Tag: trump

The President and the Nobel Prize

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maddow-blog-white-house-lobbying-164641914.html

(From the Link above) Donald Trump’s desperate and yearslong desire for a Nobel prize is well documented. In fact, after his defeat in 2020, the Republican president released a weird, campaign-style video that suggested he’d already received a Nobel prize. But as pitiful as this has become, Trump isn’t lobbying by himself. Congressional Republicans have tried to please the president by nominating Trump for a Nobel prize, and foreign leaders eager to curry favor with the American leader have done the same thing.(End of quote.)

That the current leader of the United States is often delusional is readily apparent. He also craves praise and validation. His North Korean style cabinet meetings where his lickspittles thank him for his leadership and praise him to the skies are unprecedented in American history.

And he loves prizes and awards. His “amazing” string of club victories at his golf clubs are legendary. There is whole book about his golfing and what it says about him:

I have ordered a copy of the book for myself and it might be wise for you to do the same thing.

Returning to the subject of the Nobel Prize, I find it hard to believe that he would ever get one. If he did get one, how much value would any future Noble Prize have? Its value would be little more than a stuffed animal won at a carnival if that.

Newsweek Magazine commissioned a piece on Nobel Prize winners’ thoughts on the President’s chances. It’s a good piece of reporting. The hardest hitting and most acid drenched comments were those of William Nordhaus who won a Noble prize in 2018 in Economics. I have quoted him below.

https://www.newsweek.com/nobel-prize-winners-react-trump-economics-2107563

(Quoted directly from the link above.)“The way I understand Trump’s ‘successes’ is this: The United States has over the decades built up an enormous reservoir of soft and hard power as well as good will around most of the world—a vast amount of social capital,” said Nordhaus, who won the award in 2018 “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis.”

“Trump has drawn upon that social capital and is using it like a spendthrift teenager to achieve virtually nothing of value and to destroy many critical parts of the global institutional infrastructure,” Nordhaus said.(End of quote.)

There is some useful business ethics observations can be made here. Certainly competing for a prize for the best workplace, most effective innovation and many other things have led to positive good. But this is just another attempted reinforcement for a personality that craves attention and can never be filled. He is empty inside now and he will be empty inside no matter what awards and prizes he gets.

That’s just the way it is and his desperate need for it is more than a little unsettling.

James Alan Pilant

“Pure Cowardice”

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is what David Letterman had to say about the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

While the network and its owners claim that the cancellation was purely motivated by financial decision making, one would have to be clueless, thoughtless and endlessly naive to accept that as a fact.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-letterman-reacts-cbs-cancels-late-show-stephen-colbert_n_68842f5ee4b02a19bf1f8bde

(Direct Quote form the link above.)

“I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is gutless,” he told former “Late Show” producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay in a Zoom chat uploaded to his YouTube page.

From the quote above one gets the impression that Letterman believes that there will be a future without the stain of the current administration upon us.

It is to be hoped that this current regime’s catalogue of horrors will some day end but that is not at this time clear. We are faced with the possibility of these wicked monied interests and their debauched and greedy lickspittles may have permanently impaired our democracy and perverted our future into a Putin like totalitarian regime.

Should democracy survive we will have to come to terms with the cowardice of CBS and many other businesses who gave up any shred of decency to serve the regime. But above all, we must turn our attention to the six Justices of the Supreme Court who during this time of crisis have served as the President’s abject servants in disregard of their oaths, their duty and their status as citizens of the United States. Their decisions opened the pathway to the end of our democracy and if it is saved it will be in spite of these six. They must be dealt with – impeached or the court packed — but these proto-fascist, pseudo judicial decisions must end. We must have actual judges who follow the law.

I have been away from this my web site, Pilant’s Business Ethics, for a long time. I retired from teaching and only wished to sit quietly, read my books and maybe write a mystery novel or even a Western. At one time, I had around seventy thousand followers. Right now there are a little more than two hundred who subscribe. It has been a long time.

But I cannot be silent. A horrifying evil infests our nation and while my voice may be small and ineffectual, it is still my voice and I am American – and I have a duty to speak and speak as loudly as I can against the current regime.

And so, I’m back. Daily posting and much outrage. May God bless us all.

James Alan Pilant

What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis? Part 4.

On By southwerkIn business ethics
(Borrowed with gratitude from Wikipedia Commons- THANKS.)

Taking Care of Yourself!

If you have been rugged and read the first three of this series, I hope you have decided to resist the current regime.

But if you do that there can be little doubt that the road will be long and difficult. You will have to be strong and possessed of great courage. As in most important tasks, dogged persistence will be a necessity.

Self-care over this long haul will have to be a priority.

Obviously, you know to eat right, get good rest and practice good health habits like exercise. But there are some additional things this situation makes appropriate.

I recommend you change your reading habits. Read American History, especially books about the Revolutionary War. (I am planning a series called “What a Patriot Reads,” that will be later.)

And, of course, there are those great patriots, the “muckrakers,” Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Nellie Bly and Julius Chambers. All of their works are available for free on Project Gutenberg (almost my favorite web site in the world – that is Wikipedia).

But above all read the stories of the American sagas, those terrible times in American history like this one where everything was at stake and yet victory came to those who believed in the future and promise of democracy. There were times like the Civil War where everything was at stake. The Great Depression called into question whether democracy was fit for the economics of the 20th Century. Read the stories of those Americans who faced the test and succeeded in continuing the dream, the quest of representative government.

What will be most difficult will be dealing with the “followers” of our current regime. They are inclined to violence, insults and trolling.

If they are members of your extended family, I am very sorry. But it is necessary to remove them from your social media and your life for your wellbeing in particular your mental health. They are continuously updating their propaganda commands from the various web sites they find compelling. Their childlike, cultish devotion to the latest internet outrage is pitiful and a sure sign of their lack of judgment.

Don’t let them afflict you with their nonsense. Protect your mind from those who tell you that lies are truth and above all that free speech means allowing people the freedom to spread lies and slander. Defend yourself at all times from these people. Cut them off and move on. There are American patriots willing to be your friends. You have only to seek them out.

Find web sites and news sources you can trust, friends you can count on and causes that impress you with their morality and righteousness. Remember that the Christian message found in the New Testament is the basis of much that is good and compelling in our lives, and that the distorted teachings of many evangelicals are just nonsense. Read the book your self and delight in the nobility and kindness of Christ and notice how little of what is claimed by so many to be part and parcel of Christian belief simply isn’t there.

It speaks well of you and your character, that you are willing to act on behalf of democracy, your nation and like-minded patriots all over the world. God bless you.

What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis? Part 3.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

If you are a Democrat.

I would like to write something eloquent and persuasive for those who are Republicans and opposed to the current regime. Alas, I don’t think I have a clear or convincing set of views about that party and its members. I apologize.

I registered as a Democrat at 20 and have worked in a number of campaigns and have a great deal of experience. So, what can I say?

We are in a national crisis and most of the current leadership of the Democratic Party is useless. I am delighted to report that there are a small number of Democrats who are out there right now putting themselves on the line to fight to save democracy. It is very sad that there are so few.

When I did my research for this essay, I looked up the word, chicken, in its use as a synonym for a fleeing coward. There were around twenty-five words they said were similar and I really liked the word, “poltroon.” I think it gives the right sense as someone who you would expect to fight but instead runs away.

I would implore you as a good American citizen and patriot not to give one thin dime to anybody in the party who is not actively opposing what is happening in Washington right now. What do I mean by active opposition? I mean appearing in town halls, issuing press releases, doing podcasts, television interviews and showing up at demonstrations. Actions are what we want and we want them now.

I was looking at the news today and was surprised to see an article wondering if the Democrats should help keep the government funded apparently because the Republicans don’t have the votes and it would be a nice thing to do. This is the time to be an opposition party. This is the time to fight. This is the time to make your power felt. And above all, this is the time to stop what the current regime is doing.

Cooperating with would be dictators and crazy people is wrong and evil. And right now, the Democrats in Congress are worried about looking bad. Really?? The Constitution is being hollowed out, disregarded and destroyed and they’re worried about their reputation instead of their duty and their place in history.

As citizens we must act to reinforce the warriors and dedicated patriots of the Democratic Party. We absolutely must disregard the fund-raising letters and e-mails of the current leadership who are sitting at home doing nothing while asking for money. These do-nothing Democrats are completely useless. We are in danger of losing our democracy and our sacred rights and all they see is an opportunity for fundraising. Is there anything more cowardly and pathetic?

This is the time for a new leadership to emerge. We must find new Democrats who are willing to live and work as patriots.

And that is why I’m talking to you, those of us determined to resist. Probably, it has never occurred to you to seek elective office or even to participate in a precinct meeting. But these are not normal times. In American history, there have been movements like the Abolitionists, the Suffragettes, the Progressives and New Dealers that propelled average Americans into action and, thus, leadership.

This crisis is quite likely the worst in American History. We must take action to preserve our nation’s legacy of democracy, the people’s rule.

I know I am asking a lot. Running for office is a vale of suffering. A pathway of indignities and cruelty. The people on the other side have no compunction about lies, sabotage and violence. It will be dangerous.

You must be very courageous, very brave and very committed. But if you have that steel in your backbone, this is the time.

I believe firmly that that most of the current crop of Democrats are on their way out. They will avoid conflict, compromise their values and surrender if pushed enough. We in the party have no further use for these people. The future of the nation is at stake.

What should you stand for? Once we have achieved our first and primary goal of stopping the immediate destruction of this nation’s government, we can think of the future. Once we have won, I recommend Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” and Lyndon Johnson’s “The Great Society.” There are plenty of great ideas and American values encapsulated in those two sets of ideas.

The current think tank focused party must cease to exist and instead be replaced by a genuine people’s party that will fight for the poor and middle class.

We must march together to preserve American Freedoms and American Values. It is our duty and our privilege.

We must act now.

(Part 4 follows in a few days.)

What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis? Part 2.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

You’ve made the decision to fight, to not take what is happening in Washington in silence.

And so we come to the second part of the equation, Politics.

The Politics.

Politics as a word is immediately unsettling and disturbing. And it should be. We have a system of election infested with dark money, secret organizations and every kind of conspiracy theory nutjob and idealogue imaginable.

And you say, “James, you want me to wade into that cesspool?”

“Yes, I do.”

I understand. I, myself, would rather curl up with a good book or get busy writing an essay about the golden age of television. But when faced with a national crisis, you can choose to act or decide that you are powerless and helpless. I want you to act in defense of democracy. I want you to embrace your role as citizens and activists. It won’t be easy and it won’t be nice.

What we must have is action against the current regime. What we have from the Republicans is public praise and private concern. They are not going to be very useful in the fight. What we have from the Democrats is some action on the part of some Democrats. Some Democrats in the Senate, in the House, some Governors and a few others. It is easy to look at the news and see who these people are. Those willing to fight have identified themselves. Most elected Democrats are sitting on the fence waiting to see how events break. I have no kind words for them just pure contempt. Now is the time to fight and those who are waiting to see what happens are cowards and fools.

It is vital that action take place now. We can’t wait for the mid-terms. In two years, the power grab may be impossible to reverse.

So, we have to act now and in the awful terrain of politics.

RULE 1. The greater your numbers, the better. I was watching some clips from CPAC today and I realized that these fools and losers are only powerful because of billionaire money and the fact that they organize. If groups of the stupid can be important, how much more we, patriots and citizens, be effective. We stand high over these people just as the righteous throughout history have stood above the greedy and the foolish.

Find allies. Find friends. Find leaders you can trust, not just individuals wearing a label that says Democrat but people whose hearts and souls are devoted to the causes of alleviating human suffering, defending the weak and the poor and above all fighting for our American democracy.

These next two years will be the acid test of leadership in America. Whether Republican or Democrat, the test is simple. Is this individual willing to stand up daily, hourly – truly committed to defending democracy against this savage takeover? Fence sitters are as much traitors to the cause as any member of this regime’s cabinet. “We shall know them by their works” must be our rule. It doesn’t matter what they say in the fund-raising letters or their happy e-mails. What have they done? Have they spoken out? Where are the press releases, the speeches of defiance, the public announcement that are committed to the cause?

Once committed you must act. Send e-mails, text messages, letters, to your representatives. Let them know how you feel. Cultivate a friendly supportive base of friends on social media.

If possible, attend public meetings, political party precinct meetings and any other public meeting where the continuing crisis is going to be discussed or you want to bring it up.

Set up a network of publications you can trust. Write up a list of positive contacts. When you go to a meeting, get names and addresses, suggest exchanging e-mails – You are building a coalition of fellow patriots. Don’t be shy! The nation is at stake.

(I’ll be writing a third essay about what to do in the next few days. Thank you.

https://southwerk.com/

What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a terrible time to live in America. What is happening now in Washington infuriates any decent citizen.

The horrible people doing these things are counting on you to not take action, to not stand up, and to not be counted. They want you to go quietly away while they perform their neo-fascist fantasies.

Each one of us is powerful in our own right. Yes, that is a fact. We are not atoms flowing about helplessly in society as one famous right-wing loon claimed. We are human beings with the rights and privileges associated with self-government.

Each of us is powerful but in association our power multiplies. And you are not alone. All over the United States, there are million of citizens equally appalled, equally angry and desperate to take action.

Now, here’s the rub. This isn’t a problem that can be solved in a week, a month or a year. Are you willing to commit to laboring for justice and right for years on end? Is it important enough to you? If you have doubts, maybe your desire to fight for your country and its future is not enough to sustain you for the long haul?

I know it is awful to have to fight for what is obviously right against outright nut jobs and fools. And I know that we as a people and as a nation go over the same ground and the same issues, year after year after year. And it gets exhausting.

If you are going to commit to repair the damage done and live in a working democracy, understand that it is a major decision and it will affect a great deal of many other things in your life. There will be pain. There will be obstacles. There will be friends and family who don’t get why you care and worse, there will be friends and family that actively oppose you. Many, many families are cursed with members whose devotion to the neo-fascist cause is more important than other family members, their friends or their duty as patriots or citizens or as Christians. Consider them lost, casualties in a war for the soul of our democracy.

The first step in struggling against what is happening, against the threat of a burgeoning fascist state is to decide to act.

If you have the heart of a warrior, fight! If you believe in the visions of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, fight! If you have seen the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the struggles against dictatorships and evil, and you don’t want them to have suffered and died in vain, then fight.

Welcome aboard. You’re going to make a lot of new friends and you are joining a just cause for representative democracy. God bless you!

(That is essay one. This is the first of a set. I will write the next one very soon.)

The Cultivation of Rage

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

The Cultivation of Rage (1/11/2015)

Currently, there is a tragedy unfolding in California. Fires are burning and people are dying. In past times in the United States, the nation would have pulled together united in efforts to send aid and comfort to the afflicted.

We don’t live in that kind of nation anymore.

The President Elect, a convicted Felon, with an incredible record of spreading lies and misinformation has explained that the disaster is all due to Gavin Newsom, the Governor or California not signing the “water restoration declaration.” And since he didn’t sign that it is all his fault that people are dying and homes are burning. There is a problem with this claim. There is no such thing as a “water restoration declaration.”

So, where does this nonsense come from? How does a public figure make a totally made-up claim and expect not only to get away with it but politically benefit from it?

First, the right-wing playbook very directly indicates that Attack, Attack and Attack is always the basic strategy for political success. And while there is some reliance on Mein Kampf’s assertation that a lie repeated often enough becomes a believed truth, the more modern technique is the firehose method where you simply blanket the media with lies making a rational or intelligent response all but impossible.  

Second, there is a huge alternative media which will without any fact checking whatever repeat this nonsense, these lies, this misinformation. That anyone would willingly spread lies is morally and ethically vile but popular in some political circles. It is also effective. Right now there a millions of people in the United States, shaking with rage, consumed with hatred for this Democratic Governor who is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction because he failed to sign a document that doesn’t and has never existed.

And that is the point, hatred, discord, and high emotional content. This pent-up rage produces votes, contributions, campaign workers and the fervor of that that hate frightens and discourages the opposition. People filled with hatred express their vitriol on the internet, in public and in their lives.

This cultivation of the angry never stops. Every single day, every hour, every minute, there is a new or revived charge, claim or fabrication implying evil and wickedness on the part of those they hate. The barrage never stops. It rains and rains without pause.

And that is why Trump made up an easily disproved lie. Lie or not, it will still be effective. In fact, we can expect that his lies and nonsense will be continually rewarded. Marketed through the alternative media as truth and supported by his unquestioning, utterly gullible followers they will function as valuable weapons in their continued to question and diminish the values of honor, decency and truth.

This is the nation where we live now. A place where every sort of aid and comfort should be sent to California, and instead the opportunity for attack is being fully cultivated for political advantage.

Honesty, decency and character are important factors in a public servant or indeed in any human being but those factors don’t figure in a media landscape of disgusting, immoral and reckless lies.

Rudy Giuliani Disbarred

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Back in 2001 after 9/11, this outcome would not have been considered possible. And yet, here we are.

Giuliani failed in his duty as an attorney. He lied directly to the court. There have to be penalties for this crime. But how did he get here? How did he fall this far?

I have read that he was never the great man that he was portrayed as. He was more of a mirage. I have come over time to believe that. He was never the man, the public believed that he was.

He had opportunity that virtually no human being has ever had. For a time, he was “America’s Mayor,” the very epitome of what our fellow countrymen thought was patriotic and brave. His future seemed unlimited. Most believed that the White House was next.

It appears that as time went by, the things that made him successful were cast aside in his seeking financial gain and status. In particular, his marriages involved trading up (so to speak) in terms of high society. He forgot where he came from and what he was. Instead of man fighting for justice and a determined enemy of wrong doing, he morphed into at first an establishment politician and then a devoted if not openly slavish follower of the great American mirage, Donald Trump.

Like some crazed gambler, he put every chip, every resource, every shred of reputation, down for Trump. When the former president, needed someone to make the case that there was vast fraud in the 2020 election, he stepped up. He zealously led the charge against voter fraud. He only lacked one necessary item, any evidence on behalf of his case. He had no evidence that wrongdoing had taken place and so not having evidence, he lied claiming that there was evidence.

Here let me quote from the article referenced below:

The court found that the former mob prosecutor “falsely and dishonestly” made claims that thousands of votes were cast in the name of dead people in Philadelphia. He also falsely claimed that people from nearby Camden, New Jersey, were taken to vote illegally in the Pennsylvania city, the court stated. The New York’s Appellate Division, First Department ruled that Giuliani “flagrantly misused” his position as Trump’s former attorney and his campaign to create “intentionally” false statements “some of which were perjurious, to the federal court, state lawmakers, the public, the AGC, and this Court concerning the 2020 Presidential election, in which he baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”

I could go on to talk about his other problems and his other failings but this is enough.

It resembles a tale told by the Greeks back during their Golden Age. A man favored beyond all other men, becomes full of pride and acts foolishly, squandering his reputation and ruining his life.

Hubris is dangerous, even today.

In conclusion, what are the ethical rules here? What should he have done? While devoting himself to Trump may be considered unwise, if he had merely acted the role of an attorney and presented the little evidence he had, he would certainly have gained nothing in the courts for his claims of election impropriety but he would have been innocent of any crime. That is where he should have stopped. But to escape disappointing his benefactor, he lied exuberantly about the evidence he claimed to have. This was his moral wrong. It is expected that a lawyer will defend the interests of his client zealously but lying to the fact finding body, the court, is wrong and it is also a crime. And thus he suffers the penalty for this misjudgment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rudy-giuliani-disbarred-effective-immediately-175718799.html

Robert Reich Has Some Observations about Ethics

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/16/trump-hush-money-trial-morality

United States Department of Labor – http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich.htm (This picture was borrowed with humble gratitude from Wikipedia – I have followed their instructions for attribution.)

I don’t generally feature an opinion piece as the center of my approach on writing about business ethics or the larger questions of morality and ethics in American society. But this one caught my attention as it focuses on some issues that have been bothering me.

Robert Reich has written an opinion piece which appeared in the Guardian. It’s called “The Trump hush-money trial reveals a seedy world shot through with moral rot.” (The link is at top.)

Let me quote a little piece so you can get a flavor of it. Referring to Trump and his associates he writes:

It’s a sell-or-tell society, a catch-and-kill society, a just-take-care-of-it society. A society where money and power are the only considerations. Where honor and integrity count for nothing.

I strongly agree. The trial has not surprised me. I knew about Donald Trump long before his Presidential aspirations. I don’t mind telling you how I became interested. It was Trump University. People paid large sums of money for a product advertised with the Trump name and got virtually nothing in return. That conduct has been consistent throughout Trump’s career.

But he has millions of followers who seem to believe that his moral and criminal failings amount to nothing or are made up charges, a product of the deep state — or one of their other many fantasies.

Reich’s clear eyed and direct condemnation is important because so few people especially Republicans seem to have any moral qualms these days. Sometimes I thing that a complete lack of moral or ethical qualities is necessary for participation in the inner workings of the Republican party.

Robert Reich speaks while so many are silent. Here is some more of what he had to say:

I sometimes worry that the daily dismal drone of Trump world – the continuous lies and vindictiveness that issue from Trump and his campaign, the dismissive and derogatory ways he deals with and talks about others, the people who testify at his criminal trial about what they have done for him and what he has done for or to them – has a subtly corrosive effect on our own world. I think it is important to remind ourselves that most of the people we know are not like this. That honor and integrity do count. That standards of decency guide most behavior. That relationships matter.

I am sure that Donald Trump has damaged the moral fiber of the United States. I believe that the unleashed anger of the Internet trolls will continue and that we will be dealing with Trump pretenders for decades to come. He and his demented followers have made politics and discourse distasteful and crude. They have made conducting the governing of this nation difficult and often demeaning.

It is a tragic time for the United States and the nation may yet not survive it. The dramatic attacks on our justice system are just one part of a hideous proto-fascist approach to governance that we may see more of in the coming years.

God bless America. We all need it right now.

James Alan Pilant

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.”