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 the ‘Commentary’ Category

Media in Dis-Repair?

​Dear NBC News with Lester Holt:
Recently, you featured some middle-aged people in Pennsylvania being interviewed about their impressions of life over the past year. You had these people bloviating about issues for which they had little or no knowledge and were attacking Joe Biden. It was about the economy and inflation and how costs are going up. Naturally. When there is inflation, with it comes lower unemployment. This is actually what is happening. But the timbre was about just letting these people rant about issues for which they had little or no background. Why? Why is this being done and there is no moderation of what is being presented in the news? I really don’t understand, as I see this nation heading towards being imploded inward as long as we don’t take such actions more seriously and do something to counter it all. 

During this same time frame, I have been reading a newspaper from Pennsylvania. Remember newspapers? Here in Binghamton, Gannett ;is one big fat lump of lard with nothing in it. Many newspapers have been heading in this same direction, condensing their newspapers by removing local columnists who address the area regarding foods, culture, arts, music, science, religion, health, puzzles, advice columns which can give a bunch of immature people a kick in the butte, and various other aspects of LIFE overall in the state, region, and nation. We have experienced these newspapers getting rid of an overall political analysis from various angles, rather than just choosing what to pay attention according to what entertains and keeps shallow people happy. Keep people happy when they only listen to those things to which one agrees and a refusal to learn. There was a time when newspapers were a bigger part of the community and not thrashed by a bunch of fat pigs at the top which are only concerned with their hedge [hog] funds and love of money.  There  was a time when people had a chance to look at headlines and skim an article, deciding whether any article is important enough to pursue more in detail or just skim the article. Snippets on an NBC News half hour don’t allow for that, so I have to wonder why Mr. Holt and others allow people to just speak their mind, rather than doing investigative journalism? Is it to make “we the people” feel happy and no concern whether “we the people” open minds to LEARN?
Nevertheless, the newspapers I have been reading (not Gannett Pravda of Binghamton which just wants to shovel out what it wants in a condensed version), there have been numerous articles written about what is happening now in the economy, with inflation and what may be on the horizon for people. Typically, less shallow people would take much of this information and LEARN form it. What can I do?

Furthermore, the newspaper gave its readers information about personal finance and how to deal with many things which are happening. It is a moderated version of information which is not available on damn mobile phones and computers on the Internet. I know. I have observed much of the crap regarding the TRUE nature of fake news, from the time I did a presentation at a college in Florida regarding fake news during the 2016-17 period of time. Much of it was there for people to make money, including those in the Georgia Republic of the former Soviet Union, plus other eastern block nations like Russia.  Tucker Carlson of Fox claims he could not make money unless he entertained with lies.  I find other outlets like CNN and MSNBC not to be so full of themselves and spreading lies as fluently. Yet, Trump and his followers bully me by sending unsolicited crap with lies. Unsolicited is sometimes ok. But not when it is full of lies. It’s not tough for a couple of guys who are well read to NOT differentiate between lies and truth. We can make mistakes. As editors of newspapers did to moderate stuff, there were “error corrections.” Another nice part about daily newspapers. America is being tarnished by this spin on life with the idea that what comes first is change for the sake of change, especially when it comes to implementing technology so young whippersnappers with no knowledge as to what content is about  and are shallow can run our lives. I don’t like my life being dictated in this manner, so I protest and speak up. Anyone willing to join me in this manner?
I learned quite a bit from the newspaper articles written on various subjects, including business. If one does not agree, one has to ask whether our individual thinking is correct and move from there, not just condemn it because of thoughts about disagreeing. 

After three to four years, not just one year (as with Biden) and before COVID-19, there was a great deal of information about an expectation in 2020 and 2021 for a downturn in the economy. We took measures to work with a financial consultant and others who know more about retirement investments, than to blame Donald Trump. I can call the 2008 recession after George W. Bush, but that is just to identify the time eeriod. Rick the Prick Scott blamed his opponents in an election in Florida, when it was actually Republican Jeb Bush and Republican George W. Bush who presided. Rick the Prick blamed Democrats and never said one bad word otherwise.  Trump does the same thing. Then to embolden younger people which are acting like the “Nazi Youth” of the 1930s, NBC News allows some of them to speak out with false information. What is the hope of NBC News to accomplish by doing this? What I see is the ruination of a nation and sending us on the path of implosion which can be compared to what happened when a dictatorial emperor in China made the Ancient Chinese society to implode upon itself.  We should learn from what happened, not live in fear and grab at what ever Fox News or other groups say. 

Newspapers and good journalism was more than just give us the local news. Heck. I can get more local news from a weekly newspaper here in my county than what Gannett Pravda of Binghamton provides for this county. I have explained all the real stuff that newspapers CAN provide, but is anyone in my classroom paying attention? Or looking at their crotches at a hidden mobile phone which gives them NOTHING substantial and can face false crap all the time, without an ability to differentiate between truth and lies.

This nation needs to readjust by making a Middle Class which is knowledgeable. I am not able to find out from young people working in retail outlets where things are located or where there is a business for such and such, or anything else. The teaching of geography, civics, researching the truth, and all those other things have been curtailed by autocratic white supremacists found in the Republican Party leadership. An overall education has been curtailed, thanks to lawyers and accountants used to back up the wealthy administrators over education, as teachers get kicked in the teeth for this lack of overall education which once was a standard in the USA. I have observed this bashing of teachers and professors in some of the written crap on Facebook.  No wonder I feel like kicking those who are kicking me in the teeth.

Nah, nah, nah!  Turn the other cheek, don’t you know? Fine. But what I also see is trends and norms created by wealthy fat pigs who seek power. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Absolute power corrupted the big Philistine giant, Goliath. Tracing the HUMAN lineage of Jesus Christ, we see that King David did not turn the other cheek or he would have died. Collectively, he and others brought the big giant Goliath down. (People will shoot holes in what I say, claiming it was ONLY David who did it; there is proof otherwise in some of the documented evidence, that it was a COLLECTIVE effort; once again, rather than accept certainty as was taught about this event, why not consider seeking wisdom, not certainty?).  And when people do nothing to work collectively, I have to ask, “who needs enemies with such ‘friends’?”
The media needs fixing. We need to return to perspectives with a Fairness Doctrine and the path of journalism which moderated, not censored, what was being written and said. How do I moderate unsolicited bullying crap from Trump in my text messages? I look to unsolicited messages to and fro as being a means for discussing issues about the truth, not bullying others. Shame on anyone who thinks that intelligent discussion is bullying. Shameful people who think like that. Why has the media allowed this? Who and what is truly at fault. I have outlined ideas right here. Who will help pick up the gauntlet and the sling shot to put an end to the centralized big Goliath types and bring local journalism back to the local area and do so, not just for the sake of local news, but for the sake of news, information, sharing of broad commentary, and topics about food, culture, arts, music, science, health, and even the comics and other sources. I might add that there are some sources of free information on the web and yes, some has to do with recipes and information from the ones doing the shows on television. But too many times, we are expected to purchase a publication. Then again. Newspapers also offered such choices, too. Sometimes it was easier to have the pre-set information in print than to go find it in a digital mode.  With this, I address all the side benefits. Just because you find it so easy all the time in digital form does not mean one is correct. The media is in dis-repair. If it’s broke, it needs fixing, for the sake of the American citizens who are confused as hell and sometimes merely turn to shallow entertainment and never discover whether some of the stuff is fake news and information.
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bibsinger@gmail.com

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Town of Newark Valley proposition for appointments rather than election

Dear Editor:
The election is over. Based on preliminary results, I understand that the Newark Valley town proposition to change elections such as the Newark Valley Town Highway Superintendent to an appointed position by the town council was defeated. Prior to the election, I remained silent. Perhaps I should have spoken out because, once again, I observed that emotions from the loudest mouths who were opposed to such a change swayed the herd mentality so as to convince people to vote on the measure based on what angry people say with a loud mouth than to consider logic and reasoning of the situation. “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”(A statement in a Star Trek movie by Mr. Spock character played by Leonard Nimoy, at the point Mr. Spock was about to die). How sad for Newark Valley. How sad for New York. How sad for the USA. Logic thrown out the window.
It is a shame that the ballots could not have contained information as to the REASONS behind the thought about changing it. As a result, only the loud mouths who blistered this notion were heard.

For instance,some of what I heard in the repetitive forces were as follows.

(1) “Political appointments remove the opportunity for the people to speak.”
(2) “Political appointments mean that those unqualified would be appointed, due to patronage.” (3) “Political appointments give opportunities for the ‘good old boy’ network to operate.”
Logic is thrown out the window in favor of false ideas about our life and politics. Let us take a closer look at this tripe.

Number 1. Political appointments remove the opportunity for the people to speak.

Really? In the election which just passed, I had no opportunity to speak through the ballot box. While I am not in disagreement with the person chosen, why was I not able to have a choice? Because I am a registered Democrat and the choices were made in a Republican primary. There are independent voters who don’t want to be affiliated with either political party. At times, I wish I were independent and it is frustrating that there are no Democratic Party primaries. Yet, a stupid Republican once called those of us here who are Democrats as “Dumicrats.” To that person, I could say Republidumbheads.” I can also think of a very nasty word for Republicans, but I won’t offer it. There are Green Party and Libertarians, etc., etc., etc.No such people are able to vote in a Republican primary.  Where is the “voice of the people?” At least when someone is considered for appointment to an office, people may be given a chance to attend a town council meeting and voice approval. Otherwise, there is a segment of the population which is screwed.

In this case, perhaps Republicans would say the simple solution for me would have been to register as a Republican, right? So, let’s create a one-party state. Oh, that’s right. A one-party state in Newark Valley is not a new thing at all. In fact, I knew people who moved here as Democrats and, in order to become involved in the politics here, dumped their Democratic Party affiliation and became Republicans. Excuse me. But one-party states existed in Hitler’s Germany and the Bolsheviks and Marxist/communists of Russia and the Soviet Union.
One possible solution would be for New York State, rather than putting a stupid thing on the ballot about New York City judicial funding, put a proposition on the ballot to allow people to go to the polls on election day and simply declare one party as the designated party to vote in a primary. That would give more voices. I have heard of states which do this and have other similar processes as solutions to such a problem.  I might add that in the state where I spent nearly 40 years, they do not have such a solution, but some people spoke up in favor of such solutions for primaries. But alas, Republicans of Florida don’t want people to vote and are putting forth adverse laws to restrict voting. Why would such a state even consider such when it works to discourage voters since the Republicans created a one-party state, beginning with Jeb Bush.
“Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
​Number 2. ​​ Political appointments mean that those unqualified would be appointed, due to patronage. ​
​What about the unqualified who can run for a job and are not qualified to be highway superintendent, clerk, or what ever? What about the example of a relative of mine who was very qualified for an office, due to bookkeeping skills possessed by this person and appointed by both Republicans AND Democrats to a job? No patronage there. So it is possible, with the right people elected to leadership roles in the government councils and executive offices. Perhaps the “voice” of the people should spend more time investigating those who are elected into the town, village, city, or county councils of government. I don’t argue that it is not possible for the existence of patronage. I am sure it does happen all the time. But to cast a pessimistic aspersion on something which might be a good solution is absurd. With herd mentality spreading potentially false information is a stereotypical tarnishing of ideas.
Number 3.​ Political appointments give opportunities for the “good old boy network” to operate.

False. This statement is like taking offense of anything we do as humans with human institutions always results in a “godd old boy network.” Such networks exist, but there is proof that sometimes they do not exist. The man appointed to supervise operations of a village lawn, street, sidewalk maintenance and garbage collection service, with only an 8th grade education and not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, might NOT be acceptable to accountants, lawyers, business people and others who are in positions of responsibility, but just might do a good job. One such example did exist one time. I do know a thing or two from history.

My mantra has become this. Human beings and human institutions cannot possibly be perfect. If people knew Christian values, they should realize this. Yet, how many people continue to consider humans or human institutions in whom they have a “beef” as not living up to expectations in terms of perfection. With the president prior to our current one, I spent time TRYING to find things which demonstrated a leader. In contrast to his paranoid views that “everyone was out to get him” in terms of a “witchhunt,” I knew a number of people who tried to turn around some of his bad. Each time I became disappointed. However, I did not hold an expectation of perfection when going into consideration of the man. On the same token, I can say the same about a former governor. There were some things I may have disagreed, but there also may have been some things I disagreed. I did not wish to tarnish his image ONLY on the things in which I disagreed. And this governor had some factors which were the same as the former president for whom the religious right swept under the rug.

Main point. Making appointments by the Newark Valley Town Council is not a bad idea when the village of Newark Valley haas been doing it for many years and has been successful in its endeavors. It was the people’s voice in the village which voted against a sewage system and natural gas lines within the village limits. It was the village which first introduced cable television to the area and regulated the cable television. It was the FCC, including many Republicans at a higher level, and other agencies which removed local control of cable television and endorsed the huge corporate conglomerates, through deregulation, which destroyed local business. It would behoove local people to take on these issues at the local level than to be concerned about whether or not we cannot possibly handle the appointment of positions within the town government. Ignorance, as opposed to stupidity, of the issue, without thinking and looking into details, which means such ignorance, with humility an open mind, would enable learning and wisdom. Critical thinking skills are very handy in such situations.

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PBS Frontline Report: Human beings do it better than computers

After spending today speaking with the scumbag automated system put in place by a huge corporation which caters to hedge hogs, greed, selfishness, and love of money, I ended the day by listening to the PBS Frontline report about the Boeing 737 Max. I come away scratching my head about the common thread which runs through my personal experience with an automated system and the deaths of 300+ people. My experience is not a life and death experience. But it does leave us feeling as if no one gives one damn about the time it takes humans to deal with automated systems which are really screwed up because the big fat pigs at the top, making 10005 plus more than what the ones at the top made in the 1970s by getting rid of human beings.

The automated systems being used on the aircraft are designed to take away the ability of human pilots to have better control over the aircraft. The digital parts then miscalculate and the planes go down, killing all passengers. Love of money, materialism, greed, individualistic fat pigs at the top, and selfishness override human beings. These guys do not give one damn about the people who died in those crashes. It was made very evident today.

The fat pigs at the top of huge corporate conglomerates which automate their customer services, from a newspaper media company to an electric utility to Internet service providers to mobile phone providers (and others), these pigs at the top are not being held accountable. It took an awful lot of corrupt handling of the FAA (by Boeing), over a long period of time, and investigative reporting which finally brought down the CEO at Boeing. FINALLY. 

And freaking Mitch McConnell works to make things even worse by using the money he made from taxpayers to suppress voters and taxpayers in various states because that is the only way such freaking Republicans know how to win an election. They cannot win on issues.  Whether politician like McConnell or the hedge hog big fat pigs, there is the similarity of a lack of concern for people, across the board.

Finally, in the end, the famiiies of those who died in the crashes won big money in a lawsuit. Another example of reactionary actions rather than tough proactive actions being taken by lawyers and politicians (as with personal injury lawsuits and workman’s comp) PRIOR to something like these events. The lousy deregulation environment for “free markets,” by Reagan, Republicans and freaking lousy Libertarians has brought this down on America today. I believe we need to stand up strongly and change to the proactive and dump the reactionary BS. The reactionary stuff is about awarding money, another example of love of money, rather than putting human interests first in a proactive manner.  Tell me. Exactly what good does it do for those people to NOT have their loved ones, but have money instead? You cannot take your toys to heaven, especially when humans are crating a hell on earth.

I have written about this theme over and over and over again. Yet, we see how hard it is to find a solution from crashes and come to a reactionary resolution. Also, how short will the memories of Americans be, after those who suffered, the victims and the families, get resolution. If one person suffers, we all suffer. When will Americans learn from what has happened and be more vocal about the suffering which has an impact on all of us? How long does it take for people to stand up and take the stand, rather than working with freaking lousy Republicans who are trying to repress the voting in America and don’t do one damn thing to solve the problems of America in a proactive way?

Furthermore, the Boeing executive did exactly what many healthcare workers have been doing to me and many of my diabetic friends. If the expensive medications don’t work, then blame the patients. Same thing at Boeing. Blame the human pilots when those pilots had their hands tied when trying to reverse the hellish thing the automated system was doing to the aircraft. Blame the humans because it costs less to take care of digital machines than it does to take care of human beings. Blame those who are victims of the process of giving only blanket solutions which might not work for some people on a one to one basis. Blame the demand side of the market, in favor of the freaking lousy Reagan attitude about supply side economics. How about if we hold the fat pigs at the top accountable more often? How about if we hold fat pig McConnell and the lousy Republican followers of Trump? How about if we hold THEM accountable for COVID-19 and the lack of putting forth a war on a pandemic?  Hospitals which transported patients to nursing homes across state lines are the responsibility of Trump and the lousy Republicans who go along with him and that lousy fascist leadership. They have no interest in human lives. Oh, that’s right. I already said that.

Why do my medications no longer work for me? The money used to pay for this crap, either by me or by way of Medicare, is being wasted when not working. Why?  In my early stages of type II diabetes, a doctor over-prescribed metformin and I was left with lactic acidosis. Lactic acidosis CAN BE FATAL. I count my blessings because, while it ended up giving me some heart problems, I survived. I am a survivor, but we are not talking about cancer. We are talking about the wrong dosage of prescriptions made by a medical doctor and never identified by a pharmacist. The net result was the hospital costs picked up by big insurance. Those costs COULD have been avoided.

Then, when endocrinologists began putting me on insulin, I took two dosages from two different injections each day. I was warned that my numbers might go to low so I should carry glucose tablets with me. How many times did I use those tablets? Zero times. My numbers never went down to hypoglycemic levels. Yet, there was more concern about that than to fix the problem as to why I rarely got my glucose levels below 100. Sure. My A1C did decrease. But my fat on my bones went up exponentially, from 220 up to nearly 280. Just look at the photos of me in 2016 and look at me today. Then to discover that one of the common effects of insulin is to give weight gain.
Today, I am off the insulin injections (Tresiba). By no longer injecting insulin and utilizing an injection of a medicine by Novo Nordisk, I was able to get my glucose levels down and took off enough weight to drop back down to the 220 range. But, I am on the plateau of 220 or so, as I have been for years and can never dispose of the fats on the abdomen. Research shows that fat on the abdomen is what blocks any insulin, even that produced by the body, in doing its job.

And my glucose levels seem to not be responding at all to all of the meds I am now taking. Thus, healthcare workers blame ME, as did the executive at Boeing blame the human pilots. Mr/Ms Healthcare Worker, I have been exercising and cannot drop the weight on the abdomen, so give me a suggestion for what I can do? Mr/Ms Healthcare Worker: “you are not doing enough.” It’s my fault – the fault of the patient, right? “You need to do situps.” I don’t do situps but regularly do standing up toe touchers and others to exercise the same as siups do. I sometimes do the situps, but if I cannot do them, I do the ones to exercise the abdomen in other ways. I ride a stationary bike and/or walk nearly every day. But. It’s my fault, don’t you know. I have heard other diabetics in Florida among the older population describe this situation, similar to mine, so I don’t speak alone.

After all. I am a human being and we need to blame human beings, right? Isn’t that what America has become? A nation which blames imperfect human beings and refusing to find rational solutions? After experiencing what I describe with my type II diabetes, what I experience with lousy customer service run by automated systems, and now what I heard tonight about what Boeing did (with influence over Congress and the FAA), I really am appalled when I add all of this up in America today. Then a Republican leadership unconcerned about the people of America and only about their pocketbooks with a love of money, I find it all very appalling, especially when stupid people wish to blame the Democrats. About the only Democrats i would blame is the bitch from Arizona and the blue dog from West Virginia. Arizona where the bitch is likely running scared at the voter suppression out there. Sorry. Perhaps I should not call her a bitch. One particular bitch out in Arizona is actually the leader of the Republican Party out there. She turns the Democrat out there into someone whom I call a bitch.

My hats off to those who did the story on Frontline. We need far more of those types of stories, especially stories to expose the corruption of Mitch McConnell and the Republican leadership, plus Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis, and Marco Rubio of Florida. Rick Scott with a fifth. Methodist or not, he is an asshole. And the ones who cry “Marxist Democrats” are the ones who ARE the Marxists, as they push the lies of propaganda upon the population and call themselves Republicans when, indeed, they are doing what the Bolshevik (Marxists) did in Russia in 1917. RINOs and DINOs wake up to what truly is happening in America today.

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It’s Not Marxism, Paranoid Stupid

Dear Editors [New York Times]:
On the New York Times best seller list is a book by Fox Comedy News, Mark Levin, titled, American Marxism.  From the various reviews I have read, I have no desire to purchase this book. I might wish to borrow it from a local library, read it, and then return it.

I will use a better word to describe Mark Levin than paranoid stupid. How about paranoid ignorant?  This at least means I have hope ignorance will lead Levin to open mind, become humble, and LEARN and GAIN WISDOM. Will it? My doubts are high.
I have met too many people in upstate New York and elsewhere who are paranoid regarding the Bolsheviks of 1917 or the Castro communists of 1959-60. One would think the ones who recall their grandfathers and the Bolsheviks would have, by now, recognized that they are being paranoid.  I am sick and tired of hearing such paranoid jerks attack Americans, many of us descended from the American Revolutionaries and earlier. Like me. They insult me. They insult many of us who are good people. A Sunday school teacher who taught us about geography of the Middle East during the time of Christ and other Christian ideas is falsely called a communist because he is a Democrat. I observed this crap as a kid growing up in m hometown. That teacher never taught us about the communes developed by early Christians. I learned that later in life. Plus I also learned about the comparison to American hippies during Vietnam who created communes. In both cases, according to the documentary of FACTS that I viewed, neighther the communes of the early Christians or those of the hippie communities, opposed to the Vietnam conflict, had a common thread which meant they did not survive. That common thread is also present with Trump, Hitler, Mussolini, Nazis, fascists, and the Bolsheviks. It is described as “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The paranoid ignorant ones force us all into a corner with ideas for dictatorial powers with “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Perhaps Levin needs to consider this and stop the BS of paranoia which helps him sell a book.

My book would be about true regulated capitalism and balance in capitalism. But does it get published in order to get on the NY Times best seller lists? Not on your life.

I, too, get falsely accused of being socialist or communist. Such paranoid people who do this refuse to listen to what I say about improving capitalism. They believe free markets are the ONLY answer – the END ALL, while ignoring the evidence from the 18th-century theologian and author of writings like Wealth of Nations and Theories of Moral Sentiment. In those writings, Adam Smith proved for us, based on economic events in the late 18th Century similar to the George W. Bush recession of 2008. Idiots tarnish good people’s character, as well as the solutions which just might work, in the name of emotions, paranoia, individualism (anti-vaxer idiots), and instant gratification so prevalent they become as violent as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon and push for “liberty with guns.” It is actually, liberty for one group to attain power and control. White folks. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

That is what these paranoid stupid idiots want for America. In the process, they remove “liberty and justice for all.” After repetition of the Pledge of Allegiance all those times, these paranoid stupid idiots become hypocrites, endorsing their form of religion in a nation which was built with ideas for separation of church and state.

It’s stupidity, stupid, and there is no ambiguity to it. It’s pretty plain and simple. I don’t force my religion on others, but those who wish to do so attempt to find validation with words like “interpretation” of separation of church and state. There is no interpretation. It’s pretty damn clear. You wisth to have me force my religious beliefs through law and SCOTUS, I can attempt to do it. But I don’t. Why? Because actions to promote one religion over others within our democracy removes “liberty and justice for all.” I refuse to dot that. Goddamn those who want to force ME to be a heterosexual by way of laws and SCOTUS because I am NOT heterosexual. Just to borrow one example. A person in a Rick Scott run hospital in Florida told me that I am a sinner. He denied my liberty and justice for all, as I was lying on an ER bed with congestive heart failure. Goddamn Rick Scott and anyone in that hospital chain which wishes to push for legislation and judges at the Federal level which will endorse THEIR religious ideas in this regard. No one forces GODDAMN Rick Scott to be a homosexual. My apologies for using such words, but imagine being in an ER and being told by an asshole that one is a sinner. Pretty damn clear and no “interpretation” of the ideas of separation of church and state. So I say, GODDAMN such people and with fervor. If I am saying GODDAMN to those who don’t know what it means to be a true believer of God and the fact that we are all children of God, then I don’t want that person sitting in the U.S. Senate and using the GODDAMN filibuster there to stampede our government. I am even critical of President Biden for refusing to stop that GODDAMN filibuster. He can do better than that because it’s not his “father’s’ U.S. Senate anymore.

Adam Smith endorsed the ideas that imperfect humans with their imperfect human institutions need to have regulation because free markets are overtaken by greed, selfishness, and individualism which then destroys capitalist competition and creates huge corporate monopolies.  Such big corporations are like a centralized socialism and Bolshevik style communism, as well as a Hitler/Mussolini/Tojo type of government and economics. I may have once voted for Bernie Sanders, but I adamantly oppose centralized minimum wages because cost of living differences around this nation are very different. Again. This answer, minimum wage, is more useful to centralized unregulated corporations and destroys local small businesses like those in upstate NY. There might be other things for which I like Bernie Sanders, but not this one. But I don’t tarnish his image, as the Bolshevik-induced paranoid stupidity or that of a Marco Rubio from Cuba.

In the process, small business is destroyed and then socialists address issues related ONLY to management and enslaved workers. Along comes a pandemic and suddenly the way to handle it is to only consider things which are pertinent to big corporate monopolies and the job creation. Nothing is considered for how we can create opportunities for entrepreneurs and American ingenuity. To the paranoid jerks who fear Bolsheviks and Castro, all they do is look for how to enslave people with big corporations and their own false interpretations about what God is about. That is as bad as Marxism which taught that religion is the “opiate of the masses.”

In the process of all of this, the paranoid jerks descended from the Bolsheviks and the Cuban ones (who beat in the skull of a teacher in Florida for not agreeing with their system of dictatorship which came from a man named Battista who was just as bad as Castro; czars who were just as bad as the Bolsheviks). I am sick and tired of these people with their paranoid stupidity and such loud mouths and money (i.e., Levin of Fox and the stupidity of his book) that I sometimes wish to scream, “it takes a village” or “let us coexist and work collectively to solve our problems by ridding this nation of the GODDAMN political spectrum which people cling to and then we have extremists on the right and the left (more right extremists than left, but listen to the stupidity of Fox and Trump and one would think there is just as much on the left – BS because I have not yet met one person who proclaims they are part of Antifa (Anti-fascists). But I have met plenty who hide their actions under a sheet or are violent like Proud Boys. Perhaps I am stupid, would you say? I don’t think so. THINK. 
This is my nation. Interesting how Bolsheviks and the Castro communists were homophobic. The Cuban author, L’Arenas, worked for Castro in that revolution, but that gay man was then spit out by the very people for whom he worked. Imprisoned by Castro, he contracted the HIV virus and then moved to the USA where he died. On the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”  Goddamn the hypocrites who wish to remove that idea from America. For it is immigrants who helped build America, from the days of Italian servitude building the Erie Canal, one of the biggest influences on building commerce in New York state and for this nation, making this nation GREAT. No. someone wants to put a Goddamn wall up, ignoring this statement about liberty and not finding SOLUTIONS in order to better handle the situations at the border. Why don’t we be like the Bolsheviks and build a wall, you damn stupid jackasses? Then procure a book by Mark Levin, American Marxism which wrongly portrays good people as being Marxists. How about a book titled, American Regulated Capitalism and Democracy in Order to Make America Great Again?  I have read writings of a Republicans whom Donald Trump has tweeted his displeasure and this guy has written about regulated capitalism. I suppose these jackass stupid paranoid ones think Joe Scarborough is a Marxist or communist, too? Then, those on the left, the extremists of bleeding heart liberals, will also not line up behind what Scarborough says? Probably not, due to American individualism which has resulted in DUI offenses, Prohibition, war on drugs, importation of Afghan poppies (for drugs), anti-marijuana dolts who force DUI on us within communities, based on THEIR religious beliefs imposed upon all of us (Baptists particularly) and not ocming to agreement as to how abortions can be handled with reasonable integrity, considering protection of both mother and child and screw the religious aspect of it (I had a great-grandmother, wife of a Methodist pastor, die in the days before abortions because both mother and child died and she never got to live and give this world more children – or those who use coat hangers and die).

So rather than being able to publish a book contrary and contentious with the stupidity of what Mark Levin says, I write diatribes like this one with great length. Need I apologize? I think not.  The issue is individualism and instant gratification which has destroyed savings and loans and replaced them with credit cards and debt, stupid. Thus, it makes it far more difficult to do savings for the future. Automobiles have destroyed passenger trains and buses for the public. It’s the individualism and instant gratification becoming predominant in America today, not Marxism, stupid. But then, these stupid ones with their paranoia are just like the stupidity of Karl Marx himself who had no brain at all.  People who resemble one way like to point the fingers at others who they believe have the very qualities they represent. Unbelievable.

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Living Revenues (Wages, etc.) & Necessary Expenditures, Plus Profits (Disposable Income)

Dear Editors (Economist):
This morning. listening to the news on Classic FM out of London, England, I heard a discussion about a “living wage board” deciding what kind of increase should be made to the living wage in Britain. Sad to say, there are too many Americans who object to living wage or minimum wage and call those who propose it “communists” or “socialists.” For me, I am opposed to minimum wage or across the board living wage, but find it ludicrous to describe it as “communist” and “socialist.” It is the absurdity of emotional people with the loudest mouths and perhaps the most power and money who speak out in this manner. As I said, I am opposed to an across the board minimum or living wage, only because I grew up in a family where small business operations were important.
I am also opposed to it because of these absurd remarks made by some, but also for some other absurd remarks which tarnish the images of Democrats, as if we are “communists” or “socialists.” What a bunch of ridiculous absurd human beings to be saying this. Most recently, hearing a local small business person complain about Biden and the Democrats and the false crap spewing from the mouth of such a person really takes the cake. Biden and the Democrats, infrastructure, and unemployment checks as being the problem is stupidity at its best. The problem, as I see it, is more likely tied to minimum wages, not unemployment checks. Knowing a number of people who have been without jobs and been able to use the unemployment money as a safety net (temporary, not a permanent ensconcing in a hammock). What a bunch of ignorant people with closed minds and a refusal to look at this issue in more detail.
In the days after replying to a business person with the message like: “it’s better benefits and wages, stupid, which lead many people looking for work and leaving jobs.” According to various newspaper articles, many companies are now upping the ante with not only better wages, but also with better benefits in the form of payments for college education and bringing back more benefits which once were part of business in America. With this being done, it hurts small businesses. I know. I recall the days when my parents once ran small businesses, so I can relate to this.

In my humble opinion (which is an important aspect for anyone to consider, regarding humility which opens the mind, helps one to think out matters of life, and encourages learning), there should be no minimum wage number across the board, but in some way, figure out what the best PERCENTAGE of a family and single person revenue budget would help pay for necessities like housing, food, and clothing, plus a slight profit (called in the stupidity of the regressive income taxes, “disposable income”). This percentage could be used to figure an amount by locality and based on the COL (cost of living). Such a figure would be higher in a London, New York City, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, than it would be in upstate New York, the British countryside, the Dakotas in America, plus a number of other areas. Thus, when a small business person complains that he/she loses employees to these higher “minimum wage” places which can be paid by big corporate conglomerates, but not local business in upstate New York, they won’t (or definitely should not be) blaming Biden and the Democrats. That is a foolish thing for such moaners and groaners about unemployment checks to be doing. They are falsely making accusations and with little or no evidence to back up what they say.  I am getting sick and tired of listening to such false crap going around among the Fox “herds” in America.

This solution I suggest reminds me of the solution of Erasmus Wright, insurance commissioner for Massachusetts in the 19th Century, when he proposed an actuary table for life insurance because the insurance industry was collecting the money and then using that money, like a lawyer politician likes to do in Congress regarding Social Security and Medicare money, to pay for expenses unrelated to the insurance (see Dr. Daniel J. Boorstin’s book, The Americans: The Democratic Experience; FYI, Boorstin was the Reagan-appointed Librarian of Congress). It might be a complex table to configure with regards to “living wages,” while an across-the-board figure is easier and simple to figure. One figure given for across the board is also more beneficial to big corporate giants who can more easily handle the one figure, while working to destroy small business in America. Now there is an example of “central” economics which is very similar to the central economics which was associated with the Bolsheviks of Russia and the Hitler Nazis of Germany. You can call what each of those did, Marxism, communism, Nazi, fascist, or anythging else, but the common thread is a dictatorial autocracy, plutocracy, etc. Whether it is generated by the “socialist” Nazis or the communist/Marxist Bolsheviks (or Castro stuff in Cuba), it is still centrally planned economics which enslaves people to jobs (when they are available) and affords few opportunities for developing their own businesses as entrepreneurs. 

To me, the simplicity of true capitalism as defined by Adam Smith and his ideas of “moral sentiments” is far better than extremists on any side of the political spectrum. The problem is that too many people have no understanding of what it means to have a regulated capitalism by a government which brings balance to economics. This idea brings us the “efficiencies” as described in a recent Economist article (“Ways and means”) which one could say is being “fiscally conservative.” As a former Republican at a time when Republicans actually believed in “fiscal conservative” as being a more efficient way to operate (not to destroy spending at all), by  consider the efficiencies with the capitalist “return on investments” and balance in the economy). We all receive a ROI with our taxes in the form of local streets, bridges, roads, snow plowing, etc. We think of an HOA in Florida, similar to a local incorporated village in New York, as giving us a ROI by maintaining streets, sidewalks, etc., but not when it is a government. WHY? What the hell is the difference between both? And with the privatized HOAs, my experience has been we spend five times as much as a village tax, so the ROI is far less than the lower amounts spent on village taxes in upstate New York. Privatized garbage and waste companies cost five times as much as the government-run (sometimes contracted to private concerns and they can negotiate prices on behalf of the taxpayers) in Florida, the opposite side of the fence. I know. I have lived both experiences and have crunched the numbers. 

As a lifetime member of unions, I have experience in negotiating contracts with management. We negotiated on the basis of a living wage. The Republicans of Florida who were the primary people on the management side, they refused to discuss matters pertaining to balance and living wages which are pertinent to being able to keep good quality educators teaching the students. We witnessed good professors leaving the college for places where the COL was lower and the revenues were higher. Why not? Would would stop anyone for seeking out better pay and benefits, especially when balancing that with the necessities of life necessary for a “living wage?” Sometimes it was disgusting negotiating with the mob consisting of Jeb Bush, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio (and now Rick DeSantis) and their irrational approach and lack of efficiencies, consistencies of balance, in commerce and economics. At the same time, i have watched unreasonable union people work to dominate an imbalance adverse to the efficiencies of running an organization. I have seen a thing or two.  With unions and management working together, each should be working towards balance and holding the opposite side accountable. Same with the ideas for solutions in providing efficiencies, balance, and consistencies with regard to the balance necessary for living wages and the expenditures in a personal financial budget for a single person and/or family.

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Lawyers again

There you go again with the damn commercials paid by high-paid lawyers. Stanley Law. Commercial tonight on Columbo on MeTV. The idea is to counter “big insurance,” the big enemy. Sure. Big insurance IS an enemy to “we the people.” No doubt about it.

But to be contentious with big insurance, big lawyers with tons of money pit one American against another. The poor person who  might not have done much wrong, but is on the other side of the person seeking money for the accident. It might just have happened due to, as it says in the scriptures at Ecclesiastes, “time and unforeseen circumstances.” But we must take one side or another, right? Lawyers have become wimps in state and federal government by not properly REGULATING this lousy industry called insurance. The net result is one individual against another, no tort reform to put a cap on lawsuit awards, tax dollars used to file a lawsuit, increased premiums for insurance for all, and lawyers pocketing most of the money.

It is disgusting. People might become disgusted with me repeating this over and over again. I don’t care. My intent is to point out a problem and hope a village or community of people will address the problem with rational solutions for all of us. Is that happening?

This proves the point: “If one person suffers, we all suffer.”

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Why it’s important to take a stand for what is right

When I identify problems and encourage us all to stand to solve the problems, it is not a negative thing. At the very least it is an attempt to recognize that humans are not perfect, as well as the institutions created and run by human beings are not perfect. Expecting perfection from a vaccine is when someone thinks it is important to point out that the vaccine does not always work and sometimes there are those who still get COVID-19, even though the proof is that those with the vaccine stand a better chance of survival than those without. Expecting a perfect vaccine is absurd because humans are not perfect, especially considering short-term instant gratification. Over time, we learn more and more about the virus, become better at solving the problems associated with it, and the vaccines and other matters related to it become better. It took years to perfect the polio vaccines. Why is there this expectation we need to solve the problem immediately? We are imperfect human beings.
As Frank Sinatra said July 4, 1974, he is joyful about working collectively and together as a community of citizens in this nation trying to solve the problems of an “imperfect” nation. As Hillary Clinton said, “it takes a village.”

Lawyers believe we solve our problems by delineating the good and the bad in an accident and taking to task the persons or people who are on the opposite side of the fence from a lawyer and his/her client. Both sides might be suffering, but that does not count to a lawyer.  Universal healthcare will destroy the little paradise created for a few people in the legal profession with regard to personal injury and workman’s comp. Wrong. Only a small segment of community and society benefit.
Recently, the following statement was heard on a television production. “If one person suffers, we all suffer.”  it’s important to stand up together, identify the problem, discuss the solutions using critical analysis based on research of facts, statistics, learning from the past, etc. (not what Trump or Fox News or Newsmax or Steve Bannon or David Duke or Giuliani or others say), and solve our problems together in a democracy which eliminates corruption from buying elections (Trump) or the lousy PACs and other forces of lobbyists which overwhelm our system of democracy to the detriment of we the people (since the campaign reform laws once in place have been negated by the irrationality of those with a love of money). 

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Tony & Putting us through the dry cleaners

Commercial, Stanley Law. Tony says, “I have seen what it means for insurance to put us through the cleaners.”
Oh, yeah? I have never seen auto insurance companies “put us through the cleaners.” I have seen personal injury lawyers put me through the cleaners when I estimate the amount of tax money stolen in order to file the lawsuits. I have witnessed the increases in auto premiums in an astronomical higher prices, over the years, even when having no tickets or accidents. Nada.
In Florida, I have observed, over and over again, the unwillingness of homeowners’ insurance companies in paying for damages. I have observed Florida allowing PUP insurance companies and watched as insurance premiums increased very astronomically and the political party claiming they did not like regulations allow these unregulated companies to do this. I have observed increases in premiums about five times as high than what exists in other states of this nation. I have also observed a person in New York (my dad) who was able to get paid for damages while denied in Florida for some of the same, plus worse. Yet, Mattar, Stanley, Alexander, and all the rest never do lawsuits against big homeowner insurance companies.

According to the Boorstin book, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, an insurance commissioner  provided government regulation, not the GD lawyer crap, against insurance when the companies collected the premiums and never were accountable for using the money in the same way as lawyers in Congress have used our Social Security money and Medicare money to pay for their pet projects and then claim there “is not enough money” in those accounts. Those lawyers in Congress during the late 20th Century were ripping off people by taking from one of the best low-risk group retirement and healthcare plans which have ever existed. As with the insurance plans of the 19th Century which were attacked with government regulation. They were attacked for taking the money and putting that money in a black hole never to be seen again by the consumer on the demand side of the market. it is the same thing today with the money many of us have put forth in group funds (Social Security and Medicare). The only ones to benefit are the lawyers, as the same with the only ones to benefit from the funds we all put into group Social Security and Medicare (no interest earned over time, for US) are the politicians in Congress (primarily lawyers). Select groups who file the lawsuits have a small benefit while the rest of us, with personal injury lawsuits (and workman’s comp) are impacted by increased premiums.

Most of us are put through the dry cleaners by lawyers, not big insurance. Go to hell, lawyers, a bunch of hypocrites with your damn lousy commercials which also are paid for by increased insurance premiums.

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Anger

On the Rachael Ray Show last week, Jamie Lee Curtis was a guest. She made a statement that almost sounded as if she excused the thugs of insurrection on Jan. 6 because “all Americans are angry.” This statement disgusted me because angry people who learn self-control and moderation in life do not become violent and carry guns. She said nothing about the different photos taken when Black Lives Matter were in Washington and security was tight for them so they never could have gone to the U.S. Capitol building to attack it. Yet, with all the white folks on Jan. 6 and not one glimpse of a black person, the security was lax and we all got to see that. Security was lax for a bunch of white thugs who were angry, violent and carrying weapons. The security was tight when there were black folks who were angry but did not act like the thugs of Jan. 6. To me, Jamie Lee Curtis emboldened the white folks with Trump flags and sometimes with Confederate battle flags. Just like the SCOTUS of the 1850s with Yankees who wished to “appease the South [white power Confederate flag-bearing folks]” with the Dred Scott Decision.  We appease the white power and acknowledge they are “angry,” but the anger of black folks and others are not as important, right?

Go ahead and call me stupid for pointing this out, but I viewed a Facebook page filed by a political candidate running unopposed with the contrasting photos between Trump’s march to an Episcopal Church when Black Lives Matter people were trying to speak up and white power thugs on Jan. 6.

Would anyone care about my anger? I doubt it. I can provide a bulleted list of all the things which anger me. Much of the anger applies to senior citizens as group, rather than my own anger. Some of my anger results from the lousy way gay people have been treated and the attempts to bring back that lousy attitude. Other anger applies to my embracing of being a true Christian and following the “theories of moral sentiment” of theologian and economics theorist, Adam Smith (Presbyterian of Scotland?) as he challenged the existence of supply-side economics which, with the greed and selfishness, had caused a banking crisis similar to that around 2006 under George W. Bush. There are other anger parts regarding puritanical dictatorship in America.

You don’t wish to see my list? Oh, well. I will write it anyway. But I write with observations of successful experiences in America and try to include an “according to…” statement, not just my own emotions of anger. I also refuse to pick up a gun to point at other human beings or become violent, even as violent as Jesus Christ became after observing hypocrites (Sadducees, the lawyers of his day and anti-selfishness in the temple). 

Here goes with my list of “anger.”

  • One thing a Democrat might do makes the person a bad person and all good things are overshadowed by the one bad thing. If it’s a Republican, whether George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Reagan, Trump or others, the bad thing is swept under the rug and support is given to the person. Democrat Bill Clinton, and all the good things he said and did are overshadowed by Lewinsky. Democrat Jimmy Carter did one thing and all the good things are overshadowed by the one bad thing. Andrew Cuomo with the same bad thing which former Democrat turned Republican, Donald Trump, but Cuomo ends up resigning while Trump and his cronies block investigation of the thug white insurrectionists of Jan. 6. And then, when I say, “it takes a village,” the goodness possible from that statement is scoffed at, due to the person who said it. This is one big anger I have and those who think badly of “it takes a village,” as far as I am concerned, can go to hell with their lousy attitude in which they need one big kick in the butte. This anger is a long winded. Let me continue.
  • Related to Bill Clinton who said, “safety net is not a hammock.” Republicans support the anti-safety net” position and never consider the “hammock,” while Democrats keep pushing for the hammock.  All due to the name, Lewinsky. Don’t you know that is more important to puritan s*** of America than what is good for America.
  • Anger because people embrace puritanical s*** with forcing and dictating their thoughts, whether alcohol, sex, nudity (in art), porn, or other aspects of life. Thus, as with Prohibition, America never teaches aspects of self-control and moderation in any of theses aspects of life. Puritans: “fearful that someone somewhere is having a good time.” Anger because so many don’t even take these words seriously.
  • Medicare privatization ignores the fact that me and many other senior citizens have invested in Medicare for 40 or 50 years or more, but are denied any interest earned which may give us a good amount and f*** the GD “tiers” and “donut holes” concocted by big business by paying off those in Congress. Medicare is a form of capitalism, not the GD remarks made by pharmacists or Trump groups as being “socialism.” That statement is BS. Democrats not picking up on what I am saying about this never helps gain something better by one inch, giving predominance to the lousy lies, cheating, corruption, false information of Republican bastards who don’t know their butte from a hole in the ground. Medicare and healthcare for all CAN be considered as regulated capitalism with supply and demand factors and returns on investments. Nobody takes note of this. Thus the anger because of going along with stupidity of big business greed and love of money.
  • Ditto Medicare when considering Social Security. No one in Congress wishes to remove the lid on the way wealthy people pay into Social Security. Anger because of individualistic greedy, selfish “rights” which overshadow “liberty and justice for all.” lovers of money get their “liberty and justice,” while the rest of us get bashed. That causes anger for which people like Jamie Lee Curtis refuse to acknowledge, but acknowledge the anger, like a bleeding heart liberal, regarding an attack on our government by people of white power and control.
  • People of the Reagan “flock” who refuse to acknowledge how greedy selfish big corporate businesses accepting corporate welfare (because they pay off Congress) and are so stupid embracing Reagan’s thoughts that “government is the problem.” The problem, due to what Reagan said, is with the pigs and hedge hogs of the big corporate crony club are the problem, helping to enforce interests and benefits for these lousy human beings by way of government. Yes, they MAKE government the problem, rather than helping government by supporting, financially or otherwise.
  • The ruination of small business in America, the backbone of business in America. George W. Bush may have said, “what’s good for business is good for America.” But the stupidity of too many Americans who embrace this ignore the destruction i have observed regarding large corporations with lawyers who have destroyed the small businesses and forced us into a supply-side economics adverse to true capitalism. What George W. Bush actually meant is this. “What is good for big corporate monopolized supply-side business is good for America.” It angers me that few people consider this aspect of the lies (among other lies) told by George W. Bush.
  • When someone like me tries to help people learn about what is happening, we get shut down and censored. We get shut down by those who embrace traditionalist beliefs which the herd mentality passes along with peer pressure, never standing up for what MIGHT BE more correct and better solutions. I learned this from my grandmother who taught me that we need to write to our Congressperson with rational and sensible ideas based on facts. At the time, it was Representative Howard Robison. My grandmother tuaght us to rid ourselves of violence on television. When we stayed with my grandmother on weekends, she refused to allow us to view Mannix or Gunsmoke or Mission:Impossible. When I mentioned that one of her friends loves to watch Gunsmoke, my grandmother stated that she understands, but when we are in her home, we abide by her rules. She did not force her rules upon society or upon others, but did differentiate with her expectations in her home. She took a stand and educated her family. She may not have done as good a job at times doing such teaching of her family in days gone by. A lover of money who rejected teaching as a profession so as to go off in pursuit of “ruby” rewards, poked fun at my grandmother and that still angers me, too. Love of money which predominates human considerations like teaching.
  • Rejection of public education and attempts to privatize and this angers me.
  • Privatization of the prison systems with the hidden agenda of putting black people in on minor offenses so they become criminals and can no longer vote. All in the name of privatized prisons which need to “fill cells” in order to make a profit. This is a hateful bunch of crap created by Jeb Bush in Florida.
  • Privatization of healthcare with a primary push by Reagan and a governor (and now U.S. senator) who followed Jeb Bush in Florida, Rich Scott. For my Grandpa Cornwell, the public system of hospitals was already too exponentially high in the 1940s that he departed from the hospital in order to avoid the costs and then went home and died. It angers me about this because I never got to know my Grandpa Cornwell, as i was born in the 1950s. Privatization by Rick Scott and others has done NOTHING but made costs of hospitals for consumers – the DEMAND SIDE of the market – worse than when my Grandpa Cornwell suffered. Private big insurance fat cats have also made it worse in terms of costs, while lawyers like Mattar and Stanley and Alexander all promote personal injury lawsuits and do nothing to help reduce the costs of healthcare overall.
  • Big pharma. Anger. According to Noam Chomsky, big pharma moans and groans about how much it costs for R&D, but the claim made by Chomsky is that big pharma lies to people. He also says that big pharma, like lawyers, spend more money on commercials and then expect the consumer to pay for their GD commercials. There was a da in America when there was no advertising by pharmaceutical firms regarding prescriptions. There were no commercials on the air by personal injury lawyers. These costs impact the consumer (demand side), unless one has an accident and can squeeze tons of money from the market and government. The demand side of the market suffers and people do not realize this. Anger.
  • Spectrum gets an “award” for best service for rural areas. Oh, really? No one asked me, did they? Why would they? i am no better than others in saying this. I DO have observations from experiences in my life to wonder and scratch my head as to how Spectrum could have won an award for rural areas. For a number of years in Florida, I lived in a rural area separated from the urban sprawl about as much as being in a rural area here in upstate New York. Perhaps I am not as qualified or better able to make a jdgment on this? In rural Florida, there was no Spectrum. We had a choice between Verizon and Comcast. Verizon for land line phone Internet delivery and Comcast with 75-ohm copper cable delivery. We also had options for Dish and DirecTV. I can attest to the fact that the Comcast Internet, even though there were sometimes problems, was better than what I have experienced with Spectrum in rural New York where there are no competitive alternatives (Frontier phone line delivery has been described as being worse than Spectrum). Some choices, right? Thus, whether urban or rural delivery by Spectrum, I see nothing worth an award. It angers me that the company can buy politicians and awwards while the demand side of the market is shafted.
  • Monopolized supply-side economics from Best Buy, Microsoft, Google (etc.) really hampers the ideas that once existed with the Bill Gates version of Microsoft in which we could do DIY with computers. The have made this far more difficult by nickel and diming the consumer. Need I explain the details? Take my word. This angers me. Those who know how to do DIY of the home with Lowe’s and Home Depot can do it. In other words, DIY with the hands becomes more predominant than DIY with the brain. Anger.
  • Flipping homes and deregulation of mortgages and real estate destroys the idea of long-term capitalist investment and return on investment for Americans.The stupidity of focus on primary residence homestead exemption (in Florida) negates, in the name of stupidity of attitudes regarding taxes (and also capitalist long-term returns on investments) destroys decent-cost housing and means we need to create more low-cost housing at taxpayer expense. It is all based on supply-side economics of developer and banker benefits, not the consumer and the demand-side of the market which gets stuffed in the process. Lower interest rates on long-term investments can be regulated and differentiated from interest rateds on short-term investments. Anger because we have relinquished our abilities, as citizens – lost our “…liberty and justice for all” as it is replaced by “…liberty and justice for bankers and developers and to hell with the demand-side of the market.”
  • Invasion of our electronic and technology equipment, from mobile phones to home computers and no recourse offered by law enforcement for protection for cybersecurity. Plenty for virus and malware protection, but nothing for actual cybersecurity as people are able to infiltrate remotely or by local “hidden networks.”
  • Computer updates which pop up on my screen and give me no alternative to reject them, but just an expectation as to when to do it. Whomever does this, company or individual, it gives me no choice for what I want to do. It’s not “if” I want to do it, but “when” would it be done? When I cannot reject the update with a “NO,” I am being dictated to by Microsoft, individuals who remote into my computer, or other individuals. That sucks and there is no law enforcement cyber security to stop it, only computer virus control or malware control, etc. Nothing to stop human organizations or individuals from disrupting my computer. That is my personal property and the shitheads who do this are as bad as the thugs of Jan. 6, 2021.

What I say IS important, so damn those who think it is not. Damn them as they consider the anger of the thugs, as Jamie Lee Curtis did on the Rachael Ray Show and the rest of us “angry” Americans who react without violence and guns are ignored. It takes a village to collectively solve these problems, but too many damn Americans are adverse to this idea, based ONLY on one thing which is promoted by propaganda supporting big corporate greed and their dislike of the person. If my writing sounds like anger, then think again about how much I am trying to describe a problem, pushing forth discussions, and hoping to have a “village” solve the problems. Whether bleeding heart liberals who create a wimpish environment in replying to the irrational ones with the “microphones” supporting extremist right-wing or left-wing values, it is lousy.

To Jamie Lee Curtis: regarding anger, there should be a differentiation between anger of Americans who never get their solutions solved and thugs of insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. The thugs of insurrection or Jan. 6, 2021, become part of the problem not the solution. Those of us attempting to write and get a microphone for the anger we have need to be considered for the problems we address and discussions about the solutions. When we get set aside as “not being important,” then we become frustrated and the levels of anger can elevate even more. To many, they simply give up and become disenfranchised. When this happens, then those who are the thugs and their leaders who embolden them (like Trump and others) are elevated in what they wish to achieve with disenfranchisement of voters and smaller numbers of people who get out to vote. My anger, too, is at the efforts of the Republican white racists of Florida whom I observed taking power and creating a one-party state by using gerrymandering, lies about candidates, cheating, and working for ways, with privatized prisons, to jail some innocent young people who end up taught be criminals, not those with a reasonable sense of self-control and moderation.

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RE: “Ways and means” article about taxation in America, The Economist, 2 Oct 2021

Dear Editors:
For me, political parties are necessary to sustain a democracy. A one-party state, such as what once existed in Florida under racist white Democrats with power and now exists in Florida with racist white Republicans in charge, is absurd and anti-American, particularly considering democratic values. As a Republican most of my life, I found Howard Dean’s message in 2004 to be quite a good message. Sad to see his reputation shattered by ignorant and stupid scum in America. What a disgusting bunch of people who have evolved, clinging to their stupidity, into Proud Boys, Qanon, etc., as violent thugs of insurrection. Being that your magazine is published in Britain, the same type of thugs who got away with murder of a British agent because he was illegally importing rum for the Caribbean (John Hancock) and his friend, Sam Adams, we were led by such thugs, even if John Adams was not sure it was the correct path to follow. However, it was John, not Sam, who became the second president of the USA. The long and the short of it, we in America make a pledge with “…with liberty and justice for all.” The thugs are hypocrites in reciting such a pledge because they, along with 33K healthcare workers in NY who refuse vaccinations, actually mean, “… with liberty and justice only for me, myself, and I and the rest be damned.”

Your article about “ways and means” (subtitled “America will never have a European-style welfare state without a VAT)” struck a nerve with me. I became aware of a VAT, perhaps before Europe embraced it as it does. Where did I learn this? From CONSERVATIVE and founder of the magazine, The National Review, William F. Buckley, Jr.Today, iwth its fascist attitudes imprinted in that magazine, I would not touch it with a thirty-foot pole, as well as fascist news on Fox, Newsmax, and other sources which proclaim themselves as “conservative.” I find these groups to be very offensive.
What I once liked about being a Republican was the fact that so many were “socially progressive and fiscally conservative.” Buckley was socially progressive when he described smoking pot and finding nothing wrong with it. Yes, compared to the impact of alcohol, pot is non-addictive and better. I just don’t care to do it. At the same time, Buckley was fiscally conservative. In introducing the VAT (and other sources I have read), there is absolutely no desire to have a welfare state by using a VAT.

In this instance, I believe your writer used the ideas of Dr. Howard Dean, who urged Democrats to “re-frame the issues” so as to make them palatable for more people. Your writer has “re-framed” the issue so as to make the idea of a VAT un-palatable to the wealthy crust at the top. Another form of hypocrisy in that group at the top is to downgrade the ideas of a welfare state while looking the other way at ideas for CORPORATE welfare subsidies.

This last point is well expressed in your article, as you point out the convoluted mess we call an income tax here which is being used to help those at the top “subsidize” themselves and giving a free ride to those at the bottom of the welfare state. Meanwhile, the ones who are really being hurt is the destruction of a Middle Class which is pertinent for a democratic state to operate more efficiently. To me observing what has happened since Reagan took power in 1980, is a deliberate task to destroy the federal S&Ls, public health systems, public education with its teaching of civics education so the Middle Class can have some knowledge of what makes government good, rather than convincing them only that it’s Reagan’s idea of “only government is the problem.”  None of these aspects were described in our article, at all.

Yes, you did mention that VAT is similar to state and local sales taxes. One thing the Democrats of Florida did (and continued by the Republican one-party state machinery there) is to NOT have an income tax at all, but to have a sales tax, added to property taxes with primary residence homestead exemption. VAT would be better than a sales tax because of less figuring by the consumer of what the tax is on each item. The “sales” tax is added as the “value” passed along to the consumer. For small businesses (which have been destroyed in America by lawyers and big corporate “Goliath”-style (figurative) giants (given free rides by SCOTUS and the “Citizens United” Decision). Why do I say this? Because I observed the NY sales tax introduced and noted the impact on small rural businesses who had to do extra work in maintaining accurate records of sales and report them to the New York State Taxation Dept. This cut into small business overhead and eventually helped to destroy small businesses as big corporations experience less percentage of overhead (cutting into profits) than small businesses. A VAT would decrease such events and (boo hoo!) put accountants and tax lawyers with less business so they can do what they really SHOULD be doing and get out of the “tax” business.  Boo hoo t them, spoken as an educator who also witnessed the travesty of privatization of education by people like Jeb Bush and others in Florida. Nobody gave one damn about the impact on teachers and professors, did they? I can be a mean SOB and not give one damn about how the VAT would impact those making tons of money off taxes. For one thing, rather than invent ambulance-chasing, educators had to resort to other means of income and pull themselves up by the bootstraps the best they could. Educators in Florida often worked three and four extra jobs, especially if one-income families or as single moms or dads. Perhaps lawyers and accountants should experience the same things?

As for this crap about a “welfare” state, Bill Clinton once said, “a safety net is not a hammock.” Translation. Safety nets are not for “infinity and beyond” but a hammock is eome place where we can place our asses and never get up – for infinity and beyond. What a shame that the name Lewinsky overrides everything which Bill Clinton was about. His penis was more important than anything else, evidently. Oh, that’s right! I should not use the word, “penis,” in America because we Americans are so puritanical in thoughts that we don’t accept “fleshy” art work, as they do in Europe.  Americans apparently like the pope who ripped the penis off a statue of David. FOR SHAME to me for bluntly telling a Roman Catholic that he was trying to dictate and impose HIS ideas and his ideas alone, as he complained about nude paintings in the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. There are many Americans who appreciate works of art, whether paintings, photographs, drawings, or what not, and that man has no right to infringe on the “…liberty and justice for all” by imposing his own idea of “…liberty and justice” which fits only him, as if we all where the same size glove or shoes.

I diverge here in order to emphasize how much there is a “norm” established and dictated to us all which treads on our own liberties and justice. This includes the way income taxes are so convoluted in America that it infringes on the “liberties and justice” of the Middle Class. Democrats want a welfare state? If so, I don’t like the Democrats who push such an agenda and refuse to consider other SOLUTIONS to our PROBLEMS. On the same token, we rarely find the Republicans who were the ones who came from the foundations of that party, opposed to slavery (of all kinds) and worked with ideas of “socially progressive and fiscally conservative.” Fiscally conservative, to most of us, meant regulated capitalist supply and demand, not an aristocratic fat hedge hog idea of supply side only. it was not a measure of whether the government spent money or not. It was a matter of doing so efficiently and for “liberty and justice for all.”  This article, “Ways and means,” does discuss the efficiencies which don’t exist in our American economics, but it burns me the way it goes into how the VAT helps create the welfare state, then burns the Democrats who it proclaims DO want a welfare state. For me as a Democrat, that is an insult. Perhaps when such Democrats scratch their heads at having to deal with this question, as Clinton perhaps did, they go off to find sex with someone? To relieve the pain? I don’t say this in forgiving Bill Clinton and his lack of self-control, but I do say this to try to come to grips with reasons WHY he might have done what he did, even if it is mere speculation. 

Sweden is mentioned in this article. I don’t question the statistics given because I have to trust they are true and factual. I do have to question the lack of discussion regarding the homogeneity of the race and culture in Sweden, as opposed to the USA. That is more of an important considertion in all of this discussion about “welfare state” or even about “socialism.” A recent New York Times book review told us about how President Nixon tried to provide for “incubation” of new black businesses in North Carolina, but failed due to one Republican who was considered so damn powerful that he must have scared Nixon. That Republican was jackass white racist Republican from North Carolina named Jesse Helms. Like Mitch McConnell, that bastard of North Carolina held this nation hostage with his ideas about white superiority. He did what many Southern Republican leaders are attempting to do today. According to a TV Guide article from the past, Helms was also responsible for manipulating things like destroying Star Trek due to an inter-racial kiss.   Helms also used his power and influence to destroy Robert Maplethorpe exhibits (and other matters regarding the arts) because of frontal nudity in the photographs.    Freaking Helms with HIS own definition of “liberty and justice” … FOR HELMS … was imposed on us all. Fortunately, the Star Trek thing backfired, but consider this. It was only when another southerner (Jimmy Carter) and the Democrats took power in 1976. That was NOT a question of “welfare state,” but a question of being socially progressive and anti-racist. Same thing can be said about another Democrat from the South whose image was tarnished by several things (like involvement in Vietnam). LBJ worked to get the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act passed, even if he fumbled the ideas for a “Great Society” in some of the unorganized urban development projects. In that case, his heart was in the right place, exemplified by the passage of civil rights legislation. As I always, say, if one expects perfection, then that person is a stupid idiot because perfection of human beings does not exist. If one has the expectation that Democrats are perfect, then think again, stupid. Even Frank Sinatra mentioned how he loved fixing our nation’s problems, even if this is an imperfect nation.

At the end of the day, one can argue that any tax can be considered regressive, as this article pointed out about the sales tax or VAT. One dictionary definition of “regressive” says, “taking a proportionally greater amount from those on lower incomes.” In order to avoid this from happening with income taxes, we give earned income tax credits to which, as the article pointed out, leaves almost nothing paid by that “lower” the proportion taken from the lower classes. The net result is a rebuke by the upper classes and the Middle Class being destroyed in the process as it becomes incumbent on that one “lower class” – the Middle Class – to absorb most of the taxes. That was NEVER discussed in this article, leaving the reader left out in the dark on this matter. Instead, the writer intones the “regressive” nature of the VAT or sales tax. The person appears to really speak as if he/she is against the VAT so uses various mechanisms to address his adversity, while appearing like the person is an advocate of the VAT. I don’t get it. Please tell me how a VAT is “regressive” when the ones purchasing their own personal yachts, planes, expensive elitist imported items (not affordable to those in the lower classes), and what not would end up paying a large chunk of taxes that many in the lower classes would not pay? By saying this, the person writing this article appears to have no sense of what “regressive” means.

The true reason as to why the upper crust does not want a VAT is because this would have the impact, if implemented correctly, of removing the loopholes which the upper crust can use to justify THEIR corporate welfare. In America, this upper crust might complain about a “higher tax rate” for them, but have the ability with a regressive income tax to use “workarounds” which might be more difficult with an opaque VAT. Truly, I say to you, get rid of the capital gains tax, the income tax, the inheritance taxes. Replace them all with a VAT and stop with the BS of counting who makes out better. Just applaud and reward people for making money and profits and we can bring back American ingenuity.

Another problem with LBJ and his “Great Society” was the farm subsidies in order to take into consideration how selling more milk would lower the price of the milk in a capitalist economy. It completely removed ingenuity to meet the demands of the consumers and finding other ways to use the product, besides just the drinking of milk. With this black hole of ingenuity, a European dairy company, utilizing the notion about “pasture-raised” cow butter took a piece of the American market. A VAT would be designed with a higher “tariff” on imported goods and give home-grown products a leg up in the market. Subsidies for farmers simply destroyed the market. We have read about upstate NY farmers who “dump their milk.” Dump the milk? What the hell is that, when considering the many aspects of milk like that of peppermint and lemon for dealing with pests. In this case, a milk product has proven effective, with copper sulfide, in fighting fungus. There are other possibilities, too, which are ignored, in favor of mass market considerations, rather than meeting the needs of smaller markets, thus helping to bolster the prices paid to farmers. It is called regulated capitalism, not subsidies and handouts. Capitalism has been given a black mark by Karl Marx who was an idiot in his assessments of economics. Adam Smith wanted to counter the prevailing ideas of his day regarding supply-side economics of manors, feudal property, etc.. Supply-side economics which created a serfdom and slavery. To the “moral sentiment” of Scottish, Adam Smith, these were wrong. Yet, he got shafted by Marx because the industrialists chose to adopt Smith’s ideas but conform the ideas to what already helped the elitists gain all their money they horded over others. Supply-side economics, not capitalism with regulation of supply and demand was blamed. Thus we ended up with Marxist ideas of central control by big corporations and monopolies while proclaiming them as being “great capitalists.” The are not. They are centrally controlled. It might not be a government or nationalized corporations, but it is centrally controlled. In turn, these people work to control the very government which SHOULD be regulating supply AND demand. By use of corrupt practices and “martini lunches” these hedg hog elitists control our lives and thus bring about anger of people /like Proud Boys who don’t know anything about what true democratic government SHOULD be and just resort to violence and guns with the U.S. Constitution’s 2nd Amendment, while being coerced into believing colored people are at fault for their situation and never taking a look at how much better off THEY are, compared to so many other nations in this world – and living by APPRECIATING what they have, in comparison. Then I cringe at reading about the VAT needed to endorse the “welfare state” when the VAT was conceived by those who did not like the welfare state. Absurd and with a hollow tone.

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Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce

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