Posted on 03/06/2012 5:15:10 PM PST by BobL
Forgive me for starting a vanity thread here, but if the issue is important enough, sometimes comments are not sufficient.
As some of you may know, there is a small army of investors that follow around Rush's sponsors. Basically they apolitical people who know that if Brand A advertises on Rush's show, Brand A's sales will go through the roof. So once Brand A starts advertising, they buy the stock (if it's available) and generally clean up (probably the surest investment strategy in existence - even Rush has talked about it). It is likely these investors that are pulling their money out of Carbonite right now, as their stock tanks. There are probably others that have shorted Carbonite, considering they shot themselves in the foot - by coming out in defense of tyranny. For investors that shorted them today (or yesterday), they would be up at least 10%, in less than two days. But the vast majority of people (including FReepers and Rush Listeners, and myself) do neither. Some of us buy their product, but that's about it.
So what if another company moves in for the kill - perhaps Mozy. I, myself, have never purchased a backup service, but I was getting close to Carbonite, especially given their advertising on Rush's show. However, since this story broke, it appears that Carbonite's product, in addition to their attitude towards Rush, leave something to be desired.
So how would a company move in for the kill - very easy. Buy national air time on Rush's show and STATE IT TO THE WORLD that you are doing this in support of free speech (as well as having a useful product) - and, believe me, Rush would be more than happy to amplify that message. If a company would do that, they would be OVERWHELMED by Rush listeners trying to make a point, and would see their stock go through the roof. Their owner(s) could cash out, probably in week after starting their ads, and never have to worry about working again. Yes, their company would have to put up with the harassment of OWS and Media Matters types, but that is the cost of doing business, and they're easy to deal with if you have a plan for them (i.e., put callers through a screening process before putting them through to humans, or just direct them to the web - not hard; for example, make them give you a real credit card number to set up an account, before putting them on with a live person).
For a huge company like Walmart, I'd say don't bother - too many people from all walks of life use them. But for a small to medium size company, even getting just 1% of Rush's 22,000,000 listeners pretty much sets them up for life. While I pick on Carbonite here, it's only because they are a public company and they have been most vocal in stabbing Rush in the back. There are also mattress companies, flower delivery companies, and (in fact) any other company that could simply explode their sales, by making a very pro-America political statement and advertising on Rush's show.
For the record, I have no investment (or shorting) of Carbonite, Mozy, or any of Rush's other advertisers (that I know of) - and certainly won't be doing it now, after posting this.
Gingrich/Santorum 2012! :)
I honestly do not know how to do it at this point. As long as they have money coming from the tax payers they will be against us.
I also cancelled Citrix...and sent a letter to them stating so. I asked them why they felt it necessary to mix politics into our business relationship.
“Gingrich/Santorum 2012!”
Either way, fine with me!!!
Your idea would tap into the very essence of the tea party movement, and any bold enterpreneur brave enough to stand up and advertise unapologetically on Rush Limbaugh, stating the case for free speech without weasel words or PC crap.
Would take over their market.
I very much think you have stated the essence, of the opportunity here. I wish I had a midsize company in perhaps Texas or say ... Nebraska which sold real redneck good quality value products to all of real America, especially in a market like say... Cabelas.
Carhartt.
Something middle America, Rush Limbaugh listening, pickup truck driving, real Americans actually care about.
The sort of solid, middle American free thinking people who not only won’t be bullied by blue state metrosexuals’ groupthink.
But who would actually deliberately buy something, just to poke their finger in the eye of such whiners.
I like the OP’s idea. A lot.
My first suggestion is Cabelas. I think Rush should reach out to Cabelas, offer them some (huge) nationwide advertising contract on every Rush show, with discount rates, and let them grow even bigger, on the enthusiastic support of his massive audience.
Most of whom frankly, based on demographics and politics are already inclined to buy stuff from them, already.
I say: draft Cabelas.
Don’t lose money on the obscene profit center breaks, but offer them some fabulous, just to make a point deal.
Call them up tomorrow Rush.
Seal the deal. I’m guessing they’d take that call.
(yes, I go there a lot)
:D....Yepppp!
Is this your “What If?”: “ - - - So how would a company move in for the kill - very easy. Buy national air time on Rush’s show and STATE IT TO THE WORLD that you are doing this in support of free speech (as well as having a useful product) - and, believe me, Rush would be more than happy to amplify that message. If a company would do that, they would be OVERWHELMED by Rush listeners trying to make a point, and would see their stock go through the roof. Their owner(s) could cash out, probably in week after starting their ads, and never have to worry about working again.”
If so, it might work!
The MSM will never make the “free speech” connection.
BTW, the perfect advertiser on Rush’s show for protection of the civil liberty of free speech is, (you guessed it), the ACLU !
I hope you are able to dump Carbonite. I say so in support of Rush and of free speech. The one problem we have is Capital One. My husband says to close our Cap One account would hurt our credit. He’s promised that we won’t use the card and once we are moved back to KS, we’ll cancel.
Not trying to tell you what to do about Carbonite. But sure hope you get to help in their stock decline. :)
Oh I’ll dump them, but it does me no good to do it now since I’ve already been billed and they won’t refund the fee.
It is a two party system thus yes let the socialists in our party just move to the democrats they would be welcomed by the blue dogs
I just finished a whole new book on why Conservatism and Liberalism exist. Each is an intellectual manifestation of a primitive Darwinian psychology which you see in nature, everywhere. Conservatism is designed to confront resource shortage, while Liberalism is designed to exploit resource excess. (see my profile for more detail on this and the r/K Theory behind it.) You see this in microbiology all the time. Place bacteria in a tough, demanding environment, and they will evolve all sorts of complex adaptations. Remove them to an environment of ease and free resources (in a petri dish) and they devolve, losing all of their complex adaptations as they evolve to simply convert free resources into more and more simpler organisms.
The problem now is that we have had a very long period of resource excess, where there has been essentially no competitive selections for any type of fitness, competitive drive, honor, loyalty, etc. In biology, that is an r-type environment, and it produces an r-type, Liberal psychology. As r-selection is wont to do, today the unmotivated, entitled welfare idiots are producing 10 less capable children a pop (all government subsidized and single parented), while we produce one or two. It's Idiocracy in action, and it is fueling a rise in Liberalism and entitlement.
I mean, you want to blame this on the Hippies, but where did you think the Hippies came from? Take every honor-bound, competitively driven male out of the populace (through drafting them for WWII), and twenty years later the children of the dregs that were left behind are the Hippies of the 60’s. This is a genetic effect.
We will continue to see Leftism increase for a bit more, until the coming debt collapse, when people will either have to compete and produce on their own, leave for somewhere else, or die. It won't be fun, as we will all have trouble supporting ourselves just like in the Depression. But the welfarites are going to find out what it is to not be able to blackmail half of the populace into paying all of their bills. I suspect a lot will leave for Venezuela, Canada, Cuba, Britain, or some other more socialist environ with free stuff for nothing. If we're smart, we'll pay for their plane ticket.
Just as in history, our successful society will gradually decline into failure, undergo an uncomfortable period of competitive selection, and then we will re-emerge without all of the unproductive dead weight or the idiotic r-type Liberalism. Think of the WWII generation coming out of the Great Depression. We'll be competitive, patriotic, loyal, and Conservative. We'll innately view Liberals as inferior, and reject their mindless ramblings as the moronic drivel it is.
If you understand evolutionary biology, it is funny how we are all just like big animals, despite all the intellect and personality. Apply r-selection pressures by providing free resources, and see a gradual diminution in competitiveness, monogamy, high-investment two-parent child rearing, and sexual chastity. All of a sudden you have a lot of cowardly, promiscuous, single parent favoring Liberals, railing-at-the-heavens-angry that they aren't just given free birth control, control over the nation, and loyal spouses.
Apply K-selection pressures, forcing competition for limited resources, and all of the goodness returns, and suddenly the populace is loyal, competitive, monogamous, chaste, polite, and desirous that children be reared properly in a two parent home. It's coming, and there is nothing Liberals can do to stop it.
“Take every honor-bound, competitively driven male out of the populace (through drafting them for WWII), and twenty years later the children of the dregs that were left behind are the Hippies of the 60’s. This is a genetic effect.”
Actually, no. The Hippies, largely, were born after 1945 - they were the kids of our war heroes. The war heroes wanted, I suspect, just wanted to make life as easy as possible for their kids, so they didn’t bother being parents to them. Then you add TV, birth control, and God knows what else, and you have the mess we have today.
Why mix politics and business, they ask ? Business is trust and I no longer trust Citrix to do the right thing, since they obviously can’t see right from wrong in this case.
Hippies took off in the beginning of the sixties, an outgrowth of the Beat Generation of the late fifties. When was a 20 year old Hippie in 1962 conceived? A Hippie conceived exactly at the end of WWII (and born almost a year later) would have been 20 in ‘66 (and the war actually lasted beyond that for many, with occupations and reconstructions). Some Hippies were born after the War, but the surge of them, which created the movement during the first half of the sixties, was conceived during it.
Hippies peaked in ‘67 or so, but that was the maximum total number, including all those from previous years, not the most Hippies born as a percentage of their specific generation. Note, a 21 year old college kid in 66 would have been born in 45, and conceived in ‘44.
By 1969-1970, the movement was passing, just as the young adults of the boomer generation were becoming the predominate form of young adult. (boomers were technically born 1946-1964 but they were not predominately conceived within a year of the war’s end. Many War heroes literally took years to reintegrate, find a wife, settle down with a job, and then have children). That time frame correlates with the sudden fall of the Hippie movement among the youth around early 1970 or so.
Some Hippie leaders and SDS types I researched were a little older, usually born just before the war. Ayers was one, if I’m not mistaken. But every generation had defectives like them. When the mass of defectives conceived during the War surged, they just benefitted from the fact that they were a little older than the surge members, and could thus exert social dominance over their younger cohorts, and become leaders. Right place, right time effect. If the Hippie surge hadn’t happened right in front of them they would have just petered out as no-name Communnist party supporters, just as many others did before them.
Some kids of veterans might have gotten caught up in the movement once it had been going for a while in the late sixties, but the movement began and got moving right as the kids conceived during the war came of age. It ended (despite the masses of sixties Hippies still pushing the free sex/rock and roll/drugs product) as the boomers swelled into the young adult movement in 1969-1970 and beyond.
The Hippie movement wasn’t due to WWII vets being irresponsible parents. Hippie psychology was a gentically imbued predisposition, just as r-type reproductive strategies are genetically imbued, and just as political affiliation shows a strong correlation with genetic influences.
Seriously, suppose I said to you I was going to stop every male who would willingly serve in the military from mating, for a period of four years. Only guys who are not psychologically willing or capable of service are allowed to mate for that period. What do you predict the offspring produced during that period would be like?
Would they resemble, in any way, the Hippie?
Don’t you just hate that! As Bill Clinton once said, “I feel your pain.”
this cycle if you are correct could take a very long time to play out. Look at the roman empire their end days they got lazy with nature helping them they literally starved to death with. Food that they might have had was worth more then the whole empire.
The empire fell Islam moved in and it took centuries to pick up the pieces. that is a long cycle with a huge risk of losing all of civilization for good.
That is interesting.
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