Flipping the bird means f*** to the flippee, right? To those who wish to use guns and weapons to shut down dissension which promotes happiness for all, stops prohibition of abortion, alcohol, drugs, sex, sexual identity, nudity, porn, and freedom to educate moderation and self-control about such subjects, may such people have the bird flipped at them.
Fig Leaf
August 20, 2022
In the TV program, Naked and Afraid, we still blur the genitals. The mindset is from ancient ideas and traditions which cannot be validated by a library of books we call the scriptures. These are man-made ideas, not those from a loving God. Ron DeSantis and the majority of Roman Catholics on the SCOTUS have no right, under the U.S. Constitution, to invoke their beliefs about covering over genitals, portraying sex on TV, or even putting porn on TV. If so, then why are my rights and beliefs being tread on when I say I don’t want to see blood, guts, violence, and guns on TV, held by vicious and barbaric people who are like the Ancient Romans and carried forward by the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church? My beliefs are about a loving God who would not do such things as massacres, genocide, or homicide. Those are my beliefs and need to be protected by the U.S. Constitution which had a great deal of writing by Deists and not just those who call themselves Christians. This is NOT a Christian nation. It is a secular nation of one culture and a multitude of religious beliefs.
Walking out of a modern art museum in Florida, someone in our crowd began to bloviate about the nudity in the paintings and photographs. As someone involved in the arts, I protested and said that the human body is as beautiful as the scenery and other scenes on canvas or photos. Perhaps under the new law by DeSantis and the RepubliFascists of Florida, I would be shot for protesting such an expression against art, with a dissension against public displays of blood, guts, violence, and guns on T? The dissension for which this heinous law intends is to allow those like DeSantis or the idiot from Arizona (Blake Masters) to shoot down those who disagree and express the disagreement in words of dissension against what THEY believe? RepubliFascists need to be routed out, especially when they are moles hidden among the Democrats and divide the Democrats in the process. There is no free speech for hatred and lies which merely push people to fear in order to vote for RepubliFascists. This needs to be ended. Puritanical Roman Catholics and puritanical Protestants have no right to push their religious beliefs upon the rest of us. It matters not whether it involves their beliefs about blood, guts, violence, and guns on TV, sexual identity, abortions, frontal nudity, sex, or porn.
When introducing college students to the Internet in the 1990s, we found many young people were searching out porn. They would come to the college library to use the publicly available computers connected to the Internet in order to view the porn. We had a rule about not using the computers to view porn, but it did not stop the students. My approach was to ask someone whom I caught on the porn whether it would be good to have such actions portrayed live and on the tables in the library? Or at the same time, whether such public displays of bashing another person’s head in should be allowed in the library? It would give the students an embarrassment. I would use that as a learning moment to help understand how we need to respect what others think in a public situation and one way was to not put on the screens of the computers what others might find very offensive.
Then one day, a student who heard me say this asked the question: “why are there scenes of violence on computers and you say nothing to them?” He had me on that one. I merely said, “I wish I could, but my boss is more concerned about not having the porn, nudity, and sex on the screens and there is no concern about the violence on the screens.” That was the 1990s. Most of those young people at that time are now in their 40s and perhaps 50s. Many who were in their 20s in the 1990s were of the ages of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, with weapons and vicious, spoiled brat attitudes of immaturity.
As the Internet got going, I no longer had to police for porn and utilize such situations as learning experiences. Did not matter because I don’t think anyone else used such situations as learning experiences. In fact a colleague promoted violence by physically abusing the students by hitting them over the head. When I protested that being done and tried to explain how it could be a calm learning experience, I was put down and the boss never took it seriously. Only tough guy vicious ways were promoted. And today, look what we have. With such actions of violence against the students, why would they not choose violence?
Funny thing. Because we had black folks in the library, too, and never once did I ever see a black person looking at the porn. That does not mean none of them did so, but it was always white guys whom I saw doing that. It was the white guys who got hit over the head by a librarian. It was white guys who stormed the Capitol building. When the black folk lodged a protest in Washington, prior to Jan. 6, they did so in a peaceful way of protest. So don’t talk to me about how black folk are bad and do so in a demeaning and ignorant knowledge about black folks.
My rights are being denied against the public viewing of blood, guts, violence, and guns on TV. In Europe, with less guns, allow such things to be viewed and don’t have a stupid jackass bloviating about seeing nudes in an art museum, as I viewed in the early years of the 21st Century in Palm Beach County, Florida. But then again, I have not endorsed censorship of blood, guts, violence, and guns on TV. I also don’t endorse censorship of public viewing of nudity, sex, or porn, either. Remove the Goddamn fig leaves, too, not because I get a perverted sense of enjoyment because I don’t. But because these are beauty among human beings which cannot be denied. And stop eating sugar and carbs so as to increase obesity and diabetes in America today. Again. Remove the Goddamn fig leaves because my God of love objects to such use. That is MY belief and should be protected under the U.S. Constitution.
Side note: perhaps a book such as Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language is something worth reading? Especially after I use words tantamount to swearing? Stop the puritanical shit with the sin book and look to how human beings are born with “original blessings” and can make mistakes. Deliberate sin is bad, but that is the same as deliberate sin by people like Trump, Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis with corruption to purchase elections or steal money from Medicare.
“Electric cars remain out of reach for many” by Jack Ewing (NY Times) (Scranton Times-Tribune Business section, 9 Aug. 2022)
August 15, 2022
For many of us, we are not able to afford an electric car and wish we could. The key statement in the report about the cost of the cars is the paragraph which contains the following: “They [the carmakers in the past] introduced technology at a luxury price. With time, the features and gadgets make their way into cheaper cars.”
Such information is analogous to other historical evidence. For instance, there was a day when computers were not affordable by most people. Over time, this changed. Patience is a virtue and we need to stop with the “instant gratification” attitude in America.
Other examples. Even in more recent years, as a professor at a college, I had many students who were STILL not able to afford computers when I taught online classes. In fact, we hear all this stuff about tuition costs which are high. Working as a professor, I discovered many students were unable to afford the textbooks. Add to that the fact that many were not able to access e-textbooks because they were not able to purchase the computer equipment of have access to internet. Professors get blamed due to tuition costs, even when Florida professors made diddly squat in salaries, compared to many other states. Thank God for the library, which many educators with six figure salaries wish to decimate. It was the academic library which provided access to computers, Internet, and textbooks on reserve.
I could go on and on with examples. The bottom line. The capitalist economics run as they should, supply AND demand, not just with the recipients of corporate welfare dictating the supply-side economics, and the prices do come down, but we need to have patience and have the better attitude with regard to long-term investment and return on investment. We have thrown much of that away with credit card instant gratification and no thought about long-term savings and investments. We need to do this by making money the “old-fashioned way, we earn it.” Many people in America need a lesson in this attitude. Why? Because it DID work, even with its imperfections which need reform, not destruction of the entire process.
One final note. (I once was able to sing up to a high C; LOL!). There was once a computer company called DEC. They produced minicomputers in competition with IBM. Purportedly, some executive at DEC once remarked that “there will be no purchases a computer for each individual home.” Where is DEC today? Pessimism. Open mouth and “eat crow.” Working collectively is better than working according to the dictatorial ways, top-down, of the CEOs who benefit from embezzling funds and getting away with it.
Murder and thievery, among other human acts, are defined in the Ten Commandments as wrongful human acts. It was some men who proposed that the church consider such sins forgivable but being gay as being unforgivable. And with this among those who are pushing against being gay, is the push for instant gratification to make the deliberate acts – I said, deliberate and no differentiation from errors which are NOT deliberate – of embezzlement acceptable to those who do it and have plenty of money to protect themselves, that lower class people don’t have. Such things become examples for people to attain instant gratification.
The electric car example is just one more way to push the idea of instant gratification. “Gotta keep up with the Joneses.” (Is that not the similar to unacceptable acts identified in the Ten Commandments, too?). Thanks to Mr. Ewing (writer of this article), we learn a bit of history regarding how, over time, items become more affordable. What has happened with the prices of big pharma, protected by lawyers? Another topic for another day.
Cable TV
August 11, 2022
While living in South Florida, we had choices for cable TV and Internet services. Here in Tioga County, we often have only one choice. For many of us, that one choice is Spectrum, unless we try HughesNet, Dish, or DirectTV through the airwaves of satellite. Satellite services are not given a good review, particularly with Internet.
The FCC has given favor to big business and corporate welfare and has nationalized (socialism) by way of corporate welfare and favors to the wealthy who run such services. Not only have we lost local content in newspapers which were once chock full of local news, information, and culture, we have lost control of local broadcasting. Television broadcasting, especially in rural hilly areas has been made so weak by the FCC, that we are forced to subscribe to Internet and cable TV. It’s all a strategy to nationalize by way of corporate welfare by way of money funding the government and favors done for the wealthy. Radio broadcasting, too, is weakened. When in my younger years here, we did not have difficulty in driving in a car and receiving the local radio broadcasts just about anywhere, whether AM or FM. Today, to open up bandwidth for the thumbing on mobile phones which come nowhere close to what we had in local broadcasting, we are unable to have powerful local broadcasting stations in this rural hilly area. Oh, I forget. When we go on top of the hills where the density of population is lower (smaller audience to make money), we can get clear signals. In the valleys, the reception sucks. It might not be a huge number of people, but sure is more densely populated with a larger number than on top of the hills. Perhaps we should be like Chinese communists and move populations to where they wish to have them located – on top of the hills? This is ridiculous.
In the 1960s, in the hills of upstate New York and Pennsylvania, the cable television industry was born – on the local level. The FCC did not micro-manage these things with regulatory authority. The regulatory agency involved the local authorities. The FCC, doing favors for corporate welfare CEOs, has wrongly regulated cable TV and other local media outlets.
To reiterate. In South Florida, we had a choice of cable TV and Internet. The old copper telephone lines into our home were used to deliver Internet by way of AT&T fiber optic lines up to the box and connected to the copper wires. We also had the choice of copper coax lines by way of Comcast. The lines within the home were all the same type of lines as what we had with telephone and cable TV in the past.
In addition to these two options, a small and local firm named Laurie’s TV offered cable television and Internet within our Homeowners’ Association development. We could pay extra and at a lower cost for this HOA cable / Internet access, in addition to the HOA fees we paid. The speed for the Internet was not good, so we chose AT&T, delivered by fiber optics and copper. We chose Laurie’s TV for cable TV. (FYI: Laurie’s TV was sold to another firm).
Explanation about this HOA. The HOA was like an incorporated village, but run by a private organization based 60 miles away in Miami. Residents had problems trying to pay their bills at such a distant location, but were treated like dirt by an attitude of “I’ll break your knees if you don’t pay,” even when a check was lost in the mail. The one-party dictatorial fascist Republican control in that state put teeth into the ability of these private organizations, called “condo commandos” to run rough-shod over the people. Even a retired NY State Trooper was treated like crap by an organization like this.
Within the “mini-village” environment, they provided choices for local cable TV and Internet. But the costs for us, per year, to maintain sidewalks, streets, public lawns, and social hall were about four to six times what Newark Valley village residents pay in government taxes in order to do the same thing. And they were like Mafia bosses in attempting to collect, protected by Republicans who controlled the state.
I say, to people who wish to move to Florida, be careful what you wish for. I say to people here who complain about incorporated village taxes, be careful what you complain about because I have seen it much worse when such village services are provided by PRIVATIZED HOA services. After all, George W. Bush and his brother, Jeb Bush of Florida always said, “what’s good for [PRIVATIZED] business is good for America.” Not so fast in believing such stuff because it sucks, like a Nazi Hitler-type in Germany. Like a communist Chinese. Like a Putin fascist dictator. Be careful what you believe and dig in your heals in such regard. Being humble means learning so as to overcome ignorance. Not being humble and refusing to learn means being a stupid idiot.
After some 40 years living in Floridan and observing what happened there, I bring a different perspective to this community. Cable TV is one issue in which I bring a different perspective. I have a different perspective on other issues besides cable TV. It would be nice if somebody would listen, consider, and THINK about my perspective and the information I have to offer. Stop the BS about whether this is politics and my opinion. It is my experiences with facts to share. Stop scoffing at me in the same manner 19th Century NY Governor George Clinton was scoffed at when he proposed what was called by the scoffers, “Clinton’s Ditch.” Stop the taunting of me because I give my perspective. Cable TV in rural upstate NY really sucks, but so does the nationalization of cable TV and media, for the sake of corporate welfare, while social welfare and taxes for all are issues castigated with wishes to destroy, not reform.
Side note besides cable TV: What the people need is to take back local control which is good for all, not just for a group of white supremacists called Nazis. The Republican Party is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln, but should be re-named the Nazi KKK Party.
Blake Masters, Sicko of Arizona & Representative of Many Sickos who Call Themselves Patriots, in the Name of Violence
August 9, 2022
Blake Masters of Arizona. A patriotic sicko who is like many behind the guns advocated by the NRA. Seems I have heard those in the NRA try to claim we need to get rid of the sickos behind the guns. Go right to it. Get rid of this guy in Arizona. A 35-year-old ass about the age of some of my kids.
He wants to rid us of abortions. Who the hell is he to espouse HIS religious beliefs and dictate them to all of us? I am a pro-choice person against abortions, too. But I believe each situation needs to be weighed properly. This is MY religious belief which is protected by the U.S. Constitution and just shammed shamefully by people who call themselves “judges” and “justices” on the SCOTUS.
Masters wants to rid us of sex and porn. Why? There is already negligible amounts of sex and porn on broadcasting because we are inundated and shoved down our throats with images of many acts of violence with guns and weapons.
Masters wants to get rid of the “foreign corporate conglomerates.” He must favor the communists who put tighter restrictions on sex and porn. Yet in the Western world, the “corporate conglomerates” of Europe allow frontal nudity and other examples of sex. On Rick Steves’ Europe, he tells about how there is less violence in Europe than in the USA, so people, travel as tourists to Europe where you will be safer than in America.
Oh, that’s right. Idiots like Masters want to find blame and affixes it to peaceful LGBTQ and/or peaceful people who are immigrants. Just don’t stop at a wall in Arizona, you idiot, but make certain there is a fortress built along the shores of Florida where we have had MANY immigrants and don’t find the cause of the problem to be immigrants, but also oppressive white folks born in the USA. How about a quiet and peaceful neighborhood in South Florida, made up of multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic people who live in peace. That would include some immigrants, too. Then some WHITE idiot in a pickup truck begins to constantly go through this neighborhood disturbing the peace and tranquility with a Confederate flag displayed in the back of his pickup truck.
The best way to describe Masters and the tRUMPICANS is with a book by Fyodor Dostoevsky titled The Idiot. P.S. The book title also describes a Russian named Putin, too. The other word is SICKO.
Blake Masters is running for the U.S. Senate and endorsed by tRUMP. He wants to accomplish: “mandating patriotic curriculums in schools, supporting the formation of “native-born” families, banning abortion and pornography, and turning back the rights revolution for L.G.B.T.Q. Americans.”
Perhaps to immigrants, I could suggest he build a fortress all around Florida shores and that will solve the problems, no doubt?
Read it and weep. Or read it and be moved to action against this dictatorial idiot who wishes to rid us of things like freedom of religion, guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and live in the past rather than learn from the past and allow us all to move forward in peace and justice for all humanity. I am not saying this as a “bleeding heart” liberal, but as a Christian who understands what Jesus Christ was truly about. Blake and the “New Right” have absolutely no idea what humanity and Christ are truly about. And I did not dictate to him what his beliefs should be about religion, LGBTQ, anti-abortion. But he wishes to dictate to us and force his ideas down our throats.
Dear Editors:
Kevin McCarthy and other followers of tRUMP exemplify one thing which is dangerous for America and its democracy. They follow the model of Machiavelli. The idea is that do anything necessary in order to make “the ends justify the means.” Does not matter whether its a matter of trouncing on ethics, morals, lies, hypocrisy, or corruption. Do it because the “ends justifies the means.”
Then there are those who simply follow along in submission because they are gay and prefer to remain in the closet while being blackmailed into submission.
What a shame that we have these things happening today with the prospect of stupidity to support such people and destroy this nation and its democracy. After all, “we the people” don’t count in such a parade of hypocrisy with dictators who promote the model of Machiavelli. In other words, Machiavellian types leading the mesmerized lemmings over the cliff.
Douglas W. Cornwell
Energy & Big Oil
August 2, 2022
Dear Editors:
When I hear people putting down solar power and electric cars, I cringe at what I am hearing. For instance, “What do we have electric cars for when the batteries run out, they need replacing, and there are few places to feed them electricity when on a trip.” To which I asked the person to consider what life was like when we first began using internal combustion engines and there were few places available to put the gas in the vehicle. The reply? “Well, then we could just use horse and buggies.” Perhaps. Perhaps not. The cost of maintaining horses, wagons, sleighs, and feeding the horses has to be considered, too. What does one do when a horse dies? Replace it, right? Replace the battery in an electric car.
And solar fields “are an eyesore.” Oh, really? Maybe so. But consider how accustomed we have become to seeing electric distribution systems or power lines, whether for distribution or the huge transmission lines. How about the cable and television lines we see strung on the poles? We don’t think of them as being “eyesores” because we have become accustomed to them. In actuality, I don’t see solar fields as being any worse than such equipment we have had in the past. In fact, I would far prefer a solar power field on my own property than to have a power line which is up in the air and looks terrible in comparison.
Then, there are the Republicans in Florida who try to do the marching orders of Big Oil. They want to have offshore drilling off the coast of Florida. After the oil spills in other states along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, most people in Florida have been surveyed they don’t want to be threatened by oil spills along the coast of Florida. But no. People like Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis, along with Donald tRUMP, don’t give one damn about what the people think, just what the marching orders are, coming down from Texas oil men and others in that industry.
Keystone Pipeline? Who the heck wants possible oil spills from that? If you do, you are mentally ill.
The development of alternative fuels such as solar or biomass have been sabotaged by Big Oil. Several reports in the media have discussed this aspect. These reports also indicate that American industry has negated the development of companies doing such development of alternative fuels (green energy) and thus have left the field open for many Chinese from COMMUNIST China to invest for the long-term in such ventures. So, you complain about negating Big Oil, you are siding with the development for the long-term of the Chinese COMMUNISTS. You are supporting efforts to continue to use Big Oil’s products, rather than being like an old-fashioned savings bank with savings accounts and saving oil reserves as a means of long-term savings! Fossil fuels ARE going to run out. PERIOD. This is a fact.
So being worried about replacing a battery in an automobile is the words of idiots. Excuse me for being so blunt and cruel and saying this. But what I hear is way too pervasive and it requires people like me to step up to the plate, as in the days of the Fairness Doctrine when a Fox News would be REQUIRED to provide an opposing viewpoint (that might just hold to facts, not lies and conspiracy theories). The Fairness Doctrine was decided by a BIPARTISAN group (Democrats AND Republicans together) in order to protect America from the same type of fascist rule in which we had just fought a war in the 1940s and lost many American lives.
For the future, we COULD aim to save lives in America by not setting the stage for a war to control the last remnants of oil on this earth, but put those in reserve for the future. For the future, we COULD aim for an America which is still powerful enough to control the new alternative energy forms and not allow the Chinese to take control. How about those who complain about electric cars and the batteries in them, just consider some of what I outlined? Just consider that car companies in Asia and North America are building and selling cars. So, the chances of developing more channels of distribution and repair WILL grow, so as to support these industries.
Come on, Tioga County. Stop being mesmerized by the marching orders from BIG OIL and followed by Trumpicans who seek a fascist government. Come together with a little help from our community of friends who want the best for America’s future, both with energy AND environmental issues.
Dear Editors:
Recently, Sixty Minutes broadcast a report about housing in Florida. The report centered on the increased cost of housing, from rental to actual home ownership. Many homes in Florida, the report said, were being purchased by corporate entities and wealthy individuals and groups which are creating a rental business and thus driving up the rental prices and putting houses in the hands of wealthy people, not the common folk who work for a living below the living wages required in our society today. What Sixty Minutes did NOT present was the impact on property tax bills for Floridians. Having been a one-time resident of Florida for nearly 40 years, I have some questions which were not addressed by Sixty Minutes.
Homestead Exemptions and Taxes
Unlike the STAR program here in New York, Florida has a homestead exemption for the primary residence of all people, not just for senior citizens. Who put this program in place? Many years ago, it was DEMOCRATS who put this in place, not Republicans. I think people need to know this. Certainly Fox News is not going to inform the nation about this. I am disappointed that CBS did not inform, either, with the report on Sixty Minutes. Homestead exemption gives the ability of homeowners in Florida to not pay taxes on x amount of value of the property. It is a standard amount and could have changed since I lived in Florida, so that is why I use “x” rather than an exact amount of exemption.
In Florida, I have had primary residences in Palm Beach County and St. Lucie County. In southwest Florida, I once owned property considered to be “secondary,” so was not exempt as primary. I paid a higher rate – the full tax bill – for the property in southwest Florida.
Due to Rick Scott nixing the idea voted in favor by the people of Florida for a fast-speed train from Orlando to Miami, my primary residence of property in St. Lucie County, along the path of where that train, voted in favor by a MAJORITY of Floridians and backed up by a BIPARTISAN support (the senator who represented my district in St. Lucie County, Republican majority leader in the Florida Senate supported the idea and fought with Rick Scott until term limits put Senator Alexander out of office; unlike the Republican majority leader from days gone by who hailed from an upstate NY area – he was my senator here in New York – who faced no term limits and could accomplish more for the people of New York when a Democratic Party governor here worked against the people). Between the burst of the real estate bubble and the lack of the voter-approved train, I lost money on the property in St. Lucie County, as I watched the developer of the real estate project fold. All due to a Republican named Rick Scott. The property went “under water,” which is an expression typically used for automobile loans and not for real estate because in those days real estate prices were a small but steady increase over a long period of time. Not any more. I was also told that, to rent the home, not only would I give up my homestead exemption, there were some taxes imposed by the state of Florida. I never looked into this later aspect, but just worked to sell the property and move back to Palm Beach County. I accomplished this goal and sold the Fort Pierce property, then purchased a villa in Palm Beach County.
In thinking over all of this and viewing the Sixty Minutes report, I have to wonder why CBS News did not present the facts regarding taxes. In saying that most people were unable to purchase homes there, due to the increased cost of housing from an influx of people with money from the west coast of the USA and what could be considered “slum lord” ownership comparable to the ghettos of Germany under Hitler, I have to ask: who pays the property taxes now in Florida? Those who are able to afford the expensive housing – the wealthy – can pay lowered property taxes due to homestead exemption. Those who are workers in Florida now pay huge amounts of taxes by way of huge increases in rent. Or am I wrong about this assessment?
If the ownership of rental properties are paying, in a corrupt manner, for housing which is “secondary,” not “primary,” taxes with homestead exemption, then the Republicans running Florida are doing “favors” for such slum lords. With such ownership, regardless of whether there is illegal homestead exemption or not, the renters are paying a large chunk of the taxes and are being denied the ability to purchase homes and pay the smaller amount of taxes available with homestead exemption. Is there a tax that these owners of secondary housing paying the state of Florida? That, I am not clear because I never pursued it with my property in Fort Pierce, but just sold the property.
In this age with lies about Democrats being “tax and spend” Democrats, words hurled by Trumpicans at Democrats, I repeat. It was Democrats in Florida who implemented the homestead exemption in Florida. Add to this the fact that the Democrat turned Republican and darling of Ronald Reagan reigned for one term over the implementation of a sales tax on services in Florida. He was a Republican when he did this, not a Democrat. And Ronald Reagan had embraced the man at the 1984 Republican National Convention. Nevertheless, I do believe it was the Democrats who helped repeal that tax on services. The news media in Florida can correct me if I am wrong and my memory is hazy on this issue. I am not a coward, as are tRUMP, Rick Scott, and Ron DeSantis, should I be in error. If I am in error about the later statement regarding the service tax, please… let me know. I am a man and willing to take it on the chin (figuratively speaking).
The Trumpicans can shut their mouths when falsely using the words, “united we stand, divided we fall.” With those folks, it is more like “united we Nazi fascists stand, divided we fall.” But by using the words in a more generic sense, they get people to follow them, like lemmings being led over a cliff to their death. Like cowards, the Trumpicans (like Palladino of New York) use the words which originated with unions and the civil rights movement, referencing ALL OF HUMANITY and particularly WE THE PEOPLE (first three words of the USA Constitution), not fascists.
Be Careful What you Wish for…
In the 1960s, my grandmother, God bless her, visited her sister in the state of Florida. She came back with the words, “it’s terrible down there with 90 degrees in the shade.” She did not add that with the heat was such a high humidity, compared to upstate New York when it gets hot, that there is steam coming off the roads after it rains in the summer. My grandmother said, “everyone is going there to seek a paradise and the fountain of youth. I never saw a paradise and the fountain of youth does not exist. I shall never return there.” My grandmother never DID return to Florida right up to her death in 1982.
I would classify living in Florida as negative because of “heat, humidity, hurricanes, and housing taxes [hidden in rental charges and extremely high HOA fees, far worse than village taxes in an upstate New York county – at least 10 times more in order to pay for sidewalks, streets, and social hall within a condo or single-family home development; privatization of services provided at a lower cost in many governmental jurisdictions]”.
To people in Tioga County and upstate New York who are pessimistic and think they have it so bad. When it comes to moving to Florida or elsewhere, be careful what you wish for…
Conclusion
Perhaps Trumpicans in Tioga County and elsewhere in this nation should wake up to what is happening today with regard to housing and taxes. What is happening today is due to firing up with false crap and stirring up the mud, by Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, and other 21st Century robber barons. These crappy fat pigs / robber barons have denied the workers of America decent living wages and wish to remove retirement and health security for we the people of America. At the same time, need to understand that the wages of CEOs with their bonuses have increased more than 1000% since the 1970s. This has been accomplished with the use of supply-side Reaganomics. deregulation, and the ultimate curse of monopoly. With considerations of housing and taxes, the media is not telling the truth, sad to say.
Tioga Herald 
A Tale of Two Villages
A long time ago, there were two villages in upstate New York. Both about the same size. Both with manufacturing and production. Both bedroom communities of IBM. Both with one-time business sections of the village which were quite similar with the active business life in each village.
One village was actually closer to the IBM plants than the other, but both were still considered bedroom communities. How much did IBM help these communities? Did they offset taxes? Not certain. Did they pay employees? That they did.
The village closer to IBM plants had a ladder factory. That ladder factory was purchased by a big American corporate conglomerate called Werner Ladder. According to a Google search, Werner is today located in Illinois.
What did Werner do? Shut down the plant and laid off all the employees in the one village. No longer a tax base for the community. By way of hearsay, I learned that the AMERICAN corporation wanted to pay less to employees – cheapskate big fat pigs at the top of a company which, like so many others in America, are Leona Helmsley and Donald Trump types and don’t want to pay taxes because “those are for the little people.” Is this hearsay correct? I believe it is and there are plenty of other examples of AMERICAN run corporations which have shipped jobs overseas – a bunch of cheapskates who also cancelled pensions and amassed fortunes at the top with corrupt bonuses paid to such fat pigs at the top. (See the book, Retirement Heist which identifies General Electric and other companies which did this and then put peer pressure on the others at the top to do the same). Corrupt self-centered narcissists doing everything for themselves and no damn concern for the “common folk,” but lying and being hypocritical, mesmerizing too many of the common folk that their way is best.
What about the other village? See if you can guess what it is. The first village is located in Tioga County, NY, one of many very impoverished counties today in upstate New York. A county run by Republicans who side with these big corporate conglomerate assholes at the top and have achieved NOTHING for the “Common folk.” This second village has, for many years, had a production facility for another company. Can you guess what it is? They manufacture devices for the types of lifts, etc. which a Home Depot might purchase for use in their stores. BTW. Home depot also sells the Werner ladder, too. What about this other company? It is still in existence today, after about 100 years or so being there. Guess who owns this company in the second village? An overseas concern, not big fat American culprits making money hand over foot. It is owned by a company called Toyota.
Fascinating story. A production facility in upstate New York owned by the capitalist giant in a nation we defeated in World War II.
There are more examples which are similar to the first village in other communities throughout the northeast. Production shut down and work sent overseas. The claim? Too high a labor cost in the USA. To which I say, with the example of a Toyota owning another production facility: such things by cheapskates of America is nothing but bullshit.
If I am correct, the congressional district to which the other village is part of is that of Anthony Brindisi who, by way of fraud from the Republican opponent, Claudia Tenney, lost to Tenney by just a few hundred votes. But to Republicans, the only ones who perform fraud are Democrats, don’t you know? Anthony Brindisi BROUGHT industry back to that district and how is he repaid? Removed from office, for doing a good thing. Imagine that. Brindisi. A Democrat. Unlike the liars I heard recently in Owego, NY, with the lies of a conspiracy theory that “Democrats do what the Chinese want,” Brindisi worked with the military to stop purchasing products from the Chinese and producing them in upstate New York. And this is how Brindisi, a Democrat, is rewarded? I once worked for Democrats in a corporation in Florida which made good money and was considered a “cash cow.” Ripe for the picking by lousy Republican business people when they came in, took over the company, laid most of us off, and scrapped the good fortunes of the company in order to knock the stock price so low it would be ripe for merger and acquisition. It was. It is now part of a huge company in North Carolina, while the Florida part of it was scrapped. Regarding this corporation, facts not fiction. But hell, A Tale of Two Villages is supposed to be fiction, right? The fiction is the assholes who repeat Fox commentary in Owego with lies and conspiracy theories. Perhaps it is Sloppy Don and the Republifascists at fault for many of our problems? That is what I can prove with facts, not conspiracy theories.
The other day, in driving through the second village, I saw the village and its business district doing far better than the first village with the ladder factory. Most of the business district in the ladder factory village has been burned to the ground and no one has the balls to build it back up. Don’t tell me there are problems with finances because I know about villages which have had, at their disposal, grant money to help build the villages. I don’t believe the damn pessimism I hear. I refuse to believe it any more. As the writer of A Tale of Two Cities, I am sick and tired of hearing the pessimism. My Scottish family has a motto: “As I breathe, I hope.”
I don’t know if my first name comes from General Douglas MacArthur or not. My dad served in the Pacific and told me about working some of the time with the occupation forces there in the hotel in Tokyo where MacArthur was headquartered in Japan. When I asked my parents whether my name came from Douglas MacArthur, the answer was usually a smart ass one, “its for you to find out.” Never mentioned. But I was born in the early years of the Gen. Eisenhower administration in Washington. It was just a few years after Harry S. Truman fired MacArthur for wanting to invade China from the Korean peninsula. There still remain questions as to whether MacArthur, who had the ear of FDR, was correct in trying to convince FDR NOT to drop the a-bomb. Cannot speak to that, except to report on the William Manchester biography of MacArthur, which is where I obtained some of this knowledge. I am not going to debate the question of a-bomb or not because no one knows what the future could have held should we have done something different. I repeat. NO one is knowledgeable enough to make and assumption of a “what if the bomb were not dropped on Japan.” No one can predict the future of anything with a certainty. But we can try to find best practices which exist today, learn from history, and move forward. The preponderance of pessimism for the future makes me ill and nauseous. There is no certainty, either whether my first name comes from General MacArthur. Just a bunch of circumstantial evidence which MIGHT point to this fact.
With all of this being said, I now lead into a bit of information about Gen. MacArthur who was appointed by Truman to be the Supreme Commander over Japan, following VJ Day. MacArthur was swift in putting down the communist movement in Japan. Because it was raging after World War ii. At the same time, Douglas ended the fascist dictatorial means created by a leader who claimed to be divine like a god and to be worshiped. He squelched that, as well. He squelched the type of Medieval supply side economics which was similar to Western Europe and pushed by Hitler and Mussolini. MacArthur was the one responsible for putting Japan back on its feet, even if it took a couple of decades for the results to be noticed.
Thus, for the one village with manufacturing facilities owned by Toyota today, it demonstrates that the Japanese have developed a mentality to hire American labor and not be cheapskates about providing living wages and benefits.
I have no objections to those claiming the unions were at fault. Perhaps they were? But in comparison to the Reagan supply-side economics and Trump cronyism for corporate welfare (and DeSantis and Scott of Florida), a good leadership SHOULD have been able to mange by checks and balances. Sure. Perhaps the UAW pushed the envelope too far. But did Lee Iacocca, a Democrat, have difficulty in dealing with the union, from a leadership position? (See the Iacocca book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? —- bet you will just snipe at me rather than read what I suggest here).
Ass for the village with the company bought out by Toyota, it lives happily ever after? That is a statement of fiction, in case someone reading this does not have the intelligence to differentiate fact from fiction. If you grasp and put your arms around what Fox Commentary says, you demonstrate you are not able to differentiate fact from fiction.
What can I say about the other village which once had a ladder factory for years? Pessimism rules and is a preponderance over what it could be. But the big problem are the fat pig robber barons at the top.
As I breathe, I hope. With these words, I have to wonder whether the Scottish family of Gen. MacArthur used the same motto?
For both villages to live happily ever after, there needs to be a change in attitude and stop being like a bunch of spoiled brats with pessimistic beliefs for the future. How does that happen? I know the answers, but do readers know the answers? If we put our heads together with the goal of finding the best practices as our solutions, not some dimwitted answers from people like Trump, DeSantis, Scott or others, we can do it – together. Best practices are not always those on the right OR the left. Best practices are not always those identified with conservative or liberal. Best practices are solutions which work and have been identified as working, as well as identification of consequences and the strength of those consequences where good overrides bad. I am sick and tired of the ideology. I am sick and tired of the political parties. I am also sick and tired of too many Americans who cannot see that whether ultra right wing or ultra left wing, the results are the same: dictatorship and the destruction of democracy and a democracy which CAN work effectively, even if it can be slow at times. A dictator rules with an iron fist, but that rule is usually only good for a few people, not all. Peace and justice does not exist under such circumstances. In the case of national dictators, genocide is performed for “cleansing” the population of opposition to the dictators. That might create a peace, but not justice. Only cowards want to achieve such peace in this manner by extinguishing the opposition. Such iron fists at a local level would only provide justice by literally banning the opposition from living there. I saw this happen under a local iron-fisted dictator at the local level. I saw it happen by studying the history of my ancestors who were banished by puritanical shitheads from Boston in the late 1600s. In those cases, people had a place to escape. Today, where can the opposition escape to, should such things happen at the national level? They can only escape by means of death? Only cowards would want such a thing because it makes their lives easier. Lazy bums. Both villages now have solutions for the future. What are those solutions? Solutions so as to live “happily ever after and do so with solutions which does not make for a hell on earth for many and a paradise of money loving bastards on the other side?”
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Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce
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