Today is the day we talk politics, more specifically, the Democrat Presidential Primary. We talk politics one day per week until the election.
[The Dem Convention is in Milwaukee on 13-16 July 2020 at Fiserv Forum. The first debate is in June 2019, only two months from now. The DNC has the campaign penciled in for a dozen debates though there were more than 40 in 2007-8 when Obama was vying for the nomination.]
An obnoxious friend of mine is constantly asking me: “What does a CEO actually do?” He does it on the page on the website whereat one may ask a question.
He then sends me irritating emails saying, “Big Red Car, you never answered my question. Do you even know the answer?”
He is a pest, but he is right I never answer him. Now, I will, but only because he has promised to buy me a steak at a restaurant of my choice — Capital Grille or Eddie V’s.
We are more desperately in need of this type of thinking than ever before. We need to produce MEN, not men.
We need guys like our fathers, who won World War II by kicking the crap out of the Nazis and the Japs and made the world safe. Guys like George (NMI) Washington, who founded the country, beat the Brits (most proficient army and navy of their times), and generally showed the world how the cow was going to eat the cabbage at this democracy stuff.
Maybe we’ve just forgotten what it means to be a man and need some remedial instruction.
So, here goes.
We are in the beginning throes of the long dance to elect a President of the United States in November of 2020. Happens every four years. It has become a brutal ritual, an endurance test in which the entire range of human emotion is at play.
Today, we do not champion a candidate without also decrying the opposition. No revelation there. That is as old as the Republic.
Inasmuch as elections are binary (except for Ross Perot and Howard Schultz) it is not unusual for a prevailing candidate to be the beneficiary of a vote for the candidate, but, alternatively, also a vote against the opponent.
“I am voting for Madame X.”
“I am voting against Madame X’s opponent.”
Both of these votes show up in the final tally in the same manner. The successful candidate doesn’t really care.
We make these decisions — for or against — based on policy and personality.
The other day I was reading a blog in which a particular management methodology was discussed. It seemed noticeably similar to Peter Drucker’s concept of Management by Objectives contained in his excellent book, The Practice of Management (1954). It got me thinking about Peter Drucker.
One of the phenomenon in business, particularly in the venture capital funded startup business world, is a complete lack of appreciation that businesses existed long before the invention of the personal computer or the Internet.
I often joke, “Your generation did not invent sex or business” by which I mean it is worthwhile to have knowledge of things from before the Internet.
Job Biden, God love him, is the target of a political hit. Here’s Mr. Touchy-Feely in action with some woman I don’t recognize. He is, apparently, licking her ear while she fends him off with her hands.
Going out on a limb here, but the woman seems to be enjoying it. Possible? Oh, wait, it’s Nancy Pelosi. My bad. Sorry.
Joe Biden is guilty of the most unforgivable crime in the current Democrat party — he is a moderate.
For that crime, he has been subjected to the dirty tricks of the Dem party, a bunch who knows something about dirty tricks (talking to you Dirty Dossier).
In spite of being “off message” as it relates to the New Green Deal, abortion until third grade, open borders, amnesty, sanctuary cities, abolishing ICE, free education, reparations, and other Democrat shibboleths, Joe Biden still polls higher than any other candidate seeking the Democrat presidential nomination. How can anybody so “unwoke” be so damn strong at the polls?
It is for this reason Uncle Joe must be humbled and marginalized because he has the temerity to stand firmly in the middle of the road in a party that has lurched to the left, the hard left.
Biden has near universal name recognition earned by decades in the Senate representing MBNA (He used to be called the Senator from MBNA) and eight years as Vice President. His image was amiable, gaffe-prone, goofy, and a bit blue collar. He rode Amtrak and drank a beer.
He was never thought of as a predator until the #MeToo movement erupted. #MeToo is about powerful men — check, Biden is and has been powerful — using their power to shoplift inappropriate intimacies, like Harvey Weinstein. Joe Biden never ever whiffed such abuse, but the #MeToo politically weaponized crowd wants to take him out as if he were banging White House interns (or sharing cigars with them).
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“No, thank you. I don’t smoke.”
The Dems — clever folks who are not beyond trashing anybody for a middle school birthday party prank — have gone all in on Joe’s behavior. Specifically, he stands accused of being an Irish raconteur who is prone to a kiss, a hug, a squeeze, a slap on the back, and a sniff of somebody’s hair. Clearly, these are predatory actions that should be punishable by…………………………………………………………..death. Well, at least, the death of his political ambition, no?
Please ignore the fact that former Vice President Joe Biden is the only candidate who has been part of a winning presidential team or that he has served in the Senate since the Holy Ghost was a corporal or that he was Vice President to President Barack H Obama. None of that matters (well, it would if you were “hiring” a president).
No, Joe suffers from being Old School at a time when the Dems exalt ideas like the New Green Deal that have zero chance of ever becoming policy and want to control the White House up until the year in which the Earth is destroyed unless the NGD is enacted.
[Look, I am confused as to whether we have 12 years remaining or 10. I lived through Al Gore’s deadline, I counted polar bears, I measured arctic ice, but I am confused as to AOC’s and Beto’s deadline. Forgive me.]
Joe, on the other hand, has a sense of humor — something missing from the Millenial psyche which is focused on the angst of AOC, the skateboard skill of Robbie Francis O’Rourke, or the languages of Mayor Pete Boot-Edge-Edge. [See what your Big Red Car did for you — that’s how you pronounce the guy’s name.]
Image of Robbie O’Rourke explaining he is the Vanilla Ice version of Barack Obama. Ice, ice, baby — anybody want to go skateboarding?
No, this thing with with Creepy Joe is just a hit. They don’t want to say, “Old white guy, get out the way for the Millenials” so they run this con about handsy Joe.
Biden is just an Old School Irish pol without an ounce of lust in his heart.
Still, the Dems take him out like a Mafia hit. Count on it. Joe will be humiliated and driven away with wailing and gnashing of teeth because he’s an old white dude. Sorry, Joe.
But, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Great weekend awaits you. Call your mothers or fathers. Please. It takes so desperately little to make your parents happy.
President Trump invited thought leader and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to lunch at the White House so they might get to know each other. The Big Red Car was allowed to sit in and listen to their conversation.
AOC arrived at the porto cochere in a black SUV that gets seven miles per gallon in city traffic. As she stepped down, she mounted the stairs and waved to the crowd on the other side of the drive. It was actually three members of the White House grounds crew who had been blowing leaves off the driveway. They waved back at her.
“Amigo, it’s AOC. Wave, man.”
President Donald J Trump met her at the door — he was a little late — and welcomed her to the White House.
“Have you ever been to the White House?” he asked, holding her hand.
“No, but I will live here one day.” She broke into laughter, riotous laughter.
DJT chuckled and waved a finger at her. [She’s 29 and you have to be 35 to be President.]
Blue Apron — APRN NYSE — is a meal recipe/delivery company (OK, meal-kit delivery is the right buzz word, shoot me) that went public back in 2017. It was once upon a time a Unicorn. Here is what the stock has done since coming out at $10/share in July 2017 and thereby earning it a title as a $2B Unicorn. Bravo! Oh, wait. Belay that bravo, please.
As you can also see, things have not gone so well since then. Most recently the last founder has shed the CEO role as the company brought in a new CEO, Linda Findley Kozlowski, the former COO of Etsy. [All of the founders have flown the coop now.]
LFK left Etsy when they eliminated her position. She had been with them for three years. Folks fancy her an expert in eCommerce and consumer-focused business. She was also the COO of Evernote and the Director of Global Marketing and Customer Experience at Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. Player, to be sure. Tough hill to climb.
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