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The Brawl for It All

If you don’t live in the formerly united United States, if you don’t have an internet connection or a TV, or if you’re not a deeply committed masochist, you likely missed a program that aired live on September 29, 2020, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. It was called, The Brawl for It All.

It pitted a defensive, petulant schoolyard bully with a failed career in commercial real estate who kept crying to the moderator against a doddering old nitwit with a failed career in government who kept crying to some imaginary teacher. The bout was refereed by a career nepotist and shameless sycophant who showed up looking a little peaked from the general anesthesia he’d been administered earlier in the day for the surgical procedure he underwent to have his spine extracted. The operation was clearly a success.

If you’ve been given a peek at The List of Proud Moments, you know The Brawl for It All didn’t make it. But say what you will, that 90-minute spectacle of humiliation, degradation, prevarication, and fabrication perfectly embodied the sad state of politics as we prepare to enter the third decade of the third millennium.

There are few, if any, times at which I wish I were dead. But I wished just that during The Brawl for It All. I didn’t wish I were dead because I’m morbidly depressed. I didn’t wish I were dead so I wouldn’t have to bear witness to that horrifying spectacle of childishness. I didn’t wish I were dead so I wouldn’t have to live in a world in which the two combatants in The Brawl for It All play any role at all. No. I wished I were dead so I could have seen God pacing back and forth, wringing his hands, and occasionally throwing them up in the air as he exclaimed to no one in particular, “What the hell happened?!”

The only way I could get my senses back was by queuing this song, turning it up to 11, and taking particular note of these lyrics: “People say believe half of what you see, son, and none of what you hear.”

Sage advice, indeed.

Mark O'Brien
Mark O'Brienhttps://obriencg.com/
I’m a business owner. My company — O’Brien Communications Group (OCG) — is a B2B brand-management and marketing-communication firm that helps companies position their brands effectively and persuasively in industries as diverse as: Insurance, Financial Services, Senior Living, Manufacturing, Construction, and Nonprofit. We do our work so well that seven of the companies (brands) we’ve represented have been acquired by other companies. OCG is different because our business model is different. We don’t bill by the hour or the project. We don’t bill by time or materials. We don’t mark anything up. We don’t take media commissions. We pass through every expense incurred on behalf of our clients at net. We scope the work, price the work, put beginning and end dates on our engagements, and charge flat, consistent fees every month for the terms of the engagements. I’m also a writer by calling and an Irish storyteller by nature. In addition to writing posts for my company’s blog, I’m a frequent publisher on LinkedIn and Medium. And I’ve published three books for children, numerous short stories, and other works, all of which are available on Amazon under my full name, Mark Nelson O’Brien.

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3 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Mark. Long before we connected, I would pen similar articles of frustration… especially during the previous administration. I clearly remember VP Biden debating Paul Ryan in 2012. He laughed at every single answer and suggestion, as if Paul Ryan were a schoolboy who spilled his milk. It was insulting to the intelligence of voters on both sides of the political spectrum. Now the same demented jackal is gunning for President. The problem is that they are both unfit for leadership. I’ve had enough. The more these blowhards open their mouths, the more I am tempted to not vote at all. Far as I’m concerned, I’d get more satisfaction watching these two punks throw fisticuffs instead, because neither one can string together a logical or coherent statement. I’d just assume flip a coin to see which one is more arrogant. I’ve always leaned conservative in my values, but I reject the Republican party as they cower against the Marxist left. Let’s just say I’m not voting for either man – I am voting against the principles of Socialism. Why? Because they are tearing our cities apart and promoting censorship. As a taxpayer who feeds the corrupt IRS, We The People are going to be stuck with the bill. You and I will have pay for everything they destroy. That message alone should be clear as mud. I will never vote for a liberal. I will never forgive nor trust them for what they’ve done to our country since 2016. That is the only reason I am casting my ballot, orange man be damned…

    • Aaron, your anger and frustration are palpable, as they should be. I often say anyone who doesn’t believe we’ve become a nation of directionless sheep has never driven on an interstate highway.

      Someday — before it’s too late, I hope — somebody’s going to read the Constitution and say, “Holy shit! Look at this. Somebody already figured this whole mess out!”

      I’m a fiscal conservative who believes you need fiscal conservatism to pay for social liberalism. But I’ve always registered to vote as in independent. To whatever extent it may or may not be possible anymore, I prefer to (try to) survive by my own wits.

      Here’s to finding our way.

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