AOC and Other Progressives Hurt the Poor Every Day: Here’s How

I am an innovationist. Any policy that encourages more innovation in society will lead to greater prosperity, more jobs, higher incomes, more money given to the government through taxes, and the cycle will repeat. 

I don’t care which political party is an office. But I do wish there were a basic understanding of financial policies, so that people who are the most progressive — people who want as many benefits as possible for the bottom third of society — will stop creating policies that hurt these people. 

First off, who is below the  poverty line? The example most used is people who live in poor neighborhoods or mandated low income housing. But also, young people burdened with student loan debt or middle class people who have lost their jobs, etc. are also affected by bad financial policies. 

“Progressives” always talk about “taxing the rich.” But taxing the rich is not the same as collecting money from the rich. 

People like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates don’t generate wealth through income. So income taxes do not affect them. Nor does increasing capital gains taxes. Buffett is a great example of someone who almost never sells shares, so has no gains. 

Nor does Elizabeth Warren’s proposal of a “wealth tax.” Technically, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are BROKE because their money has been stashed away in charitable foundations that can’t be taxed. 

Warren Buffett always complains he pays less taxes than his secretary. But nothing is stopping him from writing a check to the government. 

The bottom line is: Nobody will willingly pay more taxes and they will use every strategy at their disposal to pay less taxes. The higher taxes are raised, the more wealthy people use strategies to avoid taxes. This has been seen in almost every decade of U.S. history. 

Here are a few of the policies that have been around for decades that are harmful to the non-wealthy. These are all taxes that supposedly help society and have been part of progressive platforms but are, in fact, deeply regressive — the poorer someone is, the more these policies hurt them. 

SALES TAXES: A greater percent of income from low-wage earners goes towards basic goods. So a greater percent of income goes towards sales taxes. As opposed to wealthy earners, who spend more income on savings. 

BLUE COLLAR LICENSES: These make it expensive for people living below the poverty line to get jobs. For instance, why does a manicurist in Georgia need to pay AGAIN for a manicurist license if they move to Florida? 

ZONING: This reduces the supply of housing in low-income areas, forcing prices up. 

SOCIAL SECURITY TAXES: 6.2% regardless of income level. 

RENT CONTROL: Due to frozen rent prices for a select few, supply shrinks and rent for everyone else goes up.

VICE TAXES: Lower-income earners are twice as likely to smoke and the tax is the same regardless of income level. 

STUDENT LOAN AND MORTGAGE DEDUCTIONS: The top portions of society benefit from these deductions. 

TAX-FREE MUNICIPAL BONDS: The wealthy buy these bonds and earn tax-free interest. The bonds are paid back by the municipality increasing sales and income taxes.

BORROWING FROM FOREIGN LENDERS: This is 40% of federal debt. Future generations of earners in the U.S. will pay their income to future generations of foreign lenders. 

Possible innovationist solutions: 

• Negative income taxes: Similar to a universal basic income. Both Andrew Yang AND Milton Friedman suggested this).
• Negative sales taxes on local goods: Give incentives for shopping local as opposed to online. This would be complicated to implement. One solution would be to form a local cryptocurrency — i.e., “NYCBucks.” A consumer “mines” more NYCBucks by spending locally. The consumer can then spend those bucks, but only locally. Ten years after issuance, NYCBucks can be redeemed 1:1 for dollars. This is a form of stablecoin but would encourage an increase in the velocity of money locally. 
• Get rid of many of the regressive policies mentioned above: Zoning, blue collar licensing, sales taxes, FICA taxes, even tariffs hurt the non-wealthy in the U.S. 

But how should the government raise money? 

If policies are adjusted to unburden larger percentages of society, there will be more incentives for people to create innovations, companies, hire people, and increase prosperity. 

The more prosperity is created, the more taxes are generated, even if taxes are lower. The higher the taxes, the less that is spent on private industry, the more tax loopholes are used (see Bill Gates and Warren Buffett example above), and less money is collected. 

Innovationism is not Democrat or Republican. It’s the right way to run a country.

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13 Things Mentally Strong People Do When Their Candidate Loses

I’m scared. 80,000,000 people are going to be upset tonight no matter who wins the election.

Buildings are boarded up in every major city. Riot gear is being handed out. Security companies are being hired to add protection. Celebrities are “going to move to Canada” for the 20th election in a row. 

The No. 1 stress being discussed in psychologist’s offices is “political stress.” You cannot help solve the problems we are in if you are anxious or stressed. You cannot be rational if you are not taking care of yourself physically, emotionally, creatively. You cannot enhance the lives of your family, your friends, your community if you are arguing on social media.

This is your choice.

The U.S. has survived depressions, World Wars, (“two-time world champs,” as comedian Chris Distefano puts it), we’ve survived horrific natural disasters, terrorist, attacks, censorship (if you think social media is bad, check out the Alien & Sedition Acts), pandemics, etc. It’s going to be OK.

Over $10 BILLION was spent on this election. More than ever. What was it spent on? Scaring you. Stressing you out. Dividing us.

And after this election, our goal is to repair rather than compare. To sympathize rather than polarize. To strengthen each other rather than pull each other down. A true leader is not who is elected but those of us who take action to help others. This is our responsibility.

I called Amy Morin, author of the bestselling book, “13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do.”

She wrote that book after she went through a horrific year at the age of 26. Her young husband passed away, only a few short years after her mother had passed away. As a therapist, she had to apply her own ideas to herself and it was almost impossible. But she did it and I’m happy she wrote about it. Her ideas have helped me and can help all of us on a day like today.

She sent me her list of “13 Things Mentally Strong People Do When Their Candidate Loses.” Then she went on my podcast and we talked about each one. 

1) They Accept the Outcome

No matter who wins, a mentally strong person will accept the outcome and move on with their lives.

You can throw a pity party and wish things were different, but that’s a waste of time and doesn’t do you any good.

2) They Name Their Feelings

Many studies have shown that if you label your feelings, it takes the sting out of them:

“Just putting a label to those emotions reduces the intensity of them; you start to feel better almost instantly” – Amy Morin

3) They Look at the Facts

Take a step back to look at what’s true.

Trust me when I say: Whatever your critical issue, it’s not as bad as you think. [If you ask about issues in the comments I will write another article after this election about what the reality is for each issue.]

4) They Argue the Opposite When Thinking of Doom And Gloom 

If you think the economy will crash if your presidential candidate doesn’t win, argue the opposite. Just because things will be different, it doesn’t mean things will be worse.

5) They Limit Their Media

No one, not even the media, knows exactly what the future holds. Studies show that watching the evening news can elevate your stress levels. Limit your media time to 30 minutes.

6) They Stop Commiserating

Commiserating, or complaining to others, makes you feel worse and makes the world seem more gloomy. There’s a big difference between emotional support and commiserating.

“It’s not really all that healthy for us to just sit around and talk about how horrible life is.” – Amy Morin

7) They Focus on What They Can Control

You can’t control the outcome of the election but you can control your diet, who you spend time with, how much sleep you get, etc. The more we worry about things we can’t control, the more anxious we become.

8) They Resist the Urge to Argue on Social Media

People aren’t going to change who they’re going to vote for over a stranger’s opinion on social media.“You’re not changing anyone’s opinion. You’re just wasting your time and your energy.” – Amy Morin

9) They Reach for Healthy Coping Skills

Have a strategy to handle anxiety, fear, etc. Avoid reaching for alcohol or sweets. Try doing yoga, spending time with loved ones, or other healthy ways of coping.

10) They Take Care of Themselves

Get 8 hours of sleep, exercise daily, and eat healthy.

11) They Change the Channel in Their Brain

Recognize when you’re dwelling on the negative or ruminating on a problem instead of trying to solve it. If you find yourself focusing on something negative, get up and go do something different (cleaning your room, go for a walk, call a friend to catch up, etc.).

12) They Schedule Time to Worry

Give yourself 15 minutes to worry every day. With practice, people can contain their worrying to just 15 minutes a day. It’s OK to spend time worrying; the key, however, is to be able to contain it.

13) They Take Positive Action

Do something kind and positive for someone. Be kind to your neighbor. Send a thank you letter to a friend. Do some community service. Make your partner laugh.

I’ve been scared these past few weeks. That’s why I called Amy. It’s like we’re lonely boats trying to find shore on a foggy night. Become a beacon of light to those around you, and then when the night is gray, all of the boats will move toward you, bringing their bountiful riches.

Please share this with anyone you think it can help. Our goals are to come out of this better than we were. With a stronger Union. With more compassion for others. With our loving relationships still intact. With the strength to handle tomorrow’s issues. Good luck.

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5 Things I Recently Taught Alex Wieckowski

I recently appeared as a guest on Alex Wieckowski’s podcast, “Alex and Books.”

He recently tweeted the 5 top lessons he took away from the podcast. So I decided to share them here.

Also, you can check out the episode here.

5 Key Lessons I Learned from My Podcast with James Altucher

1) We live in a Choose Yourself era. What does that mean?

You don’t have to wait for approval from gatekeepers to get your dream job: Want to be an author? Self-publish on Amazon. Want to be an actor? Record videos on YouTube. Want to be a musician? Upload songs to Spotify.

2) 3 ways to find your passion

Reflect on what activities make you happy and think of ways you could earn money from them.

List things you loved doing as a kid, explore those activities.

Ask yourself, what area of a bookstore do you always gravitate to?

3) Advice for finding happiness

Work on mastering a skill you enjoy doing. Invest in relationships with friends & family. Take responsibility for your life and situation. Take care of yourself both mentally & physically (cut out toxic people & exercise daily)

4) Helpful life advice 

Don’t let failure keep you down (James had 9 businesses fail in a row but the 10th worked great).

You don’t have to quit your day job tomorrow to choose yourself (James didn’t quit his day job until 18 months after starting his business).

5) More life advice

Look at life as a series of experiments: Some will work, some won’t. Either way learn and move forward. It’s never too late to choose yourself: James got into podcasting in his 40s and standup in his 50s.

Whatever your dream job is, choose yourself.

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Is This the “Most Important Election Ever”?

Be careful who writes the words that vomit out of your mouth. Here is “the most important election ever”…

1832:

1844:

1868:

1876:

1880:

1892:

1940:

1964:

I’m not saying 2020 is not important. But words have meaning and to have them dictated by media cliches since 1832 only weakens their value. Be unique, be smart, and make arguments while knowing history and facts and not just placebic slogans.

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How I Launch a Book

In a recent podcast episode, Anna David, writer extraordinaire, analyzes my book launch strategy and nails it. I’m reprinting the transcript of the podcast below. But if you’re interested, you can listen to the podcast here.

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Episode 333: A Play-by-Play Breakdown of How James Altucher Launches a Book

Hi there. Welcome to Launch Pad, a podcast hosted by me, Anna David. This is where I talk to the world’s most successful authors and entrepreneurs about how they launch their books and what a book can do for your career. Now, this is one of my favorite new things. These play-by-play breakdowns, because it gives me an opportunity to study the best and break down in my opinion. So using my experience to break down my interpretation of what these incredibly successful people have done from, and for their books and how you can do the same. So before I forget, this is episode 333, and it’s on James Altucher.

And I have actually had the pleasure of meeting him twice. So I can tell you that he’s a pretty fun guy to sit down with as well. If you are not familiar with who he is, he’s a hedge fund manager, very prolific author, very prolific podcaster, and has founded, or co-founded over 20 companies and he’s written over 20 books. And so he has so many things that he is very hard to categorize. I also remember him telling me, when we met in New York about how he had this job doing shows for HBO hosting shows in the middle of the night, which involved him being up and outside in the middle of the night in New York City. But he got a new life as a blogger because he started writing these incredibly honest, incredibly bizarre, unique posts, and he started to develop this following and he started to sort of put out these ideas that people began to quote and follow.

He has this idea, this idea, this concept that you have to constantly be thinking of new ideas. And you know, he’s just kind of gotten an opinion on everything. You know, I remember reading that he said, you shouldn’t eat after a certain hour in the day; he wasn’t calling it intermittent fasting. He was just saying like, what I really like about him is that in many ways he doesn’t try to defend his position on something. He just says, this is what I think, and this is what I do, and it is true. And so, as he became known as this blogger he, you know, he did some very interesting things that he’s written about and talked about. Like he during the crash in 2008, 2009, he went and stood there at Wall Street and handed out chocolate bars just to get people to smile.

And what he talks about is that his most popular post of all time is the most, the thing that brings more people to his website than any other is when they Google “I want to die” or “I want to kill myself” because he has written about that. And he’s just incredibly honest. And like I said, he says things that other people don’t. So, like I said, he’s written 20 books and a number of these were traditionally published. So like me, he started off in traditional publishing, got very disillusioned and now publishes his books himself, but among his books, there’s something called My Daddy Owns all of Outer Space. There’s Super Cash, The New Hedge Fund Capitalism. It sort of runs the gamut: 40 Alternatives to College. One of his controversial opinions is that college is a waste of time and money and nobody should go, Oh, he has a book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Mediocre People.

And the book that we’re going to talk about today is his book, Choose Yourself: Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream. And it came out in 2013 and he published it himself. And I have learned so much from studying what he did with that book. And he’s been very, he’s very generously shared with the world how he did it.

By 2016, it had sold over 500,000 copies, hit the Wall Street Journal bestseller list, was number one on Amazon for all nonfiction books for a few days, and obviously hit number one in its different categories. Now, the very interesting thing, and this is going to be the first, well, no, here. I want to talk about the first tip that I have determined from studying what he does.

I’ve touched on it already but really hone your writer’s voice. Don’t be afraid to share who you are and to just constantly be as honest as you possibly can. I actually interviewed him for a story I did for Entrepreneur magazine a few years ago. I can put the link to that story in the show notes. And what he said to me when I interviewed him for that, cause it was a story about how entrepreneurs use their books to become more successful, he said, “When I first started blogging, I wanted people to know how hard it is to strive for something to deal with failure, to actually fail, to confess mistakes in a world where everyone pretends to be perfect.” And then he added, “It was this very style of writing that multiplied by a hundred times my number of readers.”

So yeah, I mean, it’s a nice sort of antidote to all the people out there that are telling you they’ve got it all figured out. His sort of platform, if you will, is based on how, how not figured out he has it. And we all relate. So that book I already told you about how well it sold like crazy, it’s got almost 2,500 ratings and reviews on Amazon and this is how he did it. 

This is tip number two. It’s basically spending whatever you can afford to spend. Now, this dude’s like loaded, you know, he’s done all these things. He’s got, he’s got a big old budget for this. So it depends on what your budget is. I’m not saying you should do what he did because most of us don’t have the sort of budget that he did for this.

But he hired Ryan Holiday, who is the biggest and the best when it comes to marketing a book, he hired this editor who he really admired. And he said that they went through more than 15 different rewrites for the book. He hired the best audio book company. And he basically spared no expense. So I think that how that applies to you is…side note, one of my least favorite questions anyone has ever asked me is what’s your budget for that? Because I always want to go “Well, what’s whatever the cheapest is that I can get it for. “And apparently you’re not supposed to do that if you want to be incredibly successful. So don’t do that; I’ve gotten a lot better about it. I used to be sort of allergic to spending more than a hundred dollars at a time, but then I’d go around spending a hundred dollars on 800 things. Nobody has ever accused me of being good with money or any sort of a numbers guru.

I would highly recommend if you want to follow the James Altucher formula, figure out what your budget is and where you want to divide it, he suggested, I agree with him, spend the most of the money on the editing, that is what’s going to pay off the most. And you know, he and I have both said, you can design a cover for free on Amazon or on Canva, but you are going to get what you pay for. And so a certain level. So I would say the school of James is to spend the money on the editor and next would be the cover and obviously hiring somebody like Ryan Holiday is an indulgence—not an indulgence, but it’s for those who can afford to hit it out of the park.

So tip number three that we can glean from James Altucher is control your destiny. After getting sort of frustrated with traditional publishing and deciding that he wanted to control the experience, he talks about it in the same way I do. It was frustrating to have to wait so long, that it was frustrating to not have control over the cover and the title and, and all, and it was frustrating not making any money. So not only did he decide on everything for himself, but he even went out and found a foreign rights agency to sell the foreign rights, which is something that doesn’t occur to a lot of people. Of course, it’s not something that gets us rich. My first I’ve only actually had one book that was translated into other languages, Party Girl was translated into Russian and Italian, go grab it there, any Russian and Italian listeners.

So you don’t get rich off of that, but it’s pretty awesome. So he writes in a blog post and I will put a link to this in the show notes, he writes about how he got a foreign rights agency and he writes about how much he made from the rights when they sold it to Brazil, he made $2,500; to China, he made $4,300; to Korea, he made $5,000. So that was just another example of taking it into his own hands.

And that’s something that I have really learned lately when it comes to bookstores, which is my experience with traditional publishing was that my publisher would say “Yeah, this bookstore doesn’t doesn’t want your book.” And so I would literally walk into Skylight Books, this bookstore, this very cool bookstore near where I live and actively resent, not just the store, but every single author who had a book in that store, not knowing how it really works.

Now that I’m out of the game and I know people who work in publishing I’ve discovered that the publishers only have a certain number of books that they can pitch to bookstores. And so they’re not pitching yours. They are invested in it not being in that store. And I have just discovered quite how easy it is to get books in stores. For Make Your Mess Your Memoir, I reached out to Book Soup. They were happy to sell it. And they even did an online event with me. I reached out to Kitson, which is this kitschy kind of amazing store. And they said, “We’ll not only sell your book, but once the pandemic is over, we would love to throw you a party.” And then, publishers always make Barnes and Noble sound like the white whale that none of us will ever get there.

My traditionally published books were all sold there when they first came out in the first month. And then when those books were sold, they never appeared in those bookstores again. And my publisher Harper Collins had paid for that placement in that. So I just randomly was in Barnes and Noble recently, God, I feel like I’ve told you guys this story already. And I apologize. It’s like early senility. If I have an awesome, I was just there. And I started chatting with a guy who worked in the bookstore and I mentioned honestly, in a totally not even trying to be manipulative way that I was an author. And he said, “Wow, do we sell your books?” And I said, “Oh no, no, no, you stopped selling them years ago.” And he said, “Well, why don’t I order them?” And it was literally that easy.

What’s ironic perhaps is he went in, I gave him my name and he went into the database and he said he said, which of your books do you want me to order? And I said, well, Party Girl. And he looked. And he said, “I can’t order that” because the way the publisher had set it up, the bookstores couldn’t return the copies if they didn’t sell. And that is really what bookstores want to know is that they can return the copies if they don’t sell. If you publish it yourself, you can set it up so that the copies can be returned if they don’t sell. So he said, “Well, what’s your second choice?” I said, “Oh, my new book Make Your Mess Your Memoir.” And he said, “Great, I’m going to order it. And here’s what I think you should do. I think you should come in once the books are here, sign them, post them on social media. And people will come in and order them. And we’ll just keep ordering your book.”

Bookstores want to order books that people want. So that was so illuminating that it is that easy. And I say this because James Altucher, I was reading and he wrote something about how he was trying to get his book in more stores. And it is, as it turns out much easier than any of us may have realized. Certainly, I didn’t. So that was tip number three, it was to control your destiny. 

Let us talk about tip number four. And that is using group think in a way that is really productive. Now, what I mean by that is a lot of people will, when they have a title that they’re thinking about or a cover that they’re thinking about, they will go and they will post on Facebook or on Instagram or on LinkedIn.

And they will say, Which of these do you guys like? And they think that they are going to get an accurate response. By the way, I’ve completely done this myself. It’s very tempting because it’s very easy, frankly; the problem with it is that all studies say that people don’t buy what they think they’re going to buy. And the other problem of course, with posting it somewhere is that everybody’s influenced. So they’re influenced by the way you phrase the posting, they’re influenced by what other people like. I mean, if they come there and they go, “Oh, I really like that second one, but everybody liked the first one. I must be wrong.” So it is actually the worst way to try to get feedback on what is better. And, you know, cause if you, if you go around asking people what is better, everybody’s got an opinion and their opinions, frankly, don’t matter.

It’s what do the masses want? So what James Altucher did and Tim Ferriss did this too. And I believe I talked to you, I talked about this in the Tim Ferriss episode. So if you haven’t heard that go back and make sure you listen to that. But he ran Facebook ads and he ran it with 10 titles that he thought would be good. And he sat back and watched what happened. And there were thousands of clickthroughs. And the one that he thought was the best one, which was The Choose Yourself Era came in third, Pick Yourself was in second and Choose Yourself was the first by far. And that is of course the title he ended up going with. He did the same thing with the subtitle and the final version of the cover. And you know, the proof is in how successful the book is.

So I think that that is an amazing tip, which is thinking that just going around and asking people which is better is going to get you the response that you want. I frankly think you’re better off not asking anyone anything. If you want to invest in Facebook ads—both the time and the money and you know what it’ll take to make those effective and you’ve got the time to do it.

Okay. Tip number five: come up with unique propositions. That’s part number one, but part number two is that you then have the ability to get media for, and he did two really great ones, which is he made an offer. He said that people could buy this book with Bitcoin. Did he do that to get rich from Bitcoin?

No, he did it cause no one had done it. And it was bizarre. And he, as I mentioned, was working with Ryan Holiday who had the ability to go get media to write about that. He also put at the beginning of his book, basically: if you read this book and you don’t like it, I will give you your money back. Now I’m going to guess that very few, if any, people took him up on that, but again, it was bizarre and they got media attention for it.

It reminds me of this friend of mine who was very, very funny, Jennifer Belle, her first book was called Going Down. And I think for her fourth book, she said, “You know what I’m going to do.” She lives in New York. And she said, “I am going to hire actresses and pay them to read my book on the subway because that’s how people know they want to read a book because they see other people reading it on the subway.”

So she did it. She found actresses. She got them to read it on the subway. I don’t know if that worked but the New York Times heard about it or maybe she told the New York Times about it and they were in a story about it. So it’s coming up with these ideas. But the problem is it’s like the whole thing about the tree falling in the woods. If you don’t have the ability to get it to the media, then your amazing idea isn’t going to get coverage. And if you’re saying, “Well, that’s great for those people. I mean, they hire expensive publicists and know people,” know this: anybody can get media attention. Go back and listen to my episode with Cameron Herold, or even buy his book, Free PR. In the episode we did, he walked me through exactly what you can do to figure out what your angle is and how not just approachable, but reachable journalists are. 

The quick overview is all journalists are on Twitter. And so if you can figure out who has written about, you know, let’s say you come up with your unique idea for your book and you want the media to write about it. So start looking around and see who’s written about this or what TV shows have talked about this before. And, you know, journalists have a beat. Maybe their beat is, is just the topic or genre of your book: figure out where they are, tweet at them. There is also a website called hunter.io that has a lot of email addresses. There’s also a paid service where you can get people’s email addresses. And obviously, there’s LinkedIn and there’s Facebook and there’s Instagram and there are all these places.

So it just requires a certain level of proactiveness that frankly, I don’t always have, cause I am scared of rejection and, and bugging people. I’m a former journalist. But as Cameron Herold very eloquently explained: if you are doing their work for them, a journalist is going to be grateful to you. You are not bothering them. You are presenting them with a story. And another thing you can do is subscribe to Help A Reporter Out, which is also called HARO. And it is where journalists list, all the stories that they’re working on and what they’re looking for sources for. And they send three emails a day. And whenever you see a journalist that is working on a story that pertains to potentially what your unique proposition is, then you can reach out to them. And, and I actually do have a course that gets into this a little bit called Media Attention for Writers. 

I can put a link to that in the show notes. So that, and then, and then the final tip that we’re going to glean from James Altucher is that he keeps writing. And like I said, over 20 books, he doesn’t put all his eggs in one book basket. I can’t tell you the number of people I speak to who say to me that they’ve got a book that is going to change the world. It is their story. Everybody’s always told them they should write a book. And I can feel the future disappointment when I talk to them because it’s just not how it works. Yes. It worked that way for Elizabeth Gilbert kind of; actually it didn’t. Eat Pray Love was like her sixth book. It worked that way for the 50 Shades of Gray lady so it can happen.

But it almost never does. So if you want to be a successful writer, you keep writing, you do not assume that one book is going to be “it” for you. But the other thing, and this is related to that. What James Altucher does very well is books are just a part of his strategy. And they lead people into his myriad, other things, which includes his podcast. Of course, he has a huge podcast and he’s interviewed people like Mark Cuban and Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington and Peter Thiel and a whole bunch of people on that. And he has courses. He actually has a Choose Yourself Guide to Self Publishing, which I can put a link to in the show notes. It’s a thousand dollars. I bet you a lot of people buy that. So that is, you know, I, I guarantee you, he has made more money from that course than he did from book sales.

Even though I bet he made a lot from book sales…by the way, that course includes his books, a membership group publishing software, it looks pretty, pretty awesome. Frankly, it’s $997. It’s not a thousand dollars. And you know, he has eight different newsletters that you can subscribe to. So I don’t know if he has cloned himself or if he just has an amazing team or whatever it is, but he is somebody who I have learned so much from studying in terms of his marketing.

And his writing! I should mention he is a hilarious, incredibly intelligent original writer, definitely worth mentioning. And hopefully you guys got something out of this that you can apply to your own books and book releases. That is it. I am Anna David signing off. I will see you next week.

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And Then, To My Horror, I Learned Something New

“Why are people so racist against Green people?”

“What??”

The two producers on the Zoom call were not sure what I was asking about. The audio engineer had muted himself. The other audio engineer was confused because he didn’t grow up in this country.

Even David Banner, known for being a rapper but also an activist, was silent.

“Like the Hulk,” I said, “From the TV show. You picked his name. The Hulk is green.”

“Ahh,” he said, and he laughed. He took the name David Banner 25 years ago for his first album. Named himself after the Hulk.

Named after the lonely hitchhiker who just wanted a break from his troubles. Just wanted to be normal and hide. But he couldn’t.

Trouble would start! He’d get angry and become the Hulk.

Save the world.

And then the show always ended with David Banner standing on the road, his thumb up, taking his chance that the next town, city, life, would give him the peace he wanted.

“I thought that was Bruce Banner,” said the man from another country.

“In the U.S., on TV when I was a kid, he was called David Banner.”

We were all kids then. We wanted to be him. Lonely. Misunderstood. To take our chances before anyone realized our secret powers.

“Why do rappers always rap about material items, sex, masculinity?”

An interview is a courtship. I’m shy at first. I dance around the issues. If something hits too close, back away. Circle a bit more. Dart in and out of the third rail so as not to be electrocuted.

Then you get closer.

The electricity is no longer dangerous. You ask.

“Do you know about buck breaking?” David asked me.

“I don’t.”

“James, when a male slave would ‘act up,’ the slave owner would strip him naked and tie him to a tree.

“Then all the other slave owners from the whole county or even the whole state would come to that tree and rape the slave while everyone watched.

“That’s breaking the buck,” he said.

I never heard of that. In my 52 years on planet Earth, something new. Something blue.

“The slaveowners would get their hidden homosexual urges out.

“The slaves would be humiliated, emasculated. Their wives and children watched while they were repeatedly raped. They would lose their manhood. Often they would kill themselves after, they were so humiliated.”

And there it was. I Googled and found it. Often associated now with the sagging pants many kids wear, probably without knowing it, a coded message sent from the past.

“So rappers now try to reclaim what we lost. Manhood. Possessions. Freedom. We can never get it back for those who lost it. Maybe we can get it for ourselves.”

“We Have Questions.”

An audiobook project I’m working on with Charlamagne tha God, host of the show, “The Breakfast Club.”

This is a small taste. After two weeks of interviews I couldn’t talk.

“What’s wrong?” Robyn asked. But I didn’t have any answers.

“Even when I was broke, selling my soul wasn’t tempting.” – from David Banner’s song, “Swag.”

I don’t know. The many times I’ve been broke, I’ve been tempted. I didn’t have enough strength. I’m not the Hulk.

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How to Watch the Amy Barrett Judicial Hearings Without Vomiting

I’ve watched the proceedings on Amy Barrett. Normally I would never watch this for obvious reasons. They are super boring. 

But, as is common in American politics lately, these proceedings are hilarious. 

I’ve never seen an improv group as good as these senators. 

They basically KILL for eight straight hours. Democrats and Republicans. What talent! What wit! 

Senator Hirono asking Barrett if she’s ever settled a sexual harassment case against her. Or the dozens of pictures about the Affordable Healthcare Act. 

[NOTE: Without a judge to break ties, the ACA provision in question is ALREADY dead in the circuit court. That’s WHY it made its way to the Supreme Court. No senator has mentioned this and it is not relevant to her confirmation.] 

I’ve also seen a full spectrum of opinions on what “originalism” is.

The opinions seem to be magically based on what your party affiliation is, even though originalism has nothing to do with party affiliation. 

There are also opinions about her faith, the particular faith group she belongs to, the size of her family, the race of her family, etc. 

Again, hilarious. 

This is my opinion (hence it’s the correct opinion!) on how a senator should “advise and consent” on Barrett. 

I should state first: I absolutely do not agree with many of her personal stances. I am not in her faith. I am 100% pro-choice. Etc. 

WHAT IS ORIGINALISM?  THE GOOD AND THE BAD

The problem with “originalism” is that it allows a lot of leeway for interpretation. 

But originalism is not the same as literalism, where it’s ONLY what is written in the Constitution that a judge should pay attention to. 

Originalism allows for interpretations to change as society evolves. 

Originalism can take something like the First Amendment and ask, “How does this apply now that there are cellphones and internet, etc?” 

This has been a misconception about originalism — that it’s literal. Originalism acknowledges that it is “reasonable” to look at how society has evolved. 

[Note: This is similar but slightly different from a living constitution, which basically says that parts of the Constitution can become worthless (or change drastically) as society evolves. 

An originalist focuses more on “intent” of the founders and assumes that the founders were “reasonable.”]

A) AMENDMENTS: All amendments are included in originalism because of the rigorous process required to make something an amendment. 

B) CONSTITUTION: Barrett believes that the Constitution is general enough to be applicable in a changing world and specific enough to create laws in this world. 

Hence her reverence for (her words) “the longest lasting written constitution in the world.”

It’s important to note: Meaning does not change, but “what is reasonable” changes. 

C) PRECEDENTS: An originalist also relies on “super precedents” — i.e., court decisions that are then referred to by MANY future precedents. 

This, of course, can be subject to interpretation, so it’s important to understand her criteria for super precedents. 

[Note: She has referred to Brown v. Board of Education as a super precedent, whereas her comments on Roe v. Wade are a bit more gray.]

D) SEVERABILITY: If one part of a law is not constitutional but the rest is, she’s fine severing that one part of the law that isn’t. 

Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing since it could devolve into a judge acting like a legislator. This should be questioned. 

E) LEGISLATE: She has said she will never legislate with a decision. The Constitution, for an originalist, will never allow justices to interpret a law so much that it changes the law. 

Not defending Amy Barrett, by the way. But it’s useful to define her philosophy as opposed to using biased information to make such an important decision for the country. 

I’m seeing a lot of people distort her philosophy to guide their opinion of her. Then it becomes partisan, which it shouldn’t be. 

HOW TO JUDGE A JUDGE

• Is she honest?
• Is she consistent in her decisions? If not, then why? 
• Is she informed about all the cases that she considers super precedents? 
• Have we ever seen her make decisions that seem more based on her personal beliefs than on the Constitution? This one thing alone would throw out her originalism and call into question her qualifications. 
• Is she ethical? Of course “ethical” is subjective, but the only guideline here is: Don’t assume she is unethical if she doesn’t believe the same way you do on a particular issue. For instance, I am strongly pro-choice. She is strongly pro-life. I would never judge her on that. 

The difference between picking a judge and picking a political leader is that, to some extent, you do want your ethics and beliefs to somewhat match the potential leader’s beliefs. 

With a judge, you shouldn’t care about their personal beliefs (outside judicial beliefs) unless they are unethical. 

If you have to care, then that might imply they are not consistent in their judicial beliefs. 

For me, it’s also important how composed she is (or is not). She seems much more composed than other recent picks (i.e., her response to the sexual harassment question).

QUESTIONS IF I WERE PART OF THIS PROCESS

• How broad will her interpretations be when she applies the Constitution to modern situations? I feel originalism is not clear on this (although I am not an expert). 
• Have there been times when her personal beliefs had more influence than they should have on her decisions? 
• How is her composure during the hearings?
• Where is the line between severability and legislation?
• What is her knowledge of super precedents and the precedents that refer to them? Also, which precedents does she consider super precedents? Something that, surprisingly, has not been covered in these hearings. 

I see newspaper articles saying she is “dodging questions.”

She has explained that she is using Ginsburg’s guidelines on the difference between being a judge and being a legal pundit on TV. 

Specifically, Ruth Bader Ginsburg said:

A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process.

Senators need to respect this.  

A judge needs litigants, context, and a knowledge of precedents before giving an opinion. 

Giving opinions is the opposite of that. 

I did have a concern when she was asked if “XYZ is against the law.” I wondered to myself, why can’t she answer those questions? 

But then I looked more at those questions being asked and was fine with her responses. 

“Is killing against the law?” is different from “If so-and-so does XYZ, is that against the law?” In which case, she would need to know 1,000 more details about the context. 

Do I think she should be approved? I have no clue. 

But if you like her or don’t like her, my only advice is to stay above partisanship and try to focus on the actual issues and concerns, as I’ve done here. 

Finally, I don’t like politics, thinking about politics, writing about politics. 

But I’ve been fascinated by people who live by their philosophies and people (on both sides) making up standards on the fly to meet their own beliefs. 

No matter what I do in life, I try to live by as simple a code as possible to help me make decisions, live a better life, and contribute to society, by being as consistent as possible. 

This tells me that my personal manifesto is probably a decent and honest one and so I can focus more energy on self-betterment. 

A rising tide lifts all boats. So having a strong personal manifesto is a good thing for all of society.

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Why I Won’t Vote

I’m not going to vote. I’ve never voted in a presidential election. And in the 34 years that I’ve been allowed to vote, I’ve only voted in two local elections. Once in 1991 and once in 2004. 

I’ve been vote-shamed all of my life. It’s part of the American religion that if you don’t vote, then you are a bad person.

Right now the country is filled with hate on both sides. I do a variety of activities that help people. But when you get in the mud with a pig, the pig gets happy and you get dirty. This year, politics is like getting in the mud with a pig.

“People died so you can vote!” is a common argument. 

“You are not entitled to an opinion if you don’t vote.” 

“You can’t complain if you don’t vote.” 

“You are a racist if you don’t vote.” 

“Go somewhere where voting is not allowed and you will see why it’s important to vote.” 

By the way, I’m still entitled to complain and I have opinions and I don’t care that people died so I can vote. I wish whoever died for my right to vote had lived. 

You should vote if you want to. But this is a guide for people who don’t want to vote and have to put up with all the vote-shaming. 

(This shows why the system is broken. If “no vote” counted as a vote, then “Nobody” would win the presidency.)

A) ARE YOU QUALIFIED TO VOTE?

Most people shouldn’t vote.

Most people vote for the candidate their friends or colleagues are voting for. And many people are swayed by cognitive biases triggered by campaign materials and media.

People follow the personalities of the candidates. I hear things like, “I just don’t like XYZ as a person,” etc. So? Does anyone follow issues?

Here are some questions I sometimes ask people and I’ve never gotten reasonable answers (don’t look the answers up): 

1. What are five or more differences in policies between Trump and Biden (other than taxes)?
2. Name three laws that Trump has signed that you disagree with or agree with.
3. What is a tariff? 
4. What countries do we have a military presence in? 
5. What part of Roe vs. Wade makes abortion legal? 
6. What is the last war that the U.S. entered? 

Most people can’t answer any of the above questions. Should they vote? 

B) A VOTE RIGHT NOW IS A VOTE FOR POLARIZATION

A political system should have “reasonable” and “rational” people. 

Reasonable people welcome many different viewpoints, with the understanding that we can vote on these viewpoints, and we have to live with the conclusion until the next election even if we disagree. 

Pro-choice and pro-life people will never agree with each other, but they all trust the system and live by its rules. 

“Rational” people vote for their self-interests. This is not as selfish as it sounds. 

My self-interest includes my family and my community, because I know the cliche is true: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” I can widen out my community to include, to an extent, the entire country. By being rational I am forced to consider what the best interests are of everyone and make my decision accordingly. 

Friends are fighting. Families are breaking up. People are being censored, even attacked, for their beliefs on either side. When was the last election where someone was attacked for supporting a candidate? 

People are being mocked or are getting death threats. I don’t want to be a part of this. 

A non-vote is a rejection of the direction the entire system is going again, regardless of how I feel about the candidates. 

C) THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS STILL EVIL

I am not going to criticize the candidates. But both have been accused of rape. Both have been accused of repeatedly lying. Both have been accused of corruption. Are they guilty? Who knows?

Both are in their mid- to late 70s. I have a problem with that. If a 75-year-old makes a bad decision he might think to himself, “Well, at least I’ll be dead before this decision is proven to ruin the country!” 

I’m not saying 70-year-olds don’t care about making bad decisions. But… maybe they don’t. I don’t know! I’d rather have a 45-year-old who is going to see the end results of their decisions. 

Is this ageist? Yeah it is. So what? 

D) NOBODY REALLY WANTS YOU TO VOTE

When I say I won’t vote, some people respond: “He’s an idiot. He doesn’t see that there is a clear choice. He should vote.” 

For these people, they simply want to vote twice. They want to vote and then they think I should vote for their candidate so they can “win.” I get this on both sides. But elections aren’t a game and it’s silly to think of “winners” in this context. 

E) A NON-VOTE IS A VOTE IN FAVOR OF MORE CHOICES

Texas requires 89,000 voter signatures and a $79,000 filing fee if you want to run for president. Now repeat that for all 50 states. 

The Republicans and Democrats do not differ much at the core of their political philosophies. People might think they do, but they don’t. They basically feel the same about taxes, wars, healthcare, climate change, etc., with minor differences. 

I know people will argue with me on this but that’s another discussion. 

(I didn’t know until I saw this that 1,212 people filed to run for president this year. Why can’t we vote for any of them?)

And they often switch philosophies when convenient. For instance, universal basic income (UBI) is considered a Democrat policy, but it was first proposed by a Republican: Richard Nixon. 

Are Democrats the same as socialists? No, they’re not. It would be reasonable to have a separate Socialist Party. Just like there is a spectrum of Republican philosophies with many different beliefs. 

I would like to have a choice that most closely represents my own values. A vote right now is simply a vote for the current “Republocrat” system and doesn’t allow for multiple beliefs. 

F) IT DOESN’T MATTER

Most votes don’t matter. 

For instance, we already know which direction New York State is going to go. 

And if you live in North Dakota, you don’t need to vote blue because that state is definitely red. Overall, four or five states and about 70,000 votes out of 130 million will be the deciding votes. 

All of the other votes don’t really matter. 

(Your vote doesn’t really matter for any state in the 90s)

BUT… BUT… DOES THIS MEAN YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT SOCIETY? 

No, not at all. 

Everyone can speak their mind. I have a podcast where I regularly ask members of both parties to come on as guests. 

I’ve had on Democratic congressmen, a liberal Supreme Court justice, Democratic candidates for president, Republican candidates for president and Republican governors. I’ve had Libertarians and anarchists on the show. I’ve had on liberal and conservative media. 

Out of the thousands of issues that governments deal with, I know very little about most of them and I’m always trying to learn. 

When I have an opinion or an idea I want to share, I try to use my platform to either share it with as many people as possible, or I directly contact the government and share it. 

Or, if there is a societal problem where I think I have a solution, I share my ideas with those who can best implement them. Or I’ll even start a company to implement them myself. 

One company that I helped start is a company that makes nonlethal devices for law enforcement to replace guns and/or tasers. 

In another situation I suggested a book idea to one of the leading African-American voices to discuss issues on racism. That book will now be out by election time. 

Because I’ve spent the past 20 years trying to come up with solutions and building a platform to express my ideas, I feel I do have a voice that would be diminished by voting for one side or the other. 

FINALLY… 

There are more important issues in life than voting. 

If you want to help people, be physically healthy, work on emotional health, exercise your creativity muscle, and be humble enough to admit you can’t control or know everything. 

The better person you are, the better your family and community become. The better your community is, the more impact you have on the world to make it a better place. 

If you don’t want to vote, don’t be shamed into it. 

I can’t wait for Election Day, though. I have bets riding on the outcomes of about six states that are close. I plan on getting some popcorn, maybe doing a real-time podcast to analyze the election, and having a party! 

JUST TO BE CLEAR:

1. I believe that service to one’s country is important and can be achieved through developing and executing solutions the country needs. I am very much a proponent of this.
2. A non-vote is NOT THE SAME as a vote for whoever you disagree with.

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Ignore the “Idiot Issues” of This Election

Scientists and companies are creating vaccines, creating solar panels with four times the efficiency of current solar panels, making rockets, and creating genomics solutions that can cure thousands of major diseases. 

Let’s not stop them. Innovationism is the core philosophy that creates jobs, solves climate change, creates better healthcare, creates less infant mortality, etc. Government does none of this.

You either send goods or bullets over borders. And as America is more and more prosperous, it becomes more likely we trade goods rather than bullets. And as more innovations result, more job opportunities are created. 

(Are you really going to make an important decision based on what you read in the newspaper?)

The presidency needs to do what the Declaration states: Make sure that the liberty and pursuit of happiness of any member of society is not hampered. That is the role of the president. 

But there are many issues that I will call “idiot issues” that both parties and the media keep bringing up to try to scare people on BOTH sides. Do not pay attention to these issues. 

This is not a pro-Biden or pro-Trump article, although I keep getting accused of both. Stop it. 

I feel like if you’re not alt-right, people will call you a “libtard” or “snowflake” and if you’re not alt-left, people will call you a racist fascist. Since when has it been a crime to be a centrist? Most people are centrists but are afraid to speak right now. 

So I will. 

This is more a guide for thinking clearly about which issues are media-created and what’s actually important. Don’t make a decision based on issues dictated to you by the media.

Here are a few of the idiot issues:

ADDERALL

Both sides are claiming the other side is taking Adderall. Trump is insisting Biden take a drug test before the debates and Biden is saying no. And others are suggesting that a chunk of Adderall flew out of Trump’s nose during a televised press conference. 

My response: Who cares?

First, of course Biden is going to refuse a drug test. These guys are in their 70s. They are taking drugs for all sorts of things. 

(I wish the reporter had taken Adderall!)

And do you think if they wanted to avoid drug test results, their doctors aren’t good enough to fake any result? Of course they are. But why risk it?

Personally, if they are taking any kind of “performance-enhancing” drugs to be President of the United States, then power to them. It’s not like they have to worry about the health effects for the remainder of their lives (who cares about that?) and it’s not like they are “cheating” against other world leaders (again, who cares?) and it’s not like they are sending the wrong message to our kids (who all take Adderall anyway). 

So all the arguments are foolish. I hope they are taking Adderall. 

PERSONAL TAXES

Trump didn’t pay taxes for many years. Nobody knows how to interpret this. Did he cheat the government? Is he poor? 

The answers are obvious: No and no. And everyone understands this. It’s stupid to make this an issue. 

First off, billionaires don’t pay income taxes. They don’t have an income. Second, their capital gains are wrapped in companies that are wrapped in companies that are wrapped in companies. I doubt any billionaire pays their true taxes. 

(Hmmm…)

Second, Biden was “broke” in 2009. And in 2017–2018 he made $15 million. Good for him. This is America. He’s had opportunities the regular person doesn’t have. Do we blame him for it?

No, of course not. Elizabeth Warren is worth $12 million. Bernie Sanders is worth $3 million. Nancy Pelosi is worth over $50 million. Obama is worth $40 million. Even Martin van Buren was worth $29 million by the time he died. 

All of these guys are worth a lot and taxes are complicated because money is buried in trusts, companies, charities, etc. 

DEMENTIA

Believe me, Democrats know that Biden has some cognitive difficulties. But unless you are a doctor who specializes in this, it’s hard to say he has “dementia.”

When I do a podcast, I often forget what I’m saying and I stutter. When I give a speech I sometimes stutter. And it gets worse as I get older. The other day I had a migraine in the middle of a podcast and it almost seemed like I was having a stroke (my dad died of a stroke so I get scared when I have migraines). 

The reality is: Everyone close to Biden tells me that Biden has a good bench of people to help him. And most people voting for Biden are really voting “no Trump” so they don’t care whether he has dementia. 

Is Trump hiding any illnesses? Probably. I don’t care. Both sides appoint people who they consider experts. 

UKRAINE: TRUMP OR HUNTER BIDEN

Oh my god, I couldn’t care less. Was there quid pro quo between Trump and Ukraine? I hope there was! We were giving them a ton of money. We better get something back for it. 

And was Hunter Biden corrupt in his dealings with Ukraine? Of course he was!

Why would some random guy make millions on the board of a big Ukrainian company? Because he was the son of the Vice President of the United States. Duh! 

Is that corrupt? I don’t even care. Yeah, OK, it was corrupt. Big deal. They are ALL corrupt. 

EXECUTIVE ORDERS 

Oh man, another executive order from Trump. Shouldn’t he let the legislative branch do the legislating? 

Yeah, he should! That’s what the Constitution says. Whenever he issues an executive order about, say, drug prices, you have to ask: Can he really enforce this, or is this political messaging? 

Again, either way, I don’t care. Lower drug prices? Sure, sounds good. But I doubt he can get it. Eviction moratorium? Sounds good. But I doubt he can execute on that. As political messaging? Great. Now I know where he stands. 

Is he over-using executive orders? 

Here are the last few presidents and their number of executive orders:

• Bill Clinton 253
• George W. Bush 291
• Barack Obama 276
• Donald Trump 187

It’s not a big deal. 

FLIP-FLOPPING

I really respect Bernie Sanders. He’s had the same political beliefs his entire life. And, by the way, if you watch Trump speaking in the ’80s, he says the exact same things about tariffs and taxes then that he does now. 

Sanders and Trump have always been pretty consistent about their biggest issues (but not smaller ones). 

Biden, on the other hand, has switched his beliefs several times. Is this bad? Of course not! I also respect someone who can change beliefs given new data and new circumstances. 

So this is a non-issue. 

TRUMP AND SCIENCE

Everyone says Republicans are “anti-science” and Democrats are “pro-science.” I don’t understand this. 

Trump has followed Fauci’s recommendations almost every step of the way. The classic case is when Trump had the travel ban against China and Pelosi called him xenophobic. 

OK, I don’t blame her either for ignoring the importance of the pandemic. I was in San Francisco the exact day Pelosi was trying to get people to go to Chinatown. I WANTED to go to Chinatown that day but Robyn was against it. I guess I was “anti-science.” 

(Let’s get science on this!)

I really admire Hong Kong. As soon as there were two cases (TWO!) they had lockdowns, masks, social distancing, etc and they barely had cases. Good for them. We didn’t do that. Shame on us. 

But, as far as I can tell, Fauci was basically in charge of everything in terms of our initial response. Happy to be wrong on this. 

And there’s a lot of questionable science in terms of allowing for protests with 50,000 people, but you can’t have weddings or funerals. 

I don’t think we know the full science. 

In March, just a few months ago, we did not know the contagion rate, the mortality rate, the immunity factor, the herd immunity percentage, whether the virus was man-made, whether it was transmitted through the air or surfaces, the effects of various treatments (HCQ, Vitamin D, Dexamethasone, Doxycycline, etc.) and, to be honest, we still don’t. 

The world just passed 1 million COVID deaths today. Horrible! Hong Kong Flu in 1957 was 2 million deaths and affected children a lot more. 

Does this mean this is “better” than Hong Kong Flu? No, not at all. But it does question if we did the right thing economically. I don’t think we will know what the right decisions were until a post-hoc analysis. And I don’t think any expert on either side disagrees with that. 

I think if decisions had to be made right now, both Trump and Biden would make different decisions than was either made or suggested in February or March. But BOTH seem to trust Fauci. 

ROE VS. WADE

For everyone who is worried about Roe vs. Wade, don’t be. I am worried about Roe vs. Wade. I do not want it repealed. But the reality is: It’s not going to be. 

Amy Barrett is an “originalist” who doesn’t always believe in precedents to change the Constitution. This, and the fact that she is a religious Christian, makes people believe she will repeal Roe vs. Wade, preventing young girls from having the right to seek abortion. 

Barrett has said she views Roe vs. Wade a strong enough precedent that she wouldn’t repeal it. 

Personally, I wish there were laws directly related to allowing women to choose to have an abortion if they want to. I don’t like that Roe vs. Wade hinges on the interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s right to due process to include a right to privacy. I feel that is a flimsy connection. 

Instead, the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should guarantee rights of women: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…”

Since a fetus is not even remotely considered a citizen and assuming that “men” in this context means all people, then women have the same right of liberty as men, and the government’s role is simply to protect those rights and not take them away. 

I wish there were stronger laws about this but Amy Barrett is not going to take away Roe vs. Wade based on her prior experience. 

JOBS

Biden says that Trump is the only president to lose jobs during his term. 

Trump says that he had the greatest economic boom for jobs ever until the pandemic hit. 

Both are correct. 

Under Trump, unemployment was at a historic low, even for Hispanic Americans and African Americans. 

But under Trump, we had a forced economic lockdown, which reduced jobs to near-catastrophic levels. 

So you have to ask: dDd Trump cause the downfall of jobs during the pandemic? (Maybe yes, maybe no.) Was the economic lockdown necessary? If he had followed the science, would the economic lockdowns have caused less job loss? (Unclear.)

And then you have to ask, regardless of the above, who is more likely to create jobs in a bounceback (this is really the only thing that is important at this point in terms of jobs). 

Biden and Obama did return America to some employment normalcy after the Great Recession. Credit to Obama for helping build bipartisan support for the TARP bill, as well as the efforts to repeal or reduce FASB 157 , which, in my view, led to the bounceback. 

And credit to Trump for really ramping up job creation. Whose approach is better? I don’t know. That’s the issue. Not these empty numbers both sides are saying. 

RUSSIA

Clearly Trump is not a Russian asset. And, correctly, he has been focused on China, which has been much more hostile to America in terms of tariffs, IP stealing, human rights issues, etc. 

Is Trump allowing Russia to put bounties on American heads? Of course not. 

Is Russia trying to slowly build back the old Soviet Union? Of course. This has been known for about 20 years and nobody denies this. 

Will Trump be soft on this and Biden tough? Will Biden be tough on China so they stop stealing our IP and taking our jobs with their tariffs? 

We’ll see. This is the issue. Not some stupid issues about whether Trump is a spy or Hunter Biden is corrupt. I could care less about Hunter Biden and it’s ridiculous to think that the president is a Russian asset. 

DICTATORSHIP

Two qualities of a fascist dictator: 

• State-run economy — Where the government, ruled by one individual, is in charge of every aspect of the economy, from what job you can do, to what businesses stay in business, to who we trade with, to taxes, etc. 
• Identity politics — e.g., “Aryan people are the best people.”

Does either side want a government-controlled economy? Does either side play “identity politics”? 

Yeah, it can be argued both sides play identity politics. And I hope neither side wants a government-controlled economy, which goes against the real source of prosperity in America — the ability to innovate thanks to few government restrictions against innovationism. 

On the one hand, people are worried Trump won’t peacefully transfer power. 

On the other hands, Hillary Clinton is telling Biden to “not concede” even if he loses by a huge amount. 

So I’m not sure who is against changing power in the case of an election loss. 

Certainly both sides don’t want fraud. That is reasonable. And nobody will concede in the case of fraud. Also reasonable. 

There’s certainly been fraud in prior elections and power was transferred. 

In 1960, Nixon/Kennedy. Nixon barely lost and it may have been due to dead people voting in Chicago. Nixon even contested the election in courts but nothing came of it. 

2000, of course. 

1876 is the only clear-cut case of corruption I can think of, when Hayes paid off congressmen to vote for him when the election was close enough it was thrown into the house. This was a horrible blemish on American history, which led to much more restrictive Jim Crow laws. 

Should you be worried about any of the above? 

Yeah, if you think Trump is a Russian spy. Or if you think Biden is so riddled with dementia he could bypass all safeguards and launch a nuclear weapon, then sure, you should be worried. 

But these are fake worries. 

Every decision is either a fear decision or a growth decision. 

Don’t vote for a president out of fear. The media wants you to be afraid. On both sides. That’s their business model and, yes, it’s a great business model and it works. 

Vote for a president because you think it’ll make you and the country will grow. What does “growth” mean? That’s for each individual to decide.

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A Simple Guide to Every -Ism

People say this is an important election. I’ve never voted in a presidential election (the only two times I voted were in 1991 and 2004.)

When I say the above, many people vote-shame me. “If you don’t use your voice then you shouldn’t speak, ever!” or “Silence is violence!”

That’s not true. Silence does not equal violence. There are many things more important than politics. And I use my voice in many ways that I think are more valuable than a vote.

Don’t be addicted to anger when discussing issues important to you.

But, that said, I wanted to really understand the issues. And the best way to do that is to REMOVE THE PERSONALITIES from the equation and focus on the “-ISMS.”

What are the political philosophies that are out there? And which ones do I believe in and which candidate or party (if any) would best promote philosophies I believe in?

And to understand something, you also have to be able to explain it as simply as possible.

Too many academic pseudo-intellectuals have tried to explain Marxism or capitalism to me over the years, and the fancier their language got, the more I knew they were wrong.

Here are the -ISMs, tweet-sized, one at a time. From Marxism to Trumpism to Yangism and fascism and more.

MARXISM

Any financial division between an owner (someone who accumulates capital generated from the work of others) and a worker (someone who is paid less than the value he or she creates) results in class struggle and eventual revolution.

SOCIALISM

A capitalist society (where a worker gets paid less than value created and a boss gets the remainder), but where capital or ownership is later redistributed to “even things up.”

(Who would’ve thought? Such an easy acronym. I’m only dealing with the political -isms in this article but will also do one on the economic -isms.)

CAPITALISM

Karl Marx’s description of a system where some people do not create value but accumulate capital. This does not exist in real life. When people use the word “capitalism” they mostly don’t realize they are referring to Karl Marx’s definition of it.

INNOVATIONISM

The real source of prosperity and societal improvement (including human rights) comes from innovation. Innovation is a response to all prior technologies ever invented to solve a problem. Policies that reduce the friction required to innovate increase a society’s prosperity, healthcare, social issues, etc.

POLITICAL LIBERALISM (not “liberal” in the “left” sense)

A belief that all should have equal access to opportunity and that all deserve human rights. A belief that “rational” people will vote for their best interests, but that “reasonable” people require many different ideas from rational people, will vote on the ideas, and will abide by the consensus, even if it doesn’t go their way.

WOKEISM

A belief that some should have more access to opportunity than others in order to equal things out based on prior injustices that are now baked into the society. At any given point, the weakest voices (segregated by race or sex or preference or the intersection of these) should have the most access to opportunity.

LIBERTARIANISM

All should have equal access to opportunity. Decision making needs to be decentralized (individualized or, at least, localized) versus centralized (government-made) since a central body cannot make better decisions for the individual than the individual.

OBAMAISM

Friendship and consensus leads to prosperity. Even if a decision or policy is bad, if it is made with a group of decision makers, it is still more likely to result in prosperity than a decision that generates hostility among key decision makers. Consensus among nations creates globalism. Some, but not all, historical injustices can be corrected with policy.

TRUMPISM

A leader makes a limited amount of decisions but makes many decisions unilaterally to avoid “bureaucracy by committee.” Also isolationist — prosperity for a country comes from always making the best decisions for your country and ignoring the needs of other countries unless it benefits your group.

(BFFs forever?)

YANGISM

Innovation leads to a welcome prosperity but often creates new problems to be solved. Part of the increase in prosperity created by innovation needs to be redistributed to ensure smooth transitions as innovations move faster than new opportunities are created.

(Fun podcast to learn about Yangism.)

FASCISM

State-controlled capitalism mixed with identity politics. Fascism often is an extreme, nationalist version of socialism (despite what most people think). The National Socialist party in Germany and the Italian Socialist party in Italy ultimately became fascist parties.

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Any -ISMS I’m missing?

Or any clarification on these -isms without degenerating into anger or personal attacks on anyone?

I know I am an “innovationist,” with a touch of Yangism.

Although I love the name of Kanye West’s political party: the Birthday Party. If you call a political party “The Birthday Party,” you don’t need any -isms.

And one more thing: “Ism” is a legal word in Scrabble.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

Check out the “Choose Yourself” Prime series just released on Amazon.

AND:

Check me out at the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami on October 1 doing standup.

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