What If This Is What Happened...

Overheard on Jefffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express somewhere over the Southern Atlantic in 2002:

“I’ll tell you, Bill, here’s what we do – It’ll be yuge! – So what I’ll do, if Hillary ever decides to run for president – it’ll be great – I’ll run as a Republican – I’m a billionaire so everyone will think I must be Republican – They’ll all believe it – I’ll go crazy – I’ll go nuts – I’ll whip them into a frenzy over immigration, over China, over Mexico, over the economy – I’ll play the middle – fight both parties – No one will suspect a thing! I’ll scare the hard core Republicans and get them out to vote - win the nomination – Get this! – Then, I’ll get even crazier – Say even crazier things – Practically throw the election – Everyone will believe it! – They’ll think I’m just being me – my crazy self – And that I just couldn’t control myself – couldn’t keep my mouth shut! – They’ll totally believe it! – People will get scared – They’ll be really afraid of me starting nuclear war or something – Like I’m going to start nuclear war when I have a bad day! – They’ll totally think it! – They will be scared that no matter what Hillary’s done in the past – no matter how crazy liberal anti-American she was growing up – no matter how many laws she breaks or lies she tells coming up – she will win! – She’ll win because I will scare them all so much – And they’ll have to vote for her – I mean, they’ll have no choice – It’s either me or her – No one else will stand a chance – It’ a two-party system! – What are they gonna do? – With the supporters you guys already have and the people so scared of me being crazy – She will win no matter what – I’m telling you, it’ll be yuge! First woman President – you’ll be her First Lady! – I’ll loose – say the election was rigged – bitch for a bit, then go back to making money – Doing what I do - I’ll be more famous than ever – Maybe even get a TV show or something – Amazing shit! – I am telling you, it will work – People will believe it – No one will suspect a thing – It’ll do wonders for my business – You guys will be back in the White House! I guarantee you it will work!”

Photo by Khusen Rustamov via Pixabay

"If You're Not First, You're Last..."

“If you’re not first, you’re last…”

These immortal words, handed down from his estranged father to race car driver extraordinaire Ricky Bobby instilled in him a drive to win because they embody a stark truth about competition – if you are first, you have won, and if you are anything but first, no matter where you place in the field, you have lost.

So, in that context of stark contrast, I have a message for every conservative out there, be you a social conservative, fiscal conservative, or whatever brand of conservative you may label yourself – as it stands right now, if you are not voting for Donald Trump this November, then you are voting for Hillary Clinton.

Sorry, folks! I know you might not want to hear it, and I know you are doing everything you possibly can to justify in your heart and in your mind that this is not the case. Believe me, I am not faulting you for that at all, but whatever your reason for not voting for Trump, when you cast that ballot for the presidential election in November, no matter what box you check instead of Donald Trump, like it or not, you might as well just be checking the box next to Hillary Clinton.

No matter your reason for not physically checking Hillary Clinton on your ballot – the fact that she will never be held accountable for the deaths of four of her operators as Secretary of State during the attack in Benghazi – the fact that she flat out lied to the American people about the reason for that attack – the fact that she lied right to the faces of the families of those four men about the circumstances surrounding their deaths – the fact that she lied to the American people and to the FBI about her email server – the fact that she maintained that personal email server so she could delete and remove from public record any emails she desired – the fact that she lied to us that one time about her landing while her official government plane was taking gunfire. Or, if you want to go with some of the historical facts – the fact that she paid off woman after woman that her husband had either accosted or mistreated with his sexual advances while in office – the fact that her ultra-liberal operations long before her husband ever took office helped to advance the ultra-liberal agenda that has helped lead to so many of the issues that you, as a conservative, probably take issue with today – ALL those backroom deals like Whitewater – and let us not forget about the time that she told us that her and Willy Jeff left the White House poor and penniless, though now they are quite admittedly flush with cash after starting that crooked foundation that has taken in billions of dollars from governments that treat anyone that is not a straight male horribly, even flat out killing them for existing, and taken in millions from pay to play deals that exchanged foundation donations for State Department sitdowns, deals, jobs, and favors.

Geez, that is such a long list! I don’t see how any American could see that list, completely dismiss every single one of those things as being some conspiracy theory or orchestrated attack, then still somehow walk into that voting booth and vote for someone with that kind of track record. I do not see how someone could not see that every single move this woman has made in her life has been an orchestrated effort to end up exactly where she is today – all of the lies and all of the cover-ups, and all of the silence while her husband took blowjobs from interns and other women he manipulated through his positions of power – just so she could end up exactly where she is today – standing a real chance of becoming the first female president of the United States – the most powerful person in the world, most likely for eight years.

Make no mistake, my conservative friends, Hillar-ious losing the election in November becomes more impossible with each passing day. While third party candidates are going to abound by the time November rolls around, unless Donald Trump ultimately drops out of the race, every vote that is not cast for Trump is going to be a vote for Hillary Clinton. I’m not saying you should vote for Trump if you are not. Vote your conscience, but don’t kid yourself about what your vote means to Hillary Clinton when it is not cast for Donald Trump. No matter how much you tell yourself and everyone around you that you didn’t actually check that box, endorsing the track record of our soon-to-be queen, that it wasn’t your fault, that you had nothing to do with it, you and I both know deep down that it is just not the case.

So, please, keep doing what you are doing, working hard to promote your third party candidate and trying to convince Donald Trump to drop out of the race, but if Trump’s still in the race on election day, just remember who you will be helping win the election when you don’t vote for Trump.

As those immortal words, “If you’re not first, your last,” capture so well, all that is going to matter in November is who comes in first – who wins. Let’s hope you are not among those who will have helped elect our new queen.

Photo by Jiri Rotrekl via Pixabay

The Opportunity In Being Let Go

It is a sound that I will always remember - the wheels of my big desk chair as it rolled noisily along the concrete floor of the big, open office space. The sound echoed off of the concrete walls and rows of glass desks. It was funny watching the little heads pop up from their desks and monitors, almost like gophers popping their heads up out of the ground for a look as everyone in the room sought to discover what was making that annoying sound.

It was just me, wheeling my big office chair out of the office for the last time. I’d boxed up the few things I kept at work and all that was left was to wheel my chair, my box and my printer to the car and drive away for the last time.

In American corporate culture, we’re supposed to walk out quietly, move on, and then never speak of these final walks out of a place of employment again, even pretend they never happened. We have all experienced them at some point, though, and if I accomplish one thing by continually writing about them, I hope it will be to assure each and every one of you that experiences something like this that the ending of a job truly offers amazing potential when it comes to taking your career and life to the next level.

One such opportunity that is presented to us when a job ends is the chance to expand our personal network. We meet a lot of amazing people at each job, so each time we leave one and start another, we stand the chance of meeting an entirely new set of amazing folks while still being able to stay in contact with the people from the job we have just left. Add in the fact that you will also secure  some valuable contacts while conducting your job search, and there’s some extra icing on that cake.

So, the next time you are walking out of a place of employment for the last time, just remember to hold your head high and smile, knowing that great things are about to happen for you. The potential to improve so many things you have wanted to improve is the greatest at that point in time. To be cliché, the world is yours to shape and mold as you wish on that day. Don’t forget to enjoy the feeling of freedom, then get right to work finding that next opportunity and ensuring it is your best opportunity yet.

As for me, one of the most amazing things about the day I wheeled that big office chair out of that echoing, big concrete and glass office and down to my car was the fact that I did not wheel that chair out alone. I was flanked by people who were now not only former co-workers, but life-long acquaintances that will always share the memories of our time there together, and the memory of that funny time William noisily wheeled his big office chair out of the place on his last day.

On that last day, when that window closes, just remember that the biggest door in the world has been opened for you – a door that leads to limitless potential.

3 Things We Need To Eliminate From Political Discourse Immediately

As we look back on history, there have always been conflicts and at least two sides to every story. If we all agreed on everything every time, there would be no conflict. Therefore, the fact that there has been so much conflict in human history serves to demonstrate our lack of agreement on just about everything over the centuries.

And while conflict can sometimes be deadly, it is our diversity in opinion that is what proves we are alive and have our own free will. And what makes humans human is the ability to disagree and maintain civility and society through those disagreements, though on many occasions, being human has also resulted in the exact opposite.

But there is a constant throughout the history of human conflict and it is that conflict has remained civil as long as one side has respected the other side’s right to disagree with them, and once that respect to disagree disappears, conflicts spiral out of hand, civility goes out the window, and things get very, very messy until that respect to disagree returns.

Far too often political content published in America today immediately marginalizes the emotions and beliefs of detractors to the author’s point of view. While the author may not agree with the opposing view, and obviously has a right to disagree, to simply come back and say that those emotions and beliefs should not exist, regardless of how misguided the author may feel they are, is, at best, impractical, because those emotions and beliefs do exist, otherwise, there would be no need for the article to have been written in the first place. Right or wrong in one person’s view, someone’s emotions and beliefs exist – despite how much the opposing side may wish to marginalize them.

American political content also far too often is written with the notion that somehow a person who believes things the author opposes is somehow responsible for actions other than their own. A case in point is when someone asks why there is no white history month and is immediately classified as racist and held accountable for the sins of an entire race of people, even though he himself may never have actually done anything other than have a simple curiosity about the fairness of a race not having a history month.

Thirdly, there is a very disturbing trend in political content in which content creators are assuming certain individuals have enjoyed a much easier life because of their present circumstances, or worse, because of the color of their skin or their heritage. Case in point is this line I pulled directly from an article: “Certain people have the social and economic world constantly working in their favor.” This would mean that this group of people have to work less hard in school, have to work less hard to get ahead in the world, and have some sort of minimum safety net guaranteed by their race. This notion of privilege that is becoming more prominent in America with each passing day promotes the belief that a person of a particular race who continually messes up at work, doesn’t have the skills to hold down a job, or simply stands on a street corner and puts their hand out, will automatically have more than a person of another race who is dedicated to their career and works hard everyday.

While I understand that America’s struggle with racism and fair treatment regardless of skin color may be far from over, and while I also believe that continual race baiting by politicians and activists is actually prolonging racism is this country, I also believe that this notion that the lighter your skin, the more people hand you things – the less that you have to work for what you have – is completely and totally ridiculous. This notion of privilege and forcing people to feel guilty for the color of their skin is as completely ridiculous as the view that someone is less of a person or somehow inadequate because of the color of their skin. These two concepts go hand in hand and are equally as incorrect and wrong.

Rather then finger pointing and declaring that some people simply have things handed to them while others have an entire system of government and society stacked against them, we should take to heart the notion that we were all created equal and that we are all equally abled regardless of the color of our skin. Instead of this notion of privilege, we should return to promoting self-reliance, self-worth, opportunity, personal responsibility and personal accountability.

I, for one, believe whole-heartedly that the color of one’s skin truly has no bearing on their ability to accomplish goals, no bearing on the limit of their imagination, or on the success that they can have in this country. I believe our own self-doubts and the acceptance of victimization by society is a far bigger culprit. Once society starts expecting less of some than others, we see this horrible pattern where those who are expected to do less start to fulfill that prophecy.

I believe we should teach every child in America that their opportunities are limitless and that they can achieve any goal they set out accomplish, not that these kids over here are going to breeze through life, and these kids over here are never going to amount to anything because of the color of their skin. We can do better than this, America.

I grew up in one of the poorer neighborhoods in our town and I went to a public school in that neighborhood. I struggled with authority in high school and I struggled with paying for college. I have been pulled over by the police for fitting a profile and I can show you the tickets I received from those police officers that during the same month cited my race as Hispanic when I was driving my Volkswagen Jetta and cited my race as White when I was driving my Mercedes-Benz 190E. But one thing remained constant throughout all of this time during my upbringing, and that was the fact that the people around me continually told me that I could accomplish anything, and that the limits of my American dream were only up to one person – that only one person controlled my destiny – me. No one told me because of the neighborhood I grew up in, or because of my appearance, or regardless of how poorly I was doing in school at the time that the cards were stacked against me, that I was unprivileged, and that I had to accept anything other than a destiny I created for myself.

I was taught to be respectful. I was taught right from wrong. I was taught the importance of education. I was taught that if I wanted something, I needed to work for it. I was taught that there were no handouts and that life is what you make of it. When we teach kids that these things are all predetermined and out of their control, we are teaching them a horrible lesson.

We need to do better as a society and a people in the lessons we are teaching and the realities we accept. We need to no longer marginalize the beliefs of others that may not align with our beliefs. We need to stop blaming an entire race or group of people for the actions of a few. And most importantly, we need to stop channeling these two horrible habits into teaching our kids that some of them are inherently better than others – that some are more privileged than others – and go back to teaching them that each and every one of them can accomplish anything they set their minds to – that they are equally worthy to every other single person out there – and that they can accomplish anything that any other person can accomplish.

Photo by Gratisography via Pexels

Taxes, Elections, And 55% Of Us Paying For 100% Of Government

For 45% of you, federal income tax is not an issue. While the fact that you do not pay federal income tax most likely means there are some other pressing issues you are dealing with instead, I wonder if this means that you only concern yourself with taxes every four years during the presidential election cycle. While I think about taxes every single day, I wonder if the prospect of a new president taking office has you just as worried about taxes as me. Naturally, I worry if I am going to have to pay more, while you probably worry about actually having to start.

Oh, and I get that those of you who do not pay federal income tax pay sales tax, local taxes, maybe even property taxes, gas taxes and utility taxes, but the fact remains…those of us who are among the 55% of Americans that pay federal income tax pay all of those taxes, too. The difference is that we pay a federal tax on our income on top of all of those other taxes, and you do not.

For 45% of you, spring must be the most wonderful time of the year. I am sure you can’t wait to file those tax returns and for your “refund” checks to show up in the mail or in your checking account so you can rush out and spend, spend, spend on the stuff you have been waiting all year to buy with that big fat “refund” check.

But for the 55% of us who actually have to pay for the federal government and all of the infrastructure and services it provides to 100% of us, spring actually sucks quite a bit. In addition to the thousands upon thousands of dollars in federal income taxes I have paid over the course of the previous year, each spring I have to come to grips with the fact that I still have to come up with thousands of dollars more to send in to the High Exalted Throne in Taxington DC.

And naturally, this all occurs while I continually hear that I am not paying enough in taxes, most commonly known as “my fair share,” even though my single biggest expense every year is…you guessed it…taxes. And now, even though I was not able to afford college myself, apparently, I still somehow have a duty to pay for college for a much more entitled and deserving generation after me. Why don't I vacation more? Take a look at my tax bill. Why don't I have kids? Take a look at my tax bill. Why don't I give more generously to charity? I already am...take a look at my tax bill. Why do I want to keep more of the money I work hard for? Take a look at my f-ing tax bill!

Liberal and socialist alike - and yes, to me, they are the same group - stand there, scratching their heads and simply cannot figure out why people like me - the 67.2% of idiots in this country who actually participate in the labor force - have grown sick and tired of politicians on both sides of the aisle who lie during election season, spend too much of other people's money and wouldn't know a balanced budget, reasonable and sustainable economic policy, or the reality of the average working American, if it bit them on the ass. I am amazed that they still cannot figure out why we’re sick and tired of all of them. They think we are all racists, or classicists, or warmongers, or gun-nuts, or just genuinely angry, unhappy people. These are the broad brush strokes we are painted with simply because we no longer want to bear the personal financial burden of their entitlement mentality that puts more and more Americans in a position of reliance upon our bloated government for their very existence.

But, the vast majority of us are none of these things. We are just hard working Americans who are sick and tired of being taken advantage of, and sick and tired of being the few who must not only support ourselves, but also those out there who refuse to support themselves.

We know our tax money is used to pay for the military, the police, the fire department, schools, the roads, and all of those similar, great things, but we're tired of it being just some of us, not EVERYONE, who is paying for those things. We're tired of paying for million dollar gas stations in Afghanistan and subsidizing multi-billion-dollar corporations. We're tired of a Taxington DC that cannot reassure us they are not wasting our money. We are tired of hearing about billions in fraud and lost taxpayer money at the same time we are forced to send more money to be wasted for every dollar more we earn. We are tired of being told there won't be as much social security money for us, but still see it stolen from us throughout the year with every paycheck and again at tax time. You want a great example of taxation without representation? How about these social programs all of the liberals and socialists strapped us with, long before we were even born, without ever asking if we wanted to participate in their bullshit Ponzi schemes?

So you bet we're angry. We're not angry about race, equality or who can use what bathroom...we're angry and sick and tired of being forced to accept preferential treatment for those who pay less than we do, and we're angry that this is the country we've inherited from politicians and their ridiculous economic policies that only work in fairy tales.

So, liberals and socialists, keep loading the country up with people who think it is perfectly all right to take more out of the system than they put in all the while bitching at us that we don't put in enough, even though we have never taken a dime back out of that system. Keep telling us that our belief in hard work, actual dollar for dollar fairness, capitalism, and personal responsibility and accountability are just as dated and antiquated as the original principles upon which this country was founded and one day you will find yourself wishing for the days when a rude-mouthed bombastic billionaire was the scariest challenger we could muster to your efforts to seat a completely undeserving, self-serving, crooked liar in the Oval Office.

Image by 3dman_eu via Pixabay

Concentrate On Your Personal Economy

I was deep in thought when I came to the realization that given all of the information available to us today, we easily can become overwhelmed. While there was a time in history when people starved for knowledge and there was great excitement at obtaining a new book or other item to read, today there really is just too much information out there.

Think about the likelihood that you could actually watch every episode of every television show that you wanted to watch in today’s world of satellite, cable, and made-for-streaming “television”. It would be impossible. There is just not enough time in a lifetime to watch it all. The same is the case for all of the great content there is to read out there.

I can readily admit that I am addicted to reading as much about business, the economy, healthcare and politics as I can. My inbox is filled with newsletters and articles that I read every time I am out walking or have a few spare minutes to glue my eyes to that little screen I carry around in my pocket.

But, in the end, I always struggle with the return on investment of my time. Granted, I am learning a great deal every day, and remain fairly well updated on the goings on of the world, but would my time be better used in some other manner? I often tend to feel that could be the case.

The area where I question the time I spend consuming content the most is politics. Sure, I can tell you much more about what is going on in politics than the average American, which sadly, isn’t saying much, but what is the ROI of all that time I spend keeping current on the subject?

Does being up-to-date on the political landscape make a difference in my life? Can I make a difference at all by knowing what is going on? Does being aware make it any easier to swallow the circumstances that are provided to us by the politicians and the immense political machine that the American government has become? Realistically, while I struggle with the answer, it seems to be a resounding ‘no’.

And this is what really got me thinking that day. For as much time as we all can spend reading about politics and politicians, how does this knowledge actually reflect upon our own personal economies? Not the U.S. economy, or the economy in the state we live, but our actual personal economies – our own little financial empires, however big or small, that can be effected by changes in Washington as well as something as personal as changing a job or whether or not we buy a new car.

All of the politicians in Washington and the state capitals try to influence our votes by telling us to ask ourselves if we are better off now than we were “x amount of time” ago. These politicians then try to either take credit for, or blame others for, the state in which we find our own personal economies at the given time. And while things like the Affordable Care Act and tax increases or whether or not mortgage loan interest remains tax deductible can all have an influence on our personal economies, there is no one bigger influence on them than ourselves.

Stop doing your job and see what happens to your own personal economy. Do an amazing job and get more business or a promotion and see what happens. Buy a brand new house or car that you can’t afford and see what happens. Each of these things will have a far bigger impact on your life than whether a Democrat or Republican is president or who is controlling the congress.

As someone who has spent a good deal of his time reading about politics and politicians, I don’t necessarily recommend putting your head in the sand, but I do recommend not getting too caught up in the political rhetoric that ultimately in the end will not have nearly the effect on your own personal economy as the financial decisions you make.

Paying more attention to your financial decisions and taking the time to better understand how they will affect your own personal economy will yield far more ROI on time invested than any other effort you can undertake.

Photo by Charles Thompson via Pixabay