(originally published January 21, 2017 after Trump inauguration & updated given consistent Trump ‘join or else’ messaging)

———————

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

―

Anne Bradstreet

==============

……… tweet from Republican National Party on June 14, 2018 ………….

Join or Else. If there is one common theme Trump and his merry band of corrupt amoral yahoos have espoused, this is it. Yeah. They may cloak it in some vapid superficial niceties, but, in the end,  it “Join or Else.

That said. (stepping back to my words of January 2017)

———————————-

Well.

Yesterday was an interestingly disturbing day to begin “the new era of The United States of America.”

I listened to the Trump inauguration speech with growing horror. It had all the trappings of authoritarianism wrapped snugly in a blanket of patriotism & promises of wealth, security, strength and ‘greatness.’

I listened to it not just as a citizen but as a business guy.

Yeah. Populism can be seen in business just as it can be seen in politics. In business it can be called ‘the cult mentality’ and more often than not its leader is a ‘less-than-benevolent’ dictator. Let’s call it a ‘join, or else’ culture. You can drive membership in this culture a couple of ways … both grounded in fear.

Fear of losing <part 1>. Outsiders are trying to steal what is ours … people who don’t believe in what we believe in are trying to steal what is ours … join us because we are the people who count and matter.

I do not want to lose what is rightfully mine.

Fear of losing <part 2>. I am on the outside looking in and … well … holy shit … if I don’t join I am gonna lose everything <or be branded as a non joiner>.

I will join because if I don’t I am up shit creek without a paddle and lose what I have.

Businesses try this shit all the time. It is their way of building a strong culture, claiming it is inclusive, albeit inclusive is grounded by ‘a tight set of club rules.’ They will argue it is not a tight set but rather a basic construct which binds people in a good way … you call it tomato and I call it rotten. This Trump version of populism is, well, it goes beyond corporate cult culture. This version is close to being batshit crazy dangerous thought leadership.

Let’s look at the brochure and talk a minute with the Trump Club recruiter.

The cover of the brochure suggests an unstoppable America, driven solely by self-interest, in other words, our Club wins at all costs at the expense of anyone who stands in our way! <“if you want to win, join us” it says …>.

It further reads with threatening all those who might stand in the way of this Club and it’s winning/great objective. It contains an adamant stance of ‘no real choice’, i.e., a demanded unity not an asked for unity.

Yeah.

Some of the club benefits look awful good in the brochure … more & better jobs, stronger economy, stronger security, less business regulations and country pride. And then I turn over the brochure just to check out the legalese, the cost of the benefits as it were, to explore how the promises of the Club will be delivered.

The headline on the back of the brochure really wanted me to join this club … the message of “join today because today is the day the people become the rulers of this country.” I vaguely remember that being the call of the French Revolution but it sounds cool <although I could swear we, the people, have been voting in people as representatives for awhile>.

But. Whew. It sounds good. I like it.

It feels empowering and inspirational with the added comfort that I will no longer be one of “the forgotten people which will be forgotten no longer.” I know for sure that would like to not be forgotten and being part of a club would be nice and … well … gosh … uhm … now that I think about it … I didn’t know I had been forgotten.

• The recruiter leans forward and says “of course you were, the intellectual globalist elite in Washington and around the world have been keeping you down … they don’t care about you … they have forgotten that it was you that made them part of the wealthy elite.”

Ok. But didn’t your Club President build his wealth off the backs of ‘forgotten people’ and … well … it seems like they aren’t any better off but he is a shitload better off, doesn’t it?

• Oh … no, no, no … he appreciates everything they have done for him. Hey. And don’t you want to be wealthy too?

I look down at the brochure and I see the bolded ‘make wealthy’ words and have to ask the club recruiter, decked out in an ‘America first’ hat and neatly pressed ‘make America great’ uniform like shirt, I ask the recruiter … “this becoming wealthy thing … its sounds an awful lot like Amway.”

• Oh, no, it is nothing like that at all. Our Club will make everything great for everyone and you will have great opportunities to get the wealth you have always deserved, but haven’t got, because the lazy, less than hard working elite will not get it anymore … we will make sure you get your fair share. Hey. Look at this picture of the Club President in his office … check out the gold curtains … the gold rug and the gold fixtures … that is wealth. That is what you can be part of!

Oh.

• And, look, if you join today you get a hat <which you should wear as often as possible so that we can tell who is in the club and who isn’t>.

And, even better, we should have some additional pieces of apparel you can wear soon. In fact … we will have special uniforms & badges for the original club members to showcase their elite status in the club … everyone will want to wear them.

Ok. One last question … your club is “God’s chosen.” I didn’t know God chose … I thought he was all about equal among all men. Does this mean that other clubs don’t believe in God or does God just favor us? And does this mean I have to believe in your version of God and … well … what exactly is your version of God?

• “Oh.

Well.

We are a Christian based club … but of course we accept anyone. But don’t forget … Christianity, above all, outlines all the values which lead to a better version of yourself … and, well, that is what we want all Club members to be able to achieve. Everyone should have values, don’t you think?”

Whew. This is fucking crazy shit going on

To be clear. A shitload of the club leaders and followers are going to try and draw some false comparisons and equivalents to past American heroes.

To be clear. This is significantly different than Thomas Jefferson’s plea for unity in his inaugural address in 1800 — “every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.”

The Trump club has one principle and one opinion.

There is no room for anything else. More important than color of skin, religion, gender … this may actually be my root concern with ‘the club’.

The main principle?

Believe what I believe … or you are not a true believer.

That kind of seems to be the club. Kind of an “us versus them” attitude … uhm … although us <being a US citizen> is actually also them <being US citizens>.

• “Oh no … no … why wouldn’t you believe in the United States of America if you lived in there? … everyone believes that. And if they don’t? … well … they should.”

Anyway. Oh. One last question. I didn’t hear it anywhere from the Club President or see it in the brochure … do you guys have a constitution?

• Oh, we don’t need one. We just demand a ‘total allegiance to the Club’ … oh … which believes the same things as the country wants … so you should be all for it.”

(ME) Gosh. I am not sure I can join this club … I already have a constitution I live by … and my allegiance is, first & foremost, to that and not some Club and how they think. <period … end of statement>

Look. The one thing Trump was 100% right on is that January 20, 2017 was the dawn of a new era.

“Now comes the hour of action.”

That was the call for the Trump Club. “Join or else” is what should be heard.

Just to be clear.

I am a believer in God <however you want to define it>.

I am a patriot <however you want to define it>.

I am a proud American <however you want to define it>.

But I am not joining the club called “Trump America.”

In fact … I say ‘fuck you and your fucking club.’

As for what I will do? …………….

===============

“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion.  Let us see who is the strongest.”

Henry David Thoreau

================================

————————-

“I don’t believe there’s any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can’t completely ignore.”

―

George Carlin

——-

Americans have a way of doing things ‘big.’ We are vocal and loud-ish and unequivocally … well … American.

While it seems like we do it that way every day the 4^th of July is most likely the most vivid demonstration of American loud-ism.

Now. Before I traveled the world I was convinced every country had an Independence Day they celebrated with the same gusto <if not fierceness> as America does. At some point i realized this isn’t the norm everywhere.  That isn’t to say that most countries don’t celebrate <or at least acknowledge> their independence day <a place like Finland

celebrates its independence from Russia> it’s just that no one seems to do it as bombastically as we Americans.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with bombastic patriotism.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with bombastically celebrating independence.

Why?

Independence is a bombastic ideal. One that SHOULD be celebrated loudly, bombastically & vigorously even if the Ideal doesn’t live up to their expectations when faced with reality.

Ideals are ideas.

Ideals are hope.

Ideals are a vision.

Ideals are, well, frustrating on occasion.

If you have ever personally sought the ‘ideal weight’ <not to diminish freedom & independence … just to personalize the discussion> you know progress never comes as fast as you desire, you make mistakes, you have setbacks, you have successes, and the moment you take your eye off the ‘ideal’ you lose progress if not slip backwards a little. Suffice it to say, living with an ideal in mind is difficult. Hopeful but difficult.

Using my metaphor, think of it as 330 million people stepping onto 330 million different scales 365 days of the year, every day evaluating their ideal weight against the ideal weight the country bears.

Sound like its impossible to meet the ideal? Yup. And that is independence. That is the ideal we measure ourselves and our country against.

The bar is high.  But Americans aim high.

Suffice it to say I am grateful for the country I grew up in and the freedoms we have in America that we often take for granted.

Now. I certainly do not subscribe to the theory of blind patriotism some people suggest follow along with holidays like the Fourth. I do not because I believe it is on days like this we are reminded of the work in progress ideal we strive for and our founders strove for.  It is on days like this, while we bombastically celebrate, we are also reminded, sometimes painfully, of the work in progress aspects. We will sit around our barbeques and bitch & moan and picks at the scabs of a wounded Ideal but at the same time we should also be reminded of independence and everything good that comes along with it.

In thinking about it, and the value it has to our souls and hearts (and the fact we know we have flaws and are still, sometimes sluggishly, working towards that ideal) it is natural to become self-conscious in our Americanism.

———

“It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self- conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations are in a conspiracy to under-value them.”

Henry James

———–

I have seen someone call this self consciousness — self pity. I don’t. I would argue until my last breath it has nothing to do with pity or any ‘woe is me’ attitude.

I would say it has something to do with that ‘high bar’ I stated earlier.

I would say that having earned independence we have assumed a responsibility to an ideal. It is an ideal most likely truly unattainable <as most ideals are> and, as Americans who like to complete, do and succeed, we are self-conscious about the fact we are still working our way toward that ideal.

That said.

We bombastically celebrate the ideal.

And you know what? That is a big deal.

Many people in other countries do not seem to understand patriotism the way Americans celebrate the 4th.  They see it as our typical over the top celebration of pride.

Yes.

We have parades to celebrate America and being American.

Yes.

We have spectacular firework extravaganzas that everyone goes to.

Yes.

We have massive parties that entire towns attend.

Yes.

Sometimes we go a little wacko with the red, white & blue.

But it’s because we look at America differently than others may look at their own countries.

I am not suggesting it better or worse – just different.

Different in that we vigorously celebrate our ideal maybe, just maybe, to convince ourselves of the Ideal.

Convince? Well. Unlike some other countries who feel like they embody their ‘ideal’ — we do … and we don’t. We know we have an ideal. We know we have not reached the ideal state. We know we worry we may never attain that Ideal.

So, maybe, on the 4^th, oddly, we are celebrating our flaws.

I wish we Americans would say that more often.  Celebrate our flaws. Because in doing so we admit we are celebrating the reach … the aiming high … the place of hope.

Anyway.

Set aside the celebration aspect <which is certainly an American trait>. The 4^th is and is not about pride. If it were solely about pride many would hesitate because we are flawed. But to think the USA has more dirty laundry than other countries is … frankly … is silly <and slightly absurd> and no excuse for not being proud to be an American. We should be proud America holds an ideal out for everyone … just beyond their grasp … and says ‘go get it.’

4th of July is fun.

You should sit around with your family. Millions of beer drinking guys stand and grill the shit out of everything and anything they can get your hands on. Other millions go out and spend an hour blowing things up.

On this day maybe 325 million people <I will allow 5 million curmudgeonly unhappy tools to sit around and gripe about how bad things are and how flawed our country is> set differences aside and have some fun — fun with an ideal in mind.

——-

“Americans… are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier.”

Kurt Vonnegut

——–

What I love about America is the searching.

On the 4^th we celebrate the search. We celebrate the hope. We celebrate the ideal. On the other 364 days we grind it out working toward the ideal in fits & starts, and hugs & pushing, and tears & laughter, and anger & joy, and disappointment & triumph … and failure & success.

Every one of these 364 days we grind thru what is, flaws included, all the while envisioning what could be. And maybe that is why Americans are so damn obnoxious in their 4^th of July celebration.  We are celebrating what could be. A better America.

Well.

I would suggest the attempt to being better than what you are today is worthy of a celebration.

Happy 4^th of July.

=============

“The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal.”

―

John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

==============

“Dr. Watson’s summary list of Sherlock Holmes’s strengths and weaknesses:

Knowledge of Literature: Nil.

Knowledge of Philosophy: Nil.

Knowledge of Astronomy: Nil.

Knowledge of Politics: Feeble.

Knowledge of Botany: Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.

Knowledge of Geology: Practical but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.

Knowledge of Chemistry: Profound.

Knowledge of Anatomy: Accurate but unsystematic.

Knowledge of Sensational Literature: Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.

Plays the violin well.

Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.

Has a good practical knowledge of British law.”

―

Arthur Conan Doyle <A Study in Scarlet>

==================

So.

I am not sure if it is that I am of an age where my experiences have become varied enough that I chafe on being slotted in some form of ‘what you do’ or if I am of an age where many of the people I know get frustrated that they are demanded to define themselves, careerwise, in some simplistic way.

All that said.

I found myself in an odd alternative universe writing a core “here is why I have created this site and initiative” for someone I respect … and it was written for him but easily expressed my own situation.

After I sent him what I had scribbled I went back and I replaced his field with mine and … well … I found I was writing about my frustrations were which his … as well as a number of people I know:

====================

This site is borne of my frustration with explaining I am more than an advertising guy.

This site is borne of a belief that there is a community of advertising guys/gals who not only know they are more than advertising people but they also know they would like to use the skills they have in a business world which they see as needing what they have to offer.

This site is borne of what I know to be true – many of us are not simply advertising people, we are tinkers, tailors, soldiers & spies … all in one.

For some of us it gets frustrating to explain just because I have my MBA and am an experienced advertising guy that I am more than just that.

I get frustrated when my degree defines me.

I get frustrated when my industry experience label defines what my skills are.

I get frustrated that what I do, or have tangibly done, defines what I am capable of.

I get frustrated because I know how to ask the hard questions which often offer the hardest answers – the right things to do <which I believe businesses are desperate for this skill>.

I get frustrated because I know that “the truth is” is rarely the truth and I know that truths are often misty and multiple, like ghosts.

I get frustrated because I know all that I just wrote is a reflection of a thinking skill, a problem solving skill, a business skill and not just an advertising skill.

I get frustrated because I am more than an advertising guy and I know many people are frustrated by being slotted so simplistically.

To me, the world is too quick to define people and their skills in a simplistic way — simplistically by what they do <on the surface> and what specific skills they have acquired. People are often more complex than the labels they carry along with them and skills are often more translatable, with surprisingly positive outcomes, than many people are willing to think about.

It is our own fault because we have bludgeoned it into everyone’s head that everyone has to be a specialist or have some specific skill and, therefore, if you cannot simply define your specialty or skill you are … well … of less worth than someone who can.

That is, frankly, silly if not ludicrous.

Here is what I know.

I am more than an advertising guy. I am a tinker, tailor soldier and spy.

And I am building a community of likeminded people with a desire to go beyond simply being defined by the degree they earned and what labels people put on them to reach out into a business world, which may not know they need our skills at the moment, and show them there is a group of overlooked people who have skills to offer which businesses can benefit from.

============

tin·ker

ˈtiNGkər/

noun: tinker; plural noun: tinkers

    1.

    (especially in former times) a person who travels from place to place mending metal utensils as a way of making a living.

        a person who makes minor mechanical repairs, especially on a variety of appliances and apparatuses, usually for a living.

2.

    an act of attempting to repair something.

tai·lor

ˈtālər/

noun: tailor; plural noun: tailors

    1.

    a person whose occupation is making fitted clothes such as suits, pants, and jackets to fit individual customers.

Soldier

Noun

A soldier is one who fights as part of an organised, land based, sea based and air based armed force.

spy

spī/

noun: spy; plural noun: spies

    1.

    a person who secretly collects and reports information on the activities, movements, and plans of an enemy or competitor.

=============

Sigh.

I am fairly sure I am not in the majority in that the bulk of the world tends to acquire specific skills but I do believe the majority of generalists get unfairly squeezed into some incredibly uncomfortable boxes simply because the world just doesn’t seem to believe a generalist has the same value as a specialist.

It is frustrating.

To be clear … a qualified generalist doesn’t claim to be able to do everything.

I am not qualified to be a CFO <although I understand what CFOs do and what they say>.

I am not qualified to be some social media strategist <although I understand what they do and what they say>.

I am not qualified to … well … you get the point.

But from a generalist perspective I am qualified to talk about effective marketing, advertising and communications in any industry <even if I have never worked specifically in that industry>.

But from a generalist perspective I am qualified to talk about effective company vision, objectives, strategies and how to grow sales & retention in any industry <even if I have never worked specifically in that industry>.

But from a generalist perspective I am qualified to talk about positioning products & services, behavioral economics, the emotional & functional reasons people do things as well as using those things in making the hard business decisions which guide businesses toward success in any industry <even if I have never worked specifically in that industry>.

But from a generalist perspective I am qualified to dabble in almost any topic in any industry on any issue and use that ‘dabbling’ to make some relevant points based on some seemingly disparate type knowledge.

===============

“You know about fixing cars, you’re athletic, and you know when to shut up.”

“That last one isn’t a skill.”

“Honey, trust me. It’s a skill.” 

―

Simone Elkeles

============

Anyway.

Tinker tailor soldier spy.

I like that title.

A little bit of this in a lot of ‘that.’

I am tinker, tailor, soldier & spy.

I have made the case a number of times why healthcare for everyone benefits America from a productivity standpoint. Today I will try to make a case for healthcare for all by pointing out an underlying real issue which creates some disillusionment <which obviously drove some of the Trump support during the election> in middle America.

We often discuss inequality in terms of economics & opportunity … but how about something which cuts to the core being of everyone – life expectancy inequality.

I came across a map created in May of this year showing life expectancy by county.

Well.

Yikes.

Okay.

Double yikes.

The average life expectancy … yes … average … in individual counties can vary by up to 20 … yes … 20 … years.

Yes.

If you live in certain counties the average life expectancy is around 87 years <remember … this is average for an entire county> and in other counties the average life expectancy is around 67 years.

Holy shit.

Average.

20 years difference.

And I am not smart enough to do the cross tab <or invest the energy> but if you look at the life expectancy map and you were to overlay the Trump voter support I would bet <and I am not a betting man> that the counties which have the 20 years less life expectancy … shit … the counties with lower standard deviation life expectancies in general … went overwhelmingly for the Trumpster.

So for all the intellectuals, faux & real, who suggest many of the Trump voters are ignorant, misguided and stupid … you may want to shut up and think about this for a second.

These people have a legitimate gripe.

Yeah.

Life expectancy is pretty legitimate.

I mean if my local community is dying off around me and I look around at other communities who seem not only getting better breaks but are actually living longer … well … I am gonna start thinking I am being overlooked and underappreciated.

………… Life expectancy standard deviation …………….

Combine that with the fact the gap between longer life expectancy counties and lower life expectancy counties is actually growing and, well, I am gonna start truly believing that the elites & establishment do not really care.

“There’s no sign of the gap closing. In fact, it appears to be widening. Between 1980 and 2014, the gap between the highest and lowest life spans increased by about two years.

 

“With every passing year, inequality — however you measure it — has been widening over the last 34 years. And so next year, we can reliably expect it’ll be even more than 20.”

 

“That is probably the most alarming part of the analysis.”

 

———–

Christopher Murray:  Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

So.

Having attended this rodeo before, I know I can count on getting a number of intellectual sounding emails pointing out the inevitable flaws in my thinking and conclusions. My suggestion to those people is please hit ‘unsend’ and get off your intellectual high horse and think about this.

Flawed logic or not … if I am in a county dying off at early ages I am more likely to be thinking I live in India and not in America. And if I even perceive that, if I even have a sense of that, I am gonna start wishing for what I thought America was again.

Parse out the flawed aspects behind my ‘America was again’ thought if you want but on the surface this is a no brainer thought. Dying can make you wish for a shitload of things that intellectually can seem less than logical but are actually well intended thoughts – because, uhm, this pertains to life & death.

All of this permits me to circle back to healthcare.

Maybe print out the map of life expectancy and put it beside your computer while you read this part.

We talk about putting healthcare in the hands of people.

We talk about subsidies for health insurance companies.

We talk about inordinate bureaucracy for … well … physicians, hospitals and patients.

We talk about high premiums, high deductibles and high falutin’ reasons why healthcare works and doesn’t work.

It’s all talk.

And it’s all bullshit.

Important bullshit in terms of actually getting something done but unimportant bullshit in terms of we are not getting something done.

Just because someone lives somewhere doesn’t mean they should have a lower life expectancy than someone who lives somewhere else … at least if they live in America <other countries deal with their own problems>.

Is health insurance the only reason for this?

Of course not <so keep your snarky emails to yourself>.

But health is certainly a reason for this.

At the core of life expectancy is … well … health. And I don’t really care how much you earn, what kind of education you have had, what kind of job you have, or do not have, but it seems like if you live in county X you should be offered equal health opportunities to those received in county Y.

There is more than enough inequality haunting the United States these days without having health services & insurance inequality.

There is more than enough inequality haunting the United State these days without having life expectancy inequality.

——————–

“I wish I had the courage not to fight and doubt everything… I wish, just once, I could say, ‘This. This is good enough. Just because I choose it.”

―

Chuck Palahniuk

===============

So.

Let me very clear upfront … while this piece will be on Russian involvement in the 2016 USA presidential election I am not discussing, nor suggesting, collusion or coordination of efforts between anything I will outline and the Trump campaign. The analysis of that will be done by greater minds than mine.

This piece is about what Russia did and the effect on the 2016 election. Let’s call this an analysis of the Russian marketing campaign to support Donald J Trump.

I have the fortune to exchange ideas, on occasion, with some highly qualified experts and several foreign policy thought leaders and all of them continuously grapple not with what Russia did but more so with how to talk about it. Which leads me to the horrible position that I find myself in <and I imagine any professional communications person with any significant experience is in>.

We know that Russia most likely influenced enough voters to have elected Donald J Trump.

There. I said it. The one sentence which seems to be on the lips of almost any credible thinking individual but never seems to be spoken. This has nothing to do whether I believe he is qualified or not … this is just a conclusion that anyone who knows shit about marketing & advertising has arrived at if they look at the campaign.

<note: this is easily provable … hire MillwardBrown, pay them $100k, give them all the voting information and attitude poll information and they could do a county comparison … they do this for marketing & advertising campaigns all the time to measure effectiveness>

Anyway. It took me a while to get there because the overarching narrative ‘cover’ for the election is, and always has been, “Russia never changed a vote or made someone do anything.” While every reasonable marketing person would debate the seeming lack of understanding in the concept of ‘ability to affect behavior through marketing’, it was easier for people to generally focus on the truth Russia never got into actual voting machines and changed votes.

This means it just took me a lot longer to get to the truth that many of my peers had already arrived at.

…. I did not want to know this ………..

Whew.

The truth. Russia changed votes and voting behavior.

What knowledge to have. What a wretched position to be in … to be a professional communications person and a believer in America democracy … that is the horrible position many of us find ourselves in.

Why?

Well. The majority of us know, if we view it through a professional lens, that the Russians communications <propaganda> effort most likely put Donald J Trump into the presidency … and we don’t know what to do and say about it.

Why?

Think about the outcome of this presentation. The main one would be that many people would believe Donald J was not a legitimate president or legitimately elected. And that would be … well … horrible. Horrible for the country, horrible for democracy and … well … just horrible. I, personally, feel a little less horrible because I still believe … 100% believe … and have written extensively that if the Clinton campaign had done a couple of things and maybe thought thru a couple of things they would have won.

All that said.

I could open this presentation by suggesting the Clinton campaign ran a slightly-less-than-effective-as-it-could-have marketing campaign but I could also showcase how the Trump campaign, in and of itself, did not do enough to win.

——- Clint Watts analysis of Russia Social Media Plan ——-

I would then have to point out that an overlaid Russian marketing campaign <which diminished Clinton to suppress behavior in her favor> made the difference at the finish line. As noted earlier, someone like MillwardBrown could prove/disprove this in ‘two notes or less.’

Anyway … before anyone argues with that premise please remember that with 136 million votes cast, Trump’s victory came down to a razor-thin edge of only 77,744 votes across three states: Pennsylvania (44,292 votes), Wisconsin (22,748 votes), and Michigan (10,704 votes) – all less than .7% difference between the two candidates … a less than full Michigan stadium … and, if reversed, Clinton would be our president.

The 2016 election result is really all about the fact that there was just enough movement in just the right places, with just enough increased turnout from just the right groups, to get Trump the electoral votes he needed to win.

Regardless. While I know from career experience advertising affects attitudes & behavior the rest, block by block, of the truth fell into place. But what make this conclusion truly horrible is … well … what do you do with that knowledge? It does no good to suggest the current president is illegitimate. None. Zero.

Look.

I am not making this up.

While others look at this in some vague “what could they do to make someone vote a certain way” I look at this from a marketing perspective where I have sat in meeting after meeting analyzing marketing campaigns and tactics to watch what levers <tactics & messages>have been pulled to get someone to do something they may not have considered doing before. Given that knowledge here were the 4 blocks which gt me there:

The first ‘block’ was, of course, when the US government warned us that 17 intelligence agencies <or 4 with others tentatively agreeing, or whatever number you want depending on your cynicism but suffice it to say the US Intelligence agencies are aligned in some form or fashion> agreed Russia was fucking within our election. They didn’t go into details but rather just said “they, they are doing this” <and did some behind the scenes stuff to deflect some things they did>.

I would also note that this is where “marketing doesn’t affect my behavior’ attitudes started digging in within the general population’s mindset … “I made my own decision” is what they say <naively I may add>.

The second ‘block’ occurred on November 6^th 2016 in an article called “Trolling for Trump: How Russia Is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy” .

——————-

… in addition to phishing and cracking attacks, these hackers are aided by honeypots, a Cold War term of art referring to an espionage operative who sexually seduced or compromised targets. Today’s honeypots may include a component of sexual appeal or attraction, but they just as often appear to be people who share a target’s political views, obscure personal hobbies, or issues related to family history. Through direct messaging or email conversations, honeypots seek to engage the target in conversations seemingly unrelated to national security or political influence.

These honeypots often appear as friends on social media sites, sending direct messages to their targets to lower their defenses through social engineering. After winning trust, honeypots have been observed taking part in a range of behaviors, including sharing content from white and gray active measures websites

Online hecklers, commonly referred to as trolls, energize Russia’s active measures. Ringleader accounts designed to look like real people push organized harassment — including threats of violence — designed to discredit or silence people who wield influence in targeted realms, such as foreign policy or the Syrian civil war. Once the organized hecklers select a target, a variety of volunteers will join in, often out of simple antisocial tendencies. Sometimes, they join in as a result of the target’s gender, religion, or ethnic background, with anti-Semitic and misogynistic trolling particularly prevalent at the moment. Our family members and colleagues have been targeted and trolled in this manner via Facebook and other social media.

Hecklers and honeypots can also overlap.

—————————–

The experts at WarontheRocks know their shit and I stored away their analysis.

The third ‘block’ occurred when a Bernie Sanders social media coordinator published a report of how he watched online trolls aggressively message against Clinton to Sanders supporters:

He <Mattes> put his expertise in unmasking fraudsters to work. At first, he suspected that the sites were created by the old Clinton haters from the ‘90s ― what Hillary Clinton had dubbed “the vast right-wing conspiracy.”

 But when Mattes started tracking down the sites’ domain registrations, the trail led to Macedonia and Albania. In mid-September, he emailed a few of his private investigator friends with a list of the sites. “Very creepy and i do not think Koch brothers,” he wrote.

Mattes and his friends didn’t know what to make of his findings. He couldn’t get his mind around the possibility that trolls overseas might be trying to sway a bunch of Southern Californians who supported Sanders’ run for president. “I may be a dark cynic and I may have been an investigative reporter for a long time, but this was too dark ― and too unbelievable and most upsetting,” he said. “What was I to do with this?”

By late October, Mattes said he’d traced 40 percent of the domain registrations for the fake news sites he saw popping up on pro-Sanders pages back to Eastern Europe. Others appeared to be based in Panama and the U.S., or were untraceable. He wondered, “Am I the only person that sees all this crap floating through these Bernie pages?”

And the final ‘block’ was an 84 page white paper issued by the cyber security firm, TrendMicro, which outlined how easy it was to implement a ‘fake news’ marketing campaign with costs & efforts taken by Russia to influence people not only in America but globally.

That did it for me.

Let me call my ‘4 blocks’ as the cornerstones of the building of proof. I am a marketing guy and an amateur behavioral studier with decades of experience and I can see a marketing campaign when there is one … and I can see when a good one is being implemented in ‘below-the-line’ tactics pushing & nudging & influencing people to do & think things … and I can see one once I have been presented the cornerstones of proof.

This is that. And this is a horrible thing to recognize.

Oddly enough … our founding fathers worried about this.

In constructing the Constitution the crafters were cognizant, and worried about, how easily people could be led, and led astray. That is why they constructed a three ‘power’ system <executive, judiciary & representative> to insure a President never had access to too much power. In some ways they assumed at some point in history American citizens would not choose wisely.

As a marketing guy I can honestly tell you that I have sat in hundreds of conference rooms viewing behavioral data pondering choice after choice people made that were reflections of “not in my best interest” … information that reflected time after time … people do not choose wisely.

While that is marketing stuff we should all remember what James Madison said … “liberties are more frequently lost by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power.” That is what the worst of worst marketing is about … making some people choose less than wisely through a gradual and silent encroachment into someone’s decision making process.

To be clear.

I think Trump is inept, incompetent and unqualified but this is not about that. This is about how Russia affected enough people’s attitudes to affect their behavior … and many of us quasi-experts, and many real experts, believe Russia conducted a marketing campaign that did just enough to affect people’s voting behavior to effectively put Trump in the oval office.

To be clear.

None of us know what to do with this understanding. This is a horrible position to be in. No one wants to suggest the current president is not legitimate and, yet, the truth is that he most likely gained his position through some shady illegitimate ways.

I almost wish I didn’t know this.

=======

“Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night’s sleep again and will spend their lives wandering blearily around a loveless landscape, hoping desperately that their circumstances will improve, but suspecting, in their heart of hearts, that they will remain unloved forever.

The best thing to do in these circumstances is to wake somebody else up, so that they can feel this way, too.”

–

some tumblr blogger

=====

Well.

This isn’t about living an unloved Life but it is about waking up in the middle of the night <and hopefully having someone to wake up>.

I could argue that if you believe some value in Life is found in exploring … than at some point you will be lost. In other words discovery will always encounter moments of “where the hell am I, how the hell did I get here and what the hell was I thinking?”

Unfortunately., most times you wake up with those questions ringing in your head mentally you are standing alone in a field. You just aren’t sure you can see anyone else in the field with you or maybe you feel like you have gotten too far out ahead or maybe you even feel like you made a wrong turn and that’s why there is no one else in that field.

Regardless.

It’s just you. You and your thoughts <which, in the middle of a night, tend to shape themselves into the shapes of monsters>.

And that is when you want to wake someone up. Not really to wake them up for the sake of comfort but just to see if maybe the field you are standing in is not some big mistake.

Now.

Who you wake up is tricky.

When you are young if you find the wrong person that person can encourage the wrong things even if they mean well.

When you are older, assuming you have woken the right people up when young, you have a better chance of waking the person up who has a better sense of when to say “shut the fuck up and go back to bed” or listen and say “well, how about thnk about this” or listen and say “don’t worry … other people will show up at the same field you are standing in.”

I would point out that this all revolves around discovery & exploration <and how well the person you wake up sees discovery & exploration versus how you see it>.

What I mean by that is to be successful, exploration of Life needs some reasons beyond “feels right” to not only convince the people around you but, I imagine, yourself when you wake up in the middle of the night.

As for other people?

People are far more interested in the short-term outcome of exploration than any nebulous long-term benefits and, therefore, they tend to judge your middle of the night dilemma that way.

This means for you <the wakerupper> finding the right balance of rational & emotional and short term & long term ‘who you wake up thoughtfulness’  is kind of critical to convince yourself to carve out the time in the middle of the night to explore whatever it is you want to explore … and discover what may.

Well <part 1>.

There is a shitload of vagueness in what I just wrote.

Well <part 2>.

Exploration and discovery is a vague thing.

=============

“As you get older there comes a time when you’re not scared of the dark or of monsters anymore.

You realize the dark is just the dark and monsters don’t exist.

But it’s also when you become scared of other things, people themselves. You learn that not everyone wants to see you succeed. You become aware of people’s underlying intentions and selfish actions. & the monsters you used to check for under your bed at night don’t even compare to some of the things people do.”

—-

A teen

=================

And maybe that is my point today.

Vagueness is a real bastard/bitch. It is for everyone. It is because vagueness’s best friend is “uncertainty.”

That said.

The prize in semi-mastering this vagueness is that it not only ends with some semi-clarity <some semi-certainty> in your exploration and discovery but it also stimulates the machine that is you and the mind to think about how to continue down the path of possibilities and discovery.

All of this is tricky because … well … the benefits, by nature, are unknown in the moment, but evidence of the benefits point to improvements and potential benefit.

Ok.

This whole thought centers around thinking and the art of thinking <in the middle of the night … which is different than thinking in the day>.

I know I have read how people can train themselves to think because while some people are natural thinkers by day, the ones who have the innate ability at birth who treat pieces of information as jigsaw puzzle pieces waiting to be put together and create something, night thinking demands a different type of thinking.

At night, typically, one piece of the puzzle demands your attention and all the other pieces seem to either not be present or are only blurs or pieces of the pieces.

So while the natural thinker, during the day, has the ability to sift through the jumbled pot of ingredients and like a Williams Sonoma colander trap the essentials and quickly let the inessential run off in the middle of the night there is typically one monster piece which is sitting there right beside you saying “let’s talk.”

Now.

Thinking has always been about bringing stuff in and letting stuff out.

=============

we are cups, constantly and quietly
being filled. the trick is knowing how
to tip ourselves over and let the
beautiful stuff out.”

–

Ray Bradbury-

=================

In this case I would imagine I am suggesting the monster let himself in and now you gotta figure out a way of saying … well … are you truly a monster and maybe you should stay of you are not and if you really are … how do I get you out?

And you wake someone up.

==================

The Thinker – Historically we contemplated in retreat, silence, solitude, and within our own mind. We solved problems in isolation, deep thought, and through introverted reflection.

—

The contemporary Thinker – In an age of twittering, blogging, social networking, and sophisticated work-place networks, global science networks, and mass-participation and collaboration, (and TED talks ) information is exchanged via a networked world.

=================

Thinking and problem solving, in the middle of the night, demands some inter-connected exchange of information that is fluid and, yet, systematic. It is kind of like you don’t really want to be stuck with this frickin’ monster staring at you in the middle of the night so you call someone up, wake them, and talk about the visitor. Its kind of like you need someone to look at your visitor thru different eyes.

Anyway.

All I really know is that part of exploration is uncertainty. And uncertainty will certainly beget waking up in the middle of the night wondering if they will spend their lives wandering blearily around a landscape, hoping desperately that their circumstances will improve, but suspecting, in their heart of hearts, that they will remain lost forever.

I am not suggesting you are actually lost … but you will feel lost.

And that is when you need someone, the right someone, to wake up.

===============

“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it.

You just use the future to escape the present.”

—

Looking for alaska; John Green

===========

I almost called this “confusing a win with simply checking a box on a to-do list.”

This is about yesterday’s American House of Representatives vote to repeal & replace Obamacare <albeit it doesn’t really repeal nor replace but rather try and fix in an absurdly negatively way>.

Anyway.

How you play the game is most likely in my top 3 important things in Life.

Anyone who reads enlightened conflict has most likely discerned this.

Yesterday we were able to gain a glimpse behind the curtain of what winning looks like in Donald J Trump’s eyes.

Do whatever it takes.

The only winner that counts is me.

As long as I can stand on the pedestal and say ‘I won’ <adding a bemused “I am president”> it is a win.

The American Healthcare system did not win yesterday.

The American citizen seeking good health and a good healthcare support system did not win yesterday.

The people who voted for a seriously flawed option did not win yesterday.

The Republicans did not win yesterday <although they may have breathed a sigh of relief in the moment for ‘having met a promise’>.

The Democrats did not win yesterday <although they may feel in some self serving way that they did>.

The only one who won was Donald J Trump <okay … health insurance companies won today … they are back on the path to returning to doing business the way they had been doing business which, as I may remind everyone, we didn’t particularly enjoy back then and they made a shitload of money>.

Back to Trump.

He gave the appearance of ‘fulfilling a promise’ by making a transaction … okay … it wasn’t a transaction because nothing was exchanged between two parties.

Let’s say he won by “checking a box.”

Yeah.

We all need to remember this moving forward with regard to Trump wins.

Winning to Trump is like checking a box on a to do list.

Came in to oval office today and had picture taken. Check. <win>

Mentioned on news today. Check. <win>

Cut some regulation <which I really have no clue of the impact> so it appears like I am “freeing up business”. check. <win>

A yes vote on something I have no clue what the impact is on people who I am responsible for. Check. <win>

I can guarantee you that he has no idea of the possible consequences of this vote <a> to Republicans in the House or <b> to people. The only consequence that matters to him is the illusion of a win.

He is the NASCAR driver who has caused 3 crashes in a race he ends up winning and claims he is the best driver … because he won.

I am constantly amazed that there were so many people on a variety of level who were resentful, angry, and unhappy enough to vote for someone who almost everyone recognized on some level is not really competent to be president as well as … well … just seems fundamentally “not quite right.”

I am constantly amazed by how easily so many people are accepting of “a hollow win” and a “hollow winner” with a seeming disregard for the fact that ‘blowing shit up’ <the country, institutions, other countries, healthcare, government> doesn’t have some consequences – some intended and some unintended.

I am constantly amazed that so many people have forgotten that how you win is significantly more important than the win in and of itself.

I am constantly amazed that there are so many people who have forgotten how rotten our healthcare system was before The Affordable Healthcare Act and how many people are blindly guiding us backwards toward what we know and hated.

I do not believe the country and the citizens are hollow but we have a president who is doing his absolute best to use his own hollowness to hollow us out.

Sigh.

As for healthcare.

I will pound away on this day in and day out until some politicians understands the economic & business view of a good healthcare system.

Maybe it would help them if they would think about what a “win” looks like.

It isn’t “accessible & affordable” <healthcare’s version of efficacy> it is a National non-Absenteeism day.

<whew … imagine if we actually had one day where everyone in America showed up for work, for class, in daycare, for whatever> and saw how productive Life, and America, could be>

A successful healthcare system from an economic point of view would be to have one day which every single worker in America showed up at work, on time, healthy and did a full day of work.

No one out sick.

No one out because someone in their family was sick and they needed to take care of them.

No parent out because they had to take care of a sick child … or maybe even take care of their child because the daycare center supervisors were sick.

No child, our future generation of workers, misses school  and class.

No one out because senior dependents, or independently living seniors related to you, are healthy and receiving services they deserve.

No one out because the additional services , which far too often are described as ‘luxuries’ or entitlements, provide a support system which not only keeps someone working but healthy and less tired <rested: which translates into higher productivity when working>.

The consistency with regard to the way we miss the importance of health to a productive, happy economic powerhouse as a country is mind numbing to me. I do not disregard the moral imperative aspects but for all we talk about, over & over, the importance of freeing up businesses and economic growth and free market … the most powerful machine, invention and tool the American economy has is the people.

Shame on everyone for not discussing this.

While I love bashing Trump for his lack of understanding of what it takes to run a business let alone a country … this is a politician issue. I have never heard one, just one, politician ever make this point. This is basic ‘running a business 101.’

Stop talking about insuring healthcare to citizens of a country as a moral imperative <although it is> and start talking about the real tangible benefits of an effective healthcare system.

I can partially excuse Donald J Trump because he has never really run a business. His only business hands on experience was construction. In his mind, and experience, when 5 construction  workers didn’t show up one day he didn’t pay them and went to Home Depot and found 5 more workers. He had no additional expense and lost no productivity.

For the rest of us in the business world when we run a 300 person company and 5 people do not show up we still pay them and we have to decide whether we invest in bringing someone in and absorb the lost productivity of ‘lost labor’, less efficient labor and the machinations of dealing with an empty resource space. We lose productivity. We lose profit. We lose every time an employee is absent in a cascading way of consequences.

Sigh.

And, to be clear about a ‘free market’ concept, in general consumers do not win within the health insurance system. To point that out I will not take the lazy route of pointing out their hefty profits and ‘making money’ but rather point out HOW they make their money. Health insurance companies make their money by selling policies combined with filling as few claims as possible <and limiting the highest of those they are required to fulfill>. This translate into selling people things they don’t need or will never use, trying to avoid offering things they don’t particularly want to fulfill claim wise and charging a premium to someone who they believe will actually file a claim <this can either be a healthy person with a profile which indicates they are a ‘claim filer’ or a less-than-healthy person who will actually have needs>.

I point that out because health insurance companies are only in the “encourage attendance in Life” business as much as it encourages the non-filing of claims … not for any real economic productivity objective.

And … I point that out so small government people can get their head out of their asses on how government involvement can actually benefit people.

It is lazy to suggest the government shouldn’t be involved in health insurance for its citizens just as it is lazy to simply say the issue with health insurance companies is their profit motivation <it is more how they make their profits>.

Regardless.

If this is winning the Trump way, I am already tired of winning.

==========

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

—

Winston Churchill

==============================

“In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.”

—

Abraham Lincoln

===========

Well.

I have to imagine republicans wake up every morning dreading looking at their smartphones for the latest tweet and feeling a sense of despair that, in what should be their moment of triumph, they are faced with having a president who isn’t a leader.

Now.

I will not comment on whether Trump is a Republican or not … I will leave that to republicans to debate.

But I will comment on being a leader. Because if he were truly a Republican and he were truly a leader Trump would get the Republicans asses out of the healthcare bind they are in.

Any sane business leader with any business experience would view the current government American healthcare decision as one of two paths – fix it or kill it.

That same sane business leader would look at what is currently happening and say “oh shit, they are stuck in the wretched in-between trying to do a little of this and a little of that and ultimately creating a dead on the table Frankenstein.”

That same sane business leader would then decide it was time to step in, because that is what they get paid to do, and get everyone walking down one path and stop being in the Frankenstein building business .

Sure.

Politicians don’t think like business people. They don’t necessarily think like leaders. They more often think like middle managers in large organizations … “what can I do that doesn’t make too many people unhappy so I can keep my job.”

This means, more often than not, they build a lot of Frankensteins so they can cherry pick what they want to talk about to cover their ass and insure at least a part of everything they do is palatable to their constituents.

But here is the sling their ass is in right now. The only two viable paths that are possible for a good initiative are painful for Republicans.

Don’t kill it <don’t repeal> and they will get killed publicly.

Kill it <repeal> and they will get killed publicly.

It is quite possible that they don’t realize that even the wretched in-between, their Frankenstein, only offers getting killed too.

All I know is that a business person looking in at those inside this horrible situation would see that … well … they were in a horrible situation in which not only the decision makers were likely to get killed … but the people affected by the decision may not actually get the best decision because all the decision makers are getting squeezed.

All that said.

If the Republicans actually had a president who was truly a leader AND a republican … that leader would offer a path out <spoiler alert: I seriously doubt the current president is enough of a leader to do this>.

If I were a republican, and I were the president, I would walk over to the congress and tell congress to stop voting and stop talking with the press and , as a team, decide what the right thing to do was – whatever it was. And then I would tell them to give it to me and I would go on television <not twitter> and say “here is what we are going to do and why … this is my decision … this is my responsibility … this is what I believe will help make America great.”

I would place all the bloodbath on my shoulders … and take it off of my ‘kindred spirit’ Republicans shoulders.

Would I do this because I am a nice guy and I feel sorry for the bind that my fellow republicans put themselves in? Of course not.

I would do it because I am a leader and I know that presidents come and go but maintaining control of the congress is what really matters.

I would do it because, as a business person, I would see that my organization was stuck in a corner with no real good way out.

And … I would do it now because the earlier I do it the longer I have to manage the aftermath before the next election.

Now.

Donald J Trump is too much of a narcissistic idiot to see this pathway out.

And why do I add in the ‘idiot’?

Because this pathway out makes him a hero.

Contextually he has done nothing to date to show he can lead, that he can show contrition, that he can assume personal responsibility or that he can utter anything other than hyperbole & lies.

Therefore, to stand up and say “it doesn’t matter what you have heard over the past 8 years and who has said what … this is the situation and here is where we go from here” and articulate the choices, the decision, the rationale, the outcomes <good & bad> and the responsibility <with him and not the Republicans> would shelve almost all the past criticism because it was so far out of the existing character perceptions and he would get a ‘reset.’ In addition … it feeds into his desire to showcase ‘strong decision maker’ which seem important to him & his ego. And, lastly, I would assume every Republican in congress would owe him for getting their own ass out of the sling.

Some people call this “taking one for the team.”

I would call this “accepting the burden of responsibility.”

Republicans are screwed not because they put themselves in this horrible healthcare decision ‘non-win’ situation but because they now have a president who is not only not a republican <although they are stuck with the fact he chose to run under their banner> but is also not a leader.

All that said … here is the most disappointing aspect viewing this is a a business person. He is supposed to see things differently because he is a business person and not a politician. And he is failing everyone because he doesn’t seem capable of viewing this healthcare issue from a business perspective.

What do I mean?

• the less absenteeism i have in my organization the more productive my business is.

• the healthier my not-absentee employee base is the more productive they are <and, yes, someone with a pre-existing condition can be a highly productive healthy everyday employee>.

Trump claims to be a business guy and wants to make the economy grow … well … healthy people, healthy employees make businesses more productive, more happy, more profitable and more successful.

I offer daycare so that my employees are not distracted, show up to work on time, and can be fulfilled from a family perspective.

I offer family healthcare plans so my employees stay focused <because their children and spouses are healthier> and it decreases healthy employee absenteeism who may have had to leave to take care of family heath problems.

This is kind of business leader 101. This would seem to be ‘make America great again 101’. This would seem to prove that Trump is not only not a leader but doesn’t know shit about what is important in running an effective productive business.

Anyway. Here is what I do know.

Republicans are in a no win position and the only thing that really comes of that is that there will be no win for the people themselves.

Look.

America isn’t a business … it is more like a living organism. A president, while having some CEO-like qualities, doesn’t really have P&L objectives … more often it is “successfully breathing new life into the organism” objectives.

Trump wouldn’t understand a single thing I just said in that last paragraph. And while I have no particular love for what I think the Republicans are trying to do with healthcare I feel sorry for them that they finally got a ‘republican’ in the oval office and it is this person … one totally incapable of leading and being a leader. He is totally incapable of understanding the words of Churchill < The price of greatness is responsibility   > let alone embracing the behavior that embodies the words.

Anyway.

Republicans have to be thinking … “<sigh> … if only.”

——

Author note:

I am not a republican, democrat or anything … I solely focus on what ideas would be good for America and its people.

I, personally, would fix The Affordable Healthcare program because I believe it is closer to being successful and ‘good for America’ then it is depicted in the political vitriol. However, if you choose to not ‘fix it’ you cannot have it both ways … you would have to kill it in order to eventually give what is best for the American people.

In the middle is a horrible place to be <with anything>.

I would remind everyone in congress of the words I opened with:

In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.

—————————-

====

“We ask for nothing more, and will accept nothing less, than the U.S. government keeping the promises made to Native Americans.”

–

John E. Echohawk

NARF Executive Director

=====

“All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian.”

–

Pat Paulsen

=====

“To be continued.”

–

closing words on  Native American Rights Fund TV ad

======

Well.

One of the first pieces I ever wrote on Enlightened conflict was “200 years later the American Indian may be partially unscrewed.”

I thought of what I wrote back in 2009 because I just read an article suggesting that 50% … yeah … 50 fucking percent … of native American Indians are homeless.

… a Brooklyn-sized housing crisis has languished in the 617 American Indian and Alaska Native tribal areas and 526 surrounding counties where 2.5 million of this land’s first peoples live. There, Native men, women and children occupy the most severely overcrowded and rundown homes in the United States.

 

The 11,000 members of the Northern Arapaho in Wyoming, for example, share just 230 reservation homes. A staggering 55% are considered homeless because they’re couch surfing. In the Navajo Nation, 18,000 homes or roughly 40% of total Navajo housing stock lack electricity or running water.

 

In the twilight of the Obama administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimated that these forgotten communities urgently needed 68,000 new housing units – 33,000 to eliminate overcrowding and 35,000 to replace deteriorated stock. This is a number similar in scale to total new construction called for in New York’s current 10-year housing plan.

 

But while New York’s housing crisis has occupied headlines and led to a plan of action, the indigenous housing crisis has remained invisible. HUD’s study is the first and only in-depth report on the subject.

I could just point out that this is simply unconscionable for a fully developed country but then I would have to point out how little conscious we have shown as we have consistently screwed the native American Indians since we got here.

I could point out how easily this could be resolved compared to the ongoing seemingly unsolvable things like balancing the federal budget, climate change and national healthcare initiatives but we seem to like avoiding the solvable because it most likely seems to ‘small.’

I could even point out that while we spend incredible amounts of time discussing meaningful issues like livable wages, equal economic opportunities and helping lift people out of poverty it seems like we shouldn’t ignore what I would consider the most basic of basics for every citizen in the united states … food, water & shelter.

This is crazy to me.

I am not a bleeding heart liberal nor am I a believer in monetary restitution for past discretion but I don’t believe just because I have screwed someone in the past and got away with it I should look the other way in their time of need <thereby screwing them through avoidance>.

Well.

I actually have one word for us in this moral less stance we seem to be tacking on this issue … a native American Indian word …  Majimanidoo.

It is the Chippewa Indians <or Ojibwe tribe if we want to be technically correct> for ‘evil spirit’.

It is an especially brutal word because by ‘evil spirit’ the Indian tribe means ‘someone born without a soul.’

This word embodies someone devoid of anything good.

You know what? I tend to believe Native American Indians sure could be thinking about using that word for us.

We screwed them by killing them off.

We screwed them by taking away their lands.

We screwed them by demanding they lose their culture and become … well … Christian Caucasians.

And then when we actually acknowledged we screwed them … we threw some money at them.

In Life we can all end up on some side of some pretty bad things. This surely seems like one of those bad things.

But this is fixable.

I cannot right a wrong and I cannot unscrew all the screwing … but I can certainly take some steps to insure the next generation is less screwed than the generations we gave screwed to date.

I stand by my suggestions I made back in 2009. I would not only insure they had proper food, water & shelter but I would also build programs that insured the children had a chance to break the cycle. https://brucemctague.com/200-years-later-the-american-indian-may-be-partially-unscrewed

Money does not solve everything and in this case I don’t want to give anyone money … I want to give them the opportunity to be … well … not just better than their parents <which is what all parents want for their kids> but rather I want them to be better than my parents, your parents and any parents. I want to give them the opportunity to be the best version of who and what they are as a person.

That’s what gets them out of this unfucking believable screwed up situation we created by screwing them.

Look.

Every once in a while I see an incredibly bad ad, for a very good cause — support justice for Native American tribes, organizations, and individuals – in television.

I’m not exactly sure what to make of this strange bad ad.

It seems like the purpose is to solicit donations … but I can’t imagine rapping that “…the Indian Wars never ended…” will make very many people sympathetic to what is a significantly underappreciated issue – societally & morally.

I would offer to do their marketing for free just because I believe they deserve better and the issue deserves national attention.

I imagine my issue with getting this free gig would be, if asked, I would tell them all I would do is show images throughout the history of time leading to the current situation with a voice over that said:

“we were happy … and then you came and screwed us … screwed us some more … figured out how to set up systems to ongoingly screw us … were kind enough to give us citizenship in 1924 <the last ‘minority’ to gain that … albeit we were the original Americans> … you were kind enough to give us some money not long ago to partially unscrew us … but we are still getting screwed. All we want is an opportunity to not get screwed.”  

<hence the reason I will not get this gig>

Anyway.

As for now … and the native America homeless?

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What’s remarkable about Indian Country’s massive and forgotten housing crisis is that it would not exist if our government and society simply cared enough to devote adequate resources to putting roofs over the heads of people who need and deserve them. The troubling reality is that unless that roof makes someone money, we simply don’t care.

Julian Brave NoiseCat

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At some point it would be nice if we could figure out a way to stop screwing the Native American Indians because they will always be here — it is their home.

That just doesn’t seem too much to ask.

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“Any negotiation has a limit.

Otherwise, war is irrelevant.”

―

Toba Beta

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“The trick to negotiation was to hold all the cards going in and, even if you didn’t, to try to look as though you did.”

―

Eoin Colfer

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Well.

I was embarrassed this week.

I was also mortified this week.

I have run companies.

I have managed large groups of people.

I have met some of the best CEO’s imaginable.

I have discussed large organization culture, behavior alignment and strategic positioning.

I have been involved in some fairly complex and contentious multi-million dollar business negotiations.

I have seen some bad … and mostly have seen some good.

But what I have seen , 99% of time, were crafty negotiators and solid negotiation skills where a ‘win’ was always sought and an understanding that the other side also needs some version of their ‘win’ in order to have both sides walk away from the table invested enough to insure an ongoing successful deal.

That said.

I was embarrassed to see how Donald J Trump showed an America, whose population mostly does not have my experiences, what ‘negotiating’ looked like.

I was mortified to think that America, who watched Donald J Trump as the healthcare ‘art of the deal’ negotiator, would start thinking that is how business is conducted at the C-level in business.

Frankly, after that performance I could see how any everyday schmuck sitting in some bar drinking a cold one could envision that everyday schmucks were negotiating and managing and leading the everyday large business direction.

I was embarrassed and mortified because this is not the way a real CEO negotiates and makes a deal.

I was embarrassed … and I imagine a shitload business people, better than I am, were also embarrassed.

While he showcased a laundry list of embarrassing attitudes with regard to how negotiating should occur, there were probably two aspects which were particularly heinous:

1. Carrot and stick.

As soon as I see these words I think “old school 70’s thinker.” It is this simplistic tripe which makes today’s CEO … well … puke. It suggests you can bribe through some false incentivizing or bully through some sense of ‘threatening.’

Today’s business people can see through the ‘incentivizing’ and realize that a bribe is a bribe and the ‘incentive’ is a short term salve at best. Short term is for short term thinkers. Good negotiators think short term behavior is lazy <as well as dangerous> and that short term wins have little to no value.

As for threats?

Today’s business people see it and say “fuck you.” Threats provide clarity and inspire clarity to the one threatened. In today’s world a threat empowers the one receiving the threat. Maybe

In the 70’s this may have worked <although I doubt it> but in today’s world this isn’t negotiating … it simplistic bluster.

Look.

You can be tough in making a deal but bullying is never a viable tactic.

You can compromise in making a deal but ‘bribing’ is a fool’s errand.

Words matter.

Words matter maybe more than almost anything else and to believe that a word is simply a word and that a meeting of the minds resides solely in the words said … is … well … the thinking of an idiot <if not a naïve idiot>.

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“We’re fascinated by the words–but where we meet is in the silence behind them.”

―

Ram Dass

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2. Attention to <at least some> details.

Whew.

Let’s be clear.

When you become a leader you know you cannot know everything.

Let’s be clear.

When you become a leader you know you cannot delegate everything <including knowledge>.

And that is where good negotiating resides … in how you resolve those two things at the same time.

You hire departments head, division presidents and specialists to know more than you do on their responsibility. But you have to know enough about what they do and what their knowledge is in order to be able to negotiate not only decisions but to manage the people in negotiation, and the discussions that occur, effectively.

Delegating all detail is fraught with peril and will never … NEVER … translate well into effective negotiating.

But let me point out the three unintended consequences of not investing yourself into the details as a negotiator:

• I care.

Without knowledge of details … well … it looks like you don’t care … or at least care as much as most of the other people around the negotiating table. Negotiating is always a dance between showing what you are negotiating is important but not so important that you could walk away. And that is where knowledge of detail gives you some breathing room with your attitude. Lots of detail shows lots of caring … which permits you to be … well … an asshole on occasion. You look like a competent asshole who actually cares about what is being negotiated. Without detail? You are just an asshole.

• I am personally invested.

Without knowledge of details it looks like you are skating on the superficial surface of whatever needs to be done. Suffice it to say that if there is no personal investment in a negotiation it can only be about price <or result … not what makes up the result>. This is exactly like a value equation. Personal investment adds value to the negotiation … no investment … no value. And, yes, you can win a negotiation and actually have little or no value beyond “I won.”

• I can negotiate fairly <without hollow promises>.

Without knowledge of details all you end up doing is saying what people want to hear, make promises you most likely have no right promising and ultimately … well … you cannot negotiate shit.

Negotiating is never about the win or the loss itself but rather the components of the win or loss. Negotiating is like building a big puzzle … and if you do not understand the pieces then the puzzle will never look right and often never gets completed.

Lastly.

What makes great negotiators great negotiators is consistent personal responsibility. That is at their core because great negotiations revolve around some semblance of trust — trust of each other with a win and trust of each other in loss. Great negotiators know that negotiating is not a transactional career … it is an ongoing resume of activity. The chain of activity <and the value you have earned as a negotiator> is broken the moment the negotiator doesn’t assume personal responsibility for the good & the bad.

Donald J Trump solidified my embarrassment last Friday when he said … “I would love to see it <Affordable Healthcare> do well, but it can’t.”

Donald J Trump is basically suggesting he is willing to fuck America.

Great negotiators don’t take their ball and go home if they lose. Rarely is a negotiation the final word on anything. And it is certainly not the final act in the negotiated play.

The Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges in some states <with higher prices, insufficient insurer options & high deductibles> are quite fixable with some fairly easy specific tactics.

In fact … both the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign proposed a slate of improvements <some of which Republicans actually like> to alleviate some of the affordability issues.

This would suggest “it can.”

And this would also suggest that of a negotiator said “it can’t” then … well … they were either not negotiating or they shouldn’t have been involved in the negotiation.

Oh.

And if Donald J Trump was actually a good negotiator he would already know that the bill he was “100% supporting” actually has some of these components within it.

I was embarrassed by the so called ‘negotiating’ and the ‘art of the deal’ ineptness. I have read the Art of the Deal and it is like The Secret <another heinous excuse of a life/business guidance book> for negotiating – scraps of good ideas typically amplified into some tritisms and the rest bullshit.

………. mortified and embarrassed by Trump so-called negotiating ………

I was embarrassed as a business guy watching a business guy being so inept at a moment in which we demand competency.

And I am now mortified that our so-called President & negotiator ‘par excellence’ would not want to proactively help Americans.

To be clear <attention Donald J Trump> … our national health plan is no long Obamacare … it is simply our health insurance system <of which he is responsible for>.

You know.

I believe in some hybrid version of universal healthcare in America <a hybrid system because America is not Europe and we have always created a solid capitalistic-socially beneficial system when driven to do so>.

I do so not because I am European, a bleeding heart liberal, a socialist or even because I believe it is the right of everyone to have healthcare but rather because I have run a company.

A healthy employee base is happier, shows up more often <less absenteeism>, is more energetic and, ultimately, more productive.

I have to envision the same logic applies to a citizenry <and add in the component that a healthier unemployed base is more likely to become employed … and a healthier poverty base is more likely to get out of poverty>.

Yes. These are not empathetic reasons … these are pragmatic reasons. These aren’t some simplistic “insurance will be cheaper and everyone will have it and we will not let people die on the streets” type reasons. This is about opportunity, equality and productivity. This is about maximizing the productivity of America.

It would seem to me that our so-called business President would recognize that all his job promises and economic growth promises and even his empty promises to the poor and inner cities would be more likely to succeed and the people able to contribute if they were happy and healthy.

Our current health care plan is far from perfect … but fixable.

Our current President is even farther from perfect … and I am not sure he is fixable.

All I really know is that this past week what America saw as “how great negotiating is done” is not how 99% of senior business people negotiate. It is much better than that.

It was embarrassing to watch.

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Postscript:

While I do not support a full ‘repeal & replace’ option I do understand what the true supporters <the ones who want to create a policy not simply make a political point> desire. If I were a business president who actually liked winning and proof of results here is what I would have done:

• I would have shown everyone my desired end state of the market, services provided and what people would have.
• I would have then made a full repeal of Affordable Healthcare Act. 100%. Immediate. Now.
• I would have created a 2 year transition plan to show how I would bridge where we are now and where we want to go and insure people would not be ‘left behind’ but offered a path across the bridge.
• I would have created all the backroom deals with the insurance companies and laws to insure everyone knew the rules of engagement and rules of desired results <and shred some of that with the people so that insurance companies also assumed some responsibility>.
• I would have stated that my plan was to have everyone off that bridge in two years, and in the 4^th year of my administration we would report on the state of the market, state of the services provided and a report card on how well insurance companies had fulfilled their responsibilities to the people.

<but that’s me … just a business guy who hates this idea>