06/27/19

Shopify — The Revolutionary

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Huge fan of Shopify for a number of reasons:

 1. Shopify is a plug-and-play solution to getting you into the eCommerce business. Sign on with Shopify and you are in business as quickly as you can take pictures of your merchandise and put a price on it. Effortless. Streamlined.

 2. As a software product, Shopify fulfills the promise of the Internet as a means of creating “digital real estate” whereon a tech savvy digital business woman (see what your “woke” Big Red Car did there?) can reach the entire world without having to undertake a huge tech effort to get her store open.

This is a huge victory, a fulfillment of an enormous promise.

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06/26/19

Austin — the best place to live in the galaxy

It comes as no surprise to Austinites that US News & World Report has picked Austin By God Texas as the “best place in the galaxy to live” for the third year in a row.

Don’t take my word for it. Here it is.

US News & World Report — best cities report 

USNWR graded cities based on coolness, the handsomeness and beauty of its citizens, their wisdom and charm and just all around goodness. Austin won. Again. And again.

Meanwhile Austin is seeing low unemployment of the 2.2% variety. Jobs are plentiful, but the work force is stretched tight which means wages are headed upward.

Still, when you get down to it, Austin is just a typical college town with a level of live music and hipness that boggles the mind. Plus, we have Whole Foods.

Did I mention 66F Barton Springs? Yes, we have good swimming next to downtown. Cold water. Refreshing like a Big Gulp.

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So, if you live in Chicago or New York or California — I’m leaving a welcome packet for you at the airport. Come on down.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. 2.2% unemployment and Barton Springs — this is you, babe. Trust me.

06/26/19

Leadership And Leadership Training

Gloomy day in the ATX, but then I am in the ATX, so how gloomy can it really be?

So I have been reading a book — 40 pages in, an easy read — by Jerry Collonna called: Reboot – Leadership and the Art of Growing Up.

Jerry is one of those Internet presences one meets and grows fond of. There is wisdom in his writing and there is a good heart in his chest. He comes to the issue of leadership primarily from the perspective of CEO coaching and has a huge following.

He is an emotional, Zen, Buddhist type of guy who will cry at the drop of a hat. I don’t see him doing much hunting or skydiving, but he is a mensch.

I recommend the book as a body of work that one should read, but I am not a fan of the emotional style and desperate nature of how he tells his story.

It is HIS story. It is not my story. It is a good story and it should be in the institutional memory of anybody who is serious about the leadership gig.

Go read the book, but when you do, I want you to know a few other things at the same time.

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06/24/19

Blue Apron v Red Apron

The meal kit business has been frothy and nobody has had a tougher time swimming through the froth than Blue Apron.

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Blue Apron came public — raising $300MM — during the same week that Amazon announced the acquisition of Whole Foods. Bad timing, bad luck. That, however, was only the beginning.

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06/24/19

Conservative Judges

There are those who say that President Trump’s legacy will be the conservative judges he appointed and had confirmed to the Supreme Court. Maybe so. Here is an interesting insight into that question.

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Recent decisions don’t yet support that legacy, but it is early. There was a recent decision that does indeed show the impact of conservative judges.

It is the Knick v Township of Scott case that dealt with the issue of the administration of claims seeking just compensation for government takings.

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06/23/19

Facebank and Libra

Big Red Car returned from babysitting duties for My Perfect Grand Daughter. We are learning how to boogie board, but don’t tell her mother.

While gone, Facebook announced the impending creation of Libra, an asset-backed cryptocurrency that will transform life as we know it.

I have taken to calling the entire entire enterprise — Facebook, the Libra Association, and Libra — Facebank.

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Bit of cynicism on a Sunday — we can’t trust Facebook with our data, so let’s trust them with our money? OK, had to get that out of the way, let’s march on, shall we?

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06/18/19

True The Vote v IRS

True The Vote, headed by Catherine Englebrecht, in a decade long fight has won an overwhelming victory in its Complaint against the Internal Revenue Service’s “slow playing” its application for IRS tax-exempt status.

A Judge has found that the IRS (Lois Lerner being the main antagonist) engaged in unconstitutional discrimination, conducted itself unethically, and acted in “bad faith” thereby entitling True The Vote to a multiple of its legal fees as a means of punishing the IRS and rewarding True The Vote.

This is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge as it uncovers the bad acts of the IRS, its coordination with the US Congress in the person of Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer and Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings, and the involvement of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration during the Obama administration.

Weaponization of government, anyone? Here is the Texas woman who has been fighting the good fight for a decade, meet Catherine Engelbrecht.

DO NOT MESS WITH TEXAS WOMEN!

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Whoa, really, Big Red Car? You’re going to have to explain that to me.

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