency—and that’s just not realistic or relevant in 2016. Beck thinks he’s doing the work of God, but in reality he’s a former drug addict who is trying to rectify his past with a born again Christian optimism that does not have the ability to combat the problems on K-Street. You can’t throw Bibles at the crooks and loons in Washington—you have to beat them at their own game. The National Review is the proof of why conservatives have been losing for years—because they fail to identify the proper targets to attack and when they do they cannot come up with a strategy to deal with it. Like Beck, they look for guidance through prayer instead of with their own eyes paralyzing them to act properly against evil. While religious values are fine, the reality must be confronted that fewer people than ever can identify with religion and the 2016 election has to be about fiscal issues, not religious ones. One thing certainly comes before other things and their priorities are strategically off at the National Review.

Being a conservative I’m also quite accustomed to being around people who make things in business and I understand why they donate money to politicians. Because of the socialist polices embedded in the United States business people have to pay politicians off otherwise they won’t get their zoning approved, government regulators show up to shut down their businesses, and even worse the IRS shows up to destroy a company through the audit process—so job providers have to pay the troll or face serious ramifications. I see in Trump a person so sick of that process that he has an opportunity to destroy it from within. Aside from inflating his brand I think this is the other big reason that Trump is running for president—to take away the crony shackles that he had to navigate around in New York politics—and replace it with a more free market option. Trump had to support democrats in New York, particularly the various mayors he’s had to deal with over the years otherwise his real estate investments would die awaiting approvals that those politicians had the power to control. For the first time in his life, Trump is truly free—he has enough money that he doesn’t have to depend on anybody for his sustenance, which has allowed him to publicly discuss his politics. Most people during their money-making years—30s through their 50s–avoid public declarations of their political leanings because it gets in the way of dealing with other people. Older people can afford to make people angry with their opinions, so it is usually they who are the most vocal. Trump is now one of those older guys who has all the money he will ever need, so he can afford to let his tongue fly which is why a lot of his opinions are now clearer on things than they used to be. Why would Trump give money to Hillary Clinton—because she was a senator from New York and she could help him get things passed? If he needed a New York mayor to get out of his way, he could call up Hillary and apply some pressure. That’s the way it works. It should say a lot about Trump that he’s been willing to attack the Clintons to get this far in the race. It’s just business for Trump and he has shown that he’ll put American business in front of everything.

So it’s up to you Iowa. You have the facts, you’ve seen the videos. You know what you have to do. Go out there and vote for Trump. Put an end to this election from the very first vote. Be the first and last state to decide who will be President of the United States in 2016. If Iowa goes for Trump the rest of the states will follow and that will be it. All you have to do is show up and cast your ballot for a real opportunity—the one last hope of saving America from a fiscal crises and a detrimental political system that is imploding as we speak. Trump has accomplished more than any of the individuals writing for the National Review. Trump is a conservative because of the way he runs his businesses and manages his family. His actions tell the truth about who he is. The interpretation of his actions are often read by people who aren’t smart enough or conservative enough to see what he is up to behind the curtain. But it’s not hard for me to see. And hopefully, Iowa, you are smart enough to see it to. History is in your hands—so make the right decision.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Why You Can Trust Donald Trump: Understanding ‘The Art of War’

I almost hate to say it, but I predicted this too, Donald Trump being at the front of the race just ahead of the primaries and the Republican establishment reeling in confusion as to what to do. So let me make it easy for everyone. Trump is certainly the best guy for the job of president of the United States. I have been ready to hire him for it since August. CLICK THE LINKS in this article for all the reasons why I think that. The only thing that is holding back complete support for Trump however is the trustworthiness of him, so for this little article I’ll offer the reasons why voters can trust him, why he won’t be a ruthless dictator, and why making “America Great Again” isn’t just a catch phrase used to get elected, but something I think he genuinely believes. I can say these things because I think I probably understand the way Trump thinks better than even he knows about himself. In all actuality, and this comes from my wife who loves him for a lot of the reasons she loves me—Trump is a complex offering who often works on many different levels of thought and presentation at the same time—so you can’t think about him in conventional terms. As a master strategist, Trump knows that the way to make the best deal possible is to align as many people’s interests into an objective so that an intention can be secured. Typical politicians and the media in general only understand one thing at time—typically an idea that can be captured in a 400 word article. Trump cannot be understood in that fashion, it takes a great deal more understanding. So let’s dive in.

Trump first and foremost is all about his brand. That brand is what he will leave behind to his children—which is obviously on his mind as a 71-year-old man in the autumn of his years. Trump has built that brand with excessive quality in the things he does. In order for people to expect the best in something—Trump has worked hard most of his life to give it to them—with grand audaciousness. Building a quality brand is not a trick—you cannot cheat the customer and expect to maintain a reputation of quality. You have to actually deliver. So when Trump paints his name on his airplanes and buildings, it is to signal to all who see it that what they are experiencing is a high quality endeavor. Trump wants to make sure that the brand he has created will endure for many decades—to protect his children and grandchildren and all others who come about in the future. Trump thinks big and he ultimately thinks biggest in regard to his family. He has been content to do things the way he has for his whole life—so long as he had a full life to live. But now, he’s a smart guy and he can see the end. So he wants to secure their future for the sake of his legacy. The Trump brand needs to mean something long after he’s gone and he knows there is only one way he can get there.

The world is a mess and being an experienced successful person, he knows that there are a limited number of people actually capable to solve all the complex problems of our day. He is one of them. Out of all the presidential candidates, he is clearly the only one who could actually solve everything relatively easily. It is one thing to identify problems, but it is quite another to have the skills to solve them. Trump is great at both, so being President of the United States is a perfect job for his particular personality type. I don’t think he cares one bit about the money at this stage in his life, or the enamored position the White House would give him to the public—he already has all that. I think he would personally give his own press conferences each day and would work from before the sun rises to long after it went down. I think he would perform all the social engagements everyday with everyone while still putting in 12 to 14 hours of real administrative work from the Oval Office. I say that from my own experience. Anyone who reads my articles can see how much work I put into them. To their point of view, they think that’s all I do each day because the sheer volume is so extensive. But in reality it’s only like 1% to 5% of my total day. The writing is actually fun for me—but in a given day, I perform a lot of work—much of it really complicated. Trump is obviously a similar personality and at the stage of life that he’s in, he can easily do what Barack Obama would consider very hard, and Trump would do it all in a fraction of the time. I really think more would get done well for America in the first 90 days of a Trump presidency than all the presidents have over the last century during their entire terms.

Trump cannot afford to just say anything to get into office, because he knows that ultimately it will hurt his brand—which is the most important thing to him in this whole effort. To make his brand last for centuries, he has to do what he is saying on the campaign trail. He will not be happy unless he is the best president of the United States in the history of the world, and the most loved. Those are marks he has created for himself, nobody else can make them for him. Trump knows he’s a selfish person, but that’s not bad because as a good deal maker he has aligned his needs to the needs of America so in the end nobody loses. America gets to solve its many problems under a Trump presidency, and Trump gets to preserve his “brand” well past his years for all his descendents in the future.

Trump has run a masterful campaign over the last six months, he has attacked the establishment, and eradicated his rivals. He has positioned himself on the high ground forcing everyone else to come up to meet him on all sides of the political spectrum playing a king of the hill game which anybody who has studied The Art of War understands the criticality regarding that strategy. And now, just ahead of the primary, the GOP establishment is slowly trying to walk back their apprehension of him. That is negotiation from a person very skilled in it—you gradually wear people down until they see things from your point of view. You don’t move off your position, you make them come to yours—but because you don’t beat them over the head and change your tactics a bit, they believe you are compromising with them. It’s basic strategy 101, but Trump is really good at it—almost seamlessly unconscious about it.

So to answer the question of how voters can know that they can trust Trump, it is easy. Trump cannot afford to fail in what he’s promised because he doesn’t care about the nobility of the White House or the public adoration. He doesn’t need money or fame—he already has it. What he wants is respect for his family name long after he’s gone. And the best way to do that is to live up to everything he has said in this campaign and provide voters with options they’ve never had before in a president. Trump expects himself to be better than Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. But he can’t cheat his way there. He has to actually perform—which he has done all his life. But this time it’s for all the marbles and what he gets as profit from this deal isn’t money—its reputation. A reputation that will boost his brand for the next century and care for all the people he loves. That’s why I support and trust Donald Trump. The only race he is running against is his own expectations of success. And if he achieves that, we all benefit.

That is the art of the deal—any deal. If done correctly, we will all be happy in the end.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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The Box Office Failure of ‘The Force Awakens’: One month after its release ‘Star Wars’ has lost its power

Remember where you heard it first. Before Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out while the rest of the world was predicting ridiculous box office numbers for the new-highly anticipated movie, and reviewers hungry to retouch their childhoods were pandering to the Disney machine for freebies to give their kids for Christmas to show they had industry “connections,” I predicted what would happen to the franchise if the movie turned out to be bad—or to stray off formula. (CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW AND LISTEN TO THE RADIO SEGMENT I DID ON THIS VERY TOPIC ALONG WITH MATT CLARK) I had said that taken by itself The Force Awakens wasn’t a bad film—it was on par with the Star Trek films and would be profitable. But it wasn’t magical—it wasn’t deep, or even loyal to the vision that George Lucas had created. It was equivalent to a child sneaking into their parents’ bedroom and wearing their cloths to feel like they were all grown up. The film makers from top to bottom were eager to make a very expensive fan film suitable for a convention showing—not a legitimate entry into the overall mythology. They loved paying a tribute to the Millennium Falcon the way they always dreamed as kids, and to see Han Solo one last time even though the aging actor wanted way too much money for the role to return soaking up a lot of the salary leaving the rest of the cast looking a little resentful. It shows in their performance on-screen. If George Lucas had been more involved, the film would have been better, more intelligent, and would have likely hit many more high marks. But Disney pushed out the original creator and made a two-hour commercial that fans quickly detected as a fake. After the initial showings the film lost steam and was nearly forgotten about only one month after its December release. Now the film is losing ground quickly and will not break all the records it could have. Even with all its success it will be considered a failure because it has now damaged the overall mythology of the ambitious Disney acquisition—because they didn’t listen—they approached the project all wrong—and now they are going to pay for it—sadly. Here is an article confirming what I’ve said from The Inquisitir.

Star Wars box office speculation has been something of a pastime around the internet since Episode VII: The Force Awakens opened in theaters on Dec. 17.

Most analysts predicted big things from the first official “canon” entry since Revenge of the Sith (and some prequels-haters would say Return of the Jedi).

Still, none expected The Force Awakens to smash through domestic box office records as quickly as it did. Naturally, when it eclipsed Avatar, many wondered if the global box office record held by James Cameron’s sci-fi epic would be next.

But as The Force Awakens continues to fizzle out, it looks like it will be lucky to take the No. 2 slot ahead of Cameron’s Titanic.

Of course, that isn’t to say that TFA has any reason for shame. It only cost around $200 million to make it, and it blew past that total in its extended opening weekend.

But there is cause for concern when it comes to the long-term prospect of Star Wars box office gold.

Now, the precursor to this conclusion should note that Star Wars box office numbers will never be in the red. For as long as they continue to make movies and budget semi-wisely, Disney should be able to turn a profit.

But prior to the release of the new film, the George Lucas-created franchise had an untouchable mystique about it that now is in question since Avatar will likely hold onto its all-time box office title (and Cameron has plans for more to come).

Here are a few indications that it could be all downhill from here for subsequent Star Wars box office performance.

Firstly, it’s a fast burn.

The daily averages per Box Office Mojo are falling by about $10 million per week. That means the likelihood of Star Wars: The Force Awakens getting a 238-day run (as Avatar did) are slim. Cameron’s beast ate the elephant one bite at a time, while Disney tried to shovel it all in during the first few weeks, so to speak. This is unlikely to change with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars Episode VIII.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2727946/star-wars-box-office-is-it-all-downhill-from-here/#WyAkeLvrJL3jvGpr.99

Believe me; this news isn’t happy for me. I really wanted to love the new Star Wars movie. I had hoped that it would be a cultural leap for a new generation. Instead it was a political film, much the way Avatar was—an anti capitalist endeavor that speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Avatar was so visually spectacular that people went to see it at IMAX theaters in 3D paying more than usual for the ticket prices. But it didn’t hide its liberal leanings and as a result Middle America lost their ambition for the film eventually. I doubt that the second one will do so well now that the anticipation is gone. I was one of the people who loved Jim Cameron because of Titanic and the Terminator movies—so I was there to help Avatar have a strong opening. We went to an early screening just as we did for The Force Awakens. But in both cases I left the theater realizing that these modern blockbusters did not have the same punch that older films had during the 80s because their politics were off and they lacked an intelligence that would be quoted for the next 30 years. These new films were nostalgic pieces only for hungry movie goers desperately seeking meaning for something.

If The Force Awakens had stayed on course to the overall Star Wars mythology that had been built for three decades through books, comics, games and the original motion pictures rooted in experimental filmmaking it could have made $3 billion dollars and easily toppled Avatar because of the way that modern box office receipts are calculated globally. But Disney acting like a teenage boy trying to eradicate their virginity ejaculated pre-maturely—and now they have a reputation with Star Wars fans as a company that can hold their load. People will still like the future Star Wars movies, but they won’t look at them like a religion—and that is very unfortunate because people wanted to feel that way—and Disney could have made more money and still provided a better social mechanism that would endure for another century. Now, to many Star Wars fans—just as I said would happen once Han Solo was killed off and that Disney didn’t follow the expanded universe stories that hard-core fans loved—The Force Awakens is just another tooth paste commercial—not a deep dive journey into an obscure way of thinking—there is no wisdom from Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi about the Force. It was just Han Solo making Harrison Ford faces one last time. Now that he’s gone—now what? Are people going to strive to see the formally beautiful Princess Leia killed off? I don’t think so. Or to watch Luke suffer through guilt and anxiety after being poised to be a wonderful Jedi Master that he strove to be after the three original films? Are the new characters so compelling that people will line up to see them on their next adventure? While it’s not their fault—the answer is no. The Force Awakens was essentially a remake of A New Hope without all the newness shown in that original movie which played in theaters a year after its release and is still watched by many who have seen it hundreds of times any time it is shown on television. The Force Awakens killed Star Wars. My feelings after watching the movie were that it was time to move on to something else—because it was obvious that I had seen the end of the series with the prequels directed by George Lucas. People can say what they want about those films—but they expanded the vision and were boldly original. These Disney films cannot say the same.

While Disney executives will declare publicly that they are happy with The Force Awakens box office results I am 100% sure that they are concerned about the next five movies they have planned. I agree with The Inquisitir article, the movies will be profitable, but they won’t be so loved that they drive fans to all the peripheral material—the toys, the books, and the games. There was always more money in the merchandise than there was in the movies but to get at it, Disney had to respect the mythology and not use political activism to change the nature of the product expecting people to stick with them regardless—just to see the Millennium Falcon fly through some trees and land in the snow. As a grown man I have several Star Wars t-shirts, many of them featuring the Millennium Falcon. I am considering making them into the type of shirts that I’d wear to work on a car to get dirty instead of being carefully pressed the way they were before seeing The Force Awakens. And I didn’t want to feel that way. I just do because Disney did not respect me as a fan so they destroyed their own market share because of it. And rather than gloat about it now I can only say that I feel sorry for the kids who won’t get to experience Star Wars the way George Lucas had designed it. The franchise has died and it is painful to see, because it didn’t have to happen. If only Disney had listened. I know I certainly did my part. CLICK THE LINKS ABOVE throughout this article to learn more.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Once Upon a Time: A dream that needs to return with a grand fortissimo–and some blazing guns

It has been an evolving theory I’ve had for several months regarding American westerns and their direct association with much-needed values—specifically the Cowboy Way. But going deeper than that I see them as one of the finest examples of laissez-faire capitalism that there is and it took a combination of film directors—trying to imitate John Ford westerns—in Akira Kurosawa and Italian director Sergio Leone to reflect back to America the true meaning of the mythology born in the United States espousing the merits of capitalism. I would go so far to declare that the best western that espouses this necessity in understanding is Once Upon a Time in the West, which I have previously reviewed just as a back drop for this article. Watching that movie provides one of the best examples of why capitalism works and how the gun evolved mythologically to support American values of property ownership. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.

The story follows Brett McBain as he purchased a plot of land in the middle of the desert which nobody otherwise wanted to sink his hopes into real estate that he plans will make him gloriously wealthy. This isn’t the typical story of gold digging or cattle rustling that are so typical of American westerns—this is actually a very intelligent story about something we can all relate with. McBain has made a very calculated risk much in the way that Donald Trump became wealthy—the land he has purchased is sitting on top of a nice aquifer full of fresh water and he knows that steam locomotives need water to run. So he gambles that the railroad will come through his property, and a town called Sweetwater will form around his home making his family rich. This is a very capitalist thing to do and the movie never demonizes that action—in fact it is central to the entire plot.

The value of the railroad itself is provided by the tycoon Morton. Without Morton nothing happens, McBain’s property is just another patch of desert land. The value for the land is provided by Morton’s desire to build a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Without that intention, McBain’s purchase would be meaningless. However along the way to help make it possible to see his dream, Morton hired Frank—a thuggish gunman to eliminate opposition to his plans. In this way the good intentions of Morton become the bad intentions of the crony capitalist which seeks to destroy their competition with force. Along the way, Frank picked on the wrong guy who comes back from the past to face down Frank along the backdrop of the Sweetwater land deal. The avenger of justice in this western is played by Charles Bronson known as Harmonica.

However Morton is sick and Frank fancies destroying his mentor so he can take over his empire, but he doesn’t quite have the business sense that his boss had. Frank learns too late that he’s really only good as a thug and does not have the sweet touch to walk the fine line between good honest business in a capitalist society and a corrupt regime of crony capitalism. He learns this through his failures invoked throughout Once Upon a Time in the West. Frank decides he wants to stop McBain’s deal to build his contractually obligated station for the railroad so that he can complete his part of the fairly complicated business transaction with Morton. Frank kills off McBain and his entire family to essentially stop them from building the proposed train station. Before that killing McBain was feeling pretty good about his life. He had a good business deal and celebrated it by marrying a first class prostitute from New Orleans. Jill didn’t really love old McBain as she had been emotionally hardened after years of prostituting herself but McBain was offering her a second chance at life. In exchange for whoring herself out to one man instead of many, she was getting an instant family and a prominent social place in a growing town. But when she showed up by train to meet her husband and his family she was horrified to find that they had been slaughtered by some gunmen dressed up as known bandits working for an outlaw by the name of Cheyenne. Of course Cheyenne had nothing to do with the killing; Frank simply dressed up his own railroad men to look like those of the recognized bandit. Cheyenne gets blamed for the killing; Frank destroys the ability of McBain to fulfill his contractual obligations to the railroad allowing Frank to sweep in and swipe up the land at an auction making himself rich in the process.

Jill however decides to keep the land which throws a wrench in Frank’s plans. Harmonica steps in to help Jill deal with what Frank is up. He outbids Frank for the land by using the bounty money on Cheyenne’s head to pay for it. Of course Harmonica made a deal with Cheyenne ahead of time to free him before he gets to jail so that the bandit can be a part of foiling the plans of Frank who was the instigator in the set-up. Harmonica then befriends Frank somewhat to get close to him and helps the villain survive an attack by his own. Morton had hired Frank’s gunman as a means of self-preservation because the crippled railroad tycoon realized that he could no longer trust his long time apprentice. Cheyenne escaping from capture then attacked Morton and the rest of Frank’s men as Harmonica and Frank kill off the rest. Of course Jill is considering making Harmonica a sexual mate because he’s strong, mysterious and powerful. But she also has eyes for Cheyenne for the same reasons. She’s angry at Harmonica for helping keep Frank alive but little does she know that the mysterious stranger has been playing Frank the way she attempted to while seducing the killer herself.

Isolated, Frank confronts Harmonica into revealing who he is and what he’s up to. He no longer has any help and the railroad is nearly completed in Sweetwater. So Frank has failed and just wants to know who Harmonica is. That’s when it is revealed that Frank killed Harmonica’s brother many years earlier and the only thing the mysterious stranger wants is revenge. The two fight it out in a classic gun battle where Frank dies. Jill wants one of the two men to stay with her to live out their days together but both Cheyenne and Harmonica leave to avoid being tamed by civilization. Jill meanwhile embraces her role as the matriarch of the town and she gets to live happily ever after with a completely fresh start. Most of the main characters had died leaving only her in the end and the birth of a town that was created under a premise of pure capitalism. It’s actually a very beautiful story that we don’t get enough out of Hollywood.

The central theme throughout the entire film is that the gun is the deliverer of justice. Noticeably not present throughout the whole film are police officers and government officials. The only justice between all the characters is their shared use of firearms. There is no sheriff who brokers mediation between Frank, Morton, or Jill. The only police we see are those taking Cheyenne away when he was turned into the authorities by Harmonica to collect a bounty. But at no time in the whole movie do the police or the government do anything to help solve any problems. All events were driven by the character’s themselves as the highest possible authority of law and order under the drive of laissez-faire capitalism. It is a minimalist tactic utilized by the director, Sergio Leone—but what’s interesting is that it was his Italian interpretation of what the America West was—a free and open land filled with unlimited opportunities. Harmonica enacted his own justice against Frank, in an honorable way. Jill was able to get a fresh start in life because of the capitalist efforts of Morton and McBain. And many thousands of others were employed because of the struggle. It was quite extraordinary to see the train finally coming into Sweetwater carrying hundreds of new workers to relieve the old ones. Without capitalism and the gun to protect it—nothing would be happening in the film Once Upon a Time in the West.

So my ambition to turn back the clock is not to return to slavery, or to move to a time where women couldn’t vote—it is to make the Second Amendment stronger and to invoke a lot more laissez-faire capitalism. When I think of the Old West I think of unlimited opportunities, very limited government, and the honor of equality that guns gave to the people who carried them. The Sergio Leone westerns are not historically accurate, but it is the wishful dreams of a European filmmaker yearning for a place in the world where such dreams were possible. And to his eyes and the large budget provided by Paramount Pictures—Once Upon a Time in the West was an honest philosophic crack at how an example of laissez-faire capitalism could be applied to the world using the American Western as a backdrop of simplicity to tell the story. It is for that reason that it is one of the greatest films of the 20^th Century and one of the most underrated enigmas of art to emerge in a free market.

Film schools across the world study Once Upon a Time in the West hoping to recapture that magical movie. But they all miss the point because they don’t understand what the film is really about. They think it’s about Henry Fonda playing a bad guy, or Charles Bronson’s minimalist dialogue. They think it’s about the music and the cinematography, and the ambitious location shooting. Those are all very good things but not the reason it’s one of the greatest westerns of all time and also one of the great movie classics resting alongside Citizen Kane and The Wizard of Oz as an all time great classic. It’s because the movie was about laissez-faire capitalism and how to achieve justice in that world when things go bad then make it endure with just a bit of extra sparkle of obscurity. I can’t say that Leone was a remarkable capitalist as a film director during his whole life. I’d say he leaned more and more political left as his prestige in Hollywood increased. But for a time between 1963 to 1968 Sergio Leone offered some of the best arguments in favor of capitalism than any director has in movie history. And he did it with his wonderful spaghetti westerns—most notably, Once Upon a Time in the West. For me, that is a key to strategizing where we need to go as a civilization in the future. And we will.

The people of the world look to America for leadership……………and hope. It’s in the music from the very first video. Watch the faces of the audience. They know it without realizing that the tears that fall from their eyes is to feel again what once happened upon a time, in the west.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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Firstly, it’s a fast burn.

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