Newfoundland Politicians–A New Definition of Honorable Member

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." - Samuel Johnson

"In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." - Warren Buffet

"There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics." - Mahatma Gandhi

I just finished reading what could be the next instalment of Fifty Shades of Gray.  It’s titillating if you are into that kind of stuff, filled with intrigue, covert hook-ups, erotic rendezvous and tinges of scandal.

If you are interested in a copy of this interesting read, don’t bother going to Amazon or Indigo to find it.

Why?

Because it’s the latest dirt on a group of Newfoundland and Labrador politicians who forget that with power comes responsibility but with power also comes people seeking to undermine them.

And with that, secrets held by some become coveted knowledge for those who seek to use that knowledge at just the right moment – whether to “leverage” someone into doing something for them or having someone thrown out if they no longer serve a purpose.

And while rumors circulate about the promiscuous, salacious behavior of married politicians with people inside and outside of caucus, I can’t help but wonder if these are the type of leaders that Newfoundland and Labrador needs to dig the Province out of the financial hole that they find themselves in.

Perhaps I’m too conservative in my belief structure but in my world, married politicians who need to satisfy their cravings should be aware that how they satisfy their cravings provides insight into their sense of values, ethics and character.

And while I don’t expect perfection from such people (who of us are perfect), somewhere in my flawed brain, I want to believe that these people are doing their best to satisfy the needs of the people instead of the needs of their loins.

On the flip side, if we out these people, we hurt innocent people, including husbands, wives and children, who likely aren’t privy to what is happening away from home but stand to be embarrassed, humiliated or impacted financially when dalliances become public.  I think some miscreants count on this, using the “you wouldn’t want my family to be hurt, would you?” defense.

So if we turn a blind eye to it. we submit ourselves to be led by people who have demonstrated themselves to be of questionable ethics, morals and character, causing us to wonder if there are any limits that such flaws will produce, limits that will hurt any number of innocent people in one or more ways.

And if we take action, other innocent people will get hurt.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

And now as some Ministers ally themselves against the Premier with an intent to undermine or overthrow him so that they can replace him, other Ministers find an alternate definition for the term “honorable member” and people forget that what happens at the Liberal AGM doesn’t stay at the AGM, I wonder if once again, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have gotten the shaft (no pun intended).

I’m a big believer in “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. 

However, many people who sin significantly count on this to avoid being judged or they gather enough dirt on everyone else to in order create a form of detente, threatening mutual assured destruction should anyone blow their cover (no pun intended).

I think it is fair and reasonable to hold Government leaders to a higher standard of ethics, morals, values and character, given their power, influence and responsibility.

What do you think?

The Bottom Line

Eight to fifteen MHAs in the Newfoundland and Labrador government are considering crossing the floor to the PC side.

I think it won’t make a damned bit of difference if we can’t get better moral, ethical, intelligent, people-serving, character-based leadership inside the House.

What do you think?

I wonder what the great people of Newfoundland and Labrador are willing to accept from the people who were elected to serve them instead of their own hungers and desires.

I wonder what the people are willing to do about it besides complain in social media and coffee shops.

Because it takes action to fix things.

Everything else is just entertainment – maybe we could call this 49 Shades of Gray to honor the year the Province was welcomed into Confederation.  It could raise the town of Dildo to new opportunities of promotion. Alas, I digress.

I think the Province deserves better.

I wonder what the People think.

In service and servantbood,

Harry

PS I asked someone what they thought of my thoughts and they told me that “I nailed it” – no pun intended. 

Let us not forget that there are good, character-based, people-serving politicians in the House. However, their efforts are undermined and their attention distracted by the actions of others, producing a net result that is less than optimal.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Government is leaderless and on fire from within with people like Finance Minister Cathy Bennett (with some assistance) attempting to exert control over a weak Premier in a vain attempt to secure greater control over the caucus and possibly secure the Premier's Office while other MHAs run willy nilly following their own passions. Unfortunately, it is the people of the Province who are getting burned .... again.

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Addendum - What Difference Does it Make? - August 29, 2016

I've been contacted by a couple of MHAs who want to know what difference it makes if MHAs want to have a little "fun on the side". I tried to explain that blatant examples of disrespect, dishonesty and the like are a poor reflection of someone's character, morals and values and they disagreed entirely with me. I also explained that a dalliance could compromise the MHA themselves or privileged information that they have access to and once again I was told I was wrong. All of them asked what names I had. I don't know if they wanted to see if they were on "the list" (the answer is yes) or if they wanted dirt on fellow caucus members. Such individuals are either ignorant, incompetent or looking for ways to justify their own behavior. None of these attributes serve the people of the Province well.

The one bright spot? The sitting MHAs (regardless of Party color) with active, credit-card confirmed Ashley Madison accounts aren't expensing their membership to the people.

Good people cannot govern when they are distracted or harassed by incompetent, ignorant or greedy people. If the NL Government Caucus doesn't clean house soon with solid, transparent leadership, it won't matter for the Premier or the Liberal Party as they eat themselves alive.

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Divide and Conquer–Recruiting the Sheeple

Never be intimated by your enemy's appearance. Instead, look at the parts that make up the whole. By separating the parts, sowing dissension and division, you can bring down even the most formidable foe. When you are facing troubles or enemies, turn a large problem into small, eminently defeatable parts

Since no creature can survive without the ability to see or sense what is going on around it, make it hard for your enemies to know what is going on around them, including what you are doing. Feed their expectations, manufacture a reality to match their desires, and they will fool themselves. Control people's perceptions of reality and you control them.

Robert Greene - The 33 Strategies of War

The #1206 “fiction” series continues …

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The two “men” sat in silence, both intently observing the holograms in front of them.

“I am surprised”, thought the first, “I didn’t realize that a species this advanced could be undermined so easily.  You were right after all.”

The second chuckled in his mind.  “Your mistake was that you gave them too much credit”, he thought, “Divide and conquer is the only universal means proven to submit a group that would ordinarily put forward great resistance to being conquered.”

“Possibly”, thought the first, “But the things you have come up with recently are, to be honest, brilliant.  The people of Earth have truly become blinded by their ignorance and rather than find common ground that unites them, they seem incredibly focused on everything that divides them.  As I thought earlier, brilliant.”

“Thanks”, thought the second, “But it wasn’t easy and some things have taken a lot longer to incubate than originally anticipated.  Climate change seemed to ignite significant divisiveness but that died down.  Terrorism divided countries but that seems to have become trite now, with Earth people mostly ignoring terror attacks.”

“True”, thought the first, “But the divisiveness around gender was truly brilliant.  It is setting people against each other, against their governments, against their religious institutions and even setting institution against institution.  We still haven’t see how far such divisiveness will take them.  Look at their State of New York which now has over 30 gender types available when applying for a vehicle licence.  That alone drove a lot of Earth people crazy.”

“Yes”, thought the second, “but what we are incubating right now is the best of all. “

“How so?”, thought the first.

“The election of their American President presents phenomenal opportunity for us”, thought the second, “We can use two candidates to divide people on racial lines, gender lines, wealthy versus impoverished lines and even create international incidents between their countries.  We are prepared to potentially harvest one of the greatest opportunities we have ever had.  The hatred being shared between long-time friends, family members, organizations and governments is fantastic.”

The first shivered slightly with excitement as he contemplated the potential that this event contained.

The second thought again to continue his ideas.

“Their social media as they call it has become one of the greatest antisocial tools at our disposal.  Humans who bully others do so under the guise of being a victim of bullying, misinformation amongst their species is at an all time high and people would rather respond to negative emotion and hatred than the potential to create good in their world.  As I thought to you earlier, we are exceeding our expectations with this election for their American leader.  This will likely be the last task necessary for us to move on to the next part of our strategy.”

The first reflected about this, his face incapable of showing emotion.  “Do you really think it will be this easy?”, he thought.

“There appears to be no limit to how easily they are overrun with divisiveness and negativity”, thought the second, “Despite how they cherish small acts of kindness and use it to justify their belief that love overcomes evil, the significant, damaging events are ours to control.  Earth people are blinded by their own ignorance.  Their primal need to be paranoid and fearful of everything, something that has served to protect their species for thousands of Earth years, now presents itself as potentially the greatest means of undermining them.”

The first nodded thoughtfully.

“Come forward”, thought the second as he sensed a presence, “There is no need to hide in the shadows.”

A third came forward.  He had been observing the thoughts of the first two in silence.

“What do you think of our thoughts?”, thought the first.

The third shrugged.

“I think we are encouraging a powerful species with unlimited potential for good to destroy themselves”, he thought, “A dreadful waste.”

“If they don’t think they are worthy of uniting to meet their unlimited potential to do good, why should we care?”, thought the second.

“And besides”, the second continued, “For them to unite in such a way doesn’t serve our intentions for them or their planet.”

The third shrugged again as all three watched the holograms of Earth news.

“I’ll wager a nation that your brilliance will prove to be hugely successful”, thought the first.

“A nation?”, thought the second, “I will wager an entire planet that we will be successful.”

“What do you think?”, the first thought as he looked at the third.

The third blanked his mind as he continued to observe the holograms with his large, dark, glittering eyes.

To be continued.

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© 2016 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background

This blog was inspired by observing friends and colleagues, some of whom are drinking the Kool Aid of one side or the other of the political comedy / tragedy known as the US Presidential Election.  They are blinded by what they are being fed and they feed it to others without thinking.  When someone doesn’t want to partake in what they are being fed, they find themselves having the verbal diarhea shoved down their throat.

Meanwhile others are caught up in the insanity of defending famous people against bullies, not realizing that the data suggests that some of the victims are in fact bullies themselves who don’t like it when people stand up to their bullying.  When the resistance comes, the bully now victim plays the gender card, the race card or something else to show how in fact they are the real victim.  Such bullies remind me of the Emperor in Star Wars who would play the victim when confronted but once the other character let their guard down, the Emperor revealed his true intentions and attempted to kill them.

I was inspired by Alex and Vin to write this blog.

I love you both.

You are both sensitive and brilliant – don’t be played by others who seek divisiveness to drive their agenda, using you and others as their stepping stones to power.

You will be long forgotten as they reap the harvest they rely on you to sow the seeds for.

Series Origin

This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy advisor and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” (note the quotes) and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

Birthday Musings – Overwhelmed with Gratitude

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Sir Isaac Newton

I haven’t written much lately.  I’m not sick, dying, disenchanted with the world or anything else.

I’m busy participating in the creation of new worlds – new worlds for business colleagues, new worlds for investors, new worlds for people trying to escape the tyranny of abuse and violence and new worlds for my family.

It’s called living your priorities.

It’s also called answering the call that is your purpose.

I continue to watch the world with a cautious eye – my mind is overwhelmed with awe at the beauty, love and potential that exists in our world while simultaneously being overwhelmed with disappointment at the ignorance, greed and fear that is far too present also.

Light and darkness co-exist in a dance that invites each of us to choose which side we would like to participate in.

As a realistic optimist, I believe that a beautiful world becomes what we believe it is as long as we don’t forget that evil exists.

Some people call that pessimism – to acknowledge that evil exists at all.

I find that many people who accuse others of pessimism are often the most pessimistic people themselves (the same is true for many people who wave the racist flag). 

I also believe that the unlimited potential for love and beauty in the world only exists as long as we continue to fight for it.  To not fight for it is to open a door that allows us to be overrun by darkness.  To deny that evil exists is like looking at the flashing light on your dashboard and covering it up with tape so that its incessant warning doesn’t annoy you.

The same is true within the small circle that is our respective lives.

So I continue to fight for light and love.

The fight is not always broadcast in a blog and is not done for glory, awards or attention.

It's not always a gentle fight nor can I be the gentle giant all the time. Sometimes you have to get in someone's face to protect and promote what you believe is important in the world (upsetting those people can sometimes be a reward in itself).

But the fight is worth it.

And it’s necessary.

As birthday greetings flowed in today from around the world, this big macho guy, standing over 6’3” and 235 pounds, found himself overcome with the emotion of gratitude.

I posted this on Facebook today:

On this day every year when birthday greetings flow in, I am staggered and overwhelmed by the love and kindness that I receive.

People from every phase of my Life, from Kindergarten through school, through every part of my career, through my personal interests, my family.

Oh what a gift all of you are in my Life.

The great things I have accomplished in my Life are because of you.

The mistakes I have made are my own doing.

Thank you for the Blessing that is my Life.

They say that you are the company that you keep. If that is true, then I am amazing ... because of how amazing you are.

Thank you from my heart.

Our world becomes what we choose to create.

If we choose to allow it to just “be” or we wait for someone else to make the world a better place, it may not become what it could be or should be for us, our families, our friends and others who are important to us.

Would you find such a world acceptable?

I don’t.

I close every email with one of two closings, a shorter or longer one, the longer of which I will share here.

Create a great day, because merely having one is too passive an experience.

Many great people have helped me create a great Life, something I am eternally grateful for.

This in turn creates a responsibility in me to help create a great Life for others.

May you be so blessed.

And may you have the opportunity to be that blessing for others.

The world is waiting for you – your talents, your gifts, your strengths, your energy, your ideas and your love.

What are you waiting for?

In service and servanthood,

Harry