COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Wilbur Ross for Commerce secretary - Trump Meets With Goldman’s Cohn as Dinner Set With Romney - Ross Said to Be Trump’s Pick for Commerce Secretary

“The business of America is business” – a famously unfair misquote…


When President Warren G. Harding died from a heart-related problem in 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States. 
The following year, with his popularity buoyed by a strong economy of the “Roaring Twenties”, Coolidge handily won the 1924 presidential election, using the campaign slogan “Keep Cool With Coolidge.” 
Unlike some presidents, “Silent Cal” Coolidge wasn’t known for making memorable statements. 
The most famous quote associated with him is a line about business being the business of America. 
That line is often given as “The business of America is business” or “The business of the American people is business.”
In fact, both of those versions are misquotes. 
They aren’t radically different from what he actually said, which was “the chief business of the American people is business.”
However, when this short quote or the misquote versions are cited alone, out of context, they tend to give the inaccurate impression that Coolidge was a totally one-dimensional, pro-business cheerleader. 
President Coolidge made his famous remark in an address to the Society of American Newspaper Editors on January 17, 1925 in Washington, D.C. 
The speech he gave that day was titled “The Press Under a Free Government.” It focused on the role of the press in free market democracies, like America. 
Coolidge noted that the press was far more likely to publish propaganda in autocratic or Socialist countries. 
He acknowledged concerns about whether business considerations could affect editorial positions and news reporting in a society like the US. But he pointed out the flip side, saying:
“There does not seem to be cause for alarm in the dual relationship of the press to the public, whereby it is on one side a purveyor of information and opinion and on the other side a purely business enterprise. Rather, it is probable that a press which maintains an intimate touch with the business currents of the nation, is likely to be more reliable than it would be if it were a stranger to these influences.”
Then Coolidge added his famous quote: 
“After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world. I am strongly of the opinion that the great majority of people will always find these the moving impulses of our life.”
It’s hard to dispute the notion that most Americans are concerned about the economy and personal prosperity. And, Coolidge made it clear that he didn't simply mean “greed is good.” 
“Of course, the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence,” he said. “But we are compelled to recognize it as a means to well-nigh every desirable achievement. So long as wealth is made the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it...But it calls for additional effort to avoid even the appearance of the evil of selfishness. In every worthy profession, of course, there will always be a minority who will appeal to the baser instinct. There always have been, probably always will be, some who will feel that their own temporary interest may be furthered by betraying the interest of others.”
It’s true that Coolidge was generally a pro-business, small-government type politician; sort of a Ronald Reagan without charisma.
But, in my opinion, the spin that is often put on his famous quote about the business of America is clearly overly simplistic and unfair.
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Related reading…

47 comments:

  1. Well, well, well. Obama preferred getting down with Hollywood and rappers. Trump gets down to business.

    ReplyDelete
  2. All wealth comes from business. Will the American people be shown how it is done and experience the benefits from it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fiscal wealth, yes.
      What other wealth do you possess?

      Delete
    2. Physical wealth gives you options. Spiritual wealth guides you on what to do with it.

      Delete
    3. All material wealth originated with farming.

      Spiritual wealth began long before.

      Delete
    4. So is a certain amount of wealth what it takes to be happy?
      Or is there something in the way of "Happiness Wealth"...?

      ..."Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"...
      It doesn't say wealth, but happiness.

      Wealth, abundance,

      Delete
  3. Jas Obama ever received a W-2?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I come from old money.

      The boys at the barber shop ran it up over a month ago.

      .

      Delete
  4. .

    Trump has promised the same trickle-down supply side economics we have had since Reagan. He might as well continue the tradition of bringing in someone from Wall Street as Treasury secretary.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  5. .

    In war, one city under siege is much like any other under siege. It's always the civilian population that takes it in the ass. Mosul will likely look like Allepo or Ramadi soon.

    Iraq Told Civilians to Stay in Mosul. Now They’re Paying With Their Lives.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  6. .

    You can't tell the players without a scorecard.

    Israel is now bombing ISIS in Syria

    and

    Erdogan comes face to face with US, Russia in Syria

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been promising since September to liberate the northern Syrian town of al-Bab from the Islamic State (IS) and move east to Manbij to rid it of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Turkey claims that the YPG — the core of the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting IS — and its parent organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), are terrorist groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but it has failed to generate international support for this position. Recent developments on the ground also point to increasing difficulties for Erdogan's efforts to fulfill his promises.

    After capturing the nearby IS stronghold of Dabiq in October, Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) militias, Ankara’s main proxy in Syria, have been unable to muster a serious attack against al-Bab. The situation grew militarily complicated for Turkey after its jets began striking YPG targets in the area — resulting in the United States withdrawing air support for FSA and Turkish forces — and after Russia and Syrian regime forces made serious headway against the FSA in Aleppo, to which al-Bab provides access...


    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Al-Bab is the pivot, the center of gravity, the issue on which all else depends....

      Delete
    2. ....all serious analysts understand this.

      Delete
    3. .

      Of course, if the analyst were to read the entire article instead of just the first two paragraphs before commenting, he would have a better basis for formulating his analysis. For instance, he might have seen mention of the air attack that took out a bunch of Turkey's FSA surrogates, an attack that everyone assumes was launched by Russia but which Russia denies.

      .

      Delete
    4. Nevertheless, al-Bab remains the center of gravity, the pivot, on which all else depends.

      All serious analysts understand this.

      Delete
    5. israel is bombing ISIS on the golan, and is bombing hezbollah trying to move weapons to lebanon and a syrian ammo dump in damascus

      Delete
  7. Pelosi keeps her position.

    Excellent !

    The Dems keep shooting themselves in the head.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One must admit make-up these days can do wonders.

      Delete
    2. She must be nudging about 105 years old now, isn't she ?

      Delete
  8. Making the 2nd Amendment Great Again

    2nd Amendment Mandate
    Editorial of The New York Sun | November 29, 2016



    Could America be on the brink of a restoration of true Second Amendment rights? Could even states like New York be covered by the article of the Bill of Rights that has been called the palladium of our liberty? Those are two questions in the wake of the election that has handed up Donald Trump as the next president of America and retained the Republicans in control of Congress. One of the major themes of Mr. Trump’s campaign was his call to make the Second Amendment great again.

    No sooner had the race been won than one of the leading civil rights organizations in the country, the National Rifle Association, put out a call for Congress and Mr. Trump to pass National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity “as quickly as it can be written and signed.” That kind of legislation would be a step toward making a gun license usable across the country, much the way a driver license is, though the analogy isn’t exact. The New York Sun has long-since endorsed such a measure....

    http://www.nysun.com/editorials/2nd-amendment-mandate/89814/

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Columbus, Ohio Police Department is holding a Presser to say, basically, they don't know anything about the 'jihadi' knife attack and Police shooting but are working on it.

    They are still working out if there was a 'motive' and if so what it possibly could be....

    Lordy, as Q might say....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They could at least say 'we are working currently on the assumption that the jihadi knife attack was a jihadi knife attack'....

      Delete
    2. Maybe he was trying to cure global warming by killing some CO2 expellers an wrecking his car.

      Delete
    3. They are considering all theories, they said.

      He looked like such a nice young man, and had good grades too.

      Delete
    4. 'we are working currently on the THEORY that the jihadi knife attack was a jihadi knife attack'

      Delete
  10. Brian Williams did a report on Romney's dinner with Donald, featuring a rerun of all the nasty things Mitt said about Don.

    Oddly, they didn't lead off the segment with a rehash of all of Brian's Wartime Heroics.

    ReplyDelete
  11. BMW Battering Ram in South Central LA

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR4t6qyaJok

    Full Version
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp19DPUFYxU

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Higher quality video

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t1Bvvmny-Q#t=33.364513

      "Welcome to the ghetto"

      Delete
    3. oops, this one has the welcome to the ghetto narration.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp19DPUFYxU

      Delete
    4. It's such situations like that when it's good to be driving a Ford F-250 4x4 with the reinforced bumper and heavy duty grill guards.

      Old Faithful came alive at the end there, making a nice finishing touch.

      Delete
    5. The hydrant appeared to put an end to the Toyota, which remained stopped at the corner.

      Embarrassing, and evidence that you are correct, sir.

      Delete
  12. For QUIRK, who DESPERATELY needs a new suit of clothes -

    Three-Piece Matador’s Uniform Worn by Antonio Ordóñez

    Known as a traje de luces (suit of lights), this uniform was worn by matador Antonio Ordóñez around 1959, and was bought by Hemingway from him. Hemingway’s friend A.E. Hotchner included this note along with the suit:
    “In the summer of 1959, I was traveling throughout Spain with Ernest Hemingway following the circuit of the two great matadors Ordóñez and [Luis Miguel] Dominguín. Ernest’s close friend was Ordóñez. On one occasion, Hemingway suggested that I should go into the ring with the two matadors at one of their big appearances, which occurred in the town of Ciudad Real before a crowd of 15,000 spectators. We went to Antonio’s room where the sword handler was ready to dress me in one of Antonio’s outfits. I was amazed at how heavy, intricate, and costly they are. At that time the suit I wore cost about $3,000.00, since all of the thousands of gold sequins were sewn on by hand. Hemingway had purchased this suit from Antonio, who was the world’s number one bullfighter (at the time); he would no longer wear it since it had bloodstains on the legs ….”

    Pre-auction estimate: $8,000–$12,000. For more on the lot, click here.


    Hemingway Memorabilia Auction

    http://www.realclearlife.com/2016/11/30/bonhams-auction-includes-trove-ernest-hemingway-memorabilia/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Think what they'll say when you show up at Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe in a Suit of Lights, Quirk-O !

      You will be famous ever after around Detroit.

      Delete
    2. Make certain you get the proper Italian for traje de luces (suit of lights).

      That will really impress 'em.

      Delete
  13. ""If this is confirmed by the investigators it would be very painful because it stems from negligence," Bocanegra told Caracol Radio on Wednesday when asked whether the plane should not have attempted such a long haul.

    One key piece to unlocking the mystery could come from Ximena Sanchez, a Bolivian flight attendant who survived the crash and told rescuers the plane had run out of fuel moments before the crash. Investigators were expected to interview her on Wednesday at the clinic near Medellin where she is recovering.

    "'We ran out of fuel. The airplane turned off,'" Sanchez told Arquimedes Mejia, who helped pull the flight attendant from the wreckage. "That was the only thing she told me," he told the Associated Press in an interview.

    Investigators also want to speak to Juan Sebastian Upegui, the copilot on an Avianca commercial flight who was in contact with air traffic controllers near Medellin's Jose Maria Cordova airport at the time the chartered plane went down.

    In a four-minute recording that appears to be an audio message to a friend, Upegui described how he heard the doomed flight's pilot request priority to land because he was out of fuel. Growing ever more desperate, the pilot eventually declared "Mayday! Mayday!" because of a "total electrical failure," Upegui said, before the plane quickly began to lose speed and altitude in an almost three-minute death spiral.

    "I remember I was pulling really hard for them, saying 'Make it, make it, make it, make it,'" Upegui says in the recording, which circulated on social media. "Then it stopped. … The controller's voice starts to break up and she sounds really sad. We're in the plane and start to cry."

    Another clue is the crash site itself, where no traces of fuel have been found. Often planes go up in flames upon impact but one reason a few passengers survived was because the plane didn't explode.

    John Cox, a retired airline pilot and chief executive of Florida-based Safety Operating Systems, said the aircraft's amount of fuel deserves a careful look.

    "The airplane was being flight planned right to its maximum. Right there it says that even if everything goes well they are not going to have a large amount of fuel when they arrive," said Cox. "I don't understand how they could do the flight nonstop with the fuel requirements that the regulations stipulate.""

    ReplyDelete
  14. At 7 minutes Mr. Sotomayor has some negative things to say about black women.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZ7LEiJDQw#t=535.252643

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Please drop a bomb on these hoods ASAP, Trump."

      Delete
    2. More Mayor:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilu33FYZdRA

      Delete
    3. I must admit, I never thought about fake black asses.

      Delete
  15. Colombian media also published audio of Bolivian pilot Miguel Quiroga communicating with the control tower operator at Medellin airport shortly before the crash.

    "Miss, Lamia 933 is in total failure, total electrical failure, without fuel," he said, according to the recordings.

    ...

    That matched the account from the co-pilot of an Avianca plane flying close by at the time who said he overheard the LAMIA plane reporting it was out of fuel and had to land.

    "Mayday mayday ... Help us get to the runway ... Help, help," Juan Sebastian Upegui described the pilot as saying in an audio message also played by local media.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I have often maintained here that ASH has earned, needs, deserves a good non harmful but intensely frightening MUGGING in order for him to establish a relationship with reality.

    Perhaps this might do as well ? Even if Ash is not a drinker/driver, he ought to be forced to listen to Nickelback on general social principles. It couldn't hurt.

    “Cruel and unusual”: The drunk drivers in Canada being forced to listen to Nickelback as punishment

    Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger performs during the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix after-race concert at the du Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, November 3, 2012. REUTERS/Jumana ElHeloueh (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT SPORT MOTORSPORT) - RTR39YBR


    Laying down the law. (Reuters/Jumana ElHeloueh)

    WRITTEN BY

    Amy X. Wang
    November 30, 2016

    In an instance of the punishment possibly being harsher than the crime, a Canadian police department is subjecting drunk drivers this holiday season to music from possibly the world’s most hated band.

    Kensington Police Service, which operates in the province of Prince Edward Island in Canada, announced on Facebook this week that “those dumb enough to feel they can drink and drive” in the remainder of the year will be slapped with not only a hefty fine, a year’s driving suspension, and a criminal charge—but also “a bonus gift of playing the office’s copy of Nickelback in the cruiser on the way to jail.”

    “I’m sure there’s some kind of law prohibiting this sort of police brutality,” one person commented on the police department’s post. Said another: “Don’t you think the type of people that has made such a horrible decision to drink and drive […] probably are Nickelback fans anyways?”

    Why Nickelback draws so much intense dislike remains the subject of much contention amongst scholars and internet dwellers; but the fact is that, thanks to years of online memes, the band’s name has become synonymous with a certain universal awfulness. (Several researchers have attempted to explore the roots of people’s revulsion. Some say our hatred of Nickelback is, in fact, a deep-down hatred of ourselves.)

    If nothing else, the Kensington police’s warning might be memorable enough to stick in people’s minds—which, given that alcohol-related road incidents tend to soar during the holiday season, is likely the point.

    http://qz.com/848318/cruel-and-unusual-the-drunk-drivers-in-canada-being-forced-to-listen-to-nickelback-as-punishment/

    ReplyDelete
  17. Medardo Gonzalez, leader of the party formed by Salvadoran rebels after 1992 peace accords, recalled Castro's almost obsessive fascination with guerrilla tactics when meeting with rebel leaders in the 1980s. "He spent hours with us, discussing both general strategy and tactics," Medardo said.

    ...

    But younger Salvadorans worry more about the government's offensive against violent street gangs, themselves partly born of the civil war, when young Salvadorans fled to the United States and formed the feared Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs.

    Castro "was a man who fought for his people, and had the courage to confront U.S. power," said Sebastian Perez, a Salvadoran. "I know he helped the guerrillas and that some here love him, but some hate him, as well."

    ReplyDelete