A heroic, prophetic, President who saved America in WW II, a coward who betrayed Her in the 21st Century and those who elected him, killing 675,000 people, Stealing $12-trillion dollars, and slowly killing millions of Americans, in a bid for Hell! Are American Terrorists wearing pinstripes, betraying troops under fire? Are Americans and their Mid-Eastern Counterpart-allies throwing kerosene on the fire in Iraq to keep out troops there until they can seal the Privatization of Iraqi Sweet Crude Oil which costs less than 2.6 cents a gallon, a $1.00-$1.50 a Barrel? Are American torture concentration camps and mercenaries stocking the fires of rebellion with atrocities designed to anger and provoke ongoing fighting to make a suburb of Washington out of Iraq? Are politicians and contractor heavily profiting from the War promoting its longevity. Read below and connect the dot-it might lead to Washington.
As Time Goes By... was a WW II song, made famous by Dooley Wilson, in the film Casablanca. My Dad told me about gasoline ration stamps, a certain allotment each person received regularly. Gasoline despite the shortage because of a real War was $00.19 a gallon, or about $8.40 Retail a barrel and about $00.05 a gallon Wholesale, exactly the retail price of gas at the pump in Iraq before the Bushites attacked them. The price in 1943 was high for those days because of the war, but the Roosevelt Administration had price controls in place, so the people would get robbed-he cared, as most prophets do. At $00.05 a gallon that would make the retail price $2.21 a barrel Retail, or the wholesale price at, $00.0175 cents a gallon and $00.774 a barrel.
A few other things to note, a Car: $1,100, a House: $8,000, Bread: 9 cents/loaf, Postage Stamps: 3 cents. Things were scarce back then, I know, but aside from concern over our boys over seas, life here for some was not bad.
One thing my folks do remember is how close everyone was and how unafraid and relaxed they were whether at home or elsewhere. At the time, we had a crippled president, crippled by the same disease that temporarily crippled me-polio. He had gone through a frightful time in his marriage, fell in love with another woman and was forced to give her up while his wife had ongoing affairs of her own. A tall athletic man with movie star good looks lived in an era in which exterior materialism had not yet taken hold of the people. TV fixed that. Parents lacking character, self-restraint and moral fiber weren't having a great many children, but parents with those qualities they lacked were. Throughout America, there were incidents of what cowards call "terrorism" but which people of courage who do not allow themselves to be "terrorized" by the government or the other enemies of freedom, called Sabotage. Nazi saboteurs tried to blow up a factory, which I could hit on the fly with a baseball from my back porch (which they now call decks) and we saw it happen. There was no fear among us, as the adults, men and women, grabbed guns and ran to the scene-the authorities caught them a few weeks later ina famous case of sabotage.
We had a few other advantages; people back then were hard workers, they had common sense and had weathered hard times that which does not kill you makes you stronger, Nietzsche said. Our greatest president, perhaps the greatest man since Jesus, a president who mover came his own prejudices, and conservative background, parents and his own early beliefs, who was at home with the many top notch Republicans he appointed to key peace and wartime positions, as with the most Liberal of his New Dealers, said it quite plainly, The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself... That nationally broadcast comment was the key to America's courage. So materialistic is America now that such a courageous, crippled man-the one who saved America, moving about whether on crutches and painfully, or whipping by in a makeshift wheel chair, could be elected dogcatcher let alone president today.
Let me focus for the moment on $80.00 a barrel oil-oil which is delivered to the pump where it is sold at $3.65 a gallon, which amounts to for our 44.2 gallons per barrel, were it all auto fuel oil, is $161.00 a barrel-the same oil that costs the producers to make into gasoline, $1.00-$1.50 A BARREL! Or less than $00.03 a GALLON! Yeah, it was selling in Iraq before the war at $00.05 cents a gallon and is right now selling in Venezuela at $00.12 a gallon. The people who our president and his puppeteers think were so horrible to their people apparently thought enough of them not to allow them to be gouged by oil profiteers. Oil right now is selling, at the pump in Iran and Syria at about the price of a stick of gum is here.
Recapturing No-Bid Contractor and oil company profits! There is an eminent precedent for recapturing excessive profits from government contractors associated with No-Bid Contracts in Wartime and Let's see if Nancy Pelosi is going to take that off the table as well! Use the funds for a New GI BILL!
Yes, let's recapture "No-Bid" Contractor and Oil Company Charges by Mandatory Renegotiation of Contracts! And Use Funds for a New GI BILL and healthcare programs without the use of insurance companies! Franklyn Delano Roosevelt was Undersecretary of the Navy in World War I and he handled the job better than anyone before or since. By the time he became president and facing a Second World War just 23 years later, he knew exactly what to do.
"Roosevelt, who had handled the Navy's contracting responsibilities in World War I, was well served by the procurement team Stimson assembled at the War Department. Undersecretary Robert Patterson, General Brehon Somervell, who commanded the supply services, and Clay presided over the greatest military buildup the world has ever known within a time frame few considered possible. Between Pearl Harbor and V J Day, the armed services let contracts that ultimately exceeded $200 billion ($2 trillion currently) with scarcely a breath of scandal. "We were not against industry making a profit," said Clay, "but we were damned well sure they were not going to make an excess profit." For the first and only time in American history, the military employed a process of mandatory contract renegotiation. Whenever a supplier reaped an excessive profit or the Army no longer needed what it contracted for, the War Department renegotiated the contract and recaptured the government's money. "I think it was the greatest job we did during the whole war," said Clay years later. "You haven't heard any criticism of excess profits from World War II, and no one else has." (The mandatory contract renegotiation and recapture of excess profits, faced repeated court challenges, but the Supreme Court upheld the army's authority. Justice Harold Burton said, "The constitutionality of the conscription of manpower for military service is beyond question. The constitutional power of congress to support the armed forces with equipment and supplies is no less clear and sweeping. The mandatory renegotiations of contracts are valid, a fortiori." From FDR, by Jean Edward Smith
Roosevelt could have allowed everyone to steal everything from the American People, and contribute to his campaigns in future, just as the current Pork Barreling, war criminals are allowing now, but he was a man of honor and justice, but he lacked their avarice and demoniac personalities. Roosevelt had war pushed upon him, despite what those whose research skills are rather lacking and those who were and continue to practice scumbag Rovean slanders even about Pearl Harbor, and the error ridden Wikipedia chasers, who are jacks of all trades and masters of none, who say that he tried to get us into war. Such people have no in-depth knowledge of the history or conditions in 1937-1941.
It is entirely possible, if all of the complaints we read about in quality are true that the clause, "Uniquely Qualified Contractor" is bullshit. When I was a tenured professor, the Halls of Higher Education were diseased with "Uniquely Qualified Contractor's" who, after I sent out for bids from others for the same work, were no more "Uniquely Qualified Contractor's" than your pet turtle is for Astro Physics.
I do not know what experience Halliburton had in food service, but right now in America, there thousands of restaurant chains, caterers and food service contractors who serve millions to tens of millions of customers a day, with good, nutritious food, and until proven to me to my satisfaction, I question the Uniqueness of those so specified in employ of the government as contractors in Iraq, in that area at least. I also wonder why American contractors did construction work in Iraq, the Iraqi's seem to have done a fairly good job of building their own edifices over the last few thousand years, and why and how the contractors that were sent there were "Uniquely Qualified" when we also have thousands of building contractors, architects and engineers, right here in America also, who might have delivered lower bids.
We have, right now, (not having to wait until after the 2008 election) a rare opportunity to take down the scourges of the earth, by getting back about 80% of the profits they have skimmed, and break their strangle hold on cash, and share the money with American citizens and returning troops, the people from which they've been allowed to snatch it.
I say we ring every penny of it from the contractors and oil companies, and right now, as Roosevelt did! What do you say? Will you join me in asking every single congress person in each of your districts to subject the "Uniquely Qualified Contractor's" No-Bid contractors to Mandatory renegotiation and recapture of US Funds which are in our opinion excess charges, not just excessive profits, but excessive charges. Profits can be hidden, so I say reduce their payment by 80% on every job they and their contractors and subcontractors have done overseas and here, which is in any way related to this war. We need no pork barreling at the expense of our troops and our citizens here who have kept the home fires burning brightly for their return.
Let's take back most of that $2.3 trillion thrown away to pals by the Pork Barreling War Criminals in Washington and the trillions robbed from America's workers by the oil companies, and the $5.9 trillion left by the Clinton Administration, blown by the Bushites. Let us form a letter writing, phone calling, personal visiting, push among our citizens and congress to follow FDR's lead to renegotiate all No-Bid Contracts and recapture 80% of all charges made by "Uniquely Qualified Contractor's" No-Bid contractors, Oil Companies, and other contractors, ASAP? Our Moral and Ethical Obligation To Our Returning Troops And while we are on the subject of FDR, let us use his morality in his obligation for our brave and miscast troops. Thinking years before it's need, Roosevelt said, "Lack of money, should not deprive or prevent any veteran of this war from equipping himself for the most useful employment for which his aptitudes and willingness qualify him... I believe the nation is morally obligated to provide this training and education and necessary financial assistance by which they can be secured," Roosevelt worked hard, as men and women of morality should to provide generous unemployment insurance, job counseling and enhanced medical care as well as low cost loans for buying homes and farms and covering business costs for veterans. The Congress, at the time, was nearly evenly divided between the two parties, and yet the G. I. BILL OF RIGHTS passed both Houses Unanimously!
Professor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th grade, offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8. Later He was a recipient of an Art Institute scholarship at age 11, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Anthropology and in Painting and a merit scholarship in art, and was appointed a Graduate Research Assistant position in college. He holds a triple bachelor's degree in Painting and Drawing, Anthropology, Architectural Design Advertising. MA's in Cultural Anthro, Painting and more. After being tenured he taught; architecture, anthropology, Theology, advertising, painting and drawing, entrepreneuring and Creative Profit Making. He produced a star-studded Music festival, had a radio talk show in Chicago, and cable TV show. Now, retired from Teaching, he paints, writes, and pursues other ventures.
The above bio harvested from the comments of Deans, colleagues, students, clients and collector's.
