Tag: quantum mechanics

A Philosophy for the 22nd Century: iPhone 6 and Glenn Beck’s American Dream Labs

My wife and I have been getting acclimated to the new iPhone 6 for a few days now and the thoughts I’ve had while going through all the subtle new technology and the emerging business model so obvious, have only convinced me that the 21st century will be full of such extraordinary breakthroughs that by the time mankind gets to the 22nd century the world will be much different. As I write this Apple is not only in the market for making fabulous personal devices like iPhones and personal computing systems—but are developing a new car with their nearly 1 trillion dollars in market value. It costs roughly a billion dollars to perform the R&D for a new car, and Apple is at the front of that cutting edge by 2020 because they have the cash to do the job. The terrorist group ISIS is using some of that technology to broadcast to the world their level of Islamic theocracy in a negative way, and the American government is trying to create Net Neutrality through the FCC to get control of the run-away-technology so to slow it down and put it back in federal control. But more than that, my T-Mobile plan informed me that they offer free data streaming for music—such as iHeart Radio. That means twenty-four hours a day seven days a week no matter where I am, I can listen to The Blaze without any interruption in service. I don’t have to worry about consuming too much data from one place to another where free Wi Fi isn’t available which for my lifestyle of motorcycles and other unconventional travel means I can have 100% access to the new radio station for the first time since its creation without any worry. No wonder the FCC wants so much control.

The iPhone 6 is about the size of my iPod but it does so much more as the technology has shrunk to fit into such a small device. Even now if I am rappelling in the middle of Red River Gorge or backpacking to the top of Mt LeConte I can still listen to The Blaze Radio Network the entire time—which for me is relaxing. I don’t always want to hear the birds and the babbling brooks of nature. I like to hear the ideas of mankind and find out what the disputes are against modern philosophy, and The Blaze gives me that kind of information. More than anyone else in broadcasting on such a large-scale with a large and well-respected retinue of current politicians offering their insights Glenn Beck’s The Blaze is positioned in much the same way as Apple is to bring broadcasting, news, and entertainment to the next century while traditional companies shrink away and go extinct because they couldn’t keep up with the technology. Beck through his American Dream Labs is about to unleash several feature films and is unveiling several new innovations on April 4th of this year—just a few days before my birthday—which I am very excited about. There is a lot going on in the world that is truly scary, but there is a lot to be excited about as well. Glenn Beck’s innovations are among them and I will use my new iPhone equipped with a wonderful T-Mobile deal to stay plugged in along the way.

A few friends of mine from a secret Atlas Shrugged type of real life Galt’s Gulch just yesterday were contemplating the implication of the new iPhone also coming in April. I am certain that I will be getting one at some point in time, but just the sheer opportunity that such a device holds in such a small package is a stunning display of technological ability. If you mathematically apply the types of innovations being unleashed just in the last couple of years to the youthful generation that is taking them for granted in their replication of advancement every 18 months or so—that same generation will expect that type of progress in everything from televisions to automobiles. The self-driving cars from Minority Report will happen regardless of political road blocks because these young people will demand it. They want to play Xbox and text their friends while driving and Apple along with Google looks to be among the first companies poised to provide such a thing. I joked to our T-Mobile rep as he was displaying all the unique features of the iPhone 6 that in two years the phone would be outdated and he laughed, because he knew it was true. Things are moving that fast—yet government isn’t moving with it—because they are functioning from the failed philosophies of the past.

During the week my wife managed to convince me to go to Costco with her, which I seldom ever like doing—not because I dislike shopping or Costco—but because time is often short. I have a very busy and packed life—so grabbing a hot dog at Costco and shopping for necessities is last on the list of things to do. But she managed to convince me, and upon arriving I had to marvel at the prices on their 80” flat screen televisions and their new curved screens which were reasonably priced at under $5000. The prices are coming down to the point where every room in a home could have one of those large televisions without any trouble at all. The technology in them is simply incredible. The next challenge is going to fall on production companies to provide content that people actually want because the technology is there. Again, that’s where I think Glenn Beck will have an advantage over even the most deep pocketed traditional studio. The old way of producing video is long gone. The iPhone 6 has a mini camera in it far superior to what even a $10,000 camera cost in the 1990s so everyone with an iPhone is holding in their hands a television studio if they desire to utilize it. Of course that is another reason the FCC wants to create a Department of the Internet—because that notion scares them intensely.

My two-year old grandson is already speaking in complete sentences. Much of that I would attribute to the various learning devices he has available to him such as the television program on Nickelodeon called Blaze and the Monster Machines—which is a cartoon designed to teach kids about language, science, and physics. It is not as clunky as Sesame Street was—nor as agenda driven. It’s just about learning and having fun while doing it. Consider on top of that he has a Leap Frog tablet and other similar devices that allow his imagination to just soak up all this vast information so quickly the education model is obvious. Everything I have said negative about public education just became much, much, much more relevant. I am convinced that kids could learn everything they would typically learn by age 22 in college by age 10 because of the education options available now, that simply weren’t there 5 years ago, let alone 10.

So given all this rapid acceleration in technology, there is nothing in the adult world that is preparing for this onslaught in thought. Fox News is talking every night about the 2016 election where Republicans will likely put up another boring candidate based on the old machine politics of tradition and Democrats will put up Hillary Clinton, another old hippie progressive out of touch and expecting feminist nut cases to carry her into the White House. Neither political party is poised to deal with the typical iPhone user. Just as the car companies are lecturing Apple about how hard it is to get into the car market. But Apple will expect to do in two years what it takes General Motors a decade to perform, and they have the available R&D cash to pull it off. Just this past week Amazon.Com was upset that the FAA created regulations against their proposed drone delivery system, and they also have the cash to challenge the government’s attempt to preserve the old-fashioned way of delivery by UPS, FedEx, and the United States Postal Service. From the government its business as usual reacting to lobby money poured into their offices—but the marketplace represented by Amazon wants their products delivered within hours not days—and the collision will impact the government more than it will the marketplace because the next generation will expect fast delivery-because technology has always provided them with quick and immediate gratification on anything they have wanted.   They will expect the same out of their politics. Politicians standing in the way of that desire will be chewed up and spit out. Trust me. It’s coming fast and furious.

That is why it’s important to now focus on a philosophy for the 22nd century because it will take that long for the dust to settle. It has taken a 100 years to arrive at this current juncture, and it will take that long for the intellect of mankind to catch up to the philosophy needed by their recent inventions. Politicians like the Hillary Clinton types who expect to show up and walk on stage uttering a few lines of dialogue to pretend they are in the most powerful position in the world aren’t going to be able to deal with the advantages given to the typical person through all these new inventions. The explosion of invention coming available requires a new philosophy to deal with it all, and one of the first things that will have to go is the old adherence to the political machines of the past. The tools given to mankind currently allow for such a philosophy to develop. The old systems will be swept away in the current—car companies will go out of business as new ones emerge, power generation will change dramatically as more and more people learn of the options kept from them through unnecessary regulation, and stonewalling politicians will be crushed by a coming generation deeply impatient and empowered with knowledge at their fingertips. There’s no way to stop it now. What is needed to help the transition is a new way of thinking—a philosophy for the 22nd century so that when the dust clears, the mind of mankind will be aligned with the products of its innovation.

Rich Hoffman

CLIIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

 

Understanding Leadership: The difference between success and failure

Compared to most everyone else I have some bizarre ideals about leadership that certainly don’t travel well with the currents of civilization. Yet I am so certain of them that I no longer entertain opinions to the contrary because I recognize it as a special gift that is of great benefit not only to myself, but everyone I happen to know. Of course this leads to many matters of conflict which part of me strategically avoids while at the same time seeking it out. Leadership is one of the least understood attributes to modern society even though it should be easily plotted through history. Our best modern attempts is to believe that somehow West Point makes leaders through the military and that somehow the armed services through the concept of sacrifice makes great people. The other belief is that somehow in the classrooms of our colleges a teacher touches the life of a student and magic happens and a leader is born. So the mystical belief is that if society wants leaders, they need more procedures and rules to create an environment for a leader to evolve into the role of a savior willing to sacrifice themselves for a common good—so most schools of thought travel down that path. Yet, that grasp is likely the most ardent enemy of leadership that there is, and ends up crushing such opportunities for such people to emerge leaving in the wake chaos and process driven bureaucracy where everything just grinds to a halt with inaction.

Many times while dealing with a political system from local government to a business of some kind, what is found there is a process driven commitment to a rigid line of thought mystically protecting them from the scandal of inefficiency. The belief is actually as stupid as a group of head hunters from a South Pacific island refusing to allow their picture to be taken because they believe that their soul will be captured in the process. The belief in processes and procedures comes directly from a lack of leadership—it doesn’t act as a substitute. Where it gets really confusing is that some sense of order is needed for mankind to act with one another but to have real leadership it often requires visionaries to break those rules so that leadership can occur.

Readers here know of my thoughts on the work of Robert Pirsig who developed the Metaphysics of Quality and specifically captured the essence of leadership in his contemplations on philosophy. I often refer to his train motif to explain leadership—who is always the character at the front of a long train spotting things at the cutting edge of travel along the tracks. Process driven analysis is usually at the back of the train—away from the leader—as far as possible in most organizations. They are never in a position to make decisions at the cutting edge because by the time the problem gets to their part of the train at the back, decisions are long passed the point of no return. The only way that decisions can be made at the back of a train is for the train to go very slow or to stop all together—so that communication from the front can get to the back of the train in time for decision makers to consider the information and then project it back up to where the engineer is, and the train can turn, stop, or go faster depending on what is needed. It takes courage to be at the front of the train, and when decisions are made there, they can be immediately applied allowing for more swiftness in movement. Most modern organizations, the American military included, function from the back of a train of thought.

The back of the train is safe. It covers up the great mystery as to why some people are naturally better than others at the task of leadership. In fact, it avoids the entire question when process driven analysis can just keep everyone busy giving the illusion of productivity. But frustration often emerges that the train just doesn’t move fast enough—and that is because there isn’t anybody competent at the front of the train because everyone is stuck in the back. Those most able to be great leaders get bored and just step off in frustration leaving an organization even more befuddled than they were before. This is essentially why Apple fired Steve Jobs the first time—before hiring him again to save their company. Steve Jobs was always at the front of the train—and was happy no place else. Most great companies with the most innovation coming out of them have a leader at the front of the train who is most comfortable being there. There are of course people in the back who collect data to analyze, but the train is not driven from there. It is given to the leader to create a history to learn from so that decisions can most fluidly be made at the very front of the train as the future progresses.

I would never make it in todays military. Even while watching American Sniper I kept thinking how stifling the military is on a human mind, and that is for a good reason. When you become a soldier, you become part of a system and surrender your individuality to process driven goals. I could never do that, and I never have been able to. Yet great individuals in the military like Chris Kyle, Chuck Yeager, General Claire Lee Chennault, and General Patton all had a strong streak of individuality in them that sometimes defied orders and acted on their own merit from the front of whatever train they were on. All those characters found life at the back of the train boring and stifling desiring instead to be at the cutting edge of action. For those characters, the orders were less process driven because they were literally on the front lines of combat. However, especially in Chennault’s case when General Stillwell became U.S. Army commander in China during World War II Chennault was much less effective as a leader because the jealous Stillwell insisted on running the war from the back of the train, instead of the front where Chennault resided. This caused constant feuding between the two generals and cost the lives of many soldiers as the end result. Patton was much the same kind of man, and if reading the book Killing Patton is studied, it was likely that someone killed the general because nobody wanted to deal with him in peace time.   Likely it was Stalin who ordered the assassination, and at the time they were supposedly allies with the United States-but Stalin just didn’t want to deal with Patton in a future war—so they killed him—likely. And many in the U.S.—including the White House—secretly breathed a sigh of relief. But why? Because, Patton insisted not only at being at the front of the train, he wanted to be on the sweep at the front—the closest to the tracks as he could get. He was a real, natural-born leader and he often defied orders to do what he thought was best. If not for Patton, it is likely that the Germans would have beat America to the bomb—and the Allies would have lost.

So given all this historical data—why are organizations still insistent on back of the train analysis designed to stifle leadership? Well, it is the same vile human emotion that desires communism over capitalism—the jealous refusal to accept that some people have leadership, and some people don’t. Those that don’t desire process driven rules and regulations to protect them from their own inadequacies—and that pretty much sums it up. They hover like ghosts behind a leader in the back of the train and look for ways to take the credit for decisions made at the front once they think the situation is safe for them to do so. In Patton’s case they of course waited for a few days after the war ended to kill Patton. Authorities did something similar in China with Chennault sending him quickly to pasture once the conflict ended trying quickly to silence the petulant general. Instead Chennault wrote a great book The Way of the Fighter which revealed all his contentious exchanges between FDR, General Stillwell, and Truman up until the publication of the book in 1949. Chennault was irate with frustration saying that the conflict in China was not against the Japanese, but with the encroaching communists from the North. The authorities at the back of the train laughed it off and pulled out the United States surrendering all the hard-fought gains to the communists to become our future enemy. If Truman had listened to Chennault instead of Stillwell, there wouldn’t have been a Korean War, and there wouldn’t have been a Vietnam. And China would to this day be a capitalist country and friend to the United States instead of the holder of its debts and leveraging itself for a fiscal take-over of the American economy. And for a modern context, Chris Kyle would have likely had many less killings if he had always done what he was told. It’s part of the American way to think on ones feet and to make judgment calls from the front of the train. But first someone has to have the courage to reside there—and that is what’s short in most organizations. If they can find someone who wants to be at the front of the train, they are lucky. Those types of leaders are rare, but they are the key to making an endeavor successful or a failure. In classrooms look at the kids in the back of the class as opposed to those who voluntarily sit in the front—and you will see the difference between potential leaders and slugs who want to hide in the masses.

The failure to recognize such people is the problem, and they are often concealed behind jealousy, inflated egos, and overly educated process driven knuckle-draggers. Even the best leaders were hated even when they were loved. People love the results, but they hate that they can’t emulate a leader through processes, graphs, and structural definitions. There isn’t a class at West Point that can properly teach leadership and there isn’t a single course anywhere that can teach the proper behavior. It comes to some people naturally who love to stand in the fire at the front of the train. Leadership takes a natural courage that is vacant from most people, and if a society wants more leaders—it has to create an environment that produces more of them. But more often than when potential leaders are discovered within government schools they are beat into submission before they get out of the fifth grade and destroyed like baby seals surrounded by sharks that just want a meal. Most leaders are destroyed before they ever make it to adulthood. Today’s real leaders are taught early and often to stand at the back of the train and to shut up. So, not knowing any better, they do—and live desperate lives unfulfilled quietly screaming in silence to words that can’t be articulated.

For more on this topic read my article “Making Omelets: The essence of leadership” which features several videos of Gordon Ramsay the popular chef and television personality who is famous for fixing failed restaurants. There are millions upon millions of people who can cook, and there are hundreds of others who have made successful television careers out of cooking. But Ramsay is different. It’s because he makes decisions at the front of the train instead of the back—and that skill is one of the most unusual in the world—the culinary world is much, much better off.   Whether its food, war, or just aspects of manufacturing, real leaders are hard to come by, but when they are found, they are more precious than a treasure trove of wealth discovered.   They have the ability to see and guide others through dangers not yet seen and can create what’s needed before anybody even understands why. But before one can be a leader they must have courage—because the front of the train is scary. And that is why organizations without good leadership languish in bureaucracy. Because they have to go slow enough for the cowards in the back to make a decision—and that is a promise of inevitable failure—because the competition out there will likely happen across a leader—and they won’t be moving slowly—they’ll travel fast because they have a leader at the front of the train. It’s not the size of an organization that makes it successful; it’s about the quality of their leadership. And to understand that, quality has to be understood—which is the topic of a whole new article.

Rich Hoffman

CLIIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

 

Ideas are Scary: The important task of being a place that lets them grow

By far my favorite commercial of 2014/2015 is the one below from GE about how ideas can sometimes be scary featuring a little alien looking ET creature being born and ridiculed until GE opened its doors to the innovative prospects of the fledgling creature. It’s a very honest commercial for such a huge corporate giant and it tells me that at least in practice GE hasn’t lost its way in understanding where it came from and what role it plays in America’s future. Growing up in Cincinnati it is impossible to not have GE a major part of my life and whenever I have to travel downtown and drive by the Evendale plant there is a little happy place that keys off in the back of my mind knowing to what a great extent GE has advanced technology and really lived up to the aspects of the commercial on innovation.

Being a corporate giant isn’t easy, and I am often distrustful of them to stay nimble in the field of innovation simply because there comes too much pageantry and fluff just to keep rules and regulations off their back to maintain the kind of forward thinking that made them great in the first place. Jeffrey Immelt after Barrack Obama was elected was put into a very difficult position. Here was a president openly hostile to corporations and business that would see GE as a massive target for socialist implementation. As a CEO it is first the job of such a person to guide their corporation through the potential threats that exist so that those gates of innovation can stay open for such fledging ideas shown in the commercial. So Immelt did what he thought was best, he made a partner out of Obama running the president’s Jobs Council for a few years. In so doing he was able to exploit the lack of financial understanding of the barely concealed socialist by enacting 54 of the 60 recommendations made by the Council—such as fast tracking key infrastructure projects and selling more leases for both oil and gas production. But in the end, only 4 of those recommendations were completed as is typical of government which loses focus quickly as life in the Belt Way quickly kills off ideas like an African hunter on the Serengeti. Under the auspices of government ideas quickly become extinct—and Jeffrey Immelt’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness was one of the first things that Obama hung on his trophy wall. Obama tried to use GE to stimulate his economy, and largely took Immelt’s advice without knowing anything else to do—but failed to nurture those ideas into fruition

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/01/31/the-one-job-jeff-immelt-might-be-happy-to-lose/

For the last 20 years the GE90 engines from GE have been a game changer in commercial aviation. It is largely because of this engine that oversea travel has been on the increase just because now airlines can perform such a task with such a powerful engine without massive fuel consumption. That engine is exactly what the metaphorical commercial about GE innovation was all about. It was one of the great leaps of innovation from American culture that could have only come from such a large corporation that embraces such invention. And to make the GE90 work, it took a lot of the best minds at the time in the field of aerospace to pull it off.

There is a new generation of engines coming to serve for the next two decades, so the GE90 today is something of a Payton Manning in aviation. It’s still a great engine, but it has set the bar very high and newer, younger players are entering the market to break those previous records—but it took the pace setter first to show everyone what the innovation looked like. While some may look at the GE commercial in respect to Immelt’s work with President Obama and cry foul, I have a tremendous amount of respect for those open doors which allow scary little creatures like new ideas a place to go. I wish there were a thousand GEs in America—and I believe there is plenty of room for all of them—but unfortunately for most, they end up in the trophy case of some politician’s game wall—hunted, killed, and stuffed for memory.

I don’t watch much television so I didn’t see the GE commercial until I was watching the start of NASCAR last weekend. I love NASCAR because of the innovations—the new MAC tools, the tires, the corporate sponsors. I love seeing a pit crew in action trying to troubleshoot a problem in record time to get their driver back on the track as quickly as possible. There are a lot of ideas born on those tracks which end up in the cars we drive, so I love to just watch NASCAR for a glimpse into the future. It was in looking for innovations that I actually saw the GE commercial.

Recently I had one of the worst days of my life where everything that could go wrong did and there was just a mess of activity that had to be cleaned up from more of those idea killing vermin. So to brighten my day, my wife went to McDonald’s and picked up a couple of Big Mac meals so I could watch the news while enjoying that wonderful idea from McDonald’s ancient past—which I still think is one of the greatest inventions ever created. Big Macs would be an impossibility to the typical hunter and gatherer in New Guinea or Africa—yet out of the mind of Ray Kroc came a company called McDonald’s that made quality fast food easy and affordable on the go—the Big Mac was created. When I have a really bad day-one of those days where it’s difficult to breathe from one moment to the next, I typically get a Big Mac and just like that—I’m good to go. My worries and concerns evaporate. It’s not just the taste of the burger that drives my interest, it’s the story of McDonald’s itself that does. It reminds me of what innovation is supposed to look like. As rapidly as McDonald’s makes Big Macs it is astonishing that they always come out well, cooked perfectly, possessing just the right amount of lettuce, onions and sauce, and can be done so quickly. To this very day if I buy a Big Mac in Florida, it will be made nearly to the same specifications as one that I might buy in Wisconsin. They are little miracles—now taken for granted like the GE90 jet engine—but they have changed the way the world interacts with each other—and each one of those ideas is beautiful.

So I have a major soft spot for the GE commercial with the little alien idea being born to the voice over about ideas being scary. Ideas are the natural-born enemy of the way things are. They are ridiculed and mocked, and are often hunted by members of the political class for sport. When Immelt joined Obama’s Job’s Council, the move to me was to protect all the ideas brewing at GE from the hunters of the political class who want to destroy those wonderful creatures before they can bloom into beautiful creatures. That’s what a CEO should do, and if that sometimes means drawing fire away from those they are trying to protect—then so be it. Because as the commercial says, “under the proper care, [ideas] become something beautiful. They do.

The task of a massive corporation like GE is to create an environment where ideas can grow. Not everyone within that culture embodies such a spirit, of course, but in general, the philosophy of the company must seek to strive for such creation. If it does, then it will bring into the world ideas that would otherwise be destroyed by humanity always speculative, and short-sighted. It was a bold commercial from a company that really didn’t need to push the limits of perception—yet they did. They didn’t have to ruffle any feathers, yet they did—and for that I deeply appreciate the commercial. It is good to see that GE is not playing it so safe in the public relations market—and that they are remembering who and what they are—and how they got where they are today. Ideas are beautiful—even when they look scary to the un-enterprising and clandestine political hunters. It is good to be the natural-born enemy to the way things are. That is the spirit of innovation—and the direct benefit is humanity and its offspring.

Rich Hoffman

CLIIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

 

Obamacare is the Cause of Longshore Worker Stoppage: An American embarassment

 I spoke months ago about the embarrassment of the Longshore workers on the West Coast with their deliberate slowdown of work to force contract talks with their employer.  Because of the amount of cargo moving to and from their ports, their work slow down is embarrassing to American productivity.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  I am embarrassed that they are Americans representing to the world the merit and speed of the American workforce.   Because of their actions, they should all be let go and replaced with newer—less expensive workers who will show the world the enterprising speed of Americans.  Instead they have been drag-assing for months upset that they have not received a new union contract forcing valuable product to sit idle until the workers get to it.  This entire workload backup has forced numerous weeks of consecutive weekend overtime which has cost millions of dollars in lost profitability.  That was always their union strategy.   Not only did they waste time during the week forcing trucks and ships to wait on their weak effort at productivity—but they have done the same under premium pay on the weekends compounding the insult.

Then to make matters worse to any investigator with an inquisitive eye toward reality, one comes to realize how much these union workers make as a salary—which proves how out of touch they really are.  When the union leaders were upset that their employers just shut down the weekends because they are now so dreadfully behind schedule it is no longer worth the premium money to spend to move units—the audacity of the Longshore workers unions become very clear.  What follows are a collection of articles that explains more deeply the situation:

Longshore workers, according to a contract that expired in July, can earn $25.71 to $35.68 — or annual salaries of $53,476 to $74,214— depending on seniority. Workers get more money for special skills and experience, plus overtime.

According to the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the employers, the average salary is $147,000, which combines the earnings for registered longshoremen, clerks, walking bosses and foremen who have worked 2,000 or more hours.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20150202/longshore-workers-deal-with-no-night-shifts-vie-for-day-jobs-amid-contract-dispute

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Companies that handle billions of dollars of cargo at West Coast seaports said Friday they will hire far fewer workers this weekend, the latest escalation in a contract dispute with dockworkers that threatens to shut down a vital link in U.S.-Asia trade.

The association representing port terminal operators announced its members would not hire crane drivers to move containers on and off massive ocean-going ships. Instead, employers could order smaller crews to clear already-unloaded containers from congested dockside yards.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/west-coast-port-employers-to-cut-weekend-shifts-amid-contract-dispute-with-dockworkers-union-291119461.html

The slow-roll implementation of Obamacare threatens to close U.S. commercial ports on the West Coast. The 29 ports, which handle 70 percent of maritime imports from Asia, were closed over the weekend after months of contentious contract negotiations. The ports reopened Monday, but 20,000 longshoremen are still threatening to strike over a new Obamacare tax.

Obamacare imposes a 40 percent tax on health benefits deemed too generous by the government. Health benefits exceeding $10,200 a year in value for individuals or $27,500 for families are defined as “Cadillac” plans and are subject to the tax. Health benefits for longshoremen exceed $40,000 per employee, meaning the union would be served an enormous tax bill when the penalty is imposed in 2018.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/10/obamacare-tax-threatens-to-close-west-coast-ports/

Well, how about that, Obamacare penalizes health care plans that are too luxurious so to ensure that everyone is the same no matter their personal effort or worth—and the Longshore workers don’t like it.  The situation is so serious that it should require the involvement of the President of the United States to step in and keep American productivity flowing.  But he hasn’t because Obama is aligned with such radicals as they think the same way.  Yet even in this case even the union workers are to the political right of Obama—because it is Obamacare that is the largest sticking point in obtaining a new contact.  The Longshore workers already make too much money to be worth the effort—now with Obamacare pressing down on the port employers they simply have reached their breaking point and are giving up.

For Obama, this is one of the biggest issues of his presidency.  When President Bush was faced with the same type of work stoppage in 2002 after only a ten-day lockout by the same union he invoked the Taft-Hartley Act as reported by the World Socialist Web Site:

On Tuesday a federal judge in San Francisco granted the Bush administration’s request for a temporary injunction lifting a ten-day lockout and sending West Coast longshoremen back to work. The court order was a prelude to the declaration of an 80-day “cooling off” period under the provisions of the anti-union Taft-Hartley law.

The lockout had shut down 29 West Coast ports. The judge issued his order barely three hours after attorneys from the Justice Department presented a fact-finding report drawn up by a special Board of Inquiry. George W. Bush had announced the formation of the panel the day before, setting into motion the legal process leading to the declaration of a national emergency and the implementation of the Taft-Hartley Act

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the West Coast shipping companies, reopened the ports on Wednesday for the 6 p.m. shift.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/10/ilwu-o10.html

Of course the socialists thought that Bush had overstepped his boundaries and forced the Longshore workers back to work because they represent the basic philosophy of all labor unions—that jobs exist for employees and that employers are meant to be servants to the whims of the “middleclass.”  And now that socialist types have their president in the White House there is no relief for employers coming—instead there are only more socialist driven costs induced by Obamacare.  So for employers—it’s a no win situation.  Product is stacking up on shipping docks and not making it to their destination on time—and America looks inefficient because of it—which makes socialists happy.

The Longshore workers are disgraceful.  They have a history of this radical behavior and have driven up their wages to a level that is simply not sustainable.  And now because of Obamacare, they have overstayed their welcome and are due for an innovation to replace their sudden worthlessness.  The rest of America should not have to wait for those idiots to do their jobs.  Their selfishness is epic—but worse than that—it is Obamacare that has broken the back of logic.  Yet nobody is talking about that on the nightly news.  That is because the dispute is between various factions of liberals—the Longshore workers and Obama himself.  The companies caught in the middle simply want to operate their businesses.  And with the Obamacare imposition being so high—they decided they can’t.  So employers shut down their weekend work and are ready to move on.  For them—it was the correct decision.  These port employers aren’t alone.  Here is a list of other major companies who have decided that Obamacare is just too expensive.   And this is just the beginning.

http://news.investors.com/politics-obamacare/090514-669013-obamacare-employer-mandate-a-list-of-cuts-to-work-hours-jobs.htm?fromcampaign=1

Rich Hoffman

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The Obama and John Kasich French-Kissing Budgets: It will cost Lakota $5.9 million and worse–yet another levy

 

John Kasich has shown that he is fully capable of surpassing Pete Carroll’s Super Bowl losing decision as the dumbest idea to date. Failing to address the runaway costs of Ohio public schools by giving more money to poor districts while taking money away from the wealthy ones—he proposed early in February 2015 to solve the gulf with a tax increase. His comment to the wealthy districts was, “If you live in a district that can afford it, you can help yourself.” Essentially what he means is that he’s redistributing the wealth of Ohio tax payers from well-off regions to poorer ones with an established result to raise taxes on communities hosting gigantic schools with treacherously inflated employee wages like Lakota. Taking the largest schools hit in Butler County will be the Lakota Local School District—where I live, which will lose a total of $5.9 million over the next two fiscal years. A neighboring distinct to the west, Ross will lose $438,765. Talawanda to the north, $594,482. As residents we already pay state taxes intended for the unconstitutional distribution of public education—yet Kasich is taking that money and passing it out disproportionately to districts deemed more needy than others, then telling wealthy districts like mine to raise taxes and take care of themselves—all while taking our state tax money and dispersing it like Santa Clause everywhere but in Lakota and other Butler County schools. Then to make matters worse Kasich said this to a Cleveland newspaper—which is appalling. It looks like Kasich and Obama put their budgets together on the same napkin at the same bar, French-kissing each other when they thought nobody was looking—because they are both just as ridiculously stupid.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Gov. John Kasich said he doesn’t consider his new school funding plan to be a redistribution of income, even as it sends more money to poor districts and less to richer ones.

“It is a conservative point of view in that every kid should be in a position to thrive,” Kasich said.

“I don’t see it as redistribution,” he added. “I see it as a formula for driving resources to kids.”

In an appearance at the E Prep and Village Prep Woodland Hills charter school campus in Cleveland his morning, Kasich said he expects “a lot of squawking” when he releases the changes in state aid to individual districts this afternoon.

About half of Ohio’s districts will see reductions, he said, despite him adding $700 million in aid to schools overall.

Kasich said he wants to send more money to district with less “capacity” to pay for schools and less money to those that have the income and property values to cover the costs.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/02/gov_kasich_says_his_school_fun.html

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/kasichs-education-speech-under-way/nWCBT/

http://www.journal-news.com/news/news/budget-increases-funding-for-poorer-school-distric/nj4tr/

The ultimate failure in this debacle is in believing that more money will actually help kids in a poor community—as if money alone will make schools better. Government schools suck because government is incompetent. You could throw $1 million dollars per pupil into a poor community and the money will be completely wasted on teacher salaries, new paint for the schools but not a single elevated child—because schools do not make children great. Teachers don’t make good people. Parents do. Schools and teachers can assist, but they can’t take broken Humpty Dumpty families and put all their broken shells together again if their home environment is full of drug addicts, gamblers, whores, or people who enjoy watching the Bill Cunningham show. It doesn’t work now, it hasn’t worked in the past, and it certainly won’t work in the future. Money does not make quality. People make quality and there is a reason that kids in richer districts do better scholastically than poor kids. It’s because their parents generally care more about the outcome of their kids and there is likely peer knowledge of similar families who also care about the fate of their children. In poor communities very few people care about kids. Teachers generally pretend to, but in the end, if their union calls for a strike—they’ll march in the streets and leave the kids in need of a mentor. Most teachers are unfortunately in the profession to make money. I believe they start out well-intentioned, but a few years into their mandatory union membership—they become socialist radicals just like the rest of the employees in public education. And those employees aren’t worth the money they demand to be paid.

That is the real issue—the money the employees cost a district. A properly run school district would wisely cut all their most expensive employees and let some other school have them—hiring cheaper teachers who will do the same work for half the cost. Experience doesn’t mean much in public schools because kids aren’t learning anything anyway. Government schools are simply an expensive state funded baby-sitting service and nothing more—for parents too busy to care for their own. So they pawn their kids off on society to raise and hope the school will cover their faults. At least in a wealthy district the parents ask how the child’s day went and try to bring some semblance of family structure to children. In poor districts—an intact family is as rare as an eclipse. Money can’t fix that problem.

As for pre-school education and subsequent grade school skills—teaching itself has entered a new age, and the government schools are way behind the curve. For anybody who hasn’t yet learned, there is a thing kids have these days called, LeapFrog—which is a computer tablet intended for kids 3 to 9 which teaches them math, grammar, and other logic skills. If I had one of those when I was a kid I would have been done with all the skills of grade school before 5 years of age because the programs are so good, and intuitive. The government school profession is no longer effective in this fast paced age of massive data consumption. Kids are bored with public school by the time they are in the 2nd and 3rd grades and learning for them becomes a chore instead of a pleasure because of the way its sold to them in public schools driven by radical—expensive labor union personnel—is destroying our youth—not helping them.

So Kasich has made an epic error. To mask his lack of courage in dealing with the public labor unions, he has instead punted to the local districts to allow them to fight it out due to his progressivism.   He might as well be Obama in the Ohio capital at this point. Sure he moved some money around to create a surplus, but he largely did it with wealth redistribution like this situation with the schools, and by taking federal money. He’s not a conservative—he is the definition of a RINO. If he were a governor in New York or California—he’d call himself a Democrat because that’s where his values and leadership point to as far as values.

As for the development of the I-75 corridor in Southern Ohio surely he knows what this means. He remembers the Lakota fights of a few years ago, and now because of his decision, he’ll see them again. If he thought they were bloody before, he and they haven’t seen anything yet. And those fights will be in the newspapers, and they will influence investment into the area at a critical time—and he’ll be to blame. I can say that I’m not alone in anger on this high tax proposal by Kasich of the Lakota and Mason area. Paying for overpriced government babysitters isn’t going to go over well and it will take a while for those districts to pass a tax increase because of the fights coming—so public relations of the area will take a hit. And the blame will fall squarely on John Kasich. Once something is done—you can’t undo it. And now he’s simply blown it. He has fallen from a political star to a simple grain of sand on a vast beach being washed out to sea by larger and larger waves. Any hopes he had at greatness are now washing away with the high tide as he panders to the power of the unions with a feeble attempt to appease them—which of course won’t work. His decision and budget proposal regarding education will have a catastrophic effect and the blame will be solely in his possession.

Rich Hoffman

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Jeffrey Epstein’s Orgy Palace: Bill and Hillary Clinton’s progressive roots

When you deal with legislators and corruption in politics—and the declination of morality among social institutions it is not enough to analyze the results—but the cause. There is a very good reason that I have been pointing out the sad plight of underage girls who are on the fast track to destruction, as I pointed out in last night’s article. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. I happen to know one right now. I have known them in the past and I’ll know them in the future and always the end is the same. You’d like to help them, but if they don’t listen—you just can’t do anything for them once they go down that dark path. So to really understand that dark path and the cause and effects, I turn toward complicated literature—like James Joyce. Because there is a dark underbelly to everything in our modern culture that religion can no longer reach. And millions of young women are prone to this danger because of pedophiles like Bill Clinton and his old friend Jeffrey Epstein. The story goes that Epstein as a billionaire financer luring support always in front of losers like Bill Clinton brought in major politicians and the social pace-setters to massive orgies with underage girls at his private island resort in the Caribbean. The cause of the desire for old sex hounds like Bill Clinton to catch a plane to Epstein’s house and live that evil life is important because it proves that his behavior in the White House, and as a prior governor of Arkansas were not isolated to just the power of a governing seat. They are part of his internal needs—which I described in the river Liffey metaphor—which is as close as anyone is going to get to properly indentifying the problem. James Joyce nailed it years ago—and it is still a major problem among men feeding off the sacrifices of young girls to inflate their egos and cancerous prostrates.

This is a concern of mine always, but particularly when a family member—even a remote one is involved. You want to help these girls understand how the world works and not to become just another trophy on the wall of Bill Clinton’s sex chest. It is obvious that people like Clinton are nothing like Middle America. He certainly, morally, ethically, or even by the standards of a man does not represent anything close to what my beliefs are—so his global aims through the United Nations is a major red flag to me. He was a terrible president in my book because he had tremendous moral issues. He and Hillary obviously have an open marriage and his ability to fly down to Epstein’s island sex palace is something she had to know about—and was fine with. This is very relevant because she wants to be the next president in 2016. This story may very well derail that attempt, but the issue is not that Bill Clinton was caught again with his pants down—it is a behavior pattern that is dangerous and is actually endorsed by Hillary. Hillary has a lot of female supporters because many see her as a victim, and they sympathize because they too are married to Bill Clinton types of males, and many men if given the opportunity to do what Clinton did with Epstein would in a New York minute. So there is no moral conviction against the behavior and flawed people like the Clintons continue to get national respect and press—even though they should be in jail for sexual abuse, drug trafficking, and murder either directly or indirectly. The body count in both sex victims and the actual dead is just too great for the Clintons to be completely innocent. In this case where there is smoke, there is fire—lots of it. And that fire roared in the Caribbean with Bill in full participation. But what’s most sad of all is that there are other people who set up those sex orgies by scooping up disenfranchised children—young girls 14 to 15 years of age who can satisfy the sexual appetites of these horrible men—men like Bill Clinton. It starts with casual drug use and once addicted, the young girls will do anything to get their fix. They leave behind their families, their support mechanisms and they run to the orgies of horrible people like Epstein to become sexual conquests of scum bags like Bill Clinton.

And the activity continues because politicians like Clinton want access to such girls. Much of the Clinton support of the LGBT community comes from his personal knowledge of these indiscretions and instead of dealing with the sexual sickness of their behavior; they further perpetuate it with their charisma. When they are done with the girls they toss them aside like dirty toilet paper and ruined lives then preach to the rest of the country that America needs to treat women with more respect. It is a sick practice that is highly dysfunctional—and evil. It rips at my heart to see any girl go through this process—especially one that I’ve known since she was a baby. Such a young girl is totally vulnerable to their parents and the parents were terrible leaving her to be open to such behavior as we are discussing with young girls finding their way into the mansions of people like Epstein and Bill Clinton. If it isn’t those types of scum, it is others—the various strip houses across the country, the escort services, or any number of prostitution outfits thinly disguised as massage services or dating opportunities. It all starts with drugs and some youthful skin—and the scum bags of all existence line up to take advantage. In case you dear reader are not familiar with the Clinton/Epstein case in the Caribbean here is a basic breakdown with a support link for more information:

A new lawsuit has revealed the extent of former President Clinton’s friendship with a fundraiser who was later jailed for having sex with an underage prostitute.

Bill Clinton’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who served time in 2008 for his illegal sexual partners, included multiple trips to the onetime billionaire’s private island in the Caribbean where underage girls were allegedly kept as sex slaves.

Tales of orgies and young girls being shipped to the island, called Little St. James, have been revealed as part of an ongoing lawsuit between Epstein and his former lawyers Scott Rothstein and Bradley Edwards.

It is unclear what the basis of the suit is, but they go on to call witness testimony from some of the frequent guests at Epstein’s island to talk about the wild parties that were held there in the early 2000s.

Flight logs pinpoint Clinton’s trips on Epstein’s jet between the years 2002 and 2005, while he was working on his philanthropic post-presidential career and while his wife Hillary was a Senator for their adopted state of New York.

‘I remember asking Jeffrey what’s Bill Clinton doing here kind of thing, and he laughed it off and said well he owes me a favor,’ one unidentified woman said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Palm Beach Circuit Court.

The woman went on to say how orgies were a regular occurrence and she recalled two young girls from New York who were always seen around the five-house compound but their personal backstories were never revealed.

At least one woman on the compound was there unwillingly, as the suit identifies a woman as Jane Doe 102.

She ‘was forced to live as one of Epstein’s underage sex slaves for years and was forced to have sex with… politicians, businessmen, royalty, academicians, etc,’ the lawsuit says according to The Enquirer.

Epstein’s sexual exploits have been documented since 2005, when a woman in Palm Beach contacted police saying that her 14-year-old daughter had been paid $300 to massage him and then have sex.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2584309/Bill-Clinton-identified-lawsuit-against-former-friend-pedophile-Jeffrey-Epstein-regular-orgies-Caribbean-compound-former-president-visited-multiple-times.html

 

These bad people have used their positions of power and wealth to normalize their internal weakness for youthful girls. The reasons they do so I explored in the river Liffey metaphor and it is the best way to truly explore the reasons. But these are not isolated issues. A “majority” of males contemplate such fantasies and that is a huge problem for all of society everywhere in the world. And anybody who is prone to such weaknesses is not fit to govern a child across the street let alone an entire state, a nation, or the world through the Clinton Foundation.

It is arrogant beyond measure to even suggest that there is a broker who was a family friend of the Clintons who was actually invited to the wedding of their daughter and collected naked pictures of young girls who might make for good sex slaves at Epstien’s orgy palace. This broker was herself a woman and was given some level of social respect just because she knew the Clintons and a rich eccentric billionaire who happened to like sex with underage kids. These same people are telling us what kind of education we should provide for our children, how the world should get along with each other, how economies should be structured—yet in the back of their mind—if you are a female, and a young one at that—they are undressing you and looking for every way possible to exploit your innocence. Their regard for your life and sanctity is equivalent to a condom they might pick up at a drug store and discard just as quick. They don’t care at all for the life of young women, or their future lives and the children they may later have. In their progressive utopia everyone owns everyone else anyway so they might as well start young and train them to be government dependents broken before they ever get out of the gate. But the basis of their political philosophy is not out of care for the poor, or a yearning for equal rights, or even the plight of women—it is to weaken people so that they can have their way with the targets of their desire. For Hillary, no question, she wants power—her love of progressivism is purely ideological as it was defined by the communist insurgents of the sixties. But those progressive philosophies were constructed by people like her husband for reasons exhibited at Epstein’s sex plantation in the Caribbean. And these are people who will lie, kill, and destroy anybody who stands in the way of what they want. Then—they will lecture all of us as to what the interpretation of law is or what it should be as they trash the Constitution, deface our Christian heritage and integrate our economy with a mass wealth redistribution scheme because deep down inside they want to hide their sexual dysfunctions behind a thin veil of chaos. So long as the world is in chaos, and integrated with low values, people like Clinton and Epistein can take their pick of humanity’s litter and staff their sexual orgies with the cream of the crop as they see it. And the mothers of those poor girls won’t have a leg to stand on because like drug addicts—most of them are addicted to the government breast and would do nothing to violate that relationship even if it means saving their own children from a fate they themselves suffered from.

Evil is upon us. Where do you stand dear reader? It doesn’t come quickly, but slowly—so much so that the encroachment must be measured in decades instead of days. But the path to that evil is paved by the innocence of young girls and their short bursts of purity which scum bags like Epistein and Clinton seek to devour like sluts and bar whores along the river Liffey. It is the very foundation of progressivism and the vile instruction that comes from that despicable political philosophy designed to destroy lives by looking like its helping them.

Rich Hoffman

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John Boehner and Charlie Brown: The Back Porch Saloon against “The Beltway”

Of coarse John Boehner should not have been re-elected as Speaker of the House. He’s a nice enough guy; he’s even a neighbor in some respects. He puts his pants on like everyone else and he makes sure people know it. He even eats lunch at the Back Porch Saloon when he’s in town just to let everyone know that he’s still the same John Boehner that he always was. He doesn’t believe in earmarks—which is good. And he really does try to keep things simple in regard to politics. But that same old John Boehner is a softy and not a very good manager. He likes too much to be admired and accepted among his peers which makes him weak and vulnerable on Capital Hill leaving him a lap dog to the insurgent President Obama. So Boehner should not have been re-reelected to a third term.   It was encouraging to see a bit of resistance to his leadership, but it wasn’t enough to really challenge him. One of those would-be challengers was Chris Stewart from Utah who ended up voting for Boehner anyway. He called into the Glenn Beck radio program to explain himself—his reasons for supporting the failed Speaker. What Chris uttered says a lot about why politics is so screwed up and why at this point only vigilant castigation will be acceptable. Being a swell guy who eats at the Back Porch Saloon is one thing—being a good and thoughtful legislator is quite another. And with comparison John Boehner has failed. Here’s why:

The Republican plan is to slowly take over the House and Senate with conservatives—united—and to put on President Obama’s desk a stack of bills that the lame duck will of course veto. Boehner then thinks that he’s going to be able to point at the White House and say, “see, we tried, you need to give us a Republican as President so we can really get something done.” Meanwhile, Obama is flying all over the country pretending he is Santa Clause giving away free amnesty, free college, and trying to community organize the black communities against cops so to enrage them to the voting booths out of sheer hate. Obama is going to point at Boehner and say “look, congress is saying no again. I can’t get anything done. Now there is a Republican senate that is making it much worse.” Well, dear reader—who do you think will win that battle? The charismatic communist insurgent or the stiff backed “pro business” guy who likes to eat at the Back Porch?

 

As the crew on the Glenn Beck Program pointed out, Chris Stewart, the Utah representative got caught playing the game—Boehner’s game so that he can stay in power. Boehner has already lost the respect of the nation with his kisses of Nancy Pelosi and quiet support of Obama so that he can show that he’s willing to compromise. But in the world of Obama—just as it is with any typical lowlife—their goal is to take everything from one side and give nothing from their position—because they have nothing to give in the first place—and therefore nothing to compromise with. This is like the guy who says to his wife—“let’s compromise.” “We’ll go to your parent’s house after we go to my parent’s house for an upcoming holiday event.” So the wife agrees. But when it comes time to make good on the deal, the husband stays at his mom’s house then says there isn’t time to go to the other leaving the wife high and dry. Obama doesn’t have anything for which to barter except his political mandate to raise taxes, spread philosophies of collectivism, and churn up the racial/economic divides between voting demographics to further erode American sovereignty. You can’t negotiate with that. Nobody can, yet Boehner has tried. And each time he has come up short. Like the wife in the example, he ends up compromising, but getting nothing in return but a lot of wasted time.

 

Remember the tough talk about someone from the IRS going to jail if they were involved in the targeting of conservative groups during that whole scandal? Well, the proof was discovered by the outgoing congress in December of 2014 which actually points straight into the White House—to a meeting with an IRS labor leader talking directly to Barack Obama—and then Lois Lerner executing the directive. The email trail is there. Yet Boehner won’t confront the bully. He instead thinks he and Mitch McConnell will load up the president’s desk with bills to veto and catch the slippery snake at his own game. They don’t see that they are being baited into inaction as we speak by a president who knows of no other game but theft, lying and stealing American wealth and redistributing it to the unearned. After all, Boehner seems to think that Obama is a swell guy too—just like he is. They are some of the most powerful people on planet earth and they have that much in common. We’re just $18 trillion dollars in debt with no prospect of paying that crisis down and all the Republicans want to do is fulfill their lobby requests to pass the Keystone Pipeline, which of course the president will veto until the end of his days. Obama will never vote in favor of Keystone and you have been told before dear reader why. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. First, it will upset his liberal base who believes in this new religion of “Global Warming” where earth has been replaced by God as the deity of worship. Second, it will mess up the profit formula of Warren Buffett’s train distribution system across the northern United States and southern Canada to the Pacific coast. Obama made a deal with Buffett in exchange for the billionaire’s endorsement on increased taxes—and as long as Obama is president, there will never be a Keystone pipeline to carry North American oil to the gulf coast instead of the Pacific Northwest for foreign markets.

Meanwhile Boehner is thinking small and playing into the hands of Democrats who want mass chaos and debt driven destruction of old “imperial” America so that communist China can hold the former economic powerhouse hostage under massive obligations. All Boehner can think about is his next golf game or what he might eat the next time he goes to the Back Porch Saloon.

 

With the State of the Union address coming up quickly, it is clear that what the president wants to do is at the expense of John Boehner—yet Boehner will shake hands with the scum bag anyway and talk about all their good times on Capital Hill—about that recent golf game where he was a stroke under par. And they’ll all laugh among themselves as the cameras set up to watch Obama sign Boehner up for all the free stuff he wants to give out so that Democrats can retake the House, Senate and White House in the future. And when Boehner and the house Republicans don’t give him what he wants, Obama won’t hesitate to pull the trigger of opinion against the House Speaker. The biggest difference between Obama and Boehner is that the Speaker is a nice guy and usually talks tougher than he acts. The President on the other hand talks much softer than he acts. He does mean it when he says something, and his intentions for America are not the same as Boehner’s. Obama doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Back Porch Saloon, or West Chester, Ohio where Boehner lives.   Obama would like to take all those affluent people from Boehner’s district and milk them all dry until there is nothing left and then throw all that money to the communists in minority neighborhoods to be squandered away on lottery tickets and cream soda. Once the money is spent, they’ll be back with accusations of slavery, police brutality, and a congress that just won’t act and give away more free stuff. Meanwhile, the debt clock is continuing to tick in the wrong direction and in another two years it will be pushing $20 trillion dollars.

So Chris Stewart had it coming. He got caught playing the game of Washington politics that does nothing for the people of the nation—but everything for the parasites who work the Beltway. Voting for Boehner was a ringing endorsement of complacency and mediocrity. It was a vote for a swell guy who will continue to play the role of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football by a Lucy who will just pull it away at the last-minute. Obama is holding the football for Boehner to kick, and like always, he will pull it away at the last-minute. Because to these Capital Hill idiots, the whole thing is just a game of wealth redistribution. No, Boehner is not one of them—he’s not trying to take over America, he’s trying to save it. But he’s a naive, gullible, do-gooder in the manner of Charlie Brown—full of good intentions, but unable to outmaneuver the slick Chicago insurgent holding the football. Boehner can’t beat Obama at anything—ever—yet congress just threw their support behind a sure loss of the next two years, and they are trying to sell it as a good strategy? That is what’s wrong with politics. We don’t have two years to play this game. Because the game is already over—there is nothing to barter with from Republicans anymore—but to sanction the victimhood of Obama and his communist insurgents. And that is a job too big for John Boehner’s mild sensibilities and small town ethics.

Rich Hoffman

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Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker: Paris terrorism and the guilt that gives them strength

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker was running for public office in Dublin, Ireland and was a prominent pub owner who carried a reputation as a great man. A husband and father of three–two boys and a girl he was a man on the rise.   That is until he was walking through Phoenix Park and noticed two young girls urinating with their pants down to their ankles and their sexual mechanisms exposed. Three soldiers spied Earwicker and would later provide testimony as to what they saw as a cod with a pipe approached the distracted celebrity with an inquiry as to the time. Earwicker feeling guilt for noticing the young girls quickly stumbled through an answer indicating guilt that was not justified.

Later the cod’s wife hearing her husband retell of the incident with a bit of flurry to his remembrance carried the story to the local priest. After all, her ear for the spittoon was a seduction that she had great notoriety for, and thus began the downfall of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Soon after the priest uttered a slightly varied version of the story to Philly Thurnston who thus did the same to the next person, who did again to the next person, and so forth until all of Dublin soon knew of the encounter. A pub ballad was soon constructed at Earwicker’s expense called “as The Ballad of the Persse O’Reilly.” Earwicker was so shamed that he soon was locked up in jail—for his own protection, lost his public office, his reputation as a good man, and was put on trial. Eventually the men of the court having sympathy for Earwicker’s shortcomings—because they themselves were thus prone—found him not guilty and the family man and pub owner was somewhat restored once again to his life and daily maintenance.

Thus is the basic story of the main protagonist from the great novel Finnegan’s Wake written by James Joyce for reasons that have provoked the most astute minds of literature.   The purpose of the tale was not to just tell another sultry story of a middle-aged mind caught into the perversions of sexual indulgence by women at the prime of their seductive powers. It was to show a cycle that all societies go through as represented by Earwicker who is often just termed in the novel as HCE—or otherwise—Here Comes Everyone. Finnegan’s Wake is a heavily inspired metaphor of Giambattisto Vico’s cyclical theory of history which states that civilization always passes through four basic phases, a theocratic phase. An aristocratic phase. Right on cue it enters a democratic phase. Then once that cycle has run its course society drops back into chaos and anarchy. We presently throughout the world as seen most dramatically in the opening weeks of 2015 are witnessing the attempt of a theocratic order attempting to use chaos and anarchy to gain control of the world population through radical Islam to start the cycle again for mankind.

In a lot of ways Western Civilization has been undergoing this elusive menace for many years starting with the communist attempts for attention and world-wide expansion during the 1950s and 60s. Behind that mask was the Civil Rights movement who like the priest from Finnegan’s Wake took some of the collectivist uttering’s of the communist insurgents and added their own sprinkling of truth to the story under the guise of righteousness to further deteriorate into a quandary. Now society is so disarmed with guilt not completely justified, that it can do nothing but shut itself away from the world and hope that the courts will find them innocent—which of course they will. But, the damage to all reputations will have already have taken place and HCE—(all of us) will have to be born again and start from scratch under a theocratic order. In this case it is the Muslim who desires to set the new rules and have everyone bowing toward Mecca—or be decapitated as a surrender of individual sanctity in favor of collective identification.

The recent Paris attacks by young Islamic radicals are nothing more than the spreading of a new modern age “Ballad of the Persse O’Reilly.” Their military intention is to destroy the previous cycle of history and gain power for their order under the Vico cycle of an emerging theocracy. They are the girls in the park with their pants down urinating after a long night at the pub singing and dancing. The mechanism used to move society from one phase to another is guilt. Once a group of assailants can get portions of society to admit to “guilt” they can then control that person infinitely. This is what has happened in regard to racism and the progressive platforms. It was Republicans in the United States who put an end to slavery and started the Civil War to free men’s minds. But, using the same social tactics progressive radicals have demonized Republicans into inaction and thrown them in a metaphorical jail for being angry white guys old and outdated while the only people qualified to manage their “people” are boyz from the “hood” with crack sales on their resumes and baby-daddys from here to infinity as their family lineage. Like HCE, Republicans put themselves in jail to protect their reputations from the swarms of gossip and turned toward the law for help. But the insurgents have gained control of the law as well leaving no recourse but to stand on the sidelines and complain about the gross unfairness.

Finnegan’s Wake is a warning of this cyclical procession that has embedded itself in the human consciousness like a sickness destined to always destroy the grounds made among human kind. Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker couldn’t help but notice the young girls with their pants down showing their private parts to the world. Being a man of great reputation he was quick to catch his primal thoughts and get them under control.   But, the cod who asked the time assumed that Earwicker stuttered not out of self-regulation, but out of guilty yearnings, such as the cod likely struggled with. He needed to feel reconciled and momentarily superior so he passed on the story making himself the hero at Earwicker’s expense. The result of the book is to show that Earwicker was destroyed but rose again to return to the beginning of the story.

Yet my proposal and the purpose of this site is to step off that Vico cycle all together. It might be remembered that I had a bit of controversy once, which I considered to be equivalent to the court trial in the novel Finnegan’s Wake. When Scott Sloan asked me on 700 WLW in front of many hundreds of thousands of people to admit guilt and say I was sorry to all the fat-assed despots and levy supporters that I had properly identified, what he wanted was for me to play the role of HCE and put myself in jail awaiting judgment and forgiveness by my peers. Of course I refused because my opinions were my own and I felt no guilt for them. Just as HCE should have never felt guilt for walking through a park and noticing a couple of girls with their pants down. He didn’t pull down their garments and ask them to conduct themselves in such a way, so he should have never stuttered when the cod asked him the time. He had done nothing wrong. Yet, because HCE knew that there would be judgment cast upon him, he knew he had to be careful how he answered, so he made a mistake which then perpetuated itself into chaos—which is the aim of all these endeavors against logic. And so it is that no Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist should feel guilt for the plight of the modern communists behind ISIS, or the Sykes-Picot agreement after World War I, or for slavery in America that was ended by the American Constitution, not sustained and justified.

The enemies of our age are using guilt to destroy us dear reader. You would be advised to stop feeling guilt and allowing it to control your actions. You must first have convictions about things, and be willing to stand by them. If you do not, you will end up like poor Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker from Finnegan’s Wake. Society uses guilt to advance the Giambattista Vico cycles which ultimately always erase whatever progress we truly make as a society in the fields of philosophy, history, religion—even mathematics and science. America is a step off the Vico cycle, and its high time that those lucky to be born under its protections stop feeling guilty about their fortune and protect the philosophic advancements passed down to us for sanctuary. The human race is in our hands, and it cannot be surrendered to chaos and theocratic despots by simple unfounded accusations designed to invoke guilt—and thus surrender of the emotional high ground for which America sits. Be warned, and listen to the quandary of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker for what it is—a warning to us all. Do not make the mistake he did and carry willingly the guilt of mankind just because a cod asked for the time. Give him the time if he asks for it, but don’t feel any guilt for what you see. All the girls of Phoenix Parks everywhere will do what they do. But those of us who are like HCE have a right and obligation to walk where    they do and not be steered away just because society has its own agenda and a desire to regress back into a theocratic rebirth—and loss of all human advancement thus gained.

Rich Hoffman

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Being Judgmental: Be sure to throw rocks at glass houses often

 

I have heard some of the dumbest things over the last few weeks that I believe I have ever heard from the largest contingent of individual minds. Most of the reason is that it has been the Holiday Season and that inevitably puts you in touch with people you only speak to a few times a year. Between all the Christmas parties on a professional end, and all the family functions, the last two weeks of December puts you in touch with a lot of people if you happen to know them. Of course conversations spawn from these interactions which for me is often frustrating and by the time I enter the new year I am ready to never speak to another soul and return to my stacks of books as my favorite pastime due to the let down in finding out how little is on everyone’s minds. This is a typical reaction at least in my house but this year for whatever reason it was much worse. I would attribute this to the emergence of the demographic group—the 25 to 35 year olds who feel that their time for respect has come and that they have arrived to the adult world. What is discovered when talking to them is that they have microwaved intellects that begin as a frozen turkey only to be blasted for five minutes on high to emerge as a steaming carcass on the outside. But inside they are still frozen solid and are completely unthawed for consumption. This is most realized in the most usual banter that comes from them—and those pathetic souls who are in their middle years who wish to be just like them—that humans are not to pass judgment against each other, so to hide their evils. I can’t say how many times over the last two weeks that I have heard “don’t judge” as part of the dialogue.

Anyone who has had interactions with the Church has heard the Matthew quote from 7:1-6, “We must judge ourselves and judge our own acts, but not to make our word a law to everybody. We must not judge rashly, nor pass judgment upon our brother without any ground. We must not make the worst of people. Here is just reproof to those who quarrel with their brethren for small faults while they allow themselves in greater ones. Some sins are as motes, while others are as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel. Not that there is any sin little, if it be a mote, or a splinter, it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both are painful and dangerous, and we cannot be easy or well till they are got out. That which charity teachers us to call but a splinter in our brother’s eye, true repentances and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our own. It is as strange that a man can be in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a beam in his eye, and not considered it; but the god of this world blinds their minds. Here is a good rule for reprovers; first reform thyself.” Or in other words, don’t throw rocks in glass houses, we are all sinners and therefore not qualified to judge others—so leave that business to the church, pay your offerings and leave your neighbor be.  That is part one of this tragedy of modern times. Part two is that the secular public school system has used this ingrained tendency to further destroy in young minds the natural process of being human—and that is to think—and therefore to judge one’s surroundings and path through life.

When it is being demanded that one should not judge another in either the Biblical or secular context, what is expected is for one to turn off their minds and simply not think. Those people are expected to just leave the business of judgment to others in the church or some unknown deity interpreted by mankind itself. Just leave judgment to the authorities—more or less. Well, the result is the kind of sheer stupidity that I heard over the 2014 Holiday which led to my opinion about Facebook. (CLICK HERE TO REVIEW) Only an idiot would turn off their judgment to endorse some of the vile things uttered from the mouths of a very spoiled demographic catered to for their entire lives only to be unleashed unprepared upon the world to assume that they are done cooking like the quickly microwaved Turkey—hot to the touch but ice-cold and completely unthawed in the center. While the Church has played its part in the debacle the ultimate failure is in the public school and college system.

Many of us noticed this ten years ago when we first started fighting school levies when it was obvious that the public school system was failing miserably in teaching kids fundamentals about life and navigating through it—and charging tax payers premium fees for the service which essentially was a baby sitting opportunity for working parents too busy with their careers for the job. Now we are seeing the result of that chaotic lifestyle in these young people who are suddenly entering adulthood justifying the sins of their own loved ones with a Christian mantra against judgment backed with the secular public schools advocating placing their faith in the greater good of society rather than in their own intelligence.

Judgment is part of the human experience. We do it when we drive a car, when we decide what kind of food to eat, what we do for a living, how we conduct virtually every part of our life. Without judgment, we are rudderless animals poised for self-destruction. It is completely asinine to expect a family to sit back and watch a child ruin their lives on drugs while running around with a terrible crowd of miscreants without passing judgment on the kid or the people who paved the way toward that type of social destruction. Then for other family members to swarm to the defense of the bad behavior under the guise of not judging—as if the matter should be left to God through a repentance process. Meanwhile, evil is allowed to spread from person to person like a common cold to infect many instead of a few and everyone is just supposed to stand around and be happy about it? No. That is not how things work and anybody who then uses the Bible as a crutch has not studied the Bible properly. Not passing judgment on others allows evil to spread like fire among dry timber—fast and furious. I would argue in addition that the Biblical passivity toward judgment was caused by faults in the minds of man while interpreting “God’s Word” during a time when the Church wanted to rule the world as the premier authority on all things—namely science, so it can’t be completely trusted and only “judgment” will allow such a conclusion.

Another derogatory comment that I have personally heard all my life is that it is bad to have a “Holier than thou” approach to life—as if to say nobody is perfect. This idea that I was perfectly willing to throw rocks in glass houses knowing full well that I didn’t live in one, was somehow bad.  It has led me to a lot of trouble not because of anything illegal or improper, but because it stood in stark contrast to the surrounding world and their values formed by thoughtless surrender to non-judgment. The “holier than thou” mantra has been cast in my direction to my beginnings including the bus ride that I have talked about before when I was in the fourth grade and a pack of fifth graders told me they’d beat me up if I didn’t take the hit of speed they were trying to force down my throat on the bus ride back home from school. I threw the pills out of the window as I vowed never to take any drugs of any kind. I got into a big fight and hurt some of the kids and I got into a lot of trouble—and that wasn’t the last time. I did the same for many years to many more people all in a fight against the spread of drugs.

When it comes to young people I have earned the right to tell them they shouldn’t smoke, they shouldn’t do drugs, and they shouldn’t get drunk. I don’t do any of those things and I never have, and I never ever will. In regards to drinking it was always about showing that I could still command my senses against the current of alcohol consumption which is a practice I still embark on. In over a quarter century of adult life there isn’t one person who could come forward and declare they saw Rich Hoffman drunk and senseless anywhere at any time. That’s not to say that I haven’t drank 5 to 6 dunkel mugs at the Hofbrauhaus in Newport just because I enjoyed the old German beverage. But for me it’s always been about mastering command over intoxicants, not in surrendering to them—ever. Mind over matter in every case. If beer and alcohol were outlawed it wouldn’t hurt my feelings in the least, and I think drugs of every kind, like cocaine, heroine, meth, and marijuana should be not only be illegal, but should be removed from planet earth and launched into a nuclear furnace at the center of the universe. I hate them that much. I hate drugs and I hate drug abusers. I won’t vote for Rand Paul just because of his loose stance on drugs—that’s how bad I hate drugs in our culture. But I walk the talk and always have—as I do with everything else in my life.

Being “holier than thou” is a good thing. It is good because it makes those conducting their life in a bad way feel bad—and that is “good.” And to determine that holier than thou judgments have to be made. It doesn’t make a person who despises drugs and their abuse among loved ones a hypocrite because they don’t want to associate with the dregs of society. It makes them honest. And honesty is the core tenet of any Biblical study. For those who do wish to pass judgment—which the world needs a lot more of—live up to your opinion—stand by it through thick and thin. Don’t allow the youth trained toward evil to waver your thoughts as “old” and “outdated.” To surrender to this opinion is to allow evil to spread without restraint, and that isn’t what the world needs.

And to those who point and call those of us with opinions as hypercritic aristocrats, and violators of Christian doctrine, look at your pathetic lives and declare honestly that not having judgment in your life has been good in any way at all. The failures of the present point back to that long ago conversation in the kitchen of our youth when we had the argument about marijuana smoking and whether or not it was harmful. Look at your lives now and what that permissiveness has done to not only your lives, but those of your children. And the only way you can hide the crime and own stupidity is to insist that nobody judge you, that everybody is a sinner, and that nobody is any better. But guess what—they are. And that is a grim reality that all the evasion in the world can’t hide with backward chants, Ouija boards, and cries for help beyond the grave to rescue the circumstances of the present due to extremely poor judgment. By the way all those things have been called out against me by people who didn’t want me to “judge” them, and I have learned to deal not just with man, but the armies of thuggish demons who are so easily seduced by those Ouija boards to assist the feeble-minded in trade for some merit. I know a lot about this issue—believe me. The overman concept was forged in those fires.

I am holier than thou because I can be. And I’m very proud of it. It is the best weapon to fight evil with, and an armament that I wish everyone in the world to possess. If I have it my way, which eventually is my goal—they will. It starts with not feeling guilty and proceeds to be forged with honesty, contemplation and the willingness to move out of a glass house so that you can then throw rocks at it. And it ends with passing judgment often and with great fanfare so that the work of evil has nowhere to hide under the scrutiny of intelligence. So my advice to you dear reader is judge, and judge often and feel not an ounce of guilt about anything. Because “they” use that guilt as leverage against your opinion—and that is how evil spreads and the good work of good is destroyed forever.

Thank goodness the Holiday is over. My books are much better company.

Rich Hoffman

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Open Letter to Adam Winrich: Good guys do sometimes wear black

Back in the day my family was one of the first to do slow motion and dramatic set photography with bullwhips. But as I’ve said in an article titled the Class of 2005 of the young people coming up through the bullwhip community at the time, nobody really catapulted bullwhip work as brilliantly as Adam Winrich did. He has since broken nine Guinness Book of World Records in the field of whip cracking and makes his living exclusively doing shows as a bullwhip artist. And when it comes to photographing bullwhip work Adam has excelled there as well. In the beginning he watched a lot of my videos to find ways to improve on them. Now, these days, I watch his, because he does so many unique things with bullwhips. It was because of him that I learned how to cut a soda can in half with a whip. He has for the last decade been the premier whip cracker of our time, and I’m proud of him.

It was at Christmas dinner that I heard my son-in-law had received a new Go Pro camera from my daughter. The conversation migrated to what could be done with a Go Pro camera which of course ended up into a bullwhip conversation. Upon that, my brother let me know that the number one video on the Go Pro website broadcast over the Xbox network was a whip cracker by the name of Adam Winrich who had made a fantastic video using a Go Pro Hero3 camera combining slow motion and very well set up camera shots.

The video is quite beautiful to look at, the firewhip work was very well done, and the ability to show perspective of how the whips work from the view of the whip cracker is extremely unique, and admirable. Adam’s Go Pro work takes much of the excitement of being a whip cracker and puts regular people into position to enjoy it, which is marvelous. It is a very useful tool in advancing the sport.

 

So this next part is not intended for my normal readers here, but for Adam himself. Things like this are so hard to explain in an email. So pardon the deviation. If there was an opportunity to work for a film studio owned by a controversial conservative pundit deeply in love with traditional American values—is that something that would be attractive? The project I’m currently working on, which heavily involves bullwhip work could use a nine time record holder who is nice and young and can handle the innovations that this particular studio is looking for.

This particular individual is uniquely placed into the heart of the entertainment industry because of his success as a political pundit and even those from the political left are seeking refuge among his growing stable of stars. Within the next five years, his particular studio will be poised to directly compete with the Hollywood product model, and within ten to surpass it. Let’s see, that would put Adam Winrich right around 43 years old about that time and likely still in good shape to teach a new generation all the fantastic skills of bullwhip work.

 

I’ve been working on this Cliffhanger character for the last ten years refining things so that it’s a unique enough concept that can hold water for a new generation, but the goal has always been to popularize again an appreciation for the western arts the way westerns used to. But young people can’t identify with westerns any longer, so a new way to present that type of value based material has to be utilized. I’ve done a few bullwhip gigs for the Hollywood crowd and they just don’t get it. That’s why they are going out of business. They certainly aren’t poised to do anything positive for the western arts. But this one guy is–the catch is that he’s political.

The last film festival that I participated in was in 2009, since then I have used my skills to help real causes in the real world, but I don’t do bullwhip work professionally, so I don’t have to worry about not getting bookings because of my political beliefs. So it can be risky to embark on these kinds of adventures. But it can also be worth it. So it’s kind of a loose offer. There are a lot of things up in the air that has to be settled, but the first criterion has to be of interest. We live in an exciting time, and opportunities are certainly there for people who can see easily over the horizon.

There are opportunities with camera systems like the Go Pro to really change the way dramatic stories are told. I’d personally like to see something like Lash LaRue re-emerge without the camera tricks to cheat the stunts. Whip work has for the first time in history an opportunity to be done in a way that can stun audiences so long as there is a narrative justification for the suspense—and there is no better way of achieving that than with real stunts captured by camera systems like Go Pro.

So what does the schedule for Adam Winrich look like over the next ten years? Interested? These days, I’m busy writing, I still do a lot of whip work, and likely always will, but for this proposed project, I can’t think of anybody more committed to the art, and nobody more poised to bring a wow factor to further innovations. So before I make a pitch, I’d need to know some basic fundamentals. Could be a lot of fun, because in this case the hero does wear black—black as night.

 

Rich Hoffman

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