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.

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Go ahead business person and/or lawyer, take responsibility or get out of my way

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. I say to the business people at the top of big fat monopolized supply-side economics corporations: “go ahead, make my day and get out of my way.”
Same issue once again. People have heard it and have a lack of R- E- S- P- E- C- T (Aretha Franklin) for me, saying simply, “it’s not that important.” To which I say to lsuch people: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” 
Big business in America today run in the government by people lousy people like Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, and none other than Donald Trump of Florida. Add to that, Dan Abbott, the perverted governor of Texas. They don’t take responsibility for their what they do, but just work and pay off the media to help them in trashing Joe Biden and the Democrats, as if they are the only ones who are to blame for anything.

Case in point. News item today about how the head of the U.N. wishes to avert another cold war if the USA and China would work things out. Thanks to Trump, the USA has failed at this. I even had Republicans, not Democrats, who complained about the lousy way Trump handled deals with China. But who is likely to take the blame when the media ignores what Trump does and keeps everything down to “what is happening now?” The media refuses to look at what has happened in the short term, right now because everyone is so damn greedy today, they wash away the memory and long-term thoughts. They have even helped destroy the thinking about an American dream for long-term investments (CAPITALISM) in a primary residence, so more people are homeless, as the big fat pigs line their pockets with nothing but short-term benefits for them, while destroying the idea of long-term benefits. This has happened with the destruction of pensions, Social Security, and Medicare. Perverted Republicans who won’t work with Joe Biden for long-term “HUMAN” infrastructure opportunities.

Added to the disgusting way Trump worked to gain the peace in Afghanistan, for the benefit of oil producers such as those in Saudi Arabia and Texas (they all love the fat pig Trump), rather than consider peace and justice. Trump the fat pig lays out a timetable for departure from Afghanistan but the time table went into what the fat pig thought would be his second term. Had he been in office, he would have made certain nothing bad was said about the departure. Instead, Joe Biden, considering we have been there 20 years and accomplished little or nothing (as I hear most Americans actually SAYING, and not due to Biden, but due to Trump). Does the media mention this aspect? No. And George W. “Shrub” Bush who never finished the job with Saudi royal family member, Bin Laden, but lied to the American people in order to go to Iraq instead. We did get involved in Afghanistan, but only for the satisfaction of the Saudi royal family. Then the Obama-Biden team took over, Bin Laden was caught, and a plan to move us closer to the other sect of Islam in opposition to the Saudi royal family, and the net result from oil man “Shrub” was ISIS and others beholden to the Saudis. Those people are mean and vicious people and I don’t want mean and vicious Republicans like that leading the party or the government.

Screw Reagan and his statement, “the government is the problem.” The oil business people and Saudi royal family are the biggest problems, for sure.

So, why did I take the time to explain all of this? Because there are too many people running big corporate America today, pushing for free markets. At the end of the day, free markets become monopolized supply-side corporations who “re-regulate” according to their own corrupt benefits for lining their own pockets and not being held accountable by regulatory practices in government and by the people. The net result is fat pig Trump’s favorite word: “destroy.”

I have several case studies of what is happening with what I just described. The most recent one had one more piece of the puzzle added today. So, I say, “go ahead, Mr. Business person and/or lawyer, take responsibility or get out of my way.” Go ahead. Make my day. But of course, no one is willing to consider my case study or anything else I say, so I feel sorry about the future of America in such incapable hands. The capable ones are President Biden and the Democrats and they are being sabotaged in their endeavors to provide the solutions which are best for ALL Americans, not just the freaking oil slick perverts of Texas, Florida, and Saudi Arabia.
The example case study is about newspaper delivery in a rural area of upstate New York. Several things. First of all, not wishing to provide delivery to rural areas is a strategy for moving people to Dixie and the urban areas which have been developed there. This strategy is like the Bolsheviks / Communists of Russia and the Communists of China. One big difference. It is being directed, not by a government, but by monopolies of supply-side economics who proclaim they want freedom. Freedom all right, but not for the common folk. Only to line their own pockets, as did people like Breshnev and others in the former Soviet Union who had vacation dachas which the common folks were not able to have. The leaders were doing better than their “comrades.” That is NOT Communism. Yet, our wonderful fat pig leaders in business and lawyers are doing that centrally-planned type of economics which perverted Marco Rubio claims he does not like. I have to wonder what kind of liar he is.  And those from rural areas (like Manchin of West Virginia) pit American against American in the same manner lawyers do with their lousy personal injury lawsuits which they claim is the alternative to “socialism.’ What a bunch of perverted minds. No rural delivery so people will be tempted to move to urban areas. After all, crowd control is easier when people are herded into more densely populated areas. Thoughts right from Chairman Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and others. But today, this herding of people is being engendered by big business monopolies who work to control the government with the support of the Supreme Court, Citizens United, lobbyists (Grover Norquist in Congress) , and PACs.
Another part of this newspaper mismanagement is the fact that big fat pigs have removed the ability for “little people” (you know, Leona Helmsley said only “little people pay the taxes”) have more than just JOB opportunities, but also have opportunities for supply and demand capitalism, capitalist competition, and a profit. (OMG! Did I say a dirty word? PROFIT?  OMG! Shut my mouth).  When I delivered newspapers, I had a bike. Spent no money on gasoline because I was too young to drive. I also walked the route in the winter. I purchased my newspapers from the Sun-Bulletin at a wholesale price and re-sold at the retail price. I could choose to have as many newspapers as I wished to sell, but had to pay for the entire lot. If I did not sell all of them, it was MY responsibility, not that of the newspaper. They were willing to help, but it was my responsibility. I collected the money from my customers. I had opportunities to expand my customer base as much as I wished to do. If someone did not pay, it was my responsibility. With my dad being a local business person, if I ever experienced someone who refused to pay, then my dad would help out, I am sure. But it NEVER came to that. Everyone was respectful enough and I never had to call in my dad. But he offered, just in case. I had a SAFETY NET – you know, the one thing fat pig Republicans wish to remove and, I must say, too many liberals wish to keep the safety net “to infinity and beyond.”  I could make a profit. This enabled me to purchase vinyl record albums (like the Beatles White album and several others). I could buy my parents and brothers gifts at holiday times and birthdays.  In other words, even with the SAFETY NET from my father (which I was lucky to never use), I spent money in the economy. All due to newspaper delivery in a rural area.

The side benefit was walking or bike riding each day along busy Main Street which was also State Route 38. Never considering it, such activity was also very good exercise to help me prepare for being on the school football team, too. So, when our coaches told us to run up a hill in back of the school, it was tough, for sure. When Coach Evans stood on “line sled” as we on the line practiced moving the opposition out of the way, I could handle it. (Coach Evans put down the Sun-Bulletin newspaper I delivered, never realizing the side benefit I got from delivering it each morning; delivery BEFORE going to school so I had the afternoons to be at football practice, unlike the Evening Press delivery considerations). But also for sure, I have to wonder how much tougher it would have been, should I NOT have had that exercise? Incidentally. As one of my football buddies recently remarked, Coach Evans “was a person who could get the best out of us!” Full agreement from me, for sure!

When I asked the local newspaper delivery person about me dealing directly with this person, I was told that Gannett won’t allow that. The ordeal I experienced trying to re-establish my print subscription was appalling. This person delivering the newspaper is like a slave now to the corporation, being paid what ever the corporation wishes to pay. There is no opportunity to step up profits so as to better purchase the gasoline or any type of energy necessary to deliver the newspapers. Had I been faced with dilemmas during my days of delivery of any type of rising costs which cut into my overhead, I would have found alternative ways to make a better profit. For instance, maybe I could have worked with other businesses in the village to determine if I could have the newspapers sold through their business and then collect the money from them. After all, according to the grocery manager at the store where we obtain the newspapers today, that store makes no money from the newspapers, even under the circumstances of slaves who are hired by the newspaper to deliver such items. What this manager failed to realize was how many people, like me, who come to his store to buy other products? Never considered that because the younger generation has lost all sight of what it takes to sell products. They are not being taught, that’s what it is. I certainly could have used my American ingenuity to figure out other ways to reduce my overhead. Go ahead. Make my day and say, with everything I may have considered, “it’s impossible.” To which I say, you pessimistic fool because “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

This newspaper issue and the mis-management of big corporations goes beyond what I have already outlined. I discovered today that Gannett pushes hard to read e-editions of their newspaper, even with a management attempting to curtail reading the print copy with claims that “no one wants to read them.” False crap from fat pigs at  the top of corporations. No attention to customer needs (in capitalism, it’s called the DEMAND SIDE of the market). Newspapers are not the only industries which have such fat pigs at the top. Yet, as I discovered today, I was told by Gannett customer service to “go to the website and order print delivery there.” Are you kidding? Please show me where one can go to find such a choice? It does not exist on the website. Number one example of how Gannett is foolish in its application of technology. Second example. The “chat” set up by Gannett also does not help put in a subscription, unless for the e-edition. The third example was this. When I asked about paying for the subscription, I was given two choices. (1) to be billed by mail (snail mail). (2) Have an automatic payment by card. I asked for a third alternative to receive a billing by email and then be able to manually pay online. Nope. I was informed this last alternative does not exist. Even small companies have this last alternative, particularly where I obtain my propane gas and fuel oil from a smaller local company. But not big Gannett which pushes e-editions? No. Gannett closed their local Binghamton, Ithaca, and Elmira offices. No such thing as “local.” Just herd us all into big densely populated areas, right? Speaking of that. In Florida, I had newspapers (Cox and a Gannett local paper) where I could pay manually online. But not in Gannett’s USA Today in Binghamton.   I am going to speak out against such travesties and I expect respect for what I feel is important. Don’t tell me it is not. I don’t wish to move to a local nursing facility in order to get my newspaper delivered – a large unit of many people where lazy people work to seek out fast delivery of many newspapers.

I have often said that my father, a veteran of World War II and the Pacific war theatre, would have been offended by what Gannett is doing. As a kid, i recall how he kept informed, reading two newspapers every day. Gannett first condensed the two into one. Then furthermore, it never considered all of the news, INFORMATION (science, health, food, puzzles, etc., etc., etc.) which help sell the newspapers. They made my dad angry as they condensed the Press & Sun-Bulletin. Today, in comparison, the Scranton Times-Tribune provides a capitalist competitive newspaper which has not condensed its newspaper to the extent that Gannett Pravda has done in Binghamton. The Scranton newspaper can be purchased at $1.00 less per issue than that of Gannett Binghamton Pravda. While the Scranton newspaper is not delivered up here (nor the Sayre, PA, newspaper) in order to provide competition, one can purchase the newspaper in the next county, but not in the county where we live. Lucky for us that we border on more densely populated Broome County more closely than many places in our own county. 

When I asked the circulation department (I can actually speak with a local person at the Scranton newspaper!  OMG!) about the possibility of have their newspaper delivered by snail mail, they practically laughed at me!  For sure, it could arrive two or three days late. That COULD be fixed if our lawyer politicians in Albany and Washington would do something to preserve our postal service, but they don’t because they are too damn concerned about personal injury lawsuits.  however, the laughter at the other end of the circulation customer line at the Scranton newspaper was about the cost of having it delivered by snail mail. I told the person that is not funny because the cost quoted to me was about one-third of the monthly cost for us to destroy our carbon footprint, consume gasoline, and drive to West Corners each day!  Nobody makes comparisons anymore, so I think the person was surprised to learn that I crunched the numbers and found a cost advantage from the snail mail delivery, as opposed to our huge exponentially higher costs to drive to that store some eight miles away.
The local Walgreens is supposed to stock print copies of the Press & Sun-Bulletin. But how much have I heard such a big corporate giant voice support for the people here in town and work to convince Gannett to improve? Not one damn thing.  The local supermarket does not stock the Gannett newspapers, either. Even if we drove a half mile or so into town to obtain the newspapers, it would not be very costly. Besides, I know many people who drive from a further distance than we do to go into the village, just to do a walk and exercise each day where they feel safer than trying to do so along a fast-paced state highway.

Again. I emphasize that if you build it, they will come. A supermarket will get people into their store to purchase other products, should the newspapers be there. That’s a fact because I spoke with staff at the newspaper where we picked up our newspaper some eight miles away and they were wll aware of the delivery problem in “Northern Tioga County” because they had many customers come to their supermarket and purchase groceries, just to purchase the newspaper. That manager there was a sleazeball in not noticing that which his staff recognized more readily. Another matter of mis-management.  The staff had more business intelligence than the manager did. That is a very sad statement in the USA today. Perhaps now, if we are able to get delivery of Gannett Binghamton Pravda each day and on a more timely basis, the delivery person will do the local supermarket good. After all, we will not be the only ones who might return to purchase groceries locally here more often than driving a distance and, at the same time, picking up some necessary items. That manager of the distant supermarket would have been smart to have paid the newspaper delivery people at his store a tip!  But wait a minute!  I forget! The lousy income tax and the punishment for making money likely stands in the way, thanks to the lawyers who are career politicians in our governments. Today, they do more good for the big fat pigs than they do for the common folk or “little people” which Helmsley said are “the only ones who should pay taxes.”

Go ahead, Business person and/or lawyer, make my day! But please do so in an optimistic consideration of what the group on the demand side of a capitalist market wishes to see happen, not solely on the basis of what business supply-side wishes to have happen, so as to line the pockets of the fat pigs only.
—

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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Antivax & Government Regulation?

Dear Mr. George Will:
My reading of your column has existed from the days I was in the 7th grade and a teacher/border purchased a subscription to Newsweek. My partner and I do a great deal of reading today and  we are happy to have the ability to learn from news and information sources beyond just broadcast media, but from newsprint. During all these years, Mr. Will, I have read your columns and found many to be in agreement. If so, I don’t reply. When I do reply, it is usually when I am in contention with what you are saying and have questions and solutions which, perhaps, you have overlooked. This is the case with your recent op-ed with your opinion that government should not regulate and force vaccinations. I wish to address this op-ed and try to be as kind as I possibly am able to be.
First of all, big business forces us to do things the way the big fat pigs and the stock holders who own the largest share of the stock wish to force upon the demand-side of a capitalist market. I am still fighting (I hate to use that word) the fact that Gannett Newspapers have mis-managed the local Press & Sun-Bulletin, forcing us in rural areas where we had the print newspapers delivered to our homes in a timely basis, to read the newspaper digitally. It is not a government forcing us in the manner of “deregulation” king, Reagan said about “government being the problem.” No. It is fat pigs forcing their changes upon all of us and doing so by making claims that “nobody reads newspapers.” That is false when considering the mis-management which meant the local Gannett office on Sherry Lipe Road was closed just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Any excuse will due, so we have heard things like, “the fault is with the pandemic.” Oh? What is that, then, that Gannett had a self-fulfilling prophesy about COVID-19? The Press & Sun-Bulletin which was once more than a newspaper, but a basis for news, op-eds of various sides of the political spectrum, local columnists, information and games and puzzles.  Some of it still exists, but a large portion of it has been condensed so that no one takes an interest in it anymore. Smart move for a leadership which wants “change for the sake of change” so as to pull in more money and not caring for the demand side one bit. The delivery problems have declined since the office closed. There are now less advertisements for local chain stores than what exists in the Scranton newspaper, which charges, in a truly capitalist market, $1.00 less per newspaper for a newspaper which is NOT as condensed as the Binghamton Gannett version of USA Today and has far more advertisements with some of the same local chain stores which exist in the greater Binghamton area. Advertising, not circulation subscriptions, make more money for the newspaper. Circulation helps determine what can be charged for the advertising. If a newspaper can charge zero dollars and cents for each issue and can reap a better profit from the advertising dollars, due to an expanded number of readers, then so be it. That is how it works. Now Binghamton Gannett USA Today has announced they will no longer publish and distribute the newspaper on holidays. Again, they use any excuse possible so as to bolster the lining of the pockets of the fat pigs at the top with their hedge fund investors and what not.
Took me quite a paragraph just to explain this part. But Gannett is one of several big fat pig corporations which FORCE its customers – the DEMAND SIDE of the market – to accept what the fat pigs at the top wish to impose. Yet, we hear from you, Mr. Will, about a government, with an interest in the collective, not individual, liberties of the people, which should not impose vaccination rules upon people and thus end up removing the INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS of people like me who wish to get back to days of being together in crowds, including performing music for crowds, whether in church or otherwise. Seems as if we get the bad side of the stick in both these situations. Mr. Will, why don’t you speak out against big business monopolistic style supply side economics, rather than a government which you have been mesmerized by the stupidity of the “deregulation” king, Ronald Reagan? Big business fat pigs are the problem, not government. The U.S. Supreme Court gave big fat pigs more license to screw the demand side of the market with “free markets” which monopolize the supply side of the market and line the pockets of so many politicians with their lousy PACs which should be banned, as well as all lobbyists within the doors of the U.S. Congress and the elimination of a stupid filibuster which helps a minority put obstacles up for solving America’s problems.  Now, it is war with the Anti Antivax lunkheads and we lose our individual rights and liberties because, with the proof that vaccinations work, we are forced to accept variants and the spread of such virus among the population and not see it go away.

I have news for Mr. Will and the Antivax lunkheads. Vaccinations imposed by government are NOT communist. Instead, I say that centrally planned economics by fat pigs imposing change upon the people are more closely related to how a communist government works. Nice deal, though, because these lunkhead fat pigs can say that “government is not controlling the economy.” Government is not controlling it, but the fat pigs have positioned themselves to control the government, with the help of Alito and company with PACS and allowing huge contributions. Makes it easy for lunkheads like Rubio, Scott, and DeSantis of Florida, as well as others, to make a claim that it is NOT communism. Sure. It is indirect communism with a flavor of a centrally planned economy. 

Our government and the ingenuity of the American government has helped us win wars in the past. This battle with a pandemic is a war. What about rationing of sugar or gasoline during wartime? I have heard those in the World War II generation who were unhappy with such rationing imposed upon them when they were in their childhood. But ultimately, they found it to be pertinent for fighting a war. My father told us about a shortage of gasoline when driving a Jeep in the American occupation forces of Japan. American ingenuity got them through it, rather than complaining like a bunch of people who impose politics over science.

A friend recently wrote on Facebook about how science is not meant to be a part of politics, while addressing the situation with vaccinations.

American ingenuity and working together helped Americans like my father and so many others get through that terrible war. Development of primitive forms of radar among former U.S. Marines and a Lesbian named Hedda Hopper (see the story on the Smithsonian website) helped us develop such radar. Repeat. American ingenuity. American ingenuity also comes with accepting the vaccination, irregardless of whether one gets sick or not from a dosage. I know I got sick from the second dosage. Some from both. Some from the first one. Some with no sickness at all. At the end of the day, all of us are still alive. In comparison, I know more people who refused to get the vaccine who died of COVID-19 than the numbers I knew in nursing homes who died of COVID-19, before there was a vaccination. Sad about those who died before the vaccination, but there is no excuse for those who died because their pastor or those who complained about getting sick or some stupid conspiracy theory with no evidence what ever, convinced them otherwise.

There are also so many untried capitalist investment solutions which have been used to fight a war. For instance, those during World War II who converted factory production of household goods to armaments for war. They did so to join with the war effort in which the invasion of Normandy helped us end the war, as well as the forces in the Pacific who fought long and hard to end the war in the Pacific. Also, war bonds were sold as a means of earning money for the war effort. I have yet to hear Trumpicans or Antivax people come come up with such solutions, but only trash any ideas the Democrats have, especially for “human infrastructure” advancement.

Mr. Will. How can you ignore such ideas and solutions and simply side with the Antivax, fundie evangelical religionists, and conspiracy-theory lainbrains? you have written some good essays in the past. But when you are entrenched, such as you are in the Washington Post and accepted by big guy, Bezos at the top, you get to put the crap out there, too. Your antivax support is nothing but trash, to put it very bluntly.
—

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. “Seek wisdom, not certainty; seek practice, not purity; seek traditions, not traditionalism” (Diane Butler Bass in book, Christianity for the Rest of Us). 

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Signs of a Lack of Consistency

Consistency. Lack of consistency among too many in America today.

How many Kurdish people died at the hands of the Turks while Trump held office? Numbered in the thousands?  Did I hear a strong outcry regarding that? How many Americans ended up dying during that melee? I don’t know the exact numbers, but when it happened, with many others, we never said a thing about Trump, even if we did not like him. We did not seek things to find about Trump so as to tarnish his image. We just let things fall as they did. Some of us voiced opposition to some domestic actions which hurt many people. But we were not on a witch hunt, as the paranoid Trump would indicate.
Headlines just read bleated out that 13 people died in Afghanistan. I am saddened to hear about that, for sure. It is never a good thing to hear such news. As a singer, I joined in a South Florida charity concert to raise money for the children of one soldier who died in Afghanistan as the conflicts began in the early 2000s.  I did not lash out at George W. Bush who had wrongly lied about WMDs in Iraq so as to fulfill a personal vendetta he and his dad held with Hussein and delayed the attacks on Afghanistan due to the money coming from the Saudi Arabian royal family and one from that family who is primarily responsible for 9/11. Avenging 9/11 was set aside in an inconsistent manner of going into Iraq in order for the military-industrial complex with Haliburton and others to make more money. Inconsistency which makes America look really bad in the eyes of the world.

So, we have a loud voice from people who have a problem with Joe Biden, Democrats, and others, and want to find something to smear images. Some people call 13 an unlucky number. I call thousands who were killed in the WTC and by attacks against Kurdish ones, those in Syria who suffer as a result of our incursion into Iraq, and others.  How about the ones who have died at the hands of the Saudi royal family in nations nearby Saudi Arabia? How about them? Trump supported the Saudis. Perhaps I should spread a conspiracy theory that Trump and his son and son-in-law’s work to cozy up to the Saudi royal family is circumstantial evidence to prove that he and others are responsible for the 9/11 incident?  I don’t know. What stops me from bloviating about such an unproven conspiracy theory.
Stop the lack of consistency and the lousy attitudes of those who just want to attack Democrats, rather than work together, coexist with fellow Americans, and do something to solve our problems. Consistency should coexistence with us, too. 
—

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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President Biden and Afghanistan

​If I were to write to President Biden.

Dear President Biden:
You have taken on a job with many tough responsibilities. I admire you for your ambition and forthrightness in attempting to set this nation on a better path towards democracy and regulated capitalism, with the intent to help the “great” David,” the underdog, in attempting to deal with the giant Goliath. It is not an easy job, but you appear to be up to the task.
When Donald Trump announced a timetable for departing Afghanistan, I felt uneasy about it. But to notice the many years we have been there – what, from George W. Bush forward/ – , prior to you taking office, and noticing that the Afghan government is so corrupt, it has a tough time gathering people to its side. Originally, I thought it absurd to go into Iraq when the real culprit was Afghanistan. It seems the president who concentrated on iraq had a beef with Hussein, due to his father, George H.W. Bush. Therefore, we lessened the involvement in Afghanistan at a time when we should have been the strongest there. It took the Obama Administration to apprehend the leader of the 9/11 crisis from wherever his bases were and that was NOT Iraq, as it turned out. The whole effort was mis-managed from the get-go and the Democratic Party administration had to pick up the pieces. 

People seek peace. Donald Trump appeared to be more interested in a Nobel Peace prize than about being an effective leader. An effective leader in dealing with Afghanistan would have been, as Stacey Abrams of Georgia says, “we cannot have peace without justice.”  The justice part of Afghanistan was set aside, so therefore, there will be no peace. 

Then , y President Biden, took office. You assumed the timetable set forth by Donald Trump and simply went forward with it, recognizing the failure of some 20 years in Afghanistan. It must have been a tough decision, so I respect you for dealing with this situation.

There are those who can bloviate all they wish to do about whether the decision was a correct one or whether the departure was handled correctly. Bottom line. There will never be peace without justice. America still has people who believe the 19th-century American civil war was only a battle settled at Appomattox Court House, not the end of a war. They believe they are victims because their status as white folks superior to black folks has been removed.  Even after that war ended in 1865 (according to an 1865 article in the New York Times), there were those from Dixie who launched a limited attack, in 1865, against New York City buildings, almost in the same manner as the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. The plot was uncovered and the perpetrators fled up the Hudson River to Canada. 

The plot was uncovered. Why was there a capability to uncover the plot in 1865, but not in 2001? What has happened?
As I have read a book by former Florida Governor and Senator, Robert Graham, I have noticed his discussion about the need for intelligence. I am not talking about mere human intelligence, although that is very necessary. I am talking, as Graham did in his book, about U.S. government intelligence. Perhaps you served with Senator Graham when he headed the Senate Intelligence Committee? I have had a chance to speak with the former senator and governor myself, as he visited our college in Florida and spoke to students in a political science classroom.  He actually does believe in human intelligence, too, as he discussed the topic of another book he wrote, about how we have allowed public education to degrade to the point of not teaching civics lessons which help our young people learn about democracy and how it works.  I agree with the former senator and governor, but wonder how much is being done on that front, too? Since Dr. Jill Biden also teaches at the type of college where I taught in Florida, perhaps she has some ideas?

It just so happens that former governor and senator, Bob Graham, belongs to the same denomination to which Barack Obama belongs. The same religious denomination to which I have been born, baptized, and raised in America.  I am not trying to sell this denomination or proselytize with it. I merely say this because the United Church of Christ (UCC) has a Peace and Justice group. More than that, in South Florida and in the same county where Donald Trump maintains his residency, I was involved in an ecumenical group, both Protestants and Roman Catholics, called Peace & Justice Ministries.  Thus, I feel the importance of peace and justice, not only in America, but in Afghanistan and other parts of the world where they care more about their own selfishness, greed, corruption, and culture and religion only, while the rest of the world, in the eyes of such people, should be damned. Women who speak out under Taliban rule, are hung. Men whose beards don’t measure up are beheaded. But does not some of these things also happen, though not to such extremes, in Saudi Arabia, where there is more money to help them keep such atrocities silent? The spoof on Hitler’s regime, written by a gay man, is the song, “Money Makes the World Go Around,” in the Broadway musical, Cabaret.  Love of money is an injustice, but are the American people too willing to accept it as a norm and not work to change it? Does that explain why, after 20 years, we allowed the corruption by the wealthy in Afghanistan to rule the government there?

We look to leaders to fix this. We should not expect perfection, but for good leaders with excellent efforts to succeed, to do a good job, and do so for the good of all the people, not just for the greed of one narcissist himself. We have put hope in your ability to be that leader to succeed in overcoming the obstacles we face. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

One final thought. In his 2007 book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, Lee Iacocca, a very good leader himself, offers some practical information, but we should not wrap our arms around only one person or one thing. That is the beauty of living in a democracy. Too many people have lost sight of that. But Iacocca himself comments about his visit to Saudi Arabia and the strict dictatorial reign which exists there.  Add to this the Ken Burns documentary about the Roosevelts, we have a discussion about how we lost leaders like Teddy Roosevelt when we began to use ritalin and other medications prolifically and it caused so many of our young people to pursue business other than something involved in leadership. Through the Leadership Development Program (LDP) created by a university in North Carolina and its Center for Creative Leadership, many of us (including John Edwards of North Carolina and others) were trained in the program. But where are those who were trained in the LDP?

I believe first in God my Creator. I believe in America. I believe in American democracy and the institutions, as imperfect as they may be (as Frank Sinatra said in 1974). I believe in regulated capitalism, as does Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe (see 2005 Fortune Magazine article Mr. Scarborough wrote; same year my only academic article in International Journal of Learning was published).

The Roosevelts, both Teddy and FDR, were wealthy and had the forces to destroy bring down the corruption and the KKK influences in New York state. They took on the Boss Tweeds of the world. The claim is always made about FDR that he was “too far left” or “liberal” or even a “socialist’ or “communist.” Borrowing the word of a former high school English teacher, I say that kind of stuff is all “balderdash!” Or, she would say, “that’s “bloody bad.” FDR, too, looked for justice before there could be peace. But he was constantly at odds with Republicans over the practicality of doing so. Then again, there were many powerful Republicans who supported Hitler and the fascists. With fascism looking down at us, we cannot have peace without justice because fascism will destroy the means to achieve justice: democracy and regulated capitalism.

Mary Trump recently wrote that the Democratic Party is the one mechanism which exists to uphold democracy and the values associated with being a democratic nation. Next time I hear someone proclaim that “Democrats and Republicans are all bad,” I am going to throw Mary Trump’s comments in their face.  Then again, there are still some good Republicans, but I have to ask the question, “where have all the leaders [of the Republican Party] gone?” Certainly, with the Republican movement for destroying voting rights, we seem to have a leadership in that party named Jim Crow.
Justice and peace. For America. For Afghanistan. For the world.
P.S. We also need wealthy people like 19th Century tycoon, Andrew Carnegie, who purportedly once said, “wealth is created by society and people, not by individuals.”
—

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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Get Vaccinated

The person who wrote about the “angel of death” during today’s Passover being one who requires a proof of vaccination card is crazy, mentally ill, a sicko. Whatever religious group mesmerizes people like this to believe these false things and put this nation in chaos needs to be strung up. If this is a message about Armageddon coming, then it’s these wackos who speak like this who will bring on Armageddon, not God or our Creator.
The ones who are the “angel of death” are those who express the lies about not getting vaccinated. They will have the death of those who die from COVID-19 and the Delta variant on their hands. They will be responsible for the deaths of many people and God our Creator, I am quite certain, will not approve. 

For me, I will be happy when we are no longer needing to remain separate from one another, due to people getting vaccinated properly and curtailing the spread of the virus. It has been proven that those who are vaccinated stand less risk of contracting the new Delta variant. This variant spreads faster than the original.

Stop the arrogance of egotistical religious nuts who speak lies to their people.

—

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

The Washington Week analysts never even broached various topics. For instance, Trump was the one who gave us the date of departure from Afghanistan and Biden merely followed up.

The consideration that this has been a war for many years and the faults of many administrations prior to Biden. However, one would get the impression that Biden, after only seven months or so, is at fault as well.

Furthermore, there was no mention of the fact that other nations have failed in Afghanistan long before the USA was there. It seemed as if there was a measure about how weak America is in this departure, whil egnoring the history of events when nations like Britain and the former Soviet Union occupied the nation and then withdrew., They were not weak, but the USA is weak? I don’t get it.

—

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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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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