Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The TYGRRRR EXPRESS Turns 17

Monday, March 11th, 2024
On this day in 2007, I began the TYGRRRR EXPRESS. Everything I have done in life since then emanates from that decision.
Thank you all for supporting me in my endeavors. It’s been a wild 17 years.

In praise of Warren Buffett

Thursday, February 15th, 2024

“I Don’t Believe In Imposing My Views on 370,000 Employees And A Million Shareholders. I’m Not Their Nanny.”

— Warren Buffett

Politically, Mr. Buffett happens to be a Democrat. He believes taxes are too low and has pushed for higher taxes. I disagree with him. Yet what matters is that he keeps his personal politics out of his investing.

There is nobody on this earth better at picking a stock than Buffett. He believes in real companies with real products and services that produce real earnings.

He refused to take part in the internet tech boom of the 1990s. He was vindicated when the boom went bust in the brutal bear market of 2000-2002.

Mr. Buffett refuses to put money into Bitcoin. In his words, cryptocurrency “doesn’t do anything.” There’s nothing there.

Yes, Buffett has missed out on some spectacular gains. Yet he is an investor, not a speculator or gambler. He likes value stocks. He invests in solid companies with strong management that are undervalued and have long term growth potential.

Many companies have been letting politics interfere with investing goals. Some companies have even mandated that politics be considered a key investing goal. This has several names, from “Woke investing” to “socially responsible investing.”

Buffett absolutely believes in social responsibility in his personal life. He has vowed to donate the vast majority of his wealth to charity before and after his death. He has even cajoled many other billionaires into signing a pledge to do the same.

Yet Buffett separates his personal life from his job as a CEO. The evidence is overwhelming that his approach has succeeded. Berkshire Hathaway stock just hit an all time high.

What Buffett does with his personal fortune is none of my business. As a shareholder in his company, what he does with company money is absolutely my business. He is a great CEO because he understands this.

The greatest investor in the history of investing believes all politics should be removed from businesses. He is 100% right.

The Oracle of Omaha gets it. Long Live Warren Buffett.

eric

What Jews (and all of us) can learn from the Super Bowl

Sunday, February 11th, 2024

This offering by Rabbi Sholom Rodal of Chabad Mount Olympus was so brilliant that I felt it deserved sharing.

eric

Weekly Inspiration

 

Rabbi’s Spin on the Super Bowl
Super Bowl Sunday is just around the corner.

Whether you’re a casual fan, a football aficionado, an armchair quarterback, or a diehard devotee, you’ve probably already chosen which team you’ll be rooting for.

Many of us who watch from the sidelines think that football players are mainly brawn, but more goes into a player than brute strength. Speed, hand-and-eye coordination, agility, brain power, teamwork, and a willingness to get bashed up if you’re on the front line, are a few of the qualities of this all-American sport.

In keeping with the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov that everything we see and hear is a lesson for us in our Divine service, let’s peruse just a few aspects of football and a couple of the rules, to see what we can learn from the game.

Close to 120 million people tune in every year to watch at least part of football’s championship game. But why?!

Compare that with the approximately 15 million who tune in to your average World Series game-the difference is pretty stark, and certainly not reflective of the fan base of the respective sports.

The reason? A single winner-take-all game is much more exciting and important than a seven-game series. No one game of the series that determines the basketball, baseball, or hockey champion is as consequential as the Super Bowl. So your team lost one? No reason to panic, there will be another game…

The Super Bowl is also more interesting because anything can happen in a single game. This gives the weaker team a better chance of winning; the outcome is less predictable.

So where am I going with all this?

Every day we have different struggles; we’re always facing one sort of contest or another. How important is it to be victorious? So you want to skip that one obligation..you want to post that unkind comment on social media..you want to bypass that important Jewish ritual that your Bubby used to do…or you want to take a pass on doing that favor for another… Is it a big deal? Tomorrow you’ll get it right!

I guess it depends whether you view each struggle as part of a series, or a Super Bowl. If every moment is a Super Bowl then every victory is HUGE!

And if you’re in Super Bowl mode, you get another advantage: in any one game, anything can happen. You can win even if you think you might be outmatched in this particular area!

And one more thing to think about:

You have to keep your eye on the ball at all times. Keeping your eye on the ball means being aware of one’s lifetime goal as an individual and the Jewish people’s goal as a nation. As individuals, we each have our specific G-d-given mission in life and it is our responsibility to accomplish this mission.

In football, and all sports, there are players and spectators. If you’re a spectator and the game is tough, you can get up and leave before the end. The players always has to stay on the field until the very last play. If we all see ourselves as players in our role as Jews, then before we know it, we’ll merit to be a part of the great historic event–and we don’t mean Superbowl Sunday!

So whether you are rooting for the 49ers or the Chiefs, we wish you a winning Shabbat

Shabbat Shalom & Chodesh Tov!

— Rabbi Sholom Rodal, Chabad of Mount Olympus in Los Angeles

52 happy memories upon turning 52

Tuesday, January 9th, 2024

My birthday: 52 happy memories upon turning 52

I entered this world 51 years ago today on January 9, 1972. On my 49th birthday, here are 49 happy memories.

1.) Every moment I ever spent with my grandparents. They are gone now, but I had all four of them when I graduated college and three of them when I turned 30. I am blessed.

2.) January 9, 1977 — The Oakland Raiders won the Super Bowl on my fifth birthday. I saw the logo and became a Raider for life.

3.) August 15, 1980 — Smokey and the Bandit II came out. I saw the original and the sequel and became a lifelong fan of the Bandit and the Snowman.

4.) January 22, 1984 — The Raiders won their third Super Bowl. I still remember telling the kids at school the next day one simple message. “Just win baby!”

5.) January 21, 1985 — I had my Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish passage into manhood. My Orthodox Rabbi grandfather led the ceremony.

6.) July 13, 1990 — I watched Bill Murray in “Quick Change” for the first of over 100 times. This movie is true New York, and Murray remains a national hero.

7.) August 26, 1990 — I flew from New York to Los Angeles for college. I immediately fell in love with this city and never left.

8.) September 26, 1990 — I joined the campus radio station and developed my lifelong love of radio.

9.) May 10, 1992 — I wrote my first song. 70 more would follow.

10.) January 9, 1994 — The Raiders won a playoff game over arch rival Denver on my 22nd birthday. We all had a big party to celebrate afterward at 1950s Cafe Ed Debevic’s.

11.) June 14, 1994 — The New York Rangers won the NHL Stanley Cup and ended the 54 year curse.

12.) September 13, 1994 — I passed the Series 7 stockbroker’s exam. At that moment I was now a professional.

13.) June 1, 1997 — I saw my friend doing something on a computer that seemed different. He was in a chat room. It was my first time using the Internet.

14.) July 4, 1999 — My friends and I crashed an Independence Day party on the beach and escaped moments before police busted up the party.

15.) September 23, 1999 — I finally got my driver’s license. I never needed one before.

16.) December 31, 1999 — Ringing in the Millennium in Las Vegas.

17.) March 1, 2000 — I flew from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras 2000. I still have my Calvin and Hobbes t-shirt, “Life is short. Party naked. Mardi Gras 2000.”

18.) February 13, 2003 — I watched the movie “Old School.” I will forever thank Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell and “The Godfather” Luke Wilson for inspiring me at age 31 to finally start going to Florida for Spring Break. Years of South Beach, Miami revelry ensued at the Clevelander and Ocean’s 10.

19.) March 14, 2003 — I flew to Singapore and Thailand and got to experience five days of beauty in each country. I met the Jewish communities of both nations.

20.) November 4, 2003 — NFL Network was born. Finally, a television channel worth watching existed.

21.) November 2, 2004 — Enjoying the 2004 election with my closest friends.

22.) February 12, 2006 — I flew from Los Angeles to Hawaii. I met the Jewish community of Honolulu and attended my first NFL Pro Bowl. I met ESPN’s Chris Berman.

23.) April 28, 2006 — I flew from Los Angeles to New York and went to Radio City Music Hall. For the first time, I got to attend the NFL Draft and meet a bunch of great football heroes.

24.) August 4, 2006 — I flew from Los Angeles to Ohio and drove to Canton. I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame, saw the induction ceremony featuring John Madden, and attended the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.

25.) March 11, 2007 — I Started a blog called the Tygrrrr Express. That column somehow turned into five books and a national speaking career.

26.) September 11, 2007 — On the sixth anniversary of the attacks, I flew from Los Angeles to New York and then drove to Great Adventure in New Jersey. I attended Sean Hannity’s Freedom Concert and saw New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani light up the crowd.

27.) October 17, 2007 — I joined Facebook. Between that and Twitter, I have met many good people, increased book sales, and built my business.

28.) February 2, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Phoenix and attended my first Super Bowl. The New York Giants shocked the previously unbeaten New England Patriots.

29.) March 30, 2008 — My friend adopted a child from Guatemala. On this day “the boy” turned one. Being “Unca Eric” is the best job in the world.

30.) May 13, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. I attended the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership Conference and met Dr. Charles Krauthammer.

31.) August 6, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Israel and spent a week in the Holy Land.

32.) August 30, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Minneapolis for my first Republican Convention. For a week, friends and I slept in a sports bar. It was like being Norm Peterson from “Cheers.”

33.) April 5, 2009 — My first book “Ideological Bigotry” was published.

34.) September 1, 2009 — I left Wall Street after 15 years and began my career as a full-time professional speaker.

35.) November 11, 2009 — I flew from Los Angeles to Galveston and spoke at the Texas Federation of Republican Women Convention. I made TFRW and other lifelong friends in the Lone Star State.

36.) March 11, 2010 — I flew from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City to speak at the National Federation of Republican Women Spring Conference. That launched me nationally since the NFRW run the world.

37.) May 1, 2011 — In Aiken, South Carolina, I saw the news that Osama bin Laden was killed. That night I told my very best political joke. “Osama bin Laden is now burning underground with 72 Helen Thomases.” It was the bookend to my very first political joke. “Never rely on a Palestinian GPS tracker. I took one wrong turn, ended up at a cemetery, and a sinister voice said, ‘You have reached your final destination!’ I got so angry I threw the thing out the window, which was good because 5 seconds later it exploded.”

38.) February 9, 2013 — I met Vice President Dick Cheney and spoke in front of him at a dinner.

39.) September 25, 2013 — I spoke to a Tea Party group in Hays, Kansas. At that moment, I had officially spoken in all 50 states.

40.) November 4, 2014 — I spoke at an election night party in New Jersey.

41.) March 20, 2015 — After writing four political comedy books, I finished my first religious comedy book “Jewish Lunacy.” This allowed me to move beyond political speaking into religious speaking.

42.) May 12, 2015 — I met President George W. Bush and shook his hand.

43.) November 8, 2016 — Enjoyed a raucous election night party in Raleigh, North Carolina.

44.) Any woman whoever let me play with her yummy bouncies or at least was nice enough to send me pictures of them.

45.) January 9, 2018 — On my 46th birthday, the return of Chucky as Jon Gruden returns to the Black Hole to rejoin the Raiders. Like me, Gruden has unfinished business.

46.) November 9, 2018 — I met Angela Lansbury in Beverly Hills and got my picture taken with her. She remains one of the most talented people in the history of entertainment.

47.) 2019 was the year I branch out beyond books and into t-shirts. I started with 2 or 3 designs in 2017 and 2018. By the end of 2019 I had 49 mostly original t-shirt designs. Now I have over 250 mostly original designs. My best seller remains “Stop judging women by their tops. #BackSidesMatter!”

48.) 2020 was a brutal year for so many people because of a global pandemic. Yet thank God I was healthy and in better financial condition than previous years. On January 9, 2021, I watched the NFL Wildcard playoffs with friends. Normally there would be 2 games as has been the case for the last 30 years. Yet for the first time, there were 3 games, with 3 more to occur on January 10th. I watched football all day and had a great day with people who matter to me. I was besieged with well-wishes from hundreds of people by text, phone call and social media. My birthday evening capped with a special someone. I am blessed as can be to have had such a great birthday.

49.) August 9, 2021 — Rabbi Yaakov Perman of Chabad Leawood, Kansas helped me put on Tefillin. At that moment, I had finally put on Tefillin in all 50 states. 

50.) On February 14, 2022, I achieved the American dream that I thought was forever beyond my reached. I finally bought a home. I own a condo in North Miami, Florida. 

51.) On August 14, 2022, I achieved another dream that I thought would never happen. After a life of bachelorhood, I got married. She is a Republican Jewish brunette. 

52.) On April 7, 2023, I purchased my second home, a condo in Aventura, 4 miles from the first home in North Miami in South Florida. 

I would like to thank my parents for raising me right and Angela Lansbury’s JB Fletcher of “Murder, She Wrote” for catching murderers and making the world safer.

Anything I could possibly wish for has already been granted. Between my parents, my wife, and the best friends a guy could possibly ask for, I am truly blessed.

eric @ Tygrrrr Express

We…can…do…this…2024

Monday, January 1st, 2024

2024…We…can…do…this

What the heck is that beeping sound?

(Knocks the phone off the hook, keeps banging the snooze alarm)

A voice tells me it’s my pager. My pager is black, so finding it in the dark is the needle in the haystack equivalent. A lucky smack knocks it against the wall, where it may or may not have shattered. The beeping continues. Why does anyone need a pager anymore anyway?

Who the heck is texting me at this ungodly hour of…(either 7 a.m., 1 p.m., or 1 a.m. …it looks blurry)?

Oh, no. It is 5 a.m., and my first radio interview of the New Year is with the morning man of an East Coast station. Time to pretend to sound coherent and go back to sleep. Oh no, wait, that radio interview was several years ago.

Great, happy wishes for the new year. Thanks. Whoever you are, it is too early to talk to you.

One year the person on the telephone insisted it was 1 p.m. After explaining to them that they were on the East Coast, and that 1 p.m. EST is 10 a.m. in Los Angeles, they grew impatient. They knew how to tell time, and that it was 4 p.m. EST, hence 1 p.m. my time.

Sure, getting up and writing my column is an option. It’s a new year, and starting the year off with a flurry of brilliance might be helpful. Forget it. This column is recycled from years ago. It’s also hours late. That is what happens when people get no sleep because of stressful December football games followed by New Year’s Eve revelry.

Election 2024? The first person to talk politics gets blistered in my column … tomorrow.

Bowl games? There is DVR. Besides, does anybody care who wins the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl, the Lack of Insight.com Bowl, the Fishbowl, the RU486 Morning After Bowl, The California Metrosexual Pride Bowl, or any other game that may or may not be made up?

Speaking of the morning after, does anybody remember the David Byrne Talking Heads song from the movie “Less than Zero? (which the temperature feels like right now in some parts of the country. No wonder I live in this insane city of LA)” The song is called “Once In A Lifetime.”

“This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife. What have I done? How did I get here?”

It then occurs to me that the beeping sounds are the voices in my head telling me I am too old, even at 51, to stay out this late. Even without alcohol, exhaustion has set in.

Get out of bed? Work calls in (whenever) hours. Better rest up before my tyrant of a boss complains. Such is the life of the self-employed.

Get up now? Somehow stagger to the shower, get dressed, make it out of my condo to go … where?

The stores are closed. Maybe they are open. Too tired to find out.

My birthday is in just over a week. Time to pace myself.

Work on my website? All that takes is staggering to my couch. Oh, no. My IT guy has not finished it yet. Oh, wait, he did years ago. I clicked on the wrong site.

Go on Jdate and search for women? Not a bad idea, except it is too tiring to check their Adams Apples. This is not the year for a boyfriend, and am not sure that my eyes can tell the difference right now. Besides, Jdate is so 2014. Now it is Tinder, JSwipe and JCrush. Oh, wait. I’m married. No more Internet dating.

Shop on eBay? No. bad idea. Buying stuff when not at full capacity is problematic. Who needs another mountain goat? Dang creature gets his horns in my hide. Not a comfy way to wake up. Calm down boy, you’ll get some straw to graze on upon my waking up.

Work on my record album? Although again, world, just because my hair is long, that does not mean my band exists. The best instrument is the triangle, because that tells me lunch is ready. Oh wait, my hair is not even that long anymore. I could work on that, although I didn’t do much. I sat. It grew.

Ahh, yes, lunch. Get up and eat something. My microwave is slow, and a five minute microwave dinner takes almost 15 minutes. Read the paper? It is cold outside my building where the stand is, and it only takes coins. Reading the paper online is tiring, and my printer is not working. At least the lifestyle section makes a great placemat for eating. Oh, wait. That stand does not exist anymore. Reading the paper online it is.

Staying in bed for only a couple more hours until (whatever the big and little hands say) would allow me to stay up all night and be totally exhausted for work tomorrow. Again, my boss is a tyrant.

Running errands … not gonna happen.

Every morning, a four word prayer starts my day. My elbows are used to try and leverage them against my bed to prop me up. Placing my alarm clock on the other side of the room failed, since ripping the cord out of the wall solved that problem.

As for the Jewish brunette who stole the covers, her voice was not a problem last night, although if she opens her trap today she will receive a more caustic reception than usual.

Oh wait, she already left. Here is a note. “Tried to wake you, but that was a losing battle. By the way, you have nothing but soda in your fridge. Talk to you soon.” oh, wait, I think that happened over a decade ago. My wife stocked the fridge. 

There are also potato chips in my fridge as well. Why they are there remains a mystery, but it saves having to remember which cabinet they are in. One-stop shopping  is the way to go.

Besides, combing my hair for her was enough. Not doing it this morning, proud “retrosexual” that is me.

At least having the decency to say some morning prayers would be appropriate.

“Hey God…those people I pray for every night…yeah those people, the same ones…look after them again.”

Back to sleep, despite every attempt to wake up. The home phone is turned off, the cell is off as well, and the pager is still shattered, in addition to being disconnected years ago.

There may have been a car crash outside my building followed by 911 calls and sirens, but telling everybody to “keep it down,” solved that problem. A brief nightmare of me being late for work was averted when I realized my location to me was known if necessary.

Four televisions in the living room, and none in the bedroom. Who thought that up? Oh yeah, a television in the bedroom would promote laziness. Besides, trying to figure out which remote to use would cause me to break them all as if they were my pager.

Ok, here it is. Come on, elbows, do your stuff. Rise, young lad, rise! Awaken thy exhausted tired eyes!

Why is God shouting? Oh wait, that is my over-dramatization of God.

Time to set the alarm now to avoid missing work tomorrow. Where was it thrown? Threw it? Oh, screw it.

Ok, time for my four word prayer. It has gotten me this incredibly terribly far. Time to contemplate getting out of bed.

“We…can…do…this.”

Happy 2024 all. Except for the person who woke me up earlier. Whoever you are, I still can’t stand you, even though you are doing me a favor.

Ten hours and 16 bowl games later, there is only one thing left to do.

Time for a nap. Happy 2024.

Zzzzz.

eric

New Years Eve 2023 with Lil Jon and Senator Schatz

Sunday, December 31st, 2023

December 31, 2023:

LOS ANGELES:  New Year’s Eve is a truly magical night. On this one night, many of Earth’s seven billion inhabitants temporarily cast aside religion, politics, and even sports rivalries.

Peace on Earth briefly breaks out. We bid farewell to a tough year and in this case. We pray that the incoming new year will be better, perhaps even peaceful.

We pray for peace, love, and a better world.

After almost three years of parties being canceled, the parties in 2023 are back on like Donkey Kong!

On January 15, America will honor the late Martin Luther King Jr. We will vow to honor his legacy of peaceful non-violent civic activism. MLK is universally beloved because he believed in fighting for change peacefully.

New politicians will take office on Wednesday, January 3.

Yet the hours leading into January 1 are not about the Republican Party or the Democrat Party.

It is about house parties, club parties, rooftop parties, and the party for the sake of partying parties.

This is before getting to the after-party.

We eat and drink to excess, dance badly, and upload pictures to social media that should never be uploaded.

For one night, much of the entire civilized world is a happy, peaceful, global family united in sheer joy and revelry.

In Gotham City, 2024 commences, and peaceful behavior erodes.

All hell breaks loose with the dropping of the ball in Times Square. People kiss, sing, and then try to escape the freezing weather they have been standing in for the last ten hours.

Of all the global celebrations welcoming the end of 2023, nothing says New Year’s Eve like the convergence of a rap star and an unknown politico.

The rapper is a long-haired, gold-toothed entrepreneur and former Trump Celebrity Apprentice semi-finalist Lil Jon. Dave Chapelle lampooned him as the guy who only says “what” and “ok.”

Lil Jon brought the world one of the greatest party songs, “Shots.”

A celebration of alcohol and fun, plenty of shots will be consumed as 2023 ticks down.

While Lil Jon’s celebrity is established, the senior United States Senator from Hawaii is still barely known on the mainland.

The Senator’s name is spelled “Schatz,” although his last name is pronounced “shots.”

The U.S. Senate has long been about partying, alcohol, and law-breaking in between occasional bouts of governing.

Therefore, the upper chamber of Congress should treat Schatz as a celebrity.

Let Lil Jon do the swearing-in ceremony as the Republican Party and the Democrat Party continue to spend like drunken sailors

at a never-ending New Year’s Eve Party.

Happy New Year Schatzie! Party time!

“When I arrive on the Hill, all eyes on me.
Congressional bender, all drinks are free.
We’re drunken spenders, we’re so far gone.
It’s free money time, so come on down!
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, everybody!
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, everybody!
The ladies love us, when we give free stuff,
We spend your money, on needless fluff,
We’re drunk on power, how ‘bout you?
Bottoms up, let’s go round two!
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, everybody!
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz Schatz,
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, everybody!
If you ain’t drunk on power, get out of Congress now!
If you ain’t drunk on power, get out of the White House now!
If you ain’t drunk on power, get out of government now!
Now where are my spendaholics? Printing presses go!
Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz,
Schatz, everybody!”

Party hearty, Senator Schatz! Greece, California, and Detroit are only a few trillion wasted dollars away!

To everyone else, may 2024 be a year of peace, love, and most importantly for revelers, fun!

Also, in honor of the junior Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono, do not hit on strangers after getting drunk. Friends don’t let friends beer-goggle. This is the Hirono rule, when a guy wakes up the next day, realizes what he has done, and yells, “Her? Oh, no!”

Let’s party! What??????

Happy 2024! Ok!!!!!!!!

eric

The Top 10 Powerful Bald White Guys (PBWGs) of 2023

Friday, December 29th, 2023

Top 10 Powerful Bald White Guys of 2023

This list is dedicated to the late radio host Austin Hill. He was a great guy who left us far too soon. He loved this list and gave it more attention than it ever deserved. May he never be forgotten.

This list was inspired by Dann Florek, who played Police Captain Donald Cragen on the “Law & Order” franchises for a couple decades.

A lot of people did not make the list. Joe Biden is ineligible until he admits his baldness and stops hiding behind hair plugs. Vladimir Putin is ineligible because he is a ruthless killer and I do not wish to die. If he asks, I think he has lovely hair. 

Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, but he is no longer the CEO of Amazon. Being rich is not the same as being powerful. Bring powerful requires doing things. He seems either bored or retired. Rupert Murdoch seems to be retired as well. 

Virginia Congressman Bob Good will almost certainly make the list in 2024. He is the incoming Chair of the House Freedom Caucus. He does not take over until after the New Year begins, rendering him ineligible for 2023.

With that, here are the 2023 Austin Hill Awards dedicated to the Top 10 PBWGs of 2023.

10.) Chip Roy:  This Congressman from Texas is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. He says what he means and vice versa. He has spent the year dragging other politicians kicking and screaming into fiscal restraint. He would rank higher on the list except that he has had few successes on this front. It is tough to govern when you barely hold one of three branches of government. If and only if Republicans increase their majorities in 2024, expect Congressman Roy to have significantly more influence.  

9.) John Stanley: The CEO of A T & T is on the front lines of the newest tranche of the digital revolution. While this company has a reputation for nickeling and timing their customers, that also makes a terrible company a great stock over the long term. After destroying DirecTV, Mr. Stanley came in and spun it off. Mr. Stanley according to surveys of various companies ranks near the bottom in likability, with less than 5% of his employees approving of his job performance. To be fair, employees have gotten terribly worse, especially among young people. Mr. Stanley would rank higher, but A T& T is one of the most mind-numbingly boring companies in America. If they somehow catch the AI wave, his standing on this list might improve. 

8.) Kevin O’Leary: Shark Tank’s “Mr. Wonderful” is one of the sharpest investors around. He speaks plainly and with common sense. He actually ran to be the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party in 2017. He should have been on this list for years but 2023 was his breakout year in terms of exposure. He went from being almost everywhere to everywhere. His insights are valuable. He would rank higher except sometimes it is hard to figure out exactly what it is he does. 

7.) Dave Calhoun: The CEO of Boeing is more influential than ever. Just when it looked like Russia and Ukraine were headed toward stalemate and possible ceasefire, Islamists in Gaza waged war on Israel. World War III may be bad for society, but it is great for defense contractors. with the Middle East on the verge of exploding into flames, Mr. Calhoun will make sure to crank out the necessary weapons.  More importantly, he seems to be a very competent CEO. Boeing stock recently hit an annual high. 

6.) Warren Buffett: On a personal level, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO suffered the loss of his Vice Chairman Charles Minger at age 99. By contrast, the Oracle of Omaha is a spry 93. Buffett is the epitome of a value investor. He avoided the dot com boom and bust a couple decades ago. Now he is warning anyone who will listen that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a scam. Buffett is also against woke investing despite being a lifelong Democrat. He refuses to bring his personal politics into his investing, which is why people across the spectrum trust him. He is often wrong in calling for higher taxes, but after all these decades, there is still nobody more respected when it comes to picking a stock. 

5.) Bob Casey Jr.: Like his father, Senator Casey the younger is that rarest of creatures, a pro-life Democrat. A staunch Catholic, Casey is an accurate representation of the heavily Catholic, blue collar Pennsylvania voters. Normally a reliable Democrat vote, Casey often confounds his own party. He has a brutally tough 2024 race against conservative David McCormack. If Casey can survive that race, his influence will grow if Democrats hold the Senate.    

 

4.) Jared Polis: The Colorado Governor is more than just the leader of one of the first states to allow recreational marijuana. Now he oversees the first state to suspend the rule of law and ban a major party presidential candidate from running for office. While it was the Colorado Supreme Court that made the decision to ban Trump based on an insurrection he was never charged with, Polis gets to have it both ways. He can pretend to be above the fray while privately maneuvering to be the 2024 Democrat nominee if President Biden resigns. Polis is not known for ever taking a brave stand, so his rise or fall on this list will be determined by how he navigates this Constitutional time bomb. Polis benefits if the U.S. Supreme Court renders the issue moot. 

3.) Gary Gensler: The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is a political activist with a thirst for regulating everything in sight. With the stock market hitting all time highs, he is expected to throw cold water on the party. Gensler is fine with woke DEI at the expense of corporate profits but heaven forbid a good CEO not have enough diversity. With calls to regulate cryptocurrencies, Gensler will have even more power. He is a former Goldman Sachs guy, which propelled his access to power. Republicans are trying to have him fired, but Goldman Sachs power brokers are usually above the law.  

2.) John Fetterman: This rich white leftist spent his entire life doing hard drugs and leeching off of his parents. Like most failures, he became a hardcore leftist virtue-signaler. Despite suffering a stroke during the campaign, he still got elected as a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was expected to vote leftist down the line. Then he shocked the political world by offering startlingly lucid thoughts that broke from leftist Orthodoxy. He came out as a staunch supporter of Israel in a party with an increasingly influential and militant anti-Israel left wing. He also called for more border security. He even declared that he was not a progressive. When he was verbally accosted by an angry leftist who accused him of betrayal, he showed a surprising sense of humor. He pointed out his recent stroke and claimed that this left him unable to understand what the angry protester was saying. Senator Fetterman is less than one year into his term, and he has already angered people across the political spectrum. He has at least five more years to confound people without consequences. That is power. Yet for the second year in a row, Fetterman comes up one spot short. 

1.) David Solomon — Normally the Head Sled at Golden Sachs is the top PBWG because Goldman Sachs runs the world. Goldman Sachs has a history of flitting in between corporate power and government power. Jon Corzine, Hank Paulson, and Lloyd Blankfein are all former Goldman Sachs PBWG top dogs. Solomon has missed out on the top spot in recent years due to tough economic times, war raging across the world, and an anti-Wall Street climate. Yet in 2023, happy days are here again. The stock market hit an all time high. Goldman Sachs now has its usual level of undue influence over the government. The company that is too big to fail with executives who are too big to jail escaped scrutiny during financial meltdowns. They are not going to lose power when Wall Street is making money hand over fist. 

For being the most powerful guy at the most powerful company, David Solomon is the Top Powerful Bald White Guy of 2023.  

The Top 10 B*mbos of 2023

Thursday, December 28th, 2023

Top 10 Bimbos of 2023

Dedicated to Barack Obama and Taylor Swift, the Top 10 Bimbos of 2023 highlight shallow, vapid individuals who do well in life without having an ounce of substance. Through their words, Obama and Swift represent overprivileged spoiled brats who complain about anyone and everyone they perceive to have done them wrong. They are both airheads and terrible role models who are held up in high esteem by their equally shallow and vapid supporters. 

The term “bimbo” is gender neutral. This is to keep the nose-ringed, blue-haired Gen Z social media censors from screaming bloody rage about sexism and every other ism. They are bimbos themselves. If you do not know your own gender, you should not comment on any issues committed by any human beings, much less censor anyone. 

Too many of these young people claiming to belong to 200 different genders are taking drugs that could turn out to be every bit as dangerous as heroin and cocaine. In at least one case, a trans person who took dangerous hormones went into a homicidal rage against innocent young Christian children. Nashville school shooter and radical trans activist Audrey Hale can very close to making the list, but her horrific story is incomplete. Portions of Hale’s manifesto have been released, but until the entire manifesto is released, this story will not get the attention it deserves. 

Sam Bankman-Fried did not make the list. As awful as he is, his arrest and conviction in 2023 is not the beginning or end of the story. His crypto exchange FTX went bankrupt in 2022. What happens to these cryptocurrency firms in 2024 is a bigger story than SBF himself. He is not the first scammer who took advantage of suckers by peddling a fake product that does nothing. 

With that, here are the Top 10 Bimbos of 2023.

10.) WeWork customers:  WeWork, according to WeWork, was a revolutionary company that forever changed the concept of office space. In reality, WeWork was a company that did nothing, made nothing, and produced nothing. It was the Bitcoin of furniture. Its business model was catering to narcissistic young people who also in many cases did nothing but wanted to give the appearance of doing something. WeWork rented small office spaces to young dreamers who wanted to convince potential clients that they had an office. People living beyond their means wanted to appear hip and cool, and the best way to do that is waste money on totally unnecessary expenditures. When the COVID pandemic hit, people stopped going into offices. Many people did not return. Young people returned to their parents’ basements. Some of these people tried to get rich by becoming “content” creators only to find out that nobody cared what they had to say. At this point it became even more unnecessary for people to pay for office space when they did not offer a product or service. People who could afford nice big office spaces did not need WeWork. People who needed to just keep up appearances could not afford WeWork. 

9.) Josh McDaniels and Brandon Staley — The Raiders and the Chargers have been AFC West rivals since 1960. Both of them have recently suffered under terrible coaches. Yet there are plenty of bad coaches throughout the many sports in America. McDaniels and Staley are special cases. Their aloof nature and constant arrogance without the results to back it up caused them to take talented teams and drive those teams into the ground. They both had “my way or the highway” systems. McDaniels got rid of the heart and soul of his team, Derek Carr. All Carr did was lead the Raiders to the playoffs the year before. Staley would repeatedly go for it fourth down deep in his own territory with disastrous results. Both of these teams would be on the verge of winning games until their coaches found ways to help their teams lose.  The Raiders set a record for most blown double digit leads in one season in 2021. McDaniels doubled down and became more defiant. The Chargers blew a 27-0 lead in a playoff game only to lose 31-30. The Chargers even lost a game this year where they gave up 63 points…ironically to the Raiders. This would rank higher except both of these teams fired their coaches.  The owners admitted they got it wrong, something the coaches they fired could and would never do. The worst people are people with power who are bad at everything and blame everyone else for their own incompetence.

8.) Brittany Mahomes & Jackson Mahomes — While the Raiders and Chargers flounder, the Kansas City Chiefs are on the verge of winning the AFC West for the eighth straight year. The defending Super Bowl champions have a great coach in Walrus Andy Reid and a 25th century Buck Rodgers freak of nature in quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes has won two Super Bowls and has the potential to be the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. Yet he also has hanger-ons who have no skills of their own while exploiting his fame to their benefit. His wife Brittany Mahomes is constantly throwing temper tantrums and mouthing off to the media. Now she hangs out in a luxury suite with Taylor Swift and acts even more insufferable. Swift is annoying herself, but at least she built a majorly successful career as a singer. Brittany Mahomes simply married a talented guy and confused fame with accomplishments. Jackson Mahomes is even worse. Patrick’s brother is a TikTok star, which means he does goofy dances and demands to be given money and fame for them. If he had another last name, nobody would care. He is banned from at least one eating establishment in Kansas City for forcibly trying to kiss the owner. Off the field, he faced sexual battery charges. On the field, he has danced on opposing team logos and provoked fans of opposing teams. Jackson and Brittany both attack the referees and behave badly during games. Patrick is famous for his earned successes. Brittany and Jackson are famous for being famous. People who get ahead based on the hard work of others and then complain about life are truly among the most narcissistic people on earth.

7.) Kamala Harris and Anthony Blinken: The entire Biden administration is one big bag of third tier untalented people. The only qualification seems to be to check various identity politics boxes and be bad at everyone. Yet two administration officials stand out for their utter uselessness. Vice President Kamala Harris is unable to complete a full sentence. Her numerous “word salads” are the way she tries to hide not studying for the tests and not knowing the answers. She is fooling nobody. She was socially promoted because of her race, gender and ideology. Her supporters keep demanding that Americans see her race as an accomplishment. She is a fairly dumb woman who romantically dated t the correct people and got pushed upward. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was hired specifically because his approach to foreign policy is unilateral American surrender. He shuttles to and from various world locations without anything resembling an accomplishment. No matter how badly Harris and Blinken fail, they cannot be fired. President Joe Biden needs them to placate his far left wing. Normally John Kerry would top a list of useless administration officials, but at least he runs a department that nobody cares about. With the war on Israel raging, Harris and Blinken are both openly calling for actions akin to Israel surrender and suicide. That is also their approach to the United States, but luckily for those who value global civilization, the Israelis have told them both to go pound sand. Their constant attacks on Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while his army faces off against genocidal Islamist terrorists would be shocking if it weren’t so expected. The world burns, and Harris and Blinken babble about diversity, multiculturalism and other causes of American failure. They are failure. The world knows it, yet they march on as if they have an ounce of competence and respect anywhere. They confuse power with worth. 

6.) Alissa Heinerscheid: It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but it can all be destroyed at the speed of (Bud) light. 2023 was the year where two of the most respected institutions in America destroyed their once platinum reputations. Anheiser Busch was one of the best companies in the history of American business. They did everything right. They wrapped themselves in the American flag. Their Super Bowl ads made us laugh with frogs and lizards and tugged at our patriotic heartstrings with noble Clydesdale horses and fire rescue dogs. Budweiser was America, the King of Beers. Then a political activist named Alissa Heinerscheid joined the Anheiser Busch marketing department in a senior role. She came up with the worst marketing campaign in advertising history. She hired transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney to be a spokesperson for Bud Light.  The backlash was swift and severe. Making matters worse, Heinerscheid attacked her company’s own customer base as “fratty” and “out of touch.” Sales plummeted as customers flocked to Miller and other beer companies. Anheiser Busch dropped as low as 14th, and has yet to recover. Naturally, in typical Gen Z activist fashion, Heinerscheid doubled down rather than apologize. Arrogance and certitude of being right while completely failing is truly awful behavior. 

5.) Ivy League Presidents:  Claudine Gay is one of far too many Ivy League professors who range from openly tolerating antisemitism to openly being antisemitic. Just before Hanukkah and only two months after a terrorist attack against Israel, Ivy League university presidents imploded at a House committee hearing. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked three university presidents what should have been an easy question. Would calling for the genocide of Jews be against the rules and laws of their universities? Harvard President Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth all tried to whitewash antisemitic calls for genocide. They babbled about how such remarks had to be taken “in context,” as if there was ever was a justifiable context for murdering Jews in cold blood. Large donors immediately began canceling planned future gifts. Prestigious law firms and other companies vowed to no longer hire graduating students from these institutions. Three days after her disastrous congressional testimony, Magill resigned under pressure of being fired. The other two have survived for now. Former President Barack Obama personally lobbied behind the scenes to protect Gay, given their shared status as DEI cheerleaders and token hires under DEI themselves. 

4.) Claudine Gay: On the education front, Harvard was the top of the top. Then they socially promoted an unqualified woman named Claudine Gay to the elite institution’s presidency solely because she is a black woman and hardcore activist for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion movement. Gay came under fire during a disastrous House committee hearing where she refused to condemn calls on her campus for genocide against Jews. Matters got worse for her when it was discovered that she is a serial plagiarizer She has been in open violation of rules that would get her own students expelled. She is now refusing to provide the data for the very few papers she published, leading to charges that her data was completely fabricated. She is threatening to sue Harvard if she is fired. Yet there are people at Harvard far worse than her who deserve b*mbo recognition.

3.) Harvard Board of Trustees: Harvard’s Board of Trustees cannot fire President Claudine Gay even though she is corrupt and incompetent. Firing her would require admitting that they were duped by the twin frauds of DEI and Ms. Gay herself. 20 years after the New York Times was humiliated for socially promoting Jason Blair, Harvard has learned nothing. For the first time in school history, students are rejecting early entry into the school. Harvard’s selling point was that it was the ultimate meritocracy. Only the very best and brightest got to go there. This has been exposed as a lie. There is nothing about Claudine Gay that screams merit. The Harvard Board of Trustees, like many bimbos, would rather double and triple down rather than just admit error. Keep in mind that these people all range on the political scale of liberal to leftist. Arrogance and a refusal to ever admit being wrong are trademarks are rich white liberals. The Board of Trustees would rather lose donors and let their reputation burn in flames than admit that being a black woman by itself is not an accomplishment. Gay is a leftist, and the Board has to publicly declare that being a black female leftist automatically makes a person superior in intelligence. This has never been true. Supposedly bright people have been exposed as dumb, and they are helpless in correcting the error. They went woke and are paying the price. 

2.) Greeniac rioters: All around the world, upper class leftists are committing ecoterrorism based on some pseudo-scientific claptrap about “climate change.” For people, on the left course of course, who believe the ends justify the means, violence is always on the answer. Young leftist climate activists are gluing themselves to expensive paintings, vandalizing office buildings, and getting away with it. These radicals have now infected America’s government. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s daughter Somah Haaland committed a ct of domestic eco-terrorism and got away with it because of her mother’s power. Try Googling Somah Haaland. Her incident has been scrubbed from search engines. She was arrested. She was guilty. Yet she is free as can be. Many of these young thugs are airheads who riot for the sake of rioting. They move from cause to cause without knowing or caring about the facts of what and why they are rioting. So as people get bored of climate change, they are forced to shift to another cause. Unfortunately for America and the world, Greta Thunberg and the rest of the eco-terrorists have found their new cause. 

1.) Anti-Israel rioters: After the Holocaust, it was taken for granted that America was the one place besides Israel where Jews could feel comfortable. When the most recent war between Israel and her Arab neighbors broke out, carefully organized anti-Israel protests broke out all over America. Virulent antisemitism bubbling below the surface exploded out into the open on college campuses. America’s most “progressive” cities held rallies where people chanted genocidal claims such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Even New York and Los Angeles, home to the largest Jewish populations outside of Israel, felt the wrath of violent anti-Jewish mobs. These were not free speech rallies. They were pogroms. In Los Angeles, an Arab man assaulted and killed a Jewish man named Paul Kessler in broad daylight. The Arab killer is being tried for a lesser homicide charge but not murder. Pictures of Jewish hostages are being ripped down by anti-Jewish mobs. Jews are having their stores vandalized with Nazi symbols. Chants of “Go back to the ovens,” once unthinkable in America, are openly being said without consequences. The antisemitic mobs are claiming the right to free speech, but there is no constitutional right to violently riot. Jews are taking extra safety measures and buying more guns than ever for protection. The federal government has issued meaningless platitudes condemning all forms of hate including Islamophobia. Yet Jews are the ones explicitly being attacked, often with impunity. Despite efforts to blame everything on “MAGA,” this antisemitism is clearly coming from the left. Many of the rioters have rioted for other leftist causes including radical climate action and radical gay and transgender actions. “Queers for Palestine” marches loudly and proudly without a hint of self-awareness. Many young people on TikTok are openly supporting Hamas and even Osama bin Laden. Jews are attempting to fight back, but the battle is an uphill one. Many of these protesters are idiots, claiming they care about “Palestinians” without being able to articulate where “Palestinians” came from. The rioters also cannot tell you which river and which sea they want the Jews free from. For combining evil Jew-hatred with utter stupidity, these leftist rioters, many on Ivy League universities, are the top bimbos of 2023. 

These are the Top 10 Bimbos of 2023. May they go away in 2024 and stay away.

eric

JLI Retreat 2023: Why isn’t Jerusalem mentioned in the Torah? Rabbi Dovid Eliezre

Sunday, August 13th, 2023

Why isn’t Jerusalem mentioned in the Torah? Rabbi Dovid Eliezre

Jerusalem is alluded to throughout the Torah but not mentioned by name. A land mass is described that could only be Jerusalem. The Torah kept the actual name secret to prevent everyone including non-Jews from wanting to flock there in droves. Only a few hundred people lived in Jerusalem in the 1920s. Jews have been there for over 3,000 years. We should create our own Jerusalem by praying wherever we are and facing Jerusalem.

JLI Retreat 2023: What’s on your bucket list? Rabbi Moshe Bryski

Saturday, August 12th, 2023

What’s on your bucket list? Rabbi Moshe Bryski

The story of 1,090 people who ignored the famous violinist. Where were they going? Why were they rushing? Why do they need to do those things? 

Is everything we do preparation for something else?

Sam Walton built Walmart, the greatest company in the world but didn’t have time for his family. On his deathbed, he said, “I blew it. Looking back, I blew it. I blew life.” 

“I intend to live forever, and so far, so good.” — Steven Wright 

“My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.” — Rodney Dangerfield

If all we do is rush from one thing to another, it becomes very difficult to imagine any existence beyond the physical. 

How do you know you have a soul? “I don’t have a soul. I am a soul. I have a body. My soul is who I am. My body is housing the soul in this iteration of existence.” — Rabbi Avrohom Twersky 

Souls don’t die. We will know more about this when we get there. For now, make every day count. 

Death closes the curtain on our free will and ability to do good deeds. 

Compile our own bucket list, but change the term. Call it a life list, things we want to accomplish in life. Put the exotic stuff aside, unless it is truly a part of you.

Establish a weekly ritual to call your parents once a week. Read the 5 books of Moses, then the Prophets. Go to shul at least once per month, or more. Pick one year to experience every Jewish holiday. Put on Tefillin more often. Mentor someone. Make a difference in another human being’s life. Make a Jewish shidduch. Visit lonely seniors. 

Make your goals have lasting and enduring value. Acts of goodness and kindness. Answer the questions to the “why” of life. 

Never miss an opportunity to attend a family simcha.  As long as we pass on traditions to our children, Judaism will continue to thrive. That should be our legacy. Judaism is not just a religion. Judaism is the hope, guarantee and promise for the Jewish people and all of humanity.