Losing Ohio Improves Trump’s Chances to Win the Nomination

Keeping John Kasich in the race divides the anti-Trump vote.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop at the Savannah Center, Sunday,
March 13, 2016, in West Chester, Ohio.
 

Two months ago, based on a computer model I developed of the Republican delegate race, I wrote in The American Prospect that the GOP’s nomination rules tilted the playing field to Donald Trump’s advantage. For Trump’s opponents, the time window for counteracting many of those advantages and winning a first-ballot nomination has passed. Now the campaign enters a new phase, as Trump’s rivals try to deny him a majority of pledged delegates going into the convention. Simulating the remaining contests based on current polling data, my model picks up an unexpected wrinkle: Trump’s strongest position comes if he loses the primary in Ohio on Tuesday.

Tomorrow marks the start of an onslaught of winner-take-all elections, which will continue for the rest of the primary season. A winner-take-all rule rewards the first-place finisher even without a majority, and therefore gives the biggest advantage when the field is divided. Two of the first winner-take-all elections take place in Florida and Ohio, the home states of Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich. Winning their home state would provide each of them not only with delegates, but also with the credibility they need for raising money and obtaining other support to continue as candidates. But if they survive, they will continue to divide the anti-Trump vote with Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

In 17 out of the remaining 29 state and territorial GOP contests, the rules will give all or nearly all of the delegates to the first-place finisher. My computer simulation for these races includes rules not only for statewide but also for congressional district-level delegates, which add complexity but make only a small difference. South Carolina has already provided an example of a state with both statewide and district-level rules. Trump still got all 50 of South Carolina’s delegates.

I estimated win probabilities for Trump using recent polling data where it was available. Where polls were not available, I assumed that individual states varied around the national median with a standard deviation of 16 percentage points, comparable to the 2012 primary season. I assumed that districts varied around the state average with a standard deviation of five percentage points, a typical amount for most states. I then converted these margins to win probabilities and delegates, and combined all 29 races using methods that I originally developed in 2004 to analyze the Electoral College.

We can test the effect of a divided field by simulating the outcome of having all the primaries as if they were held today and included all four of the remaining candidates: Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich.

The above graph represents a distribution of all possible outcomes. Where polls are available, Trump leads in eight of the nine states that vote between now and mid-April. I estimate that under these conditions, he should lose between two and four of the winner-take-all races and win a median of 804 newly awarded delegates. Combined with his existing 465 delegates, Trump’s total would be 1,269, more than the 1,237 needed to get a majority on the first ballot at the convention. The total might be smaller because of chance variation, as well as Cruz’s tendency to outperform his polls. So there is a chance Trump would need to pick up a handful of additional delegates, for example from Ben Carson, who has endorsed him. In this way, Trump could easily get the nomination with a majority of delegates, despite having the support of only 39 percent of Republican voters, as measured by national surveys. Indeed, my simulation indicates even if his support dropped across the board by 5 percentage points, he would still have an even-odds chance of getting 1,237 delegates. This victory builds on the 42 percent of delegates that he has obtained so far, based on getting 34 percent of the vote.

Most of the remaining primaries, however, do not happen tomorrow. This gives time for the consequences of the March 15 primaries to unfold, changing the picture substantially.

In Florida, Rubio lags Trump by a median of 14.5 percentage points. Assuming Rubio loses and leaves the field, more of his supporters should go to Cruz than to Trump. In exit polls for Michigan and Mississippi, Rubio voters preferred Cruz over Trump by a ratio of four to one, and an ABC-Langer national sample of Republican and Republican-leaning independents got a similar split. So Trump would gain Florida’s 99 delegates, but his future gains would probably be reduced thanks to Rubio’s absence from the race.

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A preview of the effects of a Rubio withdrawal can be seen in Ohio. In four Ohio polls spanning March 2 to 8, Trump leads Kasich by a median of six percentage points. Over the weekend, however, Rubio urged his supporters in Ohio to vote for Kasich, a strategic move that fulfills Mitt Romney’s recommendation to fight Trump by consolidating around the strongest candidate on a state-by-state basis. Rubio’s median support in Ohio is seven percentage points, and his supporters prefer Kasich or Cruz over Trump by a ratio of 12 to 1. So Kasich's position in Ohio may be quite competitive.

To assess the overall consequence of Rubio’s withdrawal, I redid the simulations after giving Ohio to Kasich and reassigning four-fifths of Rubio’s support in later states to Kasich and Cruz equally, with the remainder going to Trump. Under these assumptions, I calculate that Trump would gain a median of 724 delegates, to end up with 1,189 delegates in all.

Depending on exactly where Trump falls in the range of possibilities, to reach a majority he might have to gather additional support from a pool of more than 100 uncommitted and minor-candidate delegates. As more elections occur and better polling data becomes available, it will become clearer how many, if any, of these unpledged delegates he will need.

The aforementioned scenario, in which Rubio drops out and Kasich stays in, may be Trump’s best option. Perhaps counterintuitively, it is worse for Trump to win Ohio since that would likely cause Kasich to withdraw. In this scenario, Trump would be left in a one-on-one matchup with Cruz. National surveys from ABC/Langer and NBC/Wall Street Journal show Cruz leading Trump by 13 and 17 percentage points. A two-candidate race might not only leave Trump far short of a majority of delegates but also open up the possibility of Cruz ending up with the most delegates. 

To emulate the effect seen in those two surveys, I reassigned Rubio and Kasich's support to Cruz and Trump in a four-to-one ratio. This leads to the following distribution of outcomes.

In this scenario, Trump picks up only 548 new delegates, for a total of 1,013— barely 40 percent of delegates, far short of the necessary number for nomination. Failure to get a majority on the first ballot would then generate the open convention that has been the subject of so much speculation.

Even in this two-candidate scenario, Trump still has a shot at the nomination. Despite his record of racist, sexist, and inflammatory statements, culminating in the proto-fascism and violence of his rallies, many Republicans regard him as the lesser of available evils. Some Republican insiders see the ascendancy of Cruz as more damaging to their party in the long run.

We are therefore left with an odd situation. Many Republicans who oppose Trump and Cruz are desperately hoping for Kasich to win Ohio, an outcome that Kasich himself certainly wants so that he can stay in the race. But Trump also should hope Kasich wins Ohio, since a decision by Kasich to keep fighting keeps the field divided, offering Trump himself the best chance of getting a majority of delegates and ultimately winning the nomination. The only candidate who should not want Kasich to win Ohio is Ted Cruz.

 

From The American Prospect

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

The History of Ted Cruz and his Wife Heidi Cruz

The History of Ted Cruz and his Wife Heidi Cruz

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) met his wife, Heidi (née Nelson), while working on the George W. Bush presidential campaign of 2000. Heidi Cruz is currently head of the Southwest Region in the Investment Management Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and previously worked in the White House for Condoleezza Rice and in New York as an investment banker for J.P. Morgan. Wikipedia listsHeidi Nelson Cruz as an “investment banker” and a “historical member” of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Heidi Cruz was a member of the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, which was launched in October 2004. The Task Force advocates a greater economic and social integration between Canada, Mexico, and the United States as a North American region.

Comprised of a group of prominent business, political and academic leaders from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the Task Force was organized and sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations(U.S.), the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. It was co-chaired by former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, John Manley, former Finance Minister of Mexico, Pedro Aspe, and former Governor of Massachusetts and Assistant U.S. Attorney General William F. Weld.

Its main publication is the 70-page Task Force Report #53 entitled, Building a North American Community (May 2005). Heidi Cruz is listed as a member of the Task Force (page 9 of the report inPDF) and described as “an energy investment banker with Merrill Lynch in Houston, Texas” who “served in the Bush White House under Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the Economic Director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, as the Director of the Latin America Office at the U.S. Treasury Department, and as Special Assistant to Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative.”

The Report’s recommendations include (see pp. 7-32 of the Report; pp. 29-54 of the PDF):

1. ESTABLISH A COMMON SECURITY PERIMETER BY 2010

“The governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States should articulate as their long-term goal a common security perimeter for North America. In particular, the three governments should strive toward a situation in which a terrorist trying to penetrate our borders will have an equally hard time doing so, no matter which country he elects to enter first.”

2. DEVELOP A NORTH AMERICAN BORDER PASS

“The three countries should develop a secure North American Border Pass with biometric identifiers. This document would allow its bearers expedited passage through customs, immigration, and airport security throughout the region.”

3. DEVELOP A UNIFIED NORTH AMERICAN BORDER ACTION PLAN

Specific recommendations under this plan include:

“Harmonize visa and asylum regulations, including convergence of the list of “visa waiver’’ countries;Harmonize entry screening and tracking procedures for people, goods, and vessels (including integration of name-based andbiometric watch lists);By 2010, “Lay the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America. The three governments should commit themselves to the long-term goal of dramatically diminishing the need for the current intensity of the governments’ physical control of cross-border traffic, travel, and trade within North America. A long-term goal for a North American border action plan should be . . . the elimination of most controls over the temporary movement of these travelers within North America.“

4. LAW ENFORCEMENT AND MILITARY COOPERATION

“Security cooperation among the three countries should also extend to cooperation on counterterrorism and law enforcement, which would include the establishment of a trinational threat intelligence center, the development of trinational ballistics and explosives registration, and joint training for law enforcement officials.”

Note: Now I’m beginning to “get” why U.S. police departments are hiring non-US citizens as officers!

5. SPREAD THE BENEFITS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

“NAFTA has transformed Mexico, but it has also deepened and made much more visible the divisions that exist in the country…. The gap in wages has led many Mexicans to travel north in search of higher incomes and better opportunities. For the past three decades, Mexico has been the largest source of legal immigrants to the United States, and Mexican-Americans make increasingly valued and growing contributions to the life of the United States and, through remittances, to their families at home. Mexico is also the leading source of unauthorized migration, with attendant economic and security problems in both countries and untold hardships for Mexican migrants. Over time, the best way to diminish theseproblems is by promoting better economic opportunities in Mexico.”

Note: In other words, more socialist “spread the wealth”!

6. ESTABLISH A SEAMLESS NORTH AMERICAN MARKET FOR TRADE

“With tariff barriers virtually eliminated, and the outlines of a North American economy visible, the time has come to take a more comprehensive approach to strengthening the economic prospects for citizens in all three countries. The first step is to encourage convergence in the most-favored-nation tariff rates each partner charges on imports from outside North America. Next, the governments should reduce the remaining nontariff barriers to the flow of goods and services, and address problems arising from charges of price discrimination and subsidization by competitors in North America. Finally, they should coordinate their approach to unfair trade practices by foreign suppliers to the North American market. The ultimate goal should be to create a seamless market for suppliers and consumers throughout North America.”

7. INCREASE LABOR MOBILITY WITHIN NORTH AMERICA

“To make the most of the impressive pool of skill and talent within North America, the three countries should look beyond the NAFTA visa system. The large volume of undocumented migrants from Mexico within the United States is an urgent matter for those two countries to address. A long-term goal should be to create a ‘North American preference’—new rules thatwould make it much easier for employees to move and for employers to recruit across national boundaries within the continent…. Canada and the United States should consider eliminating restrictions on labor mobility altogether and work toward solutions that, in the long run, could enable the extension of full labor mobility to Mexico as well.”

Specifics on how to create a North American free flow of labor include:

By 2010, streamline immigration and labor mobility rules to “enable citizens of all three countries to work elsewhere in North America with far fewer restrictions than immigrants from other countries.”“Special immigration status should be given to teachers, faculty, and students in the region.”“Move to full labor mobility between Canada and the United States” by “eliminating all remaining barriers to the ability of their citizens to live and work in the other country.”

8. NORTH AMERICAN POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

The Task Force recommends the following North American regional political institutions be established:

An annual North American summit meeting.A North American Advisory Council.A North American Inter-Parliamentary Group to meet every other year.

In the last part of the Task Force’s report, “Additional and Dissenting Views,” Heidi S. Cruz wrote (pp. 33-34):

“I support the Task Force report and its recommendations aimed at building a safer and more prosperous North America. Economic prosperity and a world safe from terrorism and other security threats are no doubt inextricably linked. While governments play an invaluable role in both regards, we must emphasize the imperative that economic investment be led and perpetuated by the private sector. There is no force proven like the market for aligning incentives, sourcing capital, and producing results like financial markets and profit-making businesses. This is simply necessary to sustain a higher living standard for the poorest among us—truly the measure of our success. As such, investment funds and financing mechanisms should be deemed attractive instruments by those committing the capital and should only be developed in conjunction with market participants.”

Now you know why, despite his blustering against Obama’s executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens in this country, on March 27, 2015, Ted Cruz indicated he “remains open to a path to legal status for undocumented workers.”

Born in Canada of an American citizen mother and a Cuban father, Ted Cruz held dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship. But it was only when the Dallas Morning News in August 2013 pointed out his dual citizenship that Cruz finally applied to renounce his Canadian citizenship — which meant that in 2012 when Cruz had run for and was elected a U.S. senator, he was a Canadian citizen. On May 14, 2014, Cruz finally ceased being a citizen of Canada. See “Republican Sen. Ted Cruz announces presidential campaign, but is he eligible?

 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

The House Just Embarrassed Obama In A Huge Way! The Vote Was 383 To 0

House declares ISIS committing genocide against Christians, other minorities

President Barack Obama has spent almost two full terms in the White House, all the while being hostile to Christians and refusing to call the enemy by their name: “Islamic terrorists.”

Obama is frozen by political correctness and a far-left ideology which has made America – and the rest of the world – less safe. The Islamic State (ISIS) is growing stronger by the day, and Islamic radicals continue to terrorize the civilized world.

But now, the U.S. House just did something extraordinary! With a unanimous vote of 383-0, they passed a resolution that declares ISIS is committing “genocide against Christians and other religious minorities.” This puts tremendous pressure on the Obama White House to do something ahead of the House’s deadline for action (March 17)!

“When ISIS systematically targets Christians, Yezidis, and other ethnic and religious minorities for extermination, this is not only a grave injustice—it is a threat to civilization itself,” Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., said in a statement. “We must call the violence by its proper name: genocide.”

The resolution was voted on ahead of a congressionally mandated March 17 deadline for Secretary of State John Kerry and the White House to make a decision on whether to make such a declaration. The measure is an effort to force the administration’s hand on the issue, as the administration has so far declined to take an official position.

Via Fox News

As Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said in a statement, “What is happening in Iraq and Syria is a deliberate, systematic targeting of religious and ethnic minorities. Today, the House unanimously voted to call ISIS’s atrocities what they are: a genocide. We also will continue to offer our prayers for the persecuted.”

And The Christian Family Research Council applauded the decision:

“President Obama keeps talking about ‘rising above ideology and partisanship.’ Maybe it’s time he took his own advice. More than 200 Democrats and Republicans cosponsored this House resolution addressing an issue it shouldn’t have to: the genocide in the Middle East. If the Obama administration were as ‘appalled,’ ‘horrified,’ and ‘concerned’ about the annihilation of Christians as the White House says it is, Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-Nebr.) wouldn’t have had to take the unusual step of addressing the crisis before the president does so.

It will be fascinating to see if Obama mentions this in his weekly address. Congress rarely agrees on any topic, but it’s clear they are united against Islamic terrorism and they aren’t happy at Obama’s weakness on foreign policy.

Christians Face Middle East Extinction


Do you agree with Congress that it’s time to stop Christian genocide committed by ISIS? Please leave us a comment (below) and tell us.

 

 

 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Trump Left Off Some Florida Ballots; “Dozens of Complaints”

Reports: Trump Left Off Some Florida Ballots; “Dozens of Complaints”

Mar 15th, 2016 1

Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s name was left off Florida primary ballots according to reports relayed by Fox News’ Jennifer Eckhart on Twitter who said the local Fox affiliate has received “dozens of complaints.”

Eckhart wrote the irregularities are in “Jupiter County” which does not exist. She probably meant the town of Jupiter or Palm Beach County where Jupiter is located. Palm Beach County is where Trump’s Florida base Mar-a-Lago is located.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Come to the meeting. It will only be to your benefit no matter what transpires.

Distributor Acquisition Paradigm Event

I have talked in great depth about customer acquisition and how that will eventually become the primary core of a mega success MLM someday likely sooner than later. Like Amazon revolutionized department store shopping and delivery to the Internet, MLM will eventually represent the subscribers need to build customers and distributors as a partner with the company, not a just another alienated liability consumer.

Making the case (a perfect example)

Case in point a company I made a small fortune in however,  I cannot mention on the Internet because it violates one of their many anti marketing policies. So I will give them a name most of you will be able to put 2 and 2 together.

This fictional company I will illustrate shall be called TryBeta. You see TryBeta sells vitamins and juices and weight loss products and pays a multi-level commission. There are literally 1000s of other mlms that do the same. No big deal. Rather redundant and just another “ME’TOO” type of organization.

What put TryBeta on the map is they did coop marketing, customer acquisition. You basically bought the customers TryBeta’s infomercials and direct mail produced. This was different, unique and TryBeta hit a powerful vein and grew exponentially. Distributor organizations represented 60% – 70% as high as 80% customers.

When ships collide (Ideas destroying conventions) 

I am going to digress a little here. Let’s talk about the trucking business, railroads and ships a little. Back about 60-80 years ago, trucking, railroads and ships competed. They were separated from each other. Then a man named McLean realized that these three separate business entities actually were all about shipping products from one place to another. He called it “intermodal transportation”. That the separate industries all fought and believed, like the ships companies, they were a ship transportation company, the trains were a train and Rail Company and the trucks were a truck delivery service.

His concept that “intermodal transportation” was in the business of moving goods, revolutionized the industry. His business put out of business many truck companies, many rails and many ships for they were not thinking big.

McLean revolutionized the industry with his container shipping business that streamlined trucking, rail and ships into the combined business of “moving goods”.

McLean's vision gave the shipping industry the jolt that it needed to survive for the next fifty years. By the end of the century, container shipping was transporting approximately 90 percent of the world's trade cargo.

TryBeta failed at the vision (Ideas destroying conventions) 

Now back to TryBeta, as they had become a customer acquisition company, yet failed to see the revolutionary new concept they had discovered. How that concept moved the entire industry of MLM into a customer centric industry. Alas poor TryBeta lacked vision and they rejected their customer acquisition model and went backwards embracing the distributor telling friends using “hopes and dreams” and forcing “home parties” as the only convention to sell the products. Most mof the distributors fled from that as a result. A tried and failing concept that was old and no longer viable. One just has to look at the growth curve of TryBeta to see the disastrous results of rejecting the customer centric model.

You can also compare and look at real customer centric companies like Amazon which has become the juggernaut of our time. Yet no one has moved forward with this trend that I believe is just waiting to happen. A real affiliate company, that has great goods and services, but has also evolved into partnering with their potential subscribers, customers and distributors to give them a viable solution to just purchase the customers and distributors as the main product for building wealth.

Interesting to note:  Jeff Bezos of Amazon is redefining the shipping industry by incorporating shipping and delivery as an integrated function of Amazon, eliminating the traditional shipping industry and turning it on its ear, so, here we go again: (Ideas destroying conventions) 

Instead of forcing the distributors to sell, “The Hopes and Dreams” that many of us recognize as just short of lying, now new distributors can utilize tools to build their business like self-replicated Amazon accounts filled with product the world markets (customers) want, coop marketing campaigns that utilize the cloud funding concept sharing the customers and distributors to the small distributor with a huge leverage, gaining them success for the first time, and 800 numbers telemarketing  services that do the follow up and closing when the time comes. Utilizing the power of technology within the Inbound Marketing shift, again (Ideas destroying conventions)

This forward thinking is at the core of the hybrid I am about to build, with the (DW) “The Distributor Acquisition Company”, (Aroga) “The Products Distribution Company” and (Markethive) “The Inbound Marketing Social Network Company”.

I would like your attendance at this Saturdays meeting as I illustrate how Markethive makes all this possible, you will also meet the owners of the 3rd party contractors who call, close and sell distributors on your behalf in conjunction with Markethive and how this will be your Distributor acquisition program if this should all come together.

The owners and IT guy for the potential company will also be attending, more for them to see the power of Markethive and hear from Markethive members, Alpha leaders and BOD founders. I am hoping for a large turnout.

What this is not! This is not a recruiting call, nor will I accept anyone attempting to position or sign up into this potential company.

What I am going to do is invest $1000 of my money to acquire 50-100 fully registered and paid distributors into this business. If this does work as expected, I will then decide to make this happen for all interested. I will put together a coop marketing offer using Markethive assets. I will also consider building a “group” utilizing Press Releases (I will fund) and rotate to the “group”. As we build the real back linking power, capture page campaigns and social networking broadcasting.

My Agenda:  To put real teeth into a campaign so we push the edge of Markethive to identify the additional tools we need and fine tune the tools we already have, and make substantial alternative income in the process.

You have my commitment to determine the viability before I open it up to you reducing the risk as much as possible.

Come to the meeting. It will only be to your benefit no matter what transpires.

Thomas Prendergast
CMO Markethive, Inc.

Check the calendar for the room access this Saturday @ 10am Mountain Time. (March 12. 2016)

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Soros Funded Moveon.org Takes Credit for Violence in Chicago

Ilya Sheyman, a failed Illinois contender for Congress and the executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, has taken credit for the violence at a cancelled Trump event last night in Chicago.

He promised similar violence and disruption will occur at future Trump political events leading up to the election.


“Mr. Trump and the Republican leaders who support him and his hate-filled rhetoric should be on notice after tonight’s events,” on the George Soros funded MoveOn web page. “To all of those who took to the streets of Chicago, we say thank you for standing up and saying enough is enough. To Donald Trump, and the GOP, we say, welcome to the general election.”

MoveOn has consistently functioned as a lobby group for the policies of the Obama administration, including the disaster of Obamacare and the continuation of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the escalation of the war on terror that has turned America into a police and surveillance state. In 2007 it backed a bill trotted out by then Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to continue financing the occupation of Iraq.

The group acts as a front for wealthy Democrats. It was founded with the help of the financier George Soros who donated $1.46 million to get the organization rolling. Linda Pritzker of the Hyatt hotel family gave the group a $4 million donation.

Many of the Democrat and “progressive” candidates supported by MoveOn have failed to be elected since the organization was formed in 1998.

The violent demonstration in Chicago on Friday may represent a precursor to the sort of activity the organization will engage in as it tries to “shut down” its political enemies and elect either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

On Friday night many of the protesters shouted “Bernie!” and held placards announcing their support for the socialist Democrat.

Beware; because they shouted Bernie, this was organized by the Clinton foundation. Bet your life on it. This is the work of Hillary Clinton.

In a just world George Soros would have been nabbed by a mob of world citizens who's lives he has destroyed while manipulating world currencies and beaten to a bloody pulp and then set on fire by now. Barack Obama would have been impeached and found guilty of treason and crimes against the Constitution of the United States of America and be waiting for his execution.

Hillary would have been convicted of reckless dereliction of duty leading to the murders of four brave Americans in Benghazi and then lying under oath at the Senate hearing, as well as indicted already for her illegal email server while in office as Secretary of State

The corrupt mainstream media elites and talking heads would have been rounded up by America Patriots who are sick and tired of the lies and the bad mouthing of our country and shot.
Donald Trump is a powerful man, not the most powerful, but has become the righteous knight  riding against the darkness and revealing the evil in our country.

This is revolution. It is finally here.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Will Internet Marketing Work for Your Business?

Internet MarketingWill Internet Marketing Work for Your Business?

This is an extremely difficult question to answer because there are so many complex factors involved. Specifically the techniques you employ in your Internet marketing campaign as well as the execution of these techniques can determine whether or not Internet marketing will work for your business. Additionally, the likelihood of your target audience using the Internet and responding to your marketing efforts should also be considered into the equation. This article will outline the potential for success in an Internet marketing campaign.

Before making the decision to embark on an Internet marketing campaign you should carefully consider your target audience. The Internet is used widely around the world but whether or not members of your target audience are likely to utilize the Internet to research or purchase the products or services you sell is not guaranteed. This is significant because investing a great deal of time, effort and money into Internet marketing when your target audience is not likely to respond to these efforts is not worthwhile.

Conducting market research can do a great deal to help you determine whether or not you should invest in an Internet marketing campaign for your business. This step is very important because it will give you a good indication of whether or not you should even begin marketing your business on the Internet. Hiring a firm specializing in market research is recommended because they can conduct this research quickly and efficiently and will likely gain a great deal of valuable information as a result of their research efforts. If they determine your business can benefit from an Internet marketing campaign, it is time to start thinking about how you want to advertise your business online.

A presentation by Dan Kennedy on Internet Marketing.


Again, seeking the help of professionals can be an extremely worthwhile investment. If you are not well versed in the industry of Internet marketing, hiring a firm with a great deal of expertise in this industry can be very helpful. They can assist you by consulting with you to determine which marketing strategies will be most effective, designing advertisements for your campaign, helping you to orchestrate your Internet marketing campaign and evaluating the results of marketing efforts to determine which strategies are working and which are not.

The potential for success with an Internet marketing campaign is virtually limitless. The success you enjoy is only limited by your ability to promote your products and services and execute effective marketing strategies. Some of the marketing strategies you may wish to employ may include optimizing your website for relevant search terms, placing links to your website judiciously on the Internet, writing and publishing e-newsletters and utilizing affiliates to promote your website.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important aspects of any Internet marketing campaign. SEO is so important because it dictates the ranking of your website on popular search engines. Internet users value these results and are not likely to seek out websites which do not rank well with search engines. Conversely, high ranking websites can enjoy a great deal of increased website traffic as a result of these rankings.

Inbound links to your website are also important in Internet marketing. Inbound links are links on other websites which direct users to your website. These links are important in an Internet marketing campaign. First of all many search engines factor inbound links into their ranking algorithms which means inbound links can result in higher search engines rankings. Also, these links can be used directly by website users to access your website. This means you can gain traffic directly from these links.

Another way to enjoy a successful Internet marketing campaign is to orchestrate an affiliate marketing campaign. Affiliates are essentially website owners who place a banner ad on their website to direct traffic to your website. Typically, affiliates are only compensated when the advertisement on their website produces a desired effect such as enticing the users to click through the advertisement, resulting in a sale or resulting in another action such as filling out a survey or registering with your website. Affiliate marketing can not only be highly effective but it is also cost effective because you only pay the affiliates when they produce results.

So why not improve your Business prospects and reach out even further at the same time by using Internet Marketing?

Article by:
Brian Walters SEO

Skype: tuneup_bj

Markethive Promotion

http://brian-walters-online.com/

 

Brian Walters MarketHive

Markethive

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Veretekk invented Automated Marketing (in 1996),

Veretekk invented Automated Marketing (in 1996), later to become known as Inbound Marketing (MarketHive). Veretekk’s traffic portal offers, auto responders, Broadcasting technology (The Hammer), Conference rooms and sales funnel process became the foundation that today is known as Inbound Marketing.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW

But let us digress some. Before the Internet; advertising and marketing were for the most part driven by Outbound Marketing:


Outbound marketing is buying attention, cold- calling,
Direct paper mail, radio, TV, sales flyers, spam,
telemarketing and other forms of traditional advertising.

 

 

 

Inbound marketing is the most effective marketing method for doing business online. Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be. By aligning the content you publish with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then convert, close, and delight over time.

 

 


Simply concept really, execution is the challenge. (Just ask a few of your friends how often they blog) vs posting to Facebook newsfeeds, Skyping or texting back and forth.  With a little understanding, some instruction and determination, any entrepreneurial motivated person can make a success with the right tools.

This is why it is important to know your “WHY” as that is what will drive your market base. What you love to do will attract others that share the same passion. And that is the “secret”.

Sharing is caring and inbound is about creating and sharing content with the world. By creating content specifically designed to appeal to your dream customers, inbound attracts qualified prospects to your business and keeps them coming back for more.

By publishing the right content in the right place at the right time, your marketing becomes relevant and helpful to your customers, not interruptive. Now that’s marketing people can love.

Major themes:

Create targeted content that answers prospects' and customers' basic questions and needs, then share that content far and wide.  (Broadcasting)

Promoters don’t just materialize out of thin air: they start off as strangers, visitors, contacts, and customers. Specific marketing actions and tools help to transform those strangers into promoters. (Share the revenue “AFFILIATE”)

Tailor your content to the wants and needs of the people who are viewing it. As you learn more about your leads over time, you can better personalize your messages to their specific needs. (Build your sphere of influence)

Inbound marketing is multi-channel by nature because it approaches people where they are, in the channel where they want to interact with you. (Social Network connections)

Content creation, publishing and analytics tools all work together like a well-oiled machine – allowing you to focus on publishing the right content in the right place at the right time. (Tracking and measuring traffic, comments, responsive interaction)

The Four Marketing Actions

Attract

We don’t want just any traffic to our site, we want the right traffic. We want the people who are most likely to become leads, and, ultimately, happy customers. Who are the “right” people? Our ideal customers, also known as our buyer personas. Buyer personas are holistic ideals of what your customers are really like, inside and out. Personas encompass the goals, challenges, pain points, common objections to products and services, as well as personal and demographic information shared among all members of that particular customer type. Your personas are the people around whom your whole business is built.

Some of the most important tools to attract the right users to your site are:

Blogging– Inbound marketing starts with blogging. A blog is the single best way to attract new visitors to your website. In order to get found by the right prospective customers, you must create educational content that speaks to them and answers their questions.

SEO– Your customers begin their buying process online, usually by using a search engine to find something they have questions about. So, you need to make sure you’re appearing prominently when and where they search. To do that, you need to carefully, analytically pick keywords, optimize your pages, create content, and build links around the terms your ideal buyers are searching for.

Pages– Your website pages are your digital storefront. So put your best face forward! Optimize your website to appeal to your ideal buyers and transform your website into a beacon of helpful content to entice the right strangers to visit your pages.

Social Publishing– Successful inbound strategies are all about remarkable content – and social publishing allows you to share that valuable information on the social web, engage with your prospects, and put a human face on your brand. Interact on the networks where your ideal buyers spend their time.

Convert

Once you’ve attracted website visitors, the next step is to convert those visitors into leads by gathering their contact information. At the very least, you’ll need their email addresses. Contact information is the most valuable currency there is to the online marketer. So in order for your visitors to offer up that currency willingly, you need to offer them something in return! That “payment” comes in the form of content, like eBooks, whitepapers, or tip sheets – whatever information would be interesting and valuable to each of your personas.

Some of the most important tools in converting visitors to leads include:

Forms- In order for visitors to become leads, they must fill out a form and submit their information. Optimize your form to make this step of the conversion process as easy as possible.

Calls-to-action are buttons or links that encourage your visitors to take action, like “Download a Whitepaper” or “Attend a Webinar.” If you don’t have enough calls-to-action or your calls-to-action aren’t enticing enough, you won’t generate leads.

Landing Pages– When a website visitor clicks on a call-to-action, they should then be sent to a landing page. A landing page is where the offer in the call-to-action is fulfilled, and where the prospect submits information that your sales team can use to begin a conversation with them. When website visitors fill out a form on a landing page for the first time, that visitor becomes a contact.

Contacts– Keep track of the leads you're converting in a centralized marketing database. Having all your data in one place helps you make sense out of every interaction you’ve had with your contacts – be it through email, a landing page, social media, or otherwise – and how to optimize your future interactions to more effectively attract, convert, close, and delight your buyer personas.

Close

You’re on the right track. You’ve attracted the right visitors and converted the right leads, but now you need to transform those leads into customers. How can you most effectively accomplish this feat? Certain marketing tools can be used at this stage to make sure you’re closing the right leads at the right times.

Closing tools include:

CRM– Keep track of the details about all the contacts, companies, and deals in your pipeline, and easily get in touch with the right prospects at the right time. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems facilitate sales by making sure you have the right information at your fingertips to better engage with prospects across every channel.

Closed-loop Reporting– How do you know which marketing efforts are bringing in the best leads? Is your sales system effectively closing those best leads into customers? Integration with your CRM system allows you to analyze just how well your marketing and sales teams are playing together.

Email– What do you do if a visitor clicks on your call-to-action, fills out a landing page, or downloads your whitepaper, but still isn’t ready to become a customer? A series of emails focused on useful, relevant content can build trust with a prospect and help them become more ready to buy.

Marketing Automation– This process involves creating email marketing and lead nurturing tailored to the needs and lifecycle stage of each lead. For example, if a visitor downloaded a whitepaper on a certain topic from you in the past, you might want to send that lead a series of related emails. But if they follow you on Twitter and visited certain pages on your website, you might want to change the messaging to reflect those different interests.

Delight

The Inbound way is all about providing remarkable content to our users, whether they be visitors, leads, or existing customers. Just because someone has already written you a check doesn’t mean you can forget about them! Inbound companies continue to engage with, delight, and (hopefully) upsell their current customer base into happy promoters of the organizations and products they love.

Tools used to delight customers include:

Surveys– The best way to figure out what your users want is by asking them. Use feedback and surveys to ensure you’re providing customers with what they’re looking for.

Smart Calls-to-Action– These present different users with offers that change based on buyer persona and lifecycle stage.

Smart Text– Provide your existing customers with remarkable content tailored to their interests and challenges. Help them achieve their own goals, as well as introduce new products and features that might be of interest to them.

Social Monitoring- Keep track of the social conversations that matter to you most. Listen out for your customers’ questions, comments, likes, and dislikes – and reach out to them with relevant content.

The New Methodology

The Inbound Methodology covers each and every step taken, tool used, and lifecycle stage traveled through on the road from stranger to customer. It empowers marketers to attract visitors, convert leads, close customers, and delight promoters. The new methodology acknowledges that inbound marketing doesn’t just happen, you do it. And you do it using tools and applications that help you create and deliver content that will appeal to precisely the right people (your buyer personas) in the right places (channels) at just the right times (lifecycle stages).

Want to learn more about inbound marketing?


An Entrepreneurial Social Network integrated with an advanced Inbound Marketing platform is genius on steroids. Sharing up to 50% of the potential revenue with you is very generous and the potential of this combination is atomic!

 

Thomas Prendergast
CMO Markethive, Inc.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

What Carly Fiorina Endorsing Ted Cruz Really Means

What Carly Fiorina Endorsing Ted Cruz Really Means

Trying to explain the significance of the last few days, in relationship to the Ted Cruz candidacy, requires the intellectually honest observer to recognize and/or accept the increasingly likely probability: we have been facing a manufactured “false dilemma” longer than most may be willing to accept.

“False Dilemma” – the fallacy of false choice, or the fallacy of the false alternative, is a type of informal fallacy involving a situation in which only limited alternatives are considered, when in fact there is at least one additional option.

In essence, presidential candidate Ted Cruz has been presented, by those who gain leverage in the presentation, as an option – to the previous “establishment candidates“.

Under this assumption, the intent of the option (Cruz) is to block the observer (electorate / us) from considering any additional alternative which remains outside the control of the presenting entity (the DC power brokers, GOPe, Wall Street donor class).

In order to recognize the fallacy of false choice, the audience must engage the new  information while reevaluating their prior assumption, positions and options.

That said, Team Cruz has shown new evidence of being much further aligned with the GOPe than most political observers, and high-information voters, might be willing to accept.

Here’s why:

Adding the entire financial team of Jeb Bush which includes: Paul Dickerson of Houston, TX, Boyden Gray of Washington, DC, Charles Foster of Houston, TX, Reginald J. Brown of Washington, DC, Paula and Jim Henry of Midland, TX, and Nancy and Randy Best of Dallas, TX. shows that Ted Cruz is much further in alignment with the Bush clan than most previously recognized. 

In addition, by Ted Cruz adding Neil Bush  Cruz is signifying an ideological alignment that is 180° divergent than most of the supporters of Ted Cruz would be aware of.  These alignments point to a direct acceptance that much of the story-line behind Cruz’s candidacy was false.

As a direct consequence, the fallacy of false choice within the option of Ted Cruz from the outset gains sunlight.

However, this new reality is challenging for many people to accept.  To those who cannot bring themselves to accept this paradigm shift, further evidence surfaces today with the endorsement of consummate insider, Carly Fiorina, who said:

“Last Tuesday we had a primary, and I walked into the ballot box,” [Fiorina] told a crowd of Cruz supporters. “I saw my name on the ballot, and it was kind of a thrill, but I checked the box for Ted Cruz.” (link)

That “last Tuesday” reference highlights Fiorina’s home residence (as we previously shared) in Virginia, not California as many people mistakenly think.   Fiorina has been the consummate “inside the beltway” politico, even though she was never in an elected position as a politician.

Fiorina worked for the John McCain campaign in 2008 as a surrogate.  She again worked in 2012 as an official campaign spokesperson for Mitt Romney.  Indeed, in the beginning of her own presidential bid last year, Carly Fiorina stated she was urged to run in 2016 due to a conversation with Mitt Romney.

So, we re-engage the intellectual honesty with a reminder of Carly Fiorina, and now find ourselves answering a nagging previous question.

Why did the Wall Street funders of the Ted Cruz campaign fund the origin of the Carly Fiorina campaign in 2015?

fiorina 1

$500,000 transferred from KtP1 (Keep The Promise) which is Ted Cruz’s Super-PAC, to CfA (Carly for America) Ms. Fiorina’s Super-PAC, in June of 2015.

What clarifies now, with this new information, is how the fallacy of false choice was being presented to us by the Wall Street financial team, the Globalists, last year.  Remember, even the FEC wanted know what they were doing (LINK).

Cutting through the intent here and getting to the substance of truth is really not too difficult, but you won’t find many outlets (new media or old) willing to go there. However, as you are aware for us the Truth Has No Agenda, and Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant.

We begin by watching this video of Carly Fiorina appearing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the discussion of a Muslim candidate eligible as U.S. President:


Just sticking with raw data, and trying to avoid injecting opinion, now consider this:

CARLY FIORINA – “VISION 2010″: U.S. & ARAB ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES – U.S.-ARAB ECONOMIC FORUM – SEPTEMBER 29, 2003, DETROIT, MICHIGAN:

Thank you for those nice words, Mr. Chairman.

It’s an honor for me to be here this morning. This is the perfect place to host a meeting on the future of the Middle East. The leadership of Arab-Americans in this community – and in the state of Michigan – has been nothing short of dazzling, and I want to thank you for hosting us here this week.

A great deal of time will be spent at the conference this week focusing on the problems of the Arab world. I want to kick things off here today instead by asking you to imagine the possibilities…to imagine what the Gulf region would be like if Arab countries were at the forefront of the global economy…to imagine what the world would be like if Arab nations were the world’s leading force for enlightenment and inclusion…to imagine what the future would be like for a Middle East rooted not in conflict, but anchored in partnership.

Two years ago, less than two weeks after the tragedy of September 11th, I gave a speech in Minnesota in which I said it didn’t take much to imagine that kind of world because we have seen that world before. All it takes is for us to think back to another time, to a civilization that was once considered the greatest in the world.

It was a civilization that was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins. One of its languages became the universal language of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands.

And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its writers created thousands of stories. Its poets wrote of love, when others before them were too steeped in fear to think of such things. When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive.

While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, as I said to the audience that day in Minnesota, the civilization I’m talking about, of course, was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent – rulers who challenged our notions of self and truth; who contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership; whose leadership led to 800 years of invention and prosperity.

As we meet to think about the civilization that exists on that same land today, I ask you to imagine for a moment what a leader like Suleiman would say if he could somehow be here today, and see what the world has become.

I think he would be pleased at how much the world has learned from the example of the open, cooperative society that enlightened the world all those years ago. The Islamic example has helped create a world where democracy and transparency and rule of law are empowering people and taking them to new heights. (read more)

Please read the entire speech and pay close attention to the closing paragraphs.

What you will note is an almost eerie similarity to current Secretary of State John Kerry vis-a-vis the “Jobs for Jihad” program he, and his globalist co-horts, have been advocating for the past three years.

Read everything written by Fiorina and then reference/remember the words used by State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf – they are almost identical.

carly megyn

Next example – look at the following reception by Professor Al-Hassani, the Chairman of FSTC, at the conference “La Deuda Olvidada de Occidente he is responding to the speech of Carly Fiorina and the intended audience in the Mid-East:

[…] In this presentation focus will be on the other manner by which history is distorted: that is, the suppression of centuries of contribution to modern civilisation by the Muslim world. This negligence is apparent in academia, in the media and in the educational curriculum and associated history books, especially those aimed at the general public. The focus on this issue is to alert communities as to the particular significance of the Muslim civilisation and its historical role in giving birth to much of modern science and technology.

The following words by a famous lady well describes this situation and the debt that world history owes to the civilisation created by Muslims. They were pronounced by Mrs. Carleton S. Fiorina, chairman, president, and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company (1999-2005) in a discourse on 29 September 2003:

[…] When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive.

When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others. While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent.

Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. (read more)

Professor Al-Hassani was rejoicing that Carly Fiorina was asserting without Islam there would be no U.S.A., no America, no exceptionalism. This is the exact approach of the U.S. State Department, Charles Rivkin Project, we originally exposed in 2012.

The Rivkin Project was/is a U.S. State Department program with a specific goal to remove national pride and identity in favor of a more global worldview of a collective society, a “multi-cultural” society. Again, these are not interpretations of her words, these are Fiorinas’ own words.

And yes, there are those who are now beginning to connect the dots to President Obama’s first foreign policy speech and travel. Where was it delivered? Cairo Egypt.

Does it make sense now how Fiorina came to be in contact with all those “world leaders” she brags about meeting?

If you need to finally stamp out any reservations or doubt you might have about this agenda; consider Carly Fiorina is also closely linked to the Clinton Global Initiative – SEE HERE ( <—scroll down the page) – providing leadership and mentorship within the Bill and Hillary CGI.

Troubled? You should be. Her globalist ideology is thinly veiled, and in my opinion what has unnerved many of the electorate who did not buy what she was selling.  Despite claims to the contrary, the U.S. voter is intelligent and have an innate sense when they are being misled:

♦ Carly Fiorina on Immigration: Pass the DREAM Act. For other undocumented immigrants, a direct path to citizenship is unfair. While running for the U.S. Senate in California in 2010, Fiorina said she supports the DREAM Act, which would give legal status to people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

♦ Carly Fiorina on Climate change: It is real and man made. But government has limited ability to address it. Speaking in New Hampshire in February, Fiorina said there is scientific consensus that climate change is real and caused by humans.

♦ Carly Fiorina on Education: Supports Common Core – Set national standards but give local districts maximum control. No Child Left Behind was positive. In a position paper while running for the U.S. Senate in California, Fiorina strongly advocated for metric-based accountability in schools. She praised No Child Left Behind as setting high standards and Race to the Top for using “internationally bench-marked” measures.

Carly Fiorina never hired after HP Job: […] Here are the facts: In the five years that Fiorina was at Hewlett-Packard, the company lost over half its value. It’s true that many tech companies had trouble during this period of the Internet bubble collapse, some falling in value as much as 27 percent; but HP under Fiorina fell 55 percent. During those years, stocks in companies like Apple and Dell rose. Google went public, and Facebook was launched. The S&P 500 yardstick on major U.S. firms showed only a 7 percent drop. Plenty good was happening in U.S. industry and in technology.

It was Fiorina’s failed leadership that brought her company down. After an unsuccessful attempt to catch up to IBM’s growth in IT services by buying PricewaterhouseCooper’s consulting business (PwC, ironically, ended up going to IBM instead), she abruptly abandoned the strategic goal of expanding IT services and consulting and moved into heavy metal.

At a time that devices had become a low margin commodity business, Fiorina bought for $25 billion the dying Compaq computer company, which was composed of other failed businesses. Unsurprisingly, the Compaq deal never generated the profits Fiorina hoped for, and HP’s stock price fell by half. The only stock pop under Fiorina’s reign was the 7 percent jump the moment she was fired following a unanimous board vote. After the firing, HP shuttered or sold virtually all Fiorina had bought. (read more)

Against this substantive backdrop, and considering all possible alternative explanations, a reasonable person can only conclude Ted Cruz was a “false choice” all along.

carly fiorina 2Romney side

Just a Reminder, this is an insurgency. – The modern enemy of Wall Street is Main Street vulgarians. The enemy of the RNC/GOPe is not Democrats, it’s Grassroots Conservatives, more vulgarians.

The Republican Party, and the Republican media apparatus, view us as their enemy. We are the enemy they need to protect themselves from:

In 2014, the RNC approved selection rules that govern how each state’s delegates are portioned out from the primaries. Under one of the changes, states holding their primaries between March 1 and March 14 will have their delegates doled out proportionately with election results, a change that will likely stymie a movement candidate.

States that have primaries on or after March 15 will be winner-take-all states.

That’s important because another RNC rule change requires that a candidate must win a majority of delegates in eight or more states before his or her name may be presented for nomination at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

With 18 GOP presidential candidates, for now, it will be that much harder for any candidate to win a majority in any state, let alone eight. (Article July 2015)

GOP-versus-Tea-Party

Now, ask yourself, why would the RNC want to “stymie a movement candidate“? Who exactly does that benefit? Obviously, the “non-movement” candidate, ie “the turtle“.

Isn’t the entire reason for campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina etc. to make a movement/momentum?

In addition Rule #40 changed in 2014 from previously five needed state wins, to a newer threshold of eight (8):

Officially, it’s Rule 40 in the RNC handbook and it states that any candidate for president “shall demonstrate the support of a majority of the delegates from each of eight (8) or more states” before their name is presented for nomination at the national convention. (article March 2014)

Again, ask yourself who does this benefit? A candidate can win seven states outright, and still not have their name presented for nomination?

 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business Without Really Trying

How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business Without Really Trying

Now, that ain’t workin’
That’s the way you do it
Get money for nothin’
And your chicks for free.

— Dire Straits, “Money for Nothing”

His mother still calls him Neilsie. He refers to his dad, the former president, as Gampy. Neil Bush may be the black sheep of the Bush family, but his relatives have never let him down. Whenever he’s been mired in financial, legal or marital imbroglios, someone in the Bush family entourage has always reached out a helping hand and often that hand has slipped Neil a fat check.

Neil Bush, the fourth child of George and Barbara, was long thought to be the rising star of the family. He had the looks, the convivial demeanor, middle-of-the-road politics and, despite suffering from a severe case of dyslexia that made him the laughing stock of St. Albans (the stuffy DC prep school that groomed Al Gore) the brainpower. At least he seemed brighter than Jeb or George Jr. And, most important of all, he was the favorite son of Barbara Bush, the Agrippina of American politics.

All those lofty political aspirations came to a fatal crash in the fall of 1988, at the precise moment his father was poised to ascend to the presidency, when the Silverado Savings and Loan went belly up with Neil in the driver’s seat.

In these days of multi-billion dollar financial crimes by the likes of Enron, Tyco and WorldCom, the failure of a relatively small Colorado thrift may not seem like much. But Silverado came to symbolize the entire savings and loan debacle, which ended up costing the government more than $150 billion in bail out money. Many of these companies exploited the newly deregulated financial markets to lavish unsecured loans to company insiders or political favorites and rewarded company officers and directors with ostentatious salaries and benefits. When the thrifts collapsed, the directors and executives walked away unscathed, while small investors and account-holders were left out in the cold. Appropriately, the looting of the savings and loans hit Texas harder than most other states.

At the time, Neil Bush claimed that he was being made a political scapegoat for Silverado’s troubles. He said he was only a bit player in the S&L with no real decision making power, a mere figurehead and little more. Of course, there was some truth to this. But Neil Bush was not an entirely passive director. Indeed, he used his position as director to steer unsecured loans to his business partners, including at least one project, a scheme to drill for oil in Argentina, in which he had a direct financial stake.

The US Office of Thrift Supervision, which scrutinized the implosion of Silverado, determined that Bush had engaged in numerous “breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest.” A couple of years later, Bush and his cohorts in Silverado settled a $200 million civil suit brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for $49.5 million dollars. The FDIC had charged the executives and directors of Silverado with gross negligence. Bush forked out $50,000 of his own cash for his part of the settlement, with most of the money coming from insurance companies.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Bush had moved to Denver in 1980 with his new bride, Sharon. He was meant to set up a base of political operations in the Rocky Mountain state, with his eyes on the governor’s mansion or a senate seat. But first there was a fortune to be made.

In 1983, Neil started an oil company, naturally, called JNB Exploration. The seed money for the opeation came in the amount of $150,000 from a Colorado real estate mogul named Bill Walters, the self-proclaimed Donald Trump of Denver. Another early investor in JNB was Walter’s friend Ken Goode, another real estate baron, who arranged $1.75 in million credit for Bush’s company from a bank controlled by Walters. For his part, Neil Bush kicked in $100 to the JNB Exploration kitty.

It wasn’t long before JNB began to list. A bail out was arranged with money coming from Silverado Savings and Loan, where Bush now served as a director.

Meanwhile, Bush continued to receive favors from Ken Goode. In the mid-1980s, Goode gave Bush $100,000 in investment funds, chips to play with in the stock market. Bush ended up losing all the money, but never paid a cent back to Goode.

Bush did, however, steer millions in Silverado loans Goode’s way. In 1986, Bush prevailed upon the Silverado board to approve more than $34 million in loans and credit to Walters and Goode, unsecured by anything other than Bush’s word.

Neil also urged the board to loan another of Goode’s companies, Goode International, $900,000 to finance an oil drilling operation in Argentina. In his pliant letter to the board, Neil conveniently elided the fact that he was a silent partner in this deal. Indeed, the Argentina oil scheme was his idea, predicated on familial ties to the corrupt of junta of generals then clutching the country in a murderous grip. Silverado was a pyramid scheme of financial self-dealing.

After Silverado crashed, Neil briefly became the poster boy for the S&L crisis. He was mercilessly mocked by the great Texas populist Henry Gonzales, during his hearings on the S&L scandal. Neil Bush’s political ambitions were mortally punctured, but his business career was just starting to take off. After all, his father was now president and there was a global network of connections to exploit.

In 1989, a few months after the expiration of Silverado, Neil was offered the chance to run another company that had been created just for him, Apex Energy. The $2.3 million in start up funds came courtesy of Bush family confident Louis Marx, heir to the Marx toy fortune. Bush pulled down $150,000 a year as CEO. Within two years, Apex Energy took a nosedive into bankruptcy.

But Neil Bush moved on, this time to TransMedia Communications, a cable TV venture headed by Bill Daniel, a longtime funder of Neil’s father’s political campaigns, who had been lobbying furiously for the deregulation of the telecommunications industry. For his services, Neil was remunerated to the tune of $60,000 per year, even though TransMedia’s president, Dick Barnes, later admitted that the younger Bush knew nothing about the cable business.

It was around this time that Neil struck up a friendship with Nigal Fares, son of Issam Fares, then deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon and another longtime friend of the Bush family. Fares hired Neil to negotiate global deals involving the sale of covers for oil storage tankers. This partnership inaugurated Neil’s lucrative ventures in the Middle East, leading to fruitful relationships with oil sheiks from Qatar to Dubai, Kuwait to Saudi Arabia.

But Neil didn’t just dabble in oil. He also looked for opportunities to cash in on the new opportunities in the booming markets of Asia. In 1994, he started a company called InterLink with Tom Bridewater, a Utah tycoon and rightwing politician. The plan called for Neil to act as an intermediary to help grease deals between US and Asian companies. According to his recent divorce settlement, Neil earned from $180,000 to more than a $1 million a year from InterLink alone. In fact, it is alleged that Neil was paid $1 million to arrange a private meeting in New York City with Taiwan’s president Chen Shui-bian. The charge was leveled by James Soong, leader of Taiwan’s opposition party. Bush admitted to meeting Chen, but denied that he received any money from the Taiwanese leader. Meetings between officials of the US and Taiwanese governments have been prohibited since 1979, when the US normalized relations with Beijing.

The windfalls kept coming his way. On July 19, 1999, Neil experienced one of his greatest triumphs. He made $171,000 in a single day by buying and selling shares of the Kopin Corporation, a display panel company, which on that very afternoon announced a surprise deal with Japanese electronics giant, JVC, causing the stock to soar. While Neil denies profiting from any insider knowledge, the exquisitely timed transaction has all the hallmarks of a Martha Stewart-style deal in reverse. Instead of stemming losses, Neil Bush made a quick killing. Kopin had been one of Interlink’s early clients and Neil had recently arranged a deal where Telecom Holdings, a Hong Kong company, invested $27 million in Kopin. As a reward, Neil received stock options in the newly beefed up firm. It was merely a coincidence, Neil told the Associated Press earlier this year, that he exercised those options on that July morning and sold them later in the same afternoon, following the momentous JVC deal. Just another fortuitous coincidence.

Neil Bush’s escapades across Asia came to the attention of the Grace Semiconductor Management Company, which recruited Bush onto its board of directors. Despite the fact that Neil admitted he knows nothing about semiconductors, the Chinese company recompensed Bush with $2 million in stock and $10,000 per board meeting. Grace is controlled by Taiwanese tycoon Winston Wong and Jiang Mianheng, son of Jiang Zemin, former president of China.

Another of Neil’s rich friends is Jamal Daniel, a Syrian-American multimillionaire. When Neil and Sharon griped that their family didn’t get to spend very much time in Kennebunkport, Daniel shelled out $380,000 to buy them a cottage next to the Bush compound.

Jamal Daniel also put Bush on retainer for his Crest Investment firm, paying him $60,000 a year to help broker deals in the Middle East. One of Daniel’s most recent ventures is New Bridge Strategies, a kind of financial influence peddling outfit whose main endeavor these days is to help companies win contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq. What one brother destroys, another rebuilds.

In May of 2002, Neil Bush found himself alone in his hotel room in Dubai, where he was trying to secure financing for his new company Ignite! Learning, an educational software company geared to exploit his brother’s No Child Left Behind education strategy. Neil sat before his laptop computer and pounded out a long email to his wife of 23 years, informing her that he wanted a divorce. Oddly, given his track record financial coups, Neil’s ungentlemanly missive wallows in concerns about the family’s frail bank account.

“Your comments at our pool-side dinner with the kids that you and I should race to see who could make a million dollars faster, your belief expressed in different ways that I have not made enough money, your belief that it was easy to make money, and that Jamal Daniel’s plotting or Dad’s influence will be the magic answer to our financial woes all cause me consternation and reflect the bitterness and anger that has come from the loneliness you described Friday,” Neil wrote. “It is very clear that we are failing to meet each other’s core needs. We’re almost out of money and I’ve lost my patience for being compared to my brothers, for being put down for my inability to make money, and tired of not being loved. I’m sure you have felt abandoned and a deep sense of loneliness.”

Of course, in his e-confessional Neil Bush didn’t feel compelled to come clean about the sexcapades with the Asian hookers or reveal the fact that he’d fallen in love with Maria Anderson, the wife of Houston oil baron, Robert Andrews, a woman Sharon Bush would later denounce in public as “Neil’s Mexican whore.”

At the very moment Neil hit the send button on this brutal adieu, he was penning Maria breathlessly written love letters, pining for the time when they would be both be freed from the shackles of their marriages.

“My heart is breaking with solitude,” Neil wrote his lover. “I can’t wait to be free to dedicate all of my passion to love you. I hurt to have you in my arms, to make love with you and be a part of your life.” Yet another testimonial to Bush family values.

According to Neil, the two met in 2001 when Maria was working as a volunteer in Barbara Bush’s office, but things didn’t start to get amorous between them until January of 2002 when they found themselves together at a Houston fundraiser for Jeb Bush. A few weeks later Neil showed up at the Andrews’s $4 million mansion, known to the neighbors as Swankienda. He came on a mission to raise money for his new project, Ignite! Robert Andrews was an oil tycoon who had made his millions largely through a fruitful alliance with one of Mexico’s most notorious moguls, Carlos Slim Helu, the billionaire who controls the Grupo Carso conglomerate that includes TelMex.

That spring day, Neil walked away with $100,000 from Robert Andrews for his company and a new companion. As his mother said, Neil’s quite the smooth talker. A few weeks later, Maria and Neil absconded to Mexico together, ostensibly to search out new investors for Ignite! They returned with a lucrative production deal courtesy of Slim Helu and a pledge to seek divorces from their respective spouses. Neil soon fired off his parting email to Sharon and, upon returning to Texas from Dubai, moved into a Houston apartment owned by his Syrian business partner, Nijad Fares. In a harmonious display of their new fidelity, Neil and Maria filed for divorce on the same day, August 26, 2002.

When Sharon Bush learned of the affair with Maria Andrews, she launched a pre-emptive battery that would have impressed the Iraq war planners. First, she announced plans to write a tell all book about the Bush family, hinting darkly about revealing the truth of the Silverado scandal and George W. Bush’s boozing and carousing. Then she let slip the fact that she had been spilling family secrets to Kitty Kelly, who was racing to complete her scathing exposé of the Bush clan, The Family,  on the eve of the 2004 elections.

Later Sharon turned her sights on her rival, the vivacious Maria Andrews. She infamously confronted the couple at a Houston smoothie shop where Maria and Neil were dining together and called her Neil’s “Mexican whore.” Then she made allegations that Neil and Maria had been sleeping together for several years and that Maria’s youngest child had not fathered by Robert Andrews but by Neil. Andrews struck back with an $850,000 libel suit, but Sharon won the first round when a Texas judge approved her demand for DNA samples from Andrews and the child. And so it goes.

The Neil v. Sharon Bush divorce papers provide the most titillating bedtable reading since the footnotes of the Starr Report. For example, the divorce depositions detail Neil’s dalliances with prostitutes in Asia. While Neil was doing Interlink business in Thailand and Hong Kong, he enjoyed the exotic experience of hearing an urgent knocking on his hotel room door. Upon opening the door, Neil was confronted by a beautiful young woman who said she wanted to have sex with him. On at least three difference occasions, Neil accepted the hospitality of his hosts. He admitted to the sexual encounters in his bizarre deposition during his divorce proceedings. The deposition was released earlier this year. Here’s a sample of the back and forth between Bush and his wife’s lawyer:

Marshall Davis Brown (lawyer for Sharon Bush): Mr. Bush, you have to admit that it’s a pretty remarkable thing for a man to just go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her.

Neil Bush: It was very unusual.

Marshall Davis Brown: Were these prostitutes?

Neil Bush: I don’t…I don’t know.

Neil’s lawyer, John Spalding, brusquely counterattacked by charging that Sharon Bush tried to manipulate her husband through the use of voodoo spells. Spalding asserted that Sharon clipped strands of Neil’s hair and wove them into a bizarre doll that she hid under his bed.

Sharon tartly dismissed such allegations has lawyerly hokum. She admitted to collecting strands of Neil’s hair, but not for the purpose of practicing the dark arts of Haiti. Instead, Sharon confessed that she wanted to have Neil’s hair tested for the presence of cocaine. “He was looking thin and acting weird,” Sharon said. Apparently, a taste for fine powder runs deep in the Bush family.

A few months later, Neil and Maria finally tied the knot. The wedding ceremony took place in Jamal Daniel’s palatial home in Houston. Most of the Bush clan was present to toast the new couple, although George and Laura discreetly made other plans for the weekend. After a brief honeymoon, the couple settled  into Maria’s new home, a multi-million dollar mansion just down the road from Bar and Gampy.

In the charmed world of Neil Bush, it doesn’t matter what you do or even how badly you botch the job, it all works out very well in the end.

 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member