Dr. Bob visits the Keeper of the Great Seal of the U.S.A. in Washington D.C.

Soon after the publication of Dr. Bob Hieronimus’s book, The United Symbolism of America, he enjoyed a private tour of the actual Great Seal press and the comprehensive and beautiful exhibit on the history of the Seal.  Invited by Senior Curator, U.S. Diplomacy Center Dr. Priscilla Linn, to view the exhibit called “Celebrating the 225th Anniversary of the Great Seal of the United States: Past, Present and Future,” Dr. Bob was also specially treated to a demonstration of the Great Seal in action.  Sharon Hardy, Chief of the Office of Presidential Appointments, Bureau of Human Resources, demonstrated the Seal press with an actual Presidential document, which she made official by imprinting on it the Great Seal of the United States.  Ms. Hardy is the official custodian of the Great Seal, and each year, she and her staff imprint seals for between 2,000-3,000 documents, including presidential commissions, diplomatic envelopes, and treaties.

The U.S. has never cut a die for the reverse, but its image appears on the back of the one dollar bill.

Sorry conspiracy theorists!

The traveling exhibit “Celebrating the 225th Anniversary of the Great Seal” curated by Dr. Linn shows in exquisite detail the dry and historical veracity of the origins of these arcane designs and why they were really chosen by the Founding Fathers.  It is a waste of time to try to connect these symbols to a Devil-worshipping secret society bent on world domination.  That’s not to say selfish and greedy powerful men do not meet in secret and try to manipulate world events to their advantage – they do.  But trying to use our national symbols to prove the existence of such a group is based on urban legends, lies, mistranslations, and has its origins in the anti-Communist propaganda of the 1930s.  Go ahead and attack the secret cabals all you want, just leave our national symbols out of it. 

Curator Dr. Priscilla Linn, Dr. Bob Hieronimus, and Sharon Hardy (Keeper of the Seal) pose in front of both seals.

Hardy and Linn review their copies of Dr. Bob’s new book, The United Symbolism of America.

Hieronimus and Linn appreciating the antique seal artifacts at her exhibit, “Celebrating the 225th Anniversary of the Great Seal of the United States: Past, Present and Future.”

Hieronimus and Linn examine the display on the front or “eagle” side of the Great Seal of the United States.

Close-ups of the actual Great Seal press.  There is an official die cut for only the obverse of our two-sided national seal.  The reverse does not have an official die press and is not used to authenticate official documents.

Sharon Hardy, the official custodian and protector of the Great Seal, displays the newly imprinted presidential proclamation.

Close-up of the newly pressed seal.

Dr. Hieronimus and Sharon Hardy examine the new pressing.  Notice the bar that looks like a dumbbell over their heads.  This is spun downwards to screw the seal impression onto the document inserted underneath.  This particular mechanism has been in use since 1903.

Dr. Bob and the newly sealed document.

A Nation at War: Where’s the Music?

By Joseph J. Honick

“Over There” … “Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition” … “Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There” … these and scads of other songs permeated the airwaves, juke boxes, radios and anywhere that sound could be received during dark days of wartime for generations. But not now!

“War” is now the word used by those who favor it and those who don’t.

Where is the demand from government to make movies hyping our men and women in uniform, fighting and dying every day? Where are the composers writing patriotic songs? Where are the pumpers to get us all to help pay for a nation at war with savings bonds that might add up to the $187 billion in World War II dollars Americans happily came up with then?

The answer: nowhere!

I have raised the questions before about how come we could have promoted a profligate economy at home that ran aground while running up a wartime tab that seems to have no end? If oil is so precious, we have to pressure auto makers to produce cars that consumer less fuel or run on some other stuff, how come we have no programs to ration the black gold here so our troops don’t run short overseas? 

One reason may well be that this administration, as did its predecessor, keeps working at promoting its economic progress which we now know has run down quite a bit, with growth much slower than had been predicted, read bragged about. With all that, the pressure is to keep the battle going with no end in sight or any even modest description of what it looks like when we have won.

Perhaps Americans are both confused and discouraged. Certainly we are inexcusably apathetic in demanding leadership from both political parties who seem similarly confused, but, shucks, they get paid to lead, and it’s our money they’re gobbling up.

When you add all of this up, you understand why there are no new patriotic songs to motivate armies and civilians alike, why we cannot figure out what victory looks like and why it is ok to keep traveling, using oil and not worrying about material shortages needed for war. The reason: those who run the joint seem not to worry about it either.

Yet this is the same apathetic American public now being targeted to determine who should take over and carry the burden they will most assuredly inherit.

As we move toward the end of another year of  “Afghanistan Forever” with millions of Americans in the dumper, here are questions that demand answers … or at the very least … demand to be asked:

1.     Why are we in Afghanistan and what is our mission?

2.     Who is the enemy really and how can something called “insurgents” hold off the most powerfully armed forces in the world for so long?

3.     If it costs us billions to stay in the Afghanistan game, who is financing, training, arming and commanding the Taliban, and how are they doing it?

4.     Why does the government fail to tell the American people how this all happens?

5.     If we are at war, why is there no draft?

6.     How have the Russians suffered for being driven out?

7.     Why are these questions not being to our government by media?

Whatever happened to the music?

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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications.. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

India and Bribery and ‘Progressive’ Media Hypocrisy

By Joseph J. Honick

Few would argue both the logic and the correctness of doing everything necessary to eliminate bribery in the award of government contracts. And it is commendable that India has embarked in recent months to take such steps.

But the announcement that the nation has taken steps against arms and other contractors from Israel, Singapore, Russia and China for alleged bribery of Defense officials carries a ring of modest humor since the actions uncovered past event when the actions were hardly unusual.  The media announced events were much like the old tale of the woman who tried to prove she had recaptured her virginity.   

True to their usual smear tactics, the virulent anti-Israel propaganda media proliferating the internet were not only quick to assert the charges against the Israeli munitions industry were just the usual of a corrupt country, these same garbage broadcasters mostly forgot the other nations targeted by the newly purified Indian defense operation.   

The efforts undertaken in this particular situation were reflective of India’s well known governmental predilection for some “fiscal palm greasing” and the recent outcry from many quarters to put a stop to it.  No doubt most arms and other contractors would prefer at least the appearance of a level field of competition, but they have known their human targets and what it took to do business in that lovely country.   

What not even the Indian purity seekers even suggested was the quality of such products and systems was undesirable.   

But if corruption is worth noting at any time, so is hypocrisy as with the case of the virulent anti-Israel media thst includes among its propaganda cartoons of the American symbol Uncle Sam pointing to the reader, with a caption asserting “I am Israel’s Bitch!”.  Worse is the reality such trash is reprinted or otherwise picked up by domestic media claiming to be “liberal and progressive.” offering the question at least as to where those propaganda media draw their own bribes.   

Editor’s Note: Here’s a link to a Pakistani news source about the corruption scandal:https://paktribune.com/articles/French-Scandal-Exposes-Global-Corruption-242845.h

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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

June 10, 2011

WILL A REAL WORLD LEADER PLEASE STAND?©

By Joseph J. Honick©

After returning from an intensive three-week trip to the U.K., Belgium and the Czech Republic, talking with many people in business and scouring the print media, a few conclusions slam one right in the face:

1. The worldwide economic crisis is put right at the feet of U.S.

2. There is no acceptable or believable political or other leader worthy of support.

3. The U.S. looks like a runaway auto with no one at the wheel.

4. The Middle East is a massive pile of tinder being stoked toward real explosion by some mad determinations from NATO-led by the U.S. for reasons yet to be explained … even sans any settlement between Israel and whoever speaks for the Palestinians.

And all of this seems to be magnified by one of the least sane versions of a run-up to political contests in recent history in the United States. In short, much of the world seems hungry for anything and anyone who might lend some direction out of the economic quagmire that has paralyzed much of the free world.

When we spoke to both ordinary and well-to-do people, there is frequent reference to the “crisis”, meaning the burst financial bubble virtually everywhere. And they add just as often: “that started with you in America, didn’t it?” Whether justified or not, the belief is pervasive.

This does not mean there is no one waiting to take over the reins of leadership and to offer some sense of encouragement.

The lack of America’s confidence in its political and commercial sectors sadly exists across the ocean.

Meanwhile, countries once assigned “third world” status have not been stagnant in their own efforts to move up and out. For example, those who take a little time to watch such things know that mostly Asian countries have been craftily, efficiently and steadily dispatching bright young and talented men and women to the most prestigious graduate schools of business and economics in the west.

A predominant percentage of those students have come from China whose determination to invest abroad is by now enormous and conspicuous … and successful.

It came as no surprise to read in a recent Financial Times that Chinese investors are helping to reignite the housing industry in certain areas of Canada. But we also know that the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade has been sending substantial groups to the U.S. to study investment opportunities.

And why shouldn’t they when we seem so preoccupied (an insufficient term perhaps) with two wars, a surprising need to stoke rebellions in the Middle East and juvenile political conflicts to prove which parties and candidates are the very worst rather than what can be done cooperatively to help fuel progress for America and the world?

There was a time when, no matter where I ventured in the world, the U.S. was seen as a shining beacon of hope in the face of fear, hunger and other disasters. 

Today, we are certainly looked to for financial and humanitarian assistance in times of floods, nuclear threats and other problems. But the sense of leadership is not there.

That concern is not merely one about who gets elected to public office. It is a focused observation that the intensive partisanship that smothers any means of progress also has embarrassed us in a world where whatever we do is communicated in seconds.

So we are back to those opening observations and the plea of this piece for a real world leader to stand up and fast….and for those who only apply the means of political destruction to stand down so we can once again do what we have done so many times before: demonstrate mature leadership in a time of severe crisis before the world descends into another terrible conflict.

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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

June 21, 2011

WHERE’S HILLARY? WHERE’S THE CABINET?

By Joseph J. Honick©

Almost two years ago, I raised questions about all the non-Senate vetted White House “czars” but mainly wondered where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was either hiding or being hidden.

The questions about the “missing” czars and Secretary of State have emerged once again as the President seems to pop up almost everywhere in the world long enough for maximum press coverage, speeches and then off to another place. 

Has he forgotten he has a team of executives called Cabinet Secretaries to take on major challenges for which they were carefully selected, vetted and assigned areas of major responsibility?

Except for retiring Defense Secretary Gates, whom the President could not easily push aside, virtually all of the cabinet officials are unknown to most Americans and probably even fewer abroad. 

Certainly few even know who the Secretary of Commerce has been and who will now become our Ambassador to China before any measurable trade progress could even be started much less accomplished.(Incidentally, the Secretary is Gary Locke … how many knew that?)

What emerged quickly in this administration was that the President was not going to let anyone else get the spotlight and was going to have what amounted to a “shadow cabinet” none of whose members had to confront the traditional interrogatories from the United States Senate and would simply do the boss’ bidding. 

That did indeed turn out to be the case.

In short order, the President had more “czars” than ever ruled Imperial Russia. But even then, Obama’s supporters were steadfast, urging patience with the man who had to take over in the middle of two unpopular wars and a major recession. 

I was among those who criticized what I then called the “disloyal opposition” as the President pushed for major health care legislation and various stimuli to help the economy.

Unfortunately, what we see today is the reality that the promised public works jobs program not only did not emerge but has hardly been pushed. Trade agreements so important to American industry have been somewhere else as the important Department of Commerce has had to function like an orphan operation with little to do or much funding to sell our goods around the world.

But, by golly, the President is here, there and everywhere clearly laying the foundation for another election run. There is little question he has had to contend with egregious and outrageous campaigns that questioned his very right to be president or his attachment to questionable people in his past.

But all presidents have had to contend with partisan mudslinging of one kind or another,

When I wrote “A Death In the National Family: Public Confidence”, the effort was to explain that the trillions thrown at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the hundreds of billions in bailouts left many people perhaps agreeing with the late but hardly great Alabama Governor George Wallace’s assertion “There isn’t a dime’s difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.”

So now here we are, having made little progress in the running wars and engaged in what may well be illegal conflicts in the Middle East that could lead to another real war. And there is still another question, given our economy and depression unemployment, as to whether we can actually afford peace and the massive dislocation of employees in defense industries it could lead to.

It may well be a time for someone of influence, reliability and leadership from within the Democratic party to reignite what Americans thought they were getting when President Obama was elected.

So, as I asked before: Where’s Hillary?

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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications, including huntingtonnews.net. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

BOTTOM LINES FOR BOTTOMLESS PITS

July 1, 2011

By Joseph J. Honick©

If you read and are properly confused by the daily media recitations of almost universal fiscal disaster, you almost want to feel sorry for the allegedly struggling major corporations and the traditionally rich.

But don’t worry about them…because, according to reliable sources like the Financial Times, a headline says “Millionaires Shrug Off Downturn.” And the largest percentage of those well heeled folks is of course right in North America, followed closely by Europe and an area fuzzily described as Asia-Pacific.

In fact, according to the Times, “Millionaires across the world are richer than before the financial crisis!

Then we turn to another report that just 10 American companies have tons of billions in profits parked in overseas banks….free from the IRS collection squad.

According to accounting experts, General Electric alone has an estimated $94 billion in untaxed foreign profits! But they’re just one of the fiscal hit parade. And GE paid no income tax for the past year of any kind.

Here is the rest of the “hit parade”:

Pfizer $48 billion
Merck $40 billion
Johnson & Johnson $37 billion
Exxon Mobil $35 billion
Citigroup $32 billion
Cisco Systems $32 billion
IBM $31billion
Procter & Gamble $30 billion
Microsoft $29 billion

That comes to nearly $300 billion tucked away and protected from the IRS.

The big boys claim that U.S. tax laws would hit them for about 35% if they brought that money back to the U.S.

These reports coincide with another from the reliable Financial Times that “U.S. Households Face Tax Rises,” according to a recent study. According to the FT’s Dan McCrum: “Without policy changes, each U.S. household faces an additional tax bill of $1,400 per year above any increase in revenues from economic growth.”

Those data are based on research by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the University of Rochester.

Are you still there? Because there really is a lot more.

Although President Obama has made a lot of headlines with his declarations to ‘downsize’ our operation in Afghanistan, reality is that we have many billions of outstanding construction and other contracts in that country that apparently will not be cancelled. In some cases, those deals are to build new bases over the next several years.

The bottom lines for these bottomless pits are simply that the rich can’t be bothered; corporate billions will not be taxed; defense contractors remain joyful, and the ordinary taxpayer will be pressured to meet the bills.

Given the corporations who claim they cannot afford the taxes on their hundreds of billions of overseas profits, and after most of them were the beneficiaries of bailouts and stimuli, it’s only fair that working people should pick up the slack … isn’t it?

Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications,. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. He can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com

WHAT TO BELIEVE WITH OUR NEW WAR?©

BY JOSEPH J HONICK