THE ANSWER TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE ASKED, OR WONDERED…
I plan to vote for anyone who opposes Hillary Clinton (which probably means Donald Trump), as long as that person is alive and has a pulse.
While Hillary may know plenty about how a president is supposed to operate and govern, there is much more to the decision than that.
Hillary is a proven liar, an un-indicted, multi-offense criminal a two-faced, incompetent leader, and a truly reprehensible person, who will stoop to anything to achieve her goals and further her ambitions.
That record simply “ disqualifies” her from being president in my book. If we had know what Barack Obama really was—if he hadn’t completely hidden everything about his background (and his wife’s, and if he had been prohibited from lying about everything he would do during his campaign)—he would never have become president.
It is entirely possible that the most important legacy Obama left was to show us that an unqualified impostor—a fabricated candidate—who appealed to the downtrodden, the naive and the socialists in America can actually get elected and serve as America’s president. The retrospective will chronicle the immense damage he has done to America, and for Hillary to follow him and his path, will simply further cripple the USA. This is one time, I am glad I’m old—and that reduces the time I will have to see my country, under Hillary, in terminal decline.
Those who question Donald Trump should pause to consider that their objections arise because this time, we know “too much” about the candidate’s past—and yet we know little or nothing about how he will lead American in the (remote) chance that he is elected. We only know the actions and rash statements he made during his candidacy thus far. Whether those are his true, and final positions remains to be seen.
I predict that should Trump actually be elected, the mantle of power and responsibility weighs do heavily on the person, that it changes them. It moderates their extremes. It rules their ambitions to accomplish their stated goal. For Obama it was “To fundamentally change the United States.” (We didn’t realize he meant for the worse.) Trump’s goal, “To make America great again,” holds so much more promise.
And that’s where I stand as of May 5, 2016. When circumstances change, my views (and Donald’s) may change.
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IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE DEPRESSED, YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP THIS: THE SCARY FACT ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS (FOR REPUBLICANS)
As Donald Trump becomes the assumptive nominee for Republicans in 2106, reality strikes—and reality “bites” too.
For Trump to have a chance at winning, he must do something few other candidates have done…turn the Electoral College map upside down. Read on….
Why the outcome of the 2016 election is already crystal clear by Paul Waldman
in The Week.com
The general election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump promises to be one of the weirdest, nastiest, and most fascinating cultural/political events of any of our lifetimes. So bear with me for a little while as I suck all the life out of it and explain why it's actually going to be pretty simple. The likely outcome, while not completely preordained, is already clear to see.
That's because of the strange and rather undemocratic feature of our presidential voting system known as the Electoral College. While an essay in favor of eliminating it will have to wait for another day, the key fact about the college is that it makes the race matter only in those states where both sides have some chance of winning, what we usually call the "battleground" states. There aren't very many of them, and even before the general election begins — i.e., even before Republicans nominate Donald Trump, perhaps the most unpopular major party nominee in history — the Democratic nominee has a serious advantage.
Let's take the last four elections, two won by Barack Obama and two won by George W. Bush, as our starting point. There were 17 states (plus D.C.) that Democrats won in all four of those elections: California, Oregon, and Washington in the West; Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan in the Midwest; and everything in the Northeast from Maryland on up, with the exception of New Hampshire. Just those states give the Democrats 242 of the 270 electoral votes they need to take the White House.
The Republicans, on the other hand, won 22 states in all four of those elections, covering parts of the Deep South, the Midwest, and the Mountain West, plus Alaska. But those states only add up to 180 electoral votes.
While there are a few states in those two groups where things might become competitive — Republicans will contest Wisconsin, and Democrats think they have a chance in Arizona, for instance — the truth is that even in this unusual election year, none of them are likely to flip. Donald Trump could strangle a puppy on live television and he would still win Idaho and Mississippi; Hillary Clinton could make Martin Shkreli her running mate and she'd still win California and Massachusetts. But if any of those states do change, it's likely to be in Clinton's direction, given Trump's unpopularity.
That Democratic advantage, 242-180 at the outset, may be the single most important pair of numbers to understand in determining the ultimate outcome of the race. What it means is that Donald Trump will have to not just do well in swing states, he'll have to sweep almost all of them in order to win.
Here's a revealing comparison. In 2004, George W. Bush beat John Kerry by 2.5 percentage points nationwide — close, but compared to the 2000 election, a relatively easy victory. In doing so, he took the swing states of Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. The only true swing state Kerry won was New Hampshire. Yet Bush won the Electoral College by a margin of only 35 electoral votes, 286-251.
Contrast that with 2012, when Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney by 4 percentage points — a little more comfortable than Bush's 2004 win, but not hugely different. On the state level, Obama bested Bush's 2004 results only by taking New Hampshire. Yet Obama's margin in the Electoral College was enormous: 332-206, or 126 votes.
If Hillary Clinton starts with those 242 electoral votes, she only needs 28 more to win. As it happens, Florida has 29 electoral votes, so she could win there, lose every other swing state, and still win. Or she could take Virginia (13 EVs) and North Carolina (15 EVs) and lose all the others. Or she could take Ohio (18), New Hampshire (4), and Iowa (6) and lose all the others. Or...well, you get the idea. There are a whole variety of ways Clinton could win, while Trump has to run the table.
That isn't to say that the national result doesn't matter; it's only been in the rarest of circumstances (like 2000) that the total vote and the electoral vote pointed in opposite directions. But by now few people are saying that Donald Trump has such fantastic appeal to working class white men that he can steal states in the Midwest, or tap some heretofore unnoticed vein of votes. And you can forget about the momentary disgruntlement from supporters of Bernie Sanders playing a major role; in November, Clinton will retain the votes of nearly all Democrats. Barack Obama got the votes of 92 percent of Democrats in 2012, and she'll be in the same neighborhood.
Will Donald Trump do as well among Republicans? He might, as they realize that the alternative is Clinton, so they might as well go with their party's nominee even if he wasn't their first choice. But Trump only needs to bleed a couple of points in his party for the election to fall well out of his reach.Looking at the election this way can make the daily back-and-forth of the campaign seem unimportant. But that's true only if you think that the final outcome is all that matters. It isn’t; the campaign is an opportunity for us to discuss all kinds of issues and get to know ourselves as a country better, even if we don't always like what we see.
This election will by turns be fascinating, outrageous, appalling, disgusting, disheartening, and perhaps even inspiring. But when it's all over, the chances that anyone will be saying the words "President Trump" are pretty low.
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IF YOU ARE NOW REALLY SAD OR DEPRESSED, HERE’S A SERIES OF STATEMENTS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU PICK YOURSELF UP AND GO ON.
THIS LIST REMINDS EVERYONE THAT ONLY YOU CAN CHOOSE HOW YOU FEEL
50 Happiness Quotes to
Change the Way You Think
WRITTEN by ANGEL CHERNOFF
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“People are just as happy as they make up their minds Toto be.” ―Abraham Lincoln
It usually isn’t what you have, where you are, or what you’ve
been through that makes you happy or unhappy, it’s how you
think about it all. It starts on the inside. You control your
thoughts. The only person who can hurt your happiness in
the long run is YOU.
Here are 50 thought-provoking quotes about happiness
that will help you think on the bright side.
1 It only takes one person to make you happy and change
your life: YOU.
2 Your life will improve only when you take small chances,
and the first and most difficult chance you can take is to
be honest with yourself.
3 Stop focusing on how stressed you are and remember how
blessed you are. It could be so much worse.
4 It is not what happens to you, but how you respond to what
happens to you. Count your blessings while others are
adding up their troubles.
5 Look for something positive about this moment. Even if
you have to look a little harder than usual, it still exists.
6 When you smile about the life you live, you end up living a
life worth smiling about.
7 Remember, social comparison is the thief of
happiness. You could spend a lifetime worrying about
what others have, but it wouldn’t get you anything.
8 Happiness comes more easily when you feel good about
yourself without feeling the need for anyone else’s
approval.
9 Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet
them again on your way back down.
10 Set an example. Treat everyone with kindness and
respect, even those who are rude to you – not because
they are nice, but because you are.
11 Kindness is not to be mistaken for weakness, nor
forgiveness for acceptance. It’s about knowing
resentment of any kind is not on the path to happiness.
12 Give as much as you can, but don’t allow yourself to be
used. Listen to others closely, but don’t lose your own
voice.
13 Say what you need to say. Speak your truth. There is
no greater sadness than holding on to the words you
never had the courage to speak.
14 You can’t change how people treat you or what they
say about you. All you can do is change how you react
and who you choose to be around.
15 Negative company will never give you a positive
life. Examine what you tolerate in the long-term.
16 What you allow is what will continue. It’s always better
to spend more time alone than allow negative people
and their opinions to derail you from your destiny.
17 When other people treat you poorly, walk away, smile
and keep being YOU. Don’t ever let someone else’s
bitterness change the person you are.
18 Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s
inability to see your worth. It’s their loss, not yours.
19 One of the most freeing things we learn in life is that we
don’t have to like everyone, everyone doesn’t have to
like us, and that’s OK.
20 When someone says, “You’ve changed,” it’s not always
a bad thing. Sometimes it just means you stopped
living your life their way.
21 Never be ashamed of how you feel. You have the right
to feel any emotion that comes to you, and to follow a
path that makes you happy.
22 The unhappiest people in this world are the people who
care the most about what everyone else thinks.
23 You can’t base your idea of success and happiness on
other people’s opinions and expectations.
24 Happiness and success is all about spending your life
in your own way. Be yourself. No one can ever tell you
you’re doing it wrong.
25 It’s always better to be at the bottom of the ladder you
want to climb than the top of the one you don’t.
26 Work to create a life that feels right to YOU, not one
that looks right to everyone else.
27 No amount of money will make you happy if you aren’t
happy with yourself.
28 Maybe the thing you’re scared of is exactly what you
should do. Sometimes life is about risking it all for a
dream no one can see but you.
29 You can’t always wait for the perfect
moment. Sometimes you must dare to do it because
life is too short to regret and wonder what could have
been.
30 The most reliable way to predict the future is to create
- Participate in life instead of just watching it pass you
by.
31 Nothing’s more fun than doing what people say you
can’t do.
32 Almost anything is possible if you’ve got enough time
and enough nerve.
33 Great challenges make life interesting; overcoming
them makes life meaningful. It’s how you deal with
failure that determines your happiness and success.
34 Let your mistakes be your motivation, not your
excuses. Decide right now that negative experiences
from your past won’t predict your future.
35 What is coming is better than what is gone. Don’t give
up hope. Good things often happen when you least
expect it.
36 If you take another step, and another, you will be
surprised to know how far you can go from the point
you thought was the end.
37 Nothing is more beautiful and powerful than a smile that
has struggled through the tears.
38 Any fool can be happy when times are good. It takes a
strong soul with real heart to develop smiles out of
situations that make us weep.
39 No matter how long it takes, it will get better. Tough
situations build strong people in the end.
40 As we grow older and wiser, we begin to realize what
we need and what we need to leave
behind. Sometimes walking away is a step forward.
41 At the end of the day, you can either focus on what’s
tearing you apart, or what’s holding you together.
42 One of the most rewarding moments in life is when you
finally find the courage to let go of what you can’t
change.
43 Whatever you do, don’t get stuck on the one thing that
ruins your day. Smile and be grateful. Life is too short
to waste on negativity.
44 The less you expect, the more pleasant life gets.
45 Patience can be bitter, but the seeds you plant now will
bear sweet fruit.
46 Live simply. Love generously. Speak
truthfully. Breathe deeply. Do your best. Leave
everything else to the powers above you.
47 Do not dwell so much on creating your perfect life that
you forget to live.
48 The trick is to enjoy your life today. Don’t wish it away
by waiting for better days ahead.
49 Pay attention to the little things, because when you
really miss “the good old days,” you miss the little things
the most, like just laughing with someone special.
50 Go for long walks. Indulge in great conversations. Pay
attention to the moment. Count your blessings. Let go
for a little while and just be and breathe.
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THERE IS STILL A SEMI-ROBUST US ECONOMY TO CONSIDER…ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT SO HOT EITHER.
Watch out for a Stock Market correction before the Nov. elections.
Wage growth is anemic. Jobs have been up, but are showing signs of plateauing. Even thought the ISM index is in positive territory (50+), productivity growth has slowed, stopped and gone negative for two months. That means unless this trend reverses—and fast—total economic growth is likely to also slow, maybe stop or even turn negative. Growth in the US GDP has only been 1.5-2% for as Obama has been in office. Growth has been stifled by rampant uncertainty—“what will they do next to hinder businesses?” Regulations have made government—which creates ZERO WEALTH, the dominant force in the economy, and government keeps crowding out private capital investment with unreal-low interest rates. (NOTE: If Hillary is elected, she plans to raise taxes, and especially increase the capital gains tax. Every time it goes up investment and growth goes down—and vice versa.)
The impact of Obamacare is now beginning to show. United Health Care, the nations largest, has opted out. Others will follow. Why? Too many older, sicker participants, and too few, younger, healthier ones to subsidize them. The waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid are now at least 10% of what is spent ($60B out of $600B) and that is just based on what we know about. (NOTE: To show the stupidity of the government bureaucrats, when they find this waste and fraud, guess what they do about it—nothing. Just like the new VA leader was enabled to fire VA employees who were perpetuating the fraudulent lack of care and waste of money. Guess how many got fired, and how many of those were in the top tier? None!
When there are no consequences, and nothing different changes, then none of the outcomes/results change.
In what private business do you see this behavior: There is a new need for funding. But the budgets are already made and all the revenue is used up (not spent—just allocated). What do you do? Obviously, you go after the least critical, most discretionary spending AND slash it—to fund the new needs. Not in our government. There is never a thought given to cutting spending in one place to use the money elsewhere for a greater need. Just spend more and borrow more, and run a larger deficit. It’s not “real money” if nobody ever intends to repay it. And who can imagine how much a TRILLION DOLLARS is, anyway?
FROM THE NEWS JUST LATELY:
- CHIPOTLE POSTS QUARTERLY LOSS AFTER FOOD SCARES
- PROCTER & GAMBLE 3Q RESULTS MIXED, SALES DECLINE
- BP SEE EARNINGS SLIDE AS LOW OIL PRICES TAKE THEIR TOLL
- SHELL 1Q EARNINGS DOWN 58%
- TESAL 1Q NET LOSS WIDENS ON MODEL X WOES
- WHOLE FOODS SEES SALES DECLINE
- APPLE MISSES QUARTER FOR FIRST TIME
- NORFOLK SOUTHERN: CURRENT QUARTER LOOKS TOUGH
- 3M PREDICTS CONTINUED WEAK DEMAND
- US GDP GROWS ONLY 0.5%
- US CORPORATE PROFITS ARE SET TO DECLINE FOR 3RD STRAIGHT QUARTER—WORST SINCE CRISIS
- US ECONOMY’S WORST PERFORMANCE IN TWO YEARS.
ARE THERE ANY BRIGHT SPOTS? ONLY A FEW:
- MANUFACTURING TICKED UP SLIGHTLY, BUT BUSINESS SPENDING FELL
- EBAY AND AT&T BEAT WALL STREET EXPECTATIONS.
HAD ENOUGH???
WHAT TO DO???
THAT TAKES LEADERSHIP, WISDOM, EXPERIENCE, SKILLS AND TALENT.
NOWHERE DOES THE NAME OBAMA OR HILLARY COME TO MY LIPS.
DOES DONALD TRUMP? WHO KNOWS? MAYBE! (ESPECIALLY IF HE SURROUNDS HIMSELF WITH ENOUGH TALENT—AND THEN LISTENS TO THEM?)
BUSINESS BOOKS HAVE BEEN A RICH SOURCE OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IDEAS SINCE “IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE” BY Tom Peters and Bob Waterman came out 35 years ago.
BUSINESS BOOKS ARE STILL USEFUL…BUT THEIR RICHNESS OF IDEAS IS WANING…SO READERS—PROCEED WITH CAUTION
THIS WAS PART OF A REPLY TO A CORRESPONDENT WHO IS ALWAYS ASKING ME FOR THINGS TO READ/STUDY
NOTE: I have found very few books in the past decade that cover anything really very new or different—just different approaches—but since all of those are context/situation sensitive, how can anyone generalize on what will work in “your” context or situation? (HINT: They can’t.)
The two most profound books on the list were written over half a century ago: Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and Peter Drucker’s The Practice of Management. Many of these books were written 15-30 years ago, and much of the successive business book “crop" was derived from these “timeless" books.
The speed and reach of the Internet and global communications/technology might alter how things or done, or make things possible that were not possible just a few years ago. The basic laws of science and the universe are pretty much the same as they were decades ago. So it is in business, with human nature, and life. The core principles of what it takes to be successful in business change very little. How to do what it takes changes a lot, and society, governments, technology, etc. change constantly. What is easier than How—but both are essential. Strategies that cannot be implemented (executed) are useless. Strategies, which are implemented superbly, but do not “win” (e.g., get the business satisfy/delight the customer, etc.) are worse than useless.
The largest failing of today’s managers, executive and leaders is a lack of integrity, discipline, accountability, and basic common sense. The same goes for leaders of countries—and we have a prime example occupying the White House right now. The books are not all “Business” because many important things in business have little to do with what the business/job is. They have to do with the character, skills and understanding of the people who aspire to “run things.”
Here’s the last list. After you read and digest all of these, there will be very few business situations you cannot manage. It does, however, take application of original thought and hard work too. There are only two steps to solving any problem: 1) Understand and define the problem, 2) Solve the problem. (Not in the reverse order.) Let me know how you do after you’ve read these. Perhaps by then my memoirs (The Legacy—A Life-time of Learning) will be done and you can buy it to read.
GOOD LUCK.
JOHN
Top 25 Books for Leaders/Managers (in no specific order)
- Al Ries & Jack Trout, Positioning—The Battle for your Mind
- Angel Customers and Demon Customers, Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin
- Bob Lutz, The Car Guys vs. The Bean Counters
- Clayton Christensen, The Innovators Dilemma
- Daniel Pink, Drive
- Gary Hamel & C. K. Prahalad, Competing for the Future
- George Stalk, Jr. & Thomas Hout, Competing Against Time,
- Jim Collins, Good To Great
- Joe Pine, Mass Customization
- *John Mariotti The Power of Partnerships
- John Mariotti, The Complexity Crisis
- John Mariotti, The Shape Shifters—Continuous Change for Competitive Advantage
- *Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson. The One-Minute Manager
- *Mathew Kelly, The Rhythm Of Life
- Max Dupree: Leadership is an Art
- Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital
- Peter F. Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21stCentury
- Peter F. Drucker, The Practice of Management
- Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline
- Ram Charan & Larry Bossidy, Execution
- Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion
- *Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Theodore Levitt, The Marketing Imagination
The Goal, Eli Goldratt
- Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos
- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Note: Does not include books on specialties such as manufacturing, marketing, supply chain, human resources, accounting IT, etc.
John L. Mariotti, April 2016
YES—THERE IS HOPE. HOW TO TURN AMERICA AROUND IS NOT AS SIMPLY AS TRUMP’S STUMP SPEECHES SOUNDED, BUT THERE ARE BITS OF WISDOM IN THEM
Negotiate better, harder, smarter, and for America First.
Insist on others paying their share for America’s protection, support, etc.
Resist (but not just with tariffs or walls) illegal trade actions and illegal immigration behaviors
Quit investing in Nation Building abroad and INVEST IN AMERICA—
Modernize America’s military—fewer big, slow weapons, more fast, nimble, smart weapons—and more soldiers and fewer Pentagon desk jockeys
Slam the door in probably suspect immigrants and keep the ones who are valuable here after college.
BUT FIRST— Blow away the past 10 years worth of regulations that stifle and burden competitive businesses.
Just wipe them off the books. Replace the few that were really necessary, later. Reverse Obama’s executive orders.
Get the economy growing at about 4%, to create jobs. Rebuild American infrastructure and military—and update it’s nuclear arsenal and defensive systems.
THEN: Eliminate about 1/3 of the Cabinet level secretaries and their departments. Farm out the necessary part of other departments and cut total staff by…say…25%
Close the unneeded US military bases—and don’t let pork-barrel politics in Congress stop it AGAIN!
The jobs that left are never coming back. Those were yesteryear’s jobs. Target industries and locales where jobs can be created. Recruit, train, and relocate people to fill those jobs—and take work back from Asia and Latin America.
FINALLY: QUIT LEGISLATING ABOUT WHO GOES TO WHAT BATHROOM…GO WHERE YOU LOOK LIKE YOU BELONG.
(Maybe LGBT should stand for Let’s Go to Bathrooms Together.)
START LEGISLATING ABOUT HOW TO REBUILD AMERICAN MIGHT, GROWTH, FREEDOM, JOBS AND INDUSTRIES.
OK…I’m done for today.
More later when my blood pressure medicine wears off.
JOHN
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Please DO NOT use older [email protected] and [email protected] addresses—even if you get an email from one of them. They have been UNRELIABLE, and sometimes work and at other times do not!
See my prior commentary at http://www.brennerbrief.com/author/johnmariotti/ and my latest commentary at
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