Originally Posted by rayc
Dear Bass Thumper,
I provided examples of other scammers - the scale is different but the premise is the same.
With all your flag waving, progress or be damned worship of folk who've made significant strides in many fields, (yet at significant cost to others, through nefarious means or who are in other ways very compromised people), you are, in essence, echoing "The American Way" which has always been propaganda for the very rich.
Ronny & Elon are two clear & obvious examples of empowered liars who manipulate huge numbers of people into believing they were/are possessors of the keys to a better future, (have a look at how Musk is fudging figures for the Space X share release). Reagan did it because his strings were manipulated by his masters and Musk for the money. Edison the infamous "borrower": a patent clerk who raided patent applications, misfiled them and submitted is own copies. Bell the Scottish Canadian adopted American who had a patented submitted on the same day as Gray but through the favour & influence of his financial backers was processed earlier and therefore has the fame. Ford who in the Battle of the Overpass had his striking workers shot & killed, the famous antiSemite: "...convicted Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach who, in his role as Gauleiter of Vienna, deported 65,000 Jews to camps in Poland, stated:"The decisive anti-Semitic book I was reading and the book that influenced my comrades was ... that book by Henry Ford, The International Jew. I read it and became anti-Semitic. The book made a great influence on me and my friends because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success and also the representative of a progressive social policy", Morse obtained a patent on the electric telegraph in the USA AFTER two British fellows had done so in the UK. He was, like so many famous Americans, someone who obtained the fame because of where was lived and the financial power of his backers.
You see, Bass Thumper, like so many people in the world I know quite a bit about American history because it has had an huge influence on the rest of the world. Those seen as charlatans in the wider world are often seen as revolutionary industrialists etc. in the United States. Your current president is the perfect example. It's your education system that causes this disparity...most nations favour their own and America takes that to the nth degree...of course.
There is an axiom we in education often use: "open your eyes and ask questions". Naturally I made that up. How about "You're either with us or against us!|" or "Shut up, worm!"? Similar in meaning & intention to your engineering aphorism .

Ray, all this is waaay off topic but I’m game. I never said the historical figures I listed were perfect in all aspects of their lives. Truth be told, they were all flawed as is the case for all of us; but there are different degrees of flawness. I mentioned those individuals within the narrow context of technological progress and upheaval, much like Payam has caused some degree of upheaval by at least thinking about a better way to do something. His idea may in the end stink, but at least he is trying to move the ball down the field by getting children involved with the piano. And I could address your many historical inaccuracies one by one. But what jumped out is your admission that you “became anti-Semitic”.

You say "open your eyes and ask questions", well, here are a few.

What caused you to be filled with such bigotry and hatred for Jews?
Is it jealousy and resentment that you were not a success musically?
Is it bitterness associated with your socio-economic status?
Were you unsuccessful in your chosen career while others advanced in theirs?
Are you dismayed by the status of your country on the world stage when you see other countries rise?
There must be some underlying stress or trauma that fills you with this hate.

Who else do you hate? People of African descent? Italians? Native peoples? Women? The successful?

And who has in their by-line "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?"? wink

Let me be clear, I oppose hatred, bigotry and discrimination in all its ugly forms. So to all the Jews on this forum, to all the Jews on the PGMusic staff, and to all the Jews elsewhere, I am one human that does not hate you. Some of my best friends happen to be Jewish.

I’m appalled that no one else is standing up against bigotry and antisemitism, silence is complicity and support.

https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677
BiaB 2026 Windows
For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.