Rich Hoffman's Blog, page 361

Dominic Basulto’s Scientific Frontiers: More Implications of Star Wars Land in Disney by the Washington Post

I normally don’t do this, but Dominic Basulto’s article from the Washington Post is so good about the future implications of Star Wars and the new Disney Lands dedicated to the famous movie franchise, that I am posting it in its entirety below along with the origin links, just because I worry that people might not click on the link to take the next step to read it. I want to make it as easy as possible—because it is that good. After reading, make sure to click on the links, check out the sponsors of the Washington Post, because they rely on that kind of revenue, and consider yourself enriched. I wrote about nearly the same type of topic a few days ago, but I thought that Basulto’s article went a bit more to the science implication as opposed to the mythic and was important.

Over the last week I have taken some time to enjoy some of the fun things in life, Star Wars being one of them, and enjoyed enormously the great news coming out of Disney not just for myself, but for many of the reasons that Dominic Basulto illustrated in his article. I spent an entire day catching up on news from the 2015 Gen Con and all the great Star Wars news coming from Fantasy Flight Games. Like the implication of Star Wars upon the world of science, I can see this whole generation exploding into a grand fortissimo that far exceeds politics and contemporary society. As obsessed as the world of politics is currently with Donald Trump, the sheer numbers of these Star Wars supporters pales every other demographic group in comparison, and is evidence of a world tomorrow that will be much different from the world of today. To understand that world I watched hours of footage coming from X-Wing matches at Gen Con and studied what was coming from Fantasy Flight Games. But all that will be quickly eclipsed with the announcement of a Star Wars Land in Disney World. To understand that—dive into Basulto’s world and take a mental snapshot of a world about to arrive.

Over the weekend at the D23 Expo, Disney announced that it planned to create two new 14-acre “Star Wars” theme lands as part of its Disneyland and Disney World parks. The news, predictably, met with approval from the ranks of “Star Wars” supporters at the event.

But the news of Disney’s new theme parks has a far larger significance: it shows the extent to which science fiction is eating the world. And that’s good news — science fiction’s growing mind share of the nation’s youth is creating a stable base of future innovators.

Think about it — the generation that grew up on the Disney animation classics of the post-War era — “Alice in Wonderland” (1951), “Peter Pan” (1953), and “Sleeping Beauty” (1959) — has been replaced by a generation that grew up with “Star Wars” and all the other classic science fiction films of the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1977, the blockbuster film “Star Wars” launched an amazing cult franchise that shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

That’s one reason why Disney spent $4.05 billion to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. back in 2012 — the bottom-line realization is that science fiction has come a long way from its early roots as a nerdy niche and is now a platform for future growth. It’s also at the leading edge of creating immersive new experiences. At this weekend’s D23 Expo, Disney chief executive Bob Iger told fans that, “We are creating a jaw-dropping new world” in which “guests will truly become part of a Star Wars story.”

Science fiction is now a family affair and a very lucrative one at that — while kids may outgrow their Cinderella dolls by adolescence, there’s growing proof that they never really outgrow their love of “Star Wars.” Science fiction is the gift that keeps on giving, especially if you’re a huge corporation able to license product after product. There’s enough demand, in fact, to support the creation of sprawling new “Star Wars” theme worlds within already sprawling theme parks.

As science fiction continues to eat the world, which has important implications for how future generations think about science, creativity and innovation.

First and most importantly, think about the new gender roles that science fiction opens up. In the classic Disney fairy tale, what are the roles played by women and girls? They are princesses who spend their whole lives pining for a kiss from Prince Charming. The reason why “Frozen” has been such a phenomenal success for Disney, some have argued, is because it brought forward a new type of heroine – Elsa – who’s okay with her magical ice powers and just wants to be left alone.

Now, contrast that to the roles played by the likes of another princess — the “Star Wars” princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. She’s talented, driven, forceful, a leader and a fighter – and she’s also beautiful and a style icon, by the way. This explosion of possible roles for women, one could argue, has been one of the factors behind the phenomenal success of events such as Comic-Con. The wonderful variety of science fiction roles for women has inspired girls to dress up like their favorite heroines. At this year’s Comic-Con, the male/female ratio was almost exactly 50-50.

Then, think about the technological innovations in your classic Disney fairy tale — you have magic kisses, magic wands and magic abilities such as the ability to fly. You could argue that “Star Wars” offers high-tech updates on these themes — think of the “Star Wars” light saber as the ultimate magic wand, the Millennium Falcon as a way cooler version of a flying elephant, and all the assorted droids, gadgets and intergalactic villains as high-tech versions of the all plot elements in a Disney fairy tale.

There’s a whole sub-genre of innovation that might be characterized as Star Wars innovations — all the amazing innovations that people are trying to bring to fruition because of having watched “Star Wars.” A short list of amazing innovations inspired by “Star Wars” would include laser technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, alternative energy, holograms, prosthetics, genetic engineering and, yes, force field technology.

The reason why science fiction is so powerful as an innovation stimulus is because it creates the need for high-end special effects to create ever more realistic worlds within a science fiction narrative framework. That’s where Lucasfilm plays such an important role — all of those special effects help to push along the narrative in ways that excite the mind. All the great Disney films have a complex narrative filled with great costumes, curses, grudges and family intrigues — but when they’re combined with intergalactic empires and cosmic enemies, science fiction films have much greater ability to win over impressionable hearts and minds.

Still not convinced that science fiction is eating the world? Just wait until Halloween this year. Check out how many people make “Star Wars” a family affair. For every Cinderella and Prince Charming, you’re bound to encounter a Princess Leia and Han Solo. It used to be you needed to go to an event such as Comic-Con to dress up as your favorite science fiction character, soon you’ll be able to do it any day of the year at Disneyland or Disney World.

Dominic Basulto is a futurist and blogger based in New York City

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/star-wars-lands-coming-to-disneyland-disney-world/2015/08/16/b60167d6-43ee-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_video.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/star-wars-themed-land-at-planned-at-disney-parks/2015/08/15/e25ea198-43aa-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html?tid=ptv_rellink

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/08/18/disneys-star-wars-themed-lands-prove-that-science-fiction-has-arrived/

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

The End of Hillary Clinton: Guilty beyond refute–its just a matter of time

I’m not writing this for my usual readers, who would expect approximately 1500 words of substantiation to validate whatever argument I’m putting forth. What I’m about to say they already know. Rather, this article is for those on the other side who plan to vote for Hillary Clinton. I have news for you since by your lifestyle choices; you probably don’t know what’s happening involving her right now. For those people I will make this a lot shorter so to hold your attention spans. I am of course speaking to the communist slugs, the Democratic socialists, the labor union supporters, the welfare recipients, the bloods and the crips, the community activists, the “he she” types, the criminals, the lazy, and the vile progressive. Your candidate is in deep trouble. Just watch her in this very revealing Vegas press conference.

She was of course making a campaign stop in Vegas trying to maintain her lead during a presidential election—which can also be seen below. But at this point because of the guilt implied in what she said in the press conference, her campaign just ended. There is no possibility to recover. The Democrats are now without a candidate. Bernie Sanders is an open socialist. Joe Biden is attached to the sinking ship of the Obama White House and is extremely gaffe prone and there isn’t another viable candidate. So there you have it. Welcome to reality.

I’m not going to rub it in anybody’s face. Like the cockroaches that most of you are, the light has been turned on and your first instinct is to flee to the cracks and hide. But there isn’t anywhere to shelter you from your own stupidity. Those days are—in effect—over. It will take a while to clean up the mess, but the progressive party is effectively over—and it starts with this press conference. Hillary has no defense and it is so painfully evident. She is guilty as guilty could possibly be of not only misleading a federal investigation by destroying evidence, but gross misconduct while holding a public office directly connected to two American presidencies. And there isn’t enough pot (marijuana) in the world to numb that reality.

I know this has been a lot of words for your tiny minds to contemplate; I have tried to be as brief as possible. But I just thought you’d want to know that you don’t have a candidate for the 2016 election. Have a nice day.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Cabela’s in West Chester: Bigger than all outdoors because of big bank accounts

It has been a week of amazing fun and innovation culminating in the opening of a new Cabela’s in my hometown, on the border of Liberty Township and West Chester Township. I went to the Grand Opening with my son-in-law and took a moment to just soak up the moment. With the Wetherington Country Club on my right and the new Liberty Center development on my left while facing the grand façade of the new outdoor outfitter, I had to consider how wonderful these developments were, and how amazingly creative the minds of ingenuity behind them were that made it all possible. From the smallest fishing lure to the most epic of dining experiences, the spot that I stood upon I once hiked as a kid that at the time was considered remote and way out-of-the-way from anything resembling development. Yet where I stood was ground central to some of the greatest capitalist investment in the United States, and I simply loved it. Country music played to a line of people who had been waiting to get into Cabela’s for days as the sun rose through blotchy clouds above the now familiar building. Outdoor exhibits filled the parking lot giving the feel of a county fair; it was a truly American experience. I couldn’t help but swell with pride that I lived in a country where such things were celebrated with such gusto. Then the doors opened and a rush of people to be the first inside collapsed reason for yearnings specific to the human need for adventure.

Inside was 82,000 SF of greatness, of American pride, guns, camping equipment, outdoor gear, fishing boats and lures—of everything someone who spends time outside could possibly want. Now in this area we are a little spoiled, we have a Bass Pro. We have a Dicks Sporting Goods which I have been spending a lot of time at lately. So we have access to outdoor supplies in quantities that are unique to our regional market. And I still love those stores. In fact, I am excited about the Bass Pro that is about to break ground this fall just a few miles to the south—a 125,000 SF facility that will be quite a bit larger than this Cabela’s. But for me, Cabela’s is a sentimental victory—a regional game changer that I will be intensely loyal to. I have always loved their supplies and have ordered from them through mail order for years. Most of my cloths have come from Cabela’s over a long period of time. And without question, most of my future cloths will come from the very store I was standing in. I had the thought that a younger version of myself was meeting an older version right there in that store—and it was a soul unifying experience.   The lighting was wonderful; it was like walking into the Wizard of Oz film for the first time when movie goers saw color after the first half hour was in black and white. It was more than a store—it was Heaven’s Gate.

The same kind of goose bumps that I get when I see the Smith & Wesson logo, or that of Ruger was evident upon viewing the entire fabulous inventory Cabel’s had on display in those opening moments. It was a moment that I will never forget and will go down in history as one of my favorite experiences. All was right in the world at that moment, it was Christmas in August—Americana in all its glory was on full display. Paradise was upon us and it was simply glorious.

I remember when Liberty Township was very rural, cows were on farms with every mile traversed. My roots in Liberty Township go back to before there was ever an American Revolution so there are few living here now who can claim such a history. If anybody should have anxiety over all the development, it should be me—and on some projects I don’t like them. For instance, I was not a fan of the 129 connector. Too many people lost their land to the hands of government, and a scar cut right through my township which likely laid my foundations toward government opinion to this day. It was a bad deal and it has not saved Hamilton from economic destruction, the way that the highway was sold. Route 4 is the artery for development that is every bit as good as 129. Because of the Butler County Regional Highway (129) Liberty Township is changing from a country refuge into a suburban utopia luring the affluent from all around the country to one of the best locations in the country to live. To my eyes there is good and bad with that. I don’t care for the traffic, but I like the innovation that comes with development.

Many are concerned that the traffic in front of Cabela’s and the new Liberty Way will be ominous. These are major shopping destinations that typically have eight lane roads handling all the activity. But the design is all part of the new design of these retail establishments—where the challenge is to handle all the people while still looking like a small town community. After all, that is the appeal of Liberty Township and West Chester. You get everything you would expect from a big city as far as commercial application of development, without all the noise and headache. The spirit of the land is and will always be country—even with all the affluence. I still see it the way I always did, even as I stood in the Cabela’s parking lot thinking of days where that exact location seemed so far away from civilization with the exception of I-75 nearby.   Back in those days Tylersville Road was like the last outpost of Cincinnati before getting to Dayton, with the only exception of Middletown which was like a small oasis between the two big cities. After Tylersville Road there wasn’t much development, there was actually concern about having enough gas to get to the next supplier.

Once just north of Franklin I was pulled over by a helicopter cop for doing 111 MPH and I wasn’t really trying very hard. There wasn’t much traffic or buildings around for reference. The cop saw that I had so much legal trouble that they actually cut me a break, because my license was about to point out under suspension from the multitude of speeding tickets I had—which took about three months to process through the system—in pre-Internet days. The helicopter actually landed in the median of I-75 because that was the only vehicle that could catch up to me back then. But the cops in the helicopter were happy to have something daring to do during their shift and I was pretty well known—so they were content to send me off without making things worse for me—which was nice. There was a little bit of Hazzard County politics to the region back then, which I always appreciated, and many old timers are afraid of that going away with all these new developments. But to my eyes, Cabela’s understands the area—which is why they put the store where they did. They appeared to me to want to give the area more of the character it has always had, not to take it away.

Yet if I had the opportunity as a kid to trade that bit of land for the hiking opportunities it provided, or in having a Cabela’s where I can buy just about anything for the outdoors that I could dream of, and then travel to some really nice outdoor destinations for real adventure—I would pick in less than a second to have the Cabela’s. From Liberty Township, the Great Lakes are not that far away. Cumberland Lake, Lake Nolan and many other southern destinations known for fishing and boating are an equal number of miles to the south. To the east is the great Hocking Hills and between those places and the new Cabela’s are many hundreds of smaller destinations great for outdoorsman. But what’s better is the concentration of wealth in the area that allows Cabela’s to stock unusual items that they might not be able to afford to carry in less affluent areas.

There have been a lot of complaints that Bass Pro has went downhill over the last couple of years—particularly in the fishing lure selection and price. They really haven’t had a direct competitor and they have been located in a declining area—economically. The Cincinnati Mills location is a dead mall mismanaged by the governments of Forest Park and Fairfield who assumed twenty years ago that they could raise taxes, bring in government housing, and not expect to push away the wealth that made them great areas at one time. Again, when I was a kid I spent a lot of time at Surf Cincinnati, which was located in Forest Park, just down the highway from the current Bass Pro Shop. There are such poor quality people in the region now, that a Surf Cincinnati wouldn’t be possible in that same area now. It’s not race that I’m talking about, it’s those willing to build wealth as opposed to those who just want to leech off it. This has put Bass Pro in a terrible position and it shows in their stock of inventory.

To support them I buy what I can from Bass Pro. As I announced recently, I bought my new .500 Magnum from them even though it probably cost me $150 more to do so, and I bought recently a gun cleaning kit that I could have bought at Dick’s for about $5 less. I bought at Bass Pro because I wanted to support them, and because I wanted to show my grandson the gigantic fish tank and grab something to eat in front of it. They opened Bass Pro hoping to have a major impact on the region, which has been extremely positive. But not enough to offset the bad decisions of local government during the past—so for Bass Pro’s own survival, they need to move to West Chester. The same customers can come as those who went to the Forest Park location, but new people who avoided the Forest Park region will explode their business. That will not only help Bass Pro, but outdoor enthusiasts like me who want to give them money, and encourage them to carry inventory they might not otherwise stock for fear of overloading their shelves—because eventually someone will buy that uniquely colored fishing lure—because they are getting ready to fly to Canada on a pontoon plane to spend a week on one of their many lakes far removed from civilization.

Others are concerned that there won’t be enough economic horse power to sustain Cabela’s, Dicks at Liberty Center, and Bass Pro at Union Center. I know by instinct that there is more than enough. But Cabela’s has run the numbers, they know the demographics of the area they built-in, which is why they are selling boats and pontoons—which is unusual for them. They know the market demographics are there, which was obvious upon putting my eyes on the merchandise when first entering. It’s the little things that confirm it—which is why it was a paradise for me.

I recently had the privilege of visiting the Field & Stream store in Crescent Springs and it was wonderful, but had a bit of the tired look of the Bass Pro in Forest Park. That is because the market demographics can’t support all the cool little nuances that come to affluent areas. It was a nice store, had a good price on ammunition, but looked like they were holding back on their inventory out of concern of not being able to sell it. That was not the case in the Cabela’s at West Chester. It was gloriously stocked and ready to supply a community hungry for what they offered. And for me, lasting just a small time during a mid-morning excursion, all was right in the world. I was at Cabela’s and they spared no expense!

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

The Millennium Falcon is my Thing: Wonderful news from Disney’s D23 Expo

Stunning is all I have to say about the news out of Disney regarding Star Wars.  Everyone who reads here and knows me understands that I am a Star Wars fan.  They know that my primary love in life is that of mythology and the power of it.  That one of my great personal teachers was the maverick professor at Sarah Lawrence College—Joseph Campbell and that I spent many of my formative years associating with the Joseph Campbell Foundation of which George Lucas was one of the Board of Directors.  And I have said on many occasions that I think the new Star Wars films, and all the books and media that will follow will reshape our modern culture not only regionally, but globally. There is tremendous power in Star Wars and Disney’s marketing machine will only accentuate that in glorious ways that only capitalism can fully extract.  The news around the upcoming film The Force Awakens is exciting.  But that’s not all, a whole slate of new films following that one are upcoming.  All the mythology that the previous six Star Wars films have produced over the last 30 years will soon be eclipsed by the six new films in the pipeline produced over the next six years.  And supporting those will be all new novels, video games, commercial products but best of all a new Star Wars land at the Disney parks.  Click here to read some of my previous work on this topic.  I predicted this a long time ago in a galaxy not so far away. 

For me the biggest news of this century which has stirred in me a delight that is quite epic is the information that not only will Disney build a 14 acre Star Wars specific land in both the Anaheim location and Orlando location, but that a full-sized Millennium Falcon will be present.  That is a game changer in these films that I have been wanting to see my entire life.  And now I’m going to get to see it.   At the D23 Expo over this last weekend Bob Iger released the details and showed the concept art and that just did it for me.  I have been in love with the Millennium Falcon since I was very young and it may actually be stronger today than even when I was a kid because not only through the movies, but the many novels, I have spent a lot of time on that ship in my head—and I completely understand the world it traverses through.  I am very happy that Disney as a company has done precisely what I said they would do with the Star Wars acquisition when they first bought it in 2012 and at the heart of it they intend to keep the Millennium Falcon a central character to the entire saga.

Honestly if Jesus Christ came again to judge the living and the dead on judgment day and I had a chance to attend that or to go see the Millennium Falcon in real life, I would choose the Falcon.  I am pretty stoic when it comes to controlling my emotions.  I don’t get crazy about many things—especially sad things. But I do allow myself to feel elation over positive things, and I really don’t know how I will handle seeing a Millennium Falcon in real life—seriously.  When the place opens I may take a week of vacation just to reside in that land day after day soaking up everything—because I love the Star Wars mythology from top to bottom—and within that world I have a love of the Millennium Falcon that is central to that passion.  Still to this day, out of all the successes and experiences I’ve had—which are quite extraordinary, things I’ve won and achieved—one of the best memories I have ever had was seeing the real life model of the Millennium Falcon in the Smithsonian in 1997.  I really felt when I put my hands against the glass that I had died and gone to heaven.  It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever put my eyes on.  Given that context I really don’t know how I’ll react to seeing a model of the Falcon in full-scale that I can walk up to and see close.

Han Solo is the modern embodiment of the classic western cowboy.  His quick draw pistol is famous within the Star Wars storyline and his super fast Millennium Falcon gives a tip of the hat to two film genres, the classic car hot rod and a gun fighting cowboy.  Those two things are just impossible not to like—and to top that off, the Falcon was a pirate ship within that galaxy—so I’m not the only one who finds the Millennium Falcon appealing.  I was amazed to see Harrison Ford on stage at D23, and that it was Han Solo who made the cut on the new poster for The Force Awakens.  There will be a new film about specifically Han Solo as a young 20 something that will be exciting, so there is a lot of news coming from Disney to be excited about for—particularly for Millennium Falcon fans.  I know how I feel about all this information, so I can’t help but think of the scientific implications of it.

As recently as last week I was thinking of a way to build a real Millennium Falcon as a real usable space vessel moving to and from earth to explore the reaches of space.  I really don’t think we are that far away, and one design with sentimental value is as good as any other.  The Falcon offers a lot of options for deep space travel particularly in its circular design.  A change of scenery is important when spending a lot of time in space, and the Falcon is cleverly designed for just such an experience.

Also announced at D23 was the new photo for Rogue One which showed Felicity Jones as the main actress standing among a group of daredevils and hackers about to steal the Death Star plans leading up to the original Star Wars film,  A New Hope.  As I looked at that I couldn’t help but wonder if she wasn’t playing Bria Tharen who was one of Han Solo’s girl friends from the Expanded Universe.  If she was her back story could easily be a part of the stand alone Han Solo film coming on May 25th 2018.  I’m already in line!  Likely being that young, Han Solo wouldn’t yet have the Millennium Falcon, but I’m sure it will make an appearance in that film as the ship owned by Lando Calrissian.   It is obvious that Disney, knowing the popularity of the vessel is finding ways to put it in most of the new Star Wars films in some support role or another.  There will also be a Boba Fett film and in that story I’m sure he will be chasing around a younger Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon—so there is a theme emerging that is quite justifiable in placing a full-sized Falcon in the center of the new Star Wars land at Disney.

Knowing the effect the Falcon has had on me I shudder to think of what effect it will have on a new generation who can actually walk up and touch it.  I got goose bumps the first time I saw new footage of the Falcon in a hangar on the Star Tours ride in Orlando.  Part of the ride flies off behind the popular vessel in a dog fight and I was blasted with excitement in just seeing it sit there.  For my birthday this year we went to Dave & Busters just so I could fly the Falcon in the video game there exclusive to the popular gaming destination.  But these are all images that take imagination to enjoy.  They are not something you can put your hands on and feel.  Disney is now taking that step and I am emphatically excited about it.  I think the influence it will have on science for years to come will be extraordinary.  These new films will open up the mythology in ways that nobody thought was possible before and the effect they will have on civilization will be extremely powerful.  Being able to reach out and touch it will just make it that much more influential as a mythic device.  So yes, there is a lot of good news floating around out there.  But for me, nothing is more exciting than the D23 news coming out of Disney.  I would pay $100,000 just to see an actual movie prop of the Falcon on set.  I would spend unknown amounts to see one all dressed up at Disney World.  The Millennium Falcon is my thing—and I share that with a lot of other enthusiasts. It was probably the best thing that Disney could have done with Star Wars—and they are just getting started.  I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

A Nice Note from Frank R. Brownell III: Dreams from a honeymoon and strategies forward

I received a nice note from Frank R. Brownell III, shown below, which meant quite a lot to me.  He wanted to thank me for some of the writing I have contributed on behalf of his company, which of course have led to radio spots and other indirect support of his very fine company.  I loved Brownells as a young man when one of my very first jobs out of high school was a gunsmith, and I still love them as they are the best of their kind in the world regarding gunsmithing equipment.  Guns are the keys to American freedom protecting capitalism from the treachery of socialism.  Governments—all governments—are inclined toward socialism so we need guns to keep those back-of-the-train bureaucrats in their pin-headed offices, and off our backs.  Not from violence, but from the knowledge of equality that guns provide to individuals who are always prone to aggression from collective organizations and institutions of consensus.  The only reason that socialism has been such a slow boil in America hidden behind the changed names of the Democratic Party is because Americans have so many guns.  And the people who keep those guns working are gunsmiths, making them one of the most important fields of endeavor in a free society.

I have too many hobbies—entirely too many.  I would need about 3000 years to develop them all.  But out of them all, the one that I think is the most important is my love of guns.  I’m not a person who has a tremendous number of guns.  But having them, and being able to work on them is a value that to me is excessively valuable.  That is why I originally wanted to be a gunsmith more than any other profession.    When I was young and newly married, I was set to become a global adventurer—as a career.  My experience at that time could only take me satisfactorily to such a destination.  I had done just about everything and experienced so much before I even turned 18 that I was headed in that direction.  While honeymooning in Gatlinburg, Tennessee with my country club oriented new wife, we picked that destination because I wanted to show her how the other half of life lived.  That’s why we picked the blue-collar landscape of southeastern Tennessee to have our honeymoon instead of someplace like Hawaii.  I always enjoyed the finer things in life, but I grew up blue-collar, so I was always able to maintain that balance.  My wife was curious about that life, so we vacationed in a way that would show her those things while still living in the kind of luxury she was accustomed to.  I found a chalet for us, took her to the finest restaurants in Gatlinburg at the time, and we drove there in our BMW shortly after the wedding.  The view out our window was of the Smoky Mountains, it was very remote and spacious, and we had the whole place all to ourselves.  It made for a wonderful honeymoon in the fashion a young couple would expect to entertain themselves who are newly married.  She was comfortable and happy, thus she was open to the kind of places I liked to go—like leather shops, gun shops and knife stores.  This was all new to her, so we wanted to capture that moment in a bottle and I decided that I’d become a gunsmith to give her that kind of life 365 days a year 24 hours a day.

That was when I discovered for the first time Brownells.  They had their act together and walked that fine line between luxury and blue-collar sentiment seamlessly, which enabled me to bring a little Gatlinburg to our daily life which made my wife very happy.  Soon we were on a path unique to us and making a living that wasn’t as Champaign glass specific as what was expected of us.  She was raised to be a country club fashion model, and I was personally comfortable in tents, campfires, and luxury hotel accommodations anywhere on earth.  We were trying to do something different and that was to fulfill a new idea we came up with during our honeymoon that combined everything into a nice domestic life that we both wanted, but had no real examples to follow—leaving it largely to us to create from scratch.  Brownells made that dream a possibility that we clawed at for several years.   We started having kids and from there the pressure increased and our goals as a couple become much more difficult to achieve.  I took a step away from the gunsmithing because increased demands to have a more socially acceptable living, and the difficulties of being so young trying to do something that progressives were trying to destroy in the years leading up to Bill Clinton were ominous.  This made the dream we had seem so hard to reach which put a lot of pressure on us as a young couple.

I am a lot of things to a lot of people—but one thing that is completely consistent across the spectrum of thought is that I am extremely tenacious and I never forget anything.  It is likely the aspect of me that is most recognizable to other people.  Once I get my hooks in something, I never let it go until I get what I want or need out of it.  If I want to do something, I do it—hell or high water—nothing will stop me.  Nothing. That means I sometimes put things off for a few decades until I have the time or means to get back around to them, and that is what I did with gunsmithing.  I took some time to catch things up, deal with the encroachments of modernism seeking to impose itself on our married life, and keep the coals of gunsmithing warm in the back of my mind always with that vision of a life created in our imagination at Gatlinburg during our honeymoon alive no matter what was going on.

During our honeymoon we went to several leather shops and looked at boots, cowboy hats, and gun holsters and we wanted a lifestyle that incorporated all those elements.  For a country club girl, someone who was actually being groomed by the John Casablanca modeling agency to do photo shoots for Cosmopolitan in New York and whose parents were members of the very prestigious Becket Ridge Country Club at the time—this life of leather, lace and red, white and blue Americana complete with bullwhips was something very appealing.  It was a way out of the mundane conversation often conducted at power lunches—which are important for business, but often leave people short on intellectual stimulation.  So she was all in if I could provide for her, which was a lot of pressure on me—it was a lot to sign up for.  She literally had her pick of who she could marry, and there were plenty of up and coming lawyers, sons of business tycoons, and well-to-dos offering to sweep her away into a comfortable life continuing her country club expectations.  It takes a lot to sign up with a woman knowing there is a line from here to the moon of men wanting to sweep her up if you stumble even a little bit.  We determined to live a traditional life as a couple to seal the promises we made during our honeymoon—which included bullwhips, cowboy hats, and lots of firearms.

To understand that promise made in Gatlinburg, Tennessee so many years ago—the kind of America we committed ourselves to, is to understand what kind of company Brownells is.  They are technically modern, traditional as a business, creative—but place at the head of their business model a sincere appreciation of quality and integrity.  When you get something from Brownells it has a feel of quality to it, no matter what it is.  That is because of their value system, which is the kind of America my wife and I made a decision to defend—any way possible.

We are at a stage in our life where that tenacity has outlasted many of the oppositions presented and the restrictions upon us are breaking loose.  That’s why it’s no surprise to us that the first contact I made after that weight was lifted off me was back to Brownells.  Sure it took over twenty years, but who’s counting?  They represent the kind of America we fell in love with during a dreamy honeymoon.  Brownells is the best that our country offers as a free market option that protects the Second Amendment with gun maintenance while setting the industry standard.  As Cabela’s and Bass Pro expand their outdoor shopping empires—much to my liking—it is important to remember that Brownells did it first.  When the nation was reeling under progressive strife, Brownells held strong so that the rest of the country wouldn’t lose themselves to the encroaching progressivism that sought to infect the only free country left on planet earth.  Brownells did more than just preserve gun maintainence, it held down a family friendly business model that values good old-fashioned conduct which built the nation to begin with—and they have endured successfully in spite of the opposition against them over many, many years.

So it meant a lot to me to receive the nice note from Frank Brownell, III.  He didn’t have to send me a letter, and he certainly didn’t have to type it up and mail it personally to me.  He could have sent an email or a tweet.  But he didn’t, he sent a well thought out letter with a personalized signature because it mattered to him to reach out and maintain personal contact with people he values, which is at the heart of why they have been such a successful company.  They simply are the best in the business, and I’m so happy they are out there.  I’m not only getting back into doing some gunsmithing, but I’m starting an entirely new hobby that will require a lot of work with Brownells.  It is part of something I think is extremely important given what we know about the progressive attempts to attack the Second Amendment and the defense of freedom that personal firearm protection provides.  We need to re-sell freedom to the American people, and the best way to do that is with firearms—and I plan to capitalize on that for the sake of marketing, and sentiment.  My wife and I still have those original dreams, and we are not the kind of people who let dreams slip away.  And those dreams are more possible because of companies like Brownells.  They are what we are fighting for—good people, good ethics, and always striving to provide good products in a way that is specifically American.  They are the foundation of that dream, and I will always cherish them.

The feeling is mutual, Frank.  Keep up the good work, you guys are not alone.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Oskar Schindler, The Answer to Glenn Beck: The Summer of Trump — It’s all about love

Glenn Beck asked the question of Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh why they were supporting Donald Trump for President as the former Fox star was grabbing for answers after the Megan Kelly feud failed to put a dent in Trump’s campaign. Beck had been against Trump believing that humbleness should be a quality of an American president, that Trump is a pro assault weapon ban supporter; he’s soft on Planned Parenthood and would offer the White House a first lady who had posed nude as a model. He continued on baffled as to why conservatives would support Trump the way they have been in spite of all the controversy. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. I have been receiving the same kind of questions from traditional Republicans as well; many who are aghast at Trump’s run for president. It truly scares them as they really believe in establishment politicians—the system that has delivered the current mess. So I have thought very hard on the subject. I understand why I support Trump as a front-of-the-train guy. It isn’t easy to explain it to back-of-the-train people however but in thinking of a way to express the reasoning I thought of one man as represented in the 1993 film from Steven Spielberg–Oskar Schindler played by Liam Neeson from Schindler’s List.

Before anyone says that the real life Oskar Schindler was a Nazi war profiteer and has no comparison to Trump, or that the situation in Schindler’s List is not even remotely the same as the current state of America—I would argue both points. Oskar Schindler was a businessman who worked the Nazi Party into making himself huge profits. But during his experiences he realized how evil the party under Hitler truly was and he had a change of heart, so he decided to save some lives and work the system from his position of strength to do it. Without talking to Trump personally about the situation I think a few really big things happened to him over the last couple of years where he has had his own Oskar Schindler moments. First and foremost I think the smart money of New York sees the writing on the wall. 19-20 trillion in national debt will crush America and likely Trump knows George Soros personally, and everyone on the financial end of the country’s business knows that the left leaning billionaire is trying to topple the American economy. Trump and his financial friends will lose a lot of money when that happens, so now is the time to fight to preserve America as a safe haven of financial independence. Second I think the birther issues involving Trump’s push to get the Obama administration to release the president’s birth certificate, which was done in April of 2011, was an extreme revelation to just how corrupt the political machine truly was—at all levels. Trump won that hard fight but immediately Sheriff Joe Arpaio went on CBS and proved that the birth certificate was a fake. There was something very fishy with the whole deal and since Trump was one of the only people not to back down on the birther issue, he felt vindicated from the shower of criticism and decided to do something about it. There was obviously a shadow party at work within the federal government and there wasn’t a single Republican in the field who was poised to fight it, so Trump out of self-interest, and a since of righting a wrong decided to step forward to fight it.

I can say those things with some level of certainty. If I were in Trump’s situation, I would spend a billion dollars of my own money to fight it. Heck, I write a blog every day for free to fight these things staying up late at night, getting up early in the morning with nothing in it for me at all, but the sense of righting wrongs. Speaking from personal experience, I would say that Trump’s wife Melina probably has something to do with his sudden rush of conservative value. A good woman does put lead in the pencil of A type personalities, and a new son gives a man something to fight for. I’m sure if you peel back Donald Trump that those are some of the core motivations. There are a lot of things that Donald Trump does and says that I completely understand. If he were president, I could convince him to stay off my guns. He’s a New York guy so his policies are largely shaped around the gun laws of that crowded city. But it’s my hope that a Trump presidency will take the fight to the enemies of America making it so that I won’t have to use the Second Amendment to defend my property from an out-of-control nation in debt to a world looking to collect. Once that debt gets over $20 trillion, the lights start to go out and a collapse is inevitable. But listening to Trump, he is conducting his campaign the way I would if I had the resources and time—so I trust him. I know a lot of people in business who put on a metaphorical mask when they do their work, but once the mask comes off they are normal people. I think Trump put on his mask to do his deals over the years, sometimes Republican, sometimes Democrat, but he discovered that some of the people behind the masks of people he was dealing with were really bad people, and he is in a unique position to do something about it, so he is. I would too.

After all the controversy I watched Trump closely, particularly after the Megan Kelly situation. Trump has been playing the situation of president in the classic deal maker fashion, just like playing a simple game of Poker. He has baited pundits to discover their positions, and then he takes control of the situation after they show their cards. He is a lot smarter than he has let on, and he’s in far more control than many believed. His ego maniac position is not part of his true character, but a device he uses to discover the kind of cards people are holding. By insulting people directly and indirectly, you provoke them into showing their hands. It’s a classic trick that has obviously made Trump a lot of money over the years, and he’s now performing it on a world stage. He’s not just playing this game to win the presidency; he’s setting the stage for global negotiations when he becomes president. I’d bet everything I have on the matter. He’s playing the game that far ahead. Watching his speeches in Michigan, then New Hampshire, then flying out in his helicopter to Iowa—no teleprompters, no handlers, just straight talk speaking with extreme confidence knowing that every word he says will be analyzed and cut-up any way possible—he gave three of the best speeches I’ve ever heard from him. He is a master at the top of his game and there are hints that he has a lot more in the tank. And that is scaring the crap out of establishment types. Standing in front of his personal helicopter in Iowa he was asked if he’d be willing to spend a billion dollars of his own money to become president, and he said without pause—yes. It’s over for the other Republican candidates. This race is over. The 2016 election will be between Trump and whoever the Democrats can put up. And Trump will not run to lose, he’ll do anything and everything in his power to win and the money men know it.

I say that because soon there won’t be any donors to the other candidates. Now that word is out that Trump is serious, the funding for them will dry to a trickle. It won’t take but a few months from now. Trump has another advantage over them that nobody has yet picked up on. Donald Trump is a hard worker. He is willing to work harder than any person running for office. After listening to his recent speeches I am convinced that he read voluminous amounts of information and he was quite comfortable in reciting what he had been learning. He is a smart guy, and I doubt he sleeps much. I understand that because I’m the same way as is in evidence by the voluminous amount of work I produce. Trump will out work and out spend anybody running against him Republican or Democrat. That’s why he’s already shaping global opinions about him in a way that gives him negotiation power once he holds office as president. He is speaking a language that Putin understands, the Saudi’s are terrified of, and Mexico is silently stunned about. The “shadow parties” of world governments are really scared of Donald Trump and his unstoppable campaign during this mythical 2015 “Summer of Trump.”

There really isn’t a policy issue in the 2016 race that is bigger than the economy. Only someone like Trump can wrestle the economy back from this staggering debt. If he can’t than it’s over, and many people like me see it from the front-of-the-train. Those in the back will discover it soon enough. Glenn Beck is not a back of the train person, but he is when it comes to faith and religion. He has had to turn too much toward religion to hold his life together as a person and his opinions about Trump are largely shaped in the context of faith. I don’t have those handicaps when thinking about Trump, and Trump doesn’t live by those limits. I understand his religious position. Donald Trump is an Ayn Rand president. Many Objectivists that I know have taken issue with my assessment of Trump comparing him to Howard Roark from the great novel The Fountainhead. They countered to me that Trump was not like Roark, but more like Gail Wynand—the newspaper tycoon who married the hot wife and traveled the world in his boat once he realized the futility of the fight against him. I can see that, which plays into the whole Oskar Schindler comparison. But Roark loved building things, and so does Trump. I think Donald Trump is a lot deeper person than he shows most people and deep down inside, he is more a figure out of an Ayn Rand novel than out of The Bible, which is the heart of Glenn Beck’s issue, and one that Christian conservatives will have to come to terms with.

To say it’s unfair, or not an apples to apples comparison to say that Oskar Schindler saved Jewish lives and Donald Trump is just a selfish businessman who wants attention, is to miss the real tragedy of the present moment. If the economy fails, more people will die than they did in the German/Jewish holocaust—that is for sure. But think of the evils going on presently from the aborted fetuses at Planned Parenthood to the obvious shadow government conspiracies happening at every level of political endeavor. Trump is wonderfully free of any control mechanisms within that system, and I think his crusade is more out of moral obligation than self fulfillment. His life already is like that of a president. It would be a step down for him to reside in the White House. His ability to make decisions without the temptation of making money off the deal is an ability that I would put my money on over any potential candidate. With the current problems facing the nation, I don’t see any other way out of it, but through someone like Trump.

If Trump comes after our guns, I will happily fight him on it. I am happy to argue and throw mud at him over issues involving the Constitution. As I’ve said, I know for certain he’s not as conservative as I am—but few people are—if any are. But I see in him a man who will work harder than anybody, who can finance himself and owe nothing to anybody, and who can actually stop America from being a debtor nation. I’m even open to his health care options because Obamacare will further bankrupt America, and without that insurance still raises 7-15% each year. That is unsustainable as well. America doesn’t need a church pastor in the White House. It needs a cut-throat Ayn Ran type of money man who is self-sustaining and seeks his own advice 100% of the time. Watching how Trump handled the “birther” issue convinced me that he’s the only one who can be president in this current climate. Everyone backed off that issue except for him.   Without Trump, Obama would have never produced the birth certificate, and what they did produce was obviously tampered with. The story died, because nobody in the media had the will to take the next step for fear of being called names by the administration. But somewhere in there Trump made his decision to become a modern Oskar Schindler. Critics might say Trump is running for president to satisfy his own ego, that he used to be a progressive—Democrat—a liberal who is working with Bill Clinton to sabotage the political system for the aims of the Clinton Foundation. But I think Trump’s 2005 marriage to Melania Knauss is the real secret to his behavior. I think deep down inside, behind all the bolster and theatrics is a man in love with his wife—and I think he wants to make the world better for his family—so there is something of it left for them. His new son Barron is likely the primary motivation. I say that because it would be for me, and I see a lot of myself in Donald Trump—particularly in his will, and ability to fight for what he thinks is right. That is why this is the Summer of Trump with an administration to follow.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Trump on Meet the Press: Beating “The Brotherhood of the Snake” and the conspiracies of doom

I write sometimes about the occult, comparative religion, and the hidden history of the human race.  There are a lot of people out there who believe a lot of strange stuff, and if you peel back the layers of just about any organization—fraternity, secret society, or even political party you will find some reference to a group of people called “The Brotherhood of the Snake.” Because of that “Brotherhood” I have no faith that any presidential candidate no matter how well-intentioned would be able to break the cycle of that “Brotherhood” which believes in various forms of human sacrifice for divine sanctity.  Any president who expects to have success in a culture essentially run by “The Brotherhood of the Snake” would need to be completely independent of it. Donald Trump appears to be and the evidence of just how independent he is can be seen in the wonderful interview done on Meet the Press conducted on Sunday August 16, 2015.  Trump is a free man built by capitalism and he loves himself in a way that the American way of life intended to construct.  He is an Ayn Rand man—a unique creation built exclusively by the philosophy of America shaped by Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Adam Smith.  That makes him a uniquely independent human being and wonderfully free person economically and spiritually.  Put Trump in the White House and things will happen on Capitol Hill.  Without Trump, the cult of sacrifice will continue while K-Street lobbyists, prostitutes, and scum bags of all shapes and sizes will continue to ruin the management of the United States.  That is why I am so excited about Donald Trump.  We are on a philosophic precipice and I want Trump and his guys in charge so that they can rip America away from “The Brotherhood of the Snake.”  Here is the Meet the Press interview”

As to “The Brotherhood of the Snake,” believe me dear reader—you have heard of it.  If you are a Catholic, you are in the “Brotherhood” through evolution and you participate in its rituals each time you take communion simulating the blood of Christ.  If you are a “greenie weenie” tree hugging hippie, you are part of the “Brotherhood” because you are willing to sacrifice aspects of the human race for the preservation of “earth.”  If you believe as labor unions do that something must be sacrificed so that all people can be equal with a “living wage,” you are part of a belief system created by the “Brotherhood” many years ago that formed such thoughts from its infancy.  Here is how “The Brotherhood of the Snake” and its history evolved over time from a site linked below.  If you have doubts about any of this CLICK HERE to allow me to substantiate these claims further and provide a correct education into a world largely hidden from us all in our busy daily lives.

The Secret Societies have been present in the history of man for a very long time. It all started thousands of years ago with the “Brotherhood of the Snake”, a secret society set up by an alien named Ea or Enki. This story is very carefully told in the Sumerian scriptures, which go back at least 6000 years. There it says man was created by draconian aliens, who came to this planet to exploit its resources – especially gold. But the work was heavy, so the alien race wanted someone else to do the hard work. Thus Ea, who was a brilliant scientist, created Homo sapiens as a hybrid between a primitive earth life-form and the alien race. 

First Homo sapiens was only meant for slave labor and couldn’t breed. Later on this was changed. Ea didn’t like, though, how his created race was treated and wanted to enlighten them by telling them who they were and where they came from. He also wanted to tell them the well hidden truth that each individual is a spirit inhabiting a body and that after body death the spirit lives on and reincarnates on Earth. 

Ea’s superiors didn’t agree to this, as they were afraid of chaos and turmoil, but Ea told them anyway. The early Homo sapiens revolted against their Masters, but were forced to retire. Ea then started this secret society, the Brotherhood of the Snake, to enlighten people in secret. But he was discovered and judged by the alien laws, which meant that Ea was deported to Earth for eternity – to die here and be reborn here in endless cycles, using fragile, short living human bodies. If this is right, he might still be here … 

In the meantime, as time passed by, the “Brotherhood of the Snake” was infiltrated by the Draconian Master aliens and the knowledge was distorted to trap man instead of enlighten him. The Egyptian Era was in fact real “space opera”, with aliens walking around among us, even taking the throne as pharaohs on mostly. By that time the Brotherhood was very infiltrated and its purpose to manipulate the masses, making them believe in false gods and masters. 

In the background through all history there are the secret societies. The original Brotherhood soon split up in cults, when certain people on top were in disagreement with each other and different powers of control developed, with them even fighting each other (which still is the case today) totally above an ignorant population.

They invented the different religions and sects and cults so man would be busy doing something else instead of looking into what the Brotherhood was doing. It was also a way to control people by not telling the truth about God and Jesus, so that people would miss the point and never be able to be set free. Religion has always been connected with guilt and punishment, which is NOT the way it is supposed to be. They put themselves in charge of the churches to entrap people and to spread conflicts between different belief systems. Most wars throughout history have been religious wars.



Out of the original Brotherhood came Freemasonry, the Rosicrucians, The Knight Templars, Ordo Templi Orientis, Knights of Malta and more. They all knew, on the highest grades, the truth about the origin of man and that we all are spiritual beings and thus immortal. They know God is the REAL and only source, but they distorted that power as we let them deceive us and used the power of God that we have inside of us for their evil purposes. This knowledge is a very well kept secret and they have done everything in their power to hide the truth from people, and one must say they succeeded quite well. People who for some reason or another have stumbled upon the road to truth has either been ridiculed, slandered or even killed. 

Now you might say that the Freemasons, for example, is a charity organization and even Christian to its belief. Yes, that’s what we’re told and that is what most members of the secret society believe. Most people involved are good people, who are ignorant of what’s going on upon the highest grades. Because up there is Satanism and worship of the dark forces. They don’t serve God, they serve Satanor Lucifer and that is the key to what is happening in the world of today. 

Adam Weishaupt (1748-1811) basically a Jew, converted to become a Catholic Priest and ended up starting a “new” secret society called the Illuminati. Actually it was not new at the time; it’s been there long before then, but during Weishaupt’s lifetime this organization was revealed publicly. It’s unclear if he was the master-mind behind it, but most researchers, including me, are more or less certain that Weishaupt was just a puppet for the Elite of the Freemasons. 

The Freemasons had recently started a new branch of Freemasonry – Freemasonry of the Scottish Rite with its 33 degrees of initiation. It’s still today one of the most powerful secret societies, including members within high politics, religious leaders, businessmen and other “useful” persons. Things point in the direction that Weishaupt was sponsored by the Rothschilds, who then were (and are) the heads of Freemasonry. 

The Illuminati had its own grades ABOVE (or rather beside) the 33 degrees of Freemasonry. Even persons who were initiated to the higher degrees of Freemasonry had no knowledge of the Illuminati grades – it was that secret. Up there Weishaupt planned the take-over of the planet, and he made up distinct targets for a One World Government and a New World Order. All this was written down in something called the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion“, with an evil purpose to put the blame on the Jews(!) if something would leak. 

And it did leak! A courier for the Illuminati was struck by lightning when he rode over a field and the Protocols were found, where the takeover was carefully written down. This was in The 1770’s.Weishaupt and his Illuminati “Brothers” had to flee and work underground, as their organization was banned. It was decided that the name Illuminati should never be used officially again, but front groupsshould be used to fulfill the purpose of world domination, with the rest of the population made into slaves. One of the front groups were the Freemasons, who had a better reputation … 

It is believed that Weishaupt was killed by his Freemason Brothers, as he was unable to keep his mouth and still continued to use the name Illuminati. There could also have been other reasons. 

The secret goal, however, survived Weishaupt and the Rothschilds were now heads of the Illuminati (and still are today, together with David Rockefeller). A good help to reach the goal came from the Freemason Cecil Rhodes, who in the 19th Century tried to build a One World Government with the British Empire on the top. This was of course sponsored by the Rothschilds and it was also Rhodes who created the Round Table, a secret society in itself, named after King Arthur’s Round Table, where the Brotherhood Elite are gathering up to this day. 

World War I and II were both attempts to take over. After the Second World War people were so tired of all this killing that they welcomed the United Nations, when it was founded. The official policy of theUN was to safeguard the peace, so nothing like WW II would ever happen again. But indeed the UN was another important front organization for the Illuminati, to unite the countries of the world into one. This led to the EU project, which anyone, with his eyes open, can see goes right into the direction of the biggest fascist state known to man, where each country gets less and less power and sovereignty. 

By galloping inflation the International Bankers (read the Illuminati) have succeeded in making us believe that the only solution is a One Currency – the EMU. When that project is safeguarded, the Central European Bank (Illuminati) has all the power over the economy in Europe and can lead us in whatever direction they want. Some politicians are just stupid and ignorant, others are aware of facts and work for and with the Illuminati. The innocent people, being deceived, are the ones who will suffer the most. This is a betrayal beyond comprehension. 

The EU then will expand into the United Nations of Africa, Asia and South America and the end phenomenon will be that all those United States will be united into one big fascist state, which will last in a thousand years, regarding to their occult belief. It’s the Golden Age – the Age of AntiChrist. 

The secret societies and the Illuminati believe in the power of symbols. The world is full of their magical and black magic symbols. The problem is, we are so used to seeing them all over the place, that we don’t even think about it. The Illuminati believe that the more symbols around, the more magical power to them. The insignia of the Illuminati and the New World Order is the “Pyramid with the All-Seeing- Eye”, which you can study on the back of the US One Dollar Bill(!)

A few years ago this symbol was also on a series of stamps coming from the Vatican(!) The All-Seeing-Eye is the Eye of Horus, which is the Eye of Lucifer, and goes back to the Egyptian era. Other common symbols are the pentagram (five-pointed star), the hexagram (six-pointed star – The Star of David), the Swastika reversed (the way Hitler used it) and the pyramid in general. 

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_brotherhoodsnake05.htm

Trump is the closest man to a successful self-made man that we have in America, and his presidency will set a new standard that counters centuries of this “Brotherhood of the Snake” mentality that currently has handcuffed our political system to bizarre religious belief from multiple denominations all centering on a premise of sacrifice. Trump is a self-made creator and that is a basic, primal reason for my emphatic support.   He handled the Meet the Press interview incredibly well as he shattered many of the questions which have been formed around a basic premise of political orthodox shaped by ritualistic belief passed down to people through quantum entanglement to adhere to “The Brotherhood of the Snake” and their nutty beliefs.  It’s time for America and its people to grow up and away from this ancient notion of sacrifice, and a Trump presidency is a first big step in that direction.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

The Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar at the Elk Run Country Club: Great golf, great food, and wonderful history–open to the public

Since I’m a pretty controversial character, by choice, I am reluctant to stir the waters of conformity with my endorsements.  But there are some nice things going on in my community that are worth talking about in the face of a lot of political unrest in the world outside the borders of Liberty Township, Ohio—where I live.  One of the great things coming is the opening of the new Cabela’s in West Chester which is just across the street from the Liberty Township border at Liberty Center. I am excited for all the new developments and unusual dining options that often come with these new constructs.  However another fine little discovery that has emerged of late is the Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar at the Elk Run Country Club at the western diagonal edge of Liberty Township that was quite a surprise—and worth a mention regarding quality.

I live along the Elk Run golf course.  My wife and I have always loved the place; it is certainly a wonderful course, very scenic with a lot of risk & reward holes.  With it being in such close proximity to RT 4, yet having such a spectacular view of the Trenton valley, it’s a unique place.  It reminds me often of the fine golf courses in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, or the scenic establishments at Hilton Head Island.  Yet it’s right in Southern Ohio in the heart of Butler County and is to me a real treasure.  Additionally, it has sentimental value because it’s been there for a long time—back when Chuck Nuxhall was still playing as a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, The Elk’s Club was the place to be.  This was of course before the Becket Ridge Country Club came about—which is where my wife and I were married many years ago—back when that was one of the most premier establishments in Cincinnati as far as country clubs go.  The Elk’s Club in its heyday was open and thriving when LeSourdsville Lake just down the road was competing directly with Kings Island as two amusement parks of nearly the same quality.  I was a kid when all these things were happening, and I remember them—so there is a sentimental loyalty that I have for their preservation.

Other golf courses and country clubs offering the latest and greatest appeal to a much younger demographic is the Shaker Run course in Monroe, Wetherington in West Chester, and Four Bridges just down the road from the new Cabela’s—which represent the upper crust of social hierarchy.  These are great places after a hard day of work to take a few hours to live in absolute luxury—associate with people who are economically affluent—and step away from the world’s problems.  And yes, I put an emphasis on “economically affluent” because it matters.  People who make money tend to be smarter than people who don’t, and their company is more enjoyable.  They don’t laugh so much at fart jokes and they care about the quality of their golf equipment.  Affluence means generally that people have been productive, and I prefer the company of affluent people because of it.  But for a country club complete with a round of golf to work correctly not just for its resort qualities, it needs to be the kind of place you’d take business associates to conduct business—away from the office on ground that is elevated in its presentation.  It is much better to discuss hard topics on a golf course instead of a conference room, just because the energy surrounding such places promotes business association—which is extremely important to the furtherance of capitalism within America.  As much as people from outside of country clubs refute the country club culture—it is on golf courses and fine dinners where most of the best deals are made promoting economic growth.  It is a form of communication among productive people that is generally understood within business.

In Liberty Township with all the great golf surrounding the region, the newer more affluent golf courses get most of the attention. This has left Elk Run to mainly appeal to the silver haired crowd who remember when it was “the” place around town—back in the day. However, the course is still just as wonderful as it’s ever been.  It’s not surrounded by million dollar homes and has a few trailer parks near it, which hurts its appeal.  And there is a Tractor Supply right across the street which I think takes people away from the appeal of a golf course and the luxury that is expected.  But I like these colorful infusions of demographic mobility—I enjoy the dynamic quality of a car losing its muffler driving up RT 4 in front of the golf course while players haul around thousands of dollars worth of golf clubs, dressed well and conducting their lives responsibility.  I like the theater of life, and the Elk Run Country Club provides an oasis in the middle of this dynamism that is extraordinary.

The trouble with the club is not the course which is every bit as great as it was 50 years ago.  It’s the buildings, they are a bit dated reflecting the power and prestige of a generation that is currently old, but has seen its greatest generation leave for Heaven’s gates.  This is quite the opposite effect that you get at Wetherington, where the clubhouse is immaculate and modern, but the course itself is flat and featureless—relatively speaking.  Wetherington will impress business clients because of its reputation.  Elk Run has been a good memory but won’t impress with its clubhouse—which is a shame, because it’s really quite good, with a banquet area that overlooks the beauty of its marvelous view.  My first daughter was married in that banquet hall because of its beauty, and we will never forget it.  But with great golf and productive business meetings comes great food, and at the Elks, this is where they have struggled over the last decade.  Several restaurants have tried to make a go at the classic club house and failed leaving the country club appeal of the Elks missing an important ingredient.  At the Elks this is even more important, because they have a very nice kitchen that is oversized—built during a time when such things were important, so they can handle a lot of good food for a tremendous number of people.  The equipment and furnishings are dated lacking the luxurious appeal of modern décor, but everything back then was built to last, and it still does the job.  So the Elks have been missing a nice restaurant experience to go along with the golf.  No longer, a Jordanian gentleman came to the rescue and opened up the Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar and it is quite good.  My wife and I recently visited it for the first time and came away extremely impressed.

My measuring stick for fine food is Jags in West Chester.  There are some great restaurants in downtown Cincinnati and in other cities, but I personally respect Jags as far as fine food.  I’ve never had a meal there that wasn’t great or the service enthusiastic, which you expect when paying the kind of money it costs to go to Jags.  Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar is a legitimate substitute for Jags and it’s open to the public—you don’t have to be a member of the club to dine there either.  You can just pull up and park to get some fine food prepared by a staff that obviously cares a great deal about the food they put on the plate.  It was a dining experience that the chain establishments just can’t or don’t provide and it had an energy to it that was very enthusiastic.  The food was great, the service robust, worthy of a 25% tip, and the menu wasn’t so crowded that there were too many option, but just enough to cover nearly every pallet preference of most customers.  More importantly, it was a great family environment.  For families in Liberty Township, Fairfield, and Trenton– Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar is the place to go for diner offering an experience worthy of a night out.  The food was fresh and certainly better than most customers could make for themselves in their own kitchens.

The good news for the Elks Club is that finally they have a restaurant worthy of the country club experience, which hopefully will attract a new generation.  I wouldn’t hesitate to take business associates there for a round of golf and dinner.   I mean the place literally has everything, a great driving range which is completely hidden from the outside world.  A 27 hole facility surrounded by rolling hills and large mature trees—not the kind that were planted 15 years ago like what is seen on the newer courses, and now it has a first class restaurant which deserves community support.  You could literally spend the day at the Elks Club in Liberty Township playing golf and associating with clients escaping from the pressures of the outside world in a way that just isn’t possible anywhere else.  And with that support, the Elks Club can modernize things a bit and get up to speed with some refurbishment.  Because what they have now is actually better than the new stuff offered with fresh paint and processed wood.  The Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar captures that history with a respectful tip of the hat to a generation long gone, but one that laid the foundations for everything that came after.  The entire facility is family friendly and non pretentious, but that doesn’t affect its quality one bit.  Don’t feel intimidated to visit the Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar by thinking that you have to be a member of the country club.  Just pull right in and park next to the giant Elk statue.  Then step inside to a restaurant owned by a guy who really cares about his food.  And enjoy an establishment rooted in history that has something unique to offer Liberty Township from a fairly remote location which is literally in the backyard of so many people.  The food at Silver Tee Kitchen and Craft Bar is good enough to compete with the kind of dining you get downtown—but you don’t have to travel 45 minutes south to get there.  All you have to do is just step out your back door and enjoy something that is truly special.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

High crimes and misdemeanors: Lois Lerner, Hillary Clinton, and the implication of two American presidents

Again, I’ve said it before—but because the news is just now catching up to things I’ve said years ago, I have to address them, particularly in regard to the destroyed Lois Lerner emails at the IRS, and the same involving Hillary Clinton on her private server destroying classified information hoping to prevent a modern version of Watergate for her presidency which is occurring before she has even been elected. Both women should be in prison for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” They are notoriously criminal, both of them and it is disgraceful that they are both free to roam about unmolested currently without prosecution. They clearly committed crimes and are showing the world that criminals are in charge within the federal government. And you know what they have in common dear reader? Barack Obama was at the center of both their lives directly and if the evidence had not been destroyed it would likely point directly to the President’s office.

High crimes and misdemeanors is a phrase from Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

“High” in the legal and common parlance of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of “high crimes” signifies activity by or against those who have special duties acquired by taking an oath of office that are not shared with common persons.[1] A high crime is one that can only be done by someone in a unique position of authority, which is political in character, who does things to circumvent justice. The phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” when used together was a common phrase at the time the U.S. Constitution was written and did not mean any stringent or difficult criteria for determining guilt. It meant the opposite. The phrase was historically used to cover a very broad range of crimes.

The Judiciary Committee’s 1974 report “The Historical Origins of Impeachment” stated: “‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’ has traditionally been considered a ‘term of art‘, like such other constitutional phrases as ‘levying war’ and ‘due process.’ The Supreme Court has held that such phrases must be construed, not according to modern usage, but according to what the framers meant when they adopted them. Chief Justice [John] Marshall wrote of another such phrase:

It is a technical term. It is used in a very old statute of that country whose language is our language, and whose laws form the substratum of our laws. It is scarcely conceivable that the term was not employed by the framers of our constitution in the sense which had been affixed to it by those from whom we borrowed it.”[2]

The constitutional convention adopted “high crimes and misdemeanors” with little discussion. Most of the framers knew the phrase well. Since 1386, the English parliament had used the term “high crimes and misdemeanors” to describe one of the grounds to impeach officials of the crown. Officials accused of “high crimes and misdemeanors” were accused of offenses as varied as misappropriating government funds, appointing unfit subordinates, not prosecuting cases, not spending money allocated by Parliament, promoting themselves ahead of more deserving candidates, threatening a grand jury, disobeying an order from Parliament, arresting a man to keep him from running for Parliament, losing a ship by neglecting to moor it, helping “suppress petitions to the King to call a Parliament,” granting warrants without cause, and bribery. Some of these charges were crimes. Others were not. The one common denominator in all these accusations was that the official had somehow abused the power of his office and was unfit to serve.

As can be found in[3] historical references of the period, the phrase in its original meaning is interpreted as “for whatever reason whatsoever”. High indicates a type of very serious crime, and misdemeanors indicates crimes that are minor. Therefore this phrase covers all or any crime that abuses office. Benjamin Franklin asserted that the power of impeachment and removal was necessary for those times when the Executive “rendered himself obnoxious,” and the Constitution should provide for the “regular punishment of the Executive when his conduct should deserve it, and for his honorable acquittal when he should be unjustly accused.” James Madison said, “…impeachment… was indispensable” to defend the community against “the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate.” With a single executive, Madison argued, unlike a legislature whose collective nature provided security, “loss of capacity or corruption was more within the compass of probable events, and either of them might be fatal to the Republic.”[4]

According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, “Prior to the Clinton investigation, the House had begun impeachment proceedings against only 17 officials — one U.S. senator, two presidents, one cabinet member, and 13 federal judges.”[5]

The very difficult case of impeaching someone in the House of Representatives and removing that person in the Senate by a vote of two-thirds majority in the Senate was meant to be the check to balance against efforts to easily remove people from office for minor reasons that could easily be determined by the standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors”. It was George Mason who offered up the term “high crimes and misdemeanors” as one of the criteria to remove public officials who abuse their office. Their original intentions can be gleaned by the phrases and words that were proposed before, such as “high misdemeanor”, “maladministration”, or “other crime”. Edmund Randolf said impeachment should be reserved for those who “misbehave”. Cotesworth Pinkney said, It should be reserved “…for those who behave amiss, or betray their public trust.” As can be seen from all these references to the term “high crimes and misdemeanors”, there is no concrete definition for the term, except to allow people to remove an official for office for subjective reasons entirely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_crimes_and_misdemeanors

Proof if it can ever be retrieved will show that Lois Lerner received marching orders from the IRS union rep who met directly with President Obama, to use the IRS to derail the Tea Party movement through audits and other legal harassment. Lerner has showed horrendous behavior toward conservatives in the emails that had been scanned through and released to authorities. Imagine what they destroyed! What’s most troubling is the communication between Lerner and her husband who advocated that he wanted to vote for a “socialist-labor candidate.” Out of all the bad things I have said about these people in the past, I hate being so right about them.

But Hillary, she used a former President in her husband to gain access to secret service and a plausible reason to have a private server to begin with, then used that security to hide acts she committed as Secretary of State under another sitting president in Obama. If that’s not high crimes and misdemeanors, nothing is. Obama is guilty and so are both Clintons, the one who used to be President and the one who wants to be. They are all inconceivably bad, so bad that people can’t even fathom the treachery on display, because we are not accustomed to comprehending it. That is why there are terms for such things so that those trusted with such delicate information can be prosecuted if they violate that trust. And until that happens, our legal system is a joke not worthy of a single tax dollar for further substantiation.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Lynnette and Rochelle for Donald Trump: Why the 80s were so great

I remember what it was like in the 80s. Actually I campaigned for Ronald Reagan as a 7th grade student. In my history class I was the leader of the debate team defending Reagan from supporters of Jimmy Carter, which was hosted by three of the most popular girls in the school at the time. The two people I had to help me with the debate were not comfortable speaking in public, so I ended up doing the whole presentation and I had the class on Reagan’s side by the end of the discussion. At the time I didn’t know that Reagan had been a labor union leader, a Democrat, and had tendencies toward bleeding heart liberalism. I just liked his confidence, and what he created during his presidency was enthusiasm for capitalism that America has been missing since. In many ways Donald Trump does remind me of the early days of Ronald Reagan. He’s not conservative enough for me, but I think he can sell what conservatism he does have better than anyone running—and could at a minimum create in America a resurgence of enthusiasm similar to the 1980s. Somehow Republicans will have to break loose the current split that the country finds itself in and create new demographics favorable to those who call themselves conservative. And the first hint of that potential enthusiasm I can see clearly in the two wonderful women rising in popularity of late who are unapologetic Donald Trump supporters, Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson. Check them out! I featured them in yesterday’s article, but they have continued to impress now making the television rounds.

http://www.infowars.com/donald-trump-turns-black-women-into-republicans/

I first heard that interview with Lynnette and Rochelle on Doc Thompson’s The Blaze Radio Show from 6 AM to 9 AM and it had me laughing out loud. Each morning I have been riding a bicycle 24 miles and during that time I catch Doc’s show, and it’s often that he says funny things. But it’s pretty rare where laughter cannot be held back, and I was in traffic, and I’m sure people were wondering what in the world I was laughing so hard at. The Viewer’s View girls were funny and passionate—their enthusiasm was intense–so I really couldn’t help but laugh out loud as people in the car next to me looked on in bewilderment. It instantly reminded me of the type of hope and enthusiasm I remembered from the 1980s where artists like Michael Jackson would do appearances at the White House with Ronald Reagan, and social and economic barriers weren’t as pronounced as they were in the 60s and 70s. Hope was alive and it was exciting.

Communists, socialists, progressives and Democrats—which are all the same thing in my book, didn’t like Reagan because he put a stop on the Soviet plans to spread communism to every corner of the globe. I never thought of Reagan as a bastion of conservative value. Much to my dislike, he was a little too socially liberal in regards to Nancy Reagan, and other aspects of this life. Reagan believed in astrology and strange superstitions, which is clearly not something I believe in. But, wow, did Reagan get Americans feeling good about themselves again, and the byproduct of that enthusiasm was undeniably present in our music, movies, products and global presence.

In the early stage of the Trump run for president I identified the power of his celebrity and fighting ability to pull people into the party who would otherwise reject Republicans. Lynnette and Rochelle are clearly the types of women who would not get excited about Jeb Bush or Scott Walker. Even though Walker, Cruz, or Rand Paul might be better candidates as far as people go—they do not have the power of celebrity and charisma to win people over who would otherwise stand against them. Trump in just a very short time has elicited a passion from demographic groups who would not otherwise call themselves Republican, and that is a very powerful thing. It is interesting that Lynnette and Rochelle have so directly connected Trump to job creation. That was the type of environment that Reagan was able to create. If a person wanted to make money in the 1980s, they could—there were jobs and barriers to entry that were being removed. There were hopes and dreams of wealth that Americans had which led to much critical appraisal of excess—particularly from the political left and generally lazy. But the option was there and it was a generally very positive time. I knew it would be that way as a 7th grade student and I felt passionately enough about it to actually work on behalf of the Reagan campaign as a young person.

But Reagan then and now was not conservative enough for me, even though just about every Republican refers to him as a way to tie themselves to former president. Reagan to me was not “Republican” enough. However I saw the strategic opportunities of his presidency early on, and turned out to be glaringly correct. Even older people who were skeptical about my enthusiasm for Reagan as such a young person doubted that my passion was anything less than youthful hope. It wasn’t. I saw in Reagan an ability to unleash opportunity that had been suppressed for a long time within the United States. I was able to pretty much dominate any social situation, overcome most legal hurdles, meet people of any demographic, and make all the money I wanted before Reagan was in his seventh year as president. I was making as much money as an 18-year-old as my dad was making after 25 years at a regular company. The only limits to my life were in the things I needed to learn—which I worked very hard at. The music was great, the money was excellent, and the direction of the country was very promising. Then came George H Bush. Within four years of his presidency, the establishment Republican had me leaning toward Ross Perot. Clinton won the election of 1992, and everything went downhill from there. Literally.

If a true conservative had been available to take the reigns of Ronald Reagan after he left office, things might have gone very different for America. We might in fact look like the film Back to the Future II and have flying cars, and hover boards. Instead we have iPhones and Facebook. If there had been a Ted Cruz in 1992, we might have to this day a shopping mall on the Moon complete with hotels and night clubs. Ronald Reagan was a paid spokesman for GE and learned to speak the benefits of capitalism from them before becoming a governor or president. His liberalism evolved the older he became into a more conservative personality. I was however born extremely conservative, so everyone falls short in my book. Reagan did a good job of making America feel good about itself, and I think Donald Trump has that same quality. It will be up to some good candidates in 2024 to be ready to take that enthusiasm so evident in women like Lynnette and Rochelle and apply it more toward a laissez-faire capitalist system instead of the socialism of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and of course Bernie Sanders.

There is a reason that Bernie is packing stadiums, socialism is very real and is the policy of Democrats. If you want to beat them in elections and pull spirited Democrats who are questioning that system back to the Republican side of the political spectrum, you need someone who can sell capitalism to people like Lynnette and Rochelle. If they are on board with Trump, it is only a matter of time before a whole lot of other people will be on board as well. And what they are boarding is unapologetic capitalism blasting against a world slipping into socialism. This is the most important election of our lives, and if I were still in the 7th grade, I’d be supporting Trump just as I did Reagan. And that youthful ambition would not be derived from naiveté. It would come from scientific plausibility and deductive reasoning. It’s a numbers game, and Republicans have been too weak in the past to appeal to people like Lynnette and Rochelle. And we’ve lost them to the Democrats and along with them, a hunger by them for the opportunities of capitalism.

The 1980s weren’t perfect. But they were a whole lot better than what has happened since and before. I should know, I experienced it first hand. I think that explosive enthusiasm could in fact be much greater than what we saw in the 80s. For me in the next election it’s not the border, the Iran deal, ISIS, or Planned Parenthood, it’s the $18 trillion dollars in debt that is facing the United States. I think only someone with the ego of Donald Trump has the fortitude to take that on with the gusto it will take to pull off the task. And solving that problem gives me hope that wasn’t there before he announced himself for President of the United States. In that hope I share in common a lot with Lynnette and Rochelle. It is in the purity of their passion that I found myself laughing as sweat poured off my face in the early morning sun and motorists looked at me wondering why I was laughing so hard. It wasn’t them that was funny, it was that they unlocked within me the enthusiasm I have been yearning for in America really since the 1980s to come again, and it has in the wake of Donald Trump.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.