HILLARY CLINTON'S LEAD EVAPORATES
After continued examples of her lies and misstatements, Hillary Clinton no longer holds a commanding lead in polls, both vs. Dems and especially vs. top GOP opponents. Even women are not moving away from support for her. The more about her that is exposed, the worse her image becomes--and more Americans are beginning to notice these problems of untrustworthiness, dishonesty and lying.
HILLARY'S EMAIL ACTIONS ARE SO FULL OF FLAWS, LIES AND ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR THAT I WON'T EVEN TRY TO LIST THEM
There are thousands of articles out there about how Hillary Clinton ignored the rules, regulations, laws and even common sense is her quest to keep secret the details of her actions. Whether she gets indicted and convicted is up to the FBI and the courts or grand juries--not you and me. We know that what she did was wrong--in so many ways--just another undeniable indication of her unfitness to hold the highest elected office in the land. Hopefully, this and her many other misbehaviors will all catch up with her and force her out of the presidential race. What goes around, comes around--and for Hillary, nothing could be a better punishment.
THE "THINNING OF THE GOP HERD" BEGINS…
Former Texas governor Rick Perry is dropping out of the 2016 presidential race, saying on Friday that he is suspending his campaign. "We have a tremendous field -- the best in a generation -- so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands," Perry said in a statement. Who will be next?
UPCOMING DEBATE SHOULD BE INTERESTING--BUT CONFUSING AS WELL--TOO MANY PARTICIPANTS
CNN announced on Tuesday that it has changed the criteria for its upcoming debate, making space for Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on the primetime stage. Fiorina had argued for weeks that CNN's debate criteria unfairly weighted early field leaders over those who have polled better since the last debate. According to CNN, any candidate who ranks in the top 10 between Aug. 6 and Sept. 10 will be included in the primetime debate on Sept. 16. NOTE: It has now been expanded to include the top 11! Will Rand Paul again be out of step and out of touch with how to deal with todays issues? Will Rubio, Kasich and Christie come up big? They should. Will Jeb Bush and Scott Walker appear to be on some kind of soporific drug? Will Donald Trump move beyond inflammatory rhetoric to real world, workable solutions? Can't Mike Huckabee go back to Fox News and have a bigger impact there? Will the hangers-on: Pataki, Graham, Jindal, et. al. decide to gracefully bow out now and throw their support to real contenders. We will see!
AS YOU HEAR CANDIDATES FOREIGN POLICY POSITIONS--CONSIDER BARACK OBAMA'S MANY MIDDLE-EAST MISTAKES!
Whoever inherits Obama's legacy will find large problems that will be more difficult than ever to correct because of mistaken policies and inept leadership by this flawed American president. His leadership—and ideology—are both deeply flawed.
FOR ANYONE WHO DOESN'T RECALL THIS: READ OUR 2012 BOOK:
HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY—Leadership Lessons from the Obama Presidency.
IT LAYS OUT CHAPTER AFTER CHAPTER OF BARACK OBAMA'S FLAWS AND MISTAKES--as accurate today as when it was written--just more examples could be cited. We didn't focus on ideology per se in the book, rather we cited leadership failures and lessons.
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NOTE: A LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT THE IRAN DEAL--IF ONLY IT IS USED AND ENFORCED
Both the "preface" and the "preamble and general provisions" state: "Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons."
HOW ABOUT THAT? Of course that presumes that Iran will honor the agreement, which is highly unlikely based on Iran's past behavior…BUT WHAT IF THAT OPENING CLAUSE WAS BROUGHT TO LIGHT AND HIGHLY PUBLICIZED--THEN ENFORCED?
MAYBE IF ENOUGH OF US SHARE THIS WITH ENOUGH OF OUR COUNTRY'S LEADERS IN GOVERNMENT, THEY MIGHT JUST TRY TO ENFORCE THOSE WORDS! PASS IT ON! PLEASE!
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THE AMERICAN ECONOMY IS NOT DOING GREAT--JUST BETTER THAN MOST OF THE REST OF THE WORLD!
The American economic recovery is still erratic, hindered by the oppressive policies of the Obama administration. Even when it tries to do the right things (create jobs) it does them wrong, because it simply does not understand how a highly functioning free enterprise system works best. (e.g., Do not discriminate against and punish wealth creators and take their hard earned gains to give to the inept, irresponsible and misguided parts of society.) Left to its own devices, even with an oppressive, anti-business executive branch, willing to do illegal things to get its way, American business' ingenuity and creativity, usually finds a way to win--but not always. Sometimes it must rely on the courts and legal system to stop the blatantly illegal actions. (By then, often times, the damage has been done!)
REDISCOVERING WHAT WAS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT MERGERS
They usually do not add shareholder value--they destroy it soon after the rationalization savings are realized. I helped a friend ghost write a couple of chapters for a book about 15 years ago. It was being ghost written for a very high end consultancy (psst: McKinsey!) In the study, the consultants had proven that over 90% of mergers, after about five years time, had actually reduced shareholder value--and after that, it got worse. Thus it's no surprise that GE has figured out that it must de-conglomeratize (Is that even a word?) to realize the best shareholder value.
COMPLEXITY DESTROYS FOCUS--AND SHAREHOLDER VALUE
Why? Because the complexity that I've written so much about, runs rampant when trying to be too many things to too many markets/customers. Focus is more effective if the businesses simplify down to what they are really good at doing. The same applies to the organization. It must be focused and develop skillets that are applicable to the core businesses--"you can't be good enough at doing everything." HP has finally learned the same lesson. So has News Corp. These are lessons learned once decades ago, and forgotten in the "urge to merge." Putting together the DNA of two different organisms is either difficult or impossible. Thus mergers that look good on paper due to "rationalization savings," quickly look bad when the resulting complex entity loses focus, loses contact with what's important to customers and then loses business and money. It happens over and over. Be forewarned.
CHINA IS SLOWING DRAMATICALLY HERE IS A RESPONSE I GAVE TO A QUERY FROM A COLLEAGUE ABOUT THIS TOPIC
I think the China growth slowdown matters more than this article concludes.
1) US & China have become interdependent economically--whether they like it or not. It isn't just US exports that matter in the China economic slowdown…it's US imports (China exports) to the US. China's growth slowdown will cause ripples in that area, and that will impact the USA.
2) Consumer confidence which drives about 70% of the US economy via consumer confidence is a fragile thing, and a drop in the US stock market makes Americans feel less wealthy…which adversely impacts their spending and plans to spend. (Americans will spend for Christmas, however, whether they have the money or not, to do so).
3) When the stock market falls, the valuation of assets--both personal and corporate--drops. This makes the already huge underfunded pension obligations even greater. Companies then must take charges to earnings to "top up" their pension funds. That is money they can't invest in growth producing efforts.
4) When China slows, demand for all kinds of commodities slow, and that ripple impacts many other countries and continents (e.g., Australia). Thus those other countries have less money to buy US goods and services.
Bottom line: The drop in the bucket…if it continues will eventually fill up and over flow the bucket…and this guy is underestimating the ripples when that overflow spreads around the globe. As the biggest global economy, the US impact will grow until everyone adjusts to a new, slower China (and Asian) growth)…
Of course the Chinese lie about their economic situation so broadly, that nobody really knows where it stands. It can only be judged by the fact that China is buying less commodities and using less electricity--and that means it is slowing quite rapidly--no matter what the government says.
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WHERE DO YOU GO TO CHECK OUT THE FACTS, WHEN THE FACTS ARE REPORTED BY DISHONEST SITES/PEOPLE?
This was suspected because of their past affiliations, but the Snopes.com site continued to report on the veracity of published information in such a way that made it seem legitimate. I guess it was not so legitimate after all!
LOS ANGELES, CA - Snopes.com owners Barbara and David Mikkelson were detained by police today after an unrelated investigation of a Snopes.com editor led police onto a paper trail of corruption, bribery and fraud at the very heart of the fact-checking organization.
Evidence obtained by police has revealed that Snopes.com, which markets itself as "the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation," has a history of accepting money and favors from left-leaning and pro-Islamic political groups and individuals for helping them to advance their cause by rigging public discourse with selective fact-finding and deliberate manipulation of public opinion.
Late Monday morning, Brian Williston, a Snopes.com editor, who also doubles as the accountant, found himself at a flea market on the outskirts of Los Angeles. As he was browsing the different tables and tents looking for antiques, an old mechanical piano began playing "Dixie's Land", a song that was adopted as a de facto anthem of the Confederacy during the American Civil War and is now considered 'offensive' by some due to its link to the iconography and ideology of the Old South.
The tune sparked an outrage in Williston, who began yelling and cursing those who "would like to bring back slavery and racial separation," and ordering the vendors to "turn off that racist music." When no one nearby claimed to know how to turn off the one-hundred-year-old machine, Williston became violent. He started grabbing various antique objects from the vendors' tables and throwing them at the antique piano in an attempt to silence the music.
A bystander, later identified as William Barksdale, working as a courier for the L.A. Messenger Service, attempted to calm Williston down, saying that "someone is just trying to see if that ANTIQUE piano still works" and "It's only a song! Don't shoot the pianist!" but that only prompted the infuriated editor to redirect his rage to the messenger. Williston, who is white, began to choke Barksdale, who is black, while screaming "Shut up! Shut up!" as the mechanical piano continued to play Dixie's Land in the background.
After some of the shoppers intervened and pried Williston's hands off the courier's throat, the Snopes.com editor fled the scene of the incident. LAPD quickly identified Williston by the personal check he left with one of the vendors, which contained his full name and address. While inside his home, Williston ignored commands to open the door, causing police to use forced entry in order to detain him.
The arresting officer caught Williston slipping some papers under a Persian rug which prompted the police to remove the rug and examine the documents underneath it. One of them turned out to be a handwritten ledger, containing names of well-known individuals and organizations who have been paying Snopes.com to debunk stories that cast them in a bad light, while validating damaging half-truths and rumors about their political opponents.
Having established their website as a 'reputable resource' for validating and debunking stories in American popular culture since 1995, the Mikkelson couple apparently soon found themselves in a position to influence public discourse by punishing or rewarding certain cultural and political biases, and to be paid handsomely for doing it. Before long they were accepting money to promote some rumors and downplay or completely ignore some others, which over the years have brought them millions of dollars, according to the source.
Especially scandalous may be the website's possible collaboration with left-leaning national media organizations, which started with payments to Snopes.com to overlook or validate their inaccurate and biased reporting, and eventually evolved into a full-scale coordinated effort with left-leaning groups and public relation firms to construct a media narrative that gave legitimacy to certain opinions, political causes and public figures, while discrediting other opinions, causes, and public figures.
The list of groups and individuals paying to use the website's clout ranged from local politicians to transnational entities to foreign governments, including Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the Palestinian Authority. None of the specifics or individual names are being revealed while the investigation is still ongoing, but a police source has indicated that "the shockwaves will rock the world of the media and the political establishment."
Several watchdog groups have already condemned Snopes.com as a corrupt organization with zero credibility and urged their readers to disregard any political debunking from this tainted source. But some media experts predict that, given the high-profile names involved, as well as the power and magnitude of the political opinion-generating machine of which Snopes.com was only a small wheel, the story may never be allowed to reach a full-blown scandal and will soon be discarded as an urban legend, joining a long line of other similar stories debunked by Snopes.com.
OK, THAT'S PLENTY FOR THIS WEEK… MORE TO COME AS WE WATCH THE ISSUES EVOLVE
BEST, JOHN
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