Top Three Takeaways – February 3rd, 2021
- The Election wasn’t stolen. We need to put this to rest. But hear me out. This is important. Here’s the legal definition of stolen: take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it. Within the context of the 2020 Presidential election, it wasn’t stolen. And the is key within the definition. Without permission or legal right. Remember, states are empowered to run their own elections under the Constitution. This is certainly something we, as South Floridians, can relate to given our regular challenges to get it right in Broward and Palm Beach County prior to the 2020 cycle. While the rest of the country, and at times the world, watched who in the end was responsible. Local officials and the state of Florida. The same is true of what transpired this past cycle. As I depicted at length prior to the certification of the votes in the Electoral College, it’s not a question as to if there were shenanigans. Each state in question has had prosecuted voter fraud numerous times over the past decade. The only question was whether it was pervasive enough to change the outcome of the election and if the states would certify their elections. Once the legal challenges were over and the states certified the votes the election was won – not stolen. That’s because the officials in those states, who determine how their elections are carried out made the determination which was backed up by the legal system. I’m saying this now because..
- Newsmax isn’t part of the canel culture and MyPillows are still great. On Tuesday, MyPillow’s Mike Lindell was involved in a bizarre segment with Newsmax anchor Bob Sellers in which Sellers shut Lindell down for attempting to talk about election fraud before walking off the set of his own show. That spawned headlines like this one: Newsmax Cancels MyPillow CEO During Cancel-Culture Segment. In reality, it was poor form by Sellers, whose own actions were unprofessional but not representative of Newsmax generally. In fact, Mike Lindell said as much when he later joined Newsmax host Rob Schmitt, formerly of Fox News, and said Newsmax is great. But now for what’s not helpful in all of this. Mike Lindell’s claims. Let’s say that he’s proved right. The election still wouldn’t have been stolen and it wouldn’t change anything. Again, the states set the rules, which are different in every state, and the legal system makes the determinations related to challenges. It might be wrong in the eyes of many of us but it’d still be legal, and Biden would still be president. To illustrate that point one of the examples I used during the contestation period was a comparison of our laws in Florida compared to California. In Florida, the practice of ballot harvesting is a criminal act under law. In California it’s explicitly legal under the law. This is the blessing and the curse of states running their own elections. We can perceive something to be wrong, and for all intents and purposes it may be, but if its state sanctioned – it's legal.
- Core competency. I’m a big believer in playing to your strengths. Know what you’re good at doing. Understand your weaknesses. Spend your time and energy on your strengths and where necessary bring others in to compliment your weaknesses. I’m not just saying this from some philosophical point of view. A 2015 Gallup study revealed those who emphasize their strengths and downplay their weaknesses are literally three times more successful than those who don’t. This is meant to be useful to you but also to Mike Lindell in the context of his current crusade. The man makes amazing pillows. Now, he shouldn’t be censored or de-platformed for his thoughts and assertions related to elections and voting systems but it’s also safe to say election processes and systems aren’t his core competency either. So, a quick story to wrap this up. In late December of 2015 I was approached by MyPillow seeking my endorsement of their pillows. They sent me a pillow to test for my consideration. I was on vacation and by the time I was back home I only had one night to use the pillow prior to making a decision regarding whether I’d endorse the product. That first night I didn’t notice a meaningful difference in sleep, not realizing it takes a few nights to adjust to the pillow, so I declined the opportunity, and the pillow went in a closet. About a year later, while still battling sleep issues and hearing Sean Hannity talk about it, I pulled the pillow back out and tried it. I’ve never gone back. In fact, we have six of them, including the travel sized pillows, we’ve given them as gifts – including the pillow toppers. Mike makes great pillows and he’d probably be better served focusing on his next MyPillow project. One I'd probably endorse if asked this time.
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