Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

Wow, We Bought a Castle – Grifting Can Be Fun!

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics

I must admit that I think this whole thing is hilarious. Probably thousands of people and organizations coughed up millions of dollars thinking not unreasonably that the money would be used for advocacy. The organization advertised itself as anti-immigration so they were probably thinking television commercials, editorials, books and articles, maybe a documentary. But that would have been a mundane and common use for monetary contributions. Instead of that silly advocacy stuff they bought a castle in West Virginia. I promise I had no idea that West Virginia participated in the Medieval Period but there it is, a real castle. It must have been a lonely existence waiting for America to be discovered.

(More of a French Chateaux but close enough. I have no concept of what a West Virginia castle looks like.)

Satire aside, maybe this is one of those apocalyptic preparations for the end times. We might eventually see pure-bred Anglo-Saxons pouring hot oil on rappers and Hispanic gardeners, and maybe even hordes of seasonal farm workers.

Buying a castle is probably pretty tempting even if you don’t think the world is ending any time soon. And you can live in the thing which has to be nice. The views are probably amazing.

Twenty some years ago, I found at article about a Republican’s Congressman’s wife who had set up a Political Action Committee with the stated intention of collecting money for Republican candidates. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were used for “administrative” costs and nearly twenty dollars was raised for the electioneering part.

After some reflection I did not write about it. As far as I could tell that money not going to those candidates was an excellent outcome and I was content.

And I must admit I’m very content with this one, too. As long as they aren’t spending the money for a cause I disapprove of, I’m just fine. Let them buy another castle, they can buy lots and lots of stuff, do some fine dining and take home some champagne afterwards.

When the right wing is out for the grift, all of America benefits.

James Alan Pilant

The article below is quite good and I recommend you go to its home and read the whole thing. jp

Kara Scannell writing for CNN reports that civil charges have been filed alleging that – Far-right activists ‘looted’ corporate assets to buy a castle, NY AG says.

The New York attorney general’s office filed civil charges against far-right anti-immigration activist Peter Brimelow and his wife for allegedly misusing more than $2 million in assets, including a West Virginia castle, from a charitable foundation they run.

Brimelow founded VDARE, whose website has been a platform for white nationalist and anti-immigration viewpoints, and ran it with his wife Lydia until he suspended it in 2024 because of NY AG Letitia James’ investigation into its finances.

The lawsuit alleges the Brimelows used $1.4 million dollars of VDARE funds to acquire a castle complex in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. They moved into the castle, transferred it to two entities they controlled and charged VDARE rent and fees for use of the space, according to the lawsuit.

Worked to Death.

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism

The story referenced below is a sad tale but a common one.

A young man feeling pressured by his employer worked long hour days for a long period of time and as a result died.

A small sacrifice for predatory capitalism.

I believe in righteousness but there is small part of me that admires the complete ruthlessness of working people to death for maximum profit.

If you can work a human being for forty hours a week, you get the benefit of a regular employee but if you can classify his job as not being covered by hourly limits, you can get him to work eighty hours a work, two workers for the price of one. My understanding is that a hundred hours is the current popular number.

Do I need to tell you that this is a cruel from of exploitation?

We live in a society that worships mammon. The fact that the Bible expressly prohibits the worship of money does not seem to have any traction at all.

Of course any sort of Christian based belief system parted ways with American capitalism long ago.

So, people are being sacrificed to the bottom line. In this case, worked extreme hours for long periods ot time. Dying young saves the company from the problems of paying retirement and there are many other benefits besides.

I remember studying child labor in the late 19th Century. They worked six days a week, 12 hour days. Of course, that is only 72 hours. One could be impressed at the kindness of management.

It is well understood that when huge multi-national corporations mistreat their workers, that they have little individual recourse. They are an atom alone in the universe to paraphrase one of predatory capitalism’s most revered leaders, Margaret Thatcher. Alone and helpless against politically influential and in the case of the United States, politically invulnerable.

Overworking people is just a corporation and its leadership mistreating and exploiting human beings. It is simple abuse.

Why hasn’t anything been done about this?

Because we have two political parties, one dominated by oligarchs and the other has a thing called corporate Democrats which means they attempt at times to appear to be friends of the working class but their abject corporate servility and devotion to corporate contributions are so ingrained they find that any action that might benefit common workers is in their view unrealistic and radical.

In fact, it is quite clear that corporate Democrats find voters a bit intimidating and troublesome. That is why they employ think tank and professional to avoid contact with the teaming masses praying for help.

And so the abuse of workers, unpaid overtime, illegal firings, union busting and sometimes simply working a human being to death is beneath the concern of those running our government.

In the United States corporate profits are superb even magnificent.

Do you know why?

It is hard to fail as an American corporation because you pay few or any taxes, you can legally treat your workers as little more than cattle, and largely exist outside all the rules — and if rules get in your way, you can get them fixed.

It is a very comfortable place for a corporation to exist, not so much for the worker though or the citizen or any human being with moral fiber.

Read the story below and realize that he died for corporate profits.

James Pilant

Madison E. Goldberg writing for People Magazine has a article: Microsoft Engineer Dies at Work at 35 as His Family Warns of Overworking Employees.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/microsoft-engineer-dies-35-family-134823435.html

A 35-year-old Microsoft engineer died at work in Silicon Valley last month and his family is now warning companies of overworking their employees.

Pratik Pandey was “found face-down” at 2 a.m. local time on Aug. 20 in Mountain View, Calif., on Microsoft’s campus, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post.

Sanitized History is Wrong

On By southwerkIn Editorial, ethics, Government Failure, International

We’ve been hearing a lot about our foolish leadership and his desire to limit the Smithsonian’s coverage of the history of slavery because he believes they talk too much about it.

They don’t talk to much about it. What has happened is that historians are really coming to grips with the history of slavery and its long term effects. At various points in my life I have attended college winding up with thirteen and a half years of full time attendance as well as another twelve years or so teaching. In that time, I have seen the teaching of Reconstruction and slavery changing dramatically.

After the Civil War, the defeated confederates did everything possible to make states rights the center of the war’s cause rather than slavery. However, a very casual examination of the issue and a quick look at the newspapers of the revolutionary South demonstrate conclusively that slavery was the principle factor in the rebellion.

After the war, superhuman efforts were made to write a new and highly fictionalized history of the war, the “lost cause” narrative was created and emblazoned across novel after novel and many motion pictures as well. The shock of my white students upon seeing “Judge Priest” with Will Rogers and its utter and complete embrace of the lost cause I found fascinating. My minority students were well aware of that narrative.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy labored for years to sanitize history books, build statues and monuments and to attack any attempt at an accurate depiction of the Civil War. Their statues of traitors and subversives who killed their fellow Americans in the pursuit of the right to enslave others are all over the United States but principally in the South.

Historians are no longer buying into the Confederate sympathizers historical revision. The horrors of slavery began to be discussed honestly in the classroom. I had some of those classes. Slaves were very often maimed to mark them as property. They were murdered for defiance. They were bred like cattle for muscles and size so they could work the land. They were denied education as well as virtually any human right recognized by American law. The idea that they were vital and cherished members of the family is pitiful nonsense.

But above all, the greatest and most significant failure of American history was the fact that the confederate traitors were not punished after the war. Their evil acts and continued defiance had dire results which continue to this day.

And among those dire effects are the desire to censor American history of everything that might detract from a heroic narrative. Nations should not be a subject of worship. A nation is something that a people develop and if they do right be proud of and if they do wrong own up to it.

The glory of America is that we learned from our mistakes. Not only did we abolish slavery, we became leaders in the struggle to end colonialism and many other worldwide evils. Until this year we were the most important nation on earth in the struggle to end hunger and fight disease all thought this has been ended by the pitiful and immoral current regime. In many ways we have learned from our history and become a better and greater people.

That we do right is our glory and our legacy not some nonsensical made up history where everything was good and great in spite of facts and knowledge.

The United States is a great nation because it learns from its mistakes not by denying them.

James Alan Pilant

Is Publicly Booing J.D. Vance Patriotic?

On By southwerkIn corruption, Editorial, ethics

I’m sure there are many people on both sides of this issue. Many probably feel that booing a public figure such as the Vice-President disrespects the office while others feel that current circumstances demand such action. However, you might personally feel there can be no doubt that a very large amount of booing and shouted insults are taking place.

(The Battle of Trenton – Patriots at war.)

I have seen this administration make my field of business ethics ridiculous by engaging in continuous waves of corruption, selling crap merchandise and advertising openly its willingness to be bought.

So, I feel like booing. I never thought to see such vile people elevated to positions of power in the United States.

So, yes, I think true patriots will boo these awful people.

Professor Winter quoted below has some thoughts that run very much along the same lines as mine.

Kari J. Winter, a professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo, emphasized that these protests are an “act of American patriotism.”

“Protesting against tyrannical power and corruption is the foundational act of American patriotism,” she said. “The protests that we are witnessing across the country today are fueled by the spirit of resistance that inflamed Boston in the Age of Revolution.

“It is the duty of everyone who loves this country to speak up in whatever ways they can against the Trump administration’s assault on every aspect of American society that has traditionally offered a gold standard to the world,” she continued, adding: “In place of gold standards, Trump promotes gilded baubles, golden toilets and gaudy ballrooms. ”

Kimberley Richards writing for Huff Post has an article: (quoted above) JD Vance’s Brutal Public Booing Is Prompting Quite The Strong Reaction Online.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jd-vances-brutal-public-booing-110017405.html

Meaningful Prayer

On By southwerkIn ethics, morality, Opinion

Often on Facebook, I am asked to pray for a number of causes, often a pet or family member, sometimes a cause. I usually comply. When someone or a pet is ill, I would very much like them to get better.

Those prayers are private and I hope they do some good. But you and I both know that much public religion is little more than grandstanding. And here in the United States, many politicians wish the mantle of Christianity. We often, very often, see them fail to uphold the behavior of a follower of Christ.

The Pharisees are one of the earliest practitioners of the “public” prayer. They would go out on the street and pray publicly and loudly to demonstrate their piety. Jesus Christ called them out for their false religion and said they would have their “reward.”

But we have in our modern age, “Thoughts and Prayers.” This is a media strategy to divert criticism from a total and complete lack of action most often in regard to firearms. While children are being stacked up by so much bullet riddled cord wood, the solemn intonation that they have the thoughts and prayers of a prime recipient of National Rifle Association votes and money are solemnly reported by a compliant media.

Do the children, dead and wounded, deserve prayer? Yes, absolutely. What kind of prayer? Why don’t we see what a professional says?

Pope Leo XIV called for the “pandemic of arms, large and small” to end during a weekly public prayer with crowds in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that also addressed the plague of mass shootings in the US.

The first US pope in history, a native of Chicago, spoke in English as he prayed for the victims of last week’s shooting during a Catholic school mass in Minnesota which saw two children killed and others seriously injured.

“Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school mass in the American state of Minnesota,” he said. “We hold in our prayers the countless children killed and injured every day around the world. Let us plead God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world.”

Michael Sainato writing for the Guardian reports in an article entitled (and quoted from just above this passage) Pope Leo demands end to ‘pandemic of arms’ after Minnesota school shooting

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/pope-leo-minnesota-school-shooting

The Pontiff didn’t just offer “Thoughts and Prayers,” he addressed the root cause of all these small dead bodies. He’s calling for action, constructive and intelligent action to stop this kind of violence.

Let me explain about meaningful prayer. If you want children to be fed and they are nearby – like outside your door, feed them. Prayers is just spoken nonsense when you know what needs to be done and you don’t do it.

Prayer is never to be used as an excuse or substitute for action. We are justified in the eyes of God by what we do or fail to do. Your faith in God is demonstrated by works. What you do shows what is in your heart.

And using “thoughts and prayers” as political cover is horribly impious and wrong.
James Alan Pilant

Piotr Szczerek Takes Hat Meant for a Child

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism

“If you were faster, You’d have it.” is a defense I haven’t heard before. And I seriously doubt that I will ever hear it again.

Piotr Szczerek is seen on film taking an autographed hat being handed to a child in the stands of a tennis match. If you have a minute I recommend you have a look at the video. I promise you that it does not leave a lot of room for doubt about what happened.

He seems a little sensitive while a tower of strength while dealing with small children, he seems a bit shy with adults. He has shut down his social media and has proclaimed loudly that he will sue anyone who criticizes him online.

(This illustration above is from “A Christmas Carol” and shows Scrooge being confronted by his former partner, Marley. It is no way meant to suggest that someone mentioned in the attached article has done something wrong and should be sorry.)

(The following four lines are supposed to be in the main body of the writing but WordPress has an unfortunate habit of “enlarging” my designated texts into anything nearby.)

As a business ethics author I can’t help but feel this might not be the best “look” for the CEO of a company.

His company web site is currently being “review bombed.”

Will there be other, more substantive consequences? That remains to be seen.

James Alan Pilant

For more information, please read the article linked to below. Quincy Thomas has written a good piece of journalism.

Quincy Thomas writing for “Where Is the Buzz,” had the following article: Polish Millionaire CEO Piotr Szczerek Reportedly Defends Snatching Kid’s Hat at US Open: “If You Were Faster, You’d Have It”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/polish-millionaire-ceo-piotr-szczerek-184725888.html

The US Open has always attracted drama around it, but this time the drama was not on the court, rather in the stands. After Polish tennis pro Kamil Majchrzak secured the best victory in his life as he beat ninth-seeded Karen Khachanov in five thrilling sets, the player walked towards the stands to spread love. He autographed, waved, grinned, then took off his hat and particularly pointed towards a boy named Brock in the stands.

Others thought that this was one of those fan moments that kids will always remember throughout their life. But instead of that, this is another viral scandal.

Even before the boy could spread wide his arms, the adult male, Polish tycoon, pavement construction magnate, Piotr Szczerek, grasped the hat, thrust it into the pocket in the bag belonging to his wife, and walked away leaving the boy heart-broken as he yelled, “What are you doing?”

When We Destroy Forests, People Die

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism, Economic Justice

In Brazil, organized crime and a wave of loggers and prospectors have murdered and raped their way across the Amazon Basin. In Asia, forest destruction and the immense fires that resulted have devestated many lives. These are terrible, terrible crimes but a twenty year study finds that there is collateral damage in the form of heat related illness.

(This is from a book of detective stories from more than 120 years ago. It is dramatic and indicates important issues are about to be resolved. I am using it for my writing on this occasion.)

In the United States, we have the largely unpunished and uninvestigated murders of indigenous women although there is a local, state and federal preference of a kind of quasi-legal seizure and destruction of natural resources. Of course, no intelligent human being can fail to mention the massive corruption of our current regime, its wholesale destructions of regulations and enforcement agencies, not to mention the “open for business” attitude that if a corporation has a problem, arrangements can be made.

I want you to understand that I am well aware that greed and evil are international problems and that while deforestation is a more dramatic crisis in east Asian and South America, the United States and its corruption are in no way exempt for causing and profiting from forest destruction.

What kind of collateral damage are we talking about? Over the last twenty years, over half a million have died from heat related illness and many, many millions more have suffered such illness.

I don’t see much need for a business ethics analysis. Destroying huge swaths of the planet to make money is wrong.

There should fines, imprisonment and shaming. The people who do these horrible things should have their pictures published and their names removed from colleges, dorms and cultural institutions. They should at all times be exposed for the destructive cockroaches that they are. But be well aware, a good and moral society would not just rely on shame but would punish them for their crimes.

James Alan Pilant

Jonathan Watts writing for The Guardian has an article: Deforestation has killed half a million people in past 20 years, study finds.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/27/deforestation-has-killed-half-a-million-people-in-past-20-years-study-finds

Deforestation has killed more than half a million people in the tropics over the past two decades as a result of heat-related illness, a study has found.

Land clearance is raising the temperature in the rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia because it reduces shade, diminishes rainfall and increases the risk of fire, the authors of the paper found.

Deforestation is responsible for more than a third of the warming experienced by people living in the affected regions, which is on top of the effect of global climate disruption.

About 345 million people across the tropics suffered from this localised, deforestation-caused warming between 2001 and 2020. For 2.6 million of them, the additional heating added 3C to their heat exposure.

A Trojan Dog in Taiwan?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Taiwan is claimed by China under a sort of “lost province” narrative, which I don’t buy into.

So, bearing that in mind, should Hammer Lee (a kind of Marvel Superhero name – got to give credit, that is one great name!) have acquired a Chinese built robot dog to patrol the streets of the city of Taipei. It might seem to the casual observer that the government has imported a artificial threat able to gather useful information for later use in an invasion.

Perhaps if this situation had happened in an episode of the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, the mechanical infiltrator would fall in love with a beautiful police officer in Taipei and renounce its allegiance to the Chinese Superpower. In movies and television, robots are always suckers for romance and a pretty face.

In his defense, Hammer says the surveillance camera system is of Taiwanese design. I don’t find that very convincing. The Chinese are famous for putting their own spin (and devices) in what seems like relatively benign items. And this thing looks in no way benign. Big metal dogs look daunting to me and we are seeing a lot canine inspired war machines in a number of nations.

What I find really odd about this whole thing is that Taiwan is well known as a manufacturer and international innovator in building robots. I freely admit their designs (as far as I could see) are humanoid and they may not have any dogs. But I don’t see why you couldn’t use an upright human style robot to do the same job.

The really scary thing about this is the idea of robots patrolling our streets here in the United States. Our federal government is currently bizarrely incompetent and I don’t want them to have any new toys they can misuse.

James Alan Pilant

(It is highly likely this engraving of 19th Century London will be found inappropriate by many readers. In response, I would respectfully ask, “What chances do you think there are of me finding a non copyright protected image of a Chinese military robot dog or any robot dog for that matter?” Just enjoy the picture.)

Helen Davidson and Jason Tzu Kuan Lu reporting for The Guardian in an article: Taipei City council in the dog house over Chinese-made patrol robot.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/28/taipei-city-council-in-the-dog-house-over-chinese-made-patrol-robot

Taipei City council has come under fire after admitting that a robot dog it bought to help patrol city streets using surveillance cameras was made by a Chinese companylinked to the Chinese military.

Hammer Lee, the deputy mayor of Taiwan’s capital, introduced a “new patrol partner” for the management and repair of pedestrian areas in a post on Facebook on Tuesday.

“This robot, equipped with an optical panoramic survey system, can create 360-degree images, accurately locate facilities, and even automatically report missing items,” Lee said, noting its ability to “accumulate comprehensive data”.

The Resistance Fights Back

On By southwerkIn moral philosophy

The Climate web site whose staff was fired and operations halted is getting a second shot at life. This time as a private venture,  climate.us.

Anyone with any concern for our future on this planet should add this to their browser as a useful and important web site.

Rebecca Lindsey is quoted in the article linked to below as saying:

“What’s happening can feel so overwhelming that it’s easy to feel like you’re powerless to do anything about it,” said Lindsey’s team member. “But sometimes you have to just look out and see what’s within your reach. And this problem is within our reach, so we just see it as sort of doing our part.”

And she is right. Every day some new horror, some new obscenity, some new assault on justice, on knowledge, on actual Christianity is thrown out there like a stain on white silk by the current administration and it is easy to get exhausted by the flood.

Eric Holthaus writing for the Guardian wrote the following article: Scientists breathe new life into climate website after shutdown under Trump.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/30/climate-gov-website-trump

Earlier this summer, access to climate.gov – one of the most widely used portals of climate information on the internet – was thwarted by the Trump administration, and its production team was fired in the process.

…

Now, a team of climate communication experts – including many members of the former climate.gov team – is working to resurrect its content into a new organization with an expanded mission.

Their effort’s new website, climate.us, would not only offer public-facing interpretations of climate science, but could also begin to directly offer climate-related services, such as assisting local governments with mapping increased flooding risk due to climate change.

This is an important lesson, an act of defiance against the fools and charlatans running the current regime.

We must never give into hopelessness.

Our democracy is at stake.

We must fight. They are fighting for scientific knowledge and a respect for factual data. Look at their courage and hard work and realize that what we do matters.

James Alan Pilant

The Ethics Disaster at the CDC

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Editorial

In one of the greatest, if not the greatest, scientific disaster in this nation’s history, the head of the CDC was fired followed by the resignations of some of the finest scientific minds in the nation.

On one side of this firing and these resignations we have an unhinged conspiracy theorist. On the other we have seasoned scientists with decades of experience in dealing with vaccines and disease.

In any other administration, science would prevail.

But we have this administration.

(A picture from the book, An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800. It was published in the 19th Century. It seems to carry an appropriate ambience for the current situation. jp)

In many business ethics disasters people die, nations are severely harmed, land become barren and toxic. What do you say about this one? This is a situation where a nation’s defense against disease is being compromised. It is possible that millions will die, certainly thousands.

Why this massive shake up? Why are these people being gotten rid of?

What possible rationale could there be to remove these medical and scientific experts from the defense of our nation?

Apparently, the worst and the least of the internet conspiracy theories.

On that basis a great nation goes naked in an environment where new diseases are evolving moment to moment?

Well, yes.

Have we as a nation gone completely mad? Are our leaders a band of unhinged lunatics?

Certainly, there are times when that seems to be the case. The District of Columbia is infested with the National Guard of several states. The President is trying to fire people he is directly prohibited by law from firing and the Supreme Court using a thing called a “Shadow Docket” finds that the President can do pretty much what he wants in spite of the clear English language meaning of the law.

So, the government is in a real way crazy right now.

But people dying because of this craziness? Not just dying but dying when we have the vaccines to prevent it? Are you sure that these people should be allowed to go this far?

You know and I know that this is madness.

Once, we’ve come to agreement on the fact that these people are crazy, we arrive at a new problem.

What are we going to do about it?

Right now we can vaccinate a large proportion of the population against the latest version of COVID. Kennedy has limited those vaccinations to people over 65, a small proportion of the population that can be protected. COVID is infecting people right now in large numbers.

People are going to die who don’t need to die.

That offends me. Doesn’t that offend you?

What are we going to do?

How long can this government go on doing these kinds of things?

Below are a couple of news stories and some quote that relate to this story.

James Pilant

MIKE STOBBE writing for the Associated Press has an article that I have linked to below and quotes a few lines from.

https://apnews.com/article/cdc-monarez-fired-trump-kennedy-vaccines-science-17fd8a19064e39906bc0125fd81e3525

When the White House fired Susan Monarez as director of the premier U.S. public health agency, it was clear to two of the scientific leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the political meddling would not end and it was time to quit.

“We knew … if she leaves, we don’t have scientific leadership anymore, ” one of the officials, Dr. Debra Houry, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

“We were going to see if she was able to weather the storm. And when she was not, we were done,” said Houry, one of at least four CDC leaders who resigned this week. She was the agency’s deputy director and chief medical officer.

And then I have this.

Sarah Fortinsky writing for The Hill in an article: Biden White House official on RFK: ‘This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff’

Biden White House official on RFK: ‘This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff’

The health secretary (Kennedy) reflected on the children he’s encountered since arriving in Texas, saying at the event, “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.”

“I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation,” Kennedy said.

“You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection,” he continued. “And I know that that’s not how our children are supposed to look.”

This is the man in charge of the nation’s health. He believes that he can tell if a child is “overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation” by looking at them. (My words, my emphasis.)