A wonderful thing happened after this nation was formed. Did New York’s Governor Clinton wish to strike out for himself and create the “Empire State” and leave the remainder of the colonies behind? Was he only interested in himself? Were there others who were behind Governor Clinton? What did they do regarding the states’ rights issue of the day? Empire State? Commerce? Economy and commerce by spending, not holding back? Risks? You bet.
According to author, Larry Lowenthal (Marinus Willett: Defender of the Northern Frontier; others, too), Governor Clinton and people who were close to him, such as my ancestor and namesake, Col. Marinus Willett, wished to make New York an empire and NOT join with the other colonies in forming a new Federal Constitution. Governor Clinton’s vision for New York City and the commercial development of New York in its entirety involved leveling hills on Manhattan island and digging a “ditch” from the Hudson River to the area now known as Buffalo, in the Niagara Frontier, located on Lake Erie. President Washington was jealous of this move because he wanted the commonwealth of Virginia to be the “top dog” (Peter L. Bernstein, Wedding of the Waters).
Andrew Carnegie utilized government and business alliances to build railroads. Without the government, westward expansion would not have been completed. One can say it may have been better for the native indigenous people. That is true. There are some things in my own life which, if I could go back and do again, some things MIGHT have been better, too. What’s the point? Progress is progress. The problem is that white supremacists do not want to share the progress with others who have a different skin color.
One of my favorite Republicans, Teddy Roosevelt, said: “Progress has brought us both unbounded opportunities and unbridled difficulties. Thus, the measure of our civilization will not be that we have done much, but what we have done with that much.
Is this difficult to understand?
Senator Barasso of Wyoming, as well as so many of those involved with the Proud Boys and the thugs of America who attacked our government, all forget to thank those of the past, whether white, black, Asian, brown, male, female, gay, Lesbian, or what not, for what they have today which puts this nation in better position than some of the less developed nations of civilization who are BEGGING to receive something like vaccines for COVID-19.
In my first paragraph, I mention my namesake. Others in my ancestry who have all been both patriots and pioneers for the USA, in spite of sometimes wishing for other things (like the Empire State of New York rather than a nation; suppose debatable, but some is what I recall from New York State History class in 7th grade with Art Evans who described the fights NY had with other states/colonies – Massachusetts wishing to extend itself in a straight path westward through what people in New York City/New Amsterdam wished to pursue and the Vermont Green Mountain boys), were also pioneers across a band of the USA, from Boston to Seattle, over many generations. Clinton may have built what those who scoff at the Erie Canal as being “Clinton’s Ditch,” proclaiming and shouting their bloviated crap about it, brought labourers from Europe who came here for seven-year indentured servitude and then released (Italians, Irish, Greek). Carnegie built the railroad westward with help of whom? Was it not from people of Asia called Japanese or Chinese? Whom? Who helped Barasso and others in leading the way for the state which he now represents in the U.S. Senate? What about the expansion to Senator Thune’s South Dakota?
Republican Teddy Roosevelt also said, “He who makes no mistakes makes no progress.” Wish many Americans would bury their damn egotistical operations and take this which was said by TR more seriously.
So, Mr. Expert (drip under pressure), Senator Barasso, you sit there with others and attack President Biden and the Democrats regarding their stimulus package and cite him for mistakes BEFORE we see the results. Rick Scott of Florida wished to cite professionals like me who were teaching in the classroom BEFORE we were assessed and THEN assess us with ridiculous crap, while these senators and the wealthy of big pharma, big insurance, big business, are not held accountable, at all. A whole slew of “experts,” or “drips under pressure,” as we would sometimes repeat when I was working on a U.S. Air Force base. Trump, too. he never makes mistakes and so he makes no progress at FULLY solving the problems of this nation by getting to the details of what we have to do to stop illegal immigration and immigration of those who are criminals with drugs. The wall may have cleared things up for a town or tow on the border with Mexico, but, if it had succeeded, Mr. Drip Under Pressure Senator Barasso, why are there STILL people coming into this nation, even with the wall? And you and others wish to pre-assess President Biden and affix the blame on him? How stupid and despicable. The man who once spoke some sense, until he mentions the divisive thing in order to bash “blue states.” More like, how much can you do to SABOTAGE “blue states,” with the use of a KKK, Proud Boys, or other sources?
Mr Drip Under Pressure (from fear of retribution from Trump and the Trumpicans), I have ancestors who were pioneers to Wyoming. As I said, from Boston to Seattle. From Boston to New York City, up the Hudson, westward into the hinterland in upstate New York, to Michigan, to Dakota Territory, to Nebraska to Wyoming and finally to the state of Washington. I am thankful, due to those pioneers. Are you, Mr. Drip Under Pressure? You don’t seem to appreciate anything which has given us the economy and commerce through progress.
Mr. Drip Under Pressure, do you realize what happened when a bipartisan effort of the late 1990s drained the Federal budget, but replenished it later, as well as improved the economy? Or would you rather be a pessimistic self-fulfilling prophet so as to get your way, when we are now spending money to bolster people and local governments? What is it that Mr. Drip Under Pressure and so many other Republicans want? I have no idea, especially when Judy Woodruff asked the same question THREE TIMES tonight in your interview and you never answered the question once. instead, your egotistical mind went back to what YOU wished to impart and tell Ms. Woodruff and NOT answer the question. After the interview, I really failed to understand what Dr. Barasso was trying to impart. I am not a fool or someone who has difficulty understanding. Barasso gave us no explanation which made any sense.
I sit and listen. Nothing. At one time, I would sit and listen to a former Republican politician who was an engineer at IBM, as he explained many things. I listened and learned. With you, Mr. Drip Under Pressure, I listened but I learned NOTHING.
As a campaign organizer for Bill Clinton wrote in the 1992 election when Clinton ran against an incumbent George H.W. Bush, “It’s the economy, stupid [referencing Mr. Bush].” Sounds like a bloody mean thing to say, eh? It is. But when someone does not get the point and address the REAL issues, that statement is not so far off the mark.
Mr. Drip Under Pressure, Senator Barasso, this stimulus package is about getting the economy humming again and balancing the Federal budget so we can move forward. There is no perfection. You should be ashamed to have an expectation that it will NOT work, is there? But at least give it a chance.
When Trump talked about dealing with China with a tariff and so forth, I had hopes that it might work. I heard some people make a claim that “it won’t work.” I heard the claim, not from a Democrat, but from Republicans. I could understand what they said about it not working. Still, I did not practice “political witch hunting,” as Trump has falsely claimed about Democrats, WITH NO EVIDENCE, except tweets with lies. I had high hopes, in spite of what some were saying. I am more inspired right now about what President Biden and the Democrats are attempting to do regarding the stimulus package.
Tonight, I heard NOTHING from you, Mr. Drip Under Trump Retribution Pressure. Repeat. I heard nothing. I sensed a fear of retribution if you did not carry through and avoid the Woodruff questions. I heard a fear of retribution should you not bloviate lies about immigration and so forth (and Woodruff called you on those lies, did she not?). I heard other lies designed ONLY to put down Democrats, not solve the problems of America. I heard lies to put down blue states, not to solve the problems of America.
Shame on you and the other Trumpican Drips Under Retribution Pressure who lead this nation astray.
Mentioning you are a doctor meant what? That you are like the elitist snotty character, Frasier, in a 1990s sitcom. The character who bloviated that he “was a psychiatrist and a graduate of Harvard” The doctor who won my respect dropped out in his bid to become president and defeat George W. Bush, in 2004. I don’t recall that he lied, but maybe he did and I missed it. I am not a perfect expert.
The stimulus package is about the economy, not acting like a bunch of dumb dimwitted Republicans like those when FDR was in charge and he made attempts to meet half way and then failed to improve the economy. He tried to get us to help Britain when it was being bombed by Hitler, but Republicans refused to go along, until, like other reactionary measures, ultimately it costs more money in the long run so as to avoid spending in the short term.
Historical evidence, stupid, from which we learn, rather than use it so as to seek to REPEAT it – like Jim Crow, suppression of voters, and continuing systemic racism.
I can go on and on and on, but people claim my writing is too lengthy. When I get on a roll, I get on a roll.
I am not perfect, so I write to teach, inform, and consider constructive criticism for errors of fact. Period. I don’t write to express an opinion. If anything, my intent is like Walter Cronkite, who ended each news program with, “And that’s the way it was…” At least we had a better sense of what reality was and not the reality blowing in the air by Tweets or social media – aspiring dictators and their own reality imposed upon Americans.
Tioga Herald 
Three-penny Op-ed: Democracy and Economics (17 Apr. 2021, The Economist)
Recently, I wrote about Queen Victoria, based on dramatization of her life. At one point in her early years of ruling during the 19th Century, Queen Victoria addressed protestors who were part of mobs attacking the palace where she lived. The scene depicted incendiary weapon of the time which was hurled through the windows of the palace. Those devices made one think of the “Molotov cocktails,” used in the 20th Century and derived the name from Vyacheslav Molotov. The name comes from a time period in which comes after the reign of Queen Victoria. When used in London during the queen’s reign, it approximates to the time of the residency of Karl Marx in London. Due to the time period, I come under criticism for using the words, Molotov Cocktail when they did not exist. People dwell too much on use of words and not on the fact that the name used in my writing referenced a weapon which was generic and could help understand what was actually used by the protestors.
Wording is so important when it comes to the false ideas passed down to our day from the likes of Karl Marx and Adam Smith of Scotland. Marx falsely claimed capitalism was “the problem” in the same way Reagan claimed “government is the problem.” People, particularly the lovers of Fox News, just grab at what was said and don’t give a damn about those of us who speak out about the false ideas which permeate the “herd” mentality from a Nazi propaganda machine like Fox News and other extreme right-wing news outlets.
Marx was wrong in blaming capitalism as a problem because capitalism was like a “new kid on the block” and barely understandable to others. The aristocracy grabbed at the ideas of Adam Smith with gratitude and simply twisted the ideas of capitalism to suit their ideas of aristocratic supply-side economics which disdains the demand side of the market. What would have happened if Marx had actually identified what the true problem was? What would have happened if the media of the day had revealed Adam Smith’s turnaround AGAINST the ideas of “free markets” because he felt humans did not have a natural human ethics and morality (The Theory of Moral Sentiments), so therefore there needs to be a “referee” with a third-party group regulating supply AND demand for the purposes of checks and balances in economics. (Also see Economics professor, Dr. Jonathan Wight’s book, Saving Adam Smith). After all, Adam Smith was a contemporary of the American Deists and Forefathers who saw a lack of chaos in the universe due to a Creator who worked with checks and balances, so they devised a political system and U.S. Constitution with checks and balances. Interesting to note that too many Americans grasp at Marx’s theory that “religion is the opioid of the masses” rather than what Jesus Christ said which applies to Adam Smith’s ideas about “moral sentiment.” Why? I ask. What if we changed this false notion? Shameful that human beings claim to follow Jesus Christ (as Smith was a Christian theologian, too), but really don’t grasp his notions.
Smith promoted the idea that ultimately, “free markets” end up giving us monopolies, regulation of an economy by autocratic big corporations (“deregulation,” as Reagan proclaimed) to their self-serving interests which destroy competition and small business. This is similar to what happened in Ancient China when the small business Mandarin class was destroyed and China imploded on itself (see Zakaria).
In stating, “business and politics are growing closer in America, with worrying consequences,” there is agreement with what is proposed in the text above. The fact that American business in the late 19th Century created a rich commerce for America makes quite a bit of sense. However, with J.P. Morgan and others in the 20th Century, America began to steer away from such a pathway. Teddy Roosevelt, the “trust buster,” worked to regulate the huge corporations. This continued after World War II, even as corporations became larger. International Business Machines (IBM) was created by Thomas J. Watson. However, he and the other executives at NCR where he originally was employed, worked to destroy competition and the government came down hard on them. In the process, Watson became a benevolent autocratic CEO at IBM and the company flourished. But once benevolent ones depart this life, they are often replaced with barbaric, ruthless, and vicious dictators. It is seen that IBM was later headed by such vicious men and this became the norm in America, as we watched as CEOs increased their salaries and bonuses so astronomically that it has been a 1000% rise since the 1970s. Ayn Rand and others promoted, with Reagan, supply-side economics and deregulation. Teams of lawyers in big corporations and the proliferation of so many lawyers in the American economy (creating jobs for themselves as ambulance-chasing vicious ones who attack one against the other in a destructive and greedy manner) meant corporations could better protect themselves than the small little business person. As with what happened to the Ancient Chinese Mandarin small business class, these people were put out of business. Fast food magnate like ruthless and vicious Ray Kroc hired people to scout areas with small mom and pop diners and place McDonald’s near those areas, for the purpose of destroying the competition, with the same regard as Republicans under Trump destroy and destroy and destroy, beginning with the ACA which has a goal of extending competition in health insurance in order to help lower the prices which are ripoffs and nickel and diming the demand-side of the capitalist market.
Rick Scott in the U.S. Senate is responsible for the Hospital Corporation of America which is a huge corporate conglomerate begun during the Reagan years with the purpose to destroy the “competition” of public health facilities. The loss of such public facilities really hurt the American people during this pandemic. People like Rick Scott, Jeb Bush, Ron DeSantis and Trump Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, had designs on creating big corporation in America which could be called “Education Corporation of America.”
Jeb Bush and other Republicans like him also privatized the prison system of Florida. The net result has been, to make a profit, by putting more people in jails (concentration camps?). Most of those people are black people who then are removed from the voting rolls. In a recent referendum in Florida, the voters of Florida voted to stop that type of treatment of those who served their time in jails by getting them back on the voting rolls. This applied to non-felony criminals or minor criminal activities, particularly possession of marijuana or cocaine, etc. This push to get black people in jails from these minor offenses is reminiscent of what was portrayed which happened to Billie Holiday when latent homosexual, J. Edgar Hoover, headed the FBI. (See the movie, The United States v. Billie Holiday).
It was very eloquently stated in The April 17 Economist article: “we also believe that concentrations of power are dangerous. Business people will always lobby for their own advantage, but the closer they get to the government, the more harm they threaten to both the economy and politics.” However, to frame this issue as “classic liberals” really puts this too much on the political spectrum, when I know many conservatives who support this ideal, too. As Dr. Howard Dean, one-time candidate for president of the USA, said, “we need to frame the issues to make them more acceptable to more people.” Putting in the word, liberal, sad to say in today’s world, gives ammunition to the fat cats of America who follow fascist Trump and push their own agenda with lies and the re-telling of lies. It is bad enough that they have ammunition with guns and the NRA, let alone words used as ammunition.
Speaking of Dr. Dean. He comes from a state which puts restrictions on big box corporate retailers, not allowing them to build in low density areas where they can become more monopolized by destroying the small business competition. Current U.S. Senator, Bernie Sanders, is from the same state and should nix what Rick Scott of Florida says in his fascist white racist business-loving, greedy, selfish way.
George W. Bush may have had SOME good ideas (i.e., use of switch grass as a renewable energy source). But the worst thing he said, as applied to this article in the Economist about the “political CEO,” “what’s good for business is good for America.” I am glad to read this article which does a good job at shooting holes in this asinine statement made by a former president.
The examples of successful challenges to the pandemic were in nations which were democracies which worked together in good alliances with business and health systems to defeat the “war” of the pandemic.
In the late 19th Century, one could have said, “what’s good for government is good for business.” Ronald Reagan, in his stupidity, destroyed that notion and we are being forced to live by such destruction. It needs to change and we need to rid our economic system of the words of individualist, selfish, greedy, lovers of money and materialism. We need to work on the same principles of checks and balances which our Forefathers used in setting up our political system.
There is evidence that Adam Smith recognized the same thing for our economic system, but the autocratic aristocrats in the monarchies of his day proclaimed they had a “divine right to rule” and grabbed and used Smith’s ideas to their own advantage. They twisted Smith’s ideas in order to keep the status quo of the system they controlled, while playing lip service to the Smith ideas about “capitalism.”
The result was that Karl Marx gave capitalism a bum rap rather than acknowledging how the system of supply-side economics was the problem. In essence, Lenin and Stalin set up the same type of centrally planned supply-side economic system in Russia. The Ancient Chinese did the same thing many years ago. These systems of supply-side economics failed. When will people recognize this?
Even General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of Japan, following World War II, worked to destroy two things in Japan: (1) the communist party and (2) the aristocratic autocratic supply-side economic system which had existed for many years. This system made the Japanese so ruthless that they refused to abide by the international humane rules for POWs, often murdering American POWs and stuffing the genitalia down the throats of dead men (see Ken Burns documentary about World War II, The War).
If America does not wake up, learn and gain wisdom about these circumstances today, then the negative components is described in this article about the “political CEO” might happen.
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democracy, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, New Comments, Op-ed
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