Pushed to the edge and really pissed off …

March 18, 2013 § 2 Comments

Hunger March – flickr/wikimedia commons

My old education institution in Florida – The Univ. Of Central Florida that was originally called Florida Technological Univ. – has had it’s own brush with a plot for mass violence. The person who was plotting this however committed suicide before carrying it out. Thought he did have the required implements of destruction.

UCF police said they received a fire alarm call around 12:20 a.m. As they responded to that call, police then received a 911 call reporting a man with a gun.

When police arrived, they found a student with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They also found a bag of improvised explosive devices, along with a handgun and an assault weapon. - Central Florida News 13

We may never really know the motivations behind this individual or his actions and proposed actions but it’s safe bet is was some personal problem or agenda that drove him to it.

There a those who like to see such situations as some idealistic political and/or religious or some other kind of plot. In most cases those who are involved are just people who feel they have been pushed too far and are generally just really pissed off and desperate. Desperation can drive people to do things and behave in a manner they would not under other circumstances.

If one looks at the history to most political and/or economic upheavals, they were generally started by people who had “Had enough” and were desperate. Even the Russian revolution caught Lenin by surprise when it began even though he and others had plotted the over throw of the Tzar, it was a spontaneous event by desperate people that initiated it. The same for the French revolution and nearly all other such situations.

And now with the current situation in Europe and the EU ministers decision on the Cyprus bank bail outs, they are sowing and fertilizing the seeds of another upheaval.

There’s been a great deal of discussion of how the deal came about, with a particularly detailed account at the Wall Street Journal. The new stance at the creditor nations and the ECB is that there will be “private sector participation” which is bureaucrat-speak for haircuts to the people who funded the banks. And in the fracas over renegotiating the pact so as to make it less unpalatable to the locals, the Eurozone officials have made clear they don’t care how Anastasiades skins this particular cat as long as he comes up with €5.8 billion from local deposits. Banks were due to be closed Monday on Cyprus for a holiday; officials are now considering imposing a bank holiday on Tuesday. Funds have been frozen in the meantime, producing what is likely to be the emblematic photo of this crisis, of a man trying to break into his bank branch:

. . . . .

Now the EU officials could easily calm nervous depositors by announcing an ECB-backstopped deposit guarantee, instead of the current national system which depends on not-exactly-credible central banks. Germany and its fellow surplus countries have hesitated about proceeding with the necessary steps to further economic integration (notice how the plan to implement eurozone wide bank supervision, which Germany insisted was a precondition to Eurozone-level deposit guarantees, has languished?). Germany is trying to maintain policies that are contradictory: it wants to continue to have large trade surpluses, yet not fund its trade partners; its wants debtors to meet their obligations, yet refuses to allow either enough in the way of fiscal deficits or monetary easing to keep debtor countries from falling into deflationary spirals, which assure default. Germany’s failure to relent on any of these conditions means that what breaks will be the financial system. – Naked Capitalism

It took FDR meeting with the heads of the unions and communists and socialist parties to convince him that this country was very close to another revolution in the 1930s. It was this sort of situation that brought Hitler to power and also brought down a number of leaders in other countries. People are not stupid and when they see that they are being sacrificed for the good of those in the upper crust..when they feel they have no say or recourse…when they feel desperate, they will eventually take matters into their own hands.

The PTB need to realize and be aware that it’s groups of highly desperate and pissed of people that will force a change in the current situation for good or bad. Not some high minded organized plot by some subversive element. Though these elements will often take credit for it, they generally are not the instigators.

Ha!

November 8, 2012 § 7 Comments

Image

found on facebook

 

Going There

October 17, 2012 § 4 Comments

Women in binders?

When Romney uttered the phrase “Women in binders” I absolutely could not stop myself from thinking about the Chinese custom of foot binding for women.

Foot binding in China was outlawed in 1912 and in the 21st century there are only a few ‘outlaws’ left to bear witness to this awful custom. A hundred years. A hundred freaking years! It takes that long to erase this kind of crushing (literally bone crushing) kind of subjugation of women.

The next thing I thought was, under a Romney administration, will women lose what they have gained?

I’m not even talking about making further advances. I’m talking about being able to keep what we already have; the economic, social and personal gains. I fear a Romney administration will chip away at those until we are back in 1912 with our feet bound and our ability to walk proud once again crippled.

 

cross-posted at dagblog.com

In Cleveland Public Transportation is for Black People

October 2, 2012 § 3 Comments

Cleveland Trolly 1947 – flickr

Cleveland’s public transportation began like nearly all of the urban areas in this country. First with horse drawn cars and then a few cable cars and then electrified with electric trolly cars. Cleveland had electric trolleys up until the 1940s when they began to replace them with electric buses – so called trackless trolleys. Cleveland had trackless trolleys up until the last line was converted to diesel buses in 1962. The Lorain Av. Line on the west side of town. Contrary to popular belief, the city’s decision to got the diesel bus route was because of the the new heavy rail system that was to be expanded to the airport. The first in the country to do so. It was feared that the city could not provide enough electric power for both the electric buses and the heavy rail. « Read the rest of this entry »

CONSPIRACIES

August 30, 2012 § 7 Comments

Morte di Giulio Cesare (“Death of Julius Caesar”). By Vincenzo Camuccini, 1798

CONSPIRACY TO KILL OBAMA

Members of our military attempted to assassinate the President of the United States!

http://www.govexec.com/defense/2012/08/prosecutors-us-soldiers-plotted-kill-president-obama/57678/

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/08/prosecutors-us-soldiers-plotted-kill-president-obama/56238/

       QUIP: Seven_Days_in_May?

LIMBAUGH CONSPIRACIES

Meteorologists conspired to impel Isaac to attack the Florida Peninsula!

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/08/anatomy-rush-limbaughs-hurricane-isaac-non-conspiracy-conspiracy/56260/

QUIP: And then the weathermen attempted to underline the Katrina Crisis!

Rich people are just poor people with money.

http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/08/29/rush-limbaugh-rich-people-are-just-poor-people/189638

QUIP: yeah naked peoples are that same as clothed people except they have no clothes!

Conspiracy by MSNBC

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/30/rush-limbaugh-msnbc-sick-depraved-place_n_1844261.html?utm_hp_ref=media

QUIP: Does Rusho ever examine Mediamatters? Or does Rusho ever listen to his own broadcasts?

International corporations (is that not most of the corps?)

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/

       QUIP: Does the word international have any implications here?

BILL BURR (2008)

Bill Burr predicting that Obama will win the election in 08. That way all the pigs can blame the end of America on a Black Guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiPkxIdNXRQ&feature=related

 

       QUIP: The GOP has taken this mantra to it’s ultimate conclusion in the 2012 Convention!

GOP: Factcheckers are conspiring to prove our messages are false.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/

       QUIP: (It will be the fatcheckers who screw Chris Christie’s chances in 2016!)

CONSPIRACIES IN GENERAL

We did not land on the moon.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/photogalleries/apollo-moon-landing-hoax-pictures/

Jesse James was a good guy fighting the good fight conspiracy.

Jesse James was a goddamnable Confederate Terrorist!

The Fluoride Conspiracy

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=14949

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfjU3_XOaA

The Daylight Saving Time Conspiracy

http://geography.about.com/cs/daylightsavings/a/dst.htm

http://www.standardtime.com/

The Light Bulb Conspiracy.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/02/10/422981/rep-steve-king-at-cpac-nancys-stasi-made-me-use-energy-efficient-light-bulbs/

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/michele-bachmann-light-bulbs-agenda-21

The Gold Standard Conspiracy

http://trueconspiracyblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/honest-truth-about-gold-standard.html

http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-02-01/going-back-to-the-gold-standard/

The Hooker Conspiracy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Woman

(If you are a good prostitute you will meet the man of your dreams and he will have money!)

The Corn Syrup Conspiracy.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060629114622AA6TmCZ

UFO’s ON THE MOON

http://ufos.about.com/od/nasaufos/p/moonufos1.htm

http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicphotos.html

http://www.educatinghumanity.com/2012/08/Neil-Armstrong-Dead-Did-He-See-UFOs-Moon.html

COMMENT

This is the one conspiracy I really get into.

I mean over the last week or so I have read twenty links regarding the theory that there are UFO’s on the moon and especially on the dark side of the moon.

I am fascinated by this theory because of all the auditory recordings indicating great structures on the moon and in the skies over the moon at the time of our landings.

And this nutsiness is underlined by the fact that many astronauts in space and simply in our Earth’s atmosphere have reported these UFO’s.

In the current time of drones and aircraft that we shall never be introduced to in the next decade; something is out there.

That is all I have this week.

Except:

DOES MASTURBATION CAUSE BLINDNESS?

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/does-masturbation-cause-blindness/

I am not that sure of this conspiracy but the keyboard and the screen are getting harder and harder to perceive as I move on in years.

 

 

Republican’s Southern strategy – More than just votes.

August 28, 2012 § 9 Comments

WPA House New Orleans – flickr

It should be rather obvious that the republican part is the party of white people. More specifically white people who are very religious, fairly rich and hold racist views of non-whites. « Read the rest of this entry »

MARGIN CALL

August 15, 2012 § 12 Comments

An image from Max Ernst‘s Une Semaine de Bonté

An assayer is a person who tests ores and minerals and analyzes them to determine their composition and value. They may use spectrographic analysis, chemical solutions, and chemical or laboratory equipment, such as furnaces, beakers, graduates, pipettes, and crucibles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assayer

Vice President Joe Biden charged that Mitt Romney’s policies on banking would put Americans “back in chains,” NBC News reported.

Biden, known for his over-the-top rhetoric, made the comment in a campaign stop in Danville, Va. It apparently stems from Romney opposition to financial reforms enacted by the Obama administration in response to the 2008 financial crisis.

“Romney wants to, he said in the first 100 days, he’s gonna let the big banks again write their own rules,” Biden said according to NBC. “’Unchain Wall Street!” Biden added, “They’re going to put you all back in chains.”

The Romney campaign labeled the remarks as a “new low” after weeks of “slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney.”

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/biden-romney-election-chains/2012/08/14/id/448534

Speak to me as if I am a small child or a Labrador Retriever.

What is happening exactly?

Jeremy Irons (Margin_Call)

In the beginning of Margin Call, Kevin Spacey is in tears….his dog is dying. He complains to his confessor that the dog is costing him a thousand bucks a day just to keep the poor bugger alive after it was discovered that he has a cancerous tumor on his liver.

Have you ever lost a pet? Have you ever had to bury a pet? More later!

Tucci, one of my favorite actors for over two decades plays the man who discovers in his role as a seasoned predictor of havoc in some Wall Street firm (that is most probably Goldman Sachs) that Armageddon is near. The year is 2008 and all hell will soon break through as a direct result of four or five years or more of bundling ARM mortgages for sale to the world.

Zachery Quinto plays the assayist as I have defined the term in the context of this film critique.

You might recall Mr. Quinto in another role involving superheroes of a sort!

Quinto’s character is given a computer ‘disc’ from Tucci’s character and begins working with the info contained therein at two in the morning only to discover that the entire American Financial Structure (I capitalize everything in order to give my readers awe; kind of like when repubs capitalize the name ‘Reagan’) is about to capsize into a sea of sewage created by a mortgage scam perpetrated by fascist pricks who head the American Capitalist system.

Quinto then communicates his findings to his boss and his underling and chaos ensues.

Spacey is eventually called to return to the scene of the crime and we witness one of the best board room meetings I have ever seen.

Spacey (who looks older and more haggard than usual and worn by his years working for the devil) must answer to the idiot posing as his superior (played by Simon Baker the Australian whose performance just knocked my socks off!).

Baker’s character demands to know the credentials of the fellow played by Quinto and is informed that the genius who figured out how the world was about to end has several degrees in physics and computer software.

SO YOU ARE A ROCKET SCIENTIST?

One of the best lines ever delivered in all of cinema!

As background we all know that we are in our current economic dilemma because of Mitt-like bastards who bundled mortgages sold to folks who had no idea what the final monthly fee would be for those mortgages.

Jeremy Irons shows up in a helicopter on the top of the skyscraper housing the fraudulent folks selling the bundles of crap that Quinto has proved to be more worthless than polls created by Pudge Luntz.

(I just viewed Irons playing Klaus Van Bulow and if you cannot keep from an urge to shoot the sonofabitch, you are a better man than me!)

Irons plays the CEO of this fictional doppleganger of Goldman-Sachs.

Irons plays the bastard who demands that Quinto speak to him as if he were a child or a dog.

Irons represents everything I hate about this country with an English accent. Hahahahaha

Based upon the rocket scientist’s findings, the order is sent out to kill all the newborn babies in the empire…or rather sell the worthless crap that has emanated from the fascist organization for years to unsuspecting buyers (unsuspecting fascist pricks who represent millions of investors per unions and trusts and whatever) as quickly as possible.

Spacey, who still has managed to keep some of his humanity following decades of working for these fascist pigs, gives the pitch to all his underlings (whereby we learn that he really has lost 99% of his humanity decades before) that they must do everything they can to sell all interests in these bundles within an hour or two of the opening bell and that in return they will all most likely lose their jobs but gain between one mill and three mill in bonuses!

If we are successful today, you shall lose all of the trust you have ever had with your buyers….

But our talents have been used for the greater good!

Kevin Spacey

The worthless feces is sold on the market that morning following the opening bell by liars hoping to make a million bucks out of nothing.

As the credits run, Kevin Spacey is digging the grave for his dog and the sound of the digging lasts longer than the scene as the credits run.

I have had to bury a dog or two during my worthless lifetime and let me tell you that there is real grief experienced in the process.

I recall the last time I participated in this lonely ritual of internment, and I felt so lost and so aching and so helpless.

Spacey ends up being the greatest actor in the film that features so many great actors.

And as I viewed this film for the fourth time, I realize that Spacey best reflects what is wrong with this nation and not the Iron’s character.

The real number reflecting despair and loss perpetrated by corporate pigs like those running Goldman-Sachs and other corporate vampires amounts to hundreds of millions of real people losing everything all at once.

I did have one thought.

What if this film had come out this year instead of two years ago?

Then I recalled that the film aired in 2010 when the morons who voted in that year’s election threw out the House majority in favor of more vampires.

So what the hell?

We’re all goin to hell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxr-fbtV1-8

AND ME, I’M AL FRANKEN!

July 25, 2012 § 1 Comment

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/3550697&newclip

I am watching ( A REPLAY) of Al at 9:00 PM ( July 25, 2012) give a speech on the Senate Floor today. (via CSPAN)

He was eulogizing Tom Davis his old partner, his old partner at SNL and at our local comedy club at the U fifty years ago.

I am crying.

AND ME, I’M AL FRANKEN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIETlxquzY

It was in the early days of SNL that you might have heard this.

I knew immediately what that sonofabitch was doing.

But so did everyone else.

And it worked!

Well Davis was his old partner.

And Tom Davis just died of cancer and Al thought:

I am going to speak of my best friend’s death on the floor of the United States Senate!

And Al did.

And I love Al.

And I am awed by Al.

And I shall grieve the death of Tom Davis.

A wonderful eulogy. For sure!

That’s all I got right now!

Except:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_mwsDFm7bQ

If Paul Wellstone had not died, not 20 miles from where I write this in 2002 October, Al would never have run for the US Senate.

Paul was my god and now Al is my Saint!

That’s my Senator along with Senator Amy;

MAY THEY REIGN FOREVER! HA

CROSSBALLS AND ALEXANDER COCKBURN

July 22, 2012 § 4 Comments

Okay so America is divided.

A great writer/journalist recently died.

As I read some of his obits and checked with Wiki, I discovered a wonderful paradigm/parable written by this man.

Alexander Cockburn recently passed away at the age of of 71.

He was angry with the Media (as defined two or three decades ago). He had bad things to say about MacNeil/Lehrer for heavens sake calling them the Tedium Twins. hahahah

So he wrote a piece that one might have viewed decades later on a satire called Cross-Balls.

Three journalists/pundits/empty-heads argue the merits of slavery.

The conservative lauds slavery as Calhoun and his constituents might have argued it 175 years ago.

The Negro is subhuman and needs ‘our help’ just as horses and jack-asses and dogs need our help.

And blah, blah, blah….

The liberal argues a sort of ASPCA perspective.

We must be kinder to our Negro friends!

And the abolitionist is cut off by the ‘mediator’ every frickin time he opens his mouth.

Hahhahaahaaha

Here is another imaginary broadcast of MacNeil/Lehrer by this eminent satirist concerning a decision of the Roman who ordered the execution of a nice person:

MACNEIL: Good evening. The Roman procurator in Jerusalem is trying to decide whether a man regarded by many as a saint should be put to death. Pontius Pilate is being urged by civil libertarians to intervene in what is seen here in Rome as being basically a local dispute. Tonight, the crucifixion debate. Jim?

JIM LEHRER: Robin, the provinces of Judaea and Galilee have always been trouble spots, and this year is no exception. The problem is part religious, part political, and in many ways a mixture of both. The Jews believe in one god. Discontent in the province has been growing, with many local businessmen complaining about the tax burden. Terrorism, particularly in Galilee, has been on the increase. In recent months, a carpenter’s son from the town of Nazareth has been attracting a large following with novel doctrines and faith healing. He recently entered Jerusalem amid popular acclaim, but influential Jewish leaders fear his power. Here in Alexandria the situation is seen as dangerous. Robin?

MACNEIL: Recently in Jerusalem on a fact-finding mission for the Emperor’s Emergency Task Force on Provincial Disorders was Quintilius Maximus. Mr. Maximus, how do you see the situation?

MAXIMUS: Robin, I had occasion to hear one of this preacher’s sermons a few months ago and talk with his aides. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a threat to peace and should be crucified.

MACNEIL: Pontius Pilate should wash his hands of the problem?

MAXIMUS: Absolutely.

MACNEIL: I see. Thank you. Jim?

LEHRER: Now for a view from Mr. Simon, otherwise known as Peter. He is a supporter of Christ and has been standing by in a Jerusalem studio. Robin?

MACNEIL: Mr. Simon Peter, why do you support Christ?

SIMON PETER: He is the Son of God and presages the Second Coming. If I may, I would like to read some relevant passages from the prophet Isaiah.

MACNEIL: Thank you, but I’m afraid we’ll have to break in there. We’ve run out of time. Goodnight, Jim.

LEHRER: Good night, Robin.

MACNEIL: Sleep well, Jim.

LEHRER: I hope you sleep well, too, Robin.

MACNEIL: I think I will. Well, good night again, Jim.

LEHRER: Goodnight, Robin.

http://www.greanvillepost.com/2010/04/26/the-political-function-of-pbs/

SATIRE?

Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) has ‘drawn a line in the sand’ with regard to gun control following the Aurora catastrophe.

Bloomberg and Murdoch. have drawn similar lines atop the mounds of bullet casings.

Now is the time to strike on this issue as writers at Salon and Dailybeast have written.

Look, the Left is sick and tired of the NRA owning this issue for less than 3 mill a year. This is just damn silly.

Hunting is one thing but I doubt Buffalo Bill would countenance scopes on hunting rifles with laser features. I mean why not develop a heat sensing bullet/missile that could claim your prize in the ‘wilderness’?

But automatic weapons (fuck this stuff about semi-automatic weapons; I just viewed the Pale Rider again last night and a colt-45 is an automatic weapon. Eastwood simply kept entire bullet holders in his belt—not single bullets) that carry 6 rounds as opposed to the 60 round machine gun carried by the Aurora shooter are indefensible.

Here is the argument from the Right I was not going to duplicate:

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings that took place in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater hours earlier were a result of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” and questioned why nobody else in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter.

During a radio interview on The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live!” show, Gohmert was asked why he believes such senseless acts of violence take place. Gohmert responded by talking about the weakening of Christian values in the country.

“You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of terror like this takes place,” Gohmert said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/louie-gohmert-aurora-shootings_n_1689099.html

I do not know what to say to this guy!

I question whether or not he should even be quoted since he and other NAZI sympathizers like Rush get all this air time anyway. Hell, Goopert will be re-elected anyway because his constituents would not vote him out of office if they aired a video of him having coitus with the likes of Madoff.

But the real reason for this analysis began with a comment replayed on cable and the net by some gun nut.

Basically the fellow, once again (following similar comments by NAZI pricks over the decades) that this tragedy would not have occurred if the ‘good guys’ had been armed at the theatre.

But our anti-hero wore a bullet-proof vest as well as a helmet and gas mask and the shootings occurred after he filled the theatre with tear gas.

WHAT IN THE FUCK WOULD YOU BE SHOOTING AT?

You cannot see and the fellow had over half his body protected from your goddamn 32 caliber bullets!

To say nothing of the fact that when you are blind you might ‘hit’ innocents including yourself.

There is some hope on the horizon. I mean we see little rays of sunshine sometimes emanating from ominous clouds.

Wolf Blitzer has drawn a line in the sand per the latest rantings of Michelle Bachmann, our Minnesota Representative with the mental illness issues.

It seems that Wolf is not the least bit sympathetic to her recent rants against Muslims in the State Department—well Muslims throughout the entire Obama Administration.

And there is hope that the Democratic Challenger for Michelle’s seat might actually succeed in his challenge because of these mental lapses by Michelle my belle and because there is no independent challenger involved in this campaign—one must recognize that in 2010 the independent candidate actually received 10% of the vote.

And other Repubs have joined in the attack upon Bachmann and her terroristic perspective.

Just as an aside, Minnesota has been represented in Congress by the likes of Hubert Humphrey and Gene McCarthy and Frazier and a host of wonderful statesmen and stateswomen.

But Minnesota has also seen the likes of Pawlenty and Vin Webber and Rudy Boswich along with a host of other repub pricks.

Our State Electors appear locked into a second Obama Presidency but Minnesota is plagued currently with birthers and anti-women nuts and paid corporate fronts and other repubs dedicated to turning our State into a Walker Wisconsin.

Thank the Good Lord that a man called Dayton (from an old and trusted Minnesota aristocratic clan) became Governor with a margin of victory reflecting the margin of victory for Senator Al Franken, who has managed to stop the conservative/corporate/plutarchist movement in this state.

As another aside, Governor Dayton previously served six years in the Senate and was more than just a vote helping to get Obama’s legislation through the Upper House between 2009 and 2011 when we still had some hope for change in this nation.

CONCLUSION

Maybe we should all appear in public with bullet proof vests and leggings (better include a bullet proof cup) and concealed weapons in order to protect ourselves from psychos.

Or maybe we should open up the courts to civil suits against the Masters of War who continue to arm those psychos!

The end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDpWurAGRsY

Cold War – Hot Profits

July 15, 2012 § 1 Comment

“I’ve found the job where I fit best!” – Artist: George Ropper

Anyone who was here state side during WWII can tell you of the rationing that went on. Everything was rationed. From bread to tires. They can also tell you that no matter what industry you were in, you were doing defense work. WWII took this country from nearly 30% unemployment to 0 unemployment over night. New businesses formed overnight to meet the demands. Struggling businesses like Willys Motors became major contractors.

There were factories and corporations making each other’s products to meet the demand of the military. RCA, Stromberg Carlson, and Bendix all making the same radios. Willys and Ford made the Jeeps. Whole towns grew up from nothing to support new ship and arms factories. One could say that nearly every corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of USA Inc. The technology of the time expanded at a breakneck pace and the war paid for nearly all of it.

When WWII came to an end in 1945 the so called Cold War against what was called Communism began as well as a new war to fight it. Korea and the cold war kept many of these plants humming right along. And new defense systems needed new advances which meant lots of dollars for research and development and nearly all of it paid for by Uncle Sam. Working for a defense contractor – and at that time nearly all the major corporations were defense contractors – meant you could get whatever new and necessary equipment you needed to advance your project. And a lot of this made its way to the products that were sold to the general public as well.

Pretty sweet deal wouldn’t you say? Putting a good part of your research staff’s overhead on the government’s bill. And if the US military stopped being interested, you could also sell it to France or Egypt or Iran or Iraq or Israel or some South American country. And nearly every technical advance we saw had its origin or was advanced in some way through military material need – and I include NASA here . From television – improved for WWII, to computers – ENIAC for WWII became IBM. « Read the rest of this entry »

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