Vote for Hillary, Because Gay

Yesterday's installment wasn't good enough for you?  Here's a brand new reason to vote for Hillary.  She stands for gays!  Now, you could kindly forget that her position on that changed about two years ago, but she't got your back now, by golly!

The compelling reasons for voting for this candidate - the economy, national security, race relations, jobs - all of that is just so mundane.  I mean, diversity trumps all that, amiright?

Oops, did I just type "Trump?"

What ticks me off is the obvious - nobody is for discrimination of anybody.  But that is what is being alluded to in this video.  Either you're for Hillary, because she's worried about the 2 transexuals that want to change their gender on their passport, or you're a bigot.

Likewise, the gratuitous shots of the couples kissing is just tolling for evangelical outrage.

Hillary brings nothing to the leadership table.  Except, of course, demagoguery.  

Vote for Hillary, Because She's a Girl

Like one girl writes, girls rule and boys drool.

44 boys is too many.

Not about issues.  No economics, or terrorism, or immigration.  We did, however get climate change and an anti gun rant in there.  But basically, these girls are letting us know that we should vote for our new president based on the type of her genitals.

Great.

Attorney General - Anti-Muslim Speech to be Prosecuted

Does our Constitution mean anything to anyone anymore?


AG Lynch, anytime you begin a sentence "This is country that is based on free speech, BUT..." you're wrong.  No "but."  Period.  End of sentence.  There is nothing left to amend.

However, you don't go there.  Like so many in your party, you see government as needing to bully people until they all think like you want them to think.  

You fascist.  You repugnant, bully fascist.

Check out the speech on this blog, and send over the goon squad.  

Saturday Song Share: The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues

This might be a repeat.  I think I had their a live version of this previously featured one Saturday.  If so, please forgive me.

Or, if you dig this tune as I do, you might thank me.

Obama is Wrong

The terrorist attack in California has proved Obama wrong multiple times in just the past couple of weeks.  Consider:

• Obama chided Americans for being fearful of welcoming in Islamic refugees
• Claimed that climate change is our biggest threat
• Exclaimed that gun killings only happen in the US (see yesterday's post)
• “The American people should feel confident that we’re going to be able to defend ourselves and make sure that we have a good holiday season and go about our lives” 
• "We've got to do something about guns" followed quickly by a claim (a hope?) that this might be a case of "workplace violence." 

The Democrats can try to spin this all they want.  They can try and use this as a cudgel to bring about gun banning (never mind the pipe bomb factory Ma and Pa Jihad had in their kitchen).  The bottom line is their policies of open borders, immigration, racial grievance, cop-bashing, and political correctness are truly killing us.

This is not the last event.  More people will be killed.  Americans are fearful.  They should be.  And the Democrats are to blame, because they're flat out wrong.

Starting with Obama.  

Obama in Paris: Gun Killings Only Happen In US

Does this guy recall the people that were killed in the city in which he's standing just days ago?



It used to be that a sitting US president would never, ever, criticize his country while standing on foreign soil, regardless of the circumstances.

Not Obama.

Every time the man has a microphone in front of him is a time to push his agenda.  

Even if that agenda makes one ignore the blood that's still caked to Paris streets.

This man is repugnant. 

What is Going On?

As we close in on 2015, our world is in a complete shambles.  Don't believe me?  Consider the following:

• We're as close to a shooting war with Russia that we've been since the Cuban missile crisis.  If the Russians hit Turkey hard, we'll either need to stand up to our NATO obligations and defend them or let them get run over.  Given Obama, the latter will likely apply, and that sets a nasty precedent both in terms of how we treat our NATO allies and how we react to Russia.  Our enemies will now fear us less and our allies fear us more.
• Race relations are at their worst since the late 1960's.  Police are being challenged and, in some instances, flat out murdered.  The cops are not blameless, and as we've seen in video in Chicago, murderers are in their ranks as well.
• ISIS runs rampant and has extended their sphere of terror, murder, and rape across continents.  Our nation's response has been to demand that we accept refugees, deride those that want that policy vetted, and focus on "climate change" as the most compelling subject to be addressed.  
• Planned Parenthood is caught red-handed selling baby body parts, but a dutiful media and Democrat party sweeps their mess under the rug.  When a clearly mentally ill shoots up a clinic, they're now the spotless victims.
• Colleges have moved from being places of higher learning to places of hive-mentality and mental immaturity.  

Everywhere you look is hate, violence, death, destruction, and pain on a slow simmer.  Is it just more, or does it feel that with just a little bit more heat this slow simmer will soon completely boil over?

Retail and Baseball

For those of us in retail, we’ve just made it past Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and we’re on a dead sprint to Super Saturday and the close of the holiday season.  Things are crazy right now, and the pressure is the highest it’s been all year.  If retail were baseball, we’d be in the middle of our World Series right now.  The stakes are that high.

In thinking on that further, there are a lot of similarities between baseball and retail.  Don’t think so?  Consider these:

• Long regular season, then short, high-pressure post-season.  As stated above, we’re in the World Series right now.  Mistakes and heroics are magnified a hundred fold compared to the lazy march through the regular season.  Ultimately, what one did, good or bad, back in May matters very little if your play is peaking and you’re winning games in the critical post-season.
• One dimensional players don’t stay in the big leagues long.  The hulking Right Fielder that is a monster power hitter, but strikes out a ton, has no defensive range, and a limited arm might make it to The Show.  However, opponents will be able to ultimately work around his one strength, and soon the champ becomes a chump.  The same applies to retailers.  Those that caught lightning in a bottle by retailing the “it” product of the moment can quickly stand atop their competition.  However, without well rounded and diversified retail capabilities, they’ll ultimately find themselves falling out of favor and finding themselves back in the retail “minors.”  
• Doing the basics impeccably can make you a winner.  In baseball, the basics aren’t sexy.  Getting the full body in front of the ball, using two hands to catch, running out grounders, moving runners over – none of it will make ESPN.  But when done right, over and over during the course of the season, errors are mitigated, or extra bases are taken.  Those events can translate to one or two incremental wins which are incredibly valuable in a tightly contested race.  In retail, always doing standard things like getting the right products to the right place at the right time, pricing impeccably, maximizing endcaps, and facing products won’t guarantee that every game will be won.  However, it will win a couple of games, and in a brutally competitive environment, that can be huge.   
• It’s all about the metrics.  Baseball is ruled by metrics.  Batting average, WH/IP, ERA, RBI – the list goes on and on.  Furthermore, sabermetricians like Bill James have revolutionized the game by showing how statistical nuances could revolutionize on-field decision making and influence winning.  Retail also has its metrics.  AOV, Conversion, Margin %, Inventory Turn – the list goes on and on there as well.  Those that manage by the metrics, especially those small but meaningful statistical nuances, will be affording themselves the best chance to  win for their organizations.
• Weather can mess up everything.  An unexpected rainstorm can force a baseball team into a next-day double header.  Schedules and routines are thrown off, and teams need to improvise and overcome or get those two games swept away from them.  Likewise, unseasonal weather can massively disrupt the best laid retail plans, and force retailers to scramble to drive in customers when they’re quite reluctant to shop.  Just like in baseball, those that can mitigate the impacts of adverse weather can have a sizable competitive advantage.
• You gotta make the fans happy.  Most folks are baseball fans, in some way, shape, or form; especially when the local team is winning.  Those franchises with big fan bases enjoy financial rewards that come with selling out that big old stadium.  Similarly, just about everyone is a shopper.  There are things they like about it, hate about it, brag about, and complain about.  They’re fans of the retail game, and they want to engage with winners.  It is our responsibility as retailers to put the very best team on the field for them that we possibly can.  If we do, we’ll be rewarded, and if we screw up, they’ll find a different "team" to support.

So, retailers, enjoy your World Series.  You’ve worked hard to get here, and the lights don’t get any brighter than right now.   But win, lose or draw, remember one thing – even though the end of the post-season is in sight, the regular season starts up again right behind it.

Play ball!