Trumpski – Handing the United States Over to Russian Hackers

Posted on March 30, 2017 by

I know. The headline is “sensational” to say the least. But, there were three very specific things that happened this last week that made me want to unplug every padular and mobile device in my possession. To co-op the old Timothy Leary phrase, I wanted to “Turn Off, Tune Out, and Hide in the Corner…”

But of course, as an owner of a handful of Internet-related enterprises (trust me, that sounds way bigger than reality if the IRS is reading this), I HAVE to care  about the three biggest developments to shake up the our current reality, and completely alter the future as we know it.

And no…for once, I am not overstating this. An absolute Game-Changer slid through the morass of “Spy-vs-Congress” headlines this week. One that in my opinion may be more damaging to our way of life than anything signed since the massive deregulation bills of communications and investment banking in 1997.

And the worst part, is that the average voter/citizen is too lazy or ill-informed to catch it.

1. Both Senate and House Committees on Intelligence made it clear that there was very specific, and damaging use of “weaponized” information gathered on our highest elected officials, not only during the past election cycle, but as recently as this past week.

2. It was revealed by several news agencies that the head of the Congressional House Intelligence Committee is likely working with/for the Trump administration to hide/alter documents that may be “impeachment-worthy.”

BUT THE BIG ONE THAT SLIPPED BY….
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Waking Up the Power of the People – Solutions Part III – Finding the Message in a Sea of Garbage

Posted on March 21, 2017 by

I really did mean to write this a few days ago. But, when I heard that FBI Director James Comey, and NSA Director Mike Rodgers were going to testify before the Congressional  House Intelligence Committee, I thought I’d wait. It felt like there was a lit fuse, waiting to ignite a bombshell. A game-changer…a “Holyfreakinshirt…this is HUGE” moment.

And there was.  Just not the “HFS moment” I (and most of America) hoped for or expected.

Yes. The news that the FBI is indeed investigating the Trump-Russia connection as a “criminal investigation” sent shock waves of glee/anger (depending on which side of the aisle you sit) across the globe.  But the HISTORY MAKER was watching a sitting President, not only refute the statements of his two highest heads of domestic and foreign intelligence…but actually lie… IN REAL TIME, using his favorite tool of self-deception, Twitter.

Which brings us to our final “Waking Up the Power of the People”- SOLUTIONS PART III

Just a warning…you probably aren’t going to like Part III any more than you liked parts I and II… because it requires you to do your own homework. And we all know how “grown adults” feel about homework.

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Resistance, Persistence and the Commander in Tweet- Solutions Part II

Posted on March 11, 2017 by

If all of you who follow along actually did what I suggested in the last post, you have seen a week where our “Commander in Tweet” has once again spun facts, pandered to women (not an assaulting P-Grabbing threat in the bunch), claimed that his strategies have already set new records in jobs creation…and that health care reform, is “making great progress.”

Let’s just agree to disagree on most of what he says…right? He is a master of the “say it enough, and people will believe it” tactic that actually got him elected in the first place.

But what we face, is a daily onslaught of truly random ideas, with seemingly contrary results (reducing the deficit while increasing spending, but cutting budgets, while increasing defense…while cutting TSA and Coast Guard to build a wall), that are all born out of one very clear objective…LET THE 1% RUN FREE and everything else will follow.

This makes Reagan’s “Trickle Down Economics” look like a drip…and the dam that keeps the deluge from destroying the country in an unbridled fury of greed, is being dismantled from the inside.

But, there is a way to turn off the spigot of insanity that is polluting the waters of clear thinking (had enough water metaphors yet?), and it comes back to the same “source” every time…Congress.

Here’s why Congress, and attacking their soft underbellies, is the only way we will wrest back any control from this power-drunk-rhetoric-fueled-potentate.
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Our Commander in Tweet – Waking Up the Power of the People In Three Easy Steps

Posted on March 4, 2017 by

commanderintweet
So, I admit it. I started watching the “President’s Address to Congress” with the same snarky, close-minded attitude that many of my “Hate Everything he Says And Does” (HESAD) group of friends had. But, within five minutes of my self-imposed drinking game (take a drink every time he said, “Very, Very, VERY” in his speech), I realized that I was watching a “New Trump.” Kinda mostly… and wasn’t drunk enough not to notice!

He was measured.  He cut back on the campaign rhetoric. He actually presented some ideas (although admittedly not with solutions for funding them) that actually had my bulbous noggin nodding. “Whaaaaaa Happened?”

So then I went to check the posts from our Commander in Tweet (yes, I follow him on Twitter…more on that in a minute), and realized that he had taken a moratorium (short, very, very, VERY short) on laying waste to the Tweet-O-Shere over the days preceding his speech.

Just TWO posts in two days…both pimping his big speech. Holyfreakinshirt!

So, WHAT got into him?  What changed?  Who got his attention? Is it going to last???
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Chicken Trump…What Goes Around, Stays Away?

Posted on February 26, 2017 by

trumpchicken
It is a pretty well-known assumption (won’t go so far as to call it fact) that one of the primary reasons that Trump was actually motivated to run for President, and has such a targeted dislike for President Obama, was Obama’s dismantling of Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2011.

You can see a clip and a story outline of the event here.

So when Trumpski gets a chance to take the podium, and level his own brand of “humor” at the Press corp, one would assume that he would join in the “good-natured ribbing” that has been a tradition for decades.  But, noooooooooooooooooooo…. 

Once again, Trump is the first POTUS in 30 years to take a pass on the event… in essence blackballing himself from his own media opportunity.  Perhaps he feels bad for excluding some of the representatives of targeted news media this past week. (I’ll wait for you to stop laughing).

But, it is far more likely, he is just, plain CHICKEN. 

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Waking Up From A Self-Induced Coma…The Preamble

Posted on February 25, 2017 by

twitter-trumphesback

I’d like to say that I have some great reason for stepping away from the Blog-O-Sphere into a self-induced coma. But I really don’t have one…except that in the vernacular of a character that may appear in the book, “Hillbilly Elegy” (which I’ll get back to in a bit), “My Head Done Got Broke.”

It’s been more than three months since the “election that changed the world,” and I still get a “flee or fight” burst of adrenaline that blasts through my body when I hear the term, “President Trump” uttered by anyone.  I admit readily, that the entire concept, and the Bizzaro-World reality that has kept the country and our allies on our collective heals since his inauguration (crowning? anointing?  assumption of power?), has left me reeling in ways that have left my face in a permanent, pained squint…like watching a YouTube video of a kid trying to skateboard on the railings of a staircase, and then falling to crush his testicles as gravity wins the battle. “Pained expression” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I guess it is the GRAVITY (as in very, very, very grave to use Trump-speak) that has rocked me from my coma, and back into the fray.

So. Much. To. Do.

It’s time to strap on the backpack, with the giant Sisyphusian bolder in it, and head back up the mountain.

But there’s another reason that “Blogging for a cause” has lost its luster...until now.
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We Have Met the Enemy…and He Is Us – Part I- The Numbers Behind the Numbers

Posted on November 13, 2016 by

enemyus-parti

On November 12th, just four days after she lost, Hillary made her first speech reference about the FBI’s role in her loss. In a New York Times article, she is quoted as saying, “There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,” Mrs. Clinton said, according to a donor who relayed the remarks. But, she added, “our analysis is that Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum.”

Nope. Sorry, Hillary. If you want to talk about “damaging bad news that was leaked,” there was evidence for months, and just days before you were crowned…er…uhm…chosen as the Party’s nominee, about the DNC/HRC collusion to make sure Bernie Sanders was marginalized.  However…the part you ignored wasn’t in the back-room tactics, but the raw numbers that the primary elections revealed, before coming back to haunt you on November 8th.

One thing people have to know about me is that I am kind of a “stats freak.”  For decades as someone in marketing/advertising, it has been my job and my passion to not only be able to see trends in data, but to learn to follow my “gut instinct” when it comes to assumptions.  And for the most part, ironically because I work in broadcast media, I rarely if ever trust the general media to give me a straight answer when something is important.

The Media (of all flavors) has their own job to do; namely, to keep people targeted and coming back for more.  I’ll get into the media’s role in this election more in the next post (see? I’m planting the hook…) but, suffice it to say, that I have doubted the pollsters, the talking heads, and 24-hour news channels and their predictions of a Clinton win for months.

And as much as I know you are tired of hearing about it, many of my suspicions, hunches, and gut feelings (now there’s a string of scientific imperial methods for you) were formed on our 9,600 mile, cross country trip last summer.  With the exception of Florida, we drove through the very states that “stole the election” from Hillary, and interacted with loads of people there, never shying away from asking them about their political views.

However, when it comes to the results of this election, and some of the key numeric factors that created the outcome, the answer was in the numbers, MONTHS ahead of November 8th.

And, as I teased in the last post (see? I understand the bait/promo media game), there was a twist that my recent research revealed, that really made this election outcome a foregone conclusion.  But even more important, it makes an argument for revising the entire primary election process, including changes in the Electoral College and Primary Nomination process.

Fair Warning: This is a Long Post – If you suffer from attention deficit due to extended padular device and social media overuse, it may not be for you. But, these are complex problems that require more than simplistic finger pointing.  So, buckle in.

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