Public Corporations Inquiry

Posted as submitted on 10-17-08 by Ombudsman

Establish a special prosecutor to investigate if there was collusion between and among different Boards of Directors to give each other bonuses. "You vote for mine and I will vote for yours."

This report shall be available within 15 months.

Public Corporations

Posted as submitted on 10-17-08 by Ombudsman

The days when the CEO built up the corporation so that he could hand over a larger and more prosperous one to his children are over.

The CEOs of today are trained to worry over this year's bottom line, not future ones, because the current one affects his bonus and ability to skim the corporate coffers. His contract won't cover following years.

Thanks to a variation of what Mario Puzo said in The Godfather; Wall Street has a new program:

• Steal $50 -- petty larceny.
• Steal $50, 000 -- grand larceny.
• Steal $500, 000,000 -- an astute financial manipulation.

Now that the background has been established we can proceed to changes. No commission is needed for this problem: unbridled greed and avarice.

The total compensation for the top person at any public corporation shall be limited to 30 times¹ the average compensation of salaried non-management personnel.

Under our system, the feds cannot dictate to the Board of Directors what to pay the top dog. However, the feds do have the authority to tax. Any compensation above the threshold shall be taxed at the rate of 95%. For computing total compensation, anything of value shall be included. This includes, but is not limited to event tickets, vacations, bonuses, golden parachutes, private use of corporate jets at charged cost of jet, not cost for public ticket for the same flight, etc.

It is the intent of this proposal to force the Board of Directors to say to themselves, "we will not pay these taxes to the feds. We will take these funds and:

• Modernize the plant.
• Establish sinking funds to pay for future modernizations.
• Reduce the price of the product.
• Increase the pay and/or benefits for the employees.
• Or -- horror of horrors -- increase the dividends to the stockholder.

The 95% tax rate is no doubt onerous. This is not unprecedented as they have been this high before. However, this time there is a difference. This time there is a way out. When the corporation pays these taxes -- shareholders take note -- it is because The Board of Directors chose to pay them.
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¹ 30 is subject to review and study; used here to demonstrate philosophy being suggested

Wall Street Inquiry III

Posted as submitted on 10-17-08 by Ombudsman

Appoint a special prosecutor to determine if criminal activity was taking place during the collapse of the financial markets. This inquiry shall include mortgage, stocks, bonds and any other financial instruments used.

This is a parallel activity and the report shall be returned within two years.

Wall Street Inquiry II

Posted as submitted on 10-17-08 by Ombudsman

The commission of Wall Street Inquiry I shall continue its work to return a report, in 15 months, of recommendations for new rules and regulations to prevent a recurrence.

It should be abundantly clear by now that Wall Street, CEOs and Congress, by themselves, will not do the "right thing." It is very difficult for Congress to do the "right thing" because they do not know what it is! This is obviously not 100% across the board. Not even Ivory soap is 100% pure.

Wall Street Inquiry I

Posted as submitted on 10-17-08 by Ombudsman

Appoint a commission of highly qualified individuals to highlight those practices that led to the current disaster. The group shall consist of lawyers, CPAs, economists, CEOs and money managers.

The requirements for selection shall include, but not be limited to:

• No previous or present conection to Wall Street or Washington politics.
• Never having been a lobbyist or affiliated with one.
• No conflict of interest, either real or apparent, through family or friends.

Task:
Report back in four months what in their opinion caused and/or facilitated the disaster. The causes specified may include anything that, in their opinion, facilitated the collapse. They may include, for example, philosophies, rates, regulations, memos of understanding or any other instrument, procedure or instruction that was used.

The intent of this report is to identify only, not to suggest changes.

Fighting Slogan

We didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left us.

This variation on the cool old quip by Ronald Reagan was suggested to me by Belmont Clubber Karen. It captures the situation that traditional conservatives find themselves in as McCain and cohorts have moved left.

If conservatives want to take back control of the GOP they need to rally locally, and this slogan could provide them with a very good focus.

I've more about how and why this intraparty revolt is absolutely necessary, but I will elaborate only when somebody asks.

Early Call Redux; "Oooh! Gimme More!"

The Mainstream Media (MSM, or very much MisInfo in this instance) is in love with an idea. Their one time cavort with the idea left them so pumped up and impressed by themselves that they are giddy for more. A kind of adolescent self-love gone public.

What idea is this? Calling the election early for their favored candidate so that it suppresses the vote for the other.

In 2000, based upon exit polling, MisInfo called Florida for Al Gore an hour before polls closed in the later time zone of the Western part of Florida. That stoked an "oh, what's the use of voting then) in the anti-Gore voters in the overwhelmingly conservative Florida panhandle.

MisInfo was and remains delighted and rewarded by that early call. Their meddling damaged the electoral process directly. The hated George W Bush has had a cloud over him for the last eight years. They see the cloud was placed there indirectly by the electoral difficulty they engineered, and they have concluded that they have the power to control the weather. What demigods do you know who can do that?

So now they're bursting with eagerness to do more; wild-eyed with the prospect of seducing us of the Anti-Left into giving them what they want. They want so very much to revisit that moment of their greatest thrill.

And they want it not just with one region, they want it nationally. The "Oooh, Oooh, Ooooooh!" popping from their eyes will become impossible for most of the talking heads to suppress. It's gonna be so disgusting. Wait! It already is disgusting. They either falsify polls or selectively report portions of legitimate polls in wild-eyed hope of suppressing voters who oppose Obama. Oh how they expect to succeed this time. Not like the last time on behalf of Gore when the wretched souls fell short of full climax.

I know that many Right get angry with MSM being in the Left's hip pocket. Frankly, these little jerks are not worth getting mad over. It's much better and satisfying to rally voters to thwart the creeps' raving grasp for this momentary thrill. Success (or near success as in 2000) would only encourage them to try again in another four years.

No, no. Far better come November 4th to disappoint them. Deny them badly. Throw cold water on them and let them sulk off to their circles to supplicate to each other. As MisInfo gets more animated in the next few weeks -- laughing at you, depressing you, lying to you, desperate to convince you "oh what's the use!" -- go out and vote and convince everyone dear and near to you to do so too.

And laugh. Laugh all the way to the polls. Laugh as you come out. Let them see you laughing.

I personally want to see MisInfo die by the excesses of its own hand. I know a majority of writers and commentators at places I visit around the web want MSM to go away too. So, if you count yourself in that crowd, and you personally would like to contribute a nail to the coffin of Mainstream Media, GO OUT AND VOTE.

Rebel

Have children. It will piss off those who aim to manage the human herd and its size.

Have as many kids as you and your spouse are blessed with conceiving. That will really piss off your shepherds.

Time was that refusing to settle down and raise a family was the rebellious thing to do. Hah! Boy how times change!

Let's be frank. Engaging in this bit of rebellion will not be easy due to very many consequences. Among the trying elements will be expenses, time, limited mobility, added responsibility, schooling, increased vulnerability to public scrutiny, and of course, risk of incurring wrath for your resisting propaganda to relinquish your physical contribution to posterity.

Unless you are already wealthy, you won't live very high on the hog. So you should try to space out the new arrivals in ways you find governable. Nobody needs engage in coitus to the level our hedonistic society claims is wise and healthy. Moderation in all things was once the kind of wisdom one would hear regularly. (If you would be so kind -- send me a note, or answer in the comments below -- how long ago did you last hear that proverb?)

The task of raising kids provides a unique non-material happiness that you pay for by forgoing material excess. The masters of public opinion are counting on their almost total monopoly of popular media to have convinced you to forgo that experience so that you can and will pay for everything they are selling. The best way to tell them to fuck off is to raise your own family. And unlike the zombies in and made by the media, the bigger your family, the greater the chances that it is not they but you are the future.

To be continued....

Turnabout

Starring: Barack Obama
Produced by: Mainstream Media
Initial director: Democratic Party
Working Title: The Bothersome Middle Class
Final director: American Voters

Obey Obama?

This sure looks like an official poster.



It is located on a freeway entrance within half a mile of Los Angeles City Hall. I'm not sure what was to be gained by such an Orwellian suggestion.

I guess one could say our future rulers want to say "we gave you clear warnings."

I did a search on Google. Nearly every image that I could find under "Obama Obey" tended to show the official "Progress" poster, including the one at that Fairey guy's site. The few I could find that still had the Obey label on them in some way were all clearly unofficial. Not a single other one, after looking through seven pages, showed this one.

I'm now curious to see what may happen now that I've made this entry.

***Update***
I discovered that Sheppard Fairey's studio is located only one street over and two streets up from my home. Seeing that he's long been a self-promoter who plastered walls in the neighborhood with his posters (I didn't then know who he was) it makes sense that this "obey" sign would be on a nearby freeway counter box.

I've since found out that "Obey" is a Fairey trademark.  It is not without irony that he would lend use of  that trademark to highlight his famous idealized portrait of Barack Obama (proven in court to have been an act of plagiarism). It certainly does suggest that an Obama presidency is Fascism in the making. This guy, a major Obama publicist, can openly boast to us later

"You can't say I didn't warn you."

Ignore the Poison; Give Me the Bandaid and Shut Up

After the bailout passed I remained concerned about the role of envy and its exploitation by politicians and business in building the blocks that led to this crisis.

So I did a search to find any stories or editorials that dealt with it. I found NOTHING recent.

But I did stumble upon Henry Hazlitt's On Appeasing Envy first published in 1972.

Tocqueville went on to quote at length from the mutual recriminations of the king, the nobles, and the parliament in blaming each other for the miseries of the people. To read them now is to get the uncanny feeling that they are plagiarizing the rhetoric of the limousine liberals of our own day.

All this does not mean that we should hesitate to take any measure truly calculated to relieve hardship and reduce poverty. What it does mean is that we should never take governmental measures merely for the purpose of trying to assuage the envious or appease the agitators, or to buy off a revolution. Such measures, betraying weakness and a guilty conscience, only lead to more far-reaching and even ruinous demands. A government that pays social blackmail will precipitate the very consequences that it fears.

I hesitate to add my own poorly worded insights in order to update this clear thinking. Maybe later. Meanwhile, read the whole thing and pray that others (or you) can build a strong following who will demand an end to such madness.

Starting a new discussion might flush out the role played in all this by the exploiters of envy, jealousy, and covetousness all the while increasing their own powers and paying no personal price for their misdeeds.

Should we fail to shed light on this poison and bleed it out, but only accept the current palliative to get us past the pain of the current wound, it will remain in our system. Its ill effects are certain to return and then much worse.