Thursday, August 18, 2016

From Reagan Democrats in 1980 This Could Be the Year of Hillary Republicans Who Jumped From the Titanic


I heard a Republican woman on POTUS radio today who said that she had been a republican and voted for Republicans ever since Ronald Reagan. She campaigned against Obama twice, but this year she couldn’t stay in the GOP because of Trump. In fact, she said she has decided to vote for Hillary!


Why? Because Trump scares her. It wasn’t just his attacks on Hispanics (she is Hispanic), and the disabled; it wasn’t just the Gold Star attack. What got her was the suggestion of assassination by “2nd Amendment people” and that he is clueless that words matter. When other Republicans tweeted during the interview about “the Supreme Court” she said “Do you really think he would appoint conservatives? He’s talked about his own sister! There is no telling who he would appoint.”


She’s right. He blows with the wind and is so uninformed he could do anything crazy. She also said that 3rd parties don’t win and it was a choice of either Hillary or Trump.


Apparently that was enough for one woman who tweeted that she too was a Republican and based on what she heard, she too was going to vote for Hillary.


Never before has there been an election this strange before. In a way it’s the reverse of the “Reagan Democrats” of the 80’s. the GOP has become so extreme that its members have no place to go but jump from the sinking Trump Titanic and become Hillary Republicans, even if reluctantly. These would be the moderates, which I found in my run for Congress do exist. They don’t vote in primaries (the more extreme voters do), but they do show up in November.


This is such a bizarre year between hellish fires on one end of the country and  floods and Zika on the other end while Congress dozes on vacation and we pubic witness an Alice in Wonderland election that has lowered the standards of decency to the gutter. It is an election that is about to get more bizarre as Trump stokes the fires of extreme nationalism and false claims for the gullible, the same people Trump has fleecesdout of millions in his fraudulent business schemes…


Wednesday, August 17, 2016

if you are worried about your job, or have lost a job...How to Handle Unexpected Change is the point of "Better Times Ahead April Fool" -


I just got a blistering criticism on private message on Facebook about my book. The person, who has been highly successful, thought I whined too much and focused on my career implosion and on and on.

The point I was trying to make when I described all the disasters that I encountered was not to bitch. The point was the discovery I made that we have to keep RE-INVENTING OURSELVES when things don't work out. All the time.

Yes, I whined because it was written when I was like those folks in Louisiana, all washed up on a dry spot with nothing but my body and brain to my name. Like you, I've been cheated and lied to.

But my point wasn't that, it was about getting past it, not being trapped in negative feelings or by negative people. I wanted to show if I could survive the crap I went through (including a trip to Syria for a Texas mom), then maybe people today going through hard times would realize it could be worse - and its survivable. It can lead to remarkable new things.

Partnerships don't always last. Jobs don't last. Marriages don't work out. It does close a chapter. But then you have to open a new one and it won't be the same, look the same. If I was still a farmer in Iowa, I would truly have failed to see a much bigger world.

I went literally from living on a farm to flying the world (even twice on the supersonic Concorde) in a 10 year span, to getting laid off like people are today, and losing it all, like people are today (Louisiana being but one example).

In the end, if you are still alive, losing THINGS doesn't matter. What you do to turn it around does.

The book says it. I finally realized I could not wait on someone giving me a job. I had to create one. And not just one. In my late 50's I founded a company that was asked this year to help NASA, as it helps ordinary people. It didn't just happen.

So, if you are worried about your job, or have lost a job, that's the point of "Better Times Ahead April Fool" - Things go up and down, but you re-invent. Learn from it. And keep going! Get new training, start a new business. Find a better job. Move to a new city that needs your skills.

We have to do the same thing as a country as well. Change is a constant in life...That is another discovery I made in my global Alice in Wonderland experiences....









Monday, August 15, 2016

How GOP is Losing an Entire Generation As Trump Brands GOP as Racist Know Nothing Party

What is so COOL about the young people today is that they are very tolerant of others --unlike the old farts (especially conservative whites with no skills who sat in the back of the class thinking they didn't need to learn anything) who are declining, and supporting trump's bigotry. Why? Because they think their color trumps having real skills in a high tech global economy.

So its 'game over' for the GOP - a whole new generation are branding on the Democratic Party as the inclusive cool group vs. the mean nasty name callers who hate everyone. They have lost their way along with the dodo bird...now they are being branded as a racist Know Nothing Party out of the 1850's.

That kind of bigotry in diverse America needs to die. The moderate R's need to get back in control. I wrote about how our system is promoting the extreme in the primaries with gerrymandered districts that make it a one party election in my book "Better Times Ahead April Fool"...

I propose we either reform that process or you will get more nutters instead of the common sense people needed to make government work.

What would you think if it was Obama who did THIS?



I ask this:

What would you think if it was Obama who:

  •         ran for president with his 3rd wife, who had posed nude?

  • ·       had founded a university under his name that was now being sued for FRAUD?

  • ·       bankrupted several companies after walking away with millions, and not paying small businesses who supplied his projects?

  • ·      imitated a disable person in a mocking way and insulted women, calling them “fat pigs” and saying an entire group were “rapists” and “some were good people”?

  • ·       had said he didn’t respect military who were captured?

  • ·       said he supported “article 9 and 12” of the Constitution, then you found out there are only 7 articles in it?

  • ·       walked around calling people names, like “Lying Ted” and banned the press from his events?

  • ·       at a rally encouraged people to beat up protests and offered to pay for their legal expenses if they hurt someone?

  • ·       didn’t reveal his taxes?

  • ·       said that “we don’t need NATO and our allies” and encouraged the spread of nuclear weapons to places like Japan and Saudi Arabia?


THEN WHY would you support Donald Trump , who has done all of these things?

You really think a guy who inherited wealth and whose tax plan helps only the 1% like him really cares about YOU since he is going to trial on fraud charges Nov. 28 and tried to have an old lady evicted from her land next to his casino because he wanted it for a limo parking lot?

If so, then I have a special deal for you on a bridge in Brooklyn! Just send in your cc# now because a brain is a terrible thing to waste. Don’t leave home without it on Nov. 8.

Pass it on.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Trump Reminds Me of My Last Boss From HELL – Created Chaos & Nothing Got Done

Donald Trump reminds me of my last “Boss from Hell” before I left the Fortune 500 for good.  I had worked in our group for over two years for another General Counsel, and all was smooth and professional.  Then he left and they picked a man from another group to take that spot. Suddenly chaos erupted.

Before I knew it, the new General Counsel had initiated a “war” with one of the divisions we did the legal work for.  Suddenly, every day he would pull me into his office and spend an hour or more telling me how “stupid” the division president and officers were, Every day!  Since I was the only other attorney for the group he was wasting my time.

Trump seems to have the same playbook. Every day he finds someone he has to insult, then wastes everyone’s time listening to him bloviate how “smart” he is and how “stupid” they are, repeat ad nauseum.  Work was delayed and nothing good came out of it; only bad feelings. NOTHING got done as a result.  Our system would become even more dysfunctional, if that's possible.

If Trump were elected, I’d expect the same chaos that would kill our country as we spent day after day listening to Herr Trump stir up another enemy to denounce (like a fellow Republican) while saying “I have such good words, my words are the best words” and other total gibberish that sounds like a student writing a paper for a course in which he never bothered to read the book.

For example: When asked by GOP Senators if he supported Article 1 of the Constitution, the would-be president promptly said “yes” but, like the bullshitting student, promptly added, “I also support Article 9 and 12!”  Oops. If he had read the Constitution, he would know that there are only 7 – not 9 or 12 – articles!  He runs for president without bothering to know anything.

In my workplace things got so bad that finally our Group President called in my boss and said “Knock it off!”  But who can tell a U.S. president acting like that to: “Knock it off?”  Only the public can by NOT electing someone who declared in an interview that “Putin would never go into Ukraine” and when informed by the journalist that Russia had been in the Ukraine for two years, Trump tries to cover his ignorance by blurting more gibberish of the know nothing student: “I haven’t been there; it’s a mess…yada, yada, yada.” Spare us from stupid!

How can having a president this ignorant help America succeed?  Having an email mistake with classified information in this day and age is not on the same dangerous level as a candidate openly encouraging Putin to take over Eastern Europe and condoning the spread of nuclear weapons and backing off our allies in NATO!

We don’t need a Putin patsy in the White House.  I know 12-year-olds more qualified to be president than this “Boss from Hell” who is totally ignorant of the Constitution and has a dangerous personality defect, low-life gutter mouth and total lack of decency that he willingly attacked a former POW and a Muslim Gold Star family while claiming he “sacrificed” by dodging the draft and avoiding a venereal disease (he said it, I didn’t make it up.)

 I spent my career promoting American-made products globally. Trump is promising jobs yet had his products made in 12 countries overseas – creating jobs overseas, not here, while ripping people off from small businesses in the U.S. who supplied his casinos. I admit his talent of bankrupting casinos, where the deck is stacked in favor of the house, is a nearly impossible feat!

America is better than this. Don’t elect the “Boss from hell” who has publicly said how much he admires ruthless dictators, including Saddam, Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jung Un – Trump was so impressed that Kim would kill his own uncle to establish his authority.

We don’t need the narcissist sickness Trump would bring to the presidency.

Michael Fjetland
Author, Better Times Ahead April Fool
www.BetterTimesAheadAprilFool.com

Trump Reminds Me of My Last Boss From HELL – Created Chaos & Nothing Got Done

Donald Trump reminds me of my last “Boss from Hell” before I left the Fortune 500 for good.  I had worked in our group for over two years for another General Counsel, and all was smooth and professional.  Then he left and they picked a man from another group to take that spot. Suddenly chaos erupted.

Before I knew it, the new General Counsel had initiated a “war” with one of the divisions we did the legal work for.  Suddenly, every day he would pull me into his office and spend an hour or more telling me how “stupid” the division president and officers were, Every day!  Since I was the only other attorney for the group he was wasting my time.

Trump seems to have the same playbook. Every day he finds someone he has to insult, then wastes everyone’s time listening to him bloviate how “smart” he is and how “stupid” they are, repeat ad nauseum.  Work was delayed and nothing good came out of it; only bad feelings. NOTHING got done as a result.  Our system would become even more dysfunctional, if that's possible.

If Trump were elected, I’d expect the same chaos that would kill our country as we spent day after day listening to Herr Trump stir up another enemy to denounce (like a fellow Republican) while saying “I have such good words, my words are the best words” and other total gibberish that sounds like a student writing a paper for a course in which he never bothered to read the book.

For example: When asked by GOP Senators if he supported Article 1 of the Constitution, the would-be president promptly said “yes” but, like the bullshitting student, promptly added, “I also support Article 9 and 12!”  Oops. If he had read the Constitution, he would know that there are only 7 – not 9 or 12 – articles!  He runs for president without bothering to know anything.

In my workplace things got so bad that finally our Group President called in my boss and said “Knock it off!”  But who can tell a U.S. president acting like that to: “Knock it off?”  Only the public can by NOT electing someone who declared in an interview that “Putin would never go into Ukraine” and when informed by the journalist that Russia had been in the Ukraine for two years, Trump tries to cover his ignorance by blurting more gibberish of the know nothing student: “I haven’t been there; it’s a mess…yada, yada, yada.” Spare us from stupid!

How can having a president this ignorant help America succeed?  Having an email mistake with classified information in this day and age is not on the same dangerous level as a candidate openly encouraging Putin to take over Eastern Europe and condoning the spread of nuclear weapons and backing off our allies in NATO!

We don’t need a Putin patsy in the White House.  I know 12-year-olds more qualified to be president than this “Boss from Hell” who is totally ignorant of the Constitution and has a dangerous personality defect, low-life gutter mouth and total lack of decency that he willingly attacked a former POW and a Muslim Gold Star family while claiming he “sacrificed” by dodging the draft and avoiding a venereal disease (he said it, I didn’t make it up.)

 I spent my career promoting American-made products globally. Trump is promising jobs yet had his products made in 12 countries overseas – creating jobs overseas, not here, while ripping people off from small businesses in the U.S. who supplied his casinos. I admit his talent of bankrupting casinos, where the deck is stacked in favor of the house, is a nearly impossible feat!

America is better than this. Don’t elect the “Boss from hell” who has publicly said how much he admires ruthless dictators, including Saddam, Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jung Un – Trump was so impressed that Kim would kill his own uncle to establish his authority.

We don’t need the narcissist sickness Trump would bring to the presidency.

Michael Fjetland
Author, Better Times Ahead April Fool
www.BetterTimesAheadAprilFool.com

Saturday, August 6, 2016

How Brazil's Olympics Message Beat a Queen Jumping from a Helicopter - Yet Is a Warning on Oligarchs

Global American values
August 6, 2016

The Brazilians did more with their opening in message than other cities did with hundreds of millions and James Bond and the Queen look alike jumping out of a helicopter.

They conveyed a message about how they came to be as a country, a mix of African, European and Native. They conveyed the message of the adjustment they have had to make to deal with their conflicts and respect each other.

But then they went on to take up bigger issues so it wasn't just about THEM,  a huge country that holds half the world's endangered Rain Forests, but has massive economic inequality.

They conveyed a global message with a video showing Earth HEATING UP as the time lapse shots showed our eyes how our blue planet is turning into an orange HOT -- that impacts all children and future generations. Like frogs sitting in a warming pot, we don't notice it. The message was worth more than China spending $100 million on flashy stuff while their citizens choke on some of the blackest air in the world...(even china is now leading in green energy development because breathing coal dust is killing millions of Chinese every year.)

It also gave a sense of what Brazilians are like - they are warm and like to dance, drink. They have their annual Carnival which we call Mardi Gras. A friend of mine went and loved it. I would need to lose 30 years to do it and live to tell.

I met the Brazilian people on a trip for a large company when I was young and they were the same then, warm and friendly. It was the first time I had been approached by women in a bar! That just didn't happen in the USA or European places I had been to (that story is part of "Better Times Ahead April Fool" at the link below.)

The opening ceremonies didn't say that Brazil is losing that valuable rain forest by clear cutting that is turning it into vast wasteland, all for a quick buck. Its president wasn't there because she is being impeached. Her predecessor is under investigation for fraud - and it was that way when I was there about 1980. 

We Americans aren't perfect but we are nuns compared to the official corruption in places like Brazil, South Africa, Russia, etc. - unless we got a President Trump, who would like to be a WORLD OLIGARCH - just him and Putin, brother oligarchs, billionaires with a common interest in getting rid of the free press and carving up the world between them, NATO allies be damned. Trump has already banned major media from his events, and he is only a candidate!  He has a strange fixation on dictators he likes to praise, including North Korea's Kim Jung Un who murdered his own uncle to assert his authority!

Brazil has massive income inequality where the rich 1% have it all while the 99%  have nothing. That same inequality was made possible in the USA by the 2001 Bush tax cuts, which put all the benefits at the top 1%, so that a hedge fund manager making billions pays less percentage tax than his secretary--so a Trump can play with the tax code and pay ZERO taxes. That is probably why he has refused to disclose his tax returns as all other candidates have for 40 years. 

Rules don't apply to billionaires, right? If they did, someone wanting to be president would produce his returns like everyone else so the public knows the truth, unlike countries like Russia and China, and Brazil.

We need to avoid becoming like Brazil, with oligarch billionaires like Mr. Trump cutting deals for themselves at the top while the middle and lower income people get left out so that even an Olympics will not benefit them when the games are over.

If you agree, please SHARE.

Michael Fjeltand, BBA/JD
Terrorism Analyst/Author
"Better Times Ahead April Fool"

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