Author: Spocko

Bonehead Move by Georgia Lt. Gov. Cagle. He Tells Delta Airlines to Support the NRA, or Else

By Spocko

Today from Georgia’s Lt. Governor.

I will kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA. Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back.

— Casey Cagle (@CaseyCagle) February 26, 2018

On Saturday I wrote about how the supporters of the NRA will respond to corporations deciding to not associate with the NRA  I wrote.

The NRA will respond to corporations withdrawing support, probably by threatening the companies that have left, and the ones who are standing with them.

Some NRA members might be smart and try and entice the companies they still have by buying more of their product, but based on my experience, they prefer to punish and intimidate when they don’t get their way.

Cagle’s tweet is really an amazing statement. I wonder if he ran it by the heads of the 17 Fortune 500 companies that make their home in Georgia?  Did he talk to the CEO of Delta before he sent that out?  No doubt he talked to the AG, so it must be legal. On the other hand, maybe it’s a rogue tweet like one of Trump’s.

I’ve worked with a lot of high powered CEOs, they don’t like it when people tell them what to do.  But they do understand tax breaks, revenue streams, public relations problems and brand issues. They will take this threat very seriously. But how they react might not be what Cagle wants. 

They will be pissed. Unless Cagle’s announcement was coordinated ahead of time with the approval of Delta management (a possibility) Delta’s lawyers and lobbyists were probably burning up the phone lines with the Governor’s office all day.

Cagle threatening to use his big tax break stick on Delta for deciding to cut a marketing discount program with a trade group with a toxic brand is a boneheaded decision.

NRA’s brand is toxic right now. You don’t tell companies to embrace toxicity. It’s bad PR. It’s bad brand management.

I don’t know Georgia politics, but the NRA is not the only powerful lobby in the state.

Think of the other groups with lobbying power that don’t like or want more guns everywhere.

Transportation lobby. Do you really think airlines want to go back to allowing guns on planes?
Does UPS really want drivers to carry guns?

Health care lobby. Sure they can make up to 95k for each gun shot wound, but does the Lt. Gov.  know that two thirds of gunshot victims admitted to American hospitals are covered by Medicaid, or don’t have health insurance at all?  (University of Iowa, July edition of the journal Injury Epidemiology.) The taxpayers pick those costs up, not private health insurance.

Education lobby. Emory University employs a lot of people, has Cagle heard all those teachers and parents explaining what “a horrifically bad idea” arming teachers is?

Military lobby. Maybe Cagle is counting on the military to back him. I’m friends with a lot of military guys who think the NRA’s positions on guns everywhere is nuts.  They know what it takes to be proficient with a gun. They have seen the damage an AR-15 can do to a human. The military of today isn’t a bunch of good ol’ boy hunters. When they come back from war, they may still hunt, but they know they know what AR-15s are designed to kill, and it ain’t ducks.

Is This Three Dimensional Chess Or Trump-style Bullying?

Companies have always played one state against another for tax breaks and perks. Cagle might think that Delta is so entrenched that they can’t easily get up and leave. But when corporations get pissed at a state they have lots of tools to use to get and keep tax breaks and perks. It’s not just threats to move.

Maybe Cagle and the governor are trying to play three dimensional chess. They might be hoping to get more taxes out of the airlines while satisfying their gun loving base with this threat. It might pay off. On the other hand, behind the scenes Gagle could end up groveling and apologizing to Delta AND getting no new votes from their current supporters. The Lt. Gov. night get a bump from his base, but will get knocked by others for an economically stupid move.

This announcement came out of the Lt. Governor’s office. They are testing the reaction of the public and how this corporation will respond to this threat. Depending on the reaction and the polling, the Governor will either walk back Cagle’s threat, soften it, or support it.

If I were a betting Vulcan, I would put my Quatloos on Delta coming out on top. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is it’s better to convincing people to do something that is in line with their stated values than to threaten them. It’s not really a stretch for an airline that doesn’t allow guns in the cabins, to walk away from an associate with a toxic brand like the NRA.

What can you do? Call and tweet Delta @Delta to thank them for their action to disassociate themselves for NRA’s toxic brand.

Delta Delta Delta can I help ya help ya help ya? from Michal Spocko on Vimeo.

Let’s catch the sickos who sent Parkland survivor death threats

by Spocko

Death threats force Parkland shooting survivor to leave Facebook

Cameron Kasky says he has received “graphic death threats.”

Who does this? What kind of sickos send death threats to a shooting survivor? Why did they send them to Kasky? I would like to find all of them and ask why. “What was your intention? What did you hope to accomplish?”

I think law enforcement needs to take death threats coming from gun owners more seriously.

Of course law enforcement has to answer the usual questions about any threats:

1. What kind of threat is it? It is at true threat?  (see Elonis v, United States) 
2. Where is the threatener located relative to the person they are threatening? A threat from someone nearby has more opportunity to act. 
3. What is their motive for the threat? 
4. Does the threatener have a history of threats? Have they acted on them? 
5. Do the have the means to carry out the threat? (Yes, I know, a gun is just a tool, like a hammer, “You can kill with a hammer too! Are you going to arrest all hammer owners who send death threats?” blah, blah, blah.)

Time for FBI Investigations of Death Threats

The FBI got criticized not following up on gun owner Nikolas Cruz. This is a perfect time to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public.

I can already hear the all caps crying, “They are targeting law-abiding gun owners who are just exercising their free speech!!” However:

1) Threatening speech is not protected speech.

2) Don’t send death threats, you won’t have a problem.

Gun owners should welcome the FBI tracing threats. In fact, actual responsible gun owners will turn in the ones that they know are doing this. Like in this story:

Last week, in Bellevue Nebraska, 18-year old Nicholas Scott threaten to shoot people who were going to walk out in support of gun control. 

 Based on the story, it looks like he had the means, motive and opportunity to carry this out.

High school student arrested for threatening to shoot those who walked out in support of gun control

I don’t think anyone should be sending death threats, but that’s my Vulcan side. But if it happens then we need to find them, verify it was them, and there should be consequences.

Sue people who send death threats

I’ve been pushing economic sanctions as leverage to weaken the gun lobby and force them to pay for the damage they do. This would be a way to pay for the psychological damage they cause.

We know the Las Vegas shooter was rich. He had money for expensive guns. If the FBI finds out that someone is sending death threats and they have money to pay for expensive guns, there needs to be civil lawsuits against these people in addition to criminal legal cases.

I would develop the cases for criminal charges first, then civil charges. I’ve suggested this idea to some lawyers and GVP groups. Maybe this could be my money making business that gets me off this planet.

Responsible gun owners shouldn’t worry that they are being unfairly targeted by law enforcement, because they are not sending death threats. Right?

If you are a gun owner and you are sending death threats to the Parkland survivors, we will find you, we will catch you, and we will sue you.

I always see this comment under stories about reducing the amount of guns, “Come and get them!” But with civil lawsuits there is no need for the sheriff, police or Obama to go to their location to take their guns. They can just go to the bank and take their assets.

We aren’t coming for your guns, we’re coming for your assets.

18 Companies Cut Ties With NRA

By Spocko

UPDATED: Most companies have cut ties with the NRA.

Yesterday:
First National Bank
Enterprise
Alamo
National

Today:
Symantec
LifeLock
MetLife
Chubb
SimpliSafe
Teladoc
Hertz
Allied Van Lines
NorthAmerican Van Lines
Avis
Budget
Wild Apricot

More details: https://t.co/uUhabbHdxF pic.twitter.com/e4pkAaRwgH

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) February 24, 2018

UPDATED 2-24-2018 Today United and Delta have cut ties with the NRA. Parkland students ask spring breakers not to come to Florida unless gun legislation is passed.

As my friend Eric Milgram, spokesperson for the Newtown Action Alliance has said, make this an economic issue. Make the firearms industry pay the full costs of the damage their products do.

I’ve shown in the past with right-wing radio hosts that corporations don’t like to be associated with a toxic brand. But they often need a negative news event about the group or person to cut ties.

The Parkland shooting was another occasion for activists to ask corporations, “Do you still want to associate with the NRA brand?”  Today 16 of them said no.

My friend Amanda Gaily, president of Nebraskans Against Gun Violence, put it this way.

“It’s time to withdraw support from the slaughter lobby.” 

It is possible to convince folks in any state to pull away from the NRA.  The First National Bank of Omaha in Nebraska did so this week.

The NRA will respond to corporations withdrawing support, probably by threatening the companies that have left, and the ones who are standing with them.

Some NRA members might be smart and try and entice the companies they still have by buying more of their product, but based on my experience, they prefer to punish and intimidate when they don’t get their way.

I always told the people I trained to be polite and not threaten anyone, you don’t want to punish your future ally! Just remind them of what they say their values are and ask if they line up with what this person or group is saying. It’s their decision.

When I was researching gun sign policies for private businesses I talked to retail people about the armed men who showed up to talk to managers about “What a mistake she is making by not allowing guns in the store.”  Of course he wasn’t hoping bad things would happen, but it would be a shame if bad guys with guns showed up and he wasn’t there.

This has worked successfully in the past. After the Trayvon Martin shooting, some of my very smart, strategic friends at Color of Change and The Center for Media and Democracy pointed out to corporations the role the NRA had in creating the expanded Castle Doctrine laws that led to Martin’s death.

They contacted the right people inside those corporations and said, “Look, the NRA used you.  ALEC used you. That dead black teen and the man who got away with his murder was made possible by the laws ALEC pushed for the NRA. Your financial support made it all possible. Now is the time to leave.” Dozens of them left. The first one was hard, but then it became a waterfall.

Here is another economic leverage idea coming from Parkland Students.

Let’s make a deal DO NOT come to Florida for spring break unless gun legislation is passed. These politions won’t listen to us so maybe the’ll listen to the billion dollar tourism industry in FL. #neveragain

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) February 24, 2018

Losing corporate money isn’t going to kill the gun lobby, they will still get multi-million dollar checks from the gun and bullet makers as well as money from Russia. But it’s bad PR for the NRA and the start of the waterfall of disassociation from the NRA.

When North Carolina lost business because of a bathroom bill that had an impact on the lawmakers. I’ve found that when you interrupt companies’ revenue streams they get very upset and will act quickly to restore them. The liquor lobby can put pressure on the congress people. This is a perfect opportunity to get them on board. Guns and alcohol don’t mix. “Hey, Senator, this will cut into my spring break beer sales. Don’t forget, we give you money too.”

Interrupting the revenue stream of politicians from other lobbying sources could make them defying the NRA.

Losing corporate support is bad PR for a trade group. But As Dr. Z, my public relations professor said, “Dead kids are bad PR.” Refusing to do anything about what killed the kids is worse.

Since the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High, at least 69 kids under 18 have been shot. 26 of them were killed. Those numbers are from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive #NeverAgain

Dear Florida Gun Fighters. Prepare For The NRA Hammer! 
By Spocko

Dear Emma and Cameron:

I’m so encouraged by your bravery and activism in the face of your tragedy.  Today I heard you and some of your classmates are meeting with Florida’s attorney general, House speaker, and Senate president in Tallahassee.

Emma González

Cameron Kasky  Rhona Wise / AFP / Getty Images

I have experience with politicians and professional spokespeople so I can tell you what to expect today, and then in the weeks and months to come. I think it will be enlightening for the general public to see how the Florida legislative system responds, so please share your experiences with politicians, the gun lobby and their supporters on social media.

One thing you will find about politicians–and the gun lobby that supports them–is that they are not stupid. They have short and long-term methods and strategies to prevent legislative change they don’t like, while at the same time getting the change they want.

Here are some of the state politicians you are meeting today:

Bondi’s position on guns 

 

Richard Corcoran, Florida House Speaker, Republican @richardcorcoran
NRA grade A 
Corcoran’s voting record and endorsements on guns

These people know that you are angry and upset so they will let you “vent” your feelings.  They will express their deepest sympathy and offer sincere thoughts and prayers for your dead classmates and teachers.

They will look like they are listening to you. They are not. They will be waiting to talk. They will answer you in a way that will slow you down and appease you, but not upset the powerful gun lobby and their followers.  The politicians won’t deny your requests right away. They might set up a commission to look into the problem, they might even ask you to be on it!

They will have “solutions” such as:

• Raising the age of people who can get rifles and 3 day waiting periods for rifles
• More funding for mental health services

Then they will talk about the only answer that the NRA, and their passionate voting base, deem acceptable; more guns.

At that point you can expect proposals for:

• More money for school resource officers in schools across the state
• Bills to allow more people to carry concealed weapons in and around your school. Teachers, administrators and staff will be offered advanced training and guns.

Here’s the deal. The politicians are not monsters, they are not ignorant of others’ suffering. They will come up with proposals, but they will be ones that keep the money they get from the NRA and the power they get from the NRA voting block. They will want you to spend your time beating back the NRA guns in schools proposals.

Politicians know that the majority of the public support you right now. In public the politicians you meet with will sound supportive. In the next few weeks pay attention to the ones who won’t meet with you or won’t do it in public. Then dig into what all of them say when they aren’t talking to people like you. What do they say at the NRA fundraisers?  Is it different from what they told you? This is where you can use your Google research and social media skills.

You might wonder, what kind of people refuse to pass gun laws that the majority of the country support? I said these people weren’t monsters, but their continued inaction in the face of death make them unfit to be in positions of power.

Your leverage includes passion and the ability to expose the politicians who refuse to act in the face of constant gun deaths and injuries. If they don’t act, they need to be removed from office. 

I’d like to suggest that you read this series of great articles that Mike Spies wrote for The Trace called The Gunfighters.  Yeah, I know it sounds like I’m giving you homework, but these are really good. It will help you get an idea of the power you are up against and how the NRA uses it. You can listen to a podcast of his interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air  here.  @MIKESPIESNYC

Spies examined the National Rifle Association’s influence on state policy and politics. The articles describe how over the last decade the NRA has successfully lobbied state legislatures to roll back many gun restrictions.  One also describes what is happening in your state and the most powerful NRA lobbyist in the country Marion Hammer. In that article Spies documents that if Republican NRA politicians don’t support the NRA to the level Hammer demands, they will be removed from office.

Marion Hammer, 78, handles the NRA’s legislative affairs in Florida,  and is the most successful gun lobbyist in the United States.

The Gun Debate Paradox 


By Spocko 


Twenty four hours after every mass shooting the media asks, “What can we do?”  Now they also ask, “Why has nothing been done to fix the problem yet?”

The coverage timeline will include calls to the NRA, who will decline to comment.  Experts will discuss legislative efforts for change that are widely supported by the public, such as universal background checks. The media will wonder why, with so much support, gun control legislation failed. The media might also point out that at the state level legislation has expanded the availability of  guns in more places.  This is what The Trace editors call the paradox of the gun debate.

“While widespread public support exists for many gun regulations and policies — including bump stocks—
pro-gun advocates are significantly more active than their counterparts when it comes to engaging politicians and government agencies.”

For people who want to limit the proliferation of guns, the failure of legislation following mass shootings is discouraging.  But for the men who want more people with guns in more places, a mass shooting triggers renewed vigor to fight gun-control legislation and pass laws making it easier to bring guns into more places.

 

 Trace has done some great work explaining how the NRA marketing team and their activist base does it.  For example, when the ATF was looking at reclassifying bump stocks as machine guns under federal law, the NRA base mobilized  The ATF got 36,000 comments, 85 percent of commenters were opposed to the regulation of bump stocks. And these weren’t form letters from Russian bots either.

In addition to the online work, the guns everywhere people made sure to have plenty of speakers lined up to testify at state legislation committees opposing any bump stock ban. Three months later and bills to ban bump stocks are being shot down. House panel votes against bill to ban bump stocks in Virginia

So while one part of the NRA says, “We would be okay with some bump stock rules.” –the rest of the members follow the script they have been following after Sandy Hook which is:

1) Buy more guns
2) Oppose any laws that would regulate guns
3) Push legislators to pass laws that enable more people to carry guns in more places.
4) Buy more guns

I use the phrase pro-gun men on purpose.  While researching why past state gun control legislation had failed, but “gun rights” legislation had passed, I came across an earlier piece that I found fascinating. It referenced a  study published in the June issue of Social Science Quarterly by  Kristin Goss, a researcher at Duke University.

Goss analyzed the results of Pew Research Center surveys administered in the six months following the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She found that pro-gun men were significantly more likely to engage in political activism than any other group, dwarfing the efforts of individuals in favor of increased regulation, regardless of gender.

Just how active are the pro-gun advocates? See the chart below.

What One Study Tells Us About How Pro-Gun Men React to Mass Shootings by Elizabeth Haq

The NRA is pushing the idea that nothing that can be done legislatively about guns, except making it easier to get more of them into the hands of more people. At the top of the list now will be arming teachers and churchgoers.

In the next 24-48 hours the media will be writing think pieces wondering why these killings continue. Meanwhile the NRA will have people calling their state legislators offices, and testifying in committees and pushing bills making more guns available in more places.

Just because previous legislative efforts on gun control have failed, does not mean all future efforts will. It is possible to learn from these failures. The NRA wants people fighting their guns everywhere agenda to be discouraged. Don’t be.

Next time: It’s time to make the gun lobby pay for the mass death and injuries their gun proliferation legislation has made possible.

Fun Black History: When Nichelle Nichols Met Martin Luther King Jr.

By Spocko

(Link to Io9 story on this Drunk History clip.)

I’ve heard the story before about how MLK Jr. convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on Star Trek, but what I didn’t know was she played an important role helping to drive recruitment for NASA in the years after Star Trek, spearheading an outreach program that brought the likes of Sally Ride, the first woman in space, and Guion Bluford, NASA’s first African-American astronaut, to the organization.

Also, Mae Jemison, M.D., the first African American woman in space, was a Star Trek fan

We are always saying if you don’t learn from history you are bound to repeat it. Maybe the reason we don’t learn is it’s told in such a boring way!

I learned something from Drunk History and I’ll remember it.

Now here is a photo two people doing the Vulcan hand sign.

No Laws Stopped Trump From Launching A Nuke Today

By Spocko

Did you know that Trump could have launched a nuke today? It would have been in response to a false alarm in Hawaii.

No law could have stopped him. Only “norms” — and as we know, he’s not good at following those.

On December 1, 2016  Alex Wellerstein, a historian of nuclear weapons at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.  wrote a piece for the Washington Post explaining how and why the whole system was set up so the president — and only the president — could decide when to launch.

 No one can stop President Trump from using nuclear weapons. That’s by design. 

[Trump] will have sole authority over more than 7,000 warheads. There is no failsafe. The whole point of U.S. nuclear weapons control is to make sure that the president — and only the president — can use them if and whenever he decides to do so. The one sure way to keep President Trump from launching a nuclear attack, under the system we’ve had in place since the early Cold War, would have been to elect someone else.

I’ve been listening to the book Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety  nuclear accidents. It’s scary.

Yesterday I listened to former Congressman Alan Grayson on the David Feldman podcast talk about the bill he tried to get passed that would stop Trump from having sole control of the launch of a nuclear weapon.  Two things to know

1) The bill did not pass.
2) Even if it HAD passed, the circumstances of this kind of mistake would not be covered, because it would have fallen under the category of a sneak attack since–as Wellerstein noted–a law would most likely:

..allow the president to use nuclear weapons in the face of imminent danger, the sort of situation in which a matter of minutes or even seconds could make a difference…

THIS is why Trump needs to be removed from office.

When we don’t have laws, just norms, and someone NOT normal is in charge, we are in trouble.

This Hawaii example is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier piece about Trump’s nuclear tweets. WE NEED TO FIX THIS NOW. A psychiatric test needs to be requested by congress and then administered. One already exists, it is given to the military who are in charge of launching the missiles.

Let’s Politicize This Near Disaster

I want to politicize this mistake. We can ask, “Why this mistake now? Are there people running the defense industry who know how scary it is to have Trump in charge, so they let this slip? Did they do this at this time because they KNEW he was on the golf course? (But wouldn’t his team have gotten to him instantly with the news, and the nuclear football?) But let’s not focus on the parts that might be conspiratorial.

Let’s use this as an opportunity to change laws, and get Trump out of this position of  power over the life or death of millions. 

Someone should revive Grayson’s bill. Maybe Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii. She’s motivated.

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: “Our leaders have failed us. Donald Trump is taking too long. He’s not taking this threat seriously … This is literally life and death that is at stake.” pic.twitter.com/mSYY92sm8P

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 13, 2018

HAWAII – THIS IS A FALSE ALARM. THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE TO HAWAII. I HAVE CONFIRMED WITH OFFICIALS THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE. pic.twitter.com/DxfTXIDOQs

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 13, 2018

We dodged a nuclear bullet today. Let’s not blow this.

Trump Is Like, TV Smart
by Spocko

I read a great article  5 Things TV Writers Apparently Believe About Smart People  by @cs_coville from Cracked in 2011. My favorite section was “It’s Okay To Be A Dick, As Long As You’re Smart” There are many examples of smart dicks, but at the time she used Dr. House.

“A further staple of the supergenius genre is the guy who treats other people like crap, and gets away with it because of his amazing talents. It’s actually hard to find a TV genius who isn’t a shithead. These people are unfriendly, antisocial, or generally messed up when it comes to communicating with other humans, but avoid getting sued or shot in the face only because it turns out they’re always, always right.”

“When Trump says he is “like, really smart.” he might mean a TV version of a smart person. Specifically someone who uses his “smarts” to win. The type of smarts Trump used to win isn’t your standard IQ smart.  Trump can look at the big picture and say, “The Apprentice ratings didn’t lie. I was a hit. The Electoral College numbers didn’t lie. I’m the President.” Both of those statements are true. Trump can ask “Would a dumb person be able to do that?” The answer should be no. Not unless a lot of people helped and we expand our definition of smarts. What types of smarts made his win happen? He credits only himself, but we know there were others who helped. Whose “smarts” got him there?

I’ve actually worked with dozens of smart people whose names you would recognized as IQ smart. I’ve also worked with people who have different kinds of smarts, not standard IQ. Here are a few types of smarts I’ve worked with:

• Financially
• Computer programming
• Emotionally
• Marketing and sales
• Advertising smart
  Not “Who’s the ad genius who thought of this?”
• Mathematically
• Engineering
• Medically
• Theoretically
• Entrepreneurial
• Leadership
• Politically
• Strategically
• Tactically
• Street

In America, if you successfully create money with your smarts your opinion is valued more.  But even if you got your money the old-fashioned way, by stealing or inheriting it, money can be used to get people who are smart in other areas to help you win. One big focus of the rich has been on hiring politicians to change the laws so they keep the money and make more of it. The ROI on politicians is huge.

The current situation shows that financially successful people like the Mercers and Kochs have used their money to buy various kind of “smart” people.  They have then used “like, a smart person” to achieve their strategic goals. Lower taxes and no regulation.

Donald Trump recently tweeted about a Michael Goodwin column in the New York Post, “We are still better off with Trump than Clinton“

Trump has since deleted his Tweet because he incorrectly quoted Goodwin’s column tweeting “enormously consensual presidency” instead of  “enormously consequential presidency” but I think it is important to note who was the really smart person in this story: Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the money losing New York Post.

I quoted that tweet and added this fun fact.

Fun Fact. The @nypost loses about 110 million every year. From 2013 @politico story by @joepompeo, (he’s now at @VanityFair ) https://t.co/LBiHRTA42x https://t.co/PuZG9KRg3i

— Spocko (@spockosbrain) January 8, 2018

In the corporate world making money is one of the major measures of success. So if you are running the country “like a business” you can grow your bottom line by cutting costs or benefits to workers.  You can cut costs by firing workers. With a country there are other goals than just the bottom line.

In the dot com days people spent millions for “eyeballs”  They didn’t care about profitability.  They planned to go public or sell to a bigger company. It wasn’t their goal to be profitable as long as they had a “liquidity” event on the horizon they were happy. If making money was the only metric, a lot of companies were NOT successful.

Murdoch has a strategy with the New York Post. In order to achieve his goals in other areas he is fine with the @nypost LOSING over 110 million dollars every single year. That’s a long-term strategy that has paid off for him. He can strategically, and continually, lose money if he–as the major shareholder– thinks it is necessary.
(And, speaking about companies that didn’t make money, but had a lot of eyeballs, I give you MySpace. It was bought by NewsCorp. What was Murdoch’s ROI on that deal?)

One of the things that I’ve found is that people often defer to financially successful people on what actions to take. (I saw this mostly in the VC world, but in other areas too.) The problem that I’ve seen is that someone’s smarts in one area doesn’t always apply to other areas. Just because someone made millions manipulating financial markets doesn’t mean they know jack squat about marketing political ideas to the public.

Building our side is important. It’s great to be part of that. I love to do that. It makes me feel good to see others succeed. But tearing down their side is also important.

When we look to defeat the right, we need to understand what has worked for the right. That does not mean we have to do the exact same things they do.  But we should acknowledge that different kinds of smarts can help us.  It also means we need to apply multiple strategies, smarts and tactics to multiple areas. That includes offensive strategies directed toward our enemies.  I’m seeing a lot of blocking, but not much tackling.

I’m also seeing people attacking individuals or institution on our side. If you are doing that please ask yourself. “How can I use this attack energy against the other side?” I ask myself,

1. What are the tactics that will cost our enemies money?
2. What are the tactics that will cost our enemies their jobs?  
3. Who can I help with their fight? How can I help them? 
4. Where is my help needed most?
5. What unique smarts can I bring to the table? 

I say fight the other side. It’s what really smart people do.

I’m not saying Trump wouldn’t get his hair mussed.

by Spocko

I expect big indictments this week.  As I wrote two weeks ago, when the heat is on Trump starts sending out nuclear tweets, it’s what he does.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018

Christ what an asshole.