Inaugural Edition - Harsh Reality Newsletter

Today is the inaugural edition of the "Harsh Reality" newsletter. Welcome to our community and we hope you're as excited to see this come to life as we are. Our intent is to always provide more value than we extract so thank you for being here and enjoy the show!

Weekly Dose of "Harsh Reality"

Consider for a moment, the possibility that you've been manipulated..

Harsh Reality - You have. The truth is, that since the moment you could reason, you've been fed a never-ending buffet of false information and propaganda. Some may be good for you, but let's be real, most of it is Golden Corral level horrible. It's like the world has programmed you to view life through a certain lens, and you've fallen for it hook, line, and sinker! It's a vicious cycle, my friend. The system tells you to study hard, get a good job, work for someone else for 40-50 years of your life, and die.  No one taught you to structure your life in a way that prevents you from ending up a tiny cog in a huge machine, prioritizing your personal freedom. And worse yet, it convinces you to pass down this uninspired lifestyle to your kids. Now that's a legacy!

In keeping with that theme, we're going to dive into various topics over the days, weeks, and months to come; but today, we're going to start with the K-12 education system.  The meme below should get your mind churning over the quality of our K-12 education in the United States.

Think about it like this. You are required by law, to attend a system, for TWELVE YEARS, that does not prepare you for the day to day activities you will experience as an adult.  That's everything you're exposed to through age 18, twenty-five percent of our lives!  And let's be real, most of what we "learn" in K-12 is to briefly memorize a bunch of useless information long enough to pass a test, then brain dump it.  Do you need to know how to read, write and solve mathematical equations?  Absolutely!  Do we need to have the option to pursue higher education?  Absolutely!  The question is when have you had enough involuntary and formal education, to function in the real world?  If we're being honest, I'd say about the 8th grade. The teachers will try to convince you that all of this extra knowledge makes you a well-rounded individual, but I call bullshit.  School should inspire you to learn, to prepare you for life and to pursue your passions whether that's college or other avenues; not do shit like memorize "The Cantebury Tales" in Elizabethan.  If it inspired you, if it genuinely prepared you, nothing could stop you from attending.

Stick with us and we'll provide you small snippets of wisdom that will change your perspectives forever.  Next week we'll get into the train wreck we call college.   

Shit That Matters

Russo-Ukrainian War - This week the Biden administration promised to send 31, M-1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.  NATO then promised to send an additional 112 Leopard 2 tanks.  The numbers are fluctuating, but the Ukrainian Ambassador to France stated that 321 tanks from various countries have been promised.  

Harsh Reality - That's likely not enough tanks to make a difference.  Regardless of the methodology, most people agree that Ukraine needs to win this fight.  Having said that, with the death toll in the hundreds of thousands, it seems that the western allies are making more of a symbolic gesture to the Ukrainians than a meaningful one. To put that statement in perspective, the U.S. military maintains over 500 armored vehicles (not all Abrams) in Fort Hood alone.  The entire NATO commitment is simply not a force construct capable of challenging the Russian war machine in Ukraine. The white house also intervened in the NATO plan to supply the Ukrainians with various fighter jets, including the F-16. 

Chinese Spy Balloon - This week a large balloon was sighted floating over "sensitive airspace" (military bases with nuclear weapons) in Montana.  The U.S. has stated that it's likely a Chinese high altitude surveillance (spy) balloon; but while the Chinese have confirmed that it is theirs, they insist that it's a meteorological research balloon swept off course by prevailing winds.  Republicans in various positions have called for it to be shot down; and SEN Tom Cotton stated that it should be shot down and the technology on board analyzed for intelligence.

Harsh Reality - This needs to be taken out and I don't know why it's not done already. If not only to make it clear that provocatively violating our sovereign airspace will be met with a guaranteed and overwhelming response. This comes on the heals of the DOD announcing an agreement with the Phillippines (China's back yard) to expand access to three of their bases for U.S. military personnel (Think Chinese deterrent).  The Chinese story also doesn't hold up to scrutiny as the pentagon has confirmed that the balloon is maneuverable.  If the maneuver capability was overcome by prevailing winds as they say, they would still have the ability to ground the craft before it made it to the continental US.  The situation is also concerning because either the Chinese don't care about how we'll respond, or they are very confident that there will be no response due to weakness from this white house.  It's likely that the Chinese are emboldened by the numerous foreign policy f*ck ups from this administration.  A Chinese spokesman on the situation stated, "We hope relevant parties would handle the matter in a cool-headed way."  I'd say that they stay cool after we smoke their hardware out of the sky and don't return the pieces.

Russia - "Don't try to provoke us."  Russia made a veiled threat to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, after he announced that his government could send the Iron Dome air defense system to defend Kyiv.  This comes after the Biden administration promised to supply the Patriot air defense system to the Ukrainians.

Harsh Reality - This conflict continues to escalate to a dangerous situation for the west.  While the Ukrainians are doing all of the fighting, the rhetoric between NATO and Russia is nothing more than a game of chicken between nuclear powers.  If an exchange between NATO and Russia were to occur, even using only conventional weapons, the consequences would be no joke.  Most military strategists see that scenario as the first domino falling towards another World War or the dissolution of NATO..  Awesome. (Sarcasm)

Weekly Market Recap

Economy - FED Increases The Fed Funds Rate by 0.25% - Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, announced on Wednesday that they were increasing the federal funds rate by twenty-five basis points (0.25%).  Given that the previous increases have been fifty basis points or higher, the markets surged over the potential relief.  

Harsh Reality - This rally is likely to be short lived.  While it would seem that inflation has peaked, there is still a lot of stress on normal people.  Inflation is still extremely high and rate increases correlate directly to higher interest rates for mortgages and consumer debt (credit cards and car loans) which is at record highs already.  

Shit That Doesn't Matter

Hunter Biden Influence Peddling - An email that led to Hunter Biden being appointed to the board of Burisma in Ukraine, along with an $83k per month salary, was recovered by congressional oversight members.  Its also speculated that the contents of the email potentially contained classified information that Hunter Biden would not have access to except through the "Big Guy." 

Harsh Reality - It doesn't matter how blatant it all is, or the undeniable ramifications if it's true, nothing is going to happen which is why it's in the "Shit That Doesn't Matter" category. In reality, Joe Biden can pardon his son at any time for his influence peddling in Ukraine and China.  And as long the republican party doesn't control a significant majority of both the house and senate, the chances of an impeachment are zero. I'm just jealous that an obvious piece of shit like this actually made $83k per month!

Tom Brady Announces Retirement - After twenty-three seasons and seven Super Bowl Championships, Tom Brady is calling it quits.  Love him or hate him, leaving New England to go on and win a Super Bowl for Tampa Bay solidified his title as the GOAT. 

CNN Ratings Plummet To Lowest Level In 9 Years - CNN's ratings have imploded under the new CEO Chris Licht.  In the 25-54 demographic, CNN's audience averaged 440,000 viewers during prime time in January, which is 1/3rd of the audience of their immediate competitor, Fox News.

Harsh Reality -  This is no surprise.  Whether you're on a steady dose of the blue pill, the red pill, or no pill, it's obvious to the vast majority of people that the talking points passed off as fact by CNN are blatant attempts at gas lighting. Their viewership numbers simply reflect that reality.

Chat GPT - Teachers have raised the concern over potential plagiarism utilizing the Chat GPT language model.  Open AI responded to those concerns by launching a new tool that allows them to identify verbiage in assignments that was originally generated by Chat GPT.

Harsh Reality - "OK Boomer."  Instead of teaching students how to effectively employ AI tools to become more productive, they're busy complaining about plagiarized term papers that never provided any real value at the K-12 level to begin with.  Add this to the "Weekly Does of Harsh Reality" above as a lesson on what not to do.  Full disclosure (not sponsored), I used Chat GPT to establish a marketing plan and growth milestones for this newsletter.  That thing is AMAZING and will definitely have a place in the "Shit That Matters" section going forward.

That's A Wrap!

Thank you for taking the time to read this inaugural edition of "Harsh Reality."  Each edition will only get better going forward so if you got value from this content please consider inviting people to subscribe using the link below. Once we make it to 10,000 subscribers this will transition from a weekly to a daily newsletter and we need your help to get there!  Also, hit us on our Facebook page to keep the conversation going!  We welcome your feedback and discussion!