I often read stories about Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk visiting campuses, speaking universal truths, and being yelled out, ganged up on, spit on, and run out of town. America’s delusional youth don’t like to hear the truth. What’s more, they appear to be extremely disappointed in an America they barely know. They scream and stomp their feet at perceived injustices, intellectually opting for the gentler embrace of socialism, sitting around campfires with picket signs at the ready, passing joints, and singing “Kumbaya.”
It is evident that they don’t understand true socialism. They don’t understand history because they have never read it. They can’t answer a question without asking Google. They lack knowledge and understanding. They would rot from the inside out if dropped into Cuba or Venezuela. They rail at intellectual honesty as well as fair and respectful discussions and debate, opting instead for in-your-face personal attacks, threats of violence, and the like. Ben Shapiro was on point when he said, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”
Don’t Engage, Don’t Argue with Them
America’s colleges and universities have utterly failed to help create useful, productive citizens who can lead dynamic lives, pay taxes, raise families, and become successful in their own right. Instead, we have a generation of an offended class who don’t share our truths or our values. They lack character and appear to play by the Marxist doctrine handbook. They disparage all who don’t agree with them and are intolerant of those who don’t share their opinions and worldview. They seek to recast America’s history and view our country as inherently racist. They embrace a dishonest political platform that is spoon-fed to them by progressives who are intent on tearing apart our society and all America stands for. They spit on veterans, loot and riot, and condone violence to achieve their aims. They are unrecognizable as your neighbors’ children. I have learned not to engage with them since civil discourse is beyond their reach. They offend the vast majority of hard-working Americans who are grateful to live in this country, who recite the Pledge of Allegiance, respect the flag, and stand for the national anthem.
America Is Broken
Attention college grads! Stop whining! Stop your never-ending appeals for relief of the crushing burden of repaying loans you entered into lawfully in order to enroll in useless courses at liberal colleges to feel cool, interesting, and connected with peers and that utterly and undeniable did not prepare you to earn a living, pay your rent, enjoy $6 coffee at Starbucks, buy $1200 iPhones, repay your loans, support yourself, or build wealth in the freest and richest country in the history of the world.
I read articles such as one this morning in the Washington Examiner describing how the Biden Administration is freezing loan repayments following court rulings by a pair of federal judges in Kansas and Missouri who blocked parts of the administration’s plan to freeze student loan repayments. Biden’s SAVE program, administered by the Department of Education uses a formula to determine monthly loan repayments based on income, family size, and other factors. It is not surprising that 56 percent of the more than 8 million people signed up for the program qualify for zero dollars per month loan repayment. The courts’ view, rightfully so, is that ONLY CONGRESS has the authority to forgive student loans. Kansas U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree indicated that “blue collar Kansas workers who didn’t go to college shouldn’t have to pay off the student loans of New Yorkers with gender studies degrees.”
It is stunning, sad, and ridiculous that these lawsuits are still winding their way through our courts, taking valuable time, energy, resources, and taxpayer dollars to adjudicate what should have never been allowed to occur in the first place. Meanwhile, the Department of Education— which I feel should be disbanded and metaphorically burned to the ground—has indicated that it will not give up on its promise to fight for long overdue relief for borrowers. Remember, these borrowers borrowed the money, and the loans originated with the federal government. The Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank are not at fault. The fault lies with the federal government—a government that insists on coddling, providing entitlements, spending money it doesn’t have, showering favored groups with special advantages, and overstepping executive authority to the point where it is sued to stop violating the law. This cannot end soon enough.
Were my kids in high school and beginning to view their future as a range of possibilities with nothing preordained, I would counsel them that the choices are many, including trade schools, college, military, apprenticeships, and starting a business. In today’s politically charged atmosphere, I would make it clear that dad paying for a liberal arts degree at a college is not on the table.
This Thought Has Been Living Rent-Free in My Mind for 25 Years
I was 43 years old and held certain beliefs that helped me make sense of the world around me. One of those beliefs was that you make your own way. No one owes you anything. You work to improve your circumstances, and there are no free lunches. I saw my dad work 60 to 80 hours a week; he understood what hard work was. I put in decades of 60-hour weeks to provide a great life for my family without any expectation of handouts or unearned benefits. As JFK famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”
There are tens of millions of Americans who would be puzzled by JFK’s statement and others who would outright reject it. I call them the entitlement generation. They believe they are entitled to benefits because America is an uncaring place that takes advantage of everyone and must elevate those at the bottom to be equal with those at the top so everyone has a fat chicken in their pot, basic universal income, free college education, paid-off student loans, and an electric car in every driveway. They view capitalism as evil, despite the fact that it has enabled America to achieve a level of prosperity that has made it the envy of the world.
The Founders Created Three Co-Equal Branches of Government – Not One
Have you ever read the U.S. Constitution? It tells us that Congress is the arm of government that passes laws—not the President. Congress! If you have been keeping up with the news, you may have noticed that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in multiple cases against Biden’s Executive Departments, including the FTC, the SEC, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Education. In each case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Executive agencies are not empowered to make law, that this right is reserved exclusively for Congress under Article I, Section 8, Clause 18, which states:
[The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
I happen to be a strong believer in the U.S. Constitution and get very angry when it is pissed on by government officials. If I had my way, the offending government bureaucrats would be very publicly fired and deprived of their government pensions. That would make the consequences very real.
Welcome to My Nightmare
No doubt you all witnessed the recent spectacle—uh, carnage—on CNN between two Presidents. While my thought was not to opine on what I saw, I do have to make the following points so I can once again attempt to enjoy a good night’s sleep without waking repeatedly in cold sweats. As I watched President Biden speak, freeze, slur, and look lost, angered, confused, sad, unpresidential, foolish, and generally uninspiring, my mind went to secured rooms around the world filled with the likes of Iranian mullahs, assorted terrorists, President Xi, President
Putin, Kim Jong Un, and others who seek to do us harm, and considered what they must be thinking as they watched CNN. Terrifying!
They have already taken actions that would have been unthinkable four years earlier, and as they watched that night’s debate, I would guess they felt emboldened to attempt actions in the next five months while sleepy Joe is still at the switch. This scares the hell out of me.
Worse yet, understand that Joe Biden is the Commander in Chief with his finger on the nuclear button. If that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, my guess is that you are not conscious.
Welcome to my nightmare.
The Five-Pound Locks and an Impressionable Teenager
It was 1970. I was 14 years old and helping my dad at the family laundry in the heart of New York City’s Time Square. Imagine a skilless teenager, sleepy and annoyed, “helping” Dad at 7:00 a.m.—prepping the store for the day’s work. Not only did I not want to be there, but I didn’t even want to be awake. That was not on the day’s menu, however. My dad was a no-nonsense boss who expected things to be done right the first time. So you can imagine his disappointment with his bell-bottomed, long-haired, lazy, inattentive son screwing things up time after time. But something strange happened during those long summer days as I worked 10 to 12 hours side by side with my dad. My thinking started to change, and I developed a work ethic.
For some strange reason, my mind goes back to three heavy steel locks that secured the large iron gates that protected the store’s glass windows from random attacks by New York’s criminals. Each morning, I turned the small keys that opened the three heavy, gleaming locks, and what occurred to me was that those locks were protecting the asset that fed, clothed, and sheltered our family. Without them, Norton’s Laundry & Dry Cleaning Company would be helpless against rocks, bricks, crowbars, and assorted attacked by those who wanted to steal and damage anything not nailed down. Times Square was not a safe place in the 1960s, the 1970s, or the 1980s, and police presence could not be counted on.
Make it Count- Make Your Voice Heard
A big shout-out to my many mentors who have instilled in me many important lessons. Chief among them is that I learned not to play small. It’s easy to blend in, be average, and not rock the boat. It’s comfortable to sit in the back of the room and hope you’re not called on. I guess that’s what many aspire to, and that’s a damn shame. WE need to speak up and make our voices heard, especially on Election Day. If you’re going to play, play big. Whatever you DO, make it count!
America Has a Reading Emergency
There is a large swath of our population who receive their information from TikTok and YouTube videos. For them, the written word has been relegated to the trash heap, something their parents and grandparents engaged in that is no longer desirable or necessary. Woe to them when they apply for a job and actually are required to read something. I can see it now:
Job applicant: Um, do you happen to have the employment questions on video? It would be really super if I could watch it on TikTok on my phone.
Potential employer: Sorry, we can’t accommodate you on that. You see, we expect our employees to read and understand. Uh, actually I don’t think you’re a great match for our company. It was nice meeting you, Miss. Please see the person at the desk on your way out and surrender your visitor pass.
Job applicant: I really don’t feel comfortable being called Miss. My professors taught me that is micro-aggression to make me feel inferior. I thought your company would provide me a safe space where I could grow as a social person. I really don’t think I could work here. You probably don’t like me anyway.
Potential employer: I like you just fine, but you appear to have no abilities, and uh, you can’t or don’t want to read. We require our employees to think and read, and it appears you have neither of those skills. We don’t hire the useless. And we are a safe place in that we have never had any harassment claims. I wish you well. This interview is over. Good day.
$$$ Better Spent at Home to Fight Crime
The U.S. Department of Labor will invest $4 million to reduce barriers impeding LGBTQI+ youth in Latin America and the Caribbean. Evidently, the Biden Administration feels that gay etc. youth have less educational and occupational opportunities in South America and the Caribbean so they feel compelled to send US taxpayer money there to help solve the problem. ’Nuff said . . .
YES! We Need More Billionaires
Mackenzie Scott who divorced Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has reportedly given away $16.5 billion since the divorce. In July 2024, she announced another $640 million in charitable donations to 361 small nonprofits. Michael Bloomberg gave away $3 billion in 2023 and $1 billion to Johns Hopkins in July 2024.The list goes on and on—wickedly successful people (or their spouses) giving away gargantuan sums of money to help the less fortunate and endow universities, performing arts centers, hospitals, libraries, and more.
Have you ever noticed the names of folks on hospital wings when you go in for an operation? Odds are that some billionaire donated all the money needed to build the hospital wing that your ass is sitting in. So yes, we need more of these billionaires, the same ones that insane Vermont socialist Senator Bernie Sanders says are cousins of the devil. Capitalism allows the extraordinary to flourish. Think about Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and scores more. According to the Charities Aid Foundation, America was the most charitable nation on the planet between 2009 and 2018. Since then, it has consistently ranked near the top.
Billionaires also pay ultra large tax bills. Data from Americans for Tax Fairness reports that billionaires pay either hundreds of millions or billions in taxes. So the next time you hear some politician bitching that their secretary pays higher taxes then Joe or Jane Billionaire, tell them to shove it because they are lying through their teeth. By the way, President Biden lied when he told Americans that the average tax rate for billionaires is 8.2%.
What Is the ROI (Return on Investment) of My Political Science Degree?
Well, as near as I can tell, the ROI of my political science degree—and mind you, this is just an approximation—is, in round numbers, uh, um, zero. Yep. Nothing, nada, zilch, nil. To get my bachelor’s degree, I most likely had to take scores of credits dealing with government, the U.S. Constitution, the courts, the executive branch, and on and on. Not one iota of it has been valuable to me over the last 47 years. None of it has helped support my family, buy a house, pay down a mortgage, send my kids to college, build a nest egg, or grow a 401(k) and other assorted assets.
Instead, what was worth its weight in gold and silver was (pay attention, class; this is a writer downer) everything I learned about selling, marketing, public speaking, networking, goal setting, writing, pig-headed determination , saying thank you, being on time, AND a love of reading. If you are not reading at least two books each month, you are competing with folks who are reading two, three, four, or even five books a month, and YES, you will most likely be at a disadvantage. And when it comes to learning from mentors, there are two time frames to keep in mind—now and not now. Which do YOU think will yield the highest return?
It is imperative that you have mentors who have been there and done that. My list of mentors is long, including Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert, Doberman Dan, Brian Tracy, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Hopkins, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Lee Milteer, Jay Abraham, Brendon Burchard, Jeffrey Gitomer, Darren Hardy and others. I learned from these mentors in person and from their books, newsletters, cassettes, and CDs. The magic of it all is to listen repeatedly, read, re-read, absorb the lessons, write your own notes by hand, and read and re-read your notes over and over until the lessons are part of your knowledge bank that you can call upon instantly. Remember, we change lives with the skills we have.
Were I to counsel someone who is having trouble picking a college major, my best advice would be to NOT do what I did. Run—don’t walk—away from political science!
There’s a New Reality Coming
Whether Kamala Harris is elected in November and things get decidedly worse or Trump is elected and things get decidedly better, our lives will never be the same. Hopefully, our new reality will include the following:
- American energy independence
- Lower prices at the pump
- Lower interest rates
- Lower mortgage rates
- Lower inflation
- Lower crime rate
- Completing the border wall
- Deporting illegals who have no legal right to be in the United States
Cell Phone Idiocy
Do you really need your cell phone every time you go to the toilet? I believe it has something to do with cell phone anxiety—the fear of being disconnected. What if someone posts something on Instacrap and you are not there to respond withing 12 seconds??? Will you be blackballed, ostracized, made fun of, not allowed to sit at the cool kids table at lunch, not be invited to the party, or, worse, be unfriended?
Social media has become today’s Wild West with few rules and many gangsters vying for power and dominion over common folk. Not only do I not personally know anyone with a gazillion followers, I don’t care to. I’m certain that if influencing were a college major, they could not find enough “professors” to teach the classes.
Hi. I’m John. I’m an influencer. I have 289,000 followers. What do you do?
I, uh, work at Starbucks.
I remember sitting in an advanced writing and speaking class taught by Brian Tracy in his Santa Barbara office. Brian is the author of over 70 books that I’m aware of. Something in particular he said resonated with me to my core, and to this day, I have never forgotten it. He said, “The very worst use of your time is to do very well that which need not be done at all.”
So the next time you run into someone with a vice-like grip on their iPhone, tell them to loosen up and get a life.
Few People Have Seen a Vault Like This One
The year may have been 1975. I could be wrong. But back then I had a job at the Greater New York Blood Bank. It was somewhere on the upper west side of Manhattan near Amsterdam Avenue. I got the job either through the friend of a cousin or the cousin of a friend. Who knows? The blood vault contained several hundred pints of blood that was the emergency reserve for New York City hospitals.
Anyway, the job was kinda part-time—three days a week, 14-hour shifts, complete with a bed for sleeping on the job. You see, my shift was 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. the next morning. My job was to answer the phone when a hospital called and said they needed pints of blood or platelets for emergency surgery. It was not uncommon for Beth Israel Hospital, Montefiore Hospital, or NYU Medical Center to scream that they need nine pints of O negative blood for a gunshot wound to the chest. These calls woke me out of a sound sleep on many occasions.
Many nights—I called them the calm ones—I wouldn’t get a call for three or four hours, which allowed me to sleep like a baby and get paid. The ringer on the phone was set to maximum so I would never sleep through an emergency call. When the call came in, I immediately called my medical supervisor who authorized the release of a certain number of units based on how many pints were in the vault. I would then walk into the vault and retrieve the specified number of pints, pack them with dry ice, and call a taxi cab to speed them to the waiting hospital and surgery suite.
And yes, it was one of the strangest jobs I have ever had, not including my week at the Brockport Diner. But that’s a story for another day . . .
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