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.

Posts tagged ‘supply-side economics’

Hidden Agendas and Who From the Puritanical Fascist Crowd Has and Maintains Them like Watergate Burglars?

I think people should be concerned enough to do something. It comes from hidden snipers online who are smart enough to re-set settings and change programming codes in my Microsoft 365 software.

The latest in Microsoft? One time rows of a worksheet can be sorted. Another time, the SAME PROCESS cannot be done and the “sort” capability grayed out. Why?

Apparently, Americans do not give a damn about their fellow human beings. After spreading the word about how there were other “networks” on my line and I could see them, rather than help me solve the problem, the number of outside and “hidden” networks increased. So, to be like Watergate burglars and push further, hoping I would not stand up for my humanistic convictions as to how we respect one another, walk in integrity, and have dignity for one another, it is humorous to just push more. Same with Democratic Party campaign signs being stolen by Repugnicans. Complain and they turn it up a notch, while everyone sits by, saying, “too bad, too bad” and SHUT UP.

Frederick Douglass did not shut up. Harriet Tubman did not shut up. Abraham Lincoln did not shut up. My 5tth cousin five times removed, Ezra Cornell, did not shut up. Teddy Roosevelt did not shut up, even to condemn his father TR, Sr., for not serving in the civil war. FDR did not shut up. MLK, Jr., did not shut up. JFK and RFK did not shut up. John Lewis did not shut up. Alcee Hastings did not shut up. Thurgood Marshall did not shut up. Nancy Pelosi did not shut up. Etc., etc., etc.

All of these examples are of people who stuck to their their humanistic convictions about human justice, human equality, and respect for fellow human beings. Many such people stuck to their convictions against supply-side economics, whether white supremacist fat pig slave owners in Dixie or fat pig sweat shop owners in the North or fat pig robber barons such as those which exist today who refuse to pay their fair share of taxes and work to destroy things which are good for the common folk.

The ones today consist of the fat pigs in big pharma, fat pigs of big oil, fat pigs of big health insurance companies, the fat pigs of lawyers who block the establishment of healthcare for all while they line their pockets by proclaiming their opposition to big fat pig insurance, the fat pigs of local news and information newspapers who deliberately line their pockets by reducing local content and laying off good librarians and investigative reporters, fat pigs of technology, energy, hospitals and clinics with their organizations formed from M&A into centralized organizations which destroy small business and public entities which created a greater sense of taking America for the greatness it had, not the greatness of vicious and bullying white supremacists and bigoted pigs… More….

This all produces centralized supply-side economics on the model of communist Cuba and communist China and communist North Korea. It’s also on the model of the former Soviet Union which still exists today, with Putin.

In this process of elimination of the market demand-side consumers, these fat pigs DEMAND of the consumers and tell consumers what makes them happy. While stupid consumers on the market DEMAND-side swallow this drivel and vote for fascist vicious Repugnicans who don’t know how to address the issues and smear their opponents with slander and lies, so they can get to Congress and be on the take of the big fat pigs of big pharma, big oil, big health conglomerates, etc.

Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper is still printed and available in stores, while the good newspapers like local ones and the New York Times (etc.) are NOT available to inform the common folk who take an interest in life. Meanwhile, Murdoch has been quoted as having a desire to “destroy local news and information” by destroying local ownership of local media.

This all has to stop by people not just talking about “moral convictions.” That is too ambiguous. Talk about standing firm for convictions tailored to human equality, human justice, human dignity, human respect, and human integrity for walking with one another in the human race. Talk about providing opportunities for fellow human beings, not just handouts. We the people, not we the big fat pigs of big corporations as represented by Alito and the bastards of the SCOTUS who FORCED Citizens United down our throats like big fat dictators telling us what it takes to be happy.

To challenge me in what I am saying here, i get crap of “get a life” or “get a grip” upon me, as if I am not happy with the blessings I have. People put these wonderful quotes on Facebook. The quotes are beautiful. But do they get to those who need an attitude adjustment among the common folk? If they did, we would have seen different results in this past election with people intelligent enough to differentiate right from wrong when Repugnicans smear the images of good people and are not able to address the issues because they fear being revealed for their hidden agenda from pocketing money from the big fat pigs of supply-side economics and their monopolizing corporations which destroy local business, healthcare for all, public education for all. We the people. How many times do I have to say this? Not for the least common denominator of “we the people.” We the people means to address ALL people the best that can be done. Small businesses, not monopolized big centrally controlled corporations, as has been proven, has been the best way for America to achieve this.

Even former General and President Ike Eisenhower warned us not to let the military-industrial complex develop. We did anyway as we allowed centralized big corporations of all kinds to develop. Likely, this was more than Ike could probably have imagined.

Hillary says “it takes a village.” That is correct. This notion challenges the notions that about how it only takes white supremacists, big fat pigs and others to make a nation great. And the big fat pigs don’t like Hillary for saying that. Well may they be damned and go to h-e-double-hockey-sticks with their stupidity backed up by those with puritanical mindsets based on traditionalism only.

Or, perhaps we need to take baseball bats to the knees of such lousy people (he says in a facetious manner).

You know the ones who get all wrapped up in proclaiming that rules necessary to wipe out prurient interests while we have big fat pigs, lords over media, handing weapons, violence, blood, guts, and gore into our eyes within the media, more frequently than nudity, sex, or other “prurient” interests. And when nudity is portrayed, we see fig leaves in the form of blurred images, in programs like Naked and Afraid, while we are SUBJECTED TO and have it THRUST IN OUR FACES very violent scenes with people getting knifed or gunned down, whether real or fictional programs.

With all of this, let me return to my original comments about what is on my mind. Changes to settings and programmed apps by vicious, terrible people hidden by wired and wireless communications. That is what this message is about. So go get a grip and make things worse, rather than work to improve all of what I outline here. I get a grip. My grip is on sticking to my humanist convictions of “we the people” as being more important than what is imposed on us by big fat pigs who have slaves of punishment serving them, whether hidden online or removing political signs out of fear that Democrats might be elected, not to address issues which are of concern to we the people and human beings overall. And such dolts who do what I describe here and never being able to take notice of how to differentiate between right and wrong when it comes to a civilized human society with an inclination towards survival of the fittest of the entire human race in our dominion over non-humans such as animals, insects, etc. We are all human beings, so let’s work to help one another and not take an interest in crap like rules of puritanical and prudish ways. Rules about how humans can get along with one another and coexist – these are the reasons for what I describe.

Supply-side Which Creates Monopolies Like Microsoft

Capitalism is about supply and demand. With monopolies, promoted by freaking libertarians who don’t like regulation, we have supply-side economics, but we are coerced into thinking this is capitalism. This is no more capitalism than the feudal practices of the aristocracy and monarchy in Britain, before Adam Smith of Scotland wrote his treatise for capitalism as a means of getting rid of the feudal practices of supply-side economics before his day – before the days of Smith’s contemporaries in the North American colonies who were the Founding Fathers of America.

I just received this notice of a “service agreement” with Microsoft. Today, the only product I use from Microsoft is the Windows operating system products purchased with my computers. As a person on the DEMAND SIDE of this market, I see the computer purchase as being like purchasing a refrigerator with a condenser and evaporator to run the refrigerator. Today, there are possibilities for purchasing the computer hardware and software which run the refrigerator. We on the DEMAND SIDE OF A CAPITALIST MARKET purchase the refrigerator, not the software or computer hardware which comes with it. With that same idea for computers, what gives the SUPPLY SIDE of one piece of the computer the right to push and shove down my throat a “service agreement.”

Microsoft, you bastards and SOBs. I no longer use your Microsoft Office product which came with this computer. Go to hell.

And can I COMMUNICATE this with the SUPPLY SIDERS? Nope. I cannot. Why? Because to reply to this freaking lousy email message I received, I have no where to go. I am not allowed to reply to the message. Why? Because Microsoft supply siders are such freaking cowards and don’t want a reply from the DEMAND SIDE of the market. Go to hell those on the SUPPLY SIDE of the markets, encouraged by freaking lousy anarchists we call libertarians today. One of whom serves in the U.S. Senate as the second senator from Kentucky. Bet you didn’t know that, did you? Because you perhaps listen only to freaking FIXED News you call Fox News. Then, if you are reading this, you go to hell, too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

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

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.

Short & To the Point: Supply-side Economics is NOT Capitalism

Supply-side economics in America was promoted with deregulation by Ronald Reagan. The stupid man thought it would be about less regulation from the third-party government regulators. Instead, it has turned into a Roman gladiator game by big fat cats of corporations who destroy small business and any competitors. They act like cowards unable to know how to win in a competitive war. For instance, big health insurance helped sabotage and destroy the health insurance marketplace created for the purposes of CAPITALIST competition, by Democrats and President Obama. Corporate utilities have been deregulated and have turned into merged companies of large proportions. Newspapers and publishers have merged and become huge corporations. In each case, the excuse, without the competition, is usually these moans and groans about how “there is not enough profit.” It’s about the top corporate fat cats making the money to the tune of increased salaries and bonuses which have risen exponentially since the 1970s when we had smaller corporations, small businesses and more capitalist competition. The big fat cats at the top have been winning and don’t give one damn about the demand side of a capitalist market. Yet, the corporate where I worked, when it was deregulated and merged into a larger one was known as being a “cash cow.” There was no reason for doing this because more people took advantage of the “cash cow,” but now only a few at the top and those who own the most stock benefit from the profits. Thus, there is top-down control which does not benefit the Middle Class or lower classes. In the process, R&D money has been snipped and America has fallen far behind in the world economy. R&D being done in the company where I once worked has been moved to Europe and Asia. All due to supply-side economics in the name of “free markets” which then turn the big fat cats at the top into those similar to the big fat cats in a communist politburo who make all the money and CLAIM the workers do well. It’s centrally planned supply-side economics, stupid, not capitalism with its capitalist competition which creates “wealth of a nation” (18th Century theorist, Adam Smith who ultimately rejected “free markets” because he said human beings had no self-control, follow the model of Jesus Christ, and be moral and ethical when dealing with each other, so they need to be REGULATED).

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