Bud Light Pain Continues

Attention spans are rather short, so it becomes a real question regarding Bud Light whether it can actually ever fix the problem it created when it teamed up with transgender Dylan Mulvaney and return itself to the #1 spot in its category.

I think the beer can recover. But I am not sure if it will ever do so fully.

Part of the problem has been the lack of any real apology nor acknowledgement that they "screwed up," and that has been weighing heavily on boycotters when they decide whether or not forgiving and forgetting is an option.

Of course, only time will tell. Surely 10 years from now will anyone even really remember who Dylan Mulvaney even was, let alone the controversy? Older generations will. But newer generations won't, and that's going to be who Anheuser-Busch, the parent company who owns the Bud Light brand of beer, is going to target through its marketing campaigns.

That being said, the controversy and the boycott live on, with AB still down more than 30% since the boycott started, and it has been holding steady. Sales have not otherwise picked up despite multiple marketing efforts to pull the brand away from the image of Dylan Mulvaney and instead focus on the workers—and now they've brought in Manning and other prominent athletes to try to bring the beer back around to more popularity.

Which, by the way, could be a good thing or a bad thing. For Manning, that is. It wasn't that long ago that veteran star Garth Brooks came under fire for supporting Bud Light quite vocally. I don't have stats on record sales or streams, but I do recall reading somewhere that he's been abandoned by at least a portion of his audience.

The thing for Bud Light was that its campaign (which they denied was even a campaign) simply came at the wrong time. Too many companies had tried to go woke and quite simply put, people simply had enough.

"You're shoving this identity thing down our throats, and we're sick of it. Just sell beer," they so much as said to AB. And it was a message to other companies as well that we're tired of being marketed feelings and ideology, and we're tired of being forced to make-believe that these ideas resonate with more people than they actually do.

It does seem to me that AB has pretty much gotten the message. The odd thing is that they are rather quietly acknowledging it. Rather than just come out and say it, they are simply looking for distance to right the situation for them. 

But again, only time will tell if Bud Light ever sees itself back in the #1 spot ever again. In the grander scheme of things, even if Bud Light can ever get to #2, sometimes that's not a terrible spot to be in either.

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Donald Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth

I recall being captivated and mesmerized by the ever evolving and twisting plot lines of that TV show, House of Cards. Even if the show was pure fiction, one wonders how much of it was actually true? Not the story itself. But how politics really operates. Behind closed doors. What really goes on?

Especially in our current times.

A show like that gives us a deeper look into what power actually looks like, and what people may be willing to do to get it and hold onto it. It's a dangerous place, Washington D.C. And perhaps if House of Cards had any basis at all in fact, I'll be damned if wasn't a fictionalized documentary somewhat loosely based on the life and careers of the Clintons.

What we have unfolding before us now is a new show. Except that this one isn't fiction. It's a reality show unlike any other one we have seen before. And people are glued to their screens. There are twists and turns at every corner. And the plots seem to get crazier than ever.

It started at the first scene when Trump came down his escalator at Trump Towers to announce he was running for president. The fire of politics was set ablaze and the powers on both sides' insides churned. Perhaps the threat wasn't truly appreciated at first. Until one-by-one Trump toppled what would have been top contending opponents on the debate stage and all along the campaign trail.

He had to be stopped.

And they tried everything to do it. The GOP scrambled to find a reason to bar him being nominated. Even when it was clear he would be the nominee, they tried to find ways to deny it. The Democrats were already in talks long before Trump even won the election about impeachment in case he actually did win.

Ultimately Trump did get the nomination of course. In the end to deny it would have been a form of political suicide for the Republican party. "But he won't win," they thought and talked about in closed circles. "We'll just have to deal with the reality that Hillary will be the president and we'll work on the next election."

But he did win. Not by the popular vote. But he won the electoral college, and in the end that's all that matters. And he won despite what all the polls suggested that it was a practical shoo-in for Hillary Clinton.

The party had no choice but to rally around him. The people decided he was not only the president, but the presiding face of the Republican party.

But of course, his presidency was fraught with one challenge after another. He was caught in the crosshairs of investigations, impeachment hearings, a media onslaught and a long list of what became known as Never-Trumpers within his own party.

Not a single accomplishment would go without scrutiny and even denial it ever occurred. The Democrat party all but censured Trump, not by vote, but by their actions, dismissing nearly everything he tried to do, claiming his presidency was not only illegitimate. But that he stole it with the help of the Russians.

Without question, I don't think anyone can deny that Trump's presidency was perhaps the most sensationalized of any presidency ever. The entire term ran like a TV show right down to a Speaker of the House ripping up a State of the Union speech—something you would have thought you would never see in real life except on TV.

And then there was the election fallout. People went to bed with Trump clearly in the lead only to wake up the next morning and discover that Biden had won. And there were all sorts of controversy surrounding that. And then there was the "insurrection." 

This was a made for TV series of events unlike any other even the best writers could ever have dreamed up. And now we have all the king's horses and all the king's men once again trying to deny Trump's ability to even run with states sending cases to their state supreme courts to deny primary ballot access.

And of course, there are all the wild accusations of criminal intent and indictments stacked up against him—whether or not there is any merit to any of it isn't what matters. It's made the entire process a show that is impossible not to watch.

Because it's that power we're seeing coming front and center for us all to witness first-hand. This is the true nature of politics, or at least what it has become. 

It has been the greatest show on Earth, and we don't know how it ends yet. We're just in season 7. 

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Is 2024 Being Set Up to be Rigged?

What is attempting to overthrow the government? Or, not just overthrowing the government, per se. But overthrowing the process of elections? I mean, anything I say here may well be a bit of a stretch, and I will give you that right off the bat if you want to make that claim.

These are just thoughts and opinions, right? 

I happen to think that those two things are simply things that are done to otherwise rig the process or stack the odds in one's favor over another.

When Donald Trump was first elected, of course, we had the whole Russia Collusion accusation to deal with. Hillary Clinton was out there and quite vocal about her thoughts that Donald Trump, with the assistance of the Russian government, had stolen the election.

They wanted to make it grounds for an impeachment while they (the Democrats) were hard at work trying to concoct other stories and accusations to set grounds for impeachment hearings to commence just in case that one didn't stick.

And of course, it didn't stick because it was a smelly, heaping pile of donkey dung.

The Democrats literally denied the election, and denied that Trump was duly elected, and therefore, for all intents and purposes, if you wanted to go there, the Democrats effectively censured the President of the United States.

They needed no official vote to censure. They did it merely by their actions. Meanwhile, the entire job of the Democrat Congress was to ignore and defile and dismiss the president and any actions he wanted to take as president, effectively denying at the same time the American people of having their work done.

It was an abomination at the least. And it seemed that no one, or hardly anyone, batted an eye. Not the media, not any of the voters who put them in office—they were mute on the issue of what was going on. 

How is that not overthrowing the government when you completely deny who is leading it? When you completely ignore the process? 

And then, of course, you have all the impeachments that happened. The primary aim of those to simply remove a duly elected president only on the basis of the fact that his presidency's legitimacy was being denied.

There was no removal because there was no conviction and there was no conviction because there were no high crimes or misdemeanors.

Now we have the removal of Trump from ballots, and in the case of two states so far, Maine and Colorado, they have voted to do just that. Granted, there will be an appeal on the Colorado case to send it to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Maine has stayed its ruling until the Supreme Court rules on Colorado. Nonetheless, they are trying really hard to remove critical electoral votes, making it much more difficult for Trump's chances to win in the general against Biden.

How is it not overthrowing the government to remove your strongest opponent? How is it not rigging an election? How is it not overthrowing the process of elections or silencing the voices of the voters? How is it that the government we know to be of the people, by the people, and for the people is now being decided by the government itself?

How is that not an insurrection?

Why should state supreme courts have a weigh-in on who becomes president? Shouldn't that be the choice of the people? Of the voters? And on top of that, does it not become obvious what the aim is if the people who are making these choices are politically motivated—and clearly so?

Whether or not you are in the camp of believers that the 2020 election was stolen, you have to give thought to the idea that if the states succeed in removing Trump from the ballot and Biden wins reelection by default, that is exactly what they have done—stolen an election.

Who else on the GOP side has the support to win, right? Because Trump's in the lead by nearly 60 points. And if Trump is not on the ballot, how many Trump supporters will switch their vote to one of the other candidates on the GOP side?

They (the Democrats) are citing the "insurrection" as their grounds for removing him from ballots. At the same time, have we really investigated what happened on January 6th? And by really investigated, I mean, have we REALLY INVESTIGATED what happened on January 6th?

The answer is no.

Where's the media except to accept the narrative as it has been told to us? Where's the special counsel to examine what really happened, to see if it was funded and by whom, and to dig deeper into who the people were who stormed the Capitol that day?

And frankly, I think more evidence points to Trump not inciting anyone than they will have us believe. But that's their story and they are sticking to it and they are now using it as a means to expel an opponent.

To steal an election.

I think what's important is that the American people decide. If Biden wins, fine. He wins. But it's not up to the government, nor is it up to the courts, to decide who gets to run.

My thought is that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike these rulings down. I believe the rulings are unconstitutional and made on the basis of unproven "facts." But who knows anymore? Can we trust that anyone in government, in any branch, can be honest and open and make the right decisions without political influences or bias?

If the decision by these states stands, that's it. We are in a land of kangaroo courts and officially a banana republic, and I fear once we become that, we can't go back from it. It's done. Elections won't matter. Campaigns won't matter. Because the government will choose its leader and no matter what the public wants, the government will have the final say.

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Wasting Money: Just Stop Doing It

Money is not the most important thing in life to be sure. But when you don't have enough of it, it really can make life difficult to navigate. And, despite what anyone says, it can also make life less enjoyable. When you are strapped for cash and living paycheck to paycheck, it's like having an albatross constantly flying over your head.

When it comes to saving, though, there's a common utterance by most people. "I can't afford to save." That's because when people think of money or savings or even wealth, and especially building it, they think of income.

I continue to argue that money is rarely an income issue and almost always a spending issue. Having money comes from having a good mindset about money. It comes from constantly thinking of money in terms of its real value.

The pennies are what matter more than anything, and it's the pennies we tend to rarely think about when we consider saving. That hurts us really bad in the end because pennies tend to add up faster than dollars, and because we think of them as less important, they leave our hands far faster than the dollars do.

How many times have you said, "What's five cents?" Say that 20 times and you've wasted a dollar.

The key to saving is simply understanding where you are wasting your money. It's not the only thing you need to think about. But especially if you happen to be one of those people who say, "I can't afford to save," this is the first step to realizing you can actually afford to save if only you think about your spending differently.

It may sound absolutely ridiculous to consider, for example, cutting open an "empty" tube of toothpaste. But it may surprise you to know that when you can squeeze the tube no longer, there's still about 3-5 brushings worth left inside.

It may not make you rich to get every last drop out of the tube. But if you throw the tube away when there's still more toothpaste inside, you are literally throwing money away. You'd never consider tossing a nickel into the trash, would you? But even if it's not a literal nickel, many people do this all the time.

Avoid buying coffee at the coffee shops. Heck, avoid K-Cups for that matter. It is costing people a fortune. And many people who say they can't afford to save are at least using K-Cups which cost about twice as much as regular coffee does.

Avoid eating out for lunch, especially during the workweek. Pack lunches and save. Beyond that, avoid the after-shopping lunch out. Does it make sense to anyone that you are hauling $100 worth of groceries home in your trunk and then stop at Burger King for a hamburger before you get home to unpack them?

Sure, many people may say, "But I consider my coffee and my lunches out to be a treat." Okay. Fine. Fair enough. But if you also say you can't afford to save, how do these treats fit into the why? The reality is that most of the time anyone can afford to save. They just don't realize where they are wasting their money.

There is some truth to the saying that a cheapskate can squeeze a penny out of a wooden nickel. It simply means finding value where there is none otherwise perceived.

I could write a hundred different ways to save money. In fact, this blog is loaded with tidbits and details if you dig around a bit. But the basic idea for this post is to simply help to instill a sense of thought about money and saving not in terms of how much you make—or even how much you don't make. But to think of it in terms of what you waste.

I don't care if you make minimum wage and have four kids to feed. You can save if you know where to look. But of course, you have to look.

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Making Your Side Hustles Count

When it comes to ways to make extra money these days, it can be quite a long list. From blogging to doing online surveys and myriad side hustles, the possibilities are really rather endless. And of course, people are simply willing to pay people to do many things if it saves them time or if it happens to be something they just don't want to do.

But what should the aim be? And what do you do with the money?

People take on activities such as these for a list of reasons as long as the list of what you can do. From saving for a vacation or simply paying day to day expenses, everyone wants a little something more if they can get it.

When it comes to money for me, though, I always look at it more in terms of what it will be worth rather than what it is worth now.

In other words, as I have said many times, if all you do with money is spend it all, it is essentially worthless. That goes for a paycheck as well as any money you may earn doing things online or doing side hustles.

Online earnings and side hustles are mostly short-term endeavors—and when it comes to online earning opportunities, the shelf life is typically even shorter. If I want more money, really what I want to do is make any extra money last longer and do more for me.

Back in the day, for example, there were a couple of very lucrative writing or sharing platforms that were in operation. One was WebAnswers and the other was Bubblews. Both offered great opportunities to earn several thousands of dollars per year doing nothing more than simply a little writing and sharing of ideas and thoughts of the day.

A similar site exists today at myLot. Although the days of getting paid "big bucks" to participate are no longer here. Still, the site does pay something.

The one thing I did was to pretend the money wasn't there at all. In other words, I wasn't really earning anything to use to pay for things. Again, I asked the question, "What is the value of this money tomorrow?" And more importantly, what is the value of the money when the opportunity to earn it no longer exists?

WebAnswers and Bubblews may have ceased to exist as well as the opportunity to earn from them did. But at the same time, the opportunity to make the earnings I did receive from them continue to offer me something of value did not.

Instead of doing these things just to make an extra buck for something I wanted today, I kept it so that it could continue to earn long after the paydays ended.

The money I made then continues to make money now.

I think doing things to make extra money, no matter what it is, is important. If there's money on the table, you grab it. But if all you do is spend it as fast as you make it, you're simply forever seeking more and more, and you're never really getting ahead.

I think investing the money you earn from any online source or side hustle is the best thing you can do to ensure the money actually does something for you that is productive and useful.

As I like to say of any money, I'd rather spend the money my money makes than spend the money my ass makes. To me that just makes more sense. If I am going to take the time to make any extra money, and put in the effort to do that, I want it to be something that actually provides me with more opportunity to actually have more money.

It's just something to think about. 

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George Santos Ousting Right for the Republican Party

So, embattled freshman Republican House representative George Santos is out, narrowing further the already very narrow 9 seat majority. He is only the 6th member in U.S. history to be expelled from the House.

But it was the right decision.

I think sometimes elected officials get too wrapped up in their politics, especially their political ambitions or needs. Like keeping your majority. Or not wanting to "look bad," without regard to why they are there in the first place.

To do the work of the American people at the people's will and in the people's interests.

Granted, there were opposers on the Republican side, but mostly, considering a two-thirds vote is required to remove a member of Congress, the Republican party was on board with the decision to expel Santos.

The scandals were just too many, and there were real crimes too. Some still under investigation of course and therefore so far alleged. Yet at the same time, there was enough that surfaced that would have made it impossible to keep Santos around.

For example, inappropriately using campaign funds for things like Only Fans and Botox treatments.

The only thing that might have protected the man would have been had he been a Democrat instead of a Republican. Which brings me to a bit of a point that I try to make often, that sometimes things on the Republican side, and certainly this has been true lately, tend to seem a little bit like chaos.

The thing is that Republicans are guided by doing what's right. And sometimes that means that things are harder for Republicans.

It is a double-edged sword, of course.

Unlike the Democrats who simply toe the party line and only have interest in maintaining their power, Republicans are more concerned about getting the work done and making sure the right people are in a position to do it.

Like the whole recent debacles over deciding our Speaker. Fighting over McCarthy, then ousting him, and then returning to fight over who was next was a nightmare. Even I can admit that. I wanted my party to simply rally behind someone and get on with it.

But in hindsight, I do think it's important to get it right. It shouldn't always be just a one and done thing. Decisions matter. They should matter.

It looks like chaos, but it is actually order that sets these things into motion. The problem is not necessarily how Republicans do things. They don't have an honest media on their side to report what's really going on and why they are so divided on certain issues and choices.

The media only reports the perceived chaos, and the American people don't give it much thought as to what's behind it.

It appears all the time like the Democrats just have their house in order. "Wow, they can really decide things clearly." But the reality is that they can't. And they don't. Again, it's about power and control for them. It doesn't matter if it's the right person—it just needs to be Democrat and that's enough for them.

Look at John Fetterman. Look at the disastrous leadership of Nancy Pelosi we had to endure.

And that's not to say there aren't kooks and bad people on both sides. There are plenty on the Republican side to be sure. It is simply that when it comes to Republicans it is harder to be a loser and get to stick around, because either the voters are going to act or the party itself will.

You will be held to a higher standard and more to account if you are a Republican. 

Who will take Santos' place? Who knows? There will be a special election and I assume there will be a run between a Republican candidate and a Democrat one. Santos has left a bad taste in voter's mouths, and I think it's highly likely a Democrat wins his seat. 

But we'll see. As much as I'd prefer a Republican to win, seeing Santos go was still the better alternative no matter what happens. We can't keep people like George Santos around just to save a majority or keep a seat filled. To do so defeats the purpose and even if we win by helping to hold down a majority, we lose by what the person does while he's there.

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