The intent of this blog is to promote human equality, human progress, human peace and justice, and optimism. To accomplish this, to encourage the discussion of ideas after identifying and discovering problems, and then creating positive solutions for "we the people," in order to provide for the "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility" of America now and its "posterity" into the future. To encourage an emphasis on separation of religion and state for all, no matter if this is for those "of faith" in a Maker / Creator (Deists, God-loving people, Christians, various people of spirituality) and atheists or agnostics.

Archive for August, 2021

Housing in Minnesota and Elsewhere

Interesting to learn that there are those who consider the prices of houses in a neighborhood decrease when black folks move into those in Minnesota. For me, I have lived in integrated neighborhoods in Florida and found them to be wonderful places to live alongside some wonderful people of all races. The timing for living in one neighborhood was what hurt and caused the prices to decrease because it was during the time of an extensive increase of 125% over two to three years, with house flipping galore and corrupt deals between banks and developers. It had nothing to do with the makeup of the people moving in when the overall housing bubble collapsed and prices fell.  I repeat. the decrease in prices had nothing to do with black people moving in because it was integrated and those who were black suffered just as much as those who were white.
One step further. In the last couple of years, looking for a home in upstate New York, the prices of homes were so very expensive in areas which are more integrated than here in Tioga County, NY. In this county Republicans are in the majority and there is a very large white majority. To hear someone here complain about “housing prices will go down should black people move in” is absolutely a bunch of drivel. 

Once again, there are too many Americans who don’t even recognize what it means for capitalism.  If you have more people of any color move into areas and are able to create new developments for all, you have more people purchasing the homes. The demand is up. If the supply is low, the prices go up. If the housing inventory is too large, the prices go down. It’s called capitalism, stupid and that means supply and demand considerations.

Right now, there is an opportunity for Tioga County, NY, to bring in new residents of nay color, due to the opportunities to move into the “country” and work remotely from home. The idea is that we need to create jobs first in order to develop the area. But in this case, there is a potential market with those who are seeking lower prices and living in a more open area, rather than in urban areas where it is sometimes easier to contract viruses and bacteria.

In the end, If you develop an area with lower-priced housing, you can then attract the business, opportunities for more people, and jobs for more people.  It is ludicrous for those in Minnesota to consider that blacks ruin a neighborhood.  And too many Republicans claim “there is no systemic racism?” I don’t want to hear such BS anymore.  If you build it, they will come, including all people and all races.  That is a good thing which I saw the positives of such actions in Florida.There are simply too many Republicans who don’t like this idea because they wish to destsroy the ability of registering voters of all colors. 

—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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Afghanistan Taliban Problem

Interesting to note that there have been problems in deciphering plots in the Middle East, including Afghanistan. Why? is there a possibility that, with the objection to the Vietnam Conflict and the investigations of the CIA, we could have weakened the Central Intelligence Agency? In 1865, we had the ability to uncover a threat to New ork City (see a New York Times article from 1865) for burning down several buildings in the city before it happened. The perpetrators were from Dixie. They had just lost the war with the Yankees. Uncovering the plot sent the perpetrators reeling up the Hudson River to Canada. Why did we have the ability to uncover such a plot, but were lacking the ability to uncover the plots of the Taliban in Afghanistan today?
Further questions. Why were those working for the government in Afghanistan not paid enough so they deserted? Why did the USA support a corrupt government like the one in Kabul and expect to destroy the Taliban? Why has it been such quick maneuvering by the Taliban and there were not enough to stand up for the government in the process? What happened and why did America not have enough knowledge about this? Why are there so many analysts in the news who act surprised that this happened in Afghanistan and only a few, like me, who were not surprised in the least?

But I am stupid and nothing but a moaner and groaner who tries to seek something better for America. My writing in America gets censored, I never get published for my good ideas, and I feel as if people wish to mock me and scoff at what I say as not being important in the least. I don’t worry about things. I speak out bluntly and with purpose.
What did Trump accomplish in Afghanistan, besides making an agreement to withdraw our troops? Where is the CIA these days and why don’t we have the intelligence to find out what is truly happening? These stupid nutcase people who claim to be Christians in this nation are just like the Taliban, as they preach about not wearing masks or being vaccinated so people in America can die. Oh, silly me for asking this question.

—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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Response to Guest Columnist RE: Government and Safety Net for COVID-19

Dear Editors:
From the opinion page comes an “opinion” which does not contain facts, but only the aspersions cast upon our U.S. government and with little or no evidence provided. Just speak out about this or that happening.  No facts.  Yet, I have submitted essays time and time again and never get mine printed. I do include facts and evidence. Jerry Russell’s commentary contains none, except his visit to East Germany after the reunification of Germany. 

Let me reiterate after doing so  time and time again. I am a capitalist who believes in government regulated capitalism.  I am pro-democracy and believe that an educated nation is necessary for a democracy to operate. From my observations in this nation and after working almost 40 years in education, have witnessed the downfall of good public education, due to people who express unsubstantiated information, as Jerry Russell does in this guest columnist. America’s grasp of the truth, knowledge, and information has been curtailed and so has democracy. I have to argue this is NOT a “creep into communism,” as defined by Russell in this “guest column.”

Russell’s commentary is based on a bias from Ronald Reagan’s words that “government is the problem.” So, therefore, people like Russell focus on government being the problem, even if it means throwing out to the public unsubstantiated information. The number one point made by Russell was that, due to COVID-19, the government is confiscating property because of the “moratorium on evictions.” That is false. I say it’s false because the writer provides no proof of such actions.

As a capitalist, I can provide evidence of big fat bankers, not government, confiscated property. According to a Palm Beach Post article when the price of housing there increased by `25% in just a few years, the truth was uncovered that developers and bankers worked together to give mortgages to people who were not able to afford them. Brand new homes with balloon mortgages were given to people making $35,000 annual salaries or less when there was no proof that such incomes could pay for such homes. Prices skyrocketed. The bubble then burst, due to these mortgages which suddenly came due. Housing prices came tumbling down and many faced short sales and foreclosures. Flipping of homes began in earnest.  Developers walked away with huge sums of money and were no longer concerned about the houses and the banks swept in and confiscated the property. No regulated capitalism existed to avert this from happening.  Today, there is a huge homeless population in Palm Beach County as prices, once again, have soared. Rent, too, has gone up astronomically in Palm Beach County and other parts of Florida. Russell never mentions this part about unregulated capitalism with its corruption, cheating, and lying. Russell never mentions what happened in Germany when Hitler was in control because he has biased blinders on to only blame the communists of East Germany. As a proponent of regulated capitalism, I, too, don’t like what is described in East Germany. I refuse to believe unsubstantiated information in the USA while the depth of the problem that I describe is ignored. And let me also mention, the son of a Hitler-loving and KKK-loving person, Donald Trump, lives in Palm Beach County and I knew real estate people there who worked for him.  But does my information get published? Not on your life. I am being censored, as a proponent of regulated capitalism and American democracy.

The second point from Russell is absurd and lacks evidence. Our government might support a safety net during this time of COVID-19, but it does not pay people not to work. That safety net is unemployment. Yes, perhaps we need to work to tweak the unemployment benefits a bit. But I refuse to look at this as a means to pay people not to work. That is a false interpretation of what is happening. 

As for bringing in “guest workers” to pay for work Americans don’t want to do,” so what?  Again, living in Florida, I have witnessed migrant workers who work in the sun and heat of Florida because Americans don’t want to do such work. it’s a tough job. Being a professor at a college in Palm Beach County (now retired), I worked with young people of migrant worker families who picked themselves up by the boot straps, created their own businesses to help them get through college, and have ended up in successful positions. Meanwhile, too many American young folks (and it might include white AND black, too), do not have what was once described as American ingenuity, to develop a means of income to help finance their education. For instance, there were Haitian students I knew who developed such businesses as mobile car detailing. They would come to a person’s home and detail a car. I knew those who, in Fort Lauderdale, would deliver newspapers, not just to pre-established customers created by lousy customer service phone numbers housed in foreign lands, but by going to places where people worked or at the off-ramps of the interstate so as to sell the print newspapers. Some might have required gasoline for automobiles, but some of the work could be done on foot, too.  yet, we cannot get white folks in New York to deliver newspapers and, at the same time, the excuses are, “they don’t want to work” or “the cost of gasoline is too high.” Any excuse will do. 

So, I don’t wish to hear someone like Mr. Russell, with a bias, talk about blaming the government and “creeping into communism.”  I find such bias offensive and perverted. It has actually led this nation into a great deal of chaos with false information. I have written it before and I write it again.  Our governments are human institutions and humans are imperfect.  Therefore, our government is imperfect.  A democracy is better than a dictatorship, which is what Trump and his friends wish to impose upon us, from QAnon to MAGA to Proud Boys, etc.  Whether local, state, or Federal governments, I express my appreciation for the life many of us have been able to achieve, even if, as a black CNN reporter says, “many white folks do not do as well, financially, as their parents did.” I am one of those white folks, but I still appreciate what we all have today and thank our government for our blessings.  I thank God for the blessings, but I do have an appreciation for the humans and governments who came before us and gave us what we have today, as imperfect as it is.
One additional thought.  The truth sometimes hurts and in this case, the truth is that its big business monopolies and lawyers pitting common folk against one another which align more with the ideas of centralized socialist and communist control of economics. I have written about this, over and over again. Many times I have written about this. In the first Century, people listened to a Jew say “the truth will set you free.” The early followers of this Jew tried to establish communes, but the communes failed. Why? Just as with the hippy communes of the 1960s, one thing is important to acknowledge.  “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Dictatorial power corrupts, whether it is power by dictators Hitler or Stalin. Whether it is power by Mussolini or Castro. Whether it is power by a corrupt government in Kabul or the Taliban with its forced anti-human rights dictatorial powers.  The early followers of that first-century Jew also did not charge interest rates for money which was borrowed and the society had practices of a Jubilee Year in which, every seven years, debts were forgiven.

Today, as a consumer (I always say I am on the demand side of a capitalist market), we are not able to earn interest on high-cost insurance with a 0% return on investment. And this guy in Binghamton is blaming the government for this? He should have lived in Florida with hurricanes where, for nearly 40 years, i paid into this black hole of an insurance money pit and never reaped one benefit, ever, from private corporate monopolistic institutions of finance like insurance companies.  Yet, the money I HAVE earned (or SHOULD BE earning) by investing in Social Security and Medicare is being ripped off from me. This is being done in the name of communist- and socialist-hating people with false information about what capitalism, socialism, and communism are all about. Thank you, Karl Marx for providing false information which too many people have followed and too many others rely on when describing a hatred of communism. All due to the false information of Marx and Engels.    But don’t believe me or try to understand what I say here because one might actually learn from what I say. So I get censored in America, while biased individuals like Russell, with false information, get published quite frequently.

Yes, Mr. Russell, I don’t like handouts. However, I do understand when handouts are necessary as part of a safety net when things get bad for Americans. Things got bad for Americans having to deal with COVID-19, so we need to adjust and create safety nets, but not keep such safety nets “to infinity and beyond.” But I have yet to hear of desires to continue such safety nets indefinitely. In fact, by way of democracy and bipartisanship, in the mid- to late 1990s, there were many efforts to put us on a path towards structuring the safety nets in a way which can benefit Americans when it becomes necessary.  We can do the same thing today and not “creep into communism,” as Mr. Russell’s pessimism touts in a guest columnist article.  Americans need to THINK. Americans need to CONSIDER various aspects of life. Americans need to consider various OPTIONS for our SOLUTIONS. Mr. Russell’s words of pessimism does nothing to help America achieve the goals I just set forth.  I am going to be blunt and state this outright.  
P.S. I don’t get published in the Binghamton newspapers, but have been published in other newspapers in Florida. Why does this happen today? I am a good person with a good desire to help America and its people move forward. Is there something wrong with that? Or am I being tarnished as if I am like everyone else and seeking only individualist desires?  How many times do I have to repeat myself on this score, as well? Oh, well. Even if I get published, I can’t get the morning newspaper delivered here, as it has been done for all my life, up to just prior to COVID-19.  So, why bother when I don’t get the newspaper if my essays get published?  That is what Americans all think. Must be they are too lazy and don’t want to work.
—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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Once Again, Stereotyping

In reading the letter to the editor today (Aug. 24, 2021: “Soft bigotry of progressives”), once again, I bemoan the fact that there is too much stereotyping of groups based on the whims of ideology. This stereotyping needs to stop and we, the people, need to come together in a democratic nation or the democracy will fall.  What inspires such anger of liberals, progressives, Democrats or what not? What is the root of this evil way? It is evil and emboldened when lawyers convince everyone there is the “bad guy and good guy.” As an educator, I have observed supposed “bad guys” turn to being “good guys.” It is also emboldened by the stupidity of thoughts that we are all born with “original sin,” not “original blessings” for which it is the actions of each individual to come to grips with being humble and open-minded enough to learn. The destruction of public education while the legal profession makes tons of money by pitting “good against bad” in auto accidents which may occur only as a result of “time and unforeseen circumstances (as the Bible says). 

Enough said about these ideas from the Bible and the predicament America is in right now when “moral sentiments” (words of 18th Century economics theorist, Adam Smith used to condemn free markets because they create monopolies) are completely ignored by greed, selfishness,a and individualism which inspires the attacks on one another. The result is what was written in the newspaper this morning. An approach to a problem based solely on ideology used as the means to validate ones own personal feelings. 

In fact, there are parts of what the writer says in which I am in agreement. But guess what? I also tend to agree with other components of liberal and progressive thought. His quotation of Michael Gerson demonstrates a valid point in my mind, but I do not like the attack against a group of people called liberals. There are many times I could agree with liberals. There are many times I could agree with conservatives. It is wrong to drag one group or the other through the mud.  While there are many times I also agree with Mr. Gerson, there are also times I do not agree with the columnist.  The intent of the remarks Gerson wrote for “then-presidential candidate George W. Bush.” The idea imparted is that “they [liberals, love the use of they, don’t you know? THEY…] consistently demonstrate racism via the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations'” does ring forth a message, but not one in which this particular liberal-conservative (me) finds good. Part of what is said here is offensive to me, as an educator.

Yes, unless the intent is derogatory, I do not like political correctness. I have read books by George W. Bush Dept. of Education staff person, Dr. Diane Ravitch. One book (The Death and Life of the Great American School System) bemoans the movement to privatize and kill public education, as well as what this letter writer says about the examples of the state governor of Oregon who prefers to “lower expectations,” based on race and ethnicity. I know many black people who don’t wish to lower such expectations, in the name of “giving their people a special chance to succeed in learning. Dr. Ravitch provides plenty of good facts behind what she says. Yet, the Republican successors to Bush are pushing privatization even harder, particularly Betsy DeVos. I must say that I have to agree with the assessment the writer gave of Governor Brown of Oregon, but not after what I read this morning with the ideological bias thrown into the equation. 

Dr. Ravitch’s book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, addresses the topic at hand with the letter published in this morning’s newspaper. I am not sure, however, I have ever read anything from Dr. Ravitch which simply stereotypes all educators into one lump of liberals. She identifies some specific people.  Guess what.  I am a person, too, who finds what she says in line with many of my “liberal” colleagues. Many of my former colleagues are human beings who also might just agree with some of the points made by this letter writer. One is not forced to embrace fully what people say, but have the human ability to sort it all out.

However, there is no way the letter writer will convince me about the point by stereotyping and lumping us all together in a group of “bad guys.” Such a notion is as “bad” as a lawyer’s advertisement designed to validate ambulance-chasing lawsuits because such “lawsuits have to teach these bad people who are involved in an accident,” never making allowances for humans making mistakes at times (“time and unforeseen circumstances”). In the days of the horse and wagon, would a person who imbibed at a tavern and allowed the horse to find the way home, with the horse having an accident, be held liable? Would we shoot the horse or charge the horse with being “bad?”  The horse may not have been drunk while the drunk person was sleeping it off in the back of the wagon.

From the time of infancy, we all learned from failure and mistakes. Learning to walk on two feet was a major part of it, but there are other means of learning from mistakes throughout our lives.  Is the mistake a deliberate one or the result of “time and unforeseen circumstances?” Take it one step further. Should we sue God because of a boulder in the road, resulting from a landslide or some other part of nature? According to lawyers and their lawsuits, perhaps they wish to sue God, too? Therefore, we all are learning how to deal with a non-homogeneous society of people, due to a strong over-riding factor of mixed race and ethnicity. Some people have learned to deal quite well with it. But those who do not make a deliberate attempt to sabotage society.  The black educator who finds it totally off-base when a white person uses rap music to demonstrate Bach or Beethoven is another example of the ridiculous nature of what this letter-writer was attempting to say. What would he do? Attack this liberal black woman?  She was using reasoning and rationality. Oh, yes, that’s another part of what I am discussing here. Reasoning and rationality, which is parallel to “time and unforeseen circumstances.” 

And I have yet to “tar” my “ideological opponents with the ‘racist’ label. If I “tar” someone with a “racist label,” it’s because they are racist, not on an ideological trip somewhere. I “tar” those who use the “N…..” word in a derogatory sense because they don’t like black people and have never lived in an inter-racial environment to learn how to coexist.  They think it’s funny to put on a KKK uniform or other types of crap. They play favorites with corruption and thus favor white folks only.  And furthermore, such people are usually the ones who stereotype all black people as being the same because a white relative was murdered by a black person. Let the white person who murders another white person get off free, right? It is not the ideology in which I use to “tar” them.  it’s not stereotypes. I observe and are concerned with the facts, the circumstances, and the unforeseen time with the circumstances.  

One final thought. When living in Florida and finding the Republican Party becoming rather repugnant Humour anyone? Republican is found in the dictionary between the words, reptile and repugnant. As a Republican, I simply laughed at the humour, I might say. Why? Because I knew I was NOT repugnant and I was not a reptile. In fact, a very racist person calls black people “lizard people.” I would say she is very repugnant, but should I? During this time of frustration with those in the Republican Party to which I served, I mentioned my feelings to a long-time friend and Republican from New York. Her reply? “Well, then you don’t like me, do you?” I had to explain that if that were the case, I would also not like myself, would I?

People are working with too few brain cells which leads each one to a lack confidence and self-esteem. They are insecure about themselves, so they lash out with stereotyping and other means of attacks, thinking that makes each person more powerful over the other. That is what I am saying about the person who wrote this letter.  Insecurity and stereotyping has to end or it will be the ruination of this nation.When I say something like this, I can only hope the nation does not head to ruin. But to stop such ruination, it takes a collective effort of action to make the proper changes. If you don’t believe this, then you are insecure and listen too much to pessimistic people who have an agenda to destroy this democracy.
—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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Confiscation of Property

Recently, a guest opinion article in the Gannett Press & Sun-Bulletin remarked about several issues which put America on the road to communism. The writer was incorrect when discussing matters pertaining to confiscation of property. I wrote a rebuttal to Gannett editors, but I am being censored, so I don’t know if it will be published. Sad, but it’s true, when realizing how much false information is freely available out there, but when presented with facts, we are ignored and not getting published.
Fact is that the topic of confiscation of property has its roots in history long before there was any communism. Even after Karl Marx, the Bolsheviks of Russia, the communists in Cuba and other regions of the world, there was a prevalence of confiscation of property when financial situations go sour for the wealthy ones. The confiscation of property by wealthy bankers during the time of the Great Depression is evidence of such. The more current example I provided in the rebuttal to the writer in the Press & Sun-Bulletin explained how there was a deliberate attempt by bankers in Florida to take advantage of real estate sales which went through the roof and caused prices to rise astronomically in just a few short years after the start of the new millennium with the intent to confiscate property so the wealthy, not a government, could accumulate property and force the rise of rent to those who were left out of the market.  That is called corruption and corruption in government and business in Afghanistan is the reason the Taliban was able to move so quickly to overtake the government. Do we have an American Taliban where all men will be required to grow these long ugly beards or get beheaded if they don’t?  Even the communists of the Soviet Union were unable to maintain any control in Afghanistan, as well as the British and others. 

But this last part of my message touches on an entirely different situation. My intent is to discuss confiscation of property and how absurd the writer was to say we are on a course of communism when it was big business, not government, which has strongly been involved in confiscation of property and is likely salivating over the opportunities afforded by COVID-19 for doing more confiscation, not the government.
Fact. When the Western Hemisphere was being settled by the white man of Europe, property of indigenous folks was confiscated and sometimes very brutally and savagely confiscated.  The truth hurts, but the truth can set us all free. 

Fact. Hitler and his goons of Germany confiscated property when they came to power in that nation. They fought the communists, but did not take property only from any communists, but from anyone to whom they disagreed.

Fact. Going back further in time, there is evidence that when New England was first being settled, after confiscating property from the indigenous folks, many of the more wealthy puritanical ones confiscated property of their fellow white settlers who had built homes on the banks of waterways. After all, the best mode of transportation in those days was by rivers and streams into the interior. There is speculation (and I said speculation here, as I don’t have all the evidence and facts) that the person who was my 9th great-grandmother was murdered due to having property along a waterfront in Rhode Island. The method used to confiscate the property was to falsely accuse the oldest son, using apparitions in a puritanical court of law, of murdering his own mother. That person, Thomas Cornell/Cornwell, Jr., was not in my line of descent as my ancestor had departed to make his wealthy in what became Queens / Flushing.  Records show that my ancestor in Flushing did not confiscate property from the indigenous folks there, but purchased the property from indigenous folks. However, my 9th great-grandmother was murdered in Rhode Island and it is likely due to what was found during the era of the Salem Witch Trials in New England.

At this piont, my discussion is about some of my own ideas, but is based on learning from history. and my own faith and beliefs.  As Arthur Miller points out in his dramatic production, The Crucible, the purpose for the witch trials was confiscation of property for wealthy who wanted to locate on waterfront property. Was Miller fantasizing or are there historical facts which he based his story? As I said, there is some truth about such events happening and being done in the name of religion, after the very same people who had been persecuted by Roman Catholics and others then turned to use persecution themselves.  God is God. Spirituality which is part of the true God is spirituality. Religion is more like, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” while being done, falsely, in the name of God and our Creator.  

Is it safe to say that the majority of confiscation over time derives more from the wealthy aristocracy which claims it know what capitalism is, but has been entrenched, even today, in the ideas of a feudal economics from Medieval times?  Even today, I can argue that monopolies are NOT capitalism, but based on individualism, greed, selfishness, corruption. I repeat. Not capitalism because capitalism is about balance in the economy between supply and demand. The ideas from Adam Smith came to us in opposition to the aristocratic economics of the Medieval era. Adam Smith was a contemporary of our American Founding Fathers who had an intent to have balance in democracy which does not exist with most monarchs and dictators. Even if such balance does exist, as in the example of IBM founder, Thomas J. Watson, once the “benevolent one” passes, there is chaos at the top and often the ruthless, greedy, selfish dictators end up in charge. 

For me, I have explained, over and over again, how I ended up having my stock “confiscated” by measures of ruthless business people, not a government, who were given free reign to do as they wish, by deregulation czars and Reagan.  It was due to the philosophies of Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and Alan Greenspan, including supply-side economics. Meanwhile, the “axe man” in that process walked away with $7M.  I can say I had my job “confiscated,” too, but that is an unacceptable thing to say.  But the mechanisms of the deregulation mavens confiscated my stocks, in an indirect manner. And the lawyers during all of that? They were not laid off, in spite of the fact they were paid far more than what I got paid. AND. The lawyers drew up papers to protect the big fat pig, Critchfield, at the top, by stating we would not receive a departure stipend , should we file a lawsuit against the company. We were truly “victims,” as the lawyer advertisements make claims for those hurt in accidents (they often are NOT victims, either), but who came to our rescue? We had to sign a piece of paper stating we were not to make a claim about being victims, in the form of a lawsuit. I survived this ordeal of confiscation of my resources. I could have done better, though, had I not experienced such an ordeal. I was able to pick myself up by my bootstraps and move on to a wonderful career in academics. But now those of us in public education are coming under attack, too.  And who protects our “victimhood?”  (Did I just coin a word?).  I explain this from the past, but my intent is to impart what I have learned, so we stop the chaos and confusion resulting from people who no longer read the details provided in newspapers and just listen to what other blab about in attacks on individuals, rather than discussing ideas (idea discussion = the highest level of human intelligence).  it irks me to see there are some like the recent writer to Gannett who still have not learned from the past, as I have attempted to teach about the history of confiscation of resources and property which goes well beyond just communism and government.

At the end of the day, under circumstances involving the consolidation of power by the ruthless ones, we end up with resources, including property, being taken from those who have less. Until Reagan and deregulation mavens who ended up forming monopolies in the USA, America had evolved to a better point of economics, as imperfect as this nation still may have been. But to be allowed to state, in a false manner, that, due to COVID-19 and extending a safety net to those who suffer financially, is “communism,’ is absolutely absurd and with no basis at all.  Go ahead. Make my day and censor what I say. Be contentious, rather than do as Thomas J. Watson always wanted his employees to do:  THINK. 
—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce

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Attitude Adjustment?

Editors [Scranton Times-Tribune]:

A friend in Florida recently said two things: (1) too many people who are not thinking about our overall life and society need a kick in the butte; (2) I am done with being reasonable anymore because it is doing nothing to stop MAGA, QAnon, Proud Boys, and others from their asinine behaviors.

In other words, America needs an attitude adjustment. I am all behind this one person who said the things I quoted.

I have been writing now for nearly two decades.  Most of my writing was published in the Palm Beach Post. I received kudos from many people. The one who came down hard on me was a woman in the church where I attended (she is now deceased) because she hated Gore and liked Bush and did not like my writing in support of Gore and Democrats. In the writing to which she responded, I never mentioned anything bad about Bush and only demonstrated a support of Al Gore. I used facts such as, “the only Republican county in the state of Florida [at that time], Pinellas County, and the majority voted for Al Gore, not George Bush.” I used facts to back up what I said. This woman is now deceased, but it seems her ghost remains within the Trumpicans today and many naive Republicans who, as my mother (also a Republican) would say, “they don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.”

When, a few years back, the editor of the Palm Beach Post retired, no one ever accepted my writings anymore. Since moving to the Binghamton area, I believe there was one writing published in Binghamton’s Press & Sun-Bulletin. But no more. Nada. None. I never get what I write published anymore. Is this American censorship in practice? If so, then many Americans need a kick in the butte. An attitude adjustment.
I have been told that my writing improved over time. Yet, as it improves, nothing.

Am I moaning and groaning about this? No. Because I find other ways to put out a blog and so forth. But still. Nothing.
I feel like the New York Times columnist who was fired because, in his attempt to get to the truth regarding George Bush’s AWOL situation in the National Guard, as we see many attempting to get to the truth today with regard to thugs on Jan. 6 of this year, he was asked to stop writing what he uncovered. He refused to stop. He is now writing from Canada. We hear about people in exile from communist nations. What about an American who writes “in exile” due to the stupidity of people in this free nation forcing him to zip his mouth as he uncovers the truth?
The woman who scourged me because of my support of Gore was a musician. She owned a pedal-pumping, non-electric, organ in her home. In many respects, she was “old fashioned” by using such an “old fashioned” keyboard. But she got to do what she liked to do. But she had become an old curmudgeon, not willing to accept anything which was not in place with what she had known in life. As such, was it not the Christian thing to do to go and pay my last respects at her funeral? I don’t say this to brag, but just to mention how bad such a large part of America has become in denying business services and being as mean-spirited as this woman was towards me and others, just because we speak well of President Biden? Why do we have such an America today with so many quoting from a song, “money makes the world go around.” Indeed. That song was from a musical written by a gay man and spoofs Hitler’s dictatorial attitude in Germany, stating in a sarcastic manner that, “money makes the world go around,” and thus ignoring all the other atrocities of mean-spiritedness perpetrated by Hitler and his thugs.  At least at the turn of the millennium, this woman was not one with as much power and control. It is sad to see too many who are like this in power and control today. To the lawyers who insist on serving only a small number of people with their personal injury lawsuits and workman’s comp, I say to you: you asses with “money makes the world go around.”  You favor some while many others who have invested in healthcare over 40 and 50 years go without. You lawyers are just like this crazy woman from Massachusetts who retired to Florida and remained loyal to a political party before loyalty to this nation.

This woman needed a swift kick in the butte and an attitude adjustment, as others do today. It is tough to try to be reasonable anymore to such mean-spirited ones who have apparently lost their brains to think and live a life based on fear-mongers and their mean-spirited nature.

Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post (lives in Florida – or at least did when i began writing and she was writing with the Orlando Sentinel) – is someone whom I have read and done so for years. As with any other human beings we associate, we will NEVER agree perfectly and on every issue there is. That is the case with Kathleen Parker. Same thing with George Will of the Washington Post. When I was in the seventh grade, a teacher in my school, boarding in our home, gave me a subscription to Newsweek. I kept that subscription for many years and, when I was able to do so, renewed it myself. George Will had columns in Newsweek that I recall reading, from a young age forward. I don’t always agree with him, either. There are times, though, when he makes a great deal of sense. There are too many mean-spirited Americans who believe that if they read just one item from such columnists like that, then they reject them overall. They are mean-spirited ones who hurt America.
Recently, I read columns from Parker and Will and found them to speak quite eloquently on several issues, as they made their point. On the topic related to making voters feel fear and disenfranchised (not the main point of her column, but related), Ms. Parker said, “it’s not politics, it’s propaganda.” How many times have I heard voters in America just want to throw in the towel, being disenfranchised, in talking as if it matters not whether Republican or Democrat (politics), they are all bad. This statement made by Ms. Parker that “it’s not politics, it’s propaganda” really addresses what I have been trying to say for decades now and no one listens. This scathing attack against both political parties is a Hitler-style strategy to ruin democracy. That is why I try not to attack Republicans as a group, but concentrate on the Hitler-types running the Republican Party by calling them “Trumpicans.” There are too many good Republicans and all they are doing, sad to say, is act like wimps, bowing down to the Trumpicans. And that is the only part of which I am critical.

Same thing with Democrats. There are not all, particularly the “blue dog” type, with whom I agree. I have often mentioned a local Democrat, business person here, who, when the sales tax was introduced in New York, spoke out against “Rocky’s tax” because of how much it added to the overhead of a small business and cut into profit margins.

Yet, how many times have I listened to dolts who accuse the Democrats of being, “tax and spend” or “always wanting to spend?” That is asinine and needs an attitude adjustment with a kick in the butte so as to recognize there are good and bad in both parties, but don’t succumb to the fact that there are only bad people in politics. There are bad people who push autocratic dictatorial government which is on the level of a Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Tojo, Castro, Mao Tse-Tung, Putin, and many others.  As Kathleen Parker says, “it’s not politics, but propaganda.” Interesting to note that Hitler’s propaganda minister is quoted as talking like “tell a lie over and over again and it becomes the truth.” Parker is not telling a lie here, but it gets ignored and the truth does not get repeated over and over again. Instead, we hear lies about “fraud” in an election and the fraud was really just as minuscule as it always has been. Consider the openly “fraudulent” activity of a “butterfly ballot” in Palm Beach County in 2000, put in place by a Republican Party Supervisor of Elections in that county. Having voted in that election of 2000, I found that ballot to be very confusing as I walked away from the voting station. I had to scratch my head and wonder, “did I vote for Al Gore or was the ballot such that I pushed out a ‘chad’ with a vote for Buchanan?” i would have voted for George Bush before Buchanan. But the ballot was set up to mystify voters. Now THERE is fraud. Electioneering at polling places for Bush, Trump, or others is fraud and against the law.

Recently, I read an article in a newspaper about people who support Bernie Sanders coming together to organize. Makes me think of the time period following the disastrous 2016 elections. I voted for Sanders in the primary, but Hillary won the primary in Florida. OK. So I was disappointed. But I prefer Hillary to Trump any day.  The CONSERVATIVE leaning writer whom I had followed since the seventh grade, George Will, endorsed Hillary. Still. I would have preferred Sanders. Sad to say, it did not happen. So, following the elections, there were groups of Democrats getting together to, once again, organize in favor of Bernie Sanders. We attended those meetings. We listened to moaners and groaners complain about what had happened to Bernie in the election. It got so sickening listening to several of these moaners and groaners, we asked them to go to the meetings with us. Oh, no, they did not want to go. So, my reply was: “actions speak louder than words and you are only using words of moaning and groaning at something which we need to put behind us and move on.” I lost friends by saying such a thing. Am I saddened at that? No.

Once again. I don’t agree with everything Sanders says and I speak out when I do not. Hell. I am a capitalist who believes the false notions about capitalism is the result of a misinterpretation of it by Karl Marx and helps drive many people towards socialism. This false knowledge still lives on today. But I still supported Senator Sanders. The one thing for which I have spoken out against Bernie Sanders is an issue which there is no evidence of it being used in Scandinavian socialist democracies. Where does the CAPITALIST type auto company come from? Volvo is what I am referencing here. Volvo is not about John Stossel stupidity type talk that only those with money can create jobs and opportunities. John Stossel talks about monopolistic supply-side economics which is NOT the capitalism intended by Adam Smith, as he endorsed the idea that “free markets” cause supply-side economics and monopolies and destroy true capitalism. And we wonder why the Scottish wish to break with Britain and join with the EU.

Capitalism is supply AND demand, stupid, not just supply because supply-side economics creates monopolies, not capitalism of supply AND demand. Claudia Tenney is a liar who won by only about 100 votes against incumbent Anthony Brindisi. Her money came from supply-side economics advocate, Spectrum. Just yesterday, in speaking with someone at Spectrum because I get interference from others with great tech savvy which is used to hack into other people’s systems. Spectrum does not believe this is going on, claiming “it’s your computer.” BS. I have had this computer gone over time and time again and nothing has been found. But Spectrum with its fat pigs at the top of the corporation who funded the lying Tenney refuses to allow its people to say anything but to blame it all on the demand side of the marker – the customer. I went over and over regarding this score yesterday and countless times before with Spectrum folks who follow the autocratic line of the fat pigs at the top. Bet they don’t do that at Volvo in Sweden. I could be wrong, too. I just threw that out as a consideration. Law enforcement and others, unless it is a big corporation with clout and a belief that “money makes the world go around,” refuse to do anything to help out the little guy who has much less.

As I sit here looking at the piles of paper which gets mailed to us each day, whether paperwork from WellCare Medicare or others, i cringe to think that we have to drive each morning to get our morning newspaper, while the big fat pigs at the tops of the publishing houses (such as Gannett) push us to do paperless newspapers. It is not a consistent approach across the board, as I look at the piles of paper on my desk. Some of the paper may have been generated by my own notes and log books. Some might be copies of columns by people like Kathleen Parker or George Will. But a huge amount is paper which comes in the mail. Yet, the newspapers claim they are unable to find delivery people. That is BS. With Amazon doing delivery to compete with local small business and these publishers make a claim they are not able to do so? Maybe it also has to do with the way the big fat pigs of Gannett and other organizations have yanked away the ability for local people to interface with their customers and expand their customer base? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that these big fat pigs at Gannett and other organizations pay a pittance of a wage, rather than opening up opportunities for local business people to purchase bundles of newspapers (high volume) at wholesale price and sell them at the asking price, thus making a CAPITALIST profit by considering SUPPLY AND DEMAND. In South Florida, the successful newspaper was the one which sold bundles of newspapers to people who stood on street corners and at I-95 off-ramps (and other means), selling the newspapers. The one not successful was the one purchased by Gannett and its fat pigs.  Instead, we have to spend money on gas to drive about eight miles each day to pick up a newspaper. One of those newspapers is NOT Gannett based, but from another city and has not, as with the ones in Florida and here, “condensed” the content and implementing a strategy based on an example of the pre-Darth Vader in Star Wars, “you will believe this.” In other words, “you will believe the fact that no one wants print copies because, we the evil fat pigs at the top say so and money makes the world go around.” You will believe the lies because, as Hitler’s Goebbels said, “tell a lie over and over again and it becomes fact.”

That New York Times columnist “exiled” (not really) to Canada’s Toronto newspaper, was seeking the truth, not money. The truth hurts, as it did for the Bush family. However, for many of us, the “truth will set us free (John 8:32).” I believe that Jesus Christ said this. Adam Smith, the one who theorized about capitalism as a challenge to royalty monopolization with supply-side economics, had a belief in what Jesus Christ was about. But, of course, don’t bother to believe this either and it explains why people embrace “money makes the world go around.” Neither Donald Trump nor Adolph Hitler believed in the spirituality which revolves around God and the Creator. As one writer to the Scranton Times-Tribune said, “rather than ‘in God we trust,’ it has become ‘in greed we lust.'” And let me also mention that Jesus Christ was a Jew, which is the reason there has been such success with a Judeo-Christian approach to our lives.

Then there is Joe Scarborough (Republican) and Anthony Brindisi (Democrat). I like their rationality and reasoning. Unlike Teddy Roosevelt, they throw in the towel and get out of the arena of “blood and sweat” like wimps do.  Both have quit Congress (Brindisi does not intend to attempt to return) at a time when we need such people more than ever. To the Congress, “money does make the world go around,” as the members of Congress get benefits galore and for life, while Americans struggle. Then there is the crew of asses in Congress who claim that health and retirement benefits are socialism and convince too many people of this lie. It’s socialism only in the sense of what the people in Congress receive and little investment do they put into it. We put tons of money investing over the years in Medicare and Federal Insurance Compliance Act (FICA known as Social Security), only to watch those receiving true SOCIALIST benefits (except Bernie Sanders who speaks out in favor of the little guys). It is all so mixed up, INTENTIONALLY, by the big fat pigs of America. It’s time the American people learn the truth and it will set them free.  Bottom line. Failure is a form of learning which has endured in the human spirit since we were babies learning to walk.

Bad attitudes of too many Americans. We need an attitude adjustment.

Now that I have said all of this, will it get published? Nah. I bet not. it will be ignored and there are those who might say to me: “shut up.”
—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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