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

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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Commentary

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Confiscation of Property

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

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

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Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce

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Attitude Adjustment?

Editors [Scranton Times-Tribune]:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

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

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Solutions to Improve American Government

Our American forefathers left us a great government. The problems it faces today is due to some Americans who do not work with reasoning and rationality by trying to destroy rather than reform. Add to this the ability of our Federal legislative to be run by politicians who are career lawyers, not representatives of the people, and we have a real problem. However, I remain optimistic that Americans can work together to solve our problems which result from human imperfections.

Solutions.

  1. Abolish the Electoral College
  2. Abolish the filibuster or else reduce the power of the U.S. Senate overall. It is said that the upper house, the House of Lords, in Britain, is just an elitist club and most laws in the British Parliament are made by a unicameral legislature or the lower House of Commons. The U.S. Senate gives too much power to states with small populations which have too much power to override what the majority of Americans want. For example, a state in the Rocky Mountain areas might have such a small population that the state has only two representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives, but has two senators. A more populous state like New York, Florida, or California, has dozens of representatives in the House of Representatives, but also has only two in the U.S. Senate. The power of the filibuster and other powerful mechanisms in the U.S. Senate give that body more power and the smaller populations have end up having more power. Not right. Either rid America of the strength of the U.S. Senate or make the U.S. Congress a unicameral legislative body made up of the House of Representatives.
  3. Abolish gerrymandering.
  4. Create a legislative body which requires alliances between the two parties with other political parties, in order to legislate with a majority. The time for the two-party system has come to an end.
  5. Abolish political party registration of voters and give voters a chance to vote in primary elections and state a political party at that time, not voting in primaries of both political parties, but only one.

Will these work? How the hell do I know? However, I offer an optimistic view for the future possibilities, not one of pessimism. We need to shed the pessimism and acknowledge that government and human institutions are imperfect.

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Who Blocked Me?

I am thankful for WordPress and the number of years I have had this blog. For many years I was able to share my blog postings with my main email, bibsinger@gmail.com . One day this sharing stopped.

Since then, I have tried unsuccessfully to ask WordPress for assistance on this. I have received nothing, in all my attempts. Nothing in reply.

I have even posted my problems on my blog for many people to read, hoping I would find something willing to intervene on my behalf. Nothing. Everyone is so damn concerned with their own individualism and love of money and materialism, they don’t care about their fellow Americans.

Am I to conclude that someone, somewhere, within or outside WordPress is attempting to censor me? Who owns and runs WordPress? Why am I blocked from making attempts to move my blog from WordPress to some portal more willing to meet my needs? Again. Is this a form of American censorship governed by the extremes in politics? What is it? I need help on this and is there no American out there willing to take a stand and help me by taking my side and doing something? THAT is what is wrong with America today and I work to fix such things so that we are not breached by negative s**t from the big fat pigs and cats of America. Because that is what it is.

Is this short enough a message for my stupid idiocracy belligerents or do I need to make it the size of a tweet and that is the only way to get my point across, doing so with a message so short that it becomes ambiguous and interpreted differently by millions of people?

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Learning to Learn

In listening to a report on true media (not social technology we call social media), I heard President Biden describing the false information on social technology (we call it media) like Facebook and its negative impact on getting Americans vaccinated. False information bloviating all over social technology (it is falsely called media). To be “fair,” supposedly perhaps according to a mis-interpretation of what the Fairness Doctrine was, there was an “opposition” statement from the company which runs Facebook. That is not the end results of Fairness Doctrine. There should have been additional information and details about the issue presented. But Americans have been caught up in this shallow, “we are bored by too much details.” Therefore, we are told to “keep it short.” In so doing, this report last night was a disfavor to the issue.

Why do I say this? Because I am the one being scoffed at for the information specialist I am and was trained to be who taught my students how to “learn to learn.” Research is part of the idea of “learn to learn.”

With this being said, the story last night on true media should have presented what Facebook said and followed with further information. Facebook told the public that “there is more correct information [on its technological portal] than incorrect information.” That does not take into account the facts about all the incorrect information which is there and gives Facebook a chance to challenge what is said and not take it as constructive criticism. Individualism done by a corporation which is the same as what Donald Trump does. Aghast at constructive criticism, so wishing to cove over the information which exposes the truth.

There. To all my detractor idiocracy, is this short enough for you? If it’s not, then shame on you.

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Coexistence, not Viciousness

The local Republican who exclaimed that he was opposed to early voting was asked why. He had to think of an answer. Finally, the man said, “because that is when fraud occurs and people take the names of dead people from gravestones.”

Really?

Let’s see. Who carried Tioga County by about 80% or so of the electorate during the presidential election of 2020? If this man thought Biden did, he is mistaken. So, if there was fraud, then it added to the huge margin of 80% or so, not for Biden.

This one statement is one of many which are illogical and there is no thinking involved at all. Stupidity based on what talk radio, Fox News, or other sources tell them.

The LGBTQ who support Trump don’t think, either. They will end up shooting themselves in the foot, as so many others will who lend support to Trump. The Trumpicans with their idea of pledging allegiance to Trump, not to the American flag. Dictator Hitler and dictator Castro, on each end of the extremism of the political spectrum did the same thing which Trump will do. They supported the gay community in order to gain power by consolidating power and control Then when the chips were down and Hitler and Castro gained the power they wished to have, they imprisoned those in the gay community. He spit them out like seed.

Both examples of Hitler and Castro, as well as Trump, describe liars and cheaters who mesmerized so many people using propaganda and lies in order to gain full power. Goebbels of Germany even said, “if lies are repeated over and over again, eventually they become the truth.” Trump is doing this and only idiots and lainbrains would not be able to see this. They besmirch the very dreams for maintain democracy and place the predominance on the evil thoughts of love of money and love of materialism.  , The process is based on the white superiority complex which they validate with what this nation once maintained when it declared independence from a mentally ill king who thought he had a divine right to rule with autocracy.

So many of these Trumpicans in Tioga County wish for all to go along with this dreadful and lousy groupthink. They don’t wish to speak with those of us who have different solutions and see a brighter path for America than what is spoken in groupspeak and peer pressure by Trumpicans. How many are invading the cybersecurity of their neighbors who speak out against Trump? What does the local police and sheriff’s office do to overturn such a perverted thing which is vicious and barbaric, destroying teamwork in our community and society. Coexist was the proper way to ask many years ago. Even then, the Democrats did not control Tioga County, but the Republicans outnumbered the Democrats. Nothing has changed, but those of us who don’t like the leadership of the Republican Party are treated like s**t when we seek to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag, not to Trump.

Coexist. Coexist. Coexist. We are Americans. All of us have served this nation we love in different ways, with different ideas, and with different solutions to the nation’s problems. This nation is imperfect but I hope we can identify the negative parts of it and work as a team to solve the ideas. Values are important and often we have common ground regarding values. However, democracy means we can compromise on the actions for which we hold a common ground with values.  Coexist. Coexist. Coexist.

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It’s the Economy Stupid

The Republican in the U.S. Senate who claimed “infrastructure is socialism” is perverted and does not understand what socialism and capitalism are all about. It’s the economy, stupid. It’s the economy.

Once again, let me identify who I am. But of course don’t take me seriously and continue to hold onto your individualistic ideas which go along with what you hear said in the groupspeak of the perverted ultra right wing white ones with a superiority complex and want to see Jim Crow vigilante groups returned, just as in Germany on the Krystallnacht, ordered by Hitler, the man on meth.

I am a capitalist. Furthermore, I am a person who believes as Teddy Roosevelt did about regulated capitalism.

I have had my finances figuratively “confiscated,” not by a socialist or not by a communist like Castro. I have had my resources figuratively confiscated by Republicans who came out of FSU and are ultra right wing fascists like Hitler and the Nazis. Many of them were more Yankee than Dixie, but they came to Florida to align, as in the Atlas Shrugged story about John Galt, with others of like mind and thinking. They were perverted ones who aligned with other white bitchy folks of wealth forcing deregulation and “free markets” down our throats for the purposes of creating supply-side economics in the industry where I once worked and turning the “free market” into a one-sided market with a few people dictating from the top and pushing for trickle-down economics. That is NOT capitalism. They sold it as capitalism by destroying regulated capitalism and proceeded to move to merge companies together into huge companies. I lost my salary and I lost my stock in the company, as a result, so the big fat pigs at the top, the lazy ones who don’t know how to EARN money but to steal money from us.

If infrastructure is socialism, as this perverted Republican senator proclaimed today, then we are wrong in having concern for one another to coexist and socialism is the reason. OK. I am not a socialist. But if that is what socialists are in pushing for human infrastructure, as was discussed today, then I am all for it and it is the far right lousy perverted ones in the Republican Party who push me to it, not socialists. Because Adam Smith made it clear that care and concern for one another was based on principles of Christianity and a love of neighbor that is second only to a love of God who also taught us, through Jesus Christ, that he “agapes” his children who are all those on earth. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, not to condemn the world, as Trump and the Proud Boys, QAnon, and Oath Keepers and KKK and others do, but to save the world. He does this out of love and as a means of teaching. Bad attitudes are created by the Evil Spirit which permeates people like this perverted Republican senator. Fixing infrastructure is not socialism or a problem, stupid. It’s the economy.

Thanks to such perverted Republicans who have controlled this nation far many more years since the 1950s than Democrats, we have a Federal budget deficit. The reason? So as to make a claim that “there is not enough money to do infrastructure repair.” So as to say, “there is not enough money left to make Medicare or Social Security solvent.” That’s because perverted Republicans have STOLEN the money the people have invested in Medicare and Social Security so as to make a claim that “there is not enough money.” Had these perverted Republicans, led by thieves such as Mitch McConnell (he makes money from taxpayers – he steals it) not stolen the money which we made in long-term 40-, 50-, 60-year (or more) investments in a CAPITALIST way. Mitch McConnell is going to have healthcare benefits and a pension check guaranteed to him the rest of his life, but, like Leona Helmsley, says, “taxes are for little people.” He and the other perverted Republicans in the Senate, like the one bloviating an un-truth today (like 7-Up was the “un-cola”).

Shame on such perverted ones who are trying to consolidate power and control for a dictatorship which many like to be kind and call it an “autocracy.” Joe Biden thinks his “Republican friends” are still in the Senate. Hello. Those “friends” are gone and replaced mostly by perverted people with a white superiority complex. There may have been some such people during the days when Joe Biden was in the Senate, but they were not the ones with the power and control, as is the case today with perverted ones controlling the U.S. Senate and led by Mitch McConnell who says he will try everything possible to make sure Joe Biden does not succeed. If that is a “friend,” President Biden, then who needs enemies?

To the perverts in the Republicans of the U.S. Senate: “it’s the economy, stupid, not infrastructure.” Besides if you perverts think putting forth an infrastructure bill would destroy America, then why don’t you let them do it and destroy America? No. You know damn right well that the Democratic Party proposal has a good chance of working and succeeding and you don’t want the Democrats to succeed. You are perverted traitors to America who need to be hung because you don’t put America first. You put your GD egotism first.

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Liz Cheney, The Lone Ranger and Justice-seeking Underdog of the Republican Party

To Producers of Washington Week:

The commentator last night (July 2, 2021) used words such as “it’s impossible” when describing Liz Cheney’s position as the only Republican on the commission being put together by Nancy Pelosi to investigate the Jan. 6 thug attack against Congress. Does this person put forth a self-fulfilling prophecy or is he doing anything to promote justice in America?
America has lost its sense of supporting the underdog. Liz Cheney might be an underdog in the Republican Party, but that does not mean she can lose. The commentator tried to seal the fate that she WOULD lose, after being in a position which many of us Americans would like to be in to explain our thinking on this matter.
One of the “underdogs” in our human history was of the human ancestral line from which Jesus Christ came. His name was David and he became king of Israel. David was an underdog when he took on the Philistine, Goliath, and defeated him. It is said David worked alone with a slingshot. There is some evidence he did have some help. But he did lead the “underdog” charge against a giant. Liz Cheney is leading an “underdog” charge against dictators in the Republican Party who line up behind Trump and do so with a white superiority complex which is unbelievable. Why was this not pointed out by a commentator on Washington Week last night (July 2, 2021)?

Liz Cheney represents the state of Wyoming in which a large proportion of the population, particularly the men, own cattle ranches and sell the meat for consumption.  They don’t like the wild horses which interfere with their cattle. Like plantation owners of the past, they use their powerful influence to smear the images of others who go against the Trump and his dictatorial and autocratic ones. Thus, these plantation-style dictatorial folks have a strong influence in forcing a Federal agency, under Trump, to capture the horses and illegally sell them off to non-American slaughterhouses for meat (referenced source: Kathleen Parker op-ed). These perverted freaks in Wyoming also don’t like competing with other meat producers or vegetable producers in a capitalist competitive way, so they use their perverted government connections to smash those who disagree with them. Just think what a cattle rancher thinks about the “impossible burger!” They want the grass and vegetation for their cattle, not human consumption.

Such perverted males embrace the white male superiority complex and go after Liz Cheney because she seeks justice with regard to dictator Trump (and stop calling him president Trump; he was an incompetent WHITE House resident Trump for four years, inconsistent with the popular vote of 2016).  Does this commentator know history and that when the votes of women were suppressed, Wyoming was one of the first states to overturn that suppression, even before big “bad guy liberal” (according to Trump) New York state would stop the suppression of female voting? Were any of these facts brought into the picture?

An underdog can win, but not with those who give us self-fulfilling prophecies which speak against the notion that underdogs can win.

On this topic and for the sake of preserving our democracy and “we the people, in order to form a more perfect union,” one word now comes to mind. THINK. —

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

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

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Love the United States of America, but No Respect for the Criminals with Too Much Power in America and Model Their Power Based on Putin; Hate the Evil Spirit Which Runs this Awful Mob of Criminals

Years ago, I obtained a divorce and wanted to purchase a home to live. Home prices were high, but not bad. Had I had the opportunity to purchase a home, I could have ridden the wave of the 125% increase in home prices, over just a few years (in Florida). I was paying child support, but needed a roof over my head. I applied for a mortgage. The home I was looking into purchasing would have, with a mortgage, meant I would have paid a PITA almost equivalent to rent on a small apartment. However, the elements in banking with whom I dealt told me that I would not get approval, considering the cost-to-income ratio when the child-support was figured into the equation. Seemed rather bizarre, considering that a mortgage was awarded to the ex-wife and the cost-to-income ratio for her was worse than mine. She got the approval and I did not. I fought this effort by use of a lawyer who never won the case and I ended up paying $25K to this law firm in Florida.

Furthermore, it revealed to me the criminal elements which exist in banking. For those at the mortgage company tried to talk me into filing the application and NOT revealing the child custody payments. My reaction was one of being appalled at such a suggestion because, as I told these guys, they were asking me to lie. I don’t lie. My mother really pushed that idea into me. Do not lie. So I ended up dropping all of that pursuit and rented an apartment, then losing money on a mobile home, due to the high cost of homeowners’ insurance in Florida. The insurance on the mobile home was actually higher than what I eventually paid in a cement block home. Sure. Just pay it for the more expensive one. But there was no mortgage available, with my child support figured into the equation. I am glad I paid to support my kids. I am pissed off at criminals in banking and the rules they made which favored one side of the divorce couple and not the other side.

Jump forward some 20 years after the incident described above. I am told that my injection in the eyes for diabetic retinopathy would be the same medication used for macular degeneration. The injections were covered by an employer-provided healthcare insurance, but not with privatized Medicare at age 65 forward. So, I was told to lie and make the claim by saying I have macular degeneration. Once again, criminals asking me to lie. Once again, I had learned from my mother not to lie. I have appealed and filed grievances about this with privatized Medicare company, WellCare and received nothing. I am expected to pay the bill at Guthrie, due to wrongful practices in privatized Medicare. It has now been more than one year and I still fight.

Furthermore, my experiences regarding a PPO insurance plan are absolutely absurd. In other PPO or HMO plans, the co-payments are set. One for PCP. One for specialist, etc. It is known to the patient, but apparently the management of healthcare providers does not bother to educate their employees about it. Or else we just have a whole bunch of really dumb employees out there who don’t know anything. Sorry, but I don’t believe the later. Several times, I would ask if I could pay at the time services were rendered. Each time, I was told, “there is no cost,” including the one with the eye injection. Then months later, I get slammed with a bill. Six months after one doctor’s visit, I am slammed with the amount of the co-payment which I was told “there is no payment.” I repeat. Six months after I asked to pay the bill while in the health facility and a bill for the co-payment is handed to me.

Once again, I file a “grievance” (complaint) with the privatized Medicare firm, WellCare, stating my complaint against being told “there was no payment” and then being told, later, that there was a payment. The reply from WellCare, this morning (July 1, 2021) was that they could handle the complaint that “I did not want to pay the bill.” But wait. The aspersion was being cast on me as if I was like a Donald Trump who does not want to pay his taxes. I then said that there was never any indication I did not want to pay the bill, in fact, I HAVE PAID THE CO-PAYMENT. My complaint was about being told there was no payment, but then the COMPANY – the MEDICAL FIRM RUN BY A BUNCH OF MANAGERS OUT OF NEW YORK CITY – turned and reversed what was told to me.

The reply from WellCare? “You need to file another grievance and file it against the worker who told me this. Oh. I see. file something against the low man on the totem pole. I see. So this has happened in TWO DIFFERENT MEDICAL FIRMS, one in New York City and one based in Pennsylvania (offices) with offices in the Binghamton area. I see. My intent was to file against the management of the firm, but the low person on the totem pole is the one to be held responsible? I went back and forth with WellCare on this issue, to no avail.

It is the responsibility of management, not that person. I REFUSE to file anything against that hard-working person in the office. The problem is the accounting folks and management, not the healthcare worker.

I resent anyone in America, such as at WellCare, who would infringe on the hard work of an American doing their job. In this case, there were those at the other medical firm doing THEIR job, too, and the results were the same. I guess we just have a bunch of lazy bums all over the place in the lower ranks of the healthcare profession, right?

Or is this a matter of uncivil people running the affairs who don’t like a union person like me? I am still a member of a union, although I am retired. So what would stop those anti-union folks with plenty of money, from Trump onward, from working to destroy, financially, such a person as myself by casting aspersions on me, so as to say I don’t want to pay a bill. Liars, liars, pants on fire.

With the other organization with a similar episode as the one which I filed with WellCare – the one with the eye injection – I had already filed a complaint about the similar event there. In other words, telling me I did not owe anything at the time of service, then coming back later to claim I do. It was the accounting office at that organization which screwed up and filed, in May 2020, with BC&BS, after I had begun on Medicare WellCare in April 2020. I had informed the business and accounting people of the change. Had submitted my new Medicare and WellCare card. Yet, they still filed with BC&BS. I had to go back several times and provide copies of the cards, again and again. It finally went to WellCare. WellCare supposedly paid it. Now all of a sudden, it, once again is whammed up my butte – again. It disappeared on my account and then reappeared. This is the medical facility which helped my dad, a WWII veteran, with bypass surgery and so forth. Don’t know who runs the business end of it there in Pennsylvania, but they are screwed up.

These events run within New York and New York City, but also over state lines. It is a Federal issue, is it not? So I also complained to Medicare, too. Still don’t know the outcome of that.

One thing I can say. I never experienced such things with BC&BS of Florida, my employer-provided healthcare. Since being retired, it has been like hell on earth.

With the example of the banker in about 2002 / 2003 telling me to lie in order to get a mortgage, to a doctor telling me to lie about my medical condition, I am appalled at what I have experienced when it was suggested I lie. A banker in Florida. Business offices in New York and Pennsylvania.

I have always opposed the income and sales taxes in the states and in America. I have watched, since I was a young lad, people acting like Donald Trump and avoiding taxes. I have promoted the idea from conservatives about having a value-added tax, so as to remove the amount of paper shuffling and tax accountant and lawyers in building businesses on number crunching and paper shuffling, while small businesses watch their profits eaten away by spending money on tax books.

I have observed, since a lad, many such people who work to accept only cash for business, in order to avoid paying the taxes. In effect, I side with them on their disdain for such taxes, but they act like I am an enemy because: (1) I won’t lie and cheat and (2) I don’t break the law by not paying such taxes. I speak out against such taxes, but I provide suggestions and plans for reform, not destruction of taxes. I try my best to pay taxes by hiring an accounting firm to do my taxes.

So, my question is this. Why do so damn many people who don’t like to pay taxes in this manner (guided by a convoluted tax code in a tome), as opposed to the front page of the New York Times publishing the first tax code in the early part of the 20th Century? Why has America gotten to such a point that we figure we need to lie, cheat, and break the law, rather than fix these things, and then scoff at someone like me (or many others) who provides suggestions for reform, rather than destruction? Why have we come to this state of affairs with upper class and lower classes fighting and pitting one against the other by trying to shove more taxes off on the other class? Fighting within America.

Then the lousy Republican legislatures in many states don’t pay attention to these issues, but work to gerrymander for their own benefit, create one-party states like that of Putin of Russia (a former communist and KGB officer) try to repress the means of voting and use a stupid Supreme Court which comes to the rescue of these SOBs? These lousy people are misguided dolts bent on destruction of America and dividing us between upper and lower classes and between the races. Destroy, like a bunch of gladiators in a Giuliani-favored Roman arena.

With all the financial things which have happened to me since Reagan’s time, I have had to work hard to pull myself up by the bootstraps. Yet, no one has any ounce of consolation for me. I guess I don’t expect such. But I do expect to be respected, not scoffed, at what I attempt to do in the name of reform, not destruction. Even John Lennon, whom some lie about who or what he was, has words in a song about “revolution” which states that “if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you can count me out.” Yet, a woman who owned a small business and did not like parts of Obamacare which impacted HER only, could not give one damn about what I have had to experience and overcome it all without looking to a lousy man and his Republicans, named Donald Trump. She felt she had to and wanted Obamacare destroyed, not reformed so as to improve some of what bothered her in her business. I understand her concerns. Does she or others even try to make an attempt to understand me with my observations and experiences over many years? I doubt it.

In America, there was a cartoon character called Underdog. America was once more about helping the underdog. To me, it was not just help by giving out handouts (which also include handouts in something called corporate welfare), but by working to help the “underdog.” All of that idea about working for ALL people at the grassroots – the “underdogs” of America – has been tossed away and forgotten. Instead, we listen to the drivel generated by individualist love of money thinking which has always been here, but emboldened by people such as Ayn Rand, J.P. Morgan, Donald Trump, and others. It’s time we drove such people out of power and get rid of the notions that conservatism is nothing but white superiority. Nothing else but that notion gets attention and this can be seen by one-party Republican states and now six dolts on the U.S. Supreme Court. They say follow the money. So who paid off those six justices to give a decision which favors the suppression of voting rights? Who has paid off the Republican jerks in those one-party states to suppress voting rights and not consider any other measures which are necessary for this nation to survive as a democracy?

On this July 4th holiday weekend, I say that I love America for what it has done for me over the ages to bring me life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But my love for this nation and its democracy are why I am embarrassed by the bulls**t coming from Trumpicans and the white supremacists with their superiority complexes and feeling so guilty by what I might say they proclaim damn paranoid feelings about a “witch hunt.” Go to hell, Trumpicans and shut your mouths, for you do nothing to help guide this nation by helping the underdogs or ALL the people – WE THE PEOPLE who love this nation and what it has given us, in spite of imperfections, since July 4, 1776. I appreciate so many who came before me in this nation and I can trace many of my ancestors back to 1776 and more than a century before that, on the soil which became the USA.

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