Ego Over Institution

The Guardian reported:

U.S. President Donald Trump has celebrated Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s bid to shepherd China back into an era of one-man dictatorship, suggesting the United States might one day “give that a shot”.

Xi's effort to suspend term limits is not new.  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did that very thing.  Egypt's Hosni Mubarek benefited from a constitutional change implemented before he rose to the Presidency.   Chavez died of cancer while Mubarek lives, a free man.  A divided Togo wrestles with re-instituting term limits.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is serving his sixth term as President.  Russia would have to drop term limits for Putin to run again for office.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel formed a coalition government and will serve her fourth term.

I took the liberty of changing a famous quote by reality TV star Donald Trump.

"And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the p___residency. You can do anything."

Xi's a star on a Shakespearean stage.  Ego over institution is a global tragedy.

Blue Team Keeps Domestic Spying

The Intercept reported:

Joining the pro-surveillance coalition led by Trump, Paul Ryan-R, Devin Nunes-R, Adam Schiff-D, and Eric Swalwell-D was the House’s liberal icon and senior Democrat, Nancy Pelosi. 

It's a bipartisan effort to not ensure our Fourth Amendment rights.  The Blue Team joined with the Reds to enable the Trump administration to continue spying on Americans, started under President George W. Bush and extended under President Barack H. Obama.

It's America's uniparty. 

Constitutional Republic Does Not Reflect People's Wishes

U.S. elected officials and public servants have long ignored the people's wishes.  The latest snub is the people's internet.

“Americans of all political parties overwhelmingly support the values of net neutrality and want to preserve existing net neutrality protections. A strong majority (77 percent) of Americans support keeping the existing net neutrality rules in place. This view crosses party lines, as 73 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of Independents want to keep the FCC’s Open Internet rules.”

Congress refused to remove preferred carried interest taxation for over a decade.  This tax break made billionaires richer while America's middle class withered and federal deficits ballooned.

Congress dug in their heels, preserving exorbitant private health insurance and forcing citizens to buy their unaffordable product.  Affordable health insurance is virtually unusable due to high deductibles and precarious family financial situations.

"86 percent of Americans agree that members of Congress pay too much attention to what their major financial contributors want them to do"

The average citizen using the internet is not a major financial contributor.  So their wishes can be willfully discarded until the run up to an election.  That's when candidate language changes, only to be forgotten and ignored once sworn into office.  Both our Red and Blue political teams employ the con.

Voting Is Not Litigation

Meet the Press guests said the American people litigated Trump's self disclosed predatory behavior toward women by making him President of the United States.  Voting between a limited number of candidates for an elected position is not a court of law.

Why?  Because in our strange new world language is distorted as a means to an end.  Host Chuck Todd could have challenged the use of the word litigate.  Instead he shared the Blue Team version of the same distortion relative to Bill Clinton's sexual predatory behavior.

Both the Red and Blue political team are willing to twist language in order to not hold their leaders accountable.  That is not the least bit comforting. 

Blue Team Forms Alliance with Red's Neocons

America's Democratic Party joined with war mongering Republican neocons to form the Alliance for Securing Democracy, according to The Intercept.  The Blue Team's Laura Rosenberger and Red Jamie Fly are chief staffers for the group.  The following are board members, some with private equity affiliations:

Red Team
Mike Chertoff - Chertoff Group Growth Equity
Bill Crystal
Mike Rogers - Trident Capital

Blue Team
Michael Morrell
Jake Sullivan
Nicole Wong - Refactor Capital

"Democrats often justify this union as a mere marriage of convenience: a pragmatic, temporary alliance necessitated by the narrow goal of stopping Trump."  Pragmatic, temporary alliances are essentially "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

That practice in Afghanistan got the U.S. Obama bin Laden, al Qaeda and 9-11.  The United States partnered with dangerous allies in Libya and Syria. It remains to be seen how that blows back on innocent civilians at home and abroad.

America's two political parties make war mostly for public consumption.  The Alliance for Securing Democracy is about political insiders pursuit of power and money.  Corporate donors with deep pockets get out-sized influence.  The combination is both intoxicating and dangerous.

Potential FBI Chief Wrote Abysmal Katrina Investigation Report

News reports indicated Frances Townsend to be a potential FBI Director in the wake of James Comey's firing.  Townsend is a private equity underwriter, as are most of President Donald Trump's appointments.  Prior to PEU employment Frances served as White House Homeland Security Advisor under President George W. Bush.  In that role she conducted the investigation into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Her investigation was abysmal.  It omitted the hospital with thirty five patient deaths after Katrina made landfall.  Twenty five of those deaths were on the LifeCare Hospital's unit on the seveth floor of Memorial Medical Center.  The Carlyle Group purchased LifeCare just weeks before Katrina made landfall.

Fran Townsend was part of the White House team that failed Americans in need.  She crafted the White House Lessons Learned report on Hurricane Katrina.  Her poor quality report should disqualify her from serving as FBI Director.  We don't need corporate risk management at the expense of truth and public service.  Brand Trump needs help but that should not happen to the detriment of our country. 

United Beats Passenger, Traumatizes Louisville Flight

The world witnessed United Airlines prioritize its operating needs over the customers it supposedly serves.  It went so far as to beat and bloody a physician trying to get home to see patients to accommodate a United flight crew.  In the process passengers objected to this man's horrific treatment.  One suggested the flight crew rent a car to get to their work destination.

David Dao will have his day in court.  The irony is United could have offered the four passengers $1 million each and come out better.  Instead it used a computer to randomly select seated passengers for ejection.  That impersonal procedure became very personal for Dr. Dao.  It also incited the wrath of nearly anyone viewing the video online.

Corporate power, hubris and greed contribute to the dehumanization of anyone who doesn't willingly follow company edicts, no matter how nonsensical.  A sixty nine year old physician got the tar beat out him for asking United to honor the seat the company gave him.  It took United's CEO three tries to get close to what happened, a horrific crime his company perpetrated against a passenger and a psychologically traumatic event for anyone on that plane.

Power, hubris and greed are alive and well in America's corporate enforcement state.  United's dehumanization is one window into this abusive malformation.  Lesser abuses happen to customers and employees inside companies every day.  They have the same root.

Dr. Dao wants to ensure something like this happens to no one else.  I trust him to have more impact than any CEO looking to optimize their executive incentive compensation.  United hired CEO Oscar Munoz in September 2015.  He took a medical leave of absence from October 19, 2015 until March 14, 2016.  For his six weeks of work in 2015 Munoz earned $5.8 million.  The United CEO's 2016 pay should be made public the end of April in a SEC filing.

Change is in the air for United.  Dr. Dao won't fly anytime soon.  Injustice lasts until justice is served.  It can come from the top but that requires reflection, insight and balance, rare characteristics in our hallowed halls of power.