05/19/23

Secretary of Trans Pete Buttigieg, A Dummy’s Best Friend

File this under “things you can’t believe your government is wasting time on with your money.”

Pete Buttigieg, partner to Chasten the Magnificent and father/mother to twins, and former ineffective mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has brought his unique sense of empathy and massive raw intelligence to the job of Secretary of Transportation under another man with a “cathedral mind,” Joe Biden.

As Secretary of Transportation, Secretary Pete has intervened in a critical concern, one you undoubtedly have been pondering for years, that of the gender identification of crash dummies. Continue reading →

05/18/23

The Debt Ceiling Faux Crisis 2023 Edition

It is that time of the political cycle to pretend we have a debt ceiling crisis. The sky is falling!

Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen — who has been wrong on every substantive issue thus far including her huge boner on “transitory” inflation — says the government will run out of money on 1 June, so we have a crisis!

OK, so I blew it on inflation, but we do have a debt ceiling CRISIS! Trust me. This is my serious look.

Continue reading →

05/16/23

Putin’s Khinzhal Head Fake

In 2018, Putin announced with great fanfare that the Russians had developed a hypersonic missile against which the West had no defense. At the time this was greeted with much alarm and angst with the American military industrial complex lathering at the bit to build more capable US missiles and missile defenses.

Khinzhal missile (Kh-47M2) touted as being able to fly more than 1,000 miles at hypersonic speed and deliver 1,000 lbs warhead with pinpoint accuracy.

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05/16/23

Dupes v Brand Slavery/Loyalty

Imagine you are a woman in the market for a new set of leggings/yoga pants.

You look at the Lululemon line of products because they are a highly recognizable luxury brand, your butt looks great in them, you can wear them everywhere except church, and decide you are going to buy a pair of Align leggings/yoga pants.

You are a careful shopper, so you check prices and end up on Amazon where the price is $124.

You are about to invoke One Click purchasing when your frugal husband whispers, “They look great and you will look great in anything, darling, but what about a dupe?” Continue reading →

05/15/23

Emotional Blackmail and Coffee Shops

You are walking the streets of your hometown or visiting Charleston — both locations work — and you see a coffee shop. You dart in — you bloody well dart don’t you, because you need that caffeine fix and you are a quick footed darter — and order a simple coffee with room for cream or a triple latte with a spritz of mint.

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05/12/23

Virginia Military Institute — the BEST Mentoring System in the World

Mentoring is/was a fashionable topic amongst the venture capital and startup Illuminati for years. I have written about it for a long time. A good mentor can make a mediocre founder into a winner.

Full disclosure: I run a CEO coaching/mentoring business called The Wisdom of the Campfire and have for a dozen years. I take clients only by referral and personal introduction. I do zero marketing and do not even have a website.

Everybody in startup world had to have a celebrity CEO coach. This was caused by two specific conditions:

 1. Venture capitalists know next to nothing about actually running a business. More than 75% of their investments fail, so what does that tell you?

 2. Young startup founders/CEOs have had zero training in leadership the lingua franca of building even a lemonade stand. Continue reading →

05/6/23

US Navy Cultural Narcissism and Recruiting

The US Navy has had a tough time meeting its recruiting goals. Putting that into numbers, it had a FY 2023 goal of adding 37,700 enlisted sailors and is projecting a shortfall of 6,000. They also failed to hit the numbers in FY 2022.

I think the problem is “cultural narcissism.” Read on and learn why.

The work place of the most powerful naval force afloat. Go Navy!

Continue reading →