A question was recently posed looking to understand the actual trade-offs people were making that allowed them to vote Trump.

Let me caveat by saying how crazy a time we live in where people are afraid to share their opinions because of the threat of being cancelled or losing friends and followers. What a dangerous echo chamber we have created. On that note..

I voted for Trump. Before you say I am a die-hard Republican, I am not. I don’t associate with any one political party. I align myself with my personal opinions, ideals and those policies that align with my moral fabric.

Here were my trade-offs:

Biden is a Weak Leader

I find Biden to be weak to his party. Trump has already shown his willingness to go against the entire establishment. In his 40 + years in government Biden has done little to push his agenda, what makes us think it will be different the next four years?

Why does this matter?

Well, if you’re weak and conform to the will of those around you then you have no choice but to really focus on the policies those around you are pushing.

Taxes

At the core of the Biden / Harris campaign is taxes. We’re not talking small tax changes, we’re taking material tax changes. I am not against paying taxes, but I am against paying more than my fair share.

When you couple the proposed changes with those being imposed by states like California and New York it will be a monumental financial blow for many. The net affect will not be what they expect, as those being targeted have means of optimizing until the next administration.

50 cent said it best, “I don’t want to wake up in 2021 and be 20 cent.”

Government

I originally responded with the idea of smaller government, but was rightfully corrected. The government hasn’t been smaller with Republicans. The main difference has been where the money goes. Democrats typically lean into social programs, while Republicans lean into military and security.

That’s a fair point. For me, having strong military and security is critical in the world we live in today. My time in the service took me to places in this world few would appreciate, and shown me the brutality that humans can inflict on each other.

I prefer to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.

Immigration

I am a first-generation immigrant. Both my parents came to the US legally, and worked through the system to get their citizenship. I had the good fortune of being born here. I took advantage of that, build the world I live in today.

That being said, I believe having open borders is a threat to our economy and security. Yes, there are many amazing people that want to do amazing things, but there are also many that want to do horrific things.

I don’t want to see my tax dollars spent on social programs for those that came here illegally, instead I prefer to see them invested in our existing communities.

Second Amendment (2A)

I actually believe in gun control. I believe in things like background checks, age limits, training, etc…

What I don’t believe in what I find to be stupid rules. Stupid rules might be things like no pistol grips, the paranoia around AR’s, muzzle suppressors, no collapsible buttstocks, and pretty much everything else on the feature-less list in California. These rules affect law-abiding citizens, not those intent on doing bad things.

But what really scares me is when those running for office start proposing the removal of the 2A.

Anti-Law Enforcement Rhetoric

Do I think there is a misconduct amongst LEO’s? Yes. Should there be more time invested to train and provide the tools necessary to the do job? Yes.

But while I breathe, I will never be able to get behind the idea of reducing their size, defunding, or painting them dangerously as villains.

Continued Racial Campaigns

I believe there are racial inequalities. I just dislike the current narrative and approach. Everything is racially motivated, even when it’s clearly not. I think race is being used for political points, and with very little interest in solving real race disparities.

Voting for Policies, Not People

I don’t like Trump very much. He’s not what I think of when I think of a President. He is his own worst enemy with his rhetoric on Twitter, and his antics at press conferences.

Unfortunately, the Democrats have done little to win my vote over the past four years. At the core of the campaign it’s been about being anti-Trump, not about policies.

You see this same rhetoric online, amongst the smartest of people I follow it is always about, “How can you vote for the orange man?” instead of the policies. The answer has been political extremism by both parties, where it feels almost impossible to find overlap and common ground.

I personally just dislike groups of people, and individuals, that are not self-aware. This election was on the Democrats to lose, and I personally think they will. There was no better year to do this than with 2020 with the pandemic, but the reality is that the past four years the Democrats have been about attacking the person, not the improving the state of things.

They could have rallied when Trump stumbled, not on his errors but on the recommendations and policies that could have rectified the problems. Instead, they resorted to finger pointing and succumbed to the same dirty politics.

The biggest thing, however, contributing to my decision is California. I lived there for 19 years. There is a reason that California and New York are experiencing the biggest exodus in history. There is no better real-world example of what we can expect from the policies being proposed by Biden / Harris. I do wonder why more liberals are not migrating to those states, it offers the Utopia they are in search of.

300+ million people, and these are our two best options… there is something wrong there.. in the end, it’s all just noise. People will vote for those things that affect them most.

In 2007 I joined FaceBook, in 2020 I am leaving Facebook. It’s been a fun run, but the time has come to say goodbye.

Why leave Facebook?

My reasoning is simple, I fail to see the value. It’s not enriching my life, in many ways it is degrading it. This feeling has only been amplified over the past 12 months amidst the pandemic and political state in the United States.

This coupled with my personal beliefs about the open web, and the actions closed platforms are taking make it a relatively simple decision.

What about social contacts?

It’s been a long time since I have had any real meaningful engagements on Facebook. For some reason, however, it definitely has this ability to consume my time. I want to regain that time focusing on all my projects and those things immediately in front of me.

Friends have other means of contacting me directly if they like. Besides, who really has 100’s, 1,000’s of “friends”? Many are acquaintance, partners, colleagues, and let’s face it, with time we are all quickly realizing we have less in common than we think. :)

I will maintain a few Facebook properties where you can engage me directly:

DDOS Racing Team – Will use this for my racing adventures.

Tony Perez (Professional Page) – Will use this to share my professional opinions, write-ups and other musings. Things I share will fall into these categories: business, technology, industry trends.

Other Ways to Stay In Touch

The easiest ways to stay in touch is as follows:

Platform	Context
LinkedIn	Encourage professional contacts to engage me here. Will work to be more active. I hope to keep this for business related engagements. @perezbox
Instagram	This is already my preferred social platform. I enjoy the pictures and videos. You can find me at @perezbox and a number of other handles, mostly found in the bio.
CleanBrowsing	If you want to learn more about DNS based content filtering: tony@cleanbrowsing.org
NOC.org	If you want to learn more about network and security tools: tony@noc.org
NOC.social	I will be putting more effort into engaging here, and will likely be my replacement to Twitter in the not so distant future. Handle is noc.social/@perezbox
Twitter	For now, will continue to engage here under @perezbox.
PerezBox	This site will continue to be my main platform for content and sharing ideas.

Interested in Deleting Facebook?

The most common comment I read, or hear, is “Man, I’m done, I want to delete Facebook..” and yet they stay on. I myself have fallen victim to this. But if you’re serious about the process, here are some steps to help:

Step 1: Navigate to Settings

Find the section that reads – “Your Facebook Information”

Step 2: Download Data

Click on “Download Your Information“. This will take you to a page that allows you to download every thing. It includes posts, pictures, videos, etc.. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the amount of content it gives you access to.

Step 3: Create File

After selecting what you want, Create File. Depending on how much you post it might take a while. Once it is done, it will notify you.

Now, Download the data.

Step 5. Delete Account

Now, proceed with deleting the account. Navigate back to settings and select the Deactivation and Deletion option.

It will prompt you with the following and you can follow the prompts from there:

They have built a number of failsafes to account for potential regrets. For example, it will hold your account in limbo for 30 days and if you log back in it will reactivate the account (so there is that if you’re nervous). They even have a deactivation option which is kind of nifty as well if you just need a break.

Facebook Provides Little Value, To Me

Over the past few years Facebook has evolved into something I no longer relate with. It has brought out a side of people I never realized existed, and honestly prefer to just move on from. I also don’t need hollow atta-boy’s, congratulations, or a platform to humble-brag about anything.

What I will miss, however, are the meme’s and funny videos. Really did enjoy watching the 5 minute comedy clips. What I won’t miss is the hatred, toxic attitudes and filtered content.

Even with all that, my reason was actually a lot simpler – there was no value in the platform for me, as a person. I encourage you to consider the same question. What value does it bring to your life?

Side Note: The biggest value I did find was to my ventures, not me personally. So I created a separate account to manage those ventures, while deleting my main one.

We live in a world of absolutes. This extremism exists across the entire spectrum, from social engagements, businesses, religious and definitely political positions.

It’s disheartening.

There is no longer room for civil discourse, disagreement and forward movement.

Why? And is that really the case? What is making it this way?

Read More

April 5th, 2020 marked the end of my three year journey with GoDaddy, and 9+ years with Sucuri. The time has come to say goodbye and venture off on a new walk-about.

Everyone Has a First Day, and a Last Day.

I’m stealing this saying form Heather Brunner, CEO of WPEngine.

Internally this won’t be new news, it’s a transition that has been facilitated over the past three months and there is little I can say to the team that hasn’t already been said.

Thank you.

For those that didn’t work with me, but leveraged the tools we built, I thank you for an amazing ride. Sucuri has been an integral part of my identity over the past 9 years, and part of that has been servicing both those that worked with me and those that trusted our products to protect their digital livelihoods.

I am leaving because leadership deserved a leader that is aligned with its strategic direction, vision, and approach. I did not believe I was who they needed.

Self-reflection is an important part of our personal growth. Who an organization needs today, might not be what we have, or want, to offer.

It has been an amazing experience. I have made a lot of mistakes. But I am proud of what we were able to accomplish. Now, it’s time to embark on a new path.

Introducing ColdPath and CleanBrowsing

As for what’s next? I could say I’m taking a sabbatical, but that would be a lie. If you know me, you’ll know that I like to stay busy. I’m excited to introduce CleanBrowsing and ColdPath.

CleanBrowsing

CleanBrowsing is a SAAS business, that offers a DNS-based content filtering service. It was built as a way to help parents take control of what is happening on their network, help them provide safe browsing experiences.

It started as a fun project to help secure our own home networks. We wanted something more effective than the available solutions to ensure that our kids (who where all <11 when we started) were being protected against malicious and obscene content. Like many parents, our kids would be on their devices 24/7 and the amount of information they were exposed to via their video games, ads, and other means was overwhelming.

So, like good technologists, we built a solution to solve our own problem and have made it available to the world to consume. We offer both a Free and Paid service. I invite you to play with it and ask questions. Your feedback will only help us get better.

ColdPath

ColdPath is a fundamentally different business. It’s a security consultancy that helps midsized organizations secure their web applications and infrastructures.

Over the past years we built technology that has dramatically impacted 100’s of thousands of small businesses around the world. I’ve personally helped consult with some of the largest organizations in the web industry.

In the process we have helped organizations of all sizes recover from large scale comprises. Through this process we have gained insights into some of the most effective mitigating controls that help reduce an organizations security risk. We have also learned where organizations typically fail, from lack of technical knowledge, lack of resources, and improper security tools and configurations. ColdPath looks to help these organizations via a consultancy model.

If your business is highly dependent on it’s web infrastructure, and has a disproportionate relationship between the revenue it yields and the number of security professionals committed to protecting it, then ColdPath can help you.

Personal Growth and Exploration

While we find ourselves in unprecedented times, I can’t be more excited about the future.

In addition to the companies mentioned above, I have a number of personal projects under way.

Everything from my off-road racing interests, DDOS Racing team, to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), which I have not been able to actively engage in the past few months, to my new journey with horsemanship.

Site note: I am extremely intrigued with horsemanship. It is so different from the world of tech. It is helping to reinforce my strongest asset – discipline, while also building on my weakest – patience. It’s an amazing exercise that forces you to disconnect and be present or suffer very real consequences.

Additionally, I am hoping to restart my writing. There is a lot to share, from why we sold Sucuri, to what that whole process was like, to what it was like working at the highest echelons of a public company, to the dynamics of growing and managing a wholly remote team before it was a thing.

For all those whom I have met along this journey, I thank you and invite you to tag along as we embark on the next chapter.

It is only appropriate that as you grow, you take the time to reflect and reevaluate who you are as an individual. Over the past 24 months I’ve been undergoing such an experience. Today, I’m excited to launch something I have wanted to do for close to a year an a half – a rebrand of my personal online persona.

I did what most do, I realized I was in need of a change, but lacked the knowledge of how to go about doing it. I was unclear who I should enlist, and although in my head I felt I had a clear picture of what I wanted, when it came time to describe it, I quickly realized how little I actually knew.

A few months back, I was talking to my friend Chris Lema and began to flirt with the idea of acting on my pet project (a personal rebrand). I, however, lack the technical know-how – I’m neither a designer nor a developer, and so the task felt exhausting. It was important that I find a professional organization that could help me accomplish what I thought I wanted, but couldn’t clearly articulate.

Enlisting Professional Help

Over the past two years, or so, I’d seen Chris mention his friends Jennifer Bourn and Brian Bourn numerous times. They are the owners and operators of Bourn Creative. I had the luxury of meeting them at a few events, and enjoyed a few dinners here and there. Enough so that it felt as if we had built a relationship, at least enough of one that I felt comfortable telling them I needed a change, but had no idea how to start.

As a some-what technical person, I think it’s fairly common to think that there is little you can’t do yourself. While true, there is a difference between doing something, and doing it well. Could I have built something that worked? That was Functional? Absolutely! Would it have been what you see today? Not even close!

There is something elegant and amazing that you go through as you try to redefine, or better yet, understand who you are today. I think too often, as humans, we get stuck remembering who we were yesterday, and the idea of change is frightening. Our friends remind us everyday, “Bro, why do you talk like that?”, “Dude, since when do you do that?”

The reality however is that you evolve as a human. There is some point in life where you go through different phases, and you often become those people you said you’d never become. I’ve personally come to terms with the fact that I’m no longer a teenager, or young adult. I think I actually crossed that line years ago, but only over the past 12 months have I come to terms with it. Jennifer helped me realize this, not in words but in beautiful design. She crafted an image of who she perceived me to be, and what she felt best represented who I am.

To me, that’s more than I could have every imagined! It wasn’t about who I wanted to be, or who I was, but who I am today and what I want people to perceive. She got that from the first conversation, all the way to deployment! Then there was Brian, the quiet one, but the brain able to bring to life this beautiful piece of art that his wife so carefully crafted with her finally tuned digital brush.

Thank you Bourns! Love my new design! To the rest of you, enjoy the site and feel free to get lost in its eloquence.