Prediction: Trump By A Nose!

My prediction is that Donald Trump will win the election in two weeks.  I think he may actually win the popular vote as well. I’m referring to the actual votes of actual Americans, not the manipulated votes produced by computer tampering, illegals and mail in fraud.

That doesn’t mean that on the morning of the 6th we’ll have a conclusive answer as to who the next president will be. No, sadly, given the Democrat propensity to cheat and the Swamp’s desire to defeat Trump, we’re likely looking at an adjudication clusterfark that could take weeks or even months. 

So, despite polls currently telling us that the race is close or basically tied (Today the NYT has Harris up by 1, 538 has Harris up by 1.4% and RCP has Trump up by .4%) why do I believe Trump is going to clean the floor with Harris when it comes to real, actual votes?  A plethora of reasons.

Yard signs.  This is the most ambiguous measure, but it’s the one that resonates most viscerally because it reflects enthusiasm.  I just spent three weeks in New York on business. I landed at JFK, drove 400 miles to Buffalo, and a week later drove back.  Over that entire trip I didn’t see any random Harris signs on barns or sides of buildings or flags seemingly bigger than the houses they were flying in front of, all things I saw for Trump.  The ratio of Trump to Harris signs throughout was probably at least 10 to 1.  And this is New York! I did however encounter three towns where Harris signs dominated: East Aurora and Williamsville near Buffalo and Hastings on Hudson, just north of New York City.  All three are quaint, bucolic towns with coffee bars, art galleries and lots of college educated liberals.  At the end of the day, in a hardcore blue state like New York, where Harris is projected to win by double digits, the dearth of enthusiastic support suggests that her support is tepid and the margin of victory may not be what’s predicted. 

Right track, wrong track.  Forty four years ago Ronald Reagan looked into the camera at the last debate with Jimmy Carter and asked, “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the store than it was four years ago?” Today, almost every single American understands that the answer to that question in 2024 is a resounding “No”, and regardless of what they think about Trump, they know that it was Biden, Harris and the Democrats who created this disaster.  Two weeks out from the election, fully 2/3 of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. People know they’re paying more for gasoline, housing, food, insurance and practically everything else in the economy.  However that 2/3 might define that wrong track, those are real, tangible pain points of daily life and most citizens recognize Democrats as the source.  Americans, including some Democrats, are not crazy, and when given a choice between more of the same – or worse – when things are going badly, will choose to make a change towards a better direction – or at least the promise of one.  In our basically two party system, that means that they will turn towards Trump and the GOP.

Facetime:  Not the iPhone kind of facetime, but the time candidate’s faces are showing up on various media.  Trump, of course, is all over the media, from his Pennsylvania rallies, to his interviews to, most recently, his McDonalds campaign stop / fry shift / photo op.  Harris, not so much, and when she is on, even when sitting for outlets that support her, like CBS, the story ends up being a controversy about her answers rather than the typical hagiography. At the same time Trump was generating enormous amounts of engaging press coverage serving fries out  McDonalds drive through window and posing for selflies, Harris was making news for taking only  pre-approved questions and telling Christians they’re at the wrong rally. 

Personal connection:  When Trump talks, he talks a lot.  Harris, not so much.  According to the New York Times, at three rallies Trump averaged speaking 98 minutes while Harris averaged a mere 24 minutes.  And while Trump talks about pretty much anything and everything, Harris seems to have a very limited catalog of ideas from which she can draw.  Indeed, the GOP made a full four minute video of her repeating “Unburdened by what has been.” Americans see that Donald Trump is a guy you could have a beer with, talk at length to and feel like you would walk away having made a friend or at least met someone who understands your problems. Kamala Harris on the other hand is a manikin or a robot that’s been programmed with minimal RAM where if you ask “What’s up?” rather than “How are you doing today?” the system will overload and smoke will start coming out of her ears. She’s not funny or smart or insightful and has no convictions beyond basic Communism.  Most Americans see that. 

Betting: Polls are notorious for being more propaganda than reflections of reality. That’s because they’re run by elite organizations with biases seeking to bolster support of one candidate or another. Betting markets on the other hand, AKA prediction markets, represent anything but that.  The leading platform, Polymarket, today sees a 64% chance Trump wins vs Harris’36%.  The over $2 billion this international crypto market has  bet on the American presidential election is largely made up of small bets, not elites seeking to influence the outcome. The proof of the market’s potential as a prediction tool can be seen in the fact that the Wall Street Journal ran a piece seeking to delegitimize it.    

Quality of life: Vermont is America’s socialist Nirvana. Today however, the state's largest city Burlington has become a dystopian nightmare.  By day, the city is the quintessential small town New England. At night however it transforms into a scene from the Walking Dead with drug addicts, homeless and violent criminals taking over.  And of course it’s not just Burlington. It’s New York, San Francisco, Seattle and of course Denver, where violent Venezuelan gangs have taken over whole apartment complexes while extorting and terrorizing residents and owners. From schools that don’t educate to influxes of illegals to increasing crime, leftists across the country are coming face to face with the reality of the failure of Democrat policies.  While all complain, some are objective enough to understand the source and vote accordingly.

All of this to say, while the majority of blacks and gays and Jews and crazy cat ladies, and antidepressant addled college educated white women and their beta male boyfriends or husbands will vote for Harris without ever giving a consideration for or knowledge of her policies, a certain percentage of them will be making decisions based on the reality of life that’s staring them in the face. Those people will be voting for Trump. Together with the rabid MAGA following Trump has inspired, he should win the actual vote handily.  But as we all know, Stalin’s aphorism applies: “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”

Follow me on Twitter at ImperfectUSA

Before It's Too Late: The Public Square Must Be Saved From Twitter & Facebook

Last week Twitter & Facebook decided they would stifle the speech of the leader of the nation that gave them birth and allowed their owners to become billionaires many times over. We’re not of course talking about the oppressive China and Chairman Xi… No, we’re talking about the United States and President Trump. Think about that. The duly elected president of the United States is no longer able to communicate to supporters and opponents alike via the biggest microphones on the planet because of the decision of two unelected billionaires, Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg.

This is a watershed moment in modern American history. As a virulent capitalist I believe that private businesses should be allowed to do what they want, and that includes Twitter and Facebook and Apple and Google et. al. As long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others. This is particularly true as it relates to the 1st Amendment. The Amendments limit the actions of government, not private industry. As such, they should be exempt…

Except, however, when they shouldn’t be. In 1996 Congress passed the Communications Decency Act which included this language in Section 230: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." Publishers exercise editorial control over what they publish, which is why if the New York Times printed “John Smith is a bank robber” John Smith could sue for defamation, and if he proved the statement was false, he could be awarded damages. Indeed, 230 was written specifically to give Internet firms protection from such circumstances. It was the result of an early ISP, Prodigy, being sued for defamation by Jordan Balfor – the guy Leo DeCaprio made famous in “The Wolf of Wall Street” – after someone on a Prodigy-run message board had accused Stratton Oakmont of fraud.

The author of the legislation, then Washington Rep. Ron Wyden, was concerned that if Internet companies were treated as publishers they would be sued into oblivion, killing the baby of the Internet in its crib. If a tech company was financially liable every time an Internet troll called someone a liar or a Nazi or claimed Jim Jones was cheating on his wife we’d never have Facebook or Twitter or YouTube or Yelp or customer reviews on Amazon or doctor reviews on Healthgrades.com or memes on Instagram or virtually anything involving user input.

But we do have Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Amazon and Apple. Using the shield of 230 these companies grew not only to become the biggest and most valuable companies on the planet, but they also became the most powerful companies in the everyday lives of Americans as it relates to free speech and the exchange of ideas. Americans barely read newspapers anymore. In 1995 the year before 230 was written, 23% of Americans read a newspaper on a daily basis. Today that number stands at 8.3%. In 1995 0% of Americans used Facebook or YouTube or Twitter on a daily basis… because they didn’t exist. Today 74% of Americans use Facebook every day, 51% use YouTube and 42% use Twitter. Overall in 2019 Americans spent an average of 395 minutes on the Internet verses 11 minutes reading newspapers. They are no longer “as the publisher” they are publishers.

Essentially, social media has become the de jure American town square of the 21st century. That is where we get our information, where we exchange ideas and where we interact with one another. And they became that because of 230, based on the premise that they did not exercise editorial control.

But now today, when they have become the modern equivalent of the town square they’ve decided they do indeed have editorial control over their platforms. They most certainly have that right, but their choosing to do so should remove from them the shield of 230.

Of course all of this comes down to the 1st Amendment and the right of Americans to speak out without censorship or coercion by the government. But Twitter and Facebook aren’t the government you say. That’s true. But they have become so ubiquitous, so dominating, so central to an American’s freedom of speech that they are actually more powerful than the government. Not sure about that? Take a look at Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump where President Trump tried to block from following him on Twitter accounts with whom he disagreed. In forcing Trump to unblock the unwanted followers the court said Trump’s account bears “all the trappings of an official, state-run account” and is “one of the White House’s main vehicles for conducting official business.”

So, if these social media giants have become the modern town square for the exchange of American ideas, if they are violating the spirit of the law that provided them with the ability to successfully become such, and if a federal appeals court agrees that their platform is “one of the White House’s main vehicles for conducting official business.” they should no longer the protections 230 accorded. They should be treated as the publishers they have willingly become and should be at risk for all the liabilities, financial and otherwise that come with that.  

That does not necessarily mean that 230 should be eliminated. On the contrary. Its protections can and do function as intended, allowing small online firms to give users platforms to exchange ideas without fear of being financially ruined because of a content that someone doesn’t agree with.

But for those tech companies who violate the premise of lack of control of editorial content 230 should no longer apply. They could of course step back and adhere to the idea of not exercising editorial control, but they won’t. It’s no longer about building a successful company or getting rich for Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg. They both have that in spades. No, now it’s about power, and their power to remake America (for now) into what they think it should look like. They want Donald Trump on their platforms not because of what he says or who he is. They want Donald Trump off their platforms because his words resonate with so many regular, blue collar Americans, because he inspires patriotism in America and because he wants Americans to be free of the yoke of government control over virtually every aspect of their lives.

At the end of the day, it’s not Donald Trump they fear. It’s freedom of thought. It’s freedom of expression. It’s ideas they can’t control that they fear. And most of all, it’s you and your desire to live your life as you see fit. In a free market they’re welcome to go out and build any kind of platform they want and use editorial control to stifle as much speech on it as they wish. But they can’t do that behind a government provided shield of protection. It’s one or the other. They can’t have it both ways.

We've already seen the kind of damage such information control can do to our social cohesion and our political process.  Do we need to wait until America is plunged into a full scale civil war before we realize that allowing a tiny minority of tech oligarchs to control our speech forums is probably not conducive to a free society?  

A New Declaration for American Citizens Empowered by an Old Constitution

In America, January 2nd, 2021

In this, the Declaration of the seventy five million Americans who sought to have their votes count, who sought to be governed by the United States Constitution, who sought to live free in a nation of laws, we borrow from the words from our Founding Fathers:  When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Citizens; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present Government of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over American Citizens.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Certain members of the United States Congress, current and former members of the Executive Branch and sympathetic members of various agencies of the United States Government did impede the good working order of the United States government and undermine the respect of law among American Citizens by spending years and precious resources proffering a known fiction of treason against the American President and in doing so inhibiting his ability to govern the Nation in good order.

Government officials from across the United States have exaggerated and exploited the threat of a virus to eviscerate the natural right of American Citizens to live their lives as free men and women and pursue the ability to provide for their families and serve their communities.

The American Government has expanded its control over American Citizens far beyond anything for which it was rightly empowered in the Constitution of the United States.  By establishing an ever growing unaccountable bureaucratic leviathan which seeks to control the lives of Citizens the Government has eliminated the accountability which is inherent in a Government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.

And most destructively of all, enemies of freedom, along with their Press brethren and tyrannical Social Media enablers did conspire to deprive the American Citizens of their right to keep their government accountable by thwarting the honest and fair election for the President of the United States of America, thereby rendering all future elections moot, rendering toothless all procedures for limiting Government, rendering the Constitution of the United States to the dustbin of History. 

A government no longer accountable to those whom it governs has become by definition a tyranny. 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by ridicule, repression and indifference unworthy of a government empowered by its citizens. 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Government overseers.  We have warned them from time to time of their attempts to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of the Rights and Freedoms enumerated in the Constitution of the United States.  We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the freedom revering Citizens of the United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do solemnly publish and declare, That a Government of the United States headed by an interloper is not representative of the will of the People, is illegal and against the Constitution of the United States and therefore all political connection between them and the free citizens of the United States ought to be totally dissolved. 

We beg that this dissolution be remedied before it ever comes to fruition by an honest accounting of the most recent Election for President of the United States of America by the Congress and the inauguration of the rightful victor as the next President of the United States. Senators and Representatives swear an oath that begins:  "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;” They have sworn to defend the Constitution and the Republic from enemies who would usurp the power of consent of the Citizens of these United States. 

We Respectfully beg they do that which they have sworn and remedy this usurpation before calamity befalls the Nation and the Freedoms endowed by the Creator and guaranteed by the Constitution become mere historical anomalies in the long march of Human Civilization. 

President Trump Keep the Faith - We've Got Your Back

If I could give Donald Trump a message I would say, please Mr. President, keep the faith.  You have been nothing short of spectacular over the last four years. Your limiting of regulatory overreach so that Americans of all stripes could pursue success and happiness unfettered by government was genius. The result was an economy on fire and record unemployment.  Your track record of filling courts with originalist jurists has created a bulwark against the red tide of liberalism.  Your willingness to step away from organizations and policies that have been followed for decades to America’s detriment took extraordinary courage. 

But you’ve been much more than your policies.  You’ve been... us.  You’ve been a leader for Americans who felt like America was being erased right in front of their eyes. Surprisingly to many, you have been a champion of small businesses, the font from which the American dream and prosperity flows.  You have been a champion for life and have helped others around the world embrace peace. And perhaps most of all, you have given half the country the courage to openly express their patriotism again.

The thing that is most extraordinary about you is the fact that you have done all of this and so much more while enduring unprecedented attacks from before you were even elected.  From the prior administration’s attempts to smother your presidency in the crib to the swamp dwellers’ attempts to undermine your policies to the media’s relentless vituperative attacks, you have never wavered; you stood your ground.

You are a combination of the best of the two greatest leaders of the 20^th century:  Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill.  Reagan, like you, had a vision of America’s greatness and a recognition of how American freedoms have created more prosperity than any nation in human history, all while helping protect and promote freedom around the world.  You share that vision of American greatness and you articulate it every time you speak, inspiring tens of millions of Americans along the way.  Winston Churchill spent years in the wilderness being vilified for his stances against communism and fascism despite the clear danger posed by both.  The favorite disparagement of him was “War monger”.  For you the label is “racist” despite decades of demonstrating anything but and policies while in office that have been focused on the black community such as sentencing reform, unprecedented support for HBCUs and bringing about an historically low black unemployment rate.

The thing the three of you share is a willingness to endure the slings and arrows of your opponents because you know what you’re doing is right.  Mr. President your willingness to go out every day and engage with the media, “experts” and Democrats who disparage you relentlessly has inspired millions of Americans to stand up and finally declare that the media / academia / Democrat industrial complex is wrong and that America is not the evil empire they suggest it is.  America is not racist. America is not sexist.  America is not hateful, homophobic or Islamophobic.  Capitalism is not slavery and freedom comes from God not government. 

For the first time in 30 years conservatives feel like they have a champion who recognizes that the gift our Founding Fathers left us is indeed the goose that has lain the golden eggs both for the United States and the world.  America is not perfect, but she improves decade after decade after decade, something that cannot be said of most civilizations or nations.

Americans who value our freedoms, particularly those enshrined in the 1^st and 2^nd Amendments, find it challenging to stand and protect them when the “elites” and the media constantly tell us our words make us racists or our “clinging to our god and guns” makes us not fit for respect.  This is particularly true when those we elected to backstop our efforts falter.  But you don’t falter.  In Donald Trump we found a rock amidst the PC storm that has been battering America for years.   

And that is why we chose you.  To be our champion.  To have our backs.  To fight our fight with us as we unabashedly stand for America and her ideals.  To remind Americans and the world that the United States, while imperfect, is the greatest nation on earth, where anyone of any race, religion or color – and importantly – economic background, can succeed spectacularly and in the process potentially bring the same to friends, family and community. 

While it is you who has borne the primary burden for the last four years, we have been called racists, fascists and worse for supporting you.  It is a price that I and tens of millions of Americans willingly pay because we know it’s not true and we know you’ve got our backs.  Now, when it seems like the entire swamp has risen beyond its edge in an attempt to drown you and destroy America as we know it, we want you to know we have yours.  We will not allow the Democrats and their media water carriers to succeed as they attempt to steal this election by hook, crook or code.  We will not allow them to harness the power of the dead to steal this election.  We will not let them use the fear mongering they promoted about Covid as an avenue for overwhelming the electoral process and committing fraud.  We will not let the media and big tech shell game take our eyes off the fact that you played by the rules but they cheated.  No sir, this will not stand.

I’m not sure how Democrats believe that 70 million Americans who would have crawled over glass to vote for you believe that they were outvoted by a guy who could not fill a parking lot on his best day.  The media & Democrats borrow from Chico Marx to ask:  "Who are you going to trust, us or your lying eyes?"  We see their fraud staring us in the face, from dead voters to phantom ballots to computer “glitches”.  The level of fraud would be embarrassing in a banana republic, never mind here in America. 

All of this to say, Sir, please do not give up.  You have done too much for America.  You have fought too hard for the American people.  You have weathered too much for our values to give up now.  We have your back.  We see the finish line. You may have been knocked back by this assault on our Republic, but we are with you.  You were our vanguard for four years, preparing us for this moment in time and we will not abandon you just as you did not abandon us. We are at a precipice of history, and if we allow the left to steal this election it is not only your presidency that will have been extinguished, but it will be freedom and liberty and the American Constitution.  It will be the American torch that has led the world for so long. If we allow this fraud to succeed, there may no way back...

One more time Mr. President we ask you to stand with us in this dark hour.  The winds will no doubt be against us, the tide will be against us, but at the end of the day, together we will prevail and history will one day record the eight years of the Trump presidency as among the greatest in American history.  Ronald Reagan would no doubt be proud of the company.    

When America needed a leader, Romney was a manager

As one who writes about everything political, one of the downsides of living in a state that is utterly unimportant from the Electoral College perspective is the fact that you’re insulated from much of the advertising campaigns that ravaged the battleground states. (From the perspective of a normal person however, that would likely be a blessing…)

I had friends who complained about not being able to get through an evening meal without getting robocalls. Others told of more campaign commercials than actual programming. I on the other hand saw one Barack Obama commercial during a nationally televised football game on Sunday and two Mitt Romney commercials the week before. Other than that, nada, the entire campaign.

That insulation from the billion dollar barrage skewed my perspective, at least as it relates to how the rest of the country was seeing this election. As a result, my prediction that Mitt Romney was going to win by double digits was… slightly off. I suggested that the polls were far from accurate for a variety of reasons from race to enthusiasm to undecided voters. By 8 PM on Tuesday it became clear I was lucky I had not bet my house on my prediction. I was wrong on every single point.

So how did I and so many others get it so wrong?

Maybe it was believing the hype about the effectiveness of the big dollars that drove the advertising I never saw. Romney did spend a lot, but it was money poorly spent. Why? Because he and his supporters outspent the Obama team across the board: In Ohio $97 million went to support Mitt while $90 went to support Barack Obama. In Virginia the numbers were $73 million vs. $65 million while in Florida they were $100 million vs. $78 million. And what did he get for all of that? Nothing. He needed those states and he lost all three.

Maybe it was ground game. This is art of getting your supporters to the polls but it’s often hard to see beforehand. And it’s particularly important in union stronghold states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada, states Romney thought he would or at least could win. In all four Romney exceeded McCain’s 2008 totals, while the president underperformed his. It wasn’t enough. In a year where the enthusiasm gap was widely expected to favor the challenger the GOP failed in the closest thing to basic blocking and tackling, getting supporters to the polls.

Then there was Hurricane Sandy. As expected, turnout was down in reliably blue New York and New Jersey. The real impact, unforeseen by me however, was far beyond the storm. It was in the rest of the country where they were reading about it. Sandy did three things. One, she stunted Romney’s ascent and took him off the front page. Two, she kicked Benghazi to the back burner. Three, she gave the media a much desired backdrop upon which to project a very presidential Barack Obama.

These combined to help Mitt Romney lose the presidency. They do not however explain the surprise. That was something all together different: Enthusiasm. I for one expected GOP enthusiasm to be off the charts. It wasn’t. After four years of Barack Obama’s socialist policies one would have expected conservatives, Tea Party types, libertarians and Republicans to head to the polling stations with pitchforks and torches and ready to throw out anyone dressed in blue. Surprisingly, they did not. Indeed, Romney was not even able to get the same number of votes McCain did. Romney received two million fewer votes, despite having the worst economic recovery in a century and four years of progressivism against which to campaign.

At the end of the day, Mitt Romney lost because he did not sufficiently articulate why Americans should go out and vote for him. He is a good and decent man and he attracted 49% of the vote. But elections are about winning. A nation doesn’t need a manager who says “Vote for me because I’ll do a better job than that guy”, it needs a leader who says “Vote for me because I’ll do this and I won’t do that”. Barack Obama left Christopher Stevens as a sitting duck and in the end he and three other Americans died. Americans barely heard a peep about that from Mitt Romney. Barack Obama and Eric Holder have the blood of hundreds of Mexicans and at least one American Border Patrol agent on their hands; again, crickets from Mitt Romney.

Millions of illegal immigrants cross into the country each year and Mitt Romney talked about “self deportation”. Obamacare is destroying jobs while the IRS is arming to enforce its mandates and Mitt Romney equivocated. The tax code costs Americans half a trillion dollars a year and restrains the creation of millions of jobs and Mitt Romney promises to fiddle with some opaque “middle class tax cuts”.

In 1964 Barry Goldwater said “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”. In 2012 that was not a problem. Today’s adage might be “Milquetoast in the defense of liberty is no defense at all”. At a moment in time when Americans needed a man to arouse them and lead them out of the thickening forest of liberalism they instead got a man who wanted to discuss how to prune some low hanging branches. It should have been no surprise they chose to stick with Johnny Appleseed.