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Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Government / Politics

The Small Business Mission Statement

January 11, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

On August 8, 2020, the unprecedented Paycheck Protection Program closed, even though there was over $130 billion of unused funds.

This money was appropriated specifically to help small businesses that were struggling to survive through no fault of their own, but rather due to the one-two punch of an unprecedented pandemic and unprecedented political shutdowns. Since that date, the ugliest and most shameless display of partisan politics has been afoot, with Main Street operators being used as the football.

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Filed Under: Coronavirus, Government / Politics

The New Regular: PPP Update #4 – New Money And Rules

December 30, 2020 by Jim Blasingame

This is the 23rd edition of my New Regular series, which didn’t begin as a series because no one on the planet imagined Main Street would still be getting hammered by two very dangerous forces: a deadly virus and state/local politicians. So, welcome to 2021 when, apparently, Normal has checked-out for another year.

Since last February, your humble correspondent has been reporting on what I’ve named the “Three U’s of the Apocalypse”: an Unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, precipitating an Unprecedented economic shutdown, necessitating Unprecedented direct government assistance. Now, in my fourth report in this series to focus on that last “U,” let’s bring you up to date on the “Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act’’, or PPP2, for short – which is at least five months late.

This is essentially the availability of another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds, with new money and new rules that update the original CARES Act of March 27, 2020. The new law also delivers some excellent new provisions that you’re going to like.

Here’s the essence of this new PPP cupcake with new sprinkles.

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Filed Under: Coronavirus, Finance / Accounting / Taxes, Government / Politics

The New Pharisees

November 12, 2020 by Jim Blasingame

November 7, 2020, is a date that will live in infamy. On that first Saturday following the election, an ignominious convergence of interests created a new and dangerous global force. #GODHELPUS.

Prior to the election, we asked small business owners which presidential candidate they thought would win, 71% of our respondents said Trump. After the election, we asked them how the unresolved vote-processing should play out, two-thirds said the counting process should be allowed to proceed.

Regardless of how this election ends, millions of Americans now fear that winning at the polls isn’t enough to overcome a new force: The newly organized machine made up of Big Tech, Main Stream Media, Wall Street, the state political machines, and the Deep State.

This new force is what I’ve named “The Machine.” History is replete with parochial political machines, but this one is a global, 21st-century model, and it acts like 21st-century Pharisees. The unelected group that controlled ancient Israel, Pharisees claimed the power of “binding and loosing.” In other words, they could bind you up or let you go. And “you” were whoever acted against their interests, even if it was your constitutional right to do so.

Parochial political machines, in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago, are legendary and infamous. But what’s new is that The Machine has never before been able to link up for a common purpose across virtual and geographic boundaries with the help of their fellow travelers.

Let’s take a look at the cogs in The Machine.

Global Corporate

What’s new about Corporate America is that we should now refer to it as “Global Corporate.” Never mind where they were founded or are based, their allegiance is to whoever they can gain influence from across geographic, virtual, and sovereign boundaries. From today forward, every American must understand that the U.S. Constitution, revered on Main Street, is merely part of the Global Corporate reality and one of the issues they must deal with to pursue their goals. 

Big Tech

Big Tech is also Global Corporate, but this sector has weaponry unprecedented in political machine history. They control how we use the Internet and have more money than God. For example:

  • Almost 40% of Earthlings are monthly users of Facebook;
  • Google has over 90% of online search;
  • Half of every e-commerce dollar is spent with Amazon, which creates an annual revenue that would make it 41on the U.N.’s global GDP list of 194 countries.

To use a military analogy, Big Tech can deploy aircraft carriers launching stealth fighters at whomever they oppose, who are armed merely with light infantry.

Social Media

Social media platforms are both Global Corporate and Big Tech, but they deserve their own category. Remember, barely 12 years ago, MySpace was the dominant platform as we were just learning about Facebook and Twitter. Today, hiding behind the gift called Section 230, social media platforms are impinging on the single most powerful ideal in America – speech. And because of the complicit cogs in The Machine, it appears they will be able to continue.

The Media

As of today, with the assimilation of the New York Post, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, the Mainstream Media is now just The Media. And in a dangerous alloying of Global Corporate with The Media, the richest man in the galaxy leads that e-commerce giant mentioned above, while owning one of the most powerful newspapers in the galaxy.

Somewhere around 2015, The Media began their descent from journalism into unabashed, unveiled partisanism. The behavior of The Media in 2020 has elevated George Orwell’s prophet status above even the immortal Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The State

What was once considered the “Deep State” must now be shortened to “The State.” When you combine the behavior of Comey’s FBI, the current Wray FBI, the inexplicable delay of the Durham Report, and the politicization of the CIA, any illusion of deepness evaporates. Do we still have a democratic republic when unelected bureaucrats openly impose their will on the direction of the country with impunity?

And with transparency that would be refreshing if it weren’t so unprofessional, one need only to tune into cable news to witness The State and The Media linking up, as newly-removed FBI and CIA directors undermine the institutions they just left.

The Pandemic

The 100-year global pandemic has pushed 2020 into the perfect storm category. Of course, The Machine didn’t create the coronavirus, but its agenda has used the pandemic to achieve critical mass with Rahm Emanuel’s strategy: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” By leveraging the pandemic fear, besides slanted reporting and polling, The Machine launched a national early voting, mail-in ballot campaign that would not have been possible in any non-COVID year. Only a fine-tuned apparatus could have pulled this off across the country.

Obama and I disagreed on most policies, but when he was elected, I wasn’t worried about the future of America. It was just the natural gyration of a democratic republic – something good would ultimately come from it. Besides, Obama was elected by the people, fair and square – twice. Even those of us who didn’t vote for him respected that and moved on to fight another day.

But things are different now. Yes, most of the cogs in The Machine existed in 2008, but they had not coalesced as the current, fine-tuned force, communicating over a common frequency. And in that coalescing, they’ve achieved a critical mass that should concern every American. Including Biden supporters.

A democratic republic such as ours relies on Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The “Never Trumpers” achieved relevant status by finding purchase in the give and take of political motion. Intellectual honesty demanded that these recalcitrant Republicans be regarded as an example of the health of America’s seminal and most precious ideal – free speech. But going forward, I propose two important questions that every American should be asking:

  1. How will the “Never Bidens” be treated by The Machine?
  2. What will America do when the New Pharisees block President Harris’s Twitter account?

Perhaps one benefit of this year is the end of pretense. All the cogs of The Machine are now uncloaked, sailing under the same flag and operating over a common frequency. After 2020, romance, naivete and ignorance now only exist on the TV Land channel.

Finally, to paraphrase the spirit of the powerful poem by Nazi-era German pastor Martin Niemöller: When they come for my speech and you say nothing, who will speak up when they come for yours?

America will survive Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. But will America survive The Machine and the New Pharisees?

Filed Under: Coronavirus, e-business, Government / Politics, Social Media, Technology / General, The 3rd Ingredient

On Veteran’s Day We Should Recognize All Who Served

November 7, 2020 by Jim Blasingame

Veterans Day, as we know it, has its origins in Armistice Day.

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory.”

That was the 1919 acknowledgment by President Wilson on the first anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended WWI “in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”

Congress made Armistice Day a federal holiday on November 11, 1938.
But after World War II, Alvin King, a small business owner in Emporia, Kansas, had a problem with the narrowness of those honored on Armistice Day. Al was so moved by the death of his nephew, John E. Cooper, who was killed in the Battle of the Bulge, that he and the Emporia Chamber of Commerce started a movement to redefine Armistice Day and give it a new name – Veterans Day.

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Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Government / Politics, Work-Life / Balance

The New Regular: New PPP Rules You Need to Know

October 31, 2020 by Jim Blasingame

This is the 21st edition of my New Regular series, which is devoted to helping your business survive and thrive to the other side of the weirdest year in the experience of any living person. Normal “put a lid” on itself around the end of March and hasn’t surfaced since.

Earlier this year, to capture what small businesses were going through in 2020, I coined the Three U’s of the Apocalypse: an Unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, precipitating an Unprecedented economic shutdown, necessitating Unprecedented direct government assistance. What follows is a report on changes to the terms of that assistance.

NewRegular_ebook_111020-1Download

As the CARES Act was signed into law by President Trump on March 27, I posted a preview of the most likely way your business would be impacted by it. A few months later, I updated that information with the new terms of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

So, it’s now time to update that update, with new PPP forgiveness and repayment rules. We’ll span from the old rules to the new, including what you’re expected to do and when you’re expected to do it. My purpose here is to make you better informed when talking with your banker and financial advisor to wrap up these transactions. But first, 60-seconds of history.

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Filed Under: Coronavirus, Government / Politics

The Presidential Candidates’ Record on Small Business – Part II

October 24, 2020 by Jim Blasingame

As noted in Part I, prior to every presidential election since 2000, I’ve compared the two major-party presidential candidates based on their performance and promises regarding top small business concerns.  Part I of this two-part series covered the economy, taxes, and regulations. Part II covers health care, entrepreneurship, energy, and the pandemic.

Mr. Biden regularly references his direct contribution to Obama administration policies: “I’m the guy who … “ is the prefix of statements lauding his accomplishments from 2009-2016.  Since he’s running on that record, we’ll follow Mr. Biden’s lead and attribute that two-term record to him.

As also noted in Part I, small business owners don’t have to like a customer or vendor to do business with them. Main Street operators favor performance over personality. As our grandmothers would say, “The proof’s in the pudd’n.”

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Filed Under: Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Government / Politics, National and Global Economy

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