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Write your president today. No one’s going to listen to you, you realize, but you’ve probably played with yourself in the past, so do it now by writing the president at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Write this:

Dear Honorable President Obama:

Get us out of Afghanistan today! This war has decimated our economy, as it did the USSR. Read MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME – IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE at marketingsociologist.wordpress.com.

Sincerely and love,

(your name here)

In celebration, Mediarelationsexpert.com is offering discounts. Visit site to contact.

Too bad Frank Zappa is not alive. He used to mock, “Can’t happen here.” Yet there’s a very REAL chance the United States could fail to exist in the second decade of the 21^st Century.

The United Soviet Socialist’s Republic (USSR) lasted roughly 65 years. Watch the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” and you will understand the pressures the U.S. is facing today, the same as the movie depicted for Russia in the 1980s.

Wikipedia states, “… military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth was at a standstill. Failed attempts at reform, a stagnant economy, and war in Afghanistan led to a general feeling of discontent.” Is it speaking of the U.S. or USSR? You tell me. Even worse, we have a depression; caused by our involvement in Afghanistan.

Here’s how the scenario could play out. In 1978, an electrician, Lech Walesa, formed trade unions that struck, bringing cracks into the Soviet system. The Soviets handled them until its involvement in Afghanistan.

You know the U.S. economy will be in shambles for the next two years. We had the equivalent of the 1929 stock market crash when the governments took over banks in 2008. A country that owns the financial institutions goes by the moniker Communist. Not one shot was fired for the U.S. to become a Communist nation.

Now let’s say two western states, one with a Republican senator who lost the presidential election, and another with a Republican governor of a state that is equivalent to the world’s fifth largest economic power, join together and refuse to pay the federal government taxes from its citizens.

When the southern states see this, they too could create their own nation, just like the “Baltic republics and Eastern Europe” (Wikipedia) did to Russia a quarter century ago.

Don’t expect a full blown war against these states that succeed, roughly a hundred and fifty years after the nation’s first succession. This one could be successful.

There was no full blown war against the states that succeeded from the USSR. The same dominoes are in place today for this to happen in the U.S. during the second decade of the 21^st Century. Canada could sweep down and claim border states from Washington to Maine. Mexico already owns the southern border states. Most jobs in these states require “fluency in Spanish.”

Obama wanted change for his administration. He may get more than he expected.

Warning: the following blog may offend the namby-pamby and liberal mindsets. Remember in the U.S., we have freedom of speech.

I love equality. I was at the Scottsdale mall today and the normally lily-white mall looked like two buses from the Washington Carver Obama Methodist Church were shopping for the needy. It was fantastic.

It was because of the NBA All-Star game. It only seemed to be at the prestigious Scottsdale mall. After all, even Britney Spears has shopped here. I checked out a Phoenix mall owned by the same company and there were fewer than 500 people all day. It looked like someone had painted that mall with white-out. No diversity there.

The first wonderful event was seeing the ghost of Cedric the Entertainer. This guy looked just like him – pink polo shirt, green sweater tied by the sleeves around his neck, Jessica Simpson mommy jeans and tennis shoes; all topped by a hat and sunglasses.

Then I noticed the mall was more packed than the entire Christmas season. Fantastic for the economy!

So I did some investigative journalism. After an hour of scoping it out, I made some observations. The food court was the main hangout, but the NBA attendees weren’t eating. I saw a group of men who had positioned their chairs right in front of the escalators. Just like I told my daughter, all men are dogs.

The biggest contrast I saw was the normally lily-white crowds were posers’ with maxed out credit cards. These NBA crowd people were rich, not posers. They were using credit cards from the relative who was probably playing in tonight’s NBA all-star game and had millions to share with his family.

As a woman who worked at Dillards told me, and it was true, the crowds were at the REALLY expensive stores, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Vuitton was so crowded I thought it was a night club. Even on the escalators, one of the NBA crowd was headed in the wrong direction. I had to point out the Louis Vuitton store, and when I looked back, half a football field away, the store signage looked bigger than the Arizona Diamondbacks exterior sign. Both Gucci and Vuitton had a line to get in.

Admittedly, I would not know an NBA star if they kicked me in the groin. I was in the airport years ago, and an eight-foot giant passed. I recognized him as Tom Chambers – only for the television advertising he did.

It was fun to watch the lily-white crowd. They’d get on the escalators and leave three or four steps between themselves and the not so lily-white. Yet the NBA crowd could have bought and sold those lily-white, I’d like to say racist, but I don’t know them and that is judgmental, so let’s just say lily-whites, many times over.

None of the NBA crowd were at a popular lily-white hangout, the ATM machines.

Stores like Nordstrom, Crate & Barrel, Fossil, Express, Banana Republic, and Disney were empty.

Yet there was racism there. The mall’s security team looked like they would have called out the national guard if they weren’t all fighting in Iraq. Several uniformed officers had “State Gang Police” emblazoned on their bullet-proof vest. Pluh-leze; the closest these rich NBA crowd ever came to drugs was probably medicine for high blood pressure or diabetes. They were sports, not gang, rich. Scottsdale, where even people who sell arms illegally overseas can become influential in the community, doesn’t understand sports rich – or non-lily-white.

My favorite T-shirt was on a darker skinned man. It read, “My President is Black.” I thought he just had big ears.

It is time this nation become color blind, age blind and gender blind. This wonderful crowd demonstrated their class – much more than the lily-whites who were freaking out at the demographic change at “their” mall.

As I listen to my “pre-programmed” Internet radio station, songs by Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Sam Cooke, Aly & AJ, Mana, Muddy Waters, Pistoleros, Willie Dixon, Gin Blossoms, Hilary Duff all play. There’s no color, age or gender difference. It is great music. Bless my parents who instilled equality into my family’s values.

A young 20s Phoenix public relations practitioner ranted against me (did not use my name) on her blog after I ranted about employers and clients hiring inexperienced practitioners on a popular public relations blog.

Today I was taking notes, and I realized my note taking style is one only other journalists would comprehend. As a journalist, you develop a way of taking notes in case something happens to you and others need to write a story from your notes.

Last year I wrote an article for The Arizona Republic quoting Phoenix’s mayor. I wasn’t sure I was quoting accurately. After writing the story and submitting it, a word-for-word text of the mayor’s speech was distributed, taken from a tape. With more than 200 words quoted by the mayor, I missed one word, like “the.” Not bad for note taking.

When I started in public relations, there was a career track. Ten years in the media then into corporate public relations.  I had to wait until my early 30s to go into PR. This meant I was wiser. I made mistakes, but my mistakes would have been more horrific if I hadn’t followed – or was forced to – career path.

Below are some questions from Linkedin that demonstrate most of those in public relations today have never seen a news room. My question, would you allow a doctor who had just gotten out of undergraduate school and never did a residency operate on you? Then why are businesses hiring inexperienced practitioners over the plethora of laid-off journalists available?

Then they wonder why their profits are down. Duh.

Linkedin questions (my apologies to the professional journalists whom I picked on their question):

I am a young public relations professional. I have recently moved to a new city after obtaining my first job. What are some strategies and/or tactics that I can try to build relationships with journalists in my new city?

How do I find journalists and editors in the fashion and jewellery field

Do public relations practitioners with journalism experience or training enjoy more credibility with reporters than those with a PR background only?

How can PR pros avoid journalist blacklists?

As a PR professional, what are the major problems that you run across in dealing with journalists and the media?

What are the do’s and don’ts when dealing with the media?

Recently I discovered a one-hour piece on my hero, Chester Burger, the dean of public relations. After that, I discovered Warren Buffett espousing his investing strategies on YouTube. Can’t get it in a book, but you can get it on YouTube.

I’ve found my marketing hero, Philip Kotler, and management expert Dr. Peter Drucker. My boss at the Heart Association, Mike Nizankiewicz, helped Drucker write the book on non-profits.

Here’s a taste of what is available:

Enjoyed watching it fall 30 cents within minutes of executing the trade.

In Arizona you don’t need that war chest. All you need is the letters J-A-N in your first name. On September 5, 1997 Jane Hull took over the governor’s office after J Fife Symington III was impeached (no period or full stop after the letter J in his name).

Jan. 6, 2003, Janet Napolitano took office after being elected to the office – the third elected governor since 1978.Paul Fannin, elected governor in 1959 was the last Arizona governor not appointed by a resignation or impeachment to serve two or more full terms as Arizona governor.

Then, on Jan. 20, 2009 Jan Brewer assumed governorship after Janet Napolitano resigned. As for the outgoing Napolitano, on Feb. 7, 2009, the Arizona Republic reported: “Calling herself ‘very angry’ and ‘furious’ about the fiscal condition she inherited last month, Gov. Jan Brewer lashed out Friday at the former gubernatorial administration and warned that bleak times await Arizona.

“‘We have very deep valleys ahead of us,’ said Brewer, a Republican. ‘We are facing very, very critical times. I’m very angry, basically, that Arizona is in this shape that it’s in.’

“Brewer called the multibillion-dollar budget shortfall now confronting the state government a ‘product of mismanagement.’”

So, as you can see, to be governor in Arizona, you don’t need money. Brewer nor Hull spent money to be governor. All you need is J-A-N in your first name.