#mark benioff

Salesforce CEO on using business for social activism

New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/profiles-in-stupidity-a-week-chock-full-of-them/

Profiles in Stupidity: A week chock-full of them

By Phil Erwin

Back in the early 1960’s, JFK set the table for future Presidential wannabes by publishing Profiles in Courage, an anthology of stories detailing what he considered to be outstanding examples of what folks used to call “intestinal fortitude.” Kennedy’s book made him more electable than he otherwise might have been; and he turned out to have the same backbone as those stalwarts whose stories he heralded.

Barack Obama must have studied this strategy. An unknown, untested and inexperienced first-term US Senator, he vaulted to the head of the Democrat class, in large part based on three things: His skill as an orator, his novelty as a Black Presidential candidate, and name recognition from two “autobiographical” books he had penned – perhaps for name recognition. He needed some, ‘cause he didn’t have anything else to offer.

Unfortunately for the nation, Obama the President has turned out to be a far cry from the class acts Kennedy profiled in his book. They had moral clarity and the courage to stand firm in the face of adversity – but they did so for the benefit of others. Not for self-aggrandizement. Obama is stubborn about sticking to his guns; but he seems to make every calculation, every determination, every choice based, not on what is good for the country, but on what serves his own interests.

Even more unfortunately for us all: Obama isn’t even very good at figuring out his own best interests.

Take this week’s news that the Army is charging Beau Bergdahl with desertion and other misdeeds. The only thing even remotely surprising about this is that the Army decided to do the right thing, rather than doing what the Commander in Chief was no doubt pressing them to do, which was to sweep this unseemly mess under a rug somewhere.

I say “unseemly” because it was obvious that Bergdahl had deserted his post, and equally obvious that Obama’s Rose Garden Look-At-Me-I’m-The-Hero-Here ceremony with Bergdahl’s parents was strictly for Obama-promotion. Put in that light, the fact that he traded five top Taliban field commanders for one military miscreant was a blatantly idiotic thing to do. Even if Bergdahl really had been a heroic figure, this would have been an unwise and dangerous choice. And the fact that Obama deliberately flouted both Congress and the law by failing to inform Congress ahead of time only served to underscore that something was really, really rotten about this deal.

But ObamaCrew was having a bad week, and needed to distract the nation from a media backlash against the Taliban swap; so they sent that obliging prevaricator, Susan Rice, out to the Sunday news shows, where she proceeded to insult and infuriate all the guys in Bergdahl’s old unit by proclaiming he had served with “Honor and Distinction.” Talk about a slap upside their collective head – they knew it was a bald-faced lie; and they knew that they had lost several buddies while they were all out searching the desert for Bergdahl’s deserting ass.

Pay any attention at all to ObamaCrew’s shenanigans, and you get a truly disgusting picture of a President and an Administration that really don’t care what anybody else thinks – because they think they can sell any rotten story to anybody anywhere, anytime.

Because they believe they’re just so damn smart; and we’re all just so damn stupid!!

Americans think they elected Obama to lead them and represent their interests. Obama thinks Americans elected him so he could do whatever the Hell he wanted. That’s why he’s so comfortable using his “phone and pen” to circumvent Congress, bastardize the American Constitutional system and alienate half of America whenever he feels like it.

How do you like knowing that you have a President and an Administration that think your opinions simply don’t matter one whit?

I could go on ranting about ObamaCrew ad infinitum, ‘cause that’s how often they behave badly; but this is not strictly about them. It’s about how hard it has become in America to find the Truth; about just how completely Non-Truth has become the pablum of the masses (meaning, the crap we all swallow, and nod that, yes, it tastes so good.)

Mark Benioff, CEO Salesforce.Com,

I cite as my next illustration the news that Mark Benioff, CEO of a powerhouse software company called Salesforce.Com, announced he is banning all company travel to the dangerous, backward nation of… Indiana. That’s right – a CEO of a modern-day American company is banning travel to an American state. Why? Because the elected representatives of that state passed legislation to protect the religious liberty of the citizens of that state, and the governor has signed that legislation into Law.

That doesn’t exactly sound like a serious threat to Liberty, now, does it?

As a matter of fact, that sounds downright American, doesn’t it?

Yet the TwitterVerse is abuzz with Benioff-inspired rants characterizing this as the most backward-thinking, Gay-bashing, Neanderthal-stupid move since Marie Antoinette recommended cake as a main course.

The heart of this controversy is obscured (deliberately) by all the pro-Gay chatter about how this new law “allows” discrimination against Gays. But what the law actually does is quite clear to anyone who bothers to read it (It’s only one page!): It provides that people cannot be forced to violate their fundamental religious beliefs, except when necessary to fulfill a “compelling governmental interest,” and when there is no “less restrictive” (damaging) means to fulfill that interest.

In other words, if your religion forbids you to do what a customer wants you to do, but they can walk across the street and find someone who will accommodate them, there really is “no harm, no foul.”

Isn’t that how a civilized society should work?

I remember when most of the restaurants in southern California brandished a sign at the door that declared: No shoes, no shirt – No service. It was considered the right of a proprietor to decide what patron behaviors disqualified them from service. Now, it’s been turned around to the point where a proprietor might be risking heavy fines and jail time for refusing to serve “Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler, party of two” because they both sport swastikas.

Say what you want about “human rights violations,” the Indiana law very clearly upholds what is a core American Constitutional precept, which is: That government does not have the authority to force you to violate your religious beliefs.   This is the basis for the military classification known as “conscientious objector.”

So what is more American: Forcing someone to do what they fear may damn their soul? Or accepting that someone who politely declines to participate in your lifestyle choices has as much right to decide how to run their lives as you do yours?

Benioff’s reasoning is that the “separation of church and state” precept is violated by Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act; but the truth is clearly the reverse: RFRA says the government cannot violate religious practice without good cause. Benioff is a powerhouse CEO; but he’s an idiot when it comes to understanding America. Worse, he’s a political bully, who believes that just because he’s successful and rich, he has the right to foist his own state’s social mores on the citizens of a state half a continent away.

My final vote for Stupidity-of-the-Week goes to that paragon of political, social and scientific knowledge: Joy Behar, long-time co-host of The View, a talk show that champions gossip, hearsay and unintelligible cross-talk over actual civilized conversation. Ms. Behar reacted to Ted Cruz’ announcement that he was running for President by unilaterally proclaiming Senator Cruz to be ineligible for the job, having apparently disqualified himself by holding a skeptical view regarding Global Warming. “The bottom line with this guy is he’s a Climate Change den-eye-uh,” whined Ms. Behar. (That’s “denier”, for you who do not speak the version of English that this ex-English teacher apparently taught.)   “We cannot have a President in the United States who’s a Climate Change den-eye-uh!!”

Q.E.D.

Joy Behar on a good day

Really, Ms. Behar? That is your “bottom line?” You actually bought it when John Kerry said “Climate Change” is a greater threat to the nation than Islamic terrorism? Thank God we have you protecting the pseudo-science sanctity of the Presidency!

I might point out that Ms. Behar has little on her resume to suggest that she can properly evaluate the truth of the “Climate Change” (née “Global Warming”, née “Nuclear Winter”) controversy. Nor, apparently, does she actually understand the nature of the American political system. I’m not sure she understands the nature of anything. One speculates that, were she made Queen, she might make questioning the validity of “Climage Change science” an illegal act, probably declaring it immoral as well. Punishable by a week in the stocks, and burning at the stake if you fail to recant.

I have three questions for Ms. Behar:

A deserter and six (or more) dead servicemen for five battle-hardened bad guys – Would you call that a good swap?

A travel ban on Indiana – Wouldn’t it be better to just deport all those Christians to Syria and replace them with gay illegal immigrants, so the Great State of Indiana can be socio-politically cleansed?

Once Iran gets its first Obama-approved nuke ready to go, should they use it to counter Global Warming by initiating Nuclear Winter?

In the religion knows as Liberalism, the only “truth” is what has been officially sanctioned by their propaganda machine. Anything not so sanctioned is, by definition, wrong, evil and dangerous. To say nothing of “retarded” – a word which the Left now reserves strictly for use in describing Conservatives.

The Looney Left hates free speech, moral clarity and good sense.

How American is that?

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Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He sometimes wishes he could support Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies, and is none too fond of Statistics. If his writing depresses you, he recommends you visit Chip Bok’s site for a more lighthearted perspective.

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  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gestures while delivering the keynote address at the f8 Facebook Developer Conference Wednesday, April 30, 2014, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) This piece was originally published on Capital & Main.

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