Basic ethical values

What is it about paying for what you break, or any damage you do, that the rich and powerful don't understand?

Even it if it were to "pay to the extent possible," we would be better off than what seems to be the current standard of "pay as little as possible" ... the extreme of greed—clearly evil under the ethical values of our Judaic-Christian culture—of the for-profit business model of minimizing costs and maximizing profits ... and the basis of all fraud.

I am not against private enterprise. Rather, I believe private enterprise and its fair rewards are the most productive economic engine for humanity yet developed. I simply hold that the business transaction should be based on reciprocity with a fair exchange of value, and not on fleecing the other party.

Ethical rules of fairness and justice are relatively simple. Robert Fulghum's book title. "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" says it in a nutshell.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

1 Timothy 6:10
KJV Bible

Frank Rich said what I said and more

Frank Rich, OpEd columnist for The New York Times, wrote in today's paper:

... only if Obama has learned the lessons of the attenuated McChrystal debacle. Lesson No. 1 should be to revisit some of his initial hiring decisions. The general’s significant role in the Pentagon’s politically motivated cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death in 2004 should have been disqualifying from the start. The official investigation into that scandal — finding that McChrystal peddled “inaccurate and misleading assertions” — was unambiguous and damning.

Once made the top commander in Afghanistan, the general was kept on long past his expiration date. He should have been cashiered after he took his first public shot at Joe Biden during a London speaking appearance last October. That’s when McChrystal said he would not support the vice president’s more limited war strategy, should the president choose it over his own. According to Jonathan Alter in his book “The Promise,” McChrystal’s London remarks also disclosed information from a C.I.A. report that the general “had no authority to declassify.” These weren’t his only offenses. McChrystal had gone on a showboating personal publicity tour that culminated with “60 Minutes” — even as his own histrionic Afghanistan recommendation somehow leaked to Bob Woodward, disrupting Obama’s war deliberations. The president was livid, Alter writes, but McChrystal was spared because of a White House consensus that he was naïve, not “out of control.”

We now know, thanks to Hastings, that the general was out of control and the White House was naïve. The price has been huge.

The 36 Hours That Shook Washington
By Frank Rich
The New York Times
Published June 27, 2010

Rich echoed what I wrote in Trouble is, McCrystal never should have happened


You know ... it's another repeat of the age old story of Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage:

And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red [pottage]; for I [am] faint: therefore was his name called Edom.

And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.

And Esau said, Behold, I [am] at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised [his] birthright.

Genesis 25:30-34
The Bible
King James Version
http://www.blueletterbible.org

The old men with wealth and power are selling the long term value of our great nation for their own selfish short term greed. And their decisions follow a pattern of greed rather than ethical values ... even to the point of choosing generals who will bend ethical rules as long as it advances the old men's imperialist drive for control of the globe's resources at the lowest possible unit price. Trouble is, this general began to think he could get away with bending rules beyond the limits of the old men with wealth and power.

The only real enemy we have left in Afghanistan

The only real enemies the U.S. has left in Afghanistan are those of our own making.

That's the short, clear and simple fact.

Al Qaeda has moved to Pakistan.

The conflict on the Obama team is between those who get it and those who don't. Biden versus Petraeus.

Obama gets it. He just won't admit that he gets it.

Obama is sinking in the polls because ...

Obama is sinking in the polls because of things like:

- Unemployment hovers around 10% even after Obama has spent a lot of stimulus money. In other words, the deficit is skyrocketing and unemployment isn't budging ... and he has had long enough to make a difference ... the difference being folks are running out of their unemployment benefits.

- Home mortgages still plague millions of families. (See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/23/fannie-mae-strategic-default_n_623562.html for but one plague.)

- Senior citizens like myself don't like the health care reform at all. We see our Medicare programs being cut and the insurance companies getting a windfall in mandated coverage.

- Then there's the screwup on the containment and cleanup of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill ...

- And his figuring out that he never should have appointed McCrystal to lead the Afghanistan War in the first place, nor kept him on after the leak of "General Stanley A. McChrystal's confidential assessment of the situation in Afghanistan" (see http://spectator.org/archives/2009/10/05/leaking-for-national-security ).

- There's more, like keeping the foxes—Bernake, Geithner, and Summers—in our financial hen house sorting our eggs ... and ... and ... and ...

Obama's missed the big opportunities to show leadership because—IMHO—he does not know the first thing about leadership at this level. And he is not showing any signs of learning anytime soon.

Trouble is, McCrystal never should have happened

You see, after General Stanley McCrystal was directly implicated in the cover-up of slain football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire (see http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/Tillman_mother_sought_to_warn_Obama_of_McChrystal.html ) he never should have been given command of the Afghanistan War.

And then with the leak of "General Stanley A. McChrystal's confidential assessment of the situation in Afghanistan" (see http://spectator.org/archives/2009/10/05/leaking-for-national-security ) McCrystal double-downed on his not being in sync with Obama. Wasn't that strike two at a leadership level which means strike one and you're out?

Actually allowing McCrystal to skate on the first two meant Obama was setting himself up for strike three. In other words, it is not about how Obama handled this instance of poor judgment. The fact that McCrystal was given the opportunity to screw up this badly after already screwing up badly actually—IMHO—fostered the lack of respect he showed for Obama and Obama's Afghanistan policy team.

It's like the kid who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar. If you don't respond appropriately you can pretty much bet on the kid doing it again. It's called human nature ... that most of learn at an early age.

McCrystal must have got to the point where he thought the bar of what he could get away with was pretty low ... and up to now he was right. Trouble is, the Obama's "bar" is still too low. McCrystal just went lower.

And the fact that Obama didn't have the command instincts to see this coming ... well, I keep saying, Obama lacks command ability at this level.

Obama is an embarrassment

I don't believe it! Do I laugh or do I cry? Maybe it's laugh at Obama and cry for the "small" people of the Gulf States. (Can you believe BP Chairman of the Board Carl-Henric Svanberg calling folks that?! See http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20100620/OPINION02/6200308)

The next day after the nothing speech from the Oval Office on the BP Deepwater Horizon well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico and onto the shores, marshes, and estuaries of the Gulf States ... Obama touts his jawboning a $20 million escrow account from BP to cover the costs of the oil spill. (See http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/06/obama-bp-compensation-fund-/1) Then we learn it is $5 million a year for 4 years. Quoting from the above link:

Obama said BP is committed to ensuring that economic claims will be processed and paid out in a timely manner. According to a White House fact sheet, BP will contribute $5 billion a year for four years into an escrow account. BP is providing assurance that their financial obligations will be met by setting aside $20 billion in U.S. assets.

My god! BP's gross profit from the latest reporting period prior to the spill was $212+ Billion. (See http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BP+Key+Statistics) $5 Billion a year is walking around money for BP aka chump change. (Walking away money?) They must be laughing all the way to the next shareholders' meeting. We won't know what BP's $5 Billion a year means until we add up the annual damages.

What we do know is that BP has promised reform before and failed to deliver. Read BP Ignored the Omens of Disaster by JOE NOCERA in The New York Times on June 18, 2010.

That should have given Obama more than enough ammunition to wrest the command of the cleanup away from BP. But he obviously doesn't know how to command and Obama received the most from BP in the way of their campaign donations. (See "Obama biggest recipient of BP cash", http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505 )

And the person Obama did put in charge of the Federal Government's efforts is proving to be a master of bureaucratic oversight but weak on actually getting the work done. You have to read BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal's Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard then watch and listen to the accompanying video at the link.

I keep saying it: Obama does not know how to command the large-scale effort like the containment and cleanup of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Thank god we had Eisenhower for the D-Day invasion. (See my two earlier posts: Why Obama is incompetent! and I am getting tired of Obama.

We do NOT have a Commander-in-Chief

Let's face it. We do not have a Commander-in-Chief.

Obama is actually worse than Carter. Carter was at least a Navy officer and a Governor of the State of Georgia. Obama was a community organizer, professor of constitutional law, and U.S. Senator from Illinois.

There is nothing in Obama's background that prepares him for command. He definitely does not fit the leadership mold of FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy ... a string of Presidents that took our nation to greatness. Then poof! and we wind up with an Obama ... bought and paid for by large corporations ... banks and oil.

(See "Obama biggest recipient of BP cash", http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505 )

Quoting from "Efforts to Repel Gulf Oil Spill Are Described as Chaotic" by Campbell Robertson and published in The New York times on June 14, 2010:

Closer to shore, the efforts to keep the oil away from land have not fared much better, despite a response effort involving thousands of boats, tens of thousands of workers and millions of feet of containment boom.

From the beginning, the effort has been bedeviled by a lack of preparation, organization, urgency and clear lines of authority among federal, state and local officials, as well as BP. As a result, officials and experts say, the damage to the coastline and wildlife has been worse than it might have been if the response had been faster and orchestrated more effectively.

“The present system is not working,” Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said Thursday at a hearing in Washington devoted to assessing the spill and the response. Oil had just entered Florida waters, Senator Nelson said, adding that no one was notified at either the state or local level, a failure of communication that echoed Mr. Bonano’s story and countless others along the Gulf Coast.

“The information is not flowing,” Senator Nelson said. “The decisions are not timely. The resources are not produced. And as a result, you have a big mess, with no command and control.”

As I wrote in an earlier post, "Obama is proving his incompetence as a President of the United States in one word, containment!" (See "Why Obama is incompetent!")

I am getting tired of Obama.

If I had the opportunity to talk to President Obama, I would tell him, "You know, Mr. President best thinking by best minds is what got us here."

As Bob Herbert reports in his column today in The New York Times, ">A Very Deep Hole:"More than 15 million Americans are out of work, and nearly half have been jobless for six months or longer."

And the oil from the BP oil well blowout keeps spreading onto the marshes and beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

While our President is ready to implement the best solution ... as soon as he finds it.

Maybe someone should explain to him how the Allies succeeded in coming ashore on D-Day—June 6th—at Normandy. Talk about how planning gets screwed up by reality! What saved the day was the motivation, ingenuity, and ability to improvise by the soldiers and sailors on the beaches. They didn't have to rely on someone telling them what they could or could not do. They took what they had at hand—even the rifles and bullets off their fallen comrades—as they kept moving forward under the guidance and leadership of their "local" officers on the beach with them. It was up to the generals and admirals to keep it all coming ... men, equipment, and supplies.

If Obama knew how to command he would know that there comes a time in situations like this when you have to turn your local "fighters" loose to do what they have to do ... under the guidance and leadership of the "local" leaders ... and concentrate on keeping the "fighters", equipment, and supplies coming ... as needed ... along the whole front of the battle.

It would appear that there are folks available to do this. We just need a commander to get it done.

(Note: A message emailed to Rachel Maddow at MSNBC today.)

Why Obama is incompetent!

Obama is proving his incompetence as a President of the United States in one word, containment!

His leadership on the actions necessary to contain the BP oil spill are so inadequate they are laughable.

BP caused the accident. It didn't just "happen." And the criminal and civil investigations will undoubtedly lay this out with great clarity in the months and years ahead.

But ...

Once the accident "happened," it was up to Obama to act decisively and immediately to contain the oil as quickly and as thoroughly as possible BECAUSE the best independent experts were telling us how bad it could get ... decisively and immediately.

One example of leadership in a large scale operation of this type is to treat it as the front line of a battle. The line is divided into sectors and each sector is put under the command of its own sector leader. And each sector is divided in sub-sectors down to the level of the company and the company commander ... and even further under the company commander to the platoon leader ... and squad and squad leader. The responsibility is clearly defined ... and it isn't rocket science. We've been doing it for millenia ... or at least since 300 Spartans defied the tyranny of Xerxes at Thermopylae over 2500 years ago.

For Obama to allow BP to take charge of the containment and—then—clean-up, hiring a skeleton workforce that left large sectors of vulnerable wetlands unmanned ... well ... that's the evidence of Obama's incompetence on containment.

My gawd, the global finance elite are stealing us blind!

What do I keep telling y'all (as others do also)?

Obama is either the head fox or a front for the foxes in our hen house, sorting our eggs ...

Bernake, Geithner, and Summers are three of the foxes ...

The "conspiracy" creating the fox mindset is the education that the elite receive from our "Ivy League" (elite) schools ... so they become like a group of NBA All-Stars ... seamlessly bringing the ball down the floor ... or -- in this case -- siphoning off the wealth created by we the people's labor.

My gawd! They are stealing everything in pursuit of THEIR theory of global finance ... and they believe that their accumulation of wealth and power proves that they are the top of the pecking order in the survival of the fittest ... which used to be the Will of (the current) God ... also used to justify slavery, feudalism, fascism ... earlier schemes by elites to rip off our labor.

Once again their greed will keep pushing it until we the people get mad enough to storm the barricades ... which doesn't always lead to a George Washington. We could get a Maximilien Robespierre.

The greedy elite should think about it ... seriously. Maybe some will be rational enough to put some brakes on the irrational greed now gaining control.

IMHO workers in the United States simply want equality of opportunity and fairness in reward.

An open letter to Arianna Huffington, posted today on huffingtonpost.com

Dear Arianna,

I have to contradict you on one point. It is becoming crystal clear that Obama did not expect different results. He is a front person for corporatism whose obvious first focus is to reduce the cost of global labor in order for the corporate elite to rip off more of the wealth our labor created/creates.

This corporate elite is educated in the "best" universities to think of themselves as deserving of their status ... in the continuum of slavery, feudalism, fascism, ye olde company store ... always establishing a political/economic/religious structure that makes the denial of a fair share for labor of the wealth labor creates appear legitimate ... even the describing the structure/system as the Hand/Will of whatever God is ascendant at the time.

The basic political question is the division of wealth ... going back to the tribal hunt when the spoils were divided among the tribe. IMHO.

It is time to have a march on Washington ... for Cherry Blossom time ... each of us with resources left helping a homeless/unemployed person/family make the journey with us to lobby our Representatives and Senators in Congress. This should be obvious out of the history of we the people descending on Washington to have our voices heard.

All we need is a leader of our own to call us to action. Will you be that leader, Arianna?

Best regards,
HG Lindquist

Thoughts after President Obama's Afghanistan War speech ...

President Obama trapped himself with his speech double-downing on the war in Afghanistan as a war of necessity on August 17th to the Veterans of Foreign Wars no less. He couldn't reverse course without bringing all his rhetoric (his main strength?) into repute. What would he have left? Whenever he said anything, we would all say let's wait and see what he does, and ask, has he thought this through or committed himself to a course that he later might wish he hadn't?

The main point is, as Frank Rich makes in his column—Obama’s Logic Is No Match for Afghanistan—today, Sunday, December 6, on the OpEd page of The New York Times, we are not willing to pay for this war AND we can't afford it ... not in treasure or horribly in the lives and blood of some of this generation's best and brightest, selected to go to war because they are. 

The shear incongruity of the cost to us vs. the cost to Al Qaeda is insane. Al Qaeda is bleeding us dry, bringing us to our knees as a great nation and our leaders can't see it? One hundred in the tribal areas of Pakistan costing what? $1000 dollars a year each? ... against 100,000 in Afghanistan costing $1,000,000 a year each?

While our infrastructure crumbles as we fail to modernize our nation, educate our children, or take care of our sick and elderly? When the real "war" for global supremacy is waged in economics and by the example of building a modern nation, educating children, and taking care of the sick and elderly ...

Just one statistic, over 2,100 suicides among our military since the latest Iraq War began, should give our leaders pause.

While suicide bombers continue to blow up themselves and their victims around the globe.

A new iteration of the company store

When high rates of interest--usury--became legal the working class became entangled in a new iteration of the company store, a continuation of slavery and feudalism whereby an elite siphons off the wealth labor creates.

The financial services sector is the new company store and because the workers of this country are among the most, if not THE most--productive of the world, there is a huge amount of wealth to rip off.

It simply shows how brainwashed we have become, to accept the greed of our current elite -- as vile as any communist cadre -- as the will of God, or the working of The Invisible Hand.

It's absurd. And when future historians look back on this post-Reagan era, they will shake their heads over our collective gullibility.

The Obama administration is not going to curb the financial services sector's excesses

The Obama administration is not going to curb the financial services sector's excesses. They front for them.

The Democratic Party mollifies the left while the Republican Party mollifies the right in a Tweedle Dee-Tweedle Dum political dance as a front for the financial services sector. It is the latest and arguably most sophisticated system -- in the continuum of slavery, feudalism, and fascism -- for an elite to siphon away the wealth labor creates.

It should be clear by now that we do not have a political party that represents the interest of labor ... and "labor" is NOT synonymous with "union" as in "labor union" ... IMHO.

History is the story of political/economic structures (and belief systems to support those structures) that siphon off the wealth created by labor by an elite: slavery, feudalism, fascism. As an aside, Hitler's contribution was to convince a whole ehnic group that they were "the elite" and could live off the labor of "lesser peoples."

The current elite -- the financial services sector's gurus -- siphon the wealth through forward-leaning instruments of debt. They use our money to create these instruments at obscene multiples called leverage, thereby tightening the stranglehold on future earnings. If they had to suffer the consequences of their actions in creating an unsustainable debt-hold into the future, they might not do it ... but there is the point that the individual guru (banker) can get his/her money up front in pay and bonuses, no matter what the future to the "bank" ... and then when we, the taxpayer/worker, turn around and bail the bank out for ripping us off ... well, it's absurd on the face of it, don't you think?

The Obama administration is the fox in the hen house ... clearly.

Posted to www.huffingtonpost.com/social/hglindquist

age-old political structure of controlling the economics -- a comment on HuffingtonPost.com

It's the age-old political structure of controlling the economics of an elite living off the labor of the workers: slavery, feudalism, fascism ...

America grew to the greatest society with the concept of a fair share for workers out the of wealth their labor helps create.

"Trickle down" is absurd. There aren't enough "elite" to support the services of a broad and vibrant middle class -- the teachers, doctors, lawyers, master craftspersons, etc -- that is the strength of our -- the greatest ever -- society.

It has to be "percolate up" from workers earning a living wage as the bottom rung of the wage ladder and needing those services.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/25/independent-voters-shifti_n_333168.html?show_comment_id=33428037#comment_33428037

Lackeys of the high priests/gurus pf financial services — a comment on HuffingtonPost.com

How the U.S. Blew Trillion-Dollar Trade of Century: Mark Fisher
Commentary by Mark Fisher

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg)

"Unfortunately, our leaders in Washington lacked the shrewdness required to guarantee taxpayers a permanent ownership stake in the banks their money was being used to save. An innovative investment solution could have secured some of the necessary funds to fix our disaster of a health-care system or Social Security mishap."

They didn't lack the shrewdness required, rather they were (are) lackeys of the high priests/gurus of financial services, the new elite siphoning off the wealth created by the labor. This is the age-old continuation of slavery, feudalism, fascism ... a political structure supporting the economics of some form of slavery: robbing the workers.

America beccame great on the promise of a fair share of the wealth our work — mental and physical effort — helps create.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/26/how-the-us-blew-the-trill_n_333330.html?show_comment_id=33426985#comment_33426985

Support peace! — a comment on HuffingtonPost.com

It is time to invest in the strategies for peace. "Support peace!"

By bringing an end to our nation's strategic objective of controlling access to Middle East oil.

Everyone, please read "A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables" by By Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi in the November 2009 issue of Scientific American:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030

We can do this! As the authors point out:

"During World War II, the U.S. retooled automobile factories to produce 300,000 aircraft, and other countries produced 486,000 more. In 1956 the U.S. began
building the Interstate Highway System, which after 35 years extended for 47,000 miles, changing commerce and society."


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brenner/obama----really-the-afgha_b_332655.html?page=2&show_comment_id=33422082#comment_33422082

Percolate up, a comment on HuffingtonPost.com

As fijisailor wrote, "The prosperity of America has always been based on a large middle class."

What the elite believe is that "trickle down" feeds the middle class. It doesn't. "Trickle down" feeds a banana republic.

"Percolate up" from the working class earning a living wage for an adult worker is what feeds a vibrant middle class. Only a viable working class is large enough to need the number of teachers, doctors, lawyers, craftsmen, etc. to create the kind and size of middle class that produced the greatest society in the world.


Read the thread at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-talks-about-bailo_b_333132.html

A so-called "free market" is a "free-for-all" where bullies win

Let's get some phrases that we the people can understand.

A free market is a free-for-all where bullies win. Do we really want to give up standard weights and measures and speed limits? Are we REALLY that dumb? I certainly hope not.

Do you really want me to make a profit no matter what it costs everyone else? Like, shouldn't I pay for the damage I do to you? See, if you or I are buying something in a fair market transaction, we are getting something we normally view as of equal or greater value. But what if you have to pay for your cancer caused by pollutants I dump into the environment? We already know the answer to that, you can sue me. Now what about the damage done economically by the toxic assets dumped into the economy?

Why should corporations earn profits no matter how much it costs society in real damages for the corporations to earn those profits?

Why then would anyone devise a scheme that rewards folks that caused so much damage? We -- the taxpayer -- are paying the costs of the corporations short-term profits that got distributed in bonuses and salaries in a classic Ponzi scheme that we're paying off ... it's like we made Bernie Madoff whole instead of sending him to prison.

That's an "ism" that I call "Corporationism" (I define as "protecting corporations "right" to earn a profit no matter what it costs society), AND in its current viral form, it's pretty damn evil ... speaking of evil "isms".

"Why our nation is falling apart"

The Forbes 400 Shows Why Our Nation Is Falling Apart
By Les Leopold
October 1, 2009

I emphatically agree with and applaud this post by Les Leopold on HuffingtonPost.com! We have caught a viral form of corporationism: protecting corporations "right" to earn a profit no matter what it costs society.

Would we allow a free-for-all in sports? Of course not. And every time we let the so-called brilliant financial gurus talk us into a so-called "free" market we get snookered in Ponzi schemes. (Who said the Fed is a Ponzi scheme? IMHO they are right.) Because the corporations at the top of the pecking order do not pay the costs they impose on society ("externalities" anyone?) there is no such thing as a "free" market, and we have known this even in economics theory for quite some time.

Besides, who would want a market without standard weights and measures? A market without regulation is absurd on the face of it. And we have listened to these "brilliant" idiots spouting the nonsense of "free" markets and deregulation for 30-plus years?! When it is a simple matter taught to us millennia ago, "The love of money is the root of all evil." This tragicomedy played out over the past 30-plus years leaves me wondering if I should laugh or cry ... or get mad as hell and not take it anymore.

Originally written as my comment on HuffingtonPost.com under my real name: hglindquist.