Weekend Wrap-up, Sunday, November 15, 2015

Wow! Life has sure happened since my last Weekend Wrap-up. The day after the last Wrap-up, Sunday, November 1^st, was the day I lost the first of three friends. Two days later on November 3^rd I lost the second and on Sunday, November 8^th, I lost the third. So, among other things, over the past two weeks I've lost three long time friends to death and attended two funerals. It's all part of life, but not my favorite part.

November 1^st was also the 7^th anniversary, to the day, of my Emancipation Day. November 1, 2008 was the first day I was happily houseless. It was the first time since I was born, about 63½ years earlier, that I didn't have a fixed residence (or place of business). My overhead reduced by about 80% overnight. I haven't regretted one moment of my life since that time.

Weekend Wrap-up – Saturday, October 24, 2015

A week of frustration and interesting social interaction is ending today. While what I consider a busy week may seem like a walk in the park to many people, it was a fairly busy week. And, contributing to the business at hand was some frustration. I don't enjoy being frustrated. But, alas, it is part of the living experience.

So, the busyness was mainly due to my continued efforts to sell off “stuff” from my storage units. Some items have sold and I've done okay. Some items just don't seem to be attracting any interest even though the items are useful and worth the low prices I'm placing on them. That's part of the frustration. I'm getting better at some of the difficult choices and decisions I have to make, one of them being whether I want to keep sitting on some of this stuff and PAYING to store it or just get rid of it at any cost and save the storage money.

Weekend Wrap-up, Saturday October 17, 2015

Where do the weeks go? We're halfway through October already. I'm still busily listing stuff on eBay and Craig's List, packing and shipping things that sell, trying to figure out what to do with some of the things that don't sell that I really don't want to keep storing. Obviously, they'll either be given away or thrown away, but I hate to throw anything away that may actually be usable by someone else. The plan continues to be to get rid of as much stuff as I can so I can eliminate some of my storage and get everything remaining into one 10x10 unit.

Weekend Wrap-up – Saturday, September 26, 2015

It's been a busy and semi-eventful week for me. How about you?

A major part of my week was consumed with the eBay and Craig's List sales that closed. Then the chore at hand became the final packing and weighing and preparing the items needing to be shipped. Once the PayPal payments came in, it was time to print the shipping labels and postage and schlep the packages to the post office. I had one CL item I had to ship, another item was picked up (late one evening) and I have two others I'll meet the buyers when I'm going to be close to their areas for another reason.

Of course, I also was keeping up with creating, what I hope, have been some interesting blog articles for you. And, I've been going through the storage area to separate “stuff” that will ultimately be trashed. And, here I thought I got rid of all the trash when I left the ranch seven years ago. Naw! I only thought I did. 

Weekend Wrap-up - September 5, 2015

As I wrap up this week allow me to first remind and encourage you to take the very brief survey I asked you to respond to a week ago Wednesday. I continue to receive more responses, but since this is an unscientific survey, the more responses I receive the more accurate the information I'll be able to compile. You only need to respond one time. So, if you already have, thank you for your participation. If you haven't yet responded, here's the link to the survey post Survey Link. After next Wednesday I won't accept any further responses. The survey is short and simple. It shouldn't take you longer than 1 minute to respond and it's completely anonymous. Please respond now, if you haven't already.

An Event-ful Week

It's been an interesting and eventful week. As I noted in an earlier post, I was actually attending the Veteran Speakers Retreat from Thursday through Sunday, August 27-30. This is an event I actually coordinated and ran from 2002 until 2013 (12 years) for a group of 50 to 60 professional speakers, mostly friends, but always some new people. I passed the baton to a new coordination team for the 2014 retreat. So, for the past two years I've attended as a "civilian" participant, again. The retreat began in 1987 and I've been to about 26 of the 29 retreats to date.

Business as Usual - Elections 2014

Flickr Photo - Creative Commons License 2011 - Kevan

Well, thank goodness (actually, there is no goodness) the 2014 mid-term elections are over. It reached a point where I'd find myself retching every time another political ad came on or I'd see it in print. I hung up on robo calls - (thankfully, I got few). For everyone reading this who still believes government is or can be good, well just keep your Shirley Temple, Good Ship Lollipop mentality.

Government is not good - in any form! It never has been and never will be. It is, unfortunately, necessary. It's necessary because most humans (notice I didn't make that all inclusive) have the basic drives and abilities to survive individually. But, put a group of them together and they act like a pack, herd, gaggle, flock (choose your word) and ultimately an alpha human will emerge and control the rights of the rest of the group. Oh, and by the way, I'm already sick of the 2016 election campaign and it hasn't even officially begun, yet. . . READ MORE

Rallying After the Political Rallies

The Political Rallies (Conventions) are over. The dust has settled. The Rah-Rah delegates have gone home and the candidates are back on the stump. The only remnants are the news networks (mainly the cable networks) droning on about various parts of the conventions. Thankfully, those commentaries will decline with a little more time.

I was pretty much at the end of my tolerance level by last Thursday night at the conclusion of Obama’s speech. I had a great conversation with my “yellow dog” Democrat (his description, not mine) buddy. He is a hard line party man. It doesn’t matter if Godzilla or Mao Tse-tung is running for office, if they are on the ballot, he’ll vote for them. He doesn’t recognize anyone else, no matter his or her party affiliation or independent status. I guess in the great scheme of things that makes it easy. You buy into some group’s ideology one time and then you simply allow them to do all the thinking for you, you simply vote for whoever they tell you to.

Unfortunately, I have to make the process much more difficult. First, I don’t buy into any single ideology because I haven’t found one that truly suits me. Besides, in my personal definition of living free, it requires that I actually do my best to think freely, too. That means I don’t buy one line of malarkey and say that’s it. There is no “one size fits all” politics in my personal philosophy. Actually, being apolitical suggests that I don’t buy into politics at all.

So, the question I have to answer for myself is – does it actually serve me to even listen to all of the political babble and to cast a vote for someone? As a citizen, it’s my Constitutional right and, some drill in to me that it’s my civic duty. But, what does that really mean? If I know that, ultimately, one political ideology or the other ideology of only two ideologies are going to control our lives through laws they pass and execute and neither of those two ideologies completely and truly represent my philosophies and life, then does it really make any difference which ideology is in control?

This is almost like the “who came first, the chicken or the egg” question. Now, I have voted in all general elections for the POTUS as far back as I can recall since I was first eligible to vote during the LBJ years. I tend to think that my votes may have counted a bit more for something back then because I was living a more mainstream lifestyle. Issues that impacted business and family were important to me back then since I was very heavily vested in my business world and I had a family.

Today is another time. While I’m still a capitalistic, free enterprise oriented individual, I’m not even close to being as vested in any business any longer, but I’m still pro business. My family is no more. I’m divorced and living as an independent individual. My son is grown, self-supporting, very independent and has developed his only philosophies and ideologies. Some of his philosophies and ideologies we have in common and I support him. And there are others that we differ on. But, that’s perfectly okay with me. I never wanted him to simply be a “Mini-Me” and he’s not. Mission accomplished.

So, today I’m mailing my updated voter registration application to my base-camp residence county auditor in South Dakota with my request for an absentee ballot. In a few weeks, I’ll receive an envelop with the ballot and I simply have to make my marks, put the ballot back in the sealed envelope and send it back to South Dakota. I will have exercised my Constitutional right and performed my civic duty.

The quandary for me is still, how do I mark the ballot? I still don’t have a horse in this race. I still don’t feel that either of the two major party candidates represents me. Is there a marginal candidate that better represents me and should I vote for that person even though I know my vote will end up actually being cast for the ultimate major party winner of the election? Do I flip a coin? Do I put the ballot up on the wall and throw a dart at it?

Now, I know why I have this quandary to deal with. I choose to live free and out of the mainstream. In many ways, my long time friend, Retired Rear Admiral Roger Gilbertson, describes himself and other people like us to be similar in his upcoming book, “ A Free-Range Human in a Caged World.” While Roger and I don’t walk anywhere close to the identical path, philosophically, we’re not that far apart.

As we listen to the news commentators, especially those who focus on politics and the election, they refer to the swing voters or the independents or the undecided voters. I have to wonder how many of the folks who fit into those groups are like me? They don’t have a horse in the race and they feel guilty if they don’t perform their civic duty because they are not exercising a Constitutional right. This is, yet, another of the issues in our society that we must deal with. Living free suggests that we should not feel guilty if we choose not to vote in an election. Since we live free, by any definition, we should be able to choose to vote or not to vote and not experience any guilt or remorse for our action.

So, how many of us, you, are there who may be dealing with this same issue? I’d love to hear your thinking on the topic. Drop me a comment or an email and let me know what your thoughts are.  

Democratic National Convention – Day 3 - TGTO!

TGTO – Thank God They’re Over! The two conventions, that is.

Whew! My bullshit meter needs at least a short rest. Okay, so I’m being cynical. But, hey – this is my blog and I can express my opinions as I see fit to do. If you want to dispute me, my comments are open, feel free – remember, “freedom of speech?”

So, I caught a tiny bit of John Kerry. That caused me to tune out for a while. I missed Gabby Gifford leading the Pledge of Allegiance. For that, I’m sorry. Fortunately, I did see it in reruns. From my perspective, that was one of the most inspirational moments of both conventions. I have nothing but respect and admiration for that woman, no matter her politics.

Now, here’s the thing. My bullshit meter was just working overtime throughout Big Joe’s rants and the President’s recap of his “I have a dream of Hope and Change” promises speech of four years ago. Yes! He told of his many wondrous achievements, which only represented a minority of the hope and change dreams – and unfortunately, many of them weren’t necessarily popular or by consensus. But, that’s okay because, he achieved them.

We were reminded by Big Joe that “Osama bin Laden is Dead and GM is Alive” throughout the convention and again last night. I don’t want to go there. And, of course, I’m sure Mr. Obama is expecting another Nobel Peace prize for saying, “Do it!” Although, I don’t give him as much credit as he may feel he’s due. This action was long overdue and should have happened way sooner, even before he became Commander in Chief. Unfortunately, our intelligence system was broken. Some might liken their operations to the Keystone Cops. If there had been a working cooperative system there would have been no Osama bin Laden in the first place because he would have been gone long before 911, therefore, it’s likely there never would have been a 911 and hence, no occasion for the current CinC to give the “Do it” command.

But, I digress, which I am wont to do. I heard nothing of substance that gave me anymore confidence or reason to re-elect the incumbent. Because, in my view, his failures outnumbered his achievements doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy. When Wild Bill Clinton professed that even he couldn’t have fixed the damaged country in four years nor could any of his predecessors, I said so what. But, based on that, we should give Mr. Obama an A for effort and give him four more years. He gave no concrete ideas of how he’s going to use the next four years any better then the first four and there were subtle hints that the spending wasn’t going to be curbed and that there would be no improvement to the national debt, but a good likelihood it would increase even further. Well, that just really made the BS meter go off its scale.

It was stated last night by the network commentators covering the convention that Mr. Obama had already seen the jobs numbers report that would be released to the public this morning. So, he knew what was coming. In fact, when the numbers came out this morning there were a lot less new jobs then projected and something like 385,000 people dropped off the unemployment ranks and were no longer looking for jobs. The unemployment rate dropped – from 8.3% to 8.1%. What a grand opportunity for the incumbent’s campaign organization to get the Obama top out and start the spin.

What I love is that the 385,000 are just magically considered as no longer unemployed. Duh! Of course they’re still unemployed – it’s just that they ran out of unemployment benefits so are dropped from the unemployment ranks as far as the unemployment insurance and Dept. of Labor are concerned. They are still unemployed and through frustration have stopped, temporarily or permanently, looking for employment when there is none to be had. Again, my BS meter was working overtime, yet, again. So, this “faux” measure of unemployment supposedly makes the president look good? Wait a minute – he promised a 5.4% unemployment rate. Darn! If they just hadn’t expanded the unemployment insurance benefits for all that extra time, all those people would have dropped off the list – though still unemployed – and maybe the president would have had a faux 5.4% number he could have flaunted. Oh well, opportunity missed. Let’s get whatever spin we can, huh? That’s the politicians’ way.

I could go on and on, but there’s no real reason to. I’m made the point of my position. I’m still an undecided voter – and at the rate things are going, I may be undecided on Election Day and simply flip a coin. Oh, why would I say that, I must be a Romney-Ryan supporter. Well, you’d be wrong. The fact is neither ticket or party has impressed or inspired me.

I caught a few sound bites this morning as I was surfing between Fox, CNN, MSNBC and HLN – yep, I check them all – and I catch PBS and Public TV when I can. I also read feeds from the NYTimes and the Washington Post. The various morning anchors were interviewing members of the Romney-Ryan campaign about what Romney is going to do on specific questions. How is he going to address and solve the problems that exist and were glossed over, yet again, last night. Not one direct, straight or lucid response came from any of the Romney people. I guess both parties hire Political Science graduates who emphasized campaign BS, double-speak and talk around. In other words, it sounds the same whether you’re listening to a Democratic Party or Republican Party campaign spokes person.

Now, that brings me back to all the minions of fringe speakers at both conventions. I really didn’t watch many of them and I noted the few that I did and my impressions. My impression of these people is that they are what we called the “Rah-Rahs” in high school and college. They are the cheerleaders. They’re job is to come in front of the convention delegates and TV viewing audience and instill “school spirit.” We’re going to win this football game despite the fact that we have a lousy coach, a losing quarterback, an offensive line that could hold back a group of kindergarten kids and a defense that couldn’t stop even a mediocre offense if they were threatened with water boarding.

The “Rah-Rahs” come out with their tearful sob stories telling everyone how the candidates changed their lives and their world and solved problems that haven’t even been dreamt up, yet. They tell how crappy the opponent is and do everything they can to denigrate the opposition whether what they say is materially factual or not. In show biz this is called the “warm-up” acts. Get the audience worked up to such a degree that even if the main speaker spoke gibberish, they’d still go wild.

This technique has been used throughout history and there are many powerful examples of it. One of the greatest users of these techniques in recent history was an Austrian house painter in Germany. No, I’m not comparing either of the two candidates with this heinous monster. I’m simply saying that the speaking and rallying techniques are essentially the same. And, I shouldn’t forget the exceptional and extremely expensive special effects and the variety of entertainment inserted to keep everyone “high.”

I mentioned Amway rallies in my post, yesterday. These same, virtually identical techniques were used at these rallies. That’s why I’m not sure if this is a chicken and egg situation – did the Amway folks learn this from politicians or did the politicians learn it from the Amway folks. Since politicians have been around for many more years then Amway, I’d suggest that Amway were the followers.

So, at the end of these two weeks I still know little more about how either of these two pairs of candidates are going to lead government to make the country, it’s citizens and me any better. I have heard lots of hopes, dreams, talk about change and flaming generalities. But, nothing I can take to the bank. Was I expecting to? No! Oh my, that’s cynical again, isn’t it? But, it’s reality. It’s like going to any motivational program. I’ve been to plenty of them. I’ve worked at them. I know a number of the well-known motivational speakers. You go in expecting your life to be changed. While you’re there you get higher then a kite and by Monday, you’re right back where you were before you went – or even lower.

I’ve watched people empty their wallets and run up their credit card bills buying hundreds and even thousands of dollars of cassette/CD/DVD/book products, more expensive seminars and training programs and whatever else they could get their hands on at these events. It’s the way it works. TV evangelists convince people to send in their life savings. Political candidates get people to finance their lavish campaign expenditures. Motivational speakers guarantee you’re life will absolutely be changed for the better forever if you buy their “stuff.”

It was at the original Charlotte Coliseum at an Amway rally I was recording that I watched a “supposed” evangelist from Bourbon Street in New Orleans sell 1,000 sets of his six cassette package at $200.00 per set. He sold them out in 20 minutes. That was $200,000.00 in 20 minutes. A year or so later I came across a set of those cassettes that a friend had (I didn’t ask how that person acquired them or how much they paid, if they bought them). I listened to them. They were short programs – probably about two hours worth of material cut to fit six short cassettes. The recording quality was poor at best. The content was basically what the people at the Amway rally heard when he presented there. The packaging was cheap and shoddy. Now, remember, I was in the recording and tape duplication business at that time and I was producing these kinds of products for all kinds of speakers. This was an obscene travesty. Even I couldn’t justify it as a supplier to that industry.

So, am I cynical? You bet! I’ve watched this. I had my production company in Washington, DC for about seven years during the 70’s. My clients included the U.S. government, lobbying organizations, advertising agencies handling political campaigns and large evangelistic, religious organizations, among others. Been there. Done that. Seen most of it. So, now we’ll have 60 more days of rhetoric and BS, mostly without substance. I have no horse in this race. But, one thing I can count on – no matter which way the election goes – we’ll have four more years . . .   

Democratic National Convention – Day 2

Day 2 was a bit disconcerting to me. I’m going to attempt to keep this a bit shorter because I could really get off on a rant if I don’t.

The first address I really paid attention to was Sandra Fluke. All I’ll say about her address is that it brought back memories of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem and the peak of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Ms. Fluke appears to be a very angry young woman. Apparently she feels she has really been mistreated as a woman in our society.

But, I honestly don’t believe that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are Neanderthals who carry clubs and drag their women around by the hair. Women have come a long way since the 60’s revolution. Today, more women attend and graduate from college then men. Women have climbed the corporate ladder to the top of many huge Fortune 1000 corporations. More women are serving at all levels of government including the current and last Secretary of State. Women continue to play more and more major roles in the military including piloting sophisticated jet fighters. 

I just don’t see Mitt and Paul reversing 50 years of progress in a few months as she suggested they would and have women back in the kitchens barefoot and pregnant, again. Thankfully, we didn’t see the women delegates ripping their bras off and burning them on the convention floor. Frankly, that would not have been a particularly pretty sight. There were other comments she made about women’s health and reproductive rights that I won’t even begin to consider. I’m sure she appealed to a certain splinter group of women, but I surely hope that women in general aren't believing this extremist, radical view presented by a disgruntled woman. And if there are women out there reading my blog who want to dispute me on this, have at it.

And just to make my position clear, I’m happy with the progress women have made and I see nothing but continuing progress in the future. I probably have more women friends (the operative word being friends) who I appreciate for their independence, intelligence, ambition, motivation, competence and contributions to my life personally and professionally, than I do guy friends. I’ve had some fantastic women work with me in my businesses and I’ve worked with well run client organizations headed by women and managed mainly by women. I treated them with the respect they deserved and they returned that respect. So, I have to say that Ms. Fluke made a negative impression on me, but thankfully, not on my feelings and respect for women who’ve earned it (just as a man would have to earn it).

Now, the next speaker I listened to was Elizabeth Warren. Once again, she left me unimpressed. She also gave me the impression she really didn’t understand business, corporations or what the opponent, Mitt Romney said about corporations. As soon as she went into her tirade about “corporations are not people” she lost my attention. As a lifelong businessman, this was insulting. With her kind of rhetoric and condemnation of business and corporations, I’m surprised any business owners or corporate executives who are democratic supporters didn’t pull up stakes and abandon ship.

Sure, corporations are legal entities, not flesh and blood people, but they only exist because of the people who operate them. They don’t have a life of their own. If there is something bad about the way a corporation operates it’s not the corporation that caused it, it’s the people running the corporation. Which is exactly true about government. Government doesn’t exist and operate as a flesh and blood entity. It is the sum total of the people who make up government at every level from the smallest town or village to the federal government. Anything that’s good about government is because of the people. Anything that’s bad about government is because of the people. Someone needs to point out to Ms. Warren that he/she who is without blame should cast the first stone. There are no blameless people in government of any party affiliation, so think twice before throwing that stone.

Finally, Wild Bill Clinton got up and did his Clinton thing that only he can do so well. Here is a fact – Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were and still are, in my opinion, the best political communicators I can recall during my lifetime with the exception of John F. Kennedy, who unfortunately never had a chance to prove himself fully. Some people want to include Obama in their category, but the jury is out on that for me. 

Clinton is a scintillating speaker. His down home Arkansas colloquialisms are colorful. His crooked pointing fingers draw your attention. Even though he ran way over his time last night and, apparently, usurped the vice-president’s time to accept his nomination and throw fireballs at Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, William Jefferson Clinton kept the troops rallied.

So, here’s my take on Mr. Bill. First, he has a problem respecting women. That's a negative mark for him. Second, he proved to be a liar in front of Congress and the world. Third, he was involved in various nefarious events during and before his presidency. Those are two more negative marks. And, finally, he had several opportunities to change the course of the future and history by taking action against and even taking into custody, one, Osama bin Laden. 

His failure in that last matter can directly be traced to the expenditure of way in excess of a trillion dollars of taxpayer funds and untold thousands of lives lost, both in the U.S. (911) and overseas – American lives and innocent Middle Eastern lives. And, that doesn't take into account the costs to the private sector in the loss of property and collapse of the airline, hospitality and other industries impacted by 911. 

Oh, I know, 20/20 hindsight and all that sort of thing. But, that’s what he was getting paid for when he wasn’t boinking interns, lying about it and going through impeachment proceedings. So, I’m afraid, although I enjoy listening to him speak, I don’t trust or respect him.

I have to admit, about 35 minutes into his speech I began drifting and had to work at staying awake to make sure I caught his attacks and defenses. The one thing I do give him credit for is that he recognized his communication equal, Ronald Reagan, when he quoted one of Reagan’s famous lines, “There you go again” from a campaign debate with Jimmy Carter.

So, those are my impressions of the second day of the Democratic National Convention. I won’t deny it; last night was a negative night for me. I’m not sure that my two best convention experiences so far were Ann Romney at the RNC and Michelle Obama at the DNC. Most of the rest of speakers from both sides of the competition haven’t convinced me that I should vote for either side. So, it appears that when the DNC is over, I won’t be any more prepared for election day then I was before the RNC commenced last week.

Day three is tonight. The big guns, Big Joe and the current Commander in Chief get their chance. Unfortunately, and I have to admit, I’m not a fan of Big Joe and I’m very fatigued by the president’s speeches. So, it’s going to be difficult for me to even attempt to be objective about either speech. Ho hum! I’ll be happy when the conventions are over. Two weeks of Amway rallies is a little hard to take.

And, as an aside and speaking of Amway rallies, I recorded several very large Amway rallies at the original Charlotte Coliseum back in the late 1970’s. It still stands and is now called the Bojangles Coliseum. It will remain operational because it’s on the Charlotte Historical Register even though it’s small in comparison to the Time Warner Coliseum and most other modern arenas around the country. I only mention that because I have some warm feelings about Charlotte when I recall those early recording assignments. 

Democratic National Convention – Day 1

It’s just as I expected. More power speakers. It seems like this year at this convention there are a couple themes. First, everyone rose up from the depths of poverty and despair, worked hard, nose to the grind stone, knowing that because my grandfather, grandmother, single mother, laborer father, whoever knew that one day I could be a Congressman, Congresswoman, mayor of the 7^th largest city in the country, First Lady and Barack who dumpster dove for his first furniture and drove a rusted out old car that you could see outside through the rust holes – could be the President of the United States. Can we one up the Republicans? We’re certainly going to try.

I have to wonder about all those poor people watching out there who grew up the same way and were told similar things by their parents (if any of them ever actually were). How come they didn’t make it to Congress or the Senate or the White House or even the state legislatures or the governor’s office or the mayor’s office? And, geez, what about those people who are just working away at average jobs and occupations that were fortunate enough to grow up on the other side of the tracks? How come they didn’t make it to the big time? What happened to equality? What happened to opportunity that was constantly bantered about? How do Hispanic twins from the poor part of San Antonio, whose grandmother was a maid, housekeeper and babysitter and whose single mother was a schoolteacher BOTH get to attend Stanford University and then Harvard Law School? There are kids all of this country who qualify to go to those fine institutions who come from families of modest, but significantly better means then the Castro kids, but not even one of those kids can take advantage of that educational opportunity and equally or otherwise – let alone a pair of handsome, Latino twins.

But, I’m being picky now. I just find all the rags to riches stories a little hard to stomach after a certain point. And, I’m not just picking on he Democrats. There was a lot of that at the Republican convention, too. So, what’s the point? We got the breaks, but you didn’t, but we wish you had?

Now, I have to wonder how many of the populace and even the delegates sitting in the arena realize that those heartfelt speeches have been written, rewritten, tested for effectiveness and delivered in such a way as to make them seem like they are extemporaneous and heartfelt? I wonder how many of the electorate actually understand that the Castro boys and Michelle Obama have gone through intense training by very expensive professional speaking trainers and coaches. Every pause, question mark, gesture, chuckle or laugh, scowl and so on is virtually orchestrated for impact. Indeed, the intention is to come off like you’ve speaking mano a mano, one on one as if the speaker is addressing you individually. Yep! Republicans, too.

So, here are my impressions of last night. The two main speakers I caught were Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, introduced by his twin brother, Joaquin Castro. Both look beautiful. Both are excellent speakers. How come the mayor was chosen to keynote the convention instead of the brother who is serving in the state legislature and running for Congress? What happened to equality? Oops! I digress. Julian’s speech was very good and he was very well prepared. And, as I suspected, he was essentially attacking the man (Romney) and not so much his political record.

There is a very significant ideological difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. The Republicans also talked about the American Dream, opportunity, equality and becoming successful, but their approach was that each person is responsible for themselves and needs to excel, overcome the challenges and do whatever it takes to make it to the top of the heap and claim his or her dreams. The Democrats seem to believe that people need the government to succeed. The government provides opportunities and pathways to success and if you follow the Pied Piper – in Castro’s case, Barack Obama, you’ll have the chance to better your life.

Sorry, I’m not ready to buy that, yet or ever for that matter. The very idea that every kid should have an opportunity for a great education that their parents want for them does not work for me. Heck! If Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell had spent all their time in classrooms learning how to do things “the right way,” we would never have had a Microsoft, an Apple or a Dell Computers. None of them completed a college education. They saw opportunity and pounced on it. They made mistakes. They experienced failures. They had to learn by doing because no one had actually ever done what they were doing. Throw in a Mark Zuckerberg, another college drop out and the list goes on and on. There used to be an old saying that college graduates end up working for non-college graduates. I’m not sure how accurate that is currently, but at least in the four, very obvious, cases I just noted it’s certainly true.

So, let’s see, give all these kids college educations. Encumber the kids and their parents with tens of thousands or even more then a hundred thousand dollars of debt before they’ve even learned how to make their own breakfast, send them out in a world with an education in fields that have limited or no realistic career opportunities and what do we have. We have a generation of dependent people who will continue to live with and off their parents for who knows how long. And now, with the new healthcare law, they don’t even have to be responsible for their own health insurance as adults until after they turn 27 years old. Heck, by the time I was 27 years old I had completed a bachelors degree, a masters degree, most of four years of a military enlistment during a war time and was the president of an emerging media production company.

Again, I guess I digress. But, these are my reactions to what I was hearing last night. So, I was generally impressed with how pretty, educated, well spoken and coached the keynote speaker was. Unfortunately, he didn’t do anything to convince me that his (the Democratic ideology) road was the one I could buy into.

So, let’s move on to the First Lady’s speech. First, let me say this, the POTUS made a comment in the afternoon during a campaign appearance in Norfolk, Virginia about watching his wife’s speech at home (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) with his daughters. He said he didn’t want them to see him cry during her speech. And he should feel that way. Michelle Obama, in my opinion is a better speaker then the POTUS, hands down. Whoever her speech trainer and coaches are did an excellent job with her.

She delivered it well. She used the teleprompters excellently – I doubt that anyone saw her using the prompter. She delivered it in a heartfelt, personal way, which, of course, was precisely her mission, as it was with Ann Romney.

Her introducer wasn’t some other slick politician, but a mom of five kids, four in the military and a fifth in high school, yet. That, of course, was part of the mission, relate to women, working women and especially moms. The introduction was short and sweet. I doubt that Michelle or any Democratic (or Republican, for that matter) politician or politician’s wife is all that “personal” with the vast majority of the constituency. For one thing, it’s hard for people to even get close to them since the POTUS and First Family are veiled in so much security. These folks are singled out for their political advantages.

I believe she met her objectives admirably, even getting in a few shots at the Romney-Ryan ticket. She wisely did not attack or even subtly dis Ann Romney or the Romney family. That would have been political suicide. For, those women and even those men who are supporters of Barack Obama, I believe she kept them in the fold. Certainly, everyone in the Arena last night were with her. As far as how much of the doubting and questioning, disillusioned women and men, especially those in the continually pounded number of 23 million unemployed and underemployed people in the country. I’m not sure she made a lot of in roads with them. There was, of course, no mention of the national debt, of the obvious areas of under performance, broken promises or failures.

Overall, the first night of the convention was pretty much what I expected. They talk around the issues. When commentators asked direct questions of any of the Democratic pundits they could corral, they were well versed in indirect answers, redirecting the topic or just plain didn’t answer the questions. While I don’t think I saw as much of this at the Republican convention, they are certainly adept at it as well. Hey, they’re all politicians; it’s what they do. I thought it was interesting that when Brian Ross of ABC News, one of the supposedly liberal media outlets, attempted to interview or ask any questions of the recognized deep pocket campaign funds contributors, they ran from him and even used police and uniformed security details to stop Ross, even threatening him with arrest. What is it that these powerful money sources don’t want the public to know about their support of the incumbent POTUS?

I’ll watch more of the circus tonight. So far, the Democratic Convention and their power speakers haven’t convinced me that the current POTUS has earned or deserves my one measly vote.   

The Republican National Convention – Third Day

First, I don’t want any readers to think that I’ve not been aware of the ravages of Hurricane Isaac. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to those folks in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, especially, but also anyone else impacted by Isaac. I know a fellow nomad (in preparation) who lives in a studio apartment in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida near the beach. He felt the impact of Isaac a few days before the main part of the storm made its way up the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall on Tuesday evening. Bill had a large tree limb fall on his one story apartment and crack the roof. So far, there has been no leaking. This was a huge storm and Bill experienced some of the outer bands of the storm that were several hundred miles from the actual eye. It was a big positive to know that the work on the levees around New Orleans did their job as they were supposed to. Unfortunately, since the waters didn’t do serious damage within New Orleans, they flooded other areas that weren’t as hard hit by Katrina seven years ago. My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have lost their homes, possessions and the hundreds of thousands without power, sanitary facilities, food, water, clothes and air conditioning during the extreme heat and humidity.

Now, let’s move on to the third day of the Republican National Convention. Basically, it was more of the same except for the anticipation of the nomination acceptance speech by the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

I didn’t catch a lot of the presentations by the more “average” Americans who gave testimony and endorsed Romney earlier in the evening. But, I’ve heard commentary that they were very effective and could have been used during other parts of the convention. Maybe that would have made sense. I did hear Jane Edmonds, former Massachusetts Secretary for Workforce Development under Romney. And, I saw the line up of Olympic champions who were endorsing Mr. Romney and heard their short presentations. I missed Jeb Bush, the Gingriches and several others. I did watch Clint Eastwood’s presentation. What can I say? He’s Clint Eastwood. I wasn’t overly impressed by his manner of handling his time, but I guess he got a point or two across.

Then came Marco Rubio. There is no question that he is an up and comer. He was poised, well spoken and, like the others before him, a strong speaker. I think he made some excellent points. I guess there was an underlying theme I caught throughout the convention of appealing to the average American, white and poor, lower middle and middle class individuals. The appeal continued to the minorities, especially the Black and Hispanic segments. And, there was a very strong appeal to women who represent slightly more then half of the U.S. population. There was also an appeal to the upcoming, younger generation. While time was spent talking about the senior segment of the population, I don’t think I felt the appeal was as strong as the others. I don’t think the seniors were neglected or written off, but not as strong an appeal.

Finally, the moment everyone had been anticipating since the beginning of the RNC, the nomination acceptance speech by the presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. It was a good speech. It was strong and well presented. It definitely opened Mr. Romney’s humanity, family values, business ethics, commitment to serving others as well as other qualities to public view. Many people don’t realize that Mitt Romney’s success in business has allowed him to contribute decades of his time without compensation to his church, always non-paid, the 2002 Olympics when he contributed the $1.4 million salary he received to charity and his four years serving the citizens of Massachusetts as their governor (as did Lt. Gov. Kerry Healy).

He did two things that allowed him to accumulate wealth. He learned to work smart and to work hard. Add on the other human qualities he has exhibited over the years, including humility and not boasting about his accomplishments for his own benefit and he does come off, at least in my eyes, as a very admirable man. Unfortunately, I believe he’s given credit for being far wealthier then he actually is. His estimated wealth is about $250 million. He is also an enigma to many people because, unlike people such as Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world for several years with wealth exceeding $50 billion, Steve Jobs (also a billionaire) and others like them, Romney maintains a generally low profile.

I would imagine that if Sam Walton or Warren Buffet, both the wealthiest men in the world at some point in time and both worth upwards of $25 billion, were to run for office, they, too would be ostracized by those who don’t understand them. Both of them were wealthier then Mitt Romney by 100 to 200 times. Certainly, he is in the top 1% of the population as far as personal wealth. But, as the old Smith Barney commercial by John Housemen used to say, “They make money the old fashioned way. They earn it.” And that’s true of all the people I mentioned including Mitt Romney. A number of years ago there was a book written titled, “The Millionaire Next Door.” It indicated that there are thousands of millionaires in this country that no one knows about because they live right next door to them and maintain a low profile.

All that being said, between the Democratic National Committee and the liberal PAC’s and special interests’ attack adds, the public will still unlikely gain a clear picture of who Romney is. The challenge I see is that like many people in the public fishbowl, the jury of public opinion is judging Romney. Is he the right person to lead this country? How will he serve? Will he accept the $400,000.00 a year salary and a lot of the other perks or will he suggest that since the country is in such debt he can’t accept it? Will he, as Lee Iacocca did when he bailed out the Chrysler Corporation back in the 80’s, accept a $1.00 salary until he has accomplished the task of turning this country around? Who knows? There has been no such indication, but perhaps he’s going to hold that until he wins, if he wins. In other words he isn’t a grandstander. If he were to do this, would he propose that members of Congress, who can afford to serve without salary, do the same? How deep is his integrity? That’s a question I don’t know the answer to. Certainly, I know that the incumbent would not make such a concession even though he is personally responsible for at least a few billion dollars in expenses to the American taxpayers to date.

I can’t necessarily say I agree 100% with Romney and his platform, plans, policies and beliefs. But, I have to say that I also don’t agree 100% with the opposing party and the incumbent. I just took a short quiz on the Internet while researching to write this post. The quiz was designed to indicate which candidate I most closely align with. By a significant margin, I (once again) align most closely with the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson. Unfortunately, most of you readers have no idea who Gary Johnson is and, most likely, never will. The same can be said for the rest of the U.S. electorate. The Libertarian Party never gets any media coverage, even though as many as 35 to 45 percent of the electorate very closely relate to Libertarian philosophies. Accordingly, raising the kind of money necessary to compete in a present day presidential election when the candidate is not known and the party can’t get any media coverage is all but impossible.

One other note I want to make. The RNC showed an excellently produced, extremely powerful video biography about Mitt Romney before he spoke. I agree with several of the commentators who said this should have been shown much earlier in the convention. I think it needs to be aired several more times during the campaign process on a national basis. I believe there are a number of sound bites that can be extracted from it to help people, at least, get to know who Romney is.

Will I vote for Mitt Romney? The jury is still out on that question. But, as I sift through the rhetoric and BS, I’m hoping to uncover enough fact and truth to help me make an educated choice. I hope you approach the election the same way – IF you plan to vote. Please, don’t vote to invalidate my vote or anyone else’s. Don’t vote because you buy into all the negative media claptrap. If you’re going to vote, be a responsible voter. Learn all you can. Make educated decisions and when you go to the voting machine, do it with full-confidence that the person you vote for is someone you honestly feel you can live with for at least the next four years.    

The Republican National Convention – Second Day

Not much to say. I caught Rand Paul, Condi Rice, Susane Martinez and Paul Ryan. And, as I expected, each was strong, each had a slightly different message, but were still on point. Once again, there were a lot of inspirational stories and success stories.

So, my impressions are these. There is no question what the purpose of each speaker is on the schedule. There is no question that the remarks, anecdotes and rallying are meant to stir up the emotional response of some 40 million viewers nationwide and those delegates in the convention hall.

Once again, I weigh all of their presentations from a speaker technique and, while each is a bit different and some are stronger, others are not quite as strong, they all are good speakers – and, obviously selected because they can deliver their messages effectively – after all, they are all politicians and convincing and persuading voters to their point of view is what they do and what they have done to achieve their positions.

Unless you simply hate the Republican Party’s ideology, you want to believe they are telling the truth. And, honestly, I believe all of them believe what they are telling us is the truth – as they perceive it. Unfortunately, there is always the tired adage, “How do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving.” My challenge is attempting to separate fact, from fiction, from exaggeration, from outright untruth.

Now, I know that if I ask someone from the other side of the aisle they’re going to tell me that everything the Republicans are telling the public - are lies. Why? Because the Democrats are cut from exactly the same fabric and embrace their own ideology.  Next week I’m going to watch and hear the same kind of rhetoric, I’m going to see what the Democrats feel is the truth and they are going to have carefully selected speakers whose responsibility is exactly the same as this week’s Republican speakers. In other words, when the conventions are done – it’s simply goes back to what I personally believe is truth as I perceive it. It’s getting harder and harder to sift through it all and discern truth. I have a bullshit meter and frankly, it goes off every time I hear a politician from either party speak.

I liked all four of the speeches I listened to. But, after the emotional impact, I still had to remember that these folks have already spent about a half billion dollars trying to convince me that they are totally doing everything in my best interest to guarantee my personal freedom, happiness and a feeling of security that I can chase and achieve the American Dream, however I perceive that elusive dream. Next week, the Democrats are going to do exactly the same thing and they’ve blown as much money as the Republicans. And they are both going to blow a lot more money that could be better spent, in my estimation, doing other things. But, that’s just me. While the Republicans certainly attacked the the incumbent’s record and his failure to deliver on his campaign promises of four years ago, as defined by the Republicans, the Democrats can’t really attack the Republican candidate's record since he hasn’t served as president, yet. So, I expect the attacks to be much more personal and designed to malign and tear down the Republican candidate personally. 

Examples of what I expect and is already evident is that the Republican candidate doesn't pay his fair share of taxes - when, in fact, he paid all that he was required to pay by current law. It would be fiscally stupid and irresponsible for anyone to pay more taxes then required by law. The Democrats also don't explain to the public there is a VERY distinct difference between "earned" income as in receiving hourly wages and salaries for specific work done for payment and "passive" or "investment" income where the individual invests money and the money appreciates just as money deposited in a bank savings account once did. Earned and passive incomes are taxed differently from one another by tax law.

They also blame him for loss of  jobs in companies his Bain Capital had to shut down because they weren't profitable and viable businesses. This is prudent business. Meanwhile, the same Democrats are shopping at using the products and services of the numerous and very obvious successes that Bain Capital has and that have created tens of thousands of jobs. That's simply how good business operates. Which, happens to be diametrically opposed to how government, especially the federal government, operates. Businesses can't run up a $16 trillion debt and expect to remain in business. If that’s the tactic I see next week, then my feelings about the incumbent and his party will be what I am expecting.

The thing that really bothers me are some comments I have received from some individuals close to me. One is a woman who is 90 years old and all she knows about Romney is that he doesn’t pay his taxes. She doesn’t want to accept that he has paid what was lawfully due by the laws that her representatives in Congress approved. She believes the attack ads and media coverage because that's her primary frame of reference. But, she won’t listen to me, to the candidate or to anyone because she has been convinced by the media reports that he’s an underhanded, corporate raider, tax cheat as she understands it. But, she doesn’t like the incumbent either. So, how does she decide who to vote for? 

Another person doesn’t want to listen to any of the speakers to get to understand who these people are or what they are saying they stand for. She simply said that whoever I vote for (meaning me personally), she’ll cancel out my vote by voting for the other candidate – whoever it is. I hear this over and over again. This is why the system is where it is and why it really doesn’t work the way it is represented to work. That kind of thinking is no different then comments made by African American voters who voted for the incumbent president at the 2008 election. There were certainly some African Americans who made their choice NOT based on skin color or anything else to do with ethnicity, race or religious views. But, in general most cast their vote not because they had any idea of what he was about, who he was, if he even had any real qualifications or on his campaign policies, plans, etc. that he proposed. They voted for him because he looked like them and was running around the world acting like the new American Idol, a rock star, the new messiah. That is why the democratic process is way more flawed then anyone realizes.

By the way, IF I should decide to vote Republican (since there is only one other choice) my friend who said she’d vote for the opposite candidate will have to get in line to invalidate my vote since, as I’ve already said, there are at least six other people who are already planning to invalidate my vote should that be my decision. It sure doesn’t make any sense to even waste time voting if the reason is simply to invalidate my vote. But, that, unfortunately, is some of the mentality I’m seeing across this country.

I’m planning to catch the Romney speech tonight and the “secret guest” Clint Eastwood. I still have to keep scratching my head wondering why I’m even going to bother voting (other then to retain bitching rights – that aren’t worth even wasting my energy on).

I’ll be interested to see how the Democrats represent personal freedom, happiness and the American Dream to me next week. I'll reserve any decisions until I see what they have to offer. I'm attempting to be open-minded and objective, but it's hard since I don't fully support either party or either ticket. How can I, neither really represents me or cares about me, individually. That's my own personal responsibility . . . as it is every other citizen's and legal resident's of this country. 

The Republican National Convention – First Day

I am basically apolitical. By that I mean I am not affiliated with any recognized political party. I don’t automatically agree with or accept the philosophical ideologies or platform planks of the parties, especially the Republican or Democratic parties. I do not support politicians with campaign contributions. And I, basically, accept that as a civilized society we must have some form of governance, but in it’s current operations, the governments at most levels are out of touch with their constituents, “We the People.” I also accept that living by my philosophy of living free means I’m not likely to ever have a representative who can truly represent my personal interests. In other words, for someone like me, it almost doesn’t matter who is elected to the various offices, virtually none of them will ever represent me.

So, with that being said, why am I watching or even remotely interested in the national conventions? Why do I even bother to vote? Philosophically, voting, to me, means selecting the “evil of two lessers.” In other words, while I hear a lot of rhetoric and pandering to the voters, I realize that those elected to public office are beholding to (I’m being kind, I wanted to say “owned by”) a number of special interests that raised large amounts of money for the candidates to wage their campaigns. They really aren’t serving us, “We the People,” unless indirectly we are gaining specific direct or indirect benefits from these special interests. One could argue that in our country it’s impossible to not be impacted positively or negatively by all these special interests. I’d have to agree.

Back to the question of why I vote. I’m actually not sure. While everyone says that every vote counts, I personally know of at least (and this is without even thinking about it) a half dozen other voters will invalidate my vote. Then we could use the old lottery slogan, “You have to play to win.” But, since I don’t personally see that I will win regardless of who wins the election, it strengthens my point. So, I use the lame reason that it preserves my “bitching rights.” I don’t have the right to bitch if I didn’t participate in the process. Actually, bitching is just a waste of energy and creates air pollution and contributes to global climate change, plus, nothing changes so there’s no percentage in it anyway,

So, do I really even care? Of course I do. Unfortunately, I agree with some of the Republican positions, some of the Democratic positions and some of the smaller shadow parties (shadow simply meaning they are lost in the shadows of the two major parties). So, like the pioneers who risked crossing the oceans and then the mountains and the plains to seek out the life and freedom they dreamed of, I have to be responsible to and for myself. Along the way, I’ll reach out and assist others seeking the same freedom to pursue and live their dreams and be happy and fulfilled, whatever that means to them.

Back to the RNC. What did I see and hear. Going in, I am neither a fan of the incumbent president nor was I a fan of the presumptive challenger and now, official Republican candidate. The convention appears to be much like past conventions. It’s a giant party and pep rally to celebrate finally settling on a candidate for president and a running mate. It’s a big kick-off into the actual, official campaign. (What the heck is all the stuff that’s been going on for more then a year called?) It’s a time for LOTS of rhetoric, puffery and grandiose promises, most of which will never come to pass and if they do, not in the manner they were presented. It’s a good thing Hurricane Isaac pretty much bypassed Tampa, the site of the RNC because there is enough hot air and wind being generated at the convention center to dwarf that of the Category 1 hurricane.

In general, I was impressed by the quality of the speeches and the delivery styles of the various speakers. It was interesting to see the diversity between women like Senator Kelly Ayotte and Governor Nikki Haley, the African-American, former Democratic House member and Obama supporter turned Republican, Artur Davis, Governors Scott Walker and John Kasich and the Texas candidate for a Senate seat, Ted Cruz, to mention those I heard. All of these folks are the rising stars in the Republican Party and they represent white, Middle America, women, African-American and Hispanic parts of our population.

Okay, I have to put this in context. They were selected because of their abilities to relate to the public and their presentation skills, some not quite as strong as others, but all strong, just the same. As someone who has done my own share of speaking to diverse audiences and as a former long-time member of the National Speakers Association, I understand the techniques they used. Some of my friends are some of the finest and most polished professional speakers in the world. I’ve witnessed the best of the best during my lifetime. So, I know precisely what I was watching. Yet, I was still impressed. And, to be honest, I expect to be impressed next week when I watch the Democrats expound on the virtues of their party and candidates.

Governor Chris Christie from my home state of New Jersey (yep, if you didn’t know or remember, I’m a Jersey Boy – Exit 153 and 154), did a very nice job of painting a picture, yet, he was very restrained. Capable of being extremely bombastic and pulling no punches (not untypical of Jerseyites), he didn’t blast the incumbent president and competitor in this election. But, he made his point of the failings of the leadership and issues that contributed to no one playing nice with each other inside the Washington elected government establishment. I believe everyone was expecting him to drop a nuke on the president and the Democrats in Congress. I still believe he had a strong message.

But, in my eyes, the winner last night was Ann Romney. She obviously prepared for that speech. None of the speakers went up there and spoke entirely extemporaneously of course. Every word was calculated. But, Anne Romney came across as very real and exhibited appropriate amounts of shyness, humbleness and yet, confidence, grace and class. I can’t say I’ve followed the First Ladies that closely over my lifetime, but I’d have to say that, should she become the next First Lady, much like Nancy Reagan, she will be one class act. She gave me some insights into her husband that I didn’t have before. I have not been a fan of Mitt Romney, but after her speech I softened my position on him. Her line about him not talking about all the things he does for others because he considers it a privilege to have that opportunity, not political talking points, was very powerful to me and I relate very strongly with that attitude. I truly felt like Mitt Romney might actually be seeking the presidency because he truly wants to serve and help everyone in the country. He served his church without compensation. He served and fixed the Salt Lake City Olympic games without compensation. He served as the governor of Massachusetts for four years without accepting compensation. He doesn’t need the income paid to the President of the United States now or in the future. If he were to indicate that he’d serve as President of the United States without compensation for four or eight years and maintain a modest lifestyle eliminating a lot of the trappings of the position and paying for his own and his family’s indulgences, he would virtually have my vote in an instant. I still may not see him as my most favorite person as an individual, but then, I don’t know him personally (and probably never will). But, who knows? I might really like him if I had the chance to get to know him. I do know that I don’t relate to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – and that has nothing to do with his race, color, religion or anything else.

So, that’s my take on the first day of the RNC. I’ll attempt to watch as much of the rest of it as I can. I’ll attempt to do the same with the DNC next week. Unfortunately, while I do hear the kind of rhetoric the general population wants to hear and the promises they are looking for, I don’t believe if the incumbent is reelected or if the Romney-Ryan ticket take the race that much will actually change. I don’t think we’ll feel any freer or that conditions will improve markedly over the next four to eight years. But, then again, I’d love to be proved wrong. So, only time will tell.