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And Delaware went for Hoover!
And California was sixth in most electoral votes per state…..
And Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming and Vermont were all tied with Delaware at three electoral votes apiece…
As a historian, one tends always to live in two worlds simultaneously. The present and the past and one is always comparing them….
It has always been my hope to have someone like Roosevelt who could ride a tidal wave of good luck into office along with earning a majority in both houses, and who could return to using logic and science to rebuild an America beneficial to the Middle Class….
It would involve curtailing the power currently possessed by the upper class, and forcing them to become actively involved in improving our nation, instead of having them run our nation for whatever they considered was best for them…
Since Reagan, most of all that has happened in America has been to the benefit of the upper crust of the upper establishment.
Roosevelt grew up and came to us from that same upper crust, and knowing their lies and arguments, was able to demolish them and call their bluffs. Once called a traitor to his class, FDR changed existing policy across all of government so we could limit corporate profits, increase public wages, establish a comfortably adequate retirement plan, and then, run the world’s biggest war. and taxing those profiting from it, at rates of 100%…
In the past week’s debate, I glimpsed some steel and fire that only comes from believing one is divinely supporting oppressed common people, coupled with the ability to manipulate the upper class into willingly accept their own smiling heads on a platter as a gift and be grateful they too got a present.
Trump, may be cartooned by the media into a potential threat again… but the debate which was seen by perhaps one third of the country, proved once and for all, that no matter what his handlers may present to us in the next 40 days, he flat out is flawed and not capable of running a nation… Any nation, period. No “ifs”… no “ands”.. and no “butts”…. (especially fatty ones)… (ha, ha, see what I just did there?)..
Roosevelt also had threats to which he had to contend, but they were as bizarre as what has lately come out of Trump’s mouth. Bottom line was a whole nation dug in to support him and together we dug ourselves out of a Depression, then we went to war to preserve Good from being overrun by Evil in Europe and the Pacific….. .
Bad health was not a liability for FDR. He was in a wheelchair. He actually died in office. But he also constructed the stage for America to play on for the next 60 years… Only when we foolishly demolished the protections which his time had built, did our own stage start crashing underneath our feet in the middle of our ACT III….
Although we don’t currently have a dictator intent on world domination (Roosevelt had 2 1/2), we do have global warming intent on making our planet inhospitable. This issue is now past benign and now is very scary. We could wake up one morning and have no atmosphere like Mars.. (No one knows what happened to the Martian atmosphere, nor does anyone know what may happen when the methane buried in our arctic seeps out and gains a high enough concentration to ignite…) Or we could face a gigantic cost of relocating civilization 60 feet higher…. Or we could face a smaller minor cost of shifting over to a carbon free energy system globally, boasting the entire economy in the process.
In any regard, the planet on which we live, is not the same one in which many of grew up. Parts of it have physically changed; we now need someone who can make the solid political changes necessary for humans and other species to continue living on this planet. This means we not only need a change of direction, but we also need a change of global priorities and a new environmental permanent structure similar to the economic one put in by Roosevelt, to ingrain these changes into the new status quo…
That means we need someone who can understand complexities, and explain it in ways we can understand.
As for leadership, any person who says, “this is what I say, do it or YOU’RE FIRED”…. is a very ineffective person. No one ever wholeheartedly does what they get told to do if it goes against what they believe and consequently, nothing gets done. A person who says, here, let me show you why you need to do this, it is because all of these millions of people are counting on you to make this happen, … is a very effective person… Everyone wants to work for them and particularly everyone wants to make sure they do not fail in their pursuit of what these people asked of them…..
FDR had that charismatic characteristic. When he heard Communists were in control of the shipyards of Seattle, instead of arresting them, he sought their leader’s endorsement, and by getting it, rendered them no longer a threat… Sure they remained Communists in name but they were solidly behind America. As a result of that bargain he played a strong union card against the elite during his first 100 days, and he never had to worry about his back. Hillary though tepid against Bernie’s very progressive ideas during the early part of her campaign, likewise absorbed all of them and made them her own after seeing how they excited great parts of the electorate… Those Sander Policies now have a greater chance of being enacted than ever. Because… Hillary is probably going to win.
This is what excellent leaders do… They go up against great competitors and then after beating them, they absorb them and together they become an even stronger team pursuing the same agenda… One could say Obama did the same with Clinton by asking her to be his Secretary of State..
The Greatest Presidents are those who listen to a higher powers first, and political advisors second. They are those who work well with people. There are those who feel at home talking over the fence with their friend’s neighbor, or sitting at a table of leaders from around the globe… Hillary Clinton has miles and miles of stories behind her of real people she has helped either as an Attorney General’s wife, a Governor’s wife, the President’s wife, as a junior Senator from New York, as the Secretary of State, or as the first female major party candidate for the highest office in the world… Her current opponent’s record with “real” people is much less stellar… lol.
For as all these great human beings know , their real measure of success over time will be if they helped millions of people calling themselves Americans… Trying to stop someone who is this good for our nation, someone who is as good if not better than Roosevelt, should be a treasonable offense. (The Constitution never imagined someone this competent running for President, so such a clause was never put in the definition of treason)… For a second, just imagine history if FDR had not become president in 1932? No Social Security. Immediate carte-blanche capitulation to Japan and Hitler. No unions. Class inequality rivaling that of Communist Russia… We can never know what might have been for Americans today if back then Americans didn’t have good sense to know Hoover was a clown, that capitalism couldn’t be trusted with anything other than making their owners wealthier, and that we needed someone seriously minded and smart who could run things well and really didn’t care too much if capitalists weren’t rolling around in money….
I’m sure there is no one out there who still undecided for whom they will vote for President .. I believe at this point, all of us know. Therefore this is is not an attempt to persuade anyone to change their vote…
Instead, this is an eye opening piece to allow you to see that we really can’t gamble on incompetence like we did in 2000…Some of you thought you’d give Bush a try for reasons other than who was really the more qualified to run the country. Today after that mistake, you really need to choose once and for all whether we are going to run America into the ground through sheer ineptitude, allowing the rich to squeeze all of us out of our last dollar, or …are we going to choose the highest quality of leadership ever available across our history, in front of us, now, today… Never in the history of the United States has there been a more qualified Candidate entering the White House… We’ve had former Secretary of States, We’ve had former Senators. But we’ve never had someone who was both plus who has already lived in the White House for 8 years.
If America passes on this moment to “make ourselves great again”… then we deserve what we do to ourselves.. One has only to look at the incompetence of Republican controlled Congress, or the Republican running of Kansas and Wisconsin, to see how real human lives quickly deteriorate under Republican incompetence and inadequacy … (of course provided all those lives are earning less then $1 million a year… Only the rich do well under Republican administrations….) This is not political pandering; the solid evidence is there to see if you are willing to look.
Which is why, you not only need Hillary in the White House but you need a slate of Democratic candidates to back here up…. Again, this post is not a politically scribed piece. This is a solid factual human-resource analysis for filling a job opening titled: “President of the United States…. ”
For America’s sake, not only should all Americans come to realize that Hillary should get your vote, but far more importantly, one should make sure she is given the tools in Congress, in state legislatures and across governorships, and that she will have them waiting for her, available for when she needs to make things jump her first 100 days in office…. Putting someone to work on a job without necessary tools, has always been pointless.
- Cost is very high
- Less efficient than reciprocating engines at idle speed
- Longer startup than reciprocating engines
- Less responsive to changes in power demand compared with reciprocating engines
- Characteristic whine can be hard to suppress
Translated to a loud jet engine larger than that on planes, sitting on the Chrysler Site running 24/7…. once it gets turned on, it stays on until it breaks down.
Remember those sissy’s who lived in Brandywine Hundred who were always bitchin’ bout those planes coming into Philadelphia International? At least they got breaks between planes…..
Photo Courtesy of The Atlantic
My guess is yes. Remember how the election of 2000 forgot all about the national debt headed towards zero. It forgot all about the greatest economic boom in America’s history. It forgot about the prosperity that every quintile of the American Public experience growth from one year to the next. It forgot about the peace that was in the Balkans. It forgot about the curtailing of Welfare. The election in 2000 was decided on morality. More people in those good times were interested in “morality” than what was good for the economic future of this country. Because of “morality” (translated as sexual immorality) even smart people could not bring themselves to vote for more of the same, and instead switched to something completely different. It was close. Florida proved it, but had that immoral incident never been brought to light, … things would have been so much different today. it affected that many voters, enough to throw an election in the middle of the biggest boom times ever, to the minority party.
That is a valuable lesson. Now for a known Obama supporter and guide, to have severe misgivings over this use of secrecy and reading all data on all citizens, and keeping them for future reference, (one can only think for sinister reasons), is very telling. This is a gut mover; one like having the president dally with an intern which sets a lot of people off. Both are impossible to justify. The simple fact that all this information is for sale to prospective employers, competitors for the next promotion, or spouses wishing to exit a relationship, has grave consequences to a lot of American’s private lives. And it is not that they did something bad. It is that accusations (unfounded) can be made on piecemeal information (as was done by Issa in the IRS hearings) and the citizen of the United States cannot defend his actions. In fact, he never knows of what he was accused. He gets turned down for this, or for that, and it is all from a mistake…
The Obama Administration is in grave danger of losing his place in history. His legacy will be shadowed by his upholding of this secret spying. He has only one out, and it must take place now; surprise everyone, and his legacy will be saved, as well as create a democratic administration which will not undo, as was promised by Romney, everything the current president has put in place.
Here is what he has to do.
1) Fire and replace the current director with someone Constitutionals trust.
2) Declare all NSA actions will now be open. FOIA will apply to the NSA.
3) Remove all objections to lawsuits in court, which seek clarification over whether the Constitution was violated or not.
4) Since the NSA is in charge of domestic spying, (the CIA does International), the NSA rules need to change to that of the FBI. Though not perfect, secrecy is still kept, but the super-secrecy is stopped.
5) Warrants will be required for all searches. That is the minimum of what the Constitution requires.
6) Encourage all internet providers not to cooperate unless they have a court order requiring them to do so for each person. Outlaw blanket searches. Outlaw phishing.
7) Admit the NSA went overboard, and take the responsibility for it. Say it was a mistake, which you plan and hope it will be fixed long before you hand over the White House keys to your successor.
Mark my words. If a very moderate Republican (Christie) ran and said he would “shut down the NSA”, he would get my vote as of now. This is serious and you had better listen to those outside of Washington, before you listen to those within. if you are skeptical, I don’t blame you. But I have to tell you, we survived Bush; we can survive a moderate Republican who is far more clear headed and able to stand up to nut case conservatives, which was Bush’s biggest personal fault; he caved. You need to understand that all that damage by Bush, affects my children far less than having them be slandered for something they know nothing of, or did not do because it is attached to their name. Our privacy is of utmost importance to us. Just like America sent a signal that sex in the White House would not be tolerated, you are in the same boat now. Clinton won the impeachment battle. It cost Gore the next election.
The Republicans have something on you here; you are guilty; this is scary stuff. Any dodging, or keeping the status quo, hurts your legacy every day it exists in its current form. You know what you have to do, and the sooner it gets done, the sooner all talk among our citizens goes back towards getting rid of Republicans completely, so we finally can fix the economy.
It would be one more thing.. you got right.
Roosevelt’s Inauguration 3/4/33
Courtesy of CSpan.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Inauguration Day. (It was the last before the 20th Amendment moved it to January 21st.) It is hard for us to see though the old film clips but here are some additional notes from H.W. Brand’s biography of Franklin Roosevelt, titled “Traitor To His Class”….
In 1933, the pervading bitterness was similar to that experienced by today’s Republicans. They had talked themselves into believing Herbert Hoover was a shoo in. Instead it was a rout for Roosevelt. Hoover was not a social person to begin with, and his awkwardness continued though out the inauguration….
It was customary at that time, to have the outgoing president host a dinner for the incoming President. Hoover refused, and instead, settled on an awkward afternoon tea… When Mr. Roosevelt tried to mitigate the awkwardness and offer Hoover an early exit, Hoover aggravated the discomfort. “Mr. President” said Roosevelt. “as you know it is rather difficult for me to move in a hurry. It takes me a little while to get up and I know how busy you must be. So please don’t wait for me.” Hoover stood up and affixed Roosevelt with a glare. “Mr. Roosevelt. After you have been President for a while, you will learn that the President of the United States waits for no one…” and stormed off, leaving his wife to say the goodbyes..
Roosevelt began what later becoming tradition, of spending the morning at a private service, this time at St. John’s Episcopal Church. At 11 o’clock the car swung by the Mayflower Hotel and picked up both Franklin and Eleanor, then swung by the White House to pick up Hoover. Hoover surveyed the White House grounds then climbed in and scarcely looked at the Roosevelts…
As the open car pulled down Pennsylvania Avenue, Franklin politely acted like the cheers were for the actual president at that moment, the outgoing one, and declined to acknowledge them… But within blocks the fiction became unattainable and he began acknowledging the crowd by tipping his silk hat and smiling and the anger radiated by Hoover, intensified stronger.
In the Capitol he watched the swearing in of the Senators, and the Vice President John Nance Garner and watched what would be the last adjournment of a Lame Duck Congress. At one o’clock all moved outdoors and in front of a crowd of 100,000, began the ceremonies. Roosevelt was uncharacteristically serious. Many of his staff were surprised by his somber character…
As you can see in the beginning of the clip above, upon taking the oath of office Franklin took the unusual step of repeating back the entire part read from the Constitution, before saying “I do.”
This is a day of national consecration and I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our nation impels.”
Hoover was standing next to Roosevelt and his dour expression became a grimace as he anticipated another attack upon his administration… But Roosevelt proceeded with words of encouragement and hope.
“This great nation will endure as it has endured, and will revive and prosper. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.– nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
This line did not resonate as it does now, as the famous line we now know from our study of history. At the time, it was patiently false. Americans did have a lot to fear. Banks were closed. There was massive unemployment. Hunger was widespread, and a financial system could barely get up onto its knees.. If you notice in the clip above, to the line… there is no applause.
More noticed and featured in the following day’s headlines, were these lines assailing “unscrupulous money changers” of Wall Street as those responsible for America’s plight. “Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply”.. “Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankinds’ goods have failed through their own stubbornness and incompetence.” Waxing eloquently, “the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may not restore that temple to the ancient truths…”
Other applause lines: “our greatest primary task is to put people to work.” This would be accomplished in part by the “direct recruiting of the government itself; treating the task as we would the emergency of war.”
“We must frankly recognize the overabundance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution , endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land.”
He calls for “definite efforts to raise the values of agriculture products” for insistence that the “federal, state, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced”, and he spoke for an “adequate but sound currency”… He set the agenda with this: “The international trade regulations though vastly important, are, in point of time and necessity, secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy.”
If you didn’t get the gist of it, Roosevelt’s words were purposefully vague. They were crafted to inspire confidence that action was forthcoming, without belying that on one yet knew what action or actions would begin to take place. “We must act, and we must act quickly.”
“I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crises– broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”
No president, not even Lincoln, had spoken boldly of the power he would require. The American people were demanding much, and they deserved all that government could accomplish for them.
“They asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of their gift….. I take it.”
He had an amazing 100 days.
There is a huge irony that on this same date, 80 years later, we are facing our first full day of sequestration; the exact opposite of what Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran against, won against, and fought against the entire length of his presidency. And his policies would still be in effect today. if it weren’t for the Republicans and the presidency of George W. Bush.
FDR January 6, 1941 Seventy Two Years Ago On Sunday
“The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:
Btw. Republicans are against each and everyone of these. Which is why, our lives are so screwed up right now…
If wishes were fishes…
I’d go catch me one…..
What would I wish for? A great economy. That would take care of so many problems.
The issue within the economy that gets the most attention, is jobs. Not enough people are working. And the reason not enough people are working is because not enough money is getting spent, to add on additional help.
What we need is to get more money spent, and then add on extra people to assist with that increase of business. So, how do we do that?
Here are the old tried and true was trotted out long ago.
1) The government can hire. Those people spend money into the economy.
2) The government can award contracts. Those people now working, spend money into the economy.
3) The government can dole out more tax cuts. If people get more in their pocket they will spend more.
We’ve tried that, but the amount the government needs to spend to cover the salaries of 16 million people, would be (at $50,000 each per year) would be $800 billion. (Does TARP come to mind?) That is just a too big job for government to handle by itself…
Who on earth has $800 billion. Are we doomed?
No, corporate America makes almost $2 trillion of profits per quarter. By now all of you should know that is every 65 working days.
So who do YOU think should be hiring all these unemployed workers? The government that is in debt ($16 trillion) up to its eyeballs, or…. corporate America that after all expenses, has a new $2 trillion every 65 days to play with?
I hope you said Corporate America. We now know the cost: $800 billion/year. We now know the profit: just under $8 trillion per year (four quarters).
So the cost to Corporate America of putting all these unemployed back to work, is in percent: 10%. So instead of making a full dollar in profit, Corporate America makes 90 cents on the dollar.
If that seems like a lot, keep in mind we are not discussing an expense here. That is not a 10 % cost incurred that the business has to scramble and find some method to compensate. Historically profits are not this high. In fact, they never have been this high in the history of the United States, at least according to the records kept today of long ago. So these very high profits are a new phenomena… They are probably occurring because business just aren’t hiring;
Remember: profit is what is left over after everything has been paid off. So having businesses take ten percent of their “profits” and put people to work, doesn’t cost them anything. They just don’t record dream level profits anymore. Instead, they just have healthy profit levels..
So let us review. We have 16 million unemployed and out of work, who for just $800 billion could be working at $50,000 a year. That would give us zero unemployment. And we have Corporate America making $8 trillion a year earning profit that is so much, they have no idea or way to spend it.
So, all we have to do is make, force, impose, compel Corporate America hire 16 million people.
But wait. Wasn’t everyone up in arms over forcing, imposing, and compelling Corporate America to pay for health insurance? Saying things like the government “can’t make anyone do anything?” Didn’t a whole bunch of patriots emerge from the woodwork with that philosophy in mind?
Justice Roberts opened the door. And he showed Congress the way. Raise taxes on Corporate America; its legal; Congress can raise taxes. . Raise taxes and take their money… But, if you want to be sporting, you can allow them to not record profits as high as they have. You could also allow them to write off the amounts they invested in building new plants, establishing budgets for R & D. Hey, they could even pay you more. Better to have you a happy camper than give that money to the IRS…..
So you see, if we just raise taxes, the economy takes off. And raising taxes is really just a trick with words. All we are really going to do is raise the tax rates. The amount of taxes a corporation actually pays will stay the same or maybe be less, because their profit (by their choice) will go down and so though they will be asked to pay a higher rate, it will be on far less “income”. And where does that money go? If they act in their own selfish interests and choose to invest the money in themselves so they don’t have to fork it over to the FED’s, .. all that money goes to new jobs. 16 million of them.
The solution is plain as the words on this page. Raise the tax rates, watch corporations reinvest in themselves here in America, watch the hiring begin en masse, and watch the economy get roaring again.
It is nothing new; it is the way it always was, up until the Bush Tax Cuts were passed. How many of you remember old Delaware, where around the middle of December, Dupont’s tax division presented the data to the chairman, “this is what you gotta spend”; and building contracts came flying out of 1007 N. Market Street.
We should have never stopped the gravy train, but we did. It’s time we return to reality and raise those Federal Tax rates. It wouldn’t hurt to remove every Republican from office while we are at it………
I think I just caught me a wish…….
Today’s debt: $14,639,000,000,000.. Longhand, that is fourteen trillion, six hundred thirty-nine billion dollars…….
All caused by the Tea Party of course.
To pay that off in one year (with no interest), would cost us… would cost us…. would cost us… $463,881 every second…. (Oops, a million just passed by while reading this)…
But no one pays off a debt in one year… Instead, let’s take 30 years… Again, with no interest, per second we would need to pay… $15,463 dollars every second…. Now take a deep breath of a sigh of relief… Now only $100,000 went by in just those 6 extra seconds.
Considering that the US’s GDP is crunching forward at $411.374 dollars a second, those same six seconds generated $2,468,248 dollars in income… Therefore to pay back the entire debt we owe, over the next thirty years (with no interest) we would be paying… 16.6 percent of every dollar earned….
So obviously balancing our budget first is a capitol idea (pun: we certainly can’t do it when “they” are opposed)… Then over the next thirty years, we simply need to account and only spend 83.4% of every incoming dollar we are taking in.
In thirty years, we’ll be in the black… and you will be… uh, how old?
In today’s political world, the embattled progressives are ironically in the same position American forces found themselves in Afghanistan around the time Obama was sworn in………
Things do not seem to be going well at all….
They did not get the Bush tax cuts off the books. Those tax cuts are still sending jobs overseas. They did not get single payer health care; insurers still limit health care. And now, many of the federal programs supporting the economies in their districts, are about to be eradicated….
“If only” Obama had stood tough!.. “If only” Democrats were better negotiators and didn’t give up everything at the drop of the hat… “If only” the Democrats worked harder last December to get the Bush tax cuts not reinstated. “If only” Democrats hadn’t lost the House last election, things would be different. “If only” Obama hadn’t sold us out! “If only” Obama had a spine. “If only” Democrats hadn’t caved and given Republicans 100% of what they want…“If only” the media would educate the public. “If only” truth was allowed on the airwaves….
The Progressives should not base their future strategy on “what-ifs” and “if only’s” as Progressives (especially here in Delaware) are prone to do. Such an approach is not “reality-based.”
It is instead, “hope-based”, which is to say in reality … “illusion-based”…
The illusion persists that Obama can “make” Republicans do what Progressive want. It equals the illusion that the US, can “make” the government of Karzai, do what everything we want…
In both cases, both progressives and the US, can’t force the issue. Instead, what they have to do, is out-argue, snuggle-up, and win the battle of the minds; they have to convince the respective populations that if they follow their way, the population will be better off.
With this bill, we now have a “reality” to assist with that convincing…
The core of all the arguing, is the hypothesis that America needs to tax it’s wealthy a little more.
When American’s go to the polls in 2012, they will have begun to feel the effects on the economy of what happens when one cuts $100 billion a year. Just like the balanced budget deficit bill of 1937 pushed America back into depression, so will this bill.
Progressives need to be out there saying, “We told you this would happen; see? We were right all along; all you have to do is tax the wealthy and this all goes away…..”
Unfortunately (or rather fortunately), there will not be a World War III to pull us out of this next upcoming depression… We will just have to spend Federal Dollars as if there was one. Which means, we have to return to the top marginal tax rates of 1941 – 1945…
So yes, there are no new revenues in this bill. Had there been, the reality would be that the House would have allowed a default.
But the argument can now begin… anew,… starting tomorrow! That increases in taxes cause an increase in jobs….. Had another default issue been allowed to occur again before the election, that argument would have been held hostage once again…
Now, it can’t… It can’t…. The argument of “good taxation” will get out there. This future election will be all about job creation…..
The Tea Party and Progressives both make the same error. They feel that holding another side hostage to get their way, is acceptable. That is not how America works. Often we fail, to remember that America is the one who put the Republicans into the position they did. Likewise, it was the Americans who put Democrats in the same position, two years earlier.
This argument needs to be played out over the course of an election cycle. The Americans themselves need to weigh in on this argument. Each side must argue their case.
It comes down to Clinton’s way… versus Bush’s…..
Start changing minds.
kavips 
