Where Is Cruz's Birther Movement?

For the longest time, I have thought to myself "How is Ted Cruz running? He's Canadian. How is everyone so much chiller with this than they were with Obama?" Then I get to asking the ever-knowing Internet, and it seems like others are feeling the same way!

There is an article on Buzzfeed that explains the situation quite simply--an it's worse than I thought. Not only was Cruz born in Canada to a Cuban national (read: citizen. I'm only saying "national" to be a sensationalist and start trouble), there are also questions about his mother's citizenship!

My question is, where is the viral fervor behind Ted Cruz's doubted citizenship like there was with Obama? I remember back in the day, then non-presidential-candidate Donald Trump made this into a huge thing with Obama. He was all like:

"Show us your birth certificate!"

Then, after finally getting what he asked for, he was all like:

"Show us your school transcripts!"

Hey. Were you able to read those quotes without Trump's voice in your head? I bet you weren't.

Trump has gone birther on Cruz himself, but it's suspiciously unenthusiastic. You'd think Trump would be even more fire-y because he is actively competing against Cruz for the presidential nomination. This was not the case with Obama. What raises further suspicion is the fact that, unlike the Obama situation, the Cruz controversy is actually based in a minimal level of fact. Now, let's talk personal anecdotes:

My friend works at a major bank, and was making small talk with a coworker about wanting/being able to be president. This coworker says "Well, when you think about it, anybody can be president. I mean, Obama is from who-knows-where and he's president!"

You see?! Obama's birther movement was big enough to permeate popular culture! Whether you harbored doubts about Obama's birth status or not, you were at least aware of the controversy. That includes the somewhat-related controversy about Obama being Muslim, and that 3rd controversy about Obama being socialist. And these claims were literally based on nothing!

So, doing a little extrapolation with memory of that whole thing, one could reasonably presume that the accusations against Cruz, with some aspects of the claim tangibly proven, would be an even bigger thing. But, as you can surely see, it is not. Why? Now I've never been the one to claim racialized double-standard but...


Oh silly me! Would you look at the time!

Vestager > Legarde

There, I said it.

Denmark's Economy Minister, Margrethe Vestager, has my vote for most impactful woman in Europe--not IMF Managing Director Christine Legarde, or this blogs parodic namesake. This is a conclusion I came to upon...well...learning who she is. I think Legarde is dope. But now I have a new favorite.

But I have always felt some typa way about the enthusiasm behind Angela Merkel--partially catalyzed by her being Time's Person of the Year in 2015. I tip my hat to her in terms of the current refugee crisis. But all the positives of what was achieved in during this crisis, and during the Grexit, is way overblown to me. This has all come at the expense of kicking Greece around!

Ukraine--yeah we imposed sanctions, but the only ones tht were going to have any teeth were going to be born of Europe. And look who is Gazporom's biggest customer? Germany? Home to apparent mega-diplomat Angela Merkel. But Vestager took on Gazprom. No one else is doing this stuff. The southern european countries are ripped on too much. Greece has been more-or-less welcoming to the refugees. but then many of the Balkan countries along the overland route are closing their borders.

and just ask Vittorio Grilli about the Euro financial crisis. And maybe ask L. Randal Wray. Italy and Greece went down because the jumped in to help--as is the philosophy/point behind even having a fucking European Union in the first place! At least I thought. And look who stayed tight-wadded? Germany? But apparently she some dynamo now, and we could all learn something from Germany's leadership. But in reality, the southern EU countries are arguably better examples of what you should be doing.

The IMF kept Greece in as a face-saver. It was not in Greece's best long-term financial interests, nor was it in Europe's short-term financial interests. Greeks living there were like yo. We've already been austere as fuck for the longest. Do it 5 more years and we can rebuild? Why the hell not? I'd better get up. My butt hurts, and I realized its Good Friday. I need to get a fucking rental car.

NOTE: It is clearly not Good Friday at the time I published. This I was sitting on the floor of Albequerque airport (while my laptop charged) and was still salty about missing my original flight from LAX the night before. I didn't really get past going in on Merkel, but look up Margarethe Vestager when you get the chance. She's dope.

I Refuse to Vote for Trump Until...

...he makes this his campaign theme song:

Freedom Kids? Puh-lease.

Welp, that is all.

Robert Gates’s Talk on Leadership: Long-Delayed Takeaways

(video courtesy of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs)

When I heard that Robert Gates was in town and was going to give a talk on leadership, I jumped at the opportunity. The most I knew about him, at the time that I signed up for this, is that he was George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense for a spell. What I found out during the talk was that he has worked for a number of different administrations.

The responsible thing to do here is to elaborate on that, but this info is Wikipedia-able. Being that I’m finally getting around to a post about something that happened over a month ago, I am going to forgo this step. Dr. Gates has a 40-year history—current President of the Boy Scouts of America, ex-CIA, a bunch of other stuff. It turns out that the main draw for his latest book (and this talk by extension) was that he had been at the head of a diverse array of organizations. Therefore he is quite qualified to convey some wisdom on leardership that an be used universally.

But an aside on the ex-CIA tip:

When asked about the general state of affairs abroad, Gates cracked this joke about how people in the intelligence community are naturally pessimistic. “If [an intelligence officer] stops to smell the roses, he’s looking around for the coffin.” I thought that was really funny! I probably laughed the loudest out of the hundreds and hundreds of people in that Fairmont Hotel banquet hall. Good thing I sat in the back. And that’s when it dawned on me that I pretty much have the same sense of humor as a super old-school Texan man.

My Initial Impressions

Clearly, I had all the wrong ones. I knew he was going to talk about leadership, but I didn’t really look into it much. Sure I maybe found out through osmosis that he was on a book tour, about his book on leadership. But I, being familiar only with his work with the most recent Republican administration, assumed it was going to be more of Gates on some anti-Obama platform—about how we are not leading-as-a-country anymore (you know, the usual conservative gripes) and he was going to outline that fact in equally cliché ways. But once they started with his intro, I was like “oh, they literally meant how to be a leader on the flier”…like a keynote speech you may give as a university president (possibly to your campus’s RA’s). Then I think to myself “well shit…are we going to talk policy at all?” I thought I was cozying up to Secretary Gates pontificating on what’s wrong with our foreign policy/defense plan. Once that bubble burst for me, I was even more glad I didn’t cave and put up the nine dollars (in cash only) for a beer ticket. That would have meant I was making myself comfy for something entirely other than what I signed up for. That being said, he did take time to admonish the general gridlock in Washington. That indicated to me that it’s officially the hot thing to do on both sides of the aisle. That occurred about five minutes into his speech. It is at that time that it really sunk in for me, thinking to myself  “so A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service is basically meant as a glorified organizational psychology book?” As the kids might say, I got got.

So the one benefit of procrastinating on this for so long is that I earned some perspective. Instead of just regurgitating on what happened (there’s the video on the internet for that), I’m going to give you my inferred takeaways on what Robert Gates thinks about current things.

Like many adults of his age and background, he’s disenchanted with the millennial generation.

In response to someone’s question about the decline in the number of public servants under age 35, Gates got applause for his suggestion for there to be mandatory national service program for people to join once a person turns 18 (sounds kind of big government-ish to me, but that’s also just me being a troll). But  how is there such disappointment in this age group’s lack of commitment to public service? We’re crushed by debt, man! Here’s all I have to say:

He’s really into thinking that “young people” should consider serving their fellow Americans. Maybe if we weren’t all so broke, we could consider it. Take Donald Trump, for instance. Trump is a baffling individual—and not even for the obvious reasons. He’s a billionaire. Why does he want to take on the stress of leading the world’s most powerful country to the tune of a measly $400k a year? Adults these days…I tell ya.

Robert is not really fuckin’ with that Iranian deal.

I infer this, at least in part, by a little quip he made about the weather out in D.C. Mind you, this event took place right after that huge snowstorm on the east coast. Gates joked “everything in Washington is frozen except Iranian assets!” And I thought it was funny. As. Fuck. I laughed pretty loud, while everyone else just sort of tee-heed (strike two for my old-timey sense of humor). But that aside, I think the removal of US sanctions is really sticking out in Dr. Gates’s mind at the moment—to say the least. What compounds this is that at the wrap-up of Q&A, someone asked about what counties should be major players in the (so-called) US-led coalition against ISIS. To this question,  Gates responded:

·              “A Shia-led, Iranian backed government in Baghdad, welcoming the forces of sunni countries to help sunnis is not gonna happen.”

·             So in light of that type of response, I feel the Iranian deal really irks him. But it is at this point that I differ with the former Secretary.

A Tehran-backed Shiite militia seems farfetched at the moment, but we’re getting warmer and warmer with Tehran every day—so much so, one could say, that these warming relations between Washington and Tehran have pushed Saudi anxieties to the tipping point (see the diplomatic fallout after the execution of Sheik Nimr-al-Nimr).

One could (and people do) make the argument that the al Nimr situation is not borne of sectarian animosity, so much as rock-bottom oil prices and the waning of Saudi Arabia’s economic utility (as far as the US is concerned). That being said, it is not hard to fathom a Tehran, delighted with new Western outlets for consumerism, become willing to take the on-the-ground role of keeping Iraq calm. Ain’t no tellin’.  Aint noooo telling.

NO TELLING!

So that’s my spiel for now. My hope is that these become more polished, and put out more promptly and often. From my laptop, this has been amateur reporter on this event, Angela Twerkel.

A November to Remember (for the Wrong Reasons)

This is a concert review: Everything I presumed about Rick Ross is a lie. To you I-told-you-soers hollering in the back about how he's a former CO and not the real Rick Ross, you provide me no new revelations. Please now be seated.

Let me preface this by saying I don't get out much. I also, as it turns out, don’t get in much either…as in sit still to write this post, or many posts for that matter. Looking at my shoddy history, it appears that every 18 months or so, I get so mad about Hillary Clinton that I have to yell into the desolate and vacuous internet, and oddly enough, acknowledgement of that does little to reduce my level of satisfaction.

Woah. And in looking for that image, guess what else I found and I went nuts for it on the spot:

Incredible. We did win Wisconsin tonight, by the way. See that? She almost hijacked this post too!

Also preface this by saying that I know I have a big taste for raps macro brews. I’ll take that willingly. But on this night, it sank in just how fat Ross is. Long story short, he’s just soo fat! I’m not calling him “fat” in the sense of physique—I’m the last person who should be a body-shamer. I’m saying he gave a lazy performance, thus making him fat in spirit. Really, really fat.

He was 2 hours late. I don’t mean to be a so-and-so about it, but he was slated to start at 8. He didn’t come on stage until 10:30 or so. The Power 92 DJ spun some of all the top rap hits while we waited. So effectively, we spent 2+ hours listening to 92.3 (Live!)…While I'm sitting there drinking 2 gin and tonics at a time like an idiot.

Ross’s being late further eroded his mystique for me. Bosses are punctual. What boss do you know became a boss by being late to stuff?! But I should be one to talk, because you know what bosses also don’t do? They don’t comply sheepishly to the 2-drink-minimum rules by double-fisting gin and tonics. I, friends, am not a boss either. But that should come as no surprise, due to my lack of a record deal...or records.

When the DJ is spinning “I’m A Boss” around 10:30, Ross finally shows up on stage during the first chorus—after Meek Mill’s verse…you know, “I’m a boss (ugh)!/ I’m a boss (ugh)!” That part. He comes in, drops his luggage, and ughs along with the recording. Crowd goes ape shit—including the author of this post, who by this point is 3 rounds deep in complying with the house drink rules. I stopped caring about how late he was, and didn’t get angry about it again until days later. I feel this was his plan all along.

As far as the performance itself, whose start point is debatable (my friends say it was when he first came on stage. I started my clock towards the fade-out portion of “I’m A Boss” when Ross and his hype man were passing out posters to the first couple rows), it was nevertheless lazy. He did his slower-paced songs. In other words, he leaned more toward your Stay Schemin’s and 9 Pieces, as opposed to your MC Hammers and Drug Dealer’s Dreams.

An aside on “Drug Dealer’s Dream”: “Drug Dealer’s Dream” is my theme song. It, for whatever reason, has a lot of significance for me. And I just don’t know. I can always lift more weight or walk into the office with more swag if it’s playing. You can get it to apply to any aspect of your life if you want it to. “Drug Dealer’s Dream” is incredible. However, “Drug Dealer’s Dream” was not performed.

And now…

An aside on “9 Piece”: He played it twice. At least twice. The same goes for “B.M.F.” Great songs, yes. But like I said, he was leaning on his slower songs. So fat (read: lazy).

By now, it should be apparent to you that I’m really into Rick Ross. Like really, really into Rick Ross. So to throw a positive into this experience, he  did play a ton of stuff he played from Rich Forever—a work virtually unknown to casual Ross fans (aka everybody). So that I appreciated. But with that being said, I was still greatly disenchanted by the performance. If you were to ask Ross himself how the show went, he’d probably say “I came. I saw. I conquered.” But if you asked me, I’d say “He came (late). He ughed. He passed out posters.” Oh, and I should mention that his hype man did most of the rapping. For 2/3 of the show, you could barely hear Ross himself.

Furthermore, there were no t-shirts to buy afterwards. I’m all about copping the shirt. But sadly, the only thing there was to get was a promotional poster for Black Dollar, which I still haven’t listened to. That’s another thing that speaks to how macro he is, he’s releasing these albums too fast! Honestly, I haven’t picked anything up after Mastermind. Because in my opinion he false-started on Rich Forever, and never made up for it. And now with these latest outings (Black Dollar, Black Billionaire, Black Something Other Thing), I just plain can’t keep up. I have to make sure I’m all caught up for his next release. Not sure what the title is yet, but history suggests that it will be the word “black,” followed by some economic/monetary term. I waited too long to write this. Let’s just pass the time making this title thing into a game.

Black Inflation

Black Gold

Black Gold Standard

Black Interest Rates

Black Monetary Policy

Black Tax Haven (I waited so long to post this that it’s now topical!)

Black Tax Incentive

Black Tax Break

BMF 2 (Black Monetary Fund)

Black Market Index (or BMI…which could double as a fat joke. Of course we do not condone body-shaming here)

Black Fiat Currency

Black Account of Note

Black Refinancing

Black Audit

Black Market…wait. That’s one of the titles, isn’t it? I work too much, it’s hard to keep up.

Black Industrial Average

Black Credit Swap

Mortgage-Blacked Securities

Black Market Bubble

Black Arbitrage

Black Exchange Rate

Black British Royal Pound

Black Weakened Euro

Black Private-Sector Job Growth

Black Quarterly Earnings

Black Christine Legarde

Black Quantitative Easing