Profit Motive

 

                                             

Despite the fact that business ranks as one of the top college majors, it is true that many college graduates today would prefer to work for a non-profit organization than a profit making one.  There would appear to be a stigma attached to working for personal gain.  To many working for profit is ignoble, even crass. 

This attitude is not just found in the young but in all levels of our society.  It helps to explain the contempt we see directed today at words like Capitalism and Capitalist, both of which are terms of opprobrium in progressive and Democratic Socialist circles. Indeed, popular fiction and movies have ingrained in us a cardboard stereotype of the money-grubbing, overweight, usually lecherous business tycoon.

Nevertheless, because of the bad connotation of the word Capitalist, I prefer to think of myself as an advocate of a free-market economy based on private property rights. By law and tradition in America, we all have the right to profit from our education, our knowledge, our experience, and our labor. It is the key to our success.

Countless examples could be provided to demonstrate the success of a free market economy versus a government controlled socialist model. Here is one example that shows that modern China’s economic success is due more to the profit motive than Socialist ideology. 

A few years ago, I read an op-ed in the Wall Street journal by Michael Meyer in which he noted a truly revolutionary development in a Chinese village over 40 years ago.  After taking power in China in 1949 Chairman Mao and the Communist party had effectively abolished private land ownership. Villages were organized into communes “crippled by production quotas that seized most of what they grew for redistribution.” 

The result was a disaster just as it had been in Communist Russia decades earlier. Meyer tells the story of the village of Xiaogang where by 1978 the villagers could no longer meet their quota because they were starving. They were eating roots, leaves, and tree bark. Driven to desperation the farmers decided to defy the authorities.

They signed a pledge to divide the village land into family plots whose produce could be kept by each family once it had paid the required quota or tax. The results were revolutionary. Next year saw a record harvest that led the local political boss to complain that the farmers “had dug up the cornerstone of socialism.” 

Inevitably, the news and the practice spread until the popular land reform that defied communist orthodoxy became officially adopted after Mao’s death. Deng Xiaoping, his successor, urged the Chinese to ignore political dogma and instead “seek truth from facts.”

Interestingly, this same revolution had an antecedent in early American history. After two years of near starvation, the Pilgrim fathers at Plymouth colony abandoned their experiment with communal farming and divided the land into family plots worked by all members of the family. The colony never starved again. 

Why should it be so hard for people today to understand the value of the profit motive? Not only do the companies in my investment portfolio turn a decent profit, but also they provide invaluable goods and services for millions of people. They light and heat our homes as well as enable us to communicate easily with one another. 

The little revolution in Xiaogang not only fed the people of that village but it also has enabled China’s population to eat and prosper as never before. Democratic Socialists may think that Communism succeeded in China but it was really private property and free enterprise that made China an industrial giant. 

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Medicare for All

 

 

One of the planks in the Democratic Socialist platform is Medicare for All. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other leading Democratic Socialists never fail to include it in their demands.The influence of the DSA is growing within the Progressive wing of the Democratic party, and it looks like Medicare for All will be a big issue in the upcoming mid-term elections.

 

However, we already have Medicare for all. Most of us are enrolled in Medicare in the same way we are enrolled in Social Security. Anyone with taxable income must contribute to Medicare in the same way they contribute to Social Security. All employees must contribute 1.45% of each paycheck to their Medicare account. Employers are required to match that contribution so that the total amount comes to 2.9% of pay. For most workers the Medicare tax goes largely unnoticed since it is a payroll deduction.

 

The tax is more visible to self-employed individuals since they must pay the whole 2.9% themselves and actually cut a check for the amount on a quarterly basis.

 

Unlike the Social Security tax which only applies to the first $185,000 of income, there is no limit on the amount of income subject to the Medicare tax. Let’s take a look at some examples.

 

Someone working at the minimum wage of $15.00 per hour for 2000 hours a year would have an annual income of $30,000. To make it easy let’s round off the Medicare tax rate of 2.9% to 3%. The worker’s Medicare tax would be $900 a year. We can call it the annual premium for Medicare insurance which will begin to pay off at age 65.

 

In our next example, the worker’s annual income is $200,000. That number is significant because over that amount, the employer is no longer required to match, and the employee must pay the whole 2.9%. In fact, on income over $200,000, there is a surcharge of 1% bringing the total to 3.9%. To keep it simple for now, this worker’s Medicare tax would be 3% of $200,000 or about $6,000 per year. In other words, his Medicare insurance premium is $6000 per year for the same plan that costs the minimum wage employee $900 per year. 

 

Finally, let’s look at really high earners like movie and rock stars, professional athletes, and even CEOs who have incomes of $20 Million per year. Since there is no limit on the amount of income subject to the Medicare tax, and since there is a 1% surcharge, their effective tax rate of 4% means that their Medicare tax would be 4% of $20,000,000 or $800,000 per year. That's right, $800,000! Remember, even though their Medicare insurance premium is huge, they still get the same coverage as anyone else. Actually, these wealthy people don't even need Medicare. It’s really amazing that Democratic Socialists want to eliminate the billionaires who fund Medicare.

 

Of course, people with little or no taxable income would currently be eligible for Medicaid but Progressives and Democratic Socialists really want free Medicare for all at any age. But do they?

 

Does Medicare for All mean that Senator Sanders and other politicians would give up their current gold-plated government plans for Medicare or Medicaid? I don’t think so. When Obamacare was passed, members of Congress were supposed to join that plan and give up their Federal medical insurance but that never happened. I doubt that any federal, state, or municipal employee would want to give up their current medical insurance for Medicare.

 

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Quote of the day: All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. George Orwell, Animal Farm.

 

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Scientific Consensus 2026

I was born on July 19, 1939 in New York City. Google AI indicates that my mother was lucky that day since the temperature in pre-air conditioned New York City only reached an unseasonable 81 degrees. Three years earlier, on July 9, 1936 the temp reached 106 degrees, what would turn out to be the  high for the whole twentieth century. 

As I wondered about temperature in July,  some recent news items came to mind. Last week smoke from forest fires in Canada drifted down into the Northeast area and created uncomfortable, even dangerous air quality. No one can blame President Trump since just three years ago in 2023, during the Biden administration, Canadian fires had caused similar air quality concerns in the area. Fortunately, the latest episode only lasted a few days, and the World Cup final was held in New Jersey's Meadowlands on one of the most beautiful days of the year.

More important was the news a few weeks ago that scientists in Europe had rejected their worst case scenario for Climate Change, and said that recent developments had made it implausible. The recent developments included human efforts to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. It is hard to credit their explanation since China and India, by far the two most populous nations in the world are not leaders in renewable energy. 

Anyway, the fact that they would discard a worst case scenario that most scientists had accepted just a few years ago led me to revisit a post that I had written in 2017 on scientific consensus, The post was in response to a video of Senator Bernie Sanders berating a Trump appointee back in 2017.

I recently saw a video of Senator Bernie Sanders grilling Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the post of director of the Environmental Protection Agency. Throughout his seven minutes Sanders repeatedly demanded that Pruitt affirm that 97% of scientists believe that global warming is a grave threat to the planet; that it is caused by human activity; and that the government must take steps to shut down the use of fossil fuels. Of course, Sanders jumped in and interrupted every attempt by Pruitt to answer his questions. He ended by saying that he could not vote to confirm him, as if there was ever any doubt.

To be fair I must say that Sanders qualified his question by adding that the 97% figure referred to the percentage of peer-reviewed papers that had appeared in climate change journals and other similar publications. I think that this qualifier is overlooked when most people consider the question of scholarly or scientific consensus. I can certainly believe that 97% of these peer-reviewed papers support the human responsibility for global warming. What is hard to believe is that 3% of the papers were able to sneak their way through the peer-review process and cast doubt on the hypothesis. 

My own experience makes me skeptical about the whole peer-review process. For years I have subscribed to a couple of scholarly journals on the Renaissance. Inevitably, they feature articles or book reviews on Shakespeare. Never have I seen one that would even hint that the great plays and poems might have been written by a man of much greater education and life experience than the man from Stratford on Avon. 

Great writers like Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Henry James raised the question in the nineteenth century. Sigmund Freud shared the view that someone else was the author as did Shakespearean actors like Orson Welles and Derek Jacobi. Dozens of books on the authorship question have appeared in the past few years but most go unmentioned in the peer-reviewed journals.

My own experience in the field of Renaissance art history has also made me question the peer-review process. In the past twenty years, I have been able to arrive at plausible interpretations of some of the most well-known but most mysterious paintings of the Renaissance. I have done the research, written up my findings but found that the peer-review process is a closed shop, only open to peers. Necessity made me turn to the web and in 2010 I put my interpretations online and also created a blog, Giorgione et al..., to explore the subject further. 

Scholars often urge their students to “think outside the box” but rarely follow their own advice. Although their politics may be liberal and even radical, they tend to be conservative when it comes to their own subject. Graduate students have to be aware of the danger of criticizing their mentors. Professors must still publish to keep their jobs, advance their careers, or gain grant monies. It is very difficult to challenge the traditional wisdom or orthodoxy.  As one art historian wrote,

“To do so would be to question the competence of most of those who have written on the subject, and this is something that no one…wants to do…the longer those views have gone unchallenged the greater the authority that they have acquired.”

Galileo is a hero to so-called “freethinkers” but in his time, he stood virtually alone against all the professional scientists and mathematicians of his time who dominated the institutions of higher learning. He used a primitive telescope to destroy the elaborate system accepted by more that 97% of the leading experts. Oddly enough, a few Jesuit astronomers were among his early supporters.

Climate change has become like a new religion and its priests can be found in the scientific establishment. Their devoted followers march in street processions to proclaim their beliefs and attack heretics. For them the issue is settled and no further debate is necessary. What are they and Bernie Sanders afraid of? Why did he find it necessary to interrupt and ignore any attempt on the part of Scott Pruitt to reply? 

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Democratic Socialist Primaries

People like Senator Bernie Sanders are old enough to understand that it was necessary to add the word Democratic to Socialism in order to separate it from its sordid and murderous past. After all, only the most diehard Socialist would want to be linked with the National Socialists (NAZIs) in Germany under Adolph Hitler, or the Communists in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, or the Communists in China under Chairman Mao. These regimes imprisoned and killed millions of their own people.

Today’s Democratic Socialists believe that they can avoid the errors and excesses of the past and build a new society based on truly democratic principles. They believe that America has been undemocratic for years, and that few have shared in its prosperity, even more so during the current Trump administration. 

Although the recent victories of Democratic Socialists in New York City and elsewhere have garnered National attention, they are far from democratic. In none of these primaries did the winner get even 20 percent of the district’s total vote. Low voter turnout has long been common in blue cities. Why is this so? 

Low voter turnout in political primaries is traditional especially in major cities where candidates for general elections are usually chosen by party leaders, or by a minority of eligible voters. Either the great majority of voters don’t care or think that their votes don’t matter. Even on election day, most eligible voters don’t turn out to vote. Why?

I don’t think voter suppression explains why most Democrats didn’t vote in the recent NYC primaries. I think that rather than rising up to fight for equality and prosperity for all, most Democrats realize that they have it made. 

If we look under the so-called Big Tent of the Democratic party, what do we find. Unions, especially public service unions, are the solid core of votes and financing for the Party. They are the Party’s backbone. They are the party of government from the Federal government down to local municipalities.

Unlike the people they serve, public service union members at every level cannot lose their jobs, or experience pay cuts. Even in retirement, they have it made. They have pensions far better than ordinary people’s Social Security benefits, as well as superior medical insurance plans. None of them have to be enrolled in Obamacare. They and their families have been beneficiaries of government largess most of their lives. Why should they rock the boat and vote against Democratic Socialists who want to increase the role of government.?

My home state of Connecticut is always listed as a blue state. Bridgeport is Connecticut’s most populous city with about 150,000 residents, but the city has been controlled by Democrats for years. In the last Mayoral election the Democratic Mayor won over a Democratic challenger with about 6,000 out of 10,000 votes cast. Some Democracy!

Rather than people who have not shared in American prosperity, the core of the Democratic party are the public service union members who have prospered over the past 50 years from the tremendous growth of government at all levels.

Perhaps this explains why many hate President Trump so much. He is rocking their boat more than AOC. 

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Stan and Ollie

 

Here's a post with some recommended summer viewing. 

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were without doubt the best comedy team in film history. Originally paired during the silent era, they easily made the transition to talkies. During the 1930s they reached the height of their popularity appearing in almost countless features and shorts. 

Their feature films included a number of operettas like The Devil’s Brother, The Bohemian Girl, and the ever-popular Thanksgiving favorite, The March of the Wooden Soldiers, where they provided the comic relief. But the features in which they starred are their best. Below find brief reviews of my favorites features and shorts. 

 

Sons of the Desert.  

Stan and Ollie play next door neighbors who trick their wives so they can secretly attend the Chicago convention of their fraternal order, the Sons of the Desert. Many believe this 1933 film is Laurel and Hardy’s best feature, both a critical success and one of the year’s top ten box office draws. 

The film has one hilarious skit after another and also exults in bone-crushing slapstick. Ollie winds up the target of endless pots and pans and kitchen crockery all hurled with unerring accuracy by his carving knife wielding wife, played by Mae Busch, one of Hollywood’s best comediennes. The film also features Charley Chase as an obnoxious lodge member, and Dorothy Christie as Mr. Laurel’s beautiful shotgun-toting wife. A popular tune, Honolulu Baby, danced by a night club chorus line, has become a cult classic.  64 minutes.

 

Way Out West. 

In this 1937 film Stan and Ollie play two men on a mission to deliver the deed to a deceased prospector’s gold mine to the daughter whom he had left behind with a sleazy saloon keeper and his gold-digging wife. This film is marked by one hilarious gag after another, often repeated.

It also showcases Stan and Ollie’s song and dance skills in three numbers. Stan’s career started as a song and dance man in English vaudeville, and Ollie had a fine voice. Adding to the fun is James Finlayson, a Laurel and Hardy regular, who plays the saloon keeper, and Dinah the mule who plays a key role in some of the skits. 63 minutes.

 

Blockheads.

In this 1938 film Stan and Ollie play wartime buddies who had been separated in the last days of WWI. Twenty years later Stan is discovered still guarding his post in the trenches. Ollie, now happily married, sees Stan’s picture in the newspaper and goes off to visit him in a nearby home for veterans. They meet and Ollie invites him home for dinner.

When they meet, Stan asks if Ollie remembers how dumb he used to be and then claims that he is better now. From that point on he causes a series of hilarious mishaps that wreck Ollie’s car, apartment, and marriage. Ollie’s next-door neighbor is played by the irascible Billy Gilbert, another Laurel and Hardy regular.

 

The Flying Deuces. 

On vacation in Paris, Ollie falls in love with the innkeeper’s daughter only to be heart broken when she reveals there is another man. In a hilarious scene, he attempts to commit suicide by drowning himself in the Seine and insists Stan do likewise. A passerby talks them out of it, and suggests they join the French Foreign Legion in order to forget the girl. 

I suppose the makers of this film tried to capitalize on the success of Beau Geste, a Foreign Legion drama released earlier in 1939. In any event, Ollie never acted better playing the love-sick suitor. The film also includes another of their fine song and dance numbers, as well as Stan’s rendition of the “World is Waiting for the Sunrise,” played on a makeshift harp fashioned out of a bedspring while they wait in prison to be shot at sunrise. 69 minutes. 

 

Big Business.

Stan and Ollie play door to door Christmas tree salesmen in this 1929 silent short. When an irascible homeowner turns them down, one thing leads to another, and a little altercation becomes an all-out battle. This short film is a comedy classic listed by the Library of Congress on the National Film Registry. 19 minutes.

 

The Music Box.

In this short Stan and Ollie play movers charged with the delivery of a player piano to a home atop many flights of steps. They park their horse drawn cart at the base of the steps and proceed to attempt to carry the crate enclosed piano up the steps. They meet one obstacle after another but finally get to the top only to encounter even greater obstacles. This comedy classic is also included in the National Film Registry. 29 minutes.

 

Them Thar Hills.

This 1934 short is not on the National Film Registry but it is still my favorite. Ollie has a large cast on his gout ridden leg, and his doctor, played by Billy Gilbert, claims that the gout is caused by too much high living. He suggests that the boys go camping in the mountains, lead the simple life, and drink plenty of mountain water. 

They attach a camper to their car and drive to the mountains where they park near a deserted house with a nearby well. Unbeknownst to them, moonshiners have just dumped a load of liquor in the well. The boys find the “mountain water” delightfully refreshing, and as they freely imbibe, they get increasingly high. This film also features Mae Busch. 20 minutes.

Most of these films can be viewed on Youtube for free but a few years ago a Laurel and Hardy DVD box set appeared that included an almost complete collection on 10 discs. The tenth disc includes a tribute where comedians like Jerry Lewis and Dick Van Dyke expressed their appreciation and debt to Stan and Ollie.

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Independence Day 2026

 I concentrated on eighteenth century British politics in my brief academic career more than 50 years ago. In the process I came to realize the importance of British politics for a true understanding of the American Revolution. The American colonists regarded themselves as Englishmen defending their traditional rights as Englishmen. Basically, they believed that government should be as close to the people as possible, and not in some faraway capitol. Below find a brief analysis of the Declaration of Independence.

*************

Every July 4 we celebrate Independence Day, the anniversary of the promulgation of our famed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Most of us have heard the famous opening lines of the document, 

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

However, few have ever read the entire Declaration and even fewer have any understanding of the nature of the actual grievances that led the colonists to sever their ties with England and seek independence. Most readers don’t get past the following words.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

King George III of England was one of the nicest, most benevolent rulers that England ever had, but the Declaration portrayed him as a tyrannical despot. However, the real conflict between England and her American colonies was not between Monarchy and Democracy but between the rights of the British people represented as they were by their own Parliament, and the rights of the American colonists represented as they were by their own colonial assemblies. In this conflict no one was a greater supporter of the rights and authority of the British Parliament than the King.

For the most part the Declaration of Independence does not complain about violations of individual human rights but concentrates on what it claims has been a systematic attempt on the part of the government in England to violate the rights and privileges of colonial representative assemblies. 

The founding fathers believed these assemblies that represented the leading citizens and property owners in the various colonies were the sole bulwark against monarchical tyranny on the one hand, and democratic anarchy on the other. They claimed that the King and his colonial governors had repeatedly refused to put into operation laws passed by these assemblies.

•He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

•He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained…

•He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature…

•He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

In some cases the English government has even gone so far as to dissolve some of these representative assemblies and leave particular colonies without any form of self-government. The legal system, military defense, and tax collection have been taken out of the hands of the colonial representatives. Here are some examples:

•He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

•He has made the judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

•He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

•He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

• He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

In the end the Declaration claimed that it came down to a contest between their own local representative assemblies and a faraway legislature that did not represent them. Because they had come to deny the authority of the British Parliament, they never used the word Parliament in the document. 

There are elements in the Declaration that might seem offensive to modern ears. Jefferson and others in America opposed the efforts of a reforming British government to permit religious toleration of the large Catholic population in newly conquered Canada. For them Catholicism went hand in hand with despotism. The Declaration also complained about attempts on the part of the British government to prevent colonization of Indian territory. Indeed, it claimed that England was encouraging the native tribes.

Nevertheless, the leaders assembled in Congress insisted on their rights as Englishmen to govern themselves. They wanted government to be as close to home as possible. They would make their own laws, vote their own taxes when necessary, and be responsible for their own legal and military systems. They did not want to be governed by a faraway government that had little concern for their interests or welfare.

It was true that the founders were men of property and status. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Franklin were not common men. Democracy would come later. For the present they wanted to protect their right to self-government. The British government had declared itself “invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.” To resist, they were prepared to risk all that they held dear.

•“And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” 

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Democratic Socialists and American Prosperity

Back in 2019, Alexandra Ocasio Cortez (AOC), the now famous Democratic Representative from New York City, claimed that an entire generation "came of age and never saw American prosperity." I suppose that she and other Democratic Socialists still believe that they have not prospered in America. 

She only has to look in a mirror to disprove such a preposterous claim. The image at the left shows her in a designer gown that she wore to a fancy dress gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art that was packed with other successful people like herself. Her clothes, jewelry and make up probably cost more than most ordinary people pay for food. Didn't she grow up in Westchester county, one of the most prosperous areas in the country? Before she entered politics weren't the drinks she served as a barista signs of prosperity?

She also should look at the end of her arm and behold the ever-present mobile phone in her hand. How can the generation that has never seen American prosperity own these expensive phones with their equally pricy monthly plans? What about the laptops and other devices that are owned by practically everyone? They have the world's best libraries in the palm of their hands.

Moreover, every day these mobile phones and laptops have to be plugged into the electric grid so that their batteries can be recharged. Electricity is one of our basic human needs in the modern world but it is remarkably cheap compared to other things we buy. People hate their electric bills but most probably spend less on this vital resource than they pay on beer and coffee. Speaking of coffee, the ubiquitous Starbucks, where so many young people like to meet and hang out and pay exorbitant prices for a latte are certainly a sign of prosperity. 

AOC's words made me think of my own generation and compare it with the prosperity of her generation. Let's look at housing first.

I was 21 in 1960, and about to enter my Senior year at Fordham University. I had lived at home with my grandparents in the borough of Queens ever since my mother had died 10 years before. They owned a three family house on busy 69th Street, and we lived on the first floor. There were only two bedrooms and one bathroom. I did not have my own room but slept in the rarely used dining room adjoining the small kitchen. The bathroom had a tub with a makeshift shower attached.There were no countertops, granite or otherwise, in the bathroom or in the kitchen, Food was prepared on the kitchen table or on the stove. We never ate out. It was unthinkable for my grandparents to eat at a restaurant.

My father, stepmother and two brothers lived next door above a deli. Their apartment also only had two bedrooms and an even more primitive bathroom. At the same time, my future wife lived on the first floor of a two story home in White Plains, NY. with her parents and four siblings. Their apartment had only two bedrooms and one bathroom, as well as a tiny kitchen with no countertops. She and her two younger sisters shared the same bedroom.

 

What about communications? Cell phones had not yet been invented and I don't remember that my grandparents even had a landline by 1960. They communicated with neighbors and family on the front steps or in the back yard under the grapevine. To call a girl for a date I had to walk a couple of blocks to a payphone.

Like most families we only had one car. My grandparents never learned to drive, and my father, who dreamed of owning a Cadillac, had to settle for used Chevys. I only got my driver's license after graduating from college. Transportation by bus oe subway was the norm, although we did walk a lot. I never even rode a bike. Motor bikes and scooters were unheard of. Unlike my grandchildren, I never thought of traveling abroad, although by 1960 attending high school in Manhattan had opened my eyes to the wonders of NYC.

Although I never thought of it, I guess even with our modest lifestyles we were sharing in American prosperity. By 1960 my father and grandparents had converted their homes from coal to oil heat. No more backbreaking shoveling coal every morning. By then there was only one TV in the living room but with no remote. There was no gigantic flat screen color TV in every room. I had one pair of shoes and one pair of sneakers for sports. Everyone wore Keds back in 1960. There were no designer sneakers.

In 1960 I was about to enter my Senior year at Fordham University.  My father certainly could not afford the tuition but I had won a scholarship from his employer, the Bulova Watch Company. As the first in my family to ever attend college, It never occurred to me to live on campus, and so I had to take a bus and subway ride of over an hour each day just to get to campus.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as NY City with its libraries, museums, theaters, and movies became my campus.

In 1960 I had $250 in a small savings account, and no prospects for the future. If I had ever thought of it, I might have complained that I had not shared in American prosperity. But in the next year I graduated from Fordham with a fine education and no debt, won a NY State Teaching scholarship to attend Columbia University, and met the young nurse who would still be my wife today. 

I don't think my story is unusual for any generation. 

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Dragonfly

Here is a poem from my younger brother Robert DeStefano, a retired science teacher who will never retire as a committed naturalist. This poem is from his most recent collection of poetry about the flora and fauna of the pond behind his cabin in the Berkshires. Entitled A Nobody it is currently available on Amazon. His explanation appears below the poem.

A

dragonfly

landed on my 

shoulder

neither of us

frightened

by its 

impetuosity

for

we share an

extreme natural

curiosity

I

stood motionless

as

this magnificent creature

examined me

with two enormous compound eyes

I

 stood in

awe

for

this 300-million-year survivor

made me feel

 so insignificant

I

know this 

resilient

species will easily

outlive

me

a

Homo sapiens

merely

300,000 years old

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Yes, it’s true, dragonflies often land on me. The first time, I admit, I was a little nervous even though I knew that dragonflies do not sting or bite like wasps. The dragonfly sat on my shoulder and appeared to be examining me with its large compound eyes. I have had many encounters with dragonflies and have learned a great deal about them over the 20 years of watching them near the pond by the log cabin. Sometimes a group of over 50 seems to appear out of nowhere. I once encountered such a group resting on the dock and rowboat. When I arrived, they all focused their eyes on me, and some took turns landing on me. I have noticed that different species of adult dragonflies emerge at different times of the year, with the earliest being the Spring Darners and the latest being the Pondhawks. The pond temperature and individual food preferences are reasons that explain different timing of a species’ emergence. Dragonflies feed voraciously on flying insects such as mayflies and mosquitoes. A single adult will easily eat over 100 mosquitoes daily. I have watched dragonflies gather in a large group and fly in a circular pattern, herding flying insects into a smaller and smaller area. To me, this behavior mimics killer whales, who often hunt in groups and use teamwork to force seals closer together and make them easier to capture and kill.

Dragonflies reproduce by incomplete metamorphosis in that there is an egg, a nymph, and an adult rather than the complete metamorphosis where a butterfly begins as an egg, then a caterpillar, a pupa (chrysalis), and then an adult. A female and male dragonfly will join as the male grasps the female’s head with claspers on his abdomen. The female curls her abdomen to meet the male’s genitalia, forming with him a heart shape. The male then uses a special appendage on its penis to scoop out sperm from the female spermatheca of a previous male. The male then deposits his own sperm. The female usually mates with several males but only uses the sperm from the last male to fertilize her eggs. The fertilized eggs are deposited in water and attach to submerged vegetation. The eggs develop into ferocious nymphs known as a naiads that feed on aquatic organisms. Depending on the species of dragonfly, the nymphs will molt many times over a period of several years until the time comes for them to crawl out of water, attach to a plant stalk, and magically transform into a dragonfly. It begins its final molt as fluid pumps into its body and newly formed wings, which harden as it prepares to fly. The adult dragonflies will hunt and eventually attempt to reproduce but survive for about six months before dying.

Dragonflies evolved about 300 million years ago and were among the first flying insects, quickly becoming predators on newly evolved flying insects such as flies. Prehistoric dragonflies about 250 to 300 million years ago were huge, with a 2.5-foot wingspan. There were much higher levels of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere at that time, allowing insects and other animals, such as dinosaurs, to grow extremely large.

The dragonfly is featured in one of the stories about St. George, the dragonslayer. In Romanian mythology, St. George kills a dragon who had been terrorizing a village. The devil sees St. George kill the dragon and becomes envious of St. George’s magnificent horse. The devil transformed the horse into a dragonfly or devil’s horse. The Romanian word for devil is drac, also meaning dragon. Sometime during the crusades, George, who was a soldier, was captured and tortured because he was a Christian. He was eventually martyred by being beheaded. England eventually made St. George their patron saint. England’s flag is derived from St. George’s cross, which is a symbol of military strength and honor.

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Hall of Shame Induction

 

The Weekly Bystander has been content to let former President Joe Biden and his wife Jill slide into oblivion since the last election, but the recent publication of her memoir has brought them into the limelight again. I have not read her book and don't intend to, but reviews make it clear that it has tarnished their reputation even more.

It is now time for Jill Biden to join her husband in The Weekly Bystander Hall of Shame. Five years ago, after a disastrous first year in office, President Biden was inducted. Here is a link to a post that gave the reasons even before we knew what the rest of his term would bring.

Now, after the startling admissions in her memoir, it is Jill's turn. It's not just that she claims that during the infamous debate of June 2024, she thought Joe was having a stroke, but that she also claims that before or since, she has never seen any sign of mental decline in her elderly husband. 

Even more deceitful was her performance after the debate when on national television she effusively praised her husband's performance despite what she had seen with her own two eyes. She now says that she was using a technique employed by educators to encourage schoolchildren who had failed at some task.   Maybe so, but treating the President of the United States as if he was a schoolboy was disgraceful as well as deceitful. What kind of a woman is she? What kind of a wife is she to think he could have served four more years in such a demanding office? Check out this link to a brief video of her post debate reporting.

Below is an excerpt from my account of the June 2024 debate that treated Joe Biden with more compassion than Jill did.  

"My wife and I watched the Presidential debate last Thursday night, and it was obvious that President Biden lost. I rate his performance as a “D” because he at least completed the grueling ordeal. My impression was confirmed by watching the spinmeisters discuss the debate afterwards. Even the most die-hard Democrats admitted as much. It didn’t take words. Their faces told the story.

It was not that you could point to a blunder or two. President Biden looked and sounded weak and infirm. One Democratic commentator noted that there is only three years difference in their ages, but Trump looked and acted thirty years younger.

 

Joe Louis, one of boxings greatest champions, once said of an opponent that “he can run, but he can’t hide.” Well, President Biden may be running but he couldn’t hide during the debate. We finally saw the real Joe, or what was left of him at age 81. Finally, he stood alone without even Jill at his side, and we saw him without teleprompter or prepared remarks although he had spent a week preparing. It was sad, even sadder when you consider that he is the President of the United States.  

 

President Biden’s deportment during the debate would make you think that we have not really had a President for the past three and a half years. I would go even further and say that he appears like a figurehead or puppet, and that during his term I suspect that the country has been run by a secret cabinet of non-elected Democratic bureaucrats and advisors working behind the scenes. 

 

For three years Jill and the others in his inner circle must have observed that he was suffering from old age, and that he was no longer fit for the job. Along with a cooperative media, they have perpetrated a colossal fraud on us. They have hidden the real Joe from us but in the debate we could see and hear the truth with our own eyes and ears."

 

By coincidence, when I wrote the June 2024 debate post I found a letter by an eighteenth century critic of the British government on the eve of the American Revolution. In one passage the letter discussed the Duke of Bedford, an aging aristocrat and minister whose policies contributed to the American war and the eventual loss of the American colonies.

“ Let us consider you then, as arrived at the summit of worldly greatness; let us suppose that all your plans of avarice and ambition are accomplished, and your most sanguine wishes gratified… can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of life? Can gray hairs make folly venerable? And is there no period to be reserved for meditation and retirement? For shame, … let it not be recorded of you, that the latest moments of your life were dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the same busy agitations, in which your youth and manhood were exhausted. Consider that, although you cannot disgrace your former life, you are violating the character of age, and exposing the impotent imbecility, after you have lost the vigor, of the passions.”

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Battle of Midway: June 4, 1942:

 Today marks the 84th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, one of the most significant naval engagements in history. Below I repeat a blog post that I have posted almost annually featuring Samuel Eliot Morison's account of that battle that changed the course of WWII. The older I get, the harder it is for me to think or read about war, and the young lives lost on both sides. Nevertheless, at the end I add a link to an extremely well done documentary video about some of the resourceful and brave naval aviators involved in the Pacific war on both sides.

The anniversary of the Battle of Midway coming as it does on June 4, is usually overshadowed by remembrances of the Allied landings on the coast of Normandy on D-Day, the sixth of June, 1944. Nevertheless, if not for the American naval victory in the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, D-Day might never have happened.

Nowhere is the story of Midway told better than in Admiral Samuel Morison’s epic history of United States naval operations during the Second World War. Admiral Morison was a rare combination of sailor and historian. Before the war he had written a magisterial biography of Columbus that still ranks with anything ever written about that great sailor. As part of his research Morison even used a sailing ship to cover the route Columbus had taken.

When the war broke out, the U.S. Navy asked Morison to be its official historian. The Navy took pains to put him on actual ships that were very likely to see action. He was not at Midway but his account reads like an eyewitness. Below are excerpts from his depiction of the pivotal two minutes of that epic battle.

First, a little introduction. After their stunning success at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the Japanese had rolled up one victory after another. By the spring of 1942 Japanese strategists thought that an attack on the tiny island of Midway in the central Pacific would entice the American navy into a decisive engagement that would completely solidify Japan's hegemony over most of Asia, and force the USA out of the war.

They sent a huge naval task force including four of their best aircraft carriers and most of their best pilots to take the tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Even though the American navy had been battered at Pearl Harbor, it was able to send a carrier force to intercept the Japanese after code-breakers deciphered enough of the Japanese naval code to reveal that Midway was the target. 

The Japanese had already bombed the small garrison at Midway when the American carriers came into range. Admiral Raymond Spruance was in command of the American fleet and he followed the advice of Captain Miles Browning who shrewdly predicted the location of the Japanese force. Spruance launched an immediate attack and the American planes quickly found the Japanese. Unfortunately, the initial torpedo bomber attack was thwarted by Japanese fighters (Jekes). Not one torpedo reached its target and practically all the torpedo bombers were shot down. It seemed like all was lost for the Americans. Morison relates what happened next.

Lt. Commander McClusky

   

“The third torpedo attack was over by 1024, and for about one hundred seconds the Japanese were certain they had won the Battle of Midway, and the war. This was their high tide of victory. Then, a few seconds before 1026, with dramatic suddenness, there came a complete reversal of fortune, wrought by the Dauntless dive-bombers, the SBDs, the most successful and beloved by aviators of all our carrier types during the war. Lieutenant Commander Clarence W. McClusky, air group commander of Enterprise, had two squadrons of SDBs under him: 37 units. He ordered one to follow him in attacking carrier Kaga, while the other, under Lieutenant W. E. Gallaher, pounced on Akagi, Nagumo’s flagship. Their coming in so soon after the last torpedo-bombing attack meant that the Zekes were still close to the water after shooting down TBDs, and had no time to climb. At 14000 feet the American dive-bombers tipped over and swooped screaming down for the kill. Akagi took a bomb which exploded in the hangar, detonating torpedo storage, then another which exploded amid planes changing their armament on the flight deck—just as Browning had calculated. Fires swept the flagship, Admiral Nagumo and staff transferred to cruiser Nagara, and the carrier was abandoned and sunk by a destroyer’s torpedo. Four bomb hits on Kaga killed everyone on the bridge and set her burning from stem to stern. Abandoned by all but a small damage-control crew, she was racked by an internal explosion that evening, and sank hissing into a 2600 fathom deep.

Lt. Commander Leslie

The third carrier was the victim of Yorktown’s dive-bombers, under Lieutenant Commander Maxwell F. Leslie, who by cutting corners managed to make up for a late start. His 17 SBDs jumped Soryu just as she was turning into the wind to launch planes, and planted three half-ton bombs in the midst of the spot. Within  twenty minutes she had to be abandoned. U.S. submarine Nautilus, prowling about looking for targets, pumped three torpedoes into her, the gasoline storage exploded, whipsawing the carrier, and down she went in two sections.

…Never has there been a sharper turn in the fortunes of war than on that June day when McClusky’s and Leslie’s dive-bombers snatched the palm of victory from Nagumo’s masthead, where he had nailed it on 7 December.

Midway was a victory not only of courage, determination and excellent bombing technique, but of intelligence, bravely and wisely applied….it might have ended differently but for the chance which gave Spruance command over two of the three flattops. Fletcher did well, but Spruance’s performance was superb. Calm, collected, decisive, yet receptive to advice, keeping in his mind the picture of widely disparate forces, yet boldly seizing every opening, Raymond A. Spruance emerged from this battle one of the greatest admirals in American naval history.

Admiral Spruance

Admirals Nimitz, Fletcher, and Spruance are, as I write, very much alive; Captain Mitscher of Hornet, Captain Murray of Enterprise and Captain Miles Browning of the slide-rule mind have joined the three-score young aviators who met flaming death that day in reversing the verdict of battle. Think of them, reader, every Fourth of June. They and their comrades who survived changed the whole course of the Pacific War.”

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Note: Here is a link to a very informative and, at the end, moving video. 

Memorial Day: The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives swept most of the Academy Awards for 1946, and remains a film classic today. It is an emotional heart-rending story of three veterans returning to their families and their civilian lives that will never be the same.

 

William Wyler directed the film, his first after himself returning home from three years of military service. He had won the Best Director award in 1942 for Mrs. Miniver but then volunteered at the age of 40 to make films for the Air Force. In the process, he flew on a number of bombing missions and actually lost most of his hearing. Despite his disability, he won the best director award for The Best Years of Our Lives, a film that relied so much on the use of sound. 

 

The film featured a great cast that included stars like Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, and Virginia Mayo, backed up by a superb supporting cast who shine in some of the best scenes. The film also featured Harold Russell, a real sailor whose two hands had actually been amputated during the war. It is at once heartbreaking and inspirational to see him manipulate the hooks that serve as replacements. Russell won Best Supporting Actor as well an unprecedented special award for his performance as the wounded sailor.

Harold Russell, Dana Andrews, Frederic March

 

Frederic March won the Best Actor award playing an army sergeant, returning to his respectable family and banking career. Actually, that year the Academy Award should have gone to Jimmy Stewart for his performance as a small-town banker in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.  It was a real sign of the times that both films featured bankers as heroes. In my opinion Dana Andrews could also have won for his portrayal of troubled Air Force bombardier Fred Derry.

Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright

However, the women in the film more than hold their own. Feminist historians would do well to note the powerful women portrayed in this 1946 film. Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, and youthful Kathy O'Donnell are all towers of strength. Glamorous Virginia Mayo played an unfaithful floozy, but gave the best performance of her career. Ironically, she gets to utter the title line in the film when she complains to her returning husband that while he was flying bombing missions over Germany, she had given him the best years of her life.

 

The supporting cast is equally fine, and again it is the women who shine. One of the most emotional scenes in the film occurs at the beginning.  I will never forget the look on the face of the mother, played by Mina Gombell, when she first sees the hooks of her young son. Toward the end of the film after the dejected and out of work airman decides to leave town, he discards his wartime citations. When he leaves the house, his father then reads them to his step-mother, played by Gladys George, who sits quietly registering on her face the emotions felt by every viewer. 

 

Speaking of scenes, Dana Andrews, playing an Air Force Captain and bombardier who is haunted by horrific dreams and memories of lost comrades, appears alone in the pivotal scene near the end of the film. He has lost his job, and his wife, and a new romance has hit the rocks. He is about to leave his home town and waits at the airport for a flight to anywhere. He sees some de-commissioned and stripped down bombers waiting for the scrap heap. He climbs into one and sits in the dusty cabin and the war memories come back. There is no dialogue but gradually we hear the engines starting one by one, and the awful memories come back. It is one of the most iconic scenes in film history, filmed beautifully by famed cinematographer Gregg Toland. 

 

The final scene is the rendition of the marriage ceremony of the wounded sailor and his high-school sweetheart. Even today it is hard to watch him sliding the ring on her finger with his hooks. But the most moving part of the scene is the simplicity of the wedding ceremony itself. It takes place in the modest home of the bride. She descends the stairs as a couple of children sing, Here, Comes the Bride. Waiting in the living room are the parents and a small gathering of friends and family. A minister calmly directs the couple in the exchange of the traditional vows, and that is it except for congratulations. 

 

Someone once said that the length of the marriage is inversely proportional to the size of the wedding. This memorable wedding scene, and the film itself are powerful reminders of what we have lost in the ensuing years. 

 

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