Hidalgo County has the answer to Obamacare

Necessity is the mother of innovation

Not only did Donald Trump win the 2016 Presidential Election but Hidalgo County’s Proposition 1 Healthcare District was defeated. The Republican Party in Hidalgo has a lot to be excited about but not so much. They don't see to see the clear path ahead of them. Even though the Republicans didn’t win in the Rio Grande Valley the fact that they defeat Proposition 1 is a victory that they can claim all on their own. It is a stepping off point. There is an alternative solution that is custom made for the dilemma that the hospitals have where they can’t refuse treatment which they most likely will never receive payment for, Family Medical Pools. These accounts would be funded by payroll deductions already being taken out of income but instead of going to health insurance where fees are charged and coverage limited it would go into medical savings accounts for specific families. There is no problem doing business across state lines, Doctors wouldn’t have to wait for payment from insurance companies, they would be paid at the point of sale. In the event a patient goes to the emergency room without coverage, they would just be enrolled in their family’s pool. There would be social pressure for members of the family to lead more healthy life styles and not to be going to the doctor for frivolous reasons. Also to get those who aren’t contributing a job so they can contribute to the family Healthcare pool. It would solve the problem which caused the Hospitals in Hidalgo County to propose Proposition 1 and they don’t need voter approval. The Mormon Church has global database of families’ linage which they would be able to utilize in notifying family members of these Healthcare Pool Accounts. All that is required is a cooperating bank and the hospital to adopt it as a solution. There is no underwriting, there would be business opportunities for retired doctors and nurse practitioners as advisors to families when deciding on treatment. With all of the winter Texans in the Valley and the undocumented residents this is an ideal solution. If they seek treatment, they just need to show their ID and the hospital can look up their family healthcare accounts and add them to it.

Running along the path put in front of me

Running along the path put in front of me

My life is rapidly changing and it is completely due to association, new and reconnecting with past influences. First off I have a girlfriend. She is also a transplant from San Diego California and she is a John Maxwell Leadership trainer and she is an amazing listener who picks up on what I have said and she doesn’t waist a second to connect me with those in her circle that she believes would be a good fit for me. First she introduces me to Joel Garcia a physical education teacher and football coach who helps a local boxing promoter. So we got tickets to the local boxing show in Pharr Texas. Joel sits with us and introduces me to everyone. Then he introduces me to a fighter who he has sponsored Jose Prado. Jose tells me his story about getting over matched during his last fight and after losing every round knocked out his opponent and how they are trying to over match him again. I gave him a little pep-talk and told him not to waste any time feeling this guy out but to jump right on him and let him know that he is going to have to fight. That is exactly what he did and he with a record of 8 and 1 fought to a draw with Shoki Sakai who was 21-6 who has the same trainer as Juan Miguel Marquez. I gave him some pointers after the fight on how to beat this guy when he gets a rematch with him and then I went to his gym on Wednesday and gave him a sequence of combinations to set up his left hook for the next time he fights this guy. I think I got through to him. He is a little hardheaded but that is why he was able to hang with the more experienced fighter like he did but I think I got him to see the benefit of mastering the techniques I showed him.

Then I received a phone call from Enviro-Lite asking me to meet with them and talk about marketing their electrical services. Then I got a call out of the blue from Dave Perry Global Business Strategist & Technology Commercialization Expert. He wanted help marketing a LED Lighting manufacturer that had a high CRI rated module for other LED Lighting manufacturers to use in their fixtures. I didn’t know a lot about CRI but I educated myself and then I called the manufacturer and got some more insight then I self-educated myself on YouTube.  Then I went to my interview with Enviro-Lite and it went well and they gave me a contract to sign. I am going to clarify the “Non-compete” section to make sure that I can still sell LED Lighting to electricians but only generate new projects for them.

With this connection with Dave Perry and the degree program I am applying for with University of Texas Pan-Am in Edinburg to study for a degree in Business Marketing New Communication Technology. With my sales background, finance, drones and LED Lighting I feel that I already have a head start in the marketing of new and disruptive technologies. This made me think about Gifford Marzoni  a friend of mine in Imperial Beach California who was a technician who played a major role in the development of the anti-aids drug Viracept. I looked up his email address and the email was a blog post that I wrote that best described all that I am trying to do leadership and business. It caused me to think about Van Hall. Van was my AOIC in both of my platoons at SEAL Team Four. He was one of those young guys that Dick Marcinko when he formed SEAL Team Six. I first meet Van between my BUD/s classes 133 and 141 in Pensacola. It was a Sunday and I had to put the new AOCS cadets through their power test, push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. A First Class (SEAL) Petty Officer stopped me while I was on my way to unlock the building. He was dressed in his summer whites and he stopped me and asked “Where is the chow hall?” I pointed him in the right direction and told him where bldg 633 where he would be attending his leadership training course. Also let him know where the other Navy SEALs were on the base. It was three years later in my first Platoon with the Assistant Officer in Charge, Ensign Hall. Right in the middle of putting together a load out list I stopped and said “I know you!” Then I recalled the encounter in Pensacola. Van had some very admirable characteristics. He had that same direct way of defining his expectations that I had grown used to from the BUD/s instructors and the Vietnam Veterans who had mentored me to this point. Van studied history because he thought it was the easiest course of study to obtain his college degree. He would read the course book and the take a CLEP test and test out of most of his required courses. He was big on physical fitness, strength and he was very competitive. He even tried sparing with me one time, even when I tried to talk him out of it. It took him a while but he did get me to start lifting weights and increase my strength. Van is the reason I shoot as proficient in shooting as I am. My primary goal during my first deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1988 was to get him to stop saying “God Damn it Red”. I would hear “God Damn it Red second site”, “God Damn it Red get the slack out of the trigger”, “God Damn it Red get your grip right”. Then in our second platoon during the work up preparing for Panama we focused mostly on land warfare and jungle warfare and less CQB but we did do some of that training and I was up against Van in a magazine change drill and I beat Van and he was as excited about it as I was. Van used to chew Copenhagen and so did I at the time but my step father made me learn how to swallow my spit when I was indoors instead of spitting in a cup. You have to swallow the spit before it accumulates. You get the hick ups but it isn’t so bad if you don’t let it accumulate. Nobody ever taught this technique to Van. It was no big deal except when he would be briefing an aircrew and he didn’t have his spit cup with him, he would pull out the top pocket of his flight suite and spit into his pocket. It was incongruent with everything else about him that was ultra-professional. I remember talking to him on the phone while I was stationed in Panama and I picked up the phone in Training department when he called and we caught up and I told him that I had quit chewing. Then I ran into him in McPees in Coronado when he was recruiting for a contracting company he was forming up. Then when Al Clark died he inspired me to get back in shape which now is part of my everyday routine. While thinking about the course of study I am about to embark upon Van came to mind and even though he discounted his achievement because it only had a degree in history, I was thinking about how significant it was that he was able to retain the material well enough to pass his CLEP tests and obtain his degree.

The funny thing about the path that the Lord has been laying out in front of me lately, last time I spoke with Van he asked me if I was still boxing and when I told him that I hadn’t since I paid $6,000.00 for implants. He told me that he had been working with MMA fighters and was thinking about a rematch. We had a little laugh but now that I am feeling pretty fit and limber something happened today at Christian Fellowship Church I noticed this guy who was built like a fire hydrant. I asked him what he did for a living and he told me he was a law enforcement trainer and powerlifting coach. When I mentioned that I used to be a Navy SEAL he told me that he has some boys he works with who are interested in Special Forces and the SEALs. I told him that I do the BUD/s workout every Saturday morning and if his boys wanted to work out with me I would love to. Then he introduces me to his associate who was another obviously physically fit gentleman who is a trainer in Krav Maga a form of martial arts that combines boxing and Wing Chin Kung Fu. I am amazed how these opportunities are being put in front of me. Van might get his rematch.

 

 

Lessons learned

Throughout my life I have learned many lessons that have stuck with me for my whole life. I would like to share them with you:

#1. Bullies don't like to get hit.
#2. Don't hold back.
#3. If you do anything long enough you will get good at it.
#4. Put out, when you put everything you have into something new you shorten the learning curve.
#5. Never give up, stamina is what wins the race.
#6. Learn to love what you are doing, it makes it more enjoyable while you are mastering it.
#7. If you keep doing it until it bores you, that is when you will have a breakthrough.
#8. Don't take yourself to seriously.
#9. Don't sweat the little shit.
#10. Everyone puts their pants on the same way, one leg at a time.
#11. If you focus on the space between the top of your head and bottom of your feet and make sure you are doing what your are supposed to do, when you are supposed to be doing it, everything will be okay.
#12. Moderation is for cowards, when in doubt, overload.
#13. Butterflies are excess adrenaline dumping off into your stomach, it is the horses getting ready to run.
#14. When someone is acting angry or trying to look tough, they are scared.
#15. When your leader is being a hard case it is because your success is important to him.
#16. Don't be afraid to take a risk, you have to compare, if you do something and fail, are you worse off than if you did nothing at all. If that is the case go for it.
#17. God can't steer a parked car.
#18. The three strikes rule: #1) If a prospect is not cooperative, they don't provide all of the information you need to do business with you they get two strikes automatically. #2) Doctors, lawyers teachers and engineers get one strike automatically because they think they are smarter than you. #3) People with foreign accents get one strike just because as an American I have a trust factor to overcome. Once you get two strikes give them a subtle take away and ask for a referral.
#19. Referrals lay down.
#20. Pay attention to the indicators, a turn in the market, subtle comments, a change in activities anything out of place. It works while walking through a booby trap course, in business and in relationships.
#21. "I just need some space" or "I need a little time" means it is over.
#22. If you don't quit the universe will help you.
#23. The right association can make all of the difference and take you to the next level.
#24. Don't be afraid to hear "No" but always make sure they tell you why and that will usually give you the reason they will say "Yes".

My conspiracy theory

Putting the Benghazi together

When Barack Obama s elected he went on his apology tour. This signaled the green light for the Arab Spring. This administration believed that if Muslims were in control there would be more peace in the region. Egypt over threw Mubarak and elected Morsi, Iraq elected Maliki and the resistance in Syria tries to topple Assad. Then there was Gadhafi in Libya. All of these countries were secular and Obama and Clinton decided that it would be better if they were all Islamic ruled. So they create alliances with some very sketchy people, factions of Al Qaeda to over throw Gadhafi and join the resistance in Syria. They couldn’t legally arm them so they gave weapons and vehicles to the Iraqi security forces who gave them up to the rouge Sunni Muslims who used to work for Saddam Hussein and who weren’t treated very well by Maliki and the new Shia government in Iraq, they joined Al Qaeda and decided that they didn’t want to be the bastard step children again so they took control and became ISIS. The arm of Al Qaeda the administration in Libya joined them and Hilary Clinton created a situation where they could acquire shoulder fired stinger mussels, AT-4s and LAW Rockets that were cached at the annex in Benghazi after an amnesty round up. The security had to be at a minimum so these Al Qaeda/ISIS raiders could come in and steal them to transport to the rebels in Syria. The state department couldn’t just give them to them because that would require congress and the American people to be informed. They wouldn’t go for it and it wouldn’t legal to do it without them. So they attacked the compound but they didn’t expect much resistance because the rented security wouldn’t put up a fight but the US security contractors who were guarding the Ambassador and the CIA annex weren’t told that this transaction was to take place so they did what they were supposed to do, protect the Ambassador and the US Government property. They held the attackers off giving them heavy casualties. That is why they burned the compound and when they did get a hold of Ambassador Stephens they defiled his dead body and took pictures. The White House and the State Department didn’t send a rescue team because then the weapons transfer wouldn’t take place. That is why Sean Smith, Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods were left to die. I am not sure about the reason Ambassador Stephens was sacrificed but this is how ISIS was created by Hilary Clinton and the Obama administration. I haven’t even mentioned the $6 billion that Hilary Clinton misplaced which ended up in Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood. How Hilary Clinton is even considered as the Democratic Nominee is beyond me? If I can connect these dots, what have the fools in congress and the media been doing?

What the fireworks represent

Why this day is special

               I joined Toastmasters in 1996 and I heard a speech about Francis Scott Key and the circumstances of which he wrote the “Star Spangled Banner”. He was an envoy to negotiate a truce with the British on a battle ship off of the coast of Fort McHenry near Baltimore MD. When Francis Scott Key boarded the ship he was taken into custody and the British sent a courier to shore with a demand for surrender to the Fort stating that if the Americans in the Fort did not surrender that they would bombard the fort taking the flag down. During the night the British bombarded the Fort, aiming directly for the flag pole and when every time they thought they had a direct hit they would shoot up a flare to see if the flag was still there and every time they did, to their surprise it would always be flying. That is when Francis Scott Key wrote out the “Star Spangled Banner”. When dawn came the flag was still flying and the British released Francis Scott Key and when he arrived at the Fort he witnessed a pile of dead Americand who rushed into hold up the Flag every time a cannonball knocked it down or killed the patriot who had been holding it up. They did this all night until dawn. They beat the British purely with their will that could not be defeated even despite certain death. I was talking with a friend about the softening of America. Our enemies have been working on us for years. Influencing our attitudes and emasculating our young men, under the guise of political correctness. I see it all around me. Standing up for ourselves has been made into a character flaw. I am grateful that the Bowe Bergdahls of the world are in the minority still.

The Real Secret

You have to want to

I have experienced a major breakthrough in a process that I have been working on since 1994. I realized that I wasn’t going to make a career out of the military and I started educating myself on sales and influencing others and I have read many books on Love Languages, Personality Profiles, NLP and Leadership. I have been involved with Toastmasters since 1996. I have been to two Tony Robbins seminars, broke boards and walked across fire. Then I found a remarkable woman, beautiful, intelligent, an achiever, we have similar background in competitive sports, the finance industry and she is married. So I really focused on what it was about her that was so compelling about her and I figured it out, all of the later plus her compassion. I realized what I had done by looking deeper than appearance and actions and that I needed to duplicate that process. I retraced my steps through my process of discovery with her and what I discovered is that the magic of finding out what is truly in someone’s heart, their life spark or their buying rules is, you hae to care enough about them and desire to want to.

Black Lives Matter to Trump!

Donald Trump missed the opportunity

What is wrong with pro-life republican's? The whole abortion issue is a no-win issue unless you flip it on them. Bring up that 70% of abortions are minority fetuses. If you are prolife then black lives do matter to you, if you are pro-choice then I guess they don't. There is something wrong with any man fighting for pro-choice anyway. I always pictured the guy who knocked up the homecoming queen screaming "It's her body and her choice!". I would have asked Chris Matthews "Have you ever forced a woman to make that choice?".

Why the media and the Republican establishment can't defeat Trump

This whole uproar on Fox News about Donald Trump’s disproportionate news coverage “Earned Media” and this obsession with the RNC establishment to bring Trump down is because of two things, the media from the beginning of his campaign figured that he would implode and self-sabotage himself by saying something that would sink his campaign but he is just outrageous enough to attract the focus without going too far. Then the RNC is trying to attract the Latino vote because it is the fastest growing demographic but they don’t vote because they don’t trust government and they don’t trust politicians, especially other Latino politicians. They do however respect strength, something that has been lacking in the RNC since Reagan.