Well, it would appear the circus is now over.

The former executive officer of the carrier Enterprise can remain on active duty despite a finding that his job performance aboard the carrier fell short of standards, a Navy board of inquiry decided Wednesday.

Capt. Owen Honors was brought to the board of inquiry for co-producing dozens of controversial and sometimes bawdy video vignettes shown aboard the ship in 2006 and 2007.

The three-admiral board unanimously agreed Honors committed misconduct, failed to demonstrate acceptable qualities of leadership required of an officer in his grade and failed to conform to prescribed standards of military deportment. But it also voted 3-0 that Honors “be retained in the naval service.”

Phib and Lex seem to think that this is a fair way to end this matter. I totally disagree. This outcome was totally predictable and just the concluding act to what is clearly the hypocrisy of the current generation of naval leadership. Harvey got to have his cake and eat it too. He cashiered a naval officer and also got to send the subliminal message that innovation and morale building of any kind is to be suppressed.  The precedent has been set-and the ability of a subordinate to execute vengeful reprisals has been confirmed. Confirmed too-is that fact that blame will always be assessed at the lowest possible level, throwing our shipmates to the wolves, while making sure the cabal of the flag ranks is protected.

Let me say it straight out. “Fuck you Harvey”. This was non issue, turned into a major issue-and the fact that it occurred four+ years after the fact, when the Navy had clearly moved this officer down the track is something that is worthy of utter contempt. I asked the question before, and I will ask you again: if what he did was wrong, then the knowing acceptance of it by the chain of command is equally wrong.

This is a generation of leadership that does not tolerate dissent and expresses consent through silence.

 Read into the absence of any Flag Officer speaking on this issue however you wish, but I believe the above applies. Even when it comes to the “Open and Independent Forum” Flag officers of this generation have been trained not to speak out of turn.

 It is the aspect of the Honors report that went unsaid – no one wants to acknowledge that the culture problem where silence means consent and dissent is not tolerated is a reflection of Flag Officers of the current generation. 5000 people on an aircraft carrier must then be an anomaly and isolated case.

Did this event require this level of public spectacle? No. Could it have been dealt with in a more reasonable matter? Yes. Phib says that no one has the right to question the officers who rendered the judgment, he knows them. Well so do I-and don’t kid yourself, they knew their marching orders when they walked into the room. They acted in the manner directed to them by the “company”. Being company men themselves, they accepted the moral compromises that come with that a long time ago.

This kind of overkill, on what is essentially an isolated issue, when real negligence on behalf of our personnel and procurement leadership is overlooked, sends a signal too.  And when the Navy turns a blind eye to real negligent conduct by any one of its now numerous protected classes will prove very destructive indeed.

I said it before and I will say it again. I’m not surprised at the way it all turned out-but I am more than a little angry and at the same time sad. 

 As far as I am concerned,  it is the natural result of the trend that many of us warned would happen when squadrons and ships were made mixed gender-namely, that unlike what the women said they wanted, “to just be treated like the men”, the real agenda was to change and destroy the culture of the Naval Aviation and ruin everything that made it fun. And it would appear they have succeeded.

There are people who say I am defending unprofessional conduct. I firmly reject that contention-now and in the future. But don’t kid yourself this is deeper task, nothing less than legislating conformity to a humorless and quite frankly, “watch your back” type of day to day environment that is not good for anyone.  The a work hard,  play hard environment of Naval Aviation is dead. And it’ s not coming back. 

Good job assholes!

The lack of posting is not a good thing-but it cannot be helped. I have been on the go since I got here. Pix to follow from my trip to the mountains this weekend.

Arrived in Bucharest/ The trip had good things to recommend it and bad things to forget.

On the plus side , I got re-routed through Houston, since my flight to DC was  not going to make it in time. (Weather and FAA delay). So I got put in Business Class on Lufthansa out of Houston. Hooray!

On the down side-the seats on Lufthansa business class are not flat seats. Skytrax-the authority on airline quality has faulted them again and again on this issue. On the up side-no matter how many time you ring the bell and ask them for a beer, they bring it.

That said it surprised me. Having flown Business Class on Cathay this year-I would have thought Lufthansa could match them. I was wrong. Cathay’s new business class beats them by a mile.

But-it still beat being back in the cattle car. So on that note I am happy. Buana Zia!

Which means-that despite recent presonal economic news, life and work goes on. Accordingly, I will be getting on a plane today and flying the long three leg route back to Bucharest, there to work for a month, before moving on to (insert bleak future prospects here).

Why not just tell them to stick it, you ask? Because commitments are made-and should be kept. Because it will certainly be a heck of a lot more interesting than a month of existence spent here in Shopping Mall USA. And because I need to make Elite status for the coming year. All good reasons in my book-and if they are willing to pay to have me work overseas for a month on the way to a new future-who am I to argue?

You take life one day at a time-and let the current day’s trouble be sufficient unto itself. Tomorrow’s can be dealt with tomorrow. Today its traveling-and that is never something to be sad about.

Yet there isn’t a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking….
Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
No matter where it’s going.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Travel”

At the agency I work for ( well, at least for the next month or so)-they were ranked in the bottom in terms of being a “good place to work”. Havng watched their new contracting strategy-I tend to agree whole heartedly. And unforuntately real change to this agency will not happen till the three star at the top is fired, retires-or drops dead and is carried out. At this point many workers there are voting for option three. This is reposted from another source-but if you want some insight to where I work, here it is:

15 Signs Your Workplace Is Dysfunctional

Sign No. 1: Conspicuously posted vision or value statements are filled with vague but important-sounding words like “excellence” and “quality.”
These words are seldom defined and the concepts they allude to are never measured.

Sign No. 2: Bringing up a problem is considered as evidence of a personality defect rather than as an observation of reality.
In a dysfunctional company, what it looks like is not only more important than what it is, it is what it is. If you don’t believe that, you are the problem. A surprising amount of information is classified. Dysfunctional companies have more state secrets than the CIA. Anything that might embarrass the boss turns out to be a national security issue.

Sign No. 3: If by chance there are problems, the usual solution is a motivational seminar.
Attitude is everything, especially in places where facts are embarrassing or inconvenient. In a dysfunctional family, there’s an elephant — usually a drunken abusive parent — in the parlor, but no one ever mentions him. To appear sane, you have to pretend that the elephant is invisible, and that drives you crazy. Businesses are full of invisible elephants, too. Usually they are things that might cause difficulties for people with enough clout to prevent their discussion. The emperor may be naked, but if you have a good attitude, you won’t mention it.

Sign No. 4: Double messages are delivered with a straight face.
Quality and quantity are both job one. You can do it both cheaper and better, just don’t ask how. If you’re motivated enough, you should know already.

Sign No. 5: History is regularly edited to make executive decisions more correct, and correct decisions more executive than they actually were.
Those huge salaries require some justification.

Sign No. 6: People are discouraged from putting things in writing.
What is written, especially financial records, is purposely confusing. You can never tell when you might need a little deniability.

Sign No. 7: Directions are ambiguous and often vaguely threatening.
Before you respond to a vague threat, remember this: Virtually every corporate scandal begins with someone saying, “Do it; I don’t care how.” That person is seldom the one who gets indicted.

Sign No. 8: Internal competition is encouraged and rewarded.
The word “teamwork” may be batted around like a softball at a company picnic, but in a dysfunctional company, the star players are the only ones who get recognition and big bucks.

Sign No. 9: Decisions are made at the highest level possible.
Regardless of what it is, you have to check with your boss before doing it. She also has to check with her boss.

Sign No. 10: Delegating means telling somebody to do something, not giving them the power to do it.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, you delegate authority, not tasks. In dysfunctional companies, you may have responsibility, but the authority lives in the office upstairs.

Sign No. 11: Management approaches from the latest best-seller are regularly misunderstood to mean what we’re doing already is right on the mark.
“Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” “Good to Great” and “Who Moved My Cheese?” all seem to boil down to, “quit griping and do more with less.”

Sign No. 12: Resources are tightly controlled.
Your department may need upgraded software, but there’s been a spending freeze since 2006. Cost control is entry-level management, but in a dysfunctional company, anything more sophisticated is considered too touchy-feely. Whatever you propose, the first question you will be asked is if it can be done cheaper.

Sign No. 13: You are expected to feel lucky to have a job and know you could lose it if you don’t toe the line.
Dysfunctional companies maintain control using the threat of punishment. Most will maintain that they also use positive rewards … like your paycheck. A few people are actually fired, but most of those who go are driven to quit.

Sign No. 14: Rules are enforced based on who you are rather than what you do.
In a dysfunctional company, there are clearly insiders and outsiders and everyone knows who belongs in each group. Accountability has different meanings depending on which group you’re in.

Sign No. 15: The company fails the Dilbert Test.
Dysfunctional organizations have no sense of humor. People who post unflattering cartoons risk joining the ranks of the disappeared. When an organization loses the ability to laugh at itself, it is headed for big trouble. If you’d get in trouble for printing this article and posting it on the bulletin board at work, maybe it’s time to look for another job before this one drives you crazy.

The job hunt continues:

Finally, people are waking up to the fact that its time to tell the short sellers to go home:

A European market regulator announced Thursday night that short-selling of financial stocks in several countries would be temporarily banned in an effort to stop the tailspin in the markets.

The move may put pressure on United States market regulators to ban short sales as well. American bank stocks have been volatile all week as global investors expressed concerns that problems in Europe might cross the ocean.

The European Securities and Markets Authority, a body that coordinates the European Union’s market policies, said in a statement that short sales — negative bets on stocks — would be curtailed in France, Belgium, Italy and Spain effective Friday. There is already a temporary short-sale ban in Greece and Turkey.

“Today some authorities have decided to impose or extend existing short-selling bans in their respective countries,” the authority said. “They have done so either to restrict the benefits that can be achieved from spreading false rumors or to achieve a regulatory level playing field, given the close interlinkage between some E.U. markets.”

In France, that country’s market watchdog banned short-selling or increasing short-selling positions, effective immediately, for 15 days on 11 financial institutions. They are: the April Group, Axa, BNP Paribas, CIC, CNP Assurances, Crédit Agricole, Euler Hermès, Natixis, Paris Ré, Scor and Société Générale.

The European authority’s statement said that details for each country would be posted on the Web sites of their individual financial regulators.

Short sellers are the reason that 100 point drops become 500 point drops.  Especially when you find that it is large firms-like Goldman Sachs that are playing both sides against the middle like they did in 2007, when -while they were pushing subprimes-they were betting against them and the housing market.

Small investors like me can’t short sell-it is too risky. I firmly believe the practice should be banned.

Another place to put your money:

Earlier today, a plane flew over S&P headquarters trailing a banner that read:

Thanks for the downgrade, you should all be fired.

Fortune has learned that the person who paid to fly the banner is a Midwestern broker, who woke up last night with the need to vent at those who she believes are leading the nation into an economic morass.

In two weeks-my savings and investments have lost almost 6% of their value. Money that it took me years to cobble together-gone. At least for now. But it could have been a lot worse-A LOT WORSE. Fortunately, I got some good advice and have invested in some pretty strong stocks-so they weathered the storm better than most. Same is true with my mutual funds.

I am sticking to the advice of the professionals and not panicking -but trying to think long term. Keep investing, getting more shares now than before and when the market comes back I will be better than ever.

Except-I’m not so sure the market is coming back. At least not anytime soon. When do I get to be angry? Angry about this totally unnecessary and self inflicted wound? When do I get to see some S&P executives hauled away in handcuffs for committing the financial equivalent of murder? At a minimum-everyone of those assholes ought to be audited and be made to suffer at least a financial penalty for their malfeasance.

So too should our Galtian overlords in Congress who brought this on. And who-like the spoiled and selfish children they are-continue to deny any of it is their fault. What part of “the continued refusal of the Republicans to consider revenue enhancements leaves us no choice” don’t you understand?

And yet we get stuck with useless men like our boy Allen West who refuse to confront reality. I have a message for you Article 15 boy-”The downgrade message, whatever you think of S&P, they mentioned the need for increased revenues and for revenues being on the table three separate times. They absolutely indicted the fashionable intransigence of the Republican party right now in Washington. . . . We did something insane with getting that close to defaulting on purpose.”  You and the tri-corner hat wearing slobs who support you,  created that atmosphere-and then you whine when someone calls you on it?

Oh-and as a bonus-today I got my layoff notice.  Another unnecessary piece of paper created by a three star’s malfeasance. I wish I could blame Congress for it but I can’t-the blame lies closer to home with some really stupid decisions by people in and out of uniform. I knew it was coming-but it is scant consolation. By giving it to me almost two months ahead of time-they don’t have to give me a severance package. And since they are trying hard to find me another home-as am I- it is more of a formality than anything else. So I  bear no grudge against my company. Against our customer though…………..well some things are better left unsaid.

Every black cloud does have a silver lining though. Bank of America took a 20% hit today. Goldman lost 6%. The rest of the big banks took major hits-Morgan Stanley lost 24%.  Could not happen to a nicer bunch of guys. And if I do end up unemployed-it will give a reason to get relief from my alimony. That alone might make the whole thing worth it. Notice I said might-actually it will suck.

And tomorrow-as Scarlett said, is yet another day.

It would save me a heck of a lot of pain and suffering. ( Stolen from Spike).

I used to say that to a friend of mine on the staff-whenever I went down to visit him in TFCC. Because in the Eisenhower Battle Group in 1994-1995, the link picture ( Link-11 primarily and some Link-16) was always f*cked up. The blame normally lay with a weak track supervisor-and an “Aegis superior” reporting doctrine that eschewed sectors of reporting responsibility. (Plus a whole lot of technical details that are no longer worth discussing).

So I used to drop into TFCC especialy late at night and ask of my friend, “Ray, ease my pain. Fix the link”.

Even in later years-it was my opening greeting to him always.

So now its time to fix the links. Surgery will be in progress for most of this evening. Take a look at the new “like” and “dislike” buttons in the comment section.

As is my custom on August 6-I try to honor the day that life changed forever in Japan, in an event that haunts them still today.

Today is the 6th of August. It was the day in 1945 when the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the B-29 Enola Gay. In Japan, today is known as Genbaku no hi. That also began a 9 day period when Japan was literally and figuratively on the brink of the abyss. I wrote a detailed post about that time a couple of years ago. GI Korea has a pretty good history of the Atomic Bomb here.

Japan Probe has some pretty good coverage here.

First and foremost-they are in no position to judge. These are the same goons who who rated subprime-backed securities as just fine and dandy. Now they think they they are qualified to pass judgement on US fiscal policy? Really?

Second, as has widely been reported-they had their numbers wildly wrong. But they went ahead with the down grade anyway.  That should cause a serious observer-which leaves out virtually all of the tri corner hat wearing brigade of thugs-to question the accuracy of their other judgements.

That all said-as Felix Salmon points out over at Reuters, there is a valid gem of truth in what they are saying. 1) The GOP through its continued intransigence and willingness to hold sacrosanct promise to Grover Norquist, while not holding true on promises to the average American-has turned its back on the easiest and most viable of deficit solutions:repeal of the poorly thought out and horrible Bush tax cuts. 2) They can see what the rest of us can too-there is a certain segment of our politics today that is hell bent on destroying the economy and destroying average Americans-just so they can destroy and delegitimize Barak Obama. Dennis, over at John Cole’s place summed up their view point rather nicely:

This is especially true of the Republican Party which has been taken over by neo-Confederates. Like their fore-bearers of old, this modern Republcan Confederate Party would rather blow up the Nation than compromise on any item that might harm the oligarchs running the con. Then, as now, it was about money and the right of the few to steal the labor of others while passing on the cost of their corruption to the majority. Then, as now, they built their political world view upon a foundation of magical thinking, fear and hate. And then, as now, they would do anything and everything to destroy the President of the United States. Then it was Abraham Lincoln. Now it is Barack Obama.

I had an email the other day from Dan, a BJ reader, who mentioned that the current debt crisis was “economic Fort Sumter” for our 21st Century Republcan Confederate Party. There is some truth to that. The first half of 1861 was a time when Confederates were convinced that they shit gold and spat fire. They were certain that when they acted the rest of the Nation and the World would follow their script. Compromise—or even giving President Lincoln a fair hearing—was out of the question. The only path was the path of Confederate fantasy and so the War came. Shots were fired on Fort Sumter, but things did not go according to plan.

History repeats as an echo with Wingnutopia and the Confederates in the 112th Congress. Once again, they are convinced that their fantasies are bold and true and that they must tear the Nation apart to “save it”. This time, the hostage isn’t a Fort in Charleston Harbor—it is the economy. Once again, they are convince if they pull the trigger, everybody will fall in line. These modern Confederates are just as crazy as their 1861 role models. You can tell how crazy they are by their auto-hostility to any hint of compromise—especially if the compromise has anything to do with that Black man in the White House.

As I have pointed out before, the batshit crazy folks leading the charge,  by and large, think they themselves have nothing to lose as a result of the ensuing economic carnage. They see themselves as safe in their jobs and homes-and truly believe that nothing bad will happen to them as a result of their own stupidity. Behaving irresponsibly though, will finally stick it to the “moochers” who they truly view as “stealing from them” since they view tax revenues as organized theft-rather than the pooling of resources for the purposes of accomplishing a greater good for the common populace. It is one reason they are so fixated on tax cuts-tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for ordinary workers, many of whom will be those hated lucky duckies whose incomes are too low to pay income tax, are if anything something tebaggers dislike.

Which brings us back to the S& P and its clear language chastising the GOP for failing to consider tax cut repeal: “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”  Felix Salmon , however points out the fear of irrational behavior on the part of our government runs much deeper than that-because some people just love to play with matches:

Firstly, talk of debt-to-GDP ratios and the like is a distraction. You can gussy up your downgrade rationale with as many numbers as you like, but at heart it’s a political decision, not an econometric one.

Secondly, the US does not deserve a triple-A rating, and the reason has nothing whatsoever to do with its debt ratios. America’s ability to pay is neither here nor there: the problem is its willingness to pay. And there’s a serious constituency of powerful people in Congress who are perfectly willing and even eager to drive the US into default. The Tea Party is fully cognizant that it has been given a bazooka, and it’s just itching to pull the trigger. There’s no good reason to believe that won’t happen at some point.

Finally, it’s impossible to view any S&P downgrade without at the same time considering the highly fraught and complex relationship between the US government and the ratings agencies. The ratings agencies are reliant on the US government in many ways, and would be ill-advised to needlessly annoy the powers that be. On the other hand, the government has been criticizing them harshly for failing to downgrade mortgage-backed securities even when they could see that there were serious credit concerns. So by that measure they have to downgrade the US: the default concerns we saw during the debt-ceiling debate were real and can’t be ignored.[...]

Thus, there is a case for the S&P’s logic. Nothing, it seems, will get the attention of our radicalized group of tea swilling zealots. And the outlook for the next year is even more dismal-given the backdrop of a Presidential election and all the attendant craziness associated with one. You thought 2008 was bad? 2012 will make Palin’s lies and the hysteria associated with her rallies seem tame in comparison. Expect large numbers of monkey signs, an upward tick in the sales of confederate flags, and dynamite sales of “2nd Amendment solution” bumper stickers. It is only right for rational people to despair that the government will do anything useful long term. And if the GOP wins in 2012-they will set out with glee on the dismantling of any evidence of progress the country has made in the last 100 years-so adamant is their desire to return us all to the gilded age of 1896 and life expectancies of 48 years.

But such talk by S&P ignores the very real fact that they are biting the hand that feeds them. During the housing bubble they fed the beast that nearly destroyed us:

All of this is true. Standard Poor’s didn’t just miss the bubble. They helped cause it. They were paid by the banks to award their AAA-stamp of approval to all manner of financial products that were anything but riskless — which, ironically, makes them an accessory to the resulting explosion of U.S. debt. You’ve heard the old joke about chutzpah being a young man who murders his parents and then pleads for leniency because he’s an orphan? S&P has chutzpah. All the credit-rating agencies do. It’s built into their business, which requires them to assess the stability of markets they helped crash. It’s long been my position that the credit-rating agency model is broken and, at times, dangerous, and investors need to pay less attention to their pronouncements and policy needs to do deemphasize their role in the system.

Unfortunately what is done is done-and they will not undo it, no matter how much the adminstration whines about the faultiness of their model, the capriciousness with which they make decisions,  or their beholdeness to the wealthy who helped create this mess-and then were bailed out 100 cents on the dollar when they guessed wrong. And still, three years later-not one major investment banker is behind bars.

In the end though-we have only ourselves to blame. For not being informed enough to make intelligent decisions at the ballot box-which in turn allowed a bunch spoiled, fat, selfish children to take seats in a government they do not work for and most decidedly do not belong in. The results were predictable -and ones I have been warning my readers about since 2009. My favorite news magazine sums it up nicely:

Investors largely tuned out the debt-ceiling debate until its final days out of a belief based on long experience that for all the antics and rhetoric of the Tea Party, the people who actually run Capitol Hill would never compromise the country’s credit worthiness. After all, it was Mr Boehner who reminded his freshmen colleagues that on the debt ceiling they’d have to act like “adults.”

That is not what happened. As the fight dragged on, the leadership moved closer to the Tea Party, not the other way around. And they seem happy with the results. Why else would Mitch McConnell have promised on August 1^st to do exactly the same the next time the debt ceiling must be raised?

It is striking that the proponents of this strategy seem so oblivious to its impact. Our economy is lubricated by a sophisticated and stable credit market whose most vital component is also the most ephemeral: trust. As the crisis amply demonstrated, when trust erodes, the system freezes up. America has built a reputation for responsible and credible management of its finances over the centuries, and that reputation has been reduced to a political football, like a federal judgeship. Henceforth a foreign pension fund or central bank that once mindlessly ploughed his spare cash into Treasurys will have to think twice.

This actually could be a useful turning point-and a point from which the country goes forward intelligently. Sadly, we won’t. The 20% of us who true believers in selfishness-will not allow it. I’m not sure what it is going to take-short of a Louisville Slugger to the forehead or destroying them financially- to get their attention. They are that determined not to learn.

You know, when Roughhead became CNO-I actually looked on it as a good thing. An initially he did try to reverse some of the insanity of the previous years. But now-heading out the door-it would appear Admiral Roughhead has been binging on the Kool Aid:

Asked about layoffs under the $400 billion in cuts, he said, “I believe the Navy will get smaller, and by people.”

Beyond the budget-driven cuts, the Navy will discharge 3,000 additional sailors this year due to what Roughead called “extraordinary retention.”

Because of the poor economy and what the Navy’s chief called “extraordinarily favorable” compensation, too many sailors have opted to stay in uniform, the admiral told a breakfast audience at the University Club in downtown San Diego.

Today, 70 percent of sailors are opting to reenlist after their first contract is up, he said.

A Navy retention board that looked at 16,000 jobs has decided to cut 3,000 sailors, as a result.

“These are sailors we can’t accommodate in the Navy. These are good people,” Roughead said. “They would be great employees.”

Given the budgetary environment, the admiral was frank about his view on how generous the compensation package is for his sailors.

“An enlisted sailor with eight years of service living in Norfolk, Va., makes $4,000 more a year than a high school teacher who’s been teaching in the school system for eight years,” Roughead told the University Club audience.

“And that sailor has the best health care in the world, they have a terrific house to live in, they have a great community support structure to take care of them,” he said.

Asked afterward if he thinks there’s room to cut military compensation, the chief of naval operations said the question is, can benefits be offered in a less expensive way and still attract people to serve.

You know-its not really the job of the CNO to say that last part. That’s a task better left to the folks with green eye shades. After all-a teacher in San Diego stands very slim chance of being sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan for a year -immediately after he has completed three seagoing deployments in three and a half years.

Furthermore-until one acknowledges the cuts that can be achieved by ending the wars this year not in 2014-the service chiefs are have no business talking about personnel cuts. Not that I don’t think they will come-but it should be looked at from a macro standpoint. The Navy is as bit as busy as any of the other services. Without a concurrent withdrawal from other overseas locations-all you are doing is creating an increased strain on those left behind.

And then there is LCS…………..

Thanks to the credit rating down grade from S&P. ( And who made these assholes the king of the world anyway?).

Might as well have some fun with it: