Monday, September 27, 2010

22: Obama Accounting: More on Antigua, Harvard & Money Deals: Nidus for Socialist/Communist "State Capitalism" in the US?



The beach graphic above shows the blue skies, green water, white sands on the Caribbean Island of Antigua. Antigua and Barbuda form a nation. Redonda is the third small, uninhabited island. The three islands arose from the sea, white sands remain from the volcano beneath.

Carib indians are thought to be the first inhabitants of Antigua. In 1493, Christopher Columbus discovered these Lesser Antilles islands. The British established a colony on Antigua in 1632 and later on the other two islands.

The British brought slaves or, if through George III, indentured servants, to work the sugar cane plantations. The slaves were freed in 1834, in Antigua and throughout the British Empire. Later most of the British left, but Britain retained control.

In 1967 the colony of Antigua became part of the West Indes Associated States, to control its internal affairs. On November 1, 1981, Antigua and Barbuda became an independent nation. 98% of the 69,000 population, most of whom are descendants of black Africans, live in the capital city of St. John's on the NW coast of Antigua.

English is the official language. Most Antiguans are Protestant, mostly Anglican.

The government, too, is based on the English system: a constitutional monarchy, with a 17 member parliament, a House of Representatives and a Senate. The majority leader of the House of Representatives is the Prime Minister.

Tourism is the major industry. Sugar and cotton are the major crops. During drought, the clothing, paint, refrigerator and stove factories support the economy.

Isaac Royall left this Caribbean Island to move to Medford, Massachusetts (MA), later the site of the Harvard Law School. Royall fled when the American Revolution began.

In 1781 before his death, Royall left the land to Harvard for sale to endow a Professorship. In 1806, the Royall estate was returned to Royall, Jr.'s heirs. The Royall family then sold the estate and donated the proceeds for the formal foundation of Harvard Law School.

The set of donations: donated land returned, then the cash value of the land donated, may say something about how business is done at Harvard Law School, multiple transactions around the same parcel.

The Antigua experience, with slaves and plantations, most of which Royall sold to move to the USA, established a legal preoccupation with black African and ethnic civil rights issues which continues to this day with over 140 years of revisions of the Civil Rights Act since it became the 14th Constitutional Amendment in 1866. Harvard has been represented on the Supreme Court since Judge Joseph Story in 1827, but the preponderance of 6 of 9 Harvard Law graduates allows Harvard Law to establish policy as if it were a University administration.

Harvard's insistence on funding for social justice issues perhaps is restitution for its more conservative policies on blacks and ethnics in the 1980s. The benefits of restitution also are applied to Harvard, through subsidized enhanced access for students and faculty to government "public service" jobs. This is part of a conservative bent to unbridled wealth and influence. The latter was revealed in the recent Supreme Court decision to not limit political donations, and presumably influence, on politicians by corporate donors.

The question of money and influence in American law and politics, the role of an "elite" who presume to "know what is best for America and Americans", not only nationally and internationally, but globally, is becoming overwhelming.

There is a tremendous loss of middle-class money and property to both the wealthy and the welfare population, who pay no taxes. Meanwhile the working- and middle- classes are tax collected and bill collected relentlessly.

There is an enormous unregulated influx of poor "3rd world" people who stayed too long after the housing construction bubble burst. Illegals and new immigrants demand huge amounts of social services, including "English as a 2nd language" classes to get through an elementary school curriculum. These demands have overwhelmed our budgets, as state after state records budget deficits.

Meanwhile the wealthy "flip houses" and run financial services companies to amass even greater wealth in the current "millionaire money mania". The upper middle-class and wealthy try to find good returns on investment to continue to "build wealth". Now they are encouraged to take their investment money internationally.

Traditionally, Americans invest locally and nationally in new factories and industries to actually create more jobs to hire more people. But why should they, when a court will allow a black or ethnic group to bankrupt them and their investors with yet another black- or other race-based lawsuit and take it all?

Leaders often do look internationally when things are difficult domestically. But it is the American economy that is at risk now. Few Americans are really interested in international hegemony or being a world superpower. But most Americans, other than the very wealthy, cannot afford to send money out of the country. What if even the rich won't be able to follow it?

What the emergence of groups like "The Tea Party" asks is: can our now elitist, millionaire government and investment economy carry America into the future?

It may be time for Harvard and other "government for profit" business clubs to leave government, to form truly private national/international for-profit business clubs. These clubs now feed on "public service" government by creating trillion dollar budgets with $100-700 million dollar bailouts for "mortgage-flipping" friends and others, who are loosing too much or not making enough money to sate themselves, in government-unsubsidized business.

As the government-guided money raids continue, we are losing banks, 267 in the 2 years since Obama took office. Previously deposits and assets of 3-25 banks per year were "redistributed" through FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) mechanisms.

The majority of middle-class Americans lose money, homes, and our civil rights to what "sounds like it should have been helpful but was not" legislative bills, passed by bipartisan groups seeking personal profit. The Obama administered government is changing private sector capitalism to a "state capitalism" of an early socialist/communist government hybrid arising from the American Democracy.

What can Americans do about it? More on this in future blogs.


Graphics: Antigua and the Lesser Antilles, in The World Book Encyclopedia, 2003.

Other references: www.wikipedia.com, AP Yahoo!News 9-24-2010, 21: Obama Accounting in this series of blogs.

Email mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com to comment or request copies of this or other blogs on "Obama Accounting" or other topics posted by mary for monthlynotesstaff on http://monthlynotes.blogpsot.com until easily accessible on http://monthlynotesfive.blogspot.com (monthlynotes-monthlynotessix) on www.google.com