Tag: politics

Even in the 21st Century, Facts are Facts

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cleveland-plain-dealer-donald-trump-editor-chris-quinn_n_660bce73e4b0328a72bde2a8

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/major-market-newspaper-editor-publishes-stunning-rebuke-of-trump-the-north-star-here-is-truth/ar-BB1kTGWg

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/this-is-the-key-to-covering-trump/ar-BB1kTNci

The editor of “The Plain Dealer” a newspaper in Cleveland announced in an editorial that “The North Star is Truth.” He was responding to criticism of the paper’s critical coverage of Donald Trump. This is a poetic way of alluding to the North Star’s guidance in navigation to true north, in this case, accuracy and an adherence to facts not favor. Let’s have a look at a larger quote from the editorial:

The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.

The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

It is very edifying to hear someone dedicated to truth and facts with an apparent revulsion to lies and stupidity. Social media and a great deal of the alternative media such as hate radio are conduits for lies, conspiracy theories and propaganda. Wading in the middle of this cesspool is every two bit grifter, crook and washed up former politician. It gives decent people nausea.

There are people that believe that when this election is over and (God willing) Donald Trump is defeated that things will return to normal. I think not. Trump’s methods, the constant personal attacks, the vicious name calling and the use of winged monkeys, that is, his more demented followers, to threaten and intimidate, are not going away. Why not? Because they work! They drive decent people out of politics, intimidate the media, and allow the foolish, the intemperate and terminally stupid to succeed in politics. And I promise you, the pitiful losers in America want badly to punish their imagined enemies and to proclaim their importance at any cost whatever.

Civil society is created by good and intelligent people who live as ladies and gentlemen. Currently it is battered almost beyond recognition but it is not dead and it worth taking a second look at and rebuilding.

And the solid bedrock up which we build a great and powerful society is just what the editor said: “Our North Star is truth.”

What I Am Reading Today!

On By southwerkIn Editorial

001What I Am Reading Today!

Revealed: The insane delusions fueling rich conservatives’ temper tantrums

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/revealed_the_insane_delusions_fueling_rich_conservatives_temper_tantrums_partner/

The Koch brothers are dead wrong: Half of America is living in or near poverty

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/despite_what_the_koch_brothers_and_republicans_might_tell_you_half_of_america_is_poor_partner/

Rick Perry: Current political focus on the gender pay gap is “nonsense”

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/rick_perry_current_political_focus_on_the_gender_pay_gap_is_nonsense/

Women in the “best states for women’s salaries” still make 90 percent of what their male colleagues earn

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/24/women_in_the_best_states_for_womens_salaries_still_make_90_percent_of_what_their_male_colleagues_earn/

A Forgotten Scandal in Baltimore’s High Society

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/03/baltimore_s_rosewood_scandal_wealthy_families_sprang_asylum_inmates_to_be.html

New Study: Nearly Half Of All Americans Are Dangerous Stupid Idiots

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/new-study-nearly-half-all-americans-are

Krugman and DeLong on Avoiding Secular Stagnation

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/krugman-and-delong-on-avoiding-secular-stagnation

U.S. prosecutors eye new approach on company misconduct after Toyota

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/25/us-usa-autos-accountability-idUSBREA2O09520140325

The End of Jobs?

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16472/the_end_of_jobs

 

 

Sane ideas from Tufts psychiatry prof: Linking effective leadership and mental illness (via Minding the Workplace)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is different. Very different.

Mental illness as an advantage?

I guess. The article is persuasive.

Are mental problems really an adaption to difficulties. If the strategy is successful, maybe its not crazy but a successful adaption.

Maybe, someone smart enough to adapt in so strange a fashion has superior powers of creation and those have application in other fields?

I don’t know.

See what you think?

James Pilant

Sane ideas from Tufts psychiatry prof: Linking effective leadership and mental illness When Nassir Ghaemi, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center, studied prominent figures of the American Civil War, he discovered that many of the greatest leaders during the war (e.g., Abraham Lincoln and Union general Ulysses Grant) were mentally abnormal or mentally ill, while many … Read More

via Minding the Workplace

Fault Lines: The Top 1% (via THE INTERNET POST)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Exactly. The distribution of income is this country is a great moral and ethical problem. If the money were allocated according to ability and work ethic, that might make some sense but walk around in this country and look at the hard working men and women reduced to penury by law that favor financial “innovation” over hard work and productivity.

James Pilant

The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US' 14.3 trillion dollar debt is u … Read More

via THE INTERNET POST

How The Rich Are Winning The Class War (via Blogadoccio’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I think that the No Child Left Behind law had severely damaged character education, critical thinking and issue awareness among the young. An ability to take multiple choice tests, true false, or completion tests is not a useful employment skill. Yet that has become almost our sole measurement of educational achievement.

But the inaction of the middle class, whatever it’s cause, is critical to the success of the rich in shifting the tax burden.

James Pilant

The rich won the class war by depriving the middle and lower classes of education: history, civics, political education, and training in how to think critically. As a result, their mouthpieces can spout nonsense and the relatively uneducated voters now swallow it clean. The antidote, until we get a real education system back again, is for those of use whose eyes are open to educate those around us who cannot see what is going on. We need to devel … Read More

via Blogadoccio's Blog

Adding Insult to Injury – America’s Debt Ceiling Crisis & Who is responsible for the financial crisis in America? (via Tucson Blonde)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a explanation of why the rich are gaining ground and the middle class losing it. It cites statistics on a regular basis. No statistic cited is anything that I have heard contrary data on. So, I think the report was written with considerable research. I would note that there is not just a little passion in the post which is delightful to me but not always to my readers.

This blogger wrote a lengthy, well written and thoughtful article. Please visit the web site and reward those efforts.

James Pilant

Whose side is Congress on? In November 2009 the New York Times published an article about the number of US Senators and House members who were millionaires.[i] At the time two-thirds (66%) of the senate and more than half (55%) of the house were also millionaires. That year recorded an estimate of nearly 7% (ca. 21 million) Americans who were, at least, millionaires. If our “representatives” truly reflected the current state of our great Nation w … Read More

via Tucson Blonde

PROOF that tax cuts do not create jobs: Bush’s decade was a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers (via Under the Mountain Bunker)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

I always thought that once supply side economics failed in the 1980’s, the idea would be dead. That was a major miscalculation on my part. The idea that cutting taxes raises revenue is so much fun for some people, that facts do not inconvenience them.

James Pilant

PROOF that tax cuts do not create jobs: Bush's decade was a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers From the Washington Post: There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well. Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade … Read More

via Under the Mountain Bunker

Heritage Foundation’s Report Lacks Real Information (via Colloquial Usage)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

I was appalled when I read the Heritage report. Apparently if your children have video games and you can afford a fridge, you really can’t be in that much economic distress? How weird are these guys? I appreciate this take down of their case that appliance ownership negates economic insecurity.

James Pilant

Heritage Foundation's Report Lacks Real Information What is Poverty? a new report by The Heritage Foundation, has been getting a lot of press this week, first from Fox News and then from The Colbert Report. In fact, a link to the report was the first item that came up this morning when I searched for the term “poor in America” on Google. According to the abstract, the report's aim is to address the following problem: Exaggeration and misinformation about poverty obscure the nature, extent, and cau … Read More

via Colloquial Usage

The only debt I can care about these days is my own (via MichaelEdwardKelly.com)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is a personal view of our current debt limit crisis. I liked his take on the situation and call your attention to it.

James Pilant

It's been a while since I've delved too deeply into a political discussion here, and that's been a conscious decision. I've really found myself thinking less and less about national issues as time has gone on, and I think this is a direct result of me thinking more and more about my own personal issues. So when it comes to this whole "problem" of the debt ceiling debate, I have little to offer. It's not that I haven't been watching the news, or r … Read More

via MichaelEdwardKelly.com

Are Things As Bad As They Seem? (via Info Ink)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Yes, they are every bit that bad.

James Pilant

The partisanship…..the extremism……lack of respect…….the out right lies…….the misinformation (and yes, it is different from lies)…….and it all comes down to the American voter….YOU voted for morons and now you are paying the price for that vote…..I know, what could be so bad we might get lower taxes and balanced budget and spending controls….what could be so bad? Glad you asked!  While you were bobbing and weaving through t … Read More

via Info Ink