Month: August 2015

Trump, Carson, and Cruz: The resurrection of a John Wayne America

Over the weekend Donald Trump gave speeches in South Carolina, Massachusetts and then to Nashville, all to big crowds. Out of all the nearly 20 presidential candidates from both sides of the political spectrum, nobody came close to out working Trump. Additionally the billionaire from New York gave a wonderful interview to Sarah Palin and announced that he was going to team up with two other presidential candidates, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz for a major policy protest regarding the Iranian deal recently signed by the president. Trump indulged many of the topics I would typically cover here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom leaving me for the first time in years time to begin working on a new hobby of mine, Western Fast Draw. The guy in the videos below is Howard Darby, and he has worked really hard to become as proficient as he is. I spent some time during this year’s Annie Oakley events in Greeneville, Ohio watching the guys at the Ohio Fast Draw Association International compete between my own bullwhip events. And I decided this year that I’d start developing that new skill for my own pleasure. It will take a while to get to the level of Darby but it sure will be fun practicing. And I’m thankful to Trump for doing what he’s doing, because for the first time in about 15 years, I actually think there is someone better positioned than me to bring up all these topics—which gives me time to do other things. Here are some video clips of Darby. I love this guy.  

Under a Trump presidency I can actually see a day where John Wayne will be more celebrated as an American icon once again than Lady GaGa. The slow decline that we are seeing from the music industry by artists like Miley Cyrus may very well turn around into something much more positive because Trump as divisive as the media accuses him of being is bringing people out of every known crack to capture their interest in this upcoming election. If Trump sticks with it he may very well eliminate the entire field of Republican candidates and I really don’t think there is a Democrat who can run against him on the horizon—unless a liberal celebrity steps forward. The political hacks that have been in the system for such a long time just don’t have the work ethic, the strategic implementation, the nimbleness, or funding to do what Trump is doing.

Trump’s open embrace of Ben Carson and Ted Cruz is really a brilliant move. Those two guys would never have a chance at breaking through the establishment barriers without Trump plowing the way. For all the Ted Cruz supporters, without Trump there is no where for the Texas senator to go for support. The media will not give him a seat at the table of political discourse because he’s too smart, too holier than thou, and certainly not part of the Beltway culture. Cruz is clearly a Tea Party politician and everyone hates him for it. Trump smartly is setting not only a stage for the 2016 elections, but the 2024 field. These are young men relatively speaking, and in Trump’s wake, they are succeeding where they wouldn’t otherwise. It’s a classic game of good cop bad cop, and Trump clearly knows what he’s doing and what his role in it is.

A lot of people forget that Trump is a Tea Party guy. He has been for a long time. For a celebrity he’s the only one that I remember—besides myself and a handful of others, who refused to concede that there was something really wrong with the president’s birth certificate. Everyone ran away from the media designation of Obama “birthers” except for Trump. Back in 2011 and 2012 Donald Trump attended Tea Party events and flirted with a presidential run back then. If not for Trump, Obama would have never released his birth certificate even though Sheriff Arpaio put together a team which showed the document to be a fake—generated by modern computers because of the layered software that was not available in the 1960s, when the president was actually born. Arpaio is one of those John Wayne traditionalists who made America what it is today, but at over 83, as of this writing, there aren’t many behind him to take the baton. That is something I am always personally concerned about. Each time someone tries to emerge, the media class clearly following the strategies of The Naked Communist shut down proper coverage of such good people leaving us a field of candidates to choose from who are just terrible.

Remarkably in Nashville, Trump went out of his way to promote the Tea Party as a political movement. Of course this stunned the political establishment who has been trying to shut down the movement for years. I have seen this first hand in my own community. Political insiders from the Republican party infiltrated the Tea Party and slowly took the edge off until that silent majority became frustrated and went back to sleep. I still do what I do, but the meeting places slid away into oblivion, and many of the original Tea Party members stop going to meetings and turned back to God on Sunday for some sign of improvement. Meanwhile progressive society marched on unmolested showing itself to be seemingly unstoppable.

Of course I am used to being in the extreme minority through my support of western arts. My decision to start learning fast draw after thirty years of whip work essentially came from the fact that I am now a grandfather and I see the hungry light from behind the eyes of those young children and it reminds me of the old-fashioned America that I love so much—which Donald Trump is dusting off—an America that is good for all races and nationalities. One that black Americans can get excited about and cause Frederick Douglas Republicans to emerge once again. Many blacks do not know these days that the baseball great Jackie Robinson was a Republican as was Martin Luther King. Robinson actually endorsed Richard Nixon for president over John F. Kennedy. Today it is assumed that a person with dark skin will automatically vote for a Democrat leaving Republican politicians looking to join the socialist’s efforts of the Democratic party by throwing benefits to minorities to win their votes. Nothing could be further from the truth. People of all walks of life want to respect themselves in a way that traditional America established. They want self-reliance; they’d rather have a job than to suck off welfare, unless they are essentially lazy people. But most people aren’t. They want government off their back and they want to keep what they work for. Those are essentially Tea Party values which central committee political hacks sought so aggressively to shut down.

When I was in charge of getting signatures for a right-to-work movement in Ohio, which Governor Kasich was against in 2012 it stunned me how many Tea Party leaders locally followed the mantra precisely to Kasich’s political desires. Kasich ran as a Tea Party governor to get the votes and after a major defeat from the public sector unions, he decided that he didn’t want to take on the unions, and had lost his will to fight. It was then that Patti Alderson, the local socialite put me on her radar list and came after me personally—which was a huge mistake. As a Wild West supporter I’m used to being the only one in the room doing what I do, so I didn’t care when Patti’s people stopped sending me emails. I get an average of 150 emails a day now, back then it was nearly 400 and I didn’t have time to read them all. I still don’t, but I did notice the attempt to paint me off the stage. It wasn’t just me, it was everyone associated with Tea Party activity as the Republican Party hell or high water was going to unite the party back to the values of progressives. But Trump is ruining those plans and I’m very happy about it.

For the first time I can actually see a day that America might be proud of itself once again. During this fight even Glenn Beck lost the will to keep swinging leaving much of his audience left to a three-hour daily radio show that sounds more like church than a Tea Party meeting. But some of us love fighting. I do, the more people against me, the more fun I have because it gives me more people to fight. And Trump is certainly that kind of person. Beck obviously isn’t. He wants to be the next Martin Luther King or Gandhi. I just want to be a gun fighter out of a spaghetti western. Beck is happy if people show up and pray with him at some public event. I am happy to see that the modern Star Wars movies are putting a modern spin on the classic Spaghetti Western. But because of Donald Trump, I can actually start thinking of the things I want to do, because what he’s doing every day is what I have been committed to on a smaller scale for a long time, and its nice to see someone more positioned for effectiveness doing the good work of decimating the old political order that never was for representing the old John Wayne America. But for me, that is the only kind of America—a time where westerns were the key inspiration for young kids, black leaders were Republicans, and families stayed together and had money in their bank accounts. Donald Trump looks to be committed to not only bringing that America back to life, but he’s setting the political stage for the next two decades and he really doesn’t have any competition. And that allows people like me to do the kinds of things I really enjoy, which is a very good thing.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Trump, Trump, and More TRUMP: The strategic importance of moral capital

The only person I have met who works as hard if not harder than myself, and is doing precisely what I said over four years ago that Republicans should do to re-capture the hearts of America, is Donald Trump which is why these days I write about him it seems every day. He is a relief to me to see someone take the national stage and say the kinds of things I have written about with millions and millions of words. Trump is taking things to a completely new political level. I have watched really smart people over the last five years get eaten completely by the political machines, and watched really stupid people declare that the status quo would once again rule the day. That is until June of 2015 when Donald Trump announced he was running for president. And over the last couple of months before Labor Day even arrived, Trump had molded himself into a really good political candidate. Watch his South Carolina speech from the last week of August.

We are watching history being made and things are being said that until Trump were only said as boisterously here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. Trump’s never back down approach is so refreshing. And nearly every day he has found a way to make news. I know how difficult it is because I have been asked often how I found enough topics to write about every day—and how I can write so much. Trump is going to the next level, every day he finds some injustice to challenge and he seamlessly weaves it into his speeches with no Teleprompters, political handlers, or caution of any kind. His platform is undeniably conservative, strong borders, pro second amendment, pro business, pro military, against Common Core, etc,. but unlike other candidates, he actually gives the impression that he can do something about any of those topics. He’s a doer, not just a talker, and that is the reason for his dominance in the political arena.

Until Trump, I was one of the few people who called people like Anthony Weiner names like “sleazebag” and “perv” based on his behavior. A lot of people thought about it, or danced around the subject jokingly, but only a person who does not live in a glass house can afford to throw rocks, so most people don’t. After all, as the Ashley Madison incident recently exposed, there are millions of men looking to cheat on their wives discreetly and only a few women, who were likely professional prostitutes. So a lot of people were shamed into stepping off any high horse that they may have fantasized of having to formulate an opinion, and they let Anthony Weiner off the hook. Trump being a man free of drugs, alcohol, or financial concern can rampage through a jungle of political hacks because he knows that he can throw rocks and nobody can toss them back because as public as he is, he does not live in a glass house. He can afford to be holier than thou, which is exactly what I have always said is the type of person who should be president.

Even I was a little surprised that Trump went after Huma Abedin, who is married to Anthony Weiner in a speech in Massachusetts. Abedin as it turns out is part of the Hillary Clinton email scandal so it was a topic that Trump had a right to expose—and he did it in a grand fashion that sounded just like something I’d write. And there it was on the front page of USA Today stated in a way that sounded like one of my articles. It was very refreshing because Trump continues to show that he isn’t afraid of any demons from his past coming out to expose him as a hypocrite, which is why he can call out so much bad behavior.

What a lot of people don’t understand about moral capital is that there is a good tactical reason not to get drunk or show other people in friendly settings your weaknesses. It came up with me while talking to a friend recently why I know so many people yet don’t maintain very many close personal relationships. The reason is that I don’t want to get too close. You don’t want to hesitate if you have to go after someone aggressively. You don’t want to not do something that’s right because you shared a sin with them at some point in the past. Getting drunk with someone or worse yet, getting stoned, dancing, and extrapolating sexual impositions all might make you hesitate later when you discover that you have to go after someone’s jugular for the sake of doing the right thing. I don’t have that burden, I don’t do bad things, I don’t open myself to weakness and share them with others so to make them not feel so bad about themselves. I often purposely use a ‘holier than thou’ moral position to get what I want from people who do live in glass houses and it gives perpetual leverage for attack if there comes a time where such things are needed. I always liked Donald Trump but I assumed that he lived a life where occasional drunkenness was shared with others and that he had a bit of a playboy lifestyle. As it turns out, he didn’t, and doesn’t. He’s just an overachiever who never has a motor that turns off, which I can relate to. But it also makes him free to go after true evils and to extrapolate from those perpetrators what he needs.

What Trump said about Anthony Weiner’s marriage to Huma Abedin has the Beltway terrified because it’s the first hint they have had at what a Trump in the White House would be like. If Trump wants a bill passed he’ll know who slept with whose wife, who solicited a prostitute on the previous Friday, who in congress is attending swinger parties, and who woke up on a Sunday morning in a park without their pants—and he’ll use that leverage to garner cooperation. He can, because he will make sure he always has the high moral ground over his rivals, and that makes him a very dangerous potential president. At the heart of inaction between Barack Obama and John Boehner is that they both love cigarettes—so they share that little sin together for the detriment of our country. As soon as Boehner won the speaker’s seat, Obama exposed that shared sin to his advantage and it has persisted to this day. Boehner lost his leverage on Capital Hill before he ever got started with the public knowledge of just a few sins that people want to keep buried in a closet.

Jessica Estepa who wrote the USA Today article about Trump and Weiner during the lonely hours of early August 29, 2015 was noticeably distraught by exposing Abedin in the way that the presidential candidate had in Massachusetts. After all, how many women in the world were just like Abedin, who were in bad marriages where their husbands were perpetual horn dogs cheating on them like there is no tomorrow. But they are too insecure with themselves to leave such bad men for better opportunities. So they take progressive political positions to justify their weaknesses. They might even walk on the wild side every now and then like getting drunk at a club and gang molested by strange people captured on hundreds of cell phones for all time to remember. They might cozy up with a lesbian politician who wants to be president herself and find solace as an abused woman with an older woman who has an equally slimy husband. Trump knows that secrets were shared, because that’s what people do, and he is using the situation to create leverage. That’s what you want out of a president. In a world of sin, which the Beltway is full of; put a man in the White House who refuses to commit sin so that he can maintain leverage over them for the good of strategic positioning and wonderful things can happen.

Trump’s candidacy is a dream come true for me for all those reasons and more. I can forgive issues from his past where he politically wavered just because I understand the importance of leverage in a society of evil and how valuable it is to club opponents over the head with their own misconduct to achieve strategic necessities. I don’t go “out with the guys” ever, for any reason. I go home to my wife every day and live my life cleanly on my terms.   I don’t share friendships with people for the benefit of the mutual keeping of secrets. And other than myself, I have never seen anyone similar such as Trump, let alone able to conduct himself on such a large national stage. I simply love it, because I know how powerful of a tool that behavior can be, and he will be able to use it, and appears extremely ready to perform the task in a way that has never been done before by anybody in a high office—in history. So I become more excited about a possible Trump presidency day by day—a run that will expose the buried bodies and illicit acts of corrupt politics for the betterment of our nation. And that is truly something to get excited about.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

A Gay, Black, Progressive Murderer: Where the blame for violence really belongs

So a gay, black man, built intellectually by a progressive society to believe he had been victimized—and oppressed by the dialogue of the day, committed an ultimately heinous crime. This is how MSN reported the incident which occurred during the day on 8/26 2015.

MONETA, Va. — The fatal shooting of a reporter and cameraman unfolded on live TV during the early morning show, as tens of thousands of viewers watched a horrified anchor struggle to comprehend what had happened.

Within hours, the carefully scripted carnage carried out by a disgruntled former colleague spread to millions of viewers gripped by what had transformed into a social media storm. The governor initially described a car chase on his weekly radio show, with police on the shooter’s tail on an interstate highway.

Then, social media posts referencing the slain TV pair surfaced on an account under an on-air pseudonym used by the gunman — culminating with a first-person video of the ambush filmed by the shooter.

The 56-second clip shows Vester Lee Flanagan II quietly approach WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, gun in hand, as they conduct an interview. But Ward’s camera was aimed at the mini-golf course nearby instead of the reporter. So the shooter waited, cursing Parker under his breath, for 20 seconds until the live television picture was back on the reporter. Then he fired eight shots without saying a word.

The attack seemed carefully planned. Flanagan was captured in a rental car he reserved at some point before the shootings; his own Mustang was found abandoned at the local airport, Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said. The interview was done at a shopping center not yet open for the day at a remote lake in Moneta, some 25 miles away from WDBJ’s studios in Roanoke. The station promoted where the reporter would be, including a plug on Twitter just a half hour before the shooting.

http://www.msn.com/?cobrand=lenovo13-comm.msn.com&ocid=LENDHP&pc=MALCJS

The shooting was an act of pure hatred and took viewers on a journey they were not quite ready for. It’s not often such evil is so obvious, and immediate. Flanagan had been told that the world would give him special privileges because of his skin color, and his sexual preference and at mid-life he finally discovered that people didn’t like him because he was just an asshole. It had nothing to do with who his parents were or where he likes to park his phallic intentions. He was a difficult personality who used race and sexuality to justify his vile hatred—and society allowed him to hide that anger behind a mask of progressivism. Society allowed him to not be accountable as an individual giving him a collective focus on social victimization, instead of forcing him to look at himself as a way to be better as a human being.

Immediately after the attack progressives of all shapes and sizes immediately called for more gun control with the same lunacy that they declare that black lives matter while also supporting Planned Parenthood abortions. The same society that would think it was marvelous to discover a single strain of bacteria on Mars as evidence of life, is the same that looks at the selling of aborted fetuses to research companies as hacked up body parts and declares that life begins at birth. Progressives just can’t take responsibility for anything. They created the murderer Vester Lee Flanagan II through policy and the first thing they want to legislate regarding his behavior is guns. What a shameful misdirection of responsibility.

Guns were illegal in France but that didn’t stop a radical Muslim extremist from trying to take over a train in Belgium all in the name of Allah. The only thing that stopped him was four brave passengers who overtook the threat with good ol’ fashioned bravado, something that isn’t being taught anymore to young people. France had already taken the steps of making guns illegal. All of Europe in fact is pretty much gun free where even the mere mention of a firearm is taboo, like saying a curse word in church. It’s just not something they do in progressive riddled Europe, yet a gunman still had a gun and was on a train ready to take lives until the unexpected happened. Four heroes stopped him with personal initiative.

Alison Parker’s father shouldn’t have been on camera talking so soon after his little girl had been shot dead by a cold-blooded killer. He shouldn’t have been talking to the governor, or the press. Yet he did, he was on with Megan Kelly that very night on Fox News speaking about more gun control! Amazing. I felt sorry for him, but then wondered how he was even able to talk about his daughter on such a public stage after such a grotesque murder. It was reckless to put him on the air—anywhere—and even worse for him to speak from a grieving heart. Yet the progressives were happy to use him to advance their gun grabbing agenda—immediately.

But the gun argument is just a diversion from the real problem—and that is the type of utopian society progressives have tried to build. Their values, such as the White House’s hiring of the first transgender employee, or the media obsession with Bruce Jenner’s freakish foray into womanhood—progressives advocate freakish behavior then wonder why the product of their philosophy explodes under the pressure of reality—which flies in the face of their decisions most of the time. One fine example is the progressive support of radical Islam while those same lunatics routinely abuse women and kill gays—just because they believe a book of religion told them they could commit those crimes. Progressives support evil in every form then feel they can preach to the rest of us how we should live and think. Embarrassingly, we are supposed to believe from them that gun control would help in some way when it clearly hasn’t worked in Chicago, or France. Bad guys still kill people. The only difference is that they knew that nobody would shoot back.

Vester Lee Flanagan II cursed Alison Parker’s name under his breath just moments before the shooting, it is a good bet he didn’t think any of the three people standing at the interview scene would have a gun to return fire. So his plan could be hatched without being foiled—much to his liking. In all reality, all three people should have been armed and ready to shoot back the instant there was an indication of violence. People in the vicinity should have also been armed. When they heard shots, they should have been ready to discover the trouble and had the weapons to put an end to it. But Vester was allowed to believe through his homosexual temperament and race baiting past that he’d be able to commit evil without ramification—so violence occurred on live television shocking the world—and the fault rests completely on progressive society.

The reason that progressives blame the gun is because the gun doesn’t look back at them in the mirror each day. It’s much harder to look at the real problem, and for progressives, it’s the society they have built for themselves. When they realize they can’t have the world they imagined they have nowhere to turn. Most of them turn toward drugs and alcohol hoping to numb the reality. But in extreme cases, such as with Vester Lee Flanagan II they intend to hurt those who won’t allow them to be parasitic victims of vile filth and debauchery. That’s when they lash out. And by that measure if insanity is a measurable criteria for Second Amendment participation, then gun control of the type Alison Parker’s father is proposing should be established based on whether or not a person is gay or a Democrat—and if they happen to be both, they should be on a watch list for the safety of us all. That is how you get to the heart of the problem.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump: Destroying party politics for the better–or worse

Glenn Beck makes some good points in the following video regarding Trump’s position against Ford Motor Company building a plant in Mexico. Beck brings up that Ronald Reagan promoted free trade and that Trump is wrong to suggest beating Ford into submission with tariffs for taking American jobs out of the country. Beck is speaking on behalf of free market capitalism and if Mexico has the best offerings and lowest wages, then they should get the manufacturing plant. It is essentially the same argument that I made in favor of Boeing moving one of their large manufacturing facilities from Washington State to South Carolina—to a right to work region so that they can hedge against work stoppages from labor strikes every couple of years. The Mexican people have a reputation for hard work so I can’t blame Ford for wanting to avoid the dope smoking line workers they have in Detroit for the hard-working Mexicans for half the cost. There are a lot of factors at play, and under the basic premise of Beck’s argument, Ford should have the free ability to move wherever they want—because it is currently too expensive to do business in America.

Trump reminds me a lot of Teddy Roosevelt—which is dangerous, because it was basically a beef with the Republican Party that pushed Teddy to start the Progressive movement, which ended up being detrimental to global politics. Progressivism and the hatred of wealth and capitalism has made it too expensive to do business in the United States so to make it beneficial for international corporations to move their plants to destinations like Mexico and China. The policies that make business in America expensive by progressives are purposeful attacks against capitalism and wealth to redistribute those assets to countries that don’t have them. So for Beck’s premise to be correct, you’d have to remove all progressives from the federal government and start with an even playing field. That’s where Trump comes in.

In spite of the current thinking, Trump is not a big government guy, but he is a top down implementation boss. As a president he will take charge and twist arms to get what he wants, and that will likely make the Teddy Roosevelt presidency look like seven years of mediocrity. Trump will go on a war path, and from my perspective it’s the only way to put out the fires of D.C. politics. Sometimes when a raging fire is ablaze, water is not enough. The best thing to do is to cut off the fuel, but in this case the fire is propelled by stolen tax payer resources, so there is no way to stop the inferno that way. That leaves an explosion so violent that everything gets decimated putting out the fire and destroying the fuel that fans the flames at the same time. That’s what Trump brings to the table not as a Republican or a Democrat, but as a “Trumpian.” Roosevelt was not really a hard-core Republican. His great weakness was that he didn’t really understand money, and he picked on the wealthy with a populist anti-trust crusade which really formed the foundations of progressivism. As much as I liked Roosevelt as a Rough Rider and as a cowboy president, he stepped all over the Constitution with an A type personality that resonated throughout the country for an entire century. He did a lot more bad in the long run than he did good. Trump has the potential to eclipse Roosevelt’s activism. But is that really a bad thing?

If things are left the way they are now, we’ll lose everything in America. Playing nice will not get the job done. And the two-party systems are so far divided that it’s impossible to bring 50% of the country to the table to on anything. It’s just not possible. The party system is so bad that reform of any kind is just not possible. It’s as big as a stalemate as the education system is under union prevention. Nothing can happen in education to make it better because of the labor unions. And nothing can happen in national politics to make it better so long as the party machines run it under collective influence. Case in point, the collectivism that protects John Boehner from challengers in Butler County, Ohio is the central committee—in this case a lady name Judy Shelton. She essentially knocks down challengers to Boehner before there are primaries and protects his seat from any viable challenge. Recently Lindsey Graham challenged Trump to come to South Carolina where he has full control of the committee chairs in his home district and proclaimed that he’d “kick his ass.” Tough talk for a progressive moderate Republican, Lindsey trusts that his political machine can withstand his protective mechanisms from a challenge and that despite what the polls suggest, Graham could fend off any challenge, even if it comes from what he thinks is only 25% of a radical right angry mob. Boehner doesn’t worry about his seat in Butler County because Shelton and her political machine protect him from challenges.

Roosevelt knew what was against him. The party bosses didn’t want him as a prominent Republican. They tried to give him silly little roles and even tried to appease him with a vice presidential role—really just to keep a gag on his mouth. Roosevelt knew it and much of his war against the rich as an anti-trust buster was derived from his hatred for the Republican Party machine. When McKinley died in office, Roosevelt much to the horror of the Republican Party at the time went on a rampage of revenge against the party bosses and nobody ever forgot it. Roosevelt did some really good things like the Panama Canal and some really destructive things—especially along the lines of anti-trust and over the years become more and more liberal until he eventually launched the Progressive Party. That was created out of a war with his former friend, William Howard Taft finally severing his ties to Republicans for the rest of his life. Much of the evil that resulted in all that activity came out of party politics as opposed to the will of the people, or free market opinion. The system was corrupt from the very start. Roosevelt fought against it the way he thought was best. The Constitution was the biggest victim of his presidency which was overlooked because much of what Roosevelt did had lasting, and meaningful impacts on the world in a very good way. That doesn’t make what he did right, but much of what he did do was good. That would have never happened without someone like Roosevelt who would break all the rules which inadvertently propelled society forward.

Trump is of the same type of mind, only he does understand money. He knows that the first thing he needs to do with Ford and other companies thinking of leaving America for some NAFTA refuge saving massive amounts of money from The Department of Labor lawsuits, and ridiculous wage expectations from a society that demands a minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour, is to re-make the American brand into something that has value again. By making citizenship a valued option and making the American flag mean something on products shipped to other countries representing respect, Trump is looking to create a brand similar to what he’s done with his own name, and that would benefit every single human being on earth indirectly.   That danger is that Trump wouldn’t know when to stop once he gets going, and America could end up with another dictator on its hands.

However, I believe Trump is smarter than Teddy Roosevelt. I’ve read his books, grown up with him and feel I know the guy pretty well. He does a lot of things in his life that I wouldn’t do. But he doesn’t believe in drugs or alcohol, sets high standards for his family, and is a generally good person. He’s an authentically strong person whereas Teddy Roosevelt because of illnesses he had when he was younger always felt he had to overcome his personal demons. I don’t think Trump actually has any demons. So could he be trusted as a strong manager of American resources to blow up party politics for the next century, for the good of everyone? I think so. We live in a very screwed up world and it will take someone like a Donald Trump to get things in order again with mass destruction of party politics on both sides.

Glenn Beck has lost his audience to Donald Trump essentially. The same people who went to Beck’s 8/28 rally in Washington during 2010 are those who are now supporting Trump because they wanted to see a fighter. Beck was selling himself as a fighter at the time, and people loved him for it. But then he showed up on stage with a bullet proof vest and starting spouting off about God, he lost those fighters slowly over the next few years. And if you really peel back the layers of what Beck is saying about Trump, you’ll find a Glenn Beck who really still wishes he was like the old Glenn Beck. But now that he’s told the world he’s a better man now than he was back then—he can’t very well backtrack. People see what the problems are and they inheritably know that nothing will happen so long as there are party machines controlling politics. It’s as bad on the right as it is on the left. Trump is offering a way to break that system down. The downside to Trump would be more of the same—an arrogant president who thinks he’s an emperor. We had that with Teddy Roosevelt and we certainly have that in Barack Obama. But if Trump is actually smarter than Roosevelt he may just be successful both as an economically activist president who can pull the country back from the brink and establish once again a republic that is Constitutional in its nature. But that’s a long view plan. On the other hand Trump may become a ruthless dictator who declares himself emperor. That is a risk that if left unchecked, Teddy Roosevelt may have done. But the real trouble is with party politics. If left as it is now, it is destroying America anyway. I see nothing wrong with blowing up the whole system for a fresh start. Just as under the present conditions I see nothing wrong with closing the American borders and giving strong financial incentives to keep American companies within those borders—so that the brand of America can be rebuilt. Without those companies, there isn’t anything to rebuild and the intentions of progressives to destroy the economic engine of free enterprise will be re-distributed to a far away lands. So we will have to fight to keep them here, first with force, then with incentive—but the political mechanisms are already in motion and cannot be stopped—expect with a major explosion that levels everything in the political field. It is of course the last resort for our times.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

China’s ‘The Art of War’: Motivations and strategies behind global economic collapse

The White House issued a number of remarkably stupid statements during the week of 8/24 2015 specifically in regard to the China devaluation of their currency and the reaction that global stock markets have had as a result. Dear reader, this has been illustrated for everyone for several years now; I have covered the topic extensively. The sheer stupidity of those within the United Nations created on the heels of World War II to ensure that war would never again occur on an international stage only traded the aggressions of mankind from guns to finance—which effectually is much more dangerous. War with guns are often isolated to the battlefields and involve the killing and maiming of those under the command structure of government armies. Financial wars involve everyone in the world and can be much more dangerous as a slow killing, life depraving enterprise.

Reading and understanding The Art of War from Sun Tzu is extremely important. If we had schools that worked correctly, it would be required reading for every 7th grader. Every member of the house and senate on Capital Hill should be profoundly familiar with the classic book on oriental strategy. West Point does teach The Art of War to their students, and there are some other classes provided with an emphasis in military might from higher education that instructs on the Sun Tzu military philosophy, but it is grossly evident that most of the world is oblivious to the thinking of oriental thought due to the lack of actions to prepare for the knowing insurrection.

The book is established by thirteen chapters and they are as follows.

  1. Detail Assessment and Planning (Chinese: 始計，始计) explores the five fundamental factors (the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership and management) and seven elements that determine the outcomes of military engagements. By thinking, assessing and comparing these points, a commander can calculate his chances of victory. Habitual deviation from these calculations will ensure failure via improper action. The text stresses that war is a very grave matter for the state and must not be commenced without due consideration.
  2. Waging War (Chinese: 作戰，作战) explains how to understand the economy of warfare and how success requires winning decisive engagements quickly. This section advises that successful military campaigns require limiting the cost of competition and conflict.
  3. Strategic Attack (Chinese: 謀攻，谋攻) defines the source of strength as unity, not size, and discusses the five factors that are needed to succeed in any war. In order of importance, these critical factors are: Attack, Strategy, Alliances, Army and Cities.
  4. Disposition of the Army (Chinese: 軍形，军形) explains the importance of defending existing positions until a commander is capable of advancing from those positions in safety. It teaches commanders the importance of recognizing strategic opportunities, and teaches not to create opportunities for the enemy.
  5. Forces (Chinese: 兵勢，兵势) explains the use of creativity and timing in building an army’s momentum.
  6. Weaknesses and Strengths (Chinese: 虛實，虚实) explains how an army’s opportunities come from the openings in the environment caused by the relative weakness of the enemy and how to respond to changes in the fluid battlefield over a given area.
  7. Military Maneuvers (Chinese: 軍爭，军争) explains the dangers of direct conflict and how to win those confrontations when they are forced upon the commander.
  8. Variations and Adaptability (Chinese: 九變，九变) focuses on the need for flexibility in an army’s responses. It explains how to respond to shifting circumstances successfully.
  9. Movement and Development of Troops (Chinese: 行軍，行军) describes the different situations in which an army finds itself as it moves through new enemy territories, and how to respond to these situations. Much of this section focuses on evaluating the intentions of others.
  10. Terrain (Chinese: 地形) looks at the three general areas of resistance (distance, dangers and barriers) and the six types of ground positions that arise from them. Each of these six field positions offers certain advantages and disadvantages.
  11. The Nine Battlegrounds (Chinese: 九地) describes the nine common situations (or stages) in a campaign, from scattering to deadly, and the specific focus that a commander will need in order to successfully navigate them.
  12. Attacking with Fire (Chinese: 火攻) explains the general use of weapons and the specific use of the environment as a weapon. This section examines the five targets for attack, the five types of environmental attack and the appropriate responses to such attacks.
  13. Intelligence and Espionage (Chinese: 用間，用间) focuses on the importance of developing good information sources, and specifies the five types of intelligence sources and how to best manage each of them.

Verses from the book occur in modern daily Chinese idioms and phrases, such as the last verse of Chapter 3:

故曰：知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆。

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.

If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

This has been more tersely interpreted and condensed into the Chinese modern proverb:

知己知彼，百戰不殆。 (Zhī jǐ zhī bǐ, bǎi zhàn bù dài.)

If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win numerous (literally, “a hundred”) battles without jeopardy.

Common examples can also be found in English use, such as verse 18 in Chapter 1:

兵者，詭道也。故能而示之不能，用而示之不用，近而示之遠，遠而示之近

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

This has been abbreviated to its most basic form and condensed into the English modern proverb:

All warfare is based on deception.

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

In short, the failure of the United Nations has been to assume that all nations of the world, particularly communist countries, would give up their ability to deceive and open themselves to vulnerability to all for a global group hug, which will never happen. Not in a million years—not in ten million years of progressive philosophy. Every academic throughout the world who thought like Woodrow Wilson and his successor Franklin Roosevelt and believed in the ridiculous United Nations practice of global unification failed to understand the nature of those from the orient. The Art of War is their governing philosophy and in the case of China, they use communism to unite the flags of the world behind their centrally planned cause. That is why oriental countries are so prone to communist regimes—because at their heart is The Art of War. It is the most important book available in understanding the current crises in China.

China has been deceiving the United States openly for quite a long time and using a ruse of friendship to lull all capitalist nations to commit themselves into a vast amount of debt out of a mutual relationship of deceptive trust so that they can crush all resistance to them in the future. They are playing a global game inspired by The Art of War. So keep that in mind while the White House continues to pretend that relations with China are good and marching in a positive direction. China is poised to crush the United States through a devalued currency and a trade imbalance, and they don’t care if lots of innocent people are hurt in the process. We are talking about a communist country that openly kills babies when they turn out to be girls—because the state has designated a one child per family policy. China is looking to expand—they have an unnatural imbalance of males within their society and they look to The Art of War as a way to expand their society. And they are doing it right now.

This is not a warning, or a bit of political theater. It is a fact that anybody familiar with The Art of War would easily understand.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Wear the Best Sunglasses in the World: The official sunglasses of Rich Hoffman

img_6972When I’m out in public I get two primary comments. People want to know where they can get a hat like mine, the Australian oil skin hat I wear so much. But even more than that hat they ask me about my sunglasses—my Classic style Gargoyles sunglasses, the type I have worn now for nearly thirty years. I have always been a Gargoyles sunglass wearer, exclusively for all three of those decades. I won’t wear anything else. I’ve tried $400 Oakley sunglasses and other variations of Ray Ban, but for my lifestyle only Gargoyles are up to my standards, which are high. I am the type of person who always wears sunglasses if the sun is shining. I wear sunglasses just to go outside and get the mail because I love my eyes—the Gargoyles sunglasses offer an ultraviolet light protection on their lenses that keep that damaging byproduct of the sun from burning out your retinas and I take it very seriously. I have maintained 20/10 vision for my whole life up to this point, and I take care of my eyes with added protection. However, I have a very rough lifestyle that is very dangerous to eyes. I ride motorcycles, spend a lot of time outside, I shoot guns, crack whips and have lots of activity around dangerous projectiles. I want sunglasses that protect my eyes from everything, but I don’t want my vision obstructed. So what other pair of sunglasses could I have that look just as good with a suit, or a cowboy hat? The only answer is Gargoyles Classics. The trouble is, they have been discontinued by the Gargoyles Company for several years only coming back occasionally as a kind of retro offering. Well, this happens to be one of those times. They are now being offered once again by the Gargoyles Company. The specific technical specs and link address can be seen below.

The iconic rimless style incorporates tradition and cutting edge innovation. Make no mistake, Classic’s are back. Light weight but robust, Classic offers outstanding ANSI Z87.1+ level protection with anti-reflective and oleo-phobic treatment to repel water and resist smudging to make cleaning easier. Additionally, Classic’s famous toric shield lenses provide the user with a fully unobstructed vertical viewing pane. All Gargoyles lenses are ballistic-rated – meeting or exceeding ANSI Z871.1+ impact standards. For more information on ANSI Z87.1+ or Protection+, click here. (Available in both tactical ratings)

Sunglasses have a job to do and blocking the sun is only the beginning. Gargoyles sunglasses don’t just shield your eyes. They provide sharp contrasts and accurate depth perception, so you can see what you’re supposed to see and your day can continue without interruption. Every detail of Gargoyles lens design and execution is geared toward improved optics and better vision.

A good lens isn’t just made – it’s crafted. At Gargoyles, the Z87.1+-rated lenses are made of ballistic-designed, high-index polycarbonate for incredible strength without added weight. From there, they’re optimized and treated to reduce glare while enhancing protection. The result is a lens of unparalleled quality and durability.

No matter how good they look, sunglasses aren’t worth much if they can’t protect your eyes. All Gargoyles lenses meet or exceed US and ANSI regulations and standards for UVA, UVB and UVC protection and the Z87.1+-rated products’ impact resistance is ballistic tested. They’re designed to provide optimal coverage and block ancillary light. With Gargoyles, your eyes aren’t just protected – they’re shielded.

Gargoyles provides protection from both the sun and unexpected projectiles. U.S. soldiers put themselves in harm’s way every day, and the equipment they wear must provide them as much protection as possible. When the U.S. Army needed a higher level of protection from their sunglasses, it sought out experts in the field of optics. ANSI created new high-mass and high-velocity impact standards based on this new market need and on the necessity of having regulation and consistent quality. The US sunglass industry uses the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as the governing body and rating system for sunglasses.

All Gargoyles Z87.1+-rated sunglasses meet or exceed high mass and high velocity impact standards as specified by ANSI and described below:

Wearers must be able to see 20 lines of resolution clearly from 20 feet away, and pinpoint a vertical/horizontal prism from 35 feet away.

WHY THIS MATTERS  The act of covering the eyes necessarily leads to a loss in visual clarity; the only question is how severely vision will be compromised. By meeting this ANSI spec, the impact of Gargoyles sunglasses on the user’s vision is negligible.

The lens and the frame of the sunglasses need to have the same size and protection DNA, with each lens individually cut for the frame in which it is housed.

WHY THIS MATTERS  If the lenses of a pair of sunglasses aren’t balanced and measured properly, it could lead to reflection and distortion. By meeting this standard, Gargoyles sunglasses provide the wearer clear, precise visual optics while reducing or eliminating the glare depending on the lens you choose.

The lens must be able to withstand a 1.1 pound mass dropped from 50 inches, as well as a quarter-inch projectile shot at 150 feet per second from ten yards away, without breaking, cracking, coming out of the frame, or in any way touching the eye or the surrounding tissue.

WHY THIS MATTERS  From gravel to shrapnel, anything that reaches the eye could be catastrophic. By meeting this ANSI specification, Gargoyles sunglasses are guaranteed to keep the wearer’s eyes safe from any projectile that might otherwise cause significant damage.

http://gargoyleseyewear.com/4fa28358d6984d0e551420103831bd58

I was riding a bicycle just this morning and I cut through a marshy lowland area that was full of mud. I managed to get through alright but on my way out of the pit was gravel. Once I got back out on the open road that gravel started flying off my knobby tires, some of which flew up and hit me in the face. Because of my Gargoyles sunglasses I did not have to worry about that gravel finding its way into my eyes—and I was able to press on. About six weeks ago I was in a major motorcycle accident. Certainly nothing I did, but things happen and my motorcycle sustained over $10,000 worth of damage. I was wearing a suit at the time that ended up covered in blood, I had torn cloths, broken bones in my wrist and ankle, but guess what didn’t get hurt as shattered glass pelted my face…….my eyes. No I wasn’t wearing a helmet—it was a nice day. Just my Gargoyles sunglasses. Occasionally when riding motorcycles down the highway behind large trucks from construction sites, rocks fly off their tires. I never worry about that debris hitting me in the face. I can take the pain if it hits me in the forehead or someplace else, but I have to be able to see through an impact—and my Gargoyles always provide more than adequate shielding.

When shooting guns, it happens often where projectiles from target impact sometimes fly back and hit the shooter. Just a few months ago while shooting my new .500 Magnum from Smith & Wesson the unthinkable happened. Given our position from a top down position, my family was shooting in a way to see if we could split a large river rock in half. Now that’s not a recommended shooting procedure, but I wanted to conduct a test to measure just how powerful a .400 grain bullet was traveling at such a high velocity backed by such extraordinary muzzle energy. You don’t get a good indication of what that is by shooting at paper targets. You need to see the bullet interact with something ominously stable. In this case it was a very large sedimentary rock pulled out of the river that was very thick. Because I was wearing my Gargoyles I stood about thirty yards from the target confident that there wasn’t any danger. The .500 Magnum punched the rock in two, which surprised me. A moment later debris rained back at us. I didn’t think much of it as I thought it was pieces of rock. But my daughter grabbed her forehead and blood was running down her face. Checking her out, a piece of the .500 Magnum bullet had bounced back and embedded itself about three inches above her eyes. She was not wearing Gargoyles—but sunglasses typical of the type you find in convenient stores. I sometimes assume that everyone is as protected as I am, and took a deep breath as we pulled the shrapnel out of her head. She was fine, but it was proof that anything can and does happen when dealing with dangerous things. Life is meant to be lived, but it’s important to take as much opportunity to give your body parts the tools to protect itself the best you can.

Some might argue that a helmet is the best way to ride a motorcycle, but they essentially encumber your senses entirely too much. Gargoyles offer protection without encumbering anything. They are so comfortable to wear that you forget they are on, but they also provide a complete line of sight in all directions. They are unique to say the least. After three decades my Gargoyles sunglasses are as much a part of me as my legs and arms. They are an inseparable part of my attire under all circumstances. So for those who have always wanted a pair, they are now available once again. They can be obtained for around a $100 so they aren’t outrageously expensive. But they feel like a million bucks, and will give you years of loyal use. Gargoyles are by far my favorite sunglasses, not just because they are reasonably priced for the quality they provide, but because they have proven to me over time to be a superior product. I never leave my home without them, and the sun rarely shines on my face without Gargoyles providing some level of protection. They are the ultimate sunglasses for an active person under any circumstance. And now they are available once again.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Why the Trump Bankruptcies Would Make him a Better President: The billionaires behind the federal government

One of the most common rebukes to the Trump potential presidency is that his companies have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy several times, the Atlantic City Taj Mahal 1991, the Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and casino Resorts in 2004, and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009.  The cause of those bankruptcies was due to over-leveraged assets which can happen when financing speculative endeavors, and on those he came up short.  Casinos are dangerous endeavors, because they are essentially parasitic business practices that rely on strong economies to consume expendable income.  If a society does not have expendable income, it won’t spend money on casinos—which has led to trouble in places like Atlantic City.   However, what I find very interesting about Trump is that he has still managed to build up a personal wealth of billions of dollars in a very traditional way which makes him for me even more of an Ayn Rand hero presidential candidate than virtually any other possible billionaire who could run for president.  To see to what extent he is qualified watch this interview with Judge Jeanine from Fox News.

For me the fact that Trump is a billionaire who is willing to identify with Tea Party politics makes him gold in my book.  He’s willing to put himself out there to break down a bad political system.  Because the real fight is not on Capitol Hill, or even American politics, it’s in the billionaires who work behind the scenes to advocate progressive endeavors that politicians are expected to dance to.  Nothing will change so long as George Soros is pouring his money into left leaning causes, or Bill Gates is trying to advance common core.  Gates has a net worth of $67 billion dollars.  Michael Bloomberg who is a bleeding heart leftist has $27 billion.  Mark Zuckerberg is worth $13.5 billion and is the golden boy for the millennials, and these are all people who are politically active.  Rupert Murdoch is worth $11.2 billion.  Charles Koch is worth $34 billion and his brother David is worth an equal amount—personally.  These are the people who are shaping American politics from the political right and left.  Trump during his recent speeches has stated that Carl Icahn wants to work in his presidential administration—Carl is worth $20 billion dollars.  In comparison, Donald Trump doesn’t even make the top 100.  But he is willing to stick it to the entire system, fund his own campaign free of all their input and turn the entire system completely on its head.  That is something I can get behind in a big way. It’s a unique once and a lifetime opportunity that may not come again.  Billionaires like to stay in the shadows.  They don’t do what Trump is doing, and this is a key strategic opportunity to advance our political system beyond the control of the two-party system in a way that Trump is leveraged to do.

Most of the billionaires listed have managed to get their wealth through stock investments—such as Gates, Soros and Zuckerberg.  If Trump had done what they had, he might be far wealthier than they have become, because the wealth is created by anticipated value of their products as opposed to a tangible asset.  Trump is an old-fashioned guy—he has largely stayed out of stocks and has built his wealth nearly entirely on actual assets, such as golf course, real-estate developments, beauty pageants, entertainment media, etc.  Trump actually owns things, and he has done it in a sole proprietor way as opposed to diversified investments managed from afar.  Trump has remained throughout his career remarkably hands on and to this day has respectable access to liquid cash and very little personal debt.  The Trump brand is actually worth more than his personal assets ranging around $3 billion dollars.  In a brilliant move by Trump and his organization he looks to be aiming to accomplish two things, increasing his personal brand as President of the United States—which will likely triple, perhaps quadruple that brand value, and he will be able to as an insider increase market forces which will increase his holdings with a healthy economy.  As president, Trump could exceed his personal wealth well beyond that of Bill Gates, which is likely the real motivation for his presidential run.  How better to leave his kids with a great company?  But that’s not a bad or selfish thing.  For Trump, he has remained extremely traditional as an investor which has left him vulnerable to market fluctuations, such as what he saw in the early 1990s, and again in 2008.  With the national debt at nearly $19 trillion Trump has the most to lose in a collapsed economy which is inevitable under the current market trajectory.  So for a healthy “A-type” personality, there is no better way to kill two birds with one stone than to do the job yourself.  And I believe that is what Trump is doing.

Then there are the other motivations.  A good negotiator will align their needs with those they are dealing with.  Trump may be the only person available who can fight against these billionaire investments while increasing his own wealth and still helping America find its way again.  I believe those intentions are 100% real and there is nothing wrong with trying to do all those things at the same time. If Trump wasn’t in the game than what would be the option?  A government ran by billionaire leftists, or a government-run by billionaire conservatives.  Both have shown that they aren’t completely authentic in their adherence to the American Constitution and are philosophically weak to the founding ideals of the United States.  Trump made a choice to maintain his personal integrity in spite of the risks associated so that he could own his assets personally—without the usual protections of being able to sell off anticipated value quickly on the stock exchange.  Physical property is much less liquid but Trump made a choice to deal with that in exchange for personal ownership because of ideological commitments that could easily translate to the core problem within the United States—the national debt.

The next president of the United States will have to tackle that $19 trillion-dollar debt, the bankruptcies of the Medicare system, Social Security and the tragic implication of Obamacare starting in 2016.  Much of that debt is in perceived value—anticipated liabilities based against devalued currencies and projected forecasts.  Strategically, Donald Trump is tackling the brand of America and trying to increase its perception globally, by declaring that we need to limit immigration, so to make American citizenship perpetually of an increased value  Once that is accepted, he will gain bargaining leverage with other countries as a president that will make them pay for tariffs that they wouldn’t accept under an open border policy, which is right now most advocated by George Soros—the billionaire most aggressive in advocating for the progressive destruction of America so that he can capitalize off the hedge funds generated off that destruction.  There isn’t another American presidential candidate except for Trump who can actually increase the value of the United States brand to off-set the penalties that will incur if the national debt climbs up over $20 trillion.  At that point bankruptcy is the only way out, and that would cause America to lose its sovereignty to other nations.

From what I see, Donald Trump is all in, his investments are real and his risk is high.  Unlike his fellow billionaires he can’t just have a massive sell-off.  He is taking a gamble as we speak; his companies are buying low hoping for a market turn-around.  Trump, being a patriot at heart—if you don’t believe it, read his books, has jumped all in with no turning back. There won’t be any bankruptcy to save his companies from complete collapse this time.  He’s doing the only thing he could do, he’s stepping down from the billionaire Mount Olympus to fix the situation himself.  His ego wants to be the richest man in America so he doesn’t have any issues with attacking his rival billionaires by out-maneuvering them.  But he wants to save his companies from an economic collapse so that his children will have something left when he’s no longer around.  And to do that he has to save America from that collapse—and the only way he can do that is by becoming president.  There isn’t anybody else who is in his position who can do it—because it is fellow billionaires who are actually running the government anyway.  Donald Trump is a traditional guy who believes in personal ownership almost to a fault, he is chained to the destruction of America with the rest of us.  But unlike the rest of us, Trump is a billionaire who can actually make a difference, and he’s all in to do it.  He’s come too far to turn back and he’s going to need our help.  I think he shares with us the knowledge that 2016 is a do or die moment.  He can either take the party system out of the hands of the billionaires from both the right and left for the good of the country.  Or we lose our country, he loses his wealthy status, and we all go down the drain together.  Donald Trump has a lot more in common with most of us than anybody has yet given him credit for.  And it really comes down to his personal belief in ownership—which he likely inherited from his father and older brother.  Thus he is now taking the biggest gamble of his life.  For the benefit of us all, I hope and trust that he knows what he’s doing.  Because I see his maneuver as the only strategic way out of a minefield of destruction set by the billionaires who really run the federal government.

Also consider this, Barack Obama will be far more destructive as an ex-president advocating socialism and returning to the political scene as a community activists.  He will become very wealthy as a public speaker and will be given a platform to really advance the global intentions of Socialist International within the United Nations.  There isn’t a Republican in the party presently except for celebrities like Clint Eastwood and Donald Trump who can steal away the potential air of a dangerous ex-president Obama in the news cycle.  Trump would have something new happening ever day as president forcing Clinton and Obama to struggle for attention—which would bring an end to their efforts.  If Donald Trump has learned anything over the years with all the hard knocks he’s endured, it’s how to survive this current time.  And for my money I will bet on a tangible asset—Donald Trump—a proven commodity in every way who is highly motivated—and leveraged—to be successful.  Trump is my guy—and like him—I’m all in.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Throwing Off the Cloak of a Coward: French collectivism, Islamic radicalism, European socialism–still American heroes emerge

For some bizarre reason French President Hollende called President Obama to think him for the heroics of the three American passengers on a high-speed train in Belgium who stopped a knuckle-dragging Islamic radical from committing terrorism.  At the first sign of trouble French employees on the train locked that particular car to isolate the terrorist essentially imprisoning all the people in that part of the train.  Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone took immediate action to subdue the slug and their childhood friend Anthony Sadler helped beat the terrorist into unconsciousness.  That type of bravado is common in people born free in a society that advocates that kind of behavior.  Stone additionally had military training in the Air Force whereas Skarlatos was from the National Guard.  But their heroics was home-grown in spite of President Obama’s attempts over the years to turn America more into France with collectivist endeavor and passive approaches to danger.

Obama if he had things his way would have done as the French employees did, and that would have been to sacrifice the members of that particular train car so to save the rest of the passengers—which is a collectivist mentality.  Hollende is an open socialist who somehow believed that Obama had something to do with the heroics by some American policy, just as he spoke on behalf of all France for thanking the three American heroes from saving their progressive country from their own failed policies.  Europe is breeding these terrorist idiots because of their lack of a philosophy that is centered on individuality.  A collective based society, which France is, is not far off ideologically from the collectivism of radical Islam, so these young religious fanatics like this terrorist on the train can feed off society’s passivity.  In this case it was 26 year-old Ayoub El-Khazzani from Morocco who had been on a French intelligence watch list since February of 2014.  Somebody obviously missed the fact that the Islamic terrorist had bought a ticket for the high-speed train complete with bags of weapons.  Not a very effective watch list.  El-Khazzani had been radicalized in the southern Spanish city of Algecians at a mosque which had been under surveillance due to its extremist teachings.

Obviously there were a lot of fails, El-Khazzani slipped through security, the French employees on the train behaved like a bunch of wimps leaving a couple of American guys trying to have a good time in Europe to quell all the failures with their bravado.  The heroic actions are something to feel good about for all Americans—but I would remind everyone that it’s also expected.  That’s not to take anything away from what they did, it’s just that America shouldn’t be the only culture on earth with some testicular fortitude left in its up and coming heroes.  This kind of thing should be a lot more common—specifically, somebody should have kicked the snot out of Ayoub El-Khazzani way back in Spain well before he ever got on a train in Amsterdam.

Collectivism in every aspect breeds the kind of cowardly behavior that made Ayoub El-Khazzani possible and put him on a train to inflict danger to innocent people.  France, and essentially all of Europe functions under that same brand of collectivism as a culture believing that the needs of the few must be sacrificed for the benefit of the many.  That’s why French employees isolated that train car—to protect the rest of the train.  Such people make easy targets which empowers radicals seeking to impose their version of collectivism on the masses.  Lucky for the French in this case, there were Americans nearby to stop the furtherance of such terror.

This brings us back around to why the socialist President Hollende would even call Obama.  I can understand him thanking the guys who stopped the terrorist attack.  But why would he even think to call Obama—as if the American president had done anything to contribute to the endeavor.  That is an insult to the heroics of the young men.  Rather, they behaved heroically in spite of Obama’s efforts in creating a socialist utopia hell-bent on extreme leftist political positions.  Those young men went to American schools which teach socialism these days, but thankfully they had a love for American film and had in their minds a little heroics put there by an art that still relishes individualism.  I saw a picture of one of the boys with their mom which featured Clint Eastwood from the Fist Full of Dollars films.  Probably not a coincidence.

It is good to see the young men so happy after they discovered that they wouldn’t die from their heroics.  I’m sure Spencer Stone would not trade his nearly severed thumb right now for a comfortable night in a Paris hotel, and without question Alek Skarlatos is proud of the blood on his shirt and may never wash it again just so he can remember it.  This is something that President Hollende and Obama do not understand about this terrorist attack.  Sure the young men saved lives, yes the terrorist son-of-a-bitch nearly shot Stone and luckily the gun was jammed.  But those young men are happy to have proven themselves under duress and that is something they will live with for the rest of their lives—and it will carry them all to lofty highest for which no amount of money can ever provide.  The injuries Stone endured he will tell this story proudly each time he gets the opportunity. Most young men would trade these three, even with the possibility of death, for a chance to feel what they are feeling right now—and that is a foreign concept to Hollende—obviously.  Those guys didn’t attack that terrorist thug for any other reason than raw heroics—the need to do what was right.  They didn’t do it to save France from the embarrassment of another terrorist attack by Islamic radicals.  They did it because it felt good to act heroically rather than cower like a chicken in a seat trapped by French employees to seal their fate awaiting an afterlife—totally at the mercy of a 26-year-old Moroccan who wanted to kill innocents in the name of Allah.   Being a hero is the best feeling in the world.  It’s worth doing even if death is the result—because no young man wants to be condemned to a lifetime of suffering knowing they were too wimpy to face down danger when it presented itself.

I’m proud of those boys, but they didn’t do it for me, America, or France.  They did the right thing because it felt good to do.  All it took was for Alek Skarlatos to tell his friend to get the terrorist, and those guys in that moment got the monkey off their back which plagues all young men—the nagging question of whether or not under a dangerous situation they would have the courage to act heroically.  And thanks to a radical Islamic terrorist, those American heroes can now carry with them a badge of honor that will last a lifetime.  And they deserve to be proud of it.  Because in American culture we still have as a standard that an individual life lived under the cloak of a coward is far worse than death.  And young men, and old in America because of their focus on individuality—still know that when such an opportunity presents itself—you do what you have to in order to remove that cloak from personal identification forever.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Beating Enemies from the Inside Out: Handing the baton to Donald Trump

I know the difference between a wolf in sheep’s clothing with malicious intentions and a wolf who has decided that the sheep need protection from other wolves and has sided with them to further their species. Many think that the Donald Trump run for president is something of a Trojan horse into the Republican Party intended to derail conservatism. I can understand their skepticism. But as I remind people often—we all have our little gifts innate to our individuality and mine has always been the ability to see way over the horizon toward trends and dangers well before anybody else. I have been able to do that all my life, and it was within weeks of the Donald Trump run for president that I saw something very special happening in politics. Donald Trump is in a position to do something that I have been doing with this blog site for over five years every day, and that is address difficult issues directly on a gigantic global stage, and if he is successful, where he actually steps into the White House, I am confident at that time that I’ll be able to step away from the daily contributions to this site and do something else—because Trump is largely going to be able to take the baton to the next level.

My family came over for dinner on Friday night to watch the wonderful Donald Trump speech from Mobile, Alabama. Trump was able to put about 30,000 people—according to USA Today—into a local football stadium for a very enthusiastic rally promoting his candidacy. Trump may not get into the details or have the same defined value systems that I do, but I see on his face and hear in his words a guy who has lived his life well—epically in fact—and now wants to give something back as a man at the top of his game—the way the process should work. I’ve always said that the best among us should manage the money and affairs of our nation—and Trump represents a trend changing element. So I wanted my family to see history happening. They came over, my wife picked up some Chick-fil-A, and we watched about four hours of Trump coverage including the live broadcasts on Fox and CNN. It really was an amazing event.

I have read a lot of books over the years and many have been Trump’s. Books like The Art of the Deal, Think Big and Kick Ass, Never Give Up, Think Like a Champion, Why We Want You to be Rich, and The America We Deserve are highly motivational and were written by a guy with a very long track record committed to the power of positive thinking. He has achieved so much in his life that really President of the United States is the only social thing left for him to conquer which is what I believe his true motivation is. He has the gifts and the mentality, and he’s testing himself on the largest stage possible, and the result is something that like everything else he has done will greatly benefit a large number of people.

My oldest daughter who thinks very highly of me immediately noticed what I wanted her to see by coming over to watch the Trump speech. “He reminds me of you,” she said with some level of intensity which she said when Trump signed a copy of The Art of the Deal for a fan while he was in the middle of his speech. Trump’s approach to problems is very similar to mine and I had been thinking the same thing. My wife has been saying that the reason she likes Trump so much is again because he reminders her of me, which she has been declaring for the last couple of months. Trump is running for president in precisely the way I would if I were in a similar position. He stays up each day working his campaign longer and harder than any other candidate and is able to dominate his rivals with sheer charisma. He’s at a different stage of life than I am, but the heart is what they are talking about—the intentions behind his actions. Because of all those elements, I feel very confident I understand Donald Trump and what he’s up to.

Slowly, as the back of this train, where the rest of society is, catches up to the front—where Trump has been all his life—the true impact of this soon to be global phenomena will make itself known. What we were watching in Mobile, Alabama was unique in the world of politics—a perfect blend of entertainment and political philosophy colliding within contemporary static patterns. Even though politicians have for years used celebrity as a way to prop up their numbers as second-handers, Trump is able to turn that whole system on its head. It used to drive me crazy to watch Bill Clinton fly Air Force One around speaking venues—completely paid for by the tax payers—to raise money for Democrats. Landing into Mobile Trump applied the same trick with his Boeing 757, his own plane built by years of personal success. That plane can fly at 609 miles an hour and can travel 4,400 miles without stopping. The plane is a symbol of Trump’s power. I was watching him on Twitter leading up to the big speech in Alabama. He was in New York just a few hours before his speech, but was able to jump in his plane and fly out to a remote site—perform his speech—and be back to sleep in his own bed. No other candidate can do that because they are second-handers—and Trump knows it. He was able to circle the stadium in his plane a few times just to rally the crowd on the ground that he already has a personal airplane better than Air Force One as a private citizen. It was a psychologically imposing reminder of just who he is, and what he has the potential to do in America.

For this blog site I have loaned my personal reputation and image to the plight of solving hard problems and I do it because I know that if someone doesn’t do something, there won’t be much of a country left in a few years. I know many important people read it every day that is at the top of political discourse and it helps them navigate through a very complicated time. It costs me far more to write this blog than many might think—but I do it because someone has to say these things as bluntly as possible. Just a few years ago, Glenn Beck and I were very closely on the same page, but over time, and personal circumstances he has essentially taken the money from his success and turned inward leaving the fate of his life to God. The guy who was able to pack the Mall in Washington for a Restoring America tour essentially got knocked off the national stage and is now broadcasting out of a cave in Dallas. He moved from New York to seek friendlier people who wouldn’t harass him on the social scene when he was out with his family. That’s where he and I differ tremendously.

Years ago Darryl Parks from WLW radio asked me how I dealt with the kind of harassment within my community from all the things I said on the radio and within this blog. He assumed that everywhere I went I would be harassed—and he’d be correct. Only people know that if they confront me that there will be a fight of some kind. There are two ways that people advance conflict, directly and indirectly. Direct conflicts are where people actually try to pick a fight with you and physical violence is the result. That has happened, and I deal with that kind of thing accordingly. Obviously, my behavior has not changed and it will not change, because I know how to handle those circumstances. Indirect conflicts are the passive aggressive types where people smile to your face, but try to stick a knife in your back at the first opportunity. These are the most common attempts, and were what Darryl Parks was asking me about. I have said it long before I’ve heard Donald Trump say it, that nobody out thinks me. Lots of people have tried, but nobody outthinks or out lasts me. I make a point to always be the last person standing in whatever conflict is presented, which ironically is the best deterrent. Once word gets out, people try much less frequently. Due to my relatively young age, I still get takers every now and then who try—especially older people who think by their age and social status that they have some inherit right to win a strategic match-up by default. I respond to them by not only beating them, but in embarrassing them to their very core. When they make a move against me I fully intend to send them to bed each night with doubt strewn across their faces and impotence that no Viagra pill can fix. I always plan to break them down from the inside out. Physical violence is fine as a last resort, beating someone from the outside in—but for a cunning mind, a truly dominate alpha male, the best way to beat a competitor is from the inside out. You can see a beaten person from the way they hold their eyes in a simple gaze. Trump, better than anybody running for President understands exactly what I’m talking about—he applies it each day—and that has won my trust.

Since Trump began his campaign he has had death threats lashed against him by drug lords, he has challenged entire countries and their governments to end their corruption, taken on the entire media establishment, both political parties, said and done anything and everything he has wanted, and he has still been able to fill a rally on a Friday night in Mobile, Alabama a year and a half from a presidential election with enthusiastic supporters while advocating his economic prowess using his private airplane with the reminder that he’s willing to spend a billion dollars of his own money to have a lobby free candidate sitting in the White House. Sign me up. I understand the kind of fighter that he is and am confident that his brand would destroy a political establishment that I want to see eradicated from the American scene. I am 100% confident that a Donald Trump as president would usher in a decade unique in not only America, but in all of human history. The Reagan presidency would become a footnote of inadequacy, and Trump would be successful because he knows how to win from the inside out, and not just the outside in.

So we are witnessing history in the making, something that is truly unique. I know what Donald Trump is doing and why he’s doing it. I don’t have to sit down with him to see it, because it is obvious to me that his motivations are very similar to my own. But he is positioned to take it to a new level, and for that I would gladly support. He is offering the kind of President that I have been asking for, so I’m going to advocate on his behalf. What people say about him from the past are interpretations of their social positions regarding the wake of defeats handed to them by Trump. People who have been conquered still have to live with themselves even after embarrassments, so they justify their existence with snaky comments and behind the back undermining. For instance, even with all that I’ve said and done, why is it that people from my past don’t come forward to say, “hey, remember when we met in that back alley, and you lost, or I got the better of you on such and such date.” You know why dear reader—because it’s never happened, and it never will. When you are a winner, you know how to hold the high ground and make others tear themselves to shreds trying to get to you. And that is what Trump is doing in a presidential election before the primaries. It makes me very excited to see what he could actually do once he won the election. I get the feeling that America by then will be a very different place. And that’s not a bad thing. At that point the words on these pages become much less relevant as a new day would spring forth in America, and I would emphatically assist by passing the baton to someone with a larger platform to finish the job.

To understand a Trump presidency is to understand the effort that actually built his 757 airplane. He could make America into something better, and I want to put it in his artistic hands to perform the task. The metaphor of that power made its impact in Alabama before he ever landed, and that left the global media short of words—because for many of them it was the first time they had seen such a thing outside of their personal static patterns where the rich and famous relegate themselves to the plush towers of Abu Dhabi. Trump wants to fight, he wants to conquer, and he wants to do it on behalf of America for one last triumph of a life well lived. And that in and of itself is wonderfully unique. A wolf is running for president not because he wants to eat the sheep that flock within American politics, but because he wants to fight the other wolves who reside in the cracks of global endeavor, and he wants to prove to himself that he can beat them all. And in the wake of that effort, America will become great once again. I know all that because I know myself, and I understand the drive that resides deep inside a person born to be a winner.

Now, watch the above videos and learn all about Donald Trump and understand why I’m right once again.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Dominic Basulto’s Scientific Frontiers: More Implications of Star Wars Land in Disney by the Washington Post

I normally don’t do this, but Dominic Basulto’s article from the Washington Post is so good about the future implications of Star Wars and the new Disney Lands dedicated to the famous movie franchise, that I am posting it in its entirety below along with the origin links, just because I worry that people might not click on the link to take the next step to read it. I want to make it as easy as possible—because it is that good. After reading, make sure to click on the links, check out the sponsors of the Washington Post, because they rely on that kind of revenue, and consider yourself enriched. I wrote about nearly the same type of topic a few days ago, but I thought that Basulto’s article went a bit more to the science implication as opposed to the mythic and was important.

Over the last week I have taken some time to enjoy some of the fun things in life, Star Wars being one of them, and enjoyed enormously the great news coming out of Disney not just for myself, but for many of the reasons that Dominic Basulto illustrated in his article. I spent an entire day catching up on news from the 2015 Gen Con and all the great Star Wars news coming from Fantasy Flight Games. Like the implication of Star Wars upon the world of science, I can see this whole generation exploding into a grand fortissimo that far exceeds politics and contemporary society. As obsessed as the world of politics is currently with Donald Trump, the sheer numbers of these Star Wars supporters pales every other demographic group in comparison, and is evidence of a world tomorrow that will be much different from the world of today. To understand that world I watched hours of footage coming from X-Wing matches at Gen Con and studied what was coming from Fantasy Flight Games. But all that will be quickly eclipsed with the announcement of a Star Wars Land in Disney World. To understand that—dive into Basulto’s world and take a mental snapshot of a world about to arrive.

Over the weekend at the D23 Expo, Disney announced that it planned to create two new 14-acre “Star Wars” theme lands as part of its Disneyland and Disney World parks. The news, predictably, met with approval from the ranks of “Star Wars” supporters at the event.

But the news of Disney’s new theme parks has a far larger significance: it shows the extent to which science fiction is eating the world. And that’s good news — science fiction’s growing mind share of the nation’s youth is creating a stable base of future innovators.

Think about it — the generation that grew up on the Disney animation classics of the post-War era — “Alice in Wonderland” (1951), “Peter Pan” (1953), and “Sleeping Beauty” (1959) — has been replaced by a generation that grew up with “Star Wars” and all the other classic science fiction films of the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1977, the blockbuster film “Star Wars” launched an amazing cult franchise that shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

That’s one reason why Disney spent $4.05 billion to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. back in 2012 — the bottom-line realization is that science fiction has come a long way from its early roots as a nerdy niche and is now a platform for future growth. It’s also at the leading edge of creating immersive new experiences. At this weekend’s D23 Expo, Disney chief executive Bob Iger told fans that, “We are creating a jaw-dropping new world” in which “guests will truly become part of a Star Wars story.”

Science fiction is now a family affair and a very lucrative one at that — while kids may outgrow their Cinderella dolls by adolescence, there’s growing proof that they never really outgrow their love of “Star Wars.” Science fiction is the gift that keeps on giving, especially if you’re a huge corporation able to license product after product. There’s enough demand, in fact, to support the creation of sprawling new “Star Wars” theme worlds within already sprawling theme parks.

As science fiction continues to eat the world, which has important implications for how future generations think about science, creativity and innovation.

First and most importantly, think about the new gender roles that science fiction opens up. In the classic Disney fairy tale, what are the roles played by women and girls? They are princesses who spend their whole lives pining for a kiss from Prince Charming. The reason why “Frozen” has been such a phenomenal success for Disney, some have argued, is because it brought forward a new type of heroine – Elsa – who’s okay with her magical ice powers and just wants to be left alone.

Now, contrast that to the roles played by the likes of another princess — the “Star Wars” princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. She’s talented, driven, forceful, a leader and a fighter – and she’s also beautiful and a style icon, by the way. This explosion of possible roles for women, one could argue, has been one of the factors behind the phenomenal success of events such as Comic-Con. The wonderful variety of science fiction roles for women has inspired girls to dress up like their favorite heroines. At this year’s Comic-Con, the male/female ratio was almost exactly 50-50.

Then, think about the technological innovations in your classic Disney fairy tale — you have magic kisses, magic wands and magic abilities such as the ability to fly. You could argue that “Star Wars” offers high-tech updates on these themes — think of the “Star Wars” light saber as the ultimate magic wand, the Millennium Falcon as a way cooler version of a flying elephant, and all the assorted droids, gadgets and intergalactic villains as high-tech versions of the all plot elements in a Disney fairy tale.

There’s a whole sub-genre of innovation that might be characterized as Star Wars innovations — all the amazing innovations that people are trying to bring to fruition because of having watched “Star Wars.” A short list of amazing innovations inspired by “Star Wars” would include laser technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, alternative energy, holograms, prosthetics, genetic engineering and, yes, force field technology.

The reason why science fiction is so powerful as an innovation stimulus is because it creates the need for high-end special effects to create ever more realistic worlds within a science fiction narrative framework. That’s where Lucasfilm plays such an important role — all of those special effects help to push along the narrative in ways that excite the mind. All the great Disney films have a complex narrative filled with great costumes, curses, grudges and family intrigues — but when they’re combined with intergalactic empires and cosmic enemies, science fiction films have much greater ability to win over impressionable hearts and minds.

Still not convinced that science fiction is eating the world? Just wait until Halloween this year. Check out how many people make “Star Wars” a family affair. For every Cinderella and Prince Charming, you’re bound to encounter a Princess Leia and Han Solo. It used to be you needed to go to an event such as Comic-Con to dress up as your favorite science fiction character, soon you’ll be able to do it any day of the year at Disneyland or Disney World.

Dominic Basulto is a futurist and blogger based in New York City

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/star-wars-lands-coming-to-disneyland-disney-world/2015/08/16/b60167d6-43ee-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_video.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/star-wars-themed-land-at-planned-at-disney-parks/2015/08/15/e25ea198-43aa-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html?tid=ptv_rellink

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/08/18/disneys-star-wars-themed-lands-prove-that-science-fiction-has-arrived/

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.