MEET BILL HOPE, WHO TO WIN THE GIRL HE LOVES MUST PERFORM TWELVE LABORS, THE LABORS OF HOPE
Bill Hope: His Story: ($20: Softcover: 6X9”, 158pp: 978-1-68114-305-7; $35: Hardcover: 978-1-68114-306-4; $2.99: EBook: 978-1-68114-307-1; LCCN: 2017933794; Historical Fiction; May 17, 2017) is the second novel in the Metropolis series. New York City, 1870s: From his cell in the gloomy prison known as the Tombs, young Bill Hope spills out in a torrent of words the story of his career as a pickpocket and shoplifter; his scorn for snitches and bullies; his brutal treatment at Sing Sing and escape from another prison in a coffin; his forays into brownstones and polite society; his brief career on the stage playing himself; his loyalty to a man who has befriended him but may be trying to kill him; and his sojourn among the “loonies” in a madhouse, from which he emerges to face betrayal and death threats, and possible involvement in a murder. In the course of his adventures he learns how slight the difference is between criminal and law-abiding, insane and sane, vice and virtue—a lesson that reinforces what he learned on the streets. Driving him throughout is a fierce desire for better, a yearning to leave the crooked life behind, and a persistent and undying hope.
This is the second title in the Metropolis series of historical novels set in nineteenth-century New York. The first in the series is The Pleasuring of Men (Gival Press, 2011), mention of which appears at the end of this post.
The book can be ordered from Amazon and will be shipped after the release date of May 17, 2017. But the paperback, which goes for $20, will cost an additional $4.95 for shipping, unless you order books totaling $25 or more. The book is also available now from the author and will be mailed immediately ($20 + postage). And now on to David Rockefeller -- again.
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At the Museum of Modern Art's annual spring benefit in June 2016, many artists were honored, but the longest line of well-wishers formed in front of a hundred-year-old gentleman in a wheelchair who appeared to be as curious and sociable as ever: David Rockefeller, the patriarch of the Rockefeller clan and a longtime patron of MOMA, who was hoping to go to Paris to see old friends.
That trip was not to be, for on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York, David Rockefeller died in his sleep at age 101 -- a quiet exit in keeping with his mild-mannered, unostentatious life. The passing of the last grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and the nation’s first billionaire, marks the end of an era. Here now, with supplements, is a reprint of my post #245 of July 21, 2016: “Who Really Runs America? David Rockefeller?” plus the comments of an anonymous critic provoked by an earlier publishing of the post. My appraisal of David Rockefeller, who in his lifetime gave away $2 billion to worthy causes, and who instilled in his children and grandchildren the Rockefeller tradition of philanthropy, has not changed appreciably since.
That trip was not to be, for on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York, David Rockefeller died in his sleep at age 101 -- a quiet exit in keeping with his mild-mannered, unostentatious life. The passing of the last grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and the nation’s first billionaire, marks the end of an era. Here now, with supplements, is a reprint of my post #245 of July 21, 2016: “Who Really Runs America? David Rockefeller?” plus the comments of an anonymous critic provoked by an earlier publishing of the post. My appraisal of David Rockefeller, who in his lifetime gave away $2 billion to worthy causes, and who instilled in his children and grandchildren the Rockefeller tradition of philanthropy, has not changed appreciably since.
On WBAI recently
(where else?) I heard nutritionist Gary Null, who also comments on current
affairs, expound seriously on a vast conspiracy of corporate and military
powers who constitute a shadowy permanent government of this country and really
rule it, our elected officials being their pawns or dupes. Prominent
among these sinister figures he named David Rockefeller, the aging patriarch of
that clan, whom I and many know only as the banker brother of the late Nelson
Rockefeller, the forty-ninth governor of New York State (1959-1973) and the
forty-first vice president of the U.S. (1974-1977) under President Gerald
Ford.
Having heard vaguely
of such theories before, I decided to look into David Rockefeller and his
possible implication in such a conspiracy. I am no friend of conspiracy
theories but cannot deny that important things happen that we ordinary citizens
only learn about later, if even then. So who is David Rockefeller and
what has he been up to? I launch my little investigation with no
expertise whatsoever and with access only to information available to the
public.
He was of
course a banker, and this makes him suspect at once. We Americans profess
to dislike bankers, since we think of them as fat cats with too much money who
are not inclined to share it with the rest of us who have too little.
This prejudice – and it is a prejudice – has seeped deep into
our popular entertainments. Long ago, when the soaps were making their
last stand on radio, I recall how, when the writers of Ma Perkins needed a
villain in the little town of Rushville Center, they trotted out the local
banker, who was referred to not as Mr. So-and-So, but Banker So-and-So.
And our recent financial convulsion and its ongoing aftermath, brought on in
large part by misbehaving banks, haven’t exactly enhanced the profession’s
reputation. Still, with noble intent I shall push this bias to one side
and proceed as objectively as possible. So what kind of a guy is David
Rockefeller, and what are his connections to this alleged conspiracy?
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| A young David Rockefeller (far left) with Eleanor Roosevelt, Trygvie Lie, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Thomas J. Watson, CEO of IBM, in 1953. From a young age, he moved in illustrious circles. |
He is a son of John
D., Jr., who, as I mentioned in a recent post, built Rockefeller Center at his
own expense, and a grandson of old John D., the Standard Oil mogul
and founder of the family fortune. David was born in New York City in
1915 in his father’s sumptuous residence at 10 West 54th Street,
then the largest private residence in the city, and one full of ancient,
medieval, and Renaissance art collected by his father, not to mention a whole
floor devoted to his mother’s private modern art gallery. In his bedroom
at one time were the famous Unicorn Tapestries now at the Cloisters museum in
Fort Tryon Park, near the northern tip of Manhattan.
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| A Standard Oil tank octopus wrapping its tentacles around the steel, copper, and shipping industries, as well as a state house (upper right) and the U.S. Capitol (upper left), while reaching out toward the White House (lower left). A 1904 lithograph, showing the image that John D. Sr.'s descendants struggled to get free of. |
Much of David
Rockefeller’s childhood was spent at Kykuit, a 40-room neoclassical mansion on
a 250-acre family estate near Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, N.Y., where
he recalls visits by General George C. Marshall, Admiral Byrd, and Charles
Lindbergh. And for summer vacations there was the family’s 100-room house
on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Yes, a privileged childhood with wealth
and connections right from the start, though he and his siblings were raised
strictly, as his father had been before him.
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| Kykuit, where he grew up. Ad Meskens |
David Rockefeller’s father, John D., Jr., was a
passionate collector of traditional art of the past, while his wife, Abby
Aldrich Rockefeller (David’s mother), was just as passionate a collector of
modern art, which her husband professed to despise. She was one of the
founders of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 1929, and persuaded her husband
to donate land on 53rd and 54th Street for the
present MOMA, which opened in 1939. To make room for the new museum, John
D., Jr., demolished both his sumptuous residence at 10 West 54th Street,
and his deceased father’s palatial mansion at 4 West 54thStreet; in
their place today is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The
Rockefellers have been affiliated with MOMA ever since. But if Abby’s
modern art collection found a home at MOMA, her husband’s medieval collection
went to the Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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| The Sculpture Garden, on the site of two demolished Rockefeller mansions. |
His
education: He graduated cum laude from Harvard, did
postgraduate work in economics there and at the London School of Economics, and
got a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, his dissertation entitled “Unused
Resources and Economic Waste.” My take so far: this was no playboy, and
no slouch either. He had a mind and put it to good use.
For eighteen
months he served as secretary to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at a dollar a year,
and then worked for the U.S. Office of Defense, Health, and Welfare
Services. When we entered the war he attended Officer Candidate School
and became an officer in the Army, working in North Africa and France (he spoke
fluent French) for military intelligence. Serving as well for seven
months as an assistant military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Paris, he made
use of family and Standard Oil contacts and established contacts of his own
that proved useful thereafter. Even so, an exemplary career and nothing
that I find objectionable. In the military as in business, there’s
nothing inherently wrong with developing a network of contacts.
In 1946 he went
to work for the Chase National Bank, with which his family had long been
associated. Beginning as a lowly assistant manager, he worked his way up
through the ranks, developing relationships with correspondent banks throughout
the world, and finally became president and CEO. In 1955 he persuaded the
bank to erect its new headquarters in the Wall Street area, thus helping
revitalize the downtown financial district, which other companies had deserted
for locations farther uptown. In 1960 the new sixty-story building opened
at One Chase Manhattan Plaza on Liberty Street, then the biggest bank building
in the world.
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| The Chase bank. He did things BIG. wallyg |
Under David
Rockefeller’s leadership Chase spread internationally and became a major force
in the world’s financial system, with some fifty thousand correspondent banks,
more than any other bank in the world. He even opened a branch at One
Karl Marx Square near the Kremlin and established relations with the National
Bank of China. Trouble came in 1979 when, along with his friend Henry
Kissinger and others, he persuaded President Jimmy Carter to admit the deposed
Shah of Iran for hospital treatment in the U.S., an action that precipitated
the Iran hostage crisis and brought him under media scrutiny for the first time
in his life.
Now a major
political and financial figure and a moderate Republican, he had relations with
every U.S. President from Eisenhower on, and at times served as an unofficial
emissary on high-level diplomatic missions. In 1968, when Robert Kennedy
was assassinated, his brother Nelson, then Governor of New York, wanted to
appoint David Rockefeller to the vacant senate seat, but he turned the offer
down. Subsequently President Carter offered to make him Secretary
of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Chairman, but he turned those offers down
as well. Clearly, with all his worldwide contacts he preferred a private
role, well removed from the publicity and brouhaha of politics. Which of
course has made him a natural target for conspiracy theorists of every stripe
and hue.
His contacts
over the years included Henry Kissinger, a personal friend; Allen Dulles and
his brother John Foster Dulles; former CIA director Richard Helms; Archibald
Roosevelt, Jr., and his cousin Kermit Roosevelt, both involved with the CIA;
and countless others. Who, indeed, didn’t he know among the rich and
powerful? All of which, again, has made him a natural and inevitable
target for conspiracy theorists.
Throughout his
life he was involved with numerous policy groups concerned with
domestic and international problems: the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace; the International Executive Service Corps, promoting prosperity and
stability through private enterprise in underdeveloped regions of the world;
the Partnership for New York City, a group of CEOs seeking to promote the city
as a global center of commerce, culture, and innovation; the Council on Foreign
Relations, an influential foreign-policy think tank with some 4700 members; the
Trilateral Commission, an organization of leaders in the private sector founded
by him and committed to discussion of issues of global concern; and the
Bilderberg Group, an annual conference of political leaders and experts from
various fields to discuss major issues facing the world. All this, while
becoming the family patriarch and looking after a fortune that came to him
mostly through trusts set up by his father, and that is estimated at $2.8
billion, which makes him #193 in the current Forbes 400 List
of the richest people in America.
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| President Jimmy Carter addressing the Trilateral Commission in 1978. Was David Rockefeller there? Probably, but I haven't picked him out. Can you? |
If one goes
online, where conspiracy theories run wild, one can easily find websites
warning that so-called Globalists are working secretly to establish a one-world
government that will suppress national sovereignty and individual liberties and
rule the world. Who are these nefarious individuals? International
bankers, the super rich, the elite, members of the Council on Foreign
Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, and other
mysterious, secretive, suspect organizations, including the Illuminati, an 18th-century
secret society in Bavaria that opposed superstition, prejudice, and the influence
of religion in public life, and that supposedly survives to this day.
Among today’s suspect elite, obviously, David Rockefeller looms large,
albeit at the age of 98. These power mongers, these “banksters” are
everywhere, theorists assert; they manipulate everything, they will destroy the
world as we know it.
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| Graffiti in a car park in Redhill, a town in Surrey, in 2009. allen watkin |
And what does
David Rockefeller say to these charges? In his autobiography Memoirs, published
in 2002, he observes: “For more than a century ideological extremists at
either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents
such as my encounter with [Fidel] Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for
the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and
economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal
working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing me and
my family as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world
to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world,
if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it”
(Memoirs, p. 405).
“Aha!” cry many
conspiracy theorists, seeing this statement as a brazen confirmation of their
charges. But Rockefeller has in no way confessed to participation in a
conspiracy, only to advocating a “more integrated global political and economic
structure.” He then goes on to see his critics as influenced by Populism,
and observes that Populists believe in conspiracies and consider him the “conspirator
in chief.” He insists that the Rockefellers’ international role during
the past half century has produced tangible benefits like the defeat of Soviet
Communism, and improvements in societies around the world as a result of global
trade, improved communications, and greater interaction of people from
different countries.
So far, I think
the defense of this “proud internationalist” sounds valid. David
Rockefeller one of the Illuminati? Why not throw in the Hitlerjungen and
the Ku Klux Klan as well? Except that, so far as I know, those groups
lacked international connections and therefore might be allies of the
conspiracy crowd. Rockefeller was certainly a lord of think tanks, but
that doesn’t make him and them a clutch of conspirators. The conspiracy
gang whom I have encountered online – and they are legion – strike me as
paranoid; frankly, they are just plain nuts.
 |
| Noam Chomsky |
Whether I fully
agree with Chomsky I’m not sure, but I listen to him. The Trilateral
Commission is a creation of David Rockefeller, so any criticism of it implies
criticism of its founder. Chomsky’s assertions aren’t all over the place,
sniffing out conspirators everywhere; he is focused in his attack and raises
questions well worth pondering.
So where do I
end up? David Rockefeller has had a vast network of connections and has
no doubt wielded tons of influence, perhaps at times too much. He has
shunned the public arena, prefers quiet private conferences, is never
flamboyant, eschews attention-getting gestures, is really quite quiet, even colorless.
(Eschew: I love this word, even if it sounds like a sneeze.)
But that doesn’t make him a conspirator or a nefarious person. He’s only
one of many of the elite exerting influence on our government and
society. Confirming my impression of him as an individual are
reminiscences of him by my partner Bob’s doctor, who long ago met Rockefeller
and conversed with him on several occasions. He found him very
knowledgeable, very personable, unassuming, and easy to relate to, which is
remarkable, given his privileged childhood.
Yet if Rockefeller or
his associates are promoting the free-trade agreement known as the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is being secretly negotiated now, then I have
to agree that they are potentially eroding our national sovereignty.
According to certain leaked documents, the TPP would exempt foreign
corporations from our laws and regulations, and let them challenge those laws
and regulations as being unfair practices in restraint of trade. Our
hard-won regulations on clean air and clean water, for instance, could be
imperiled, not to mention countless other measures, and this worries me a
lot. And if Rockefeller isn’t personally involved in promotion of the TPP
(he is, after all, 98), like-minded people of great influence certainly
are. And the general public is barely aware, if at all, of what is going
on. Whether it involves a conspiracy or not, the TPP merits scrutiny and
should be fought tooth and nail, unless its proposed provisions are radically
revised. So score one – and a big one – for David Rockefeller’s more
responsible critics, among them Gary Null.
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| John D., Sr., in 1900, looking very moneybags but very respectable. |
Even so, my
impression of the Rockefeller clan is favorable. They have long since
risen above their robber baron origins, which were tainted with labor strife,
to become philanthropists and patrons of the arts on a grand scale. John
D., Sr., gave millions to worthy causes and created the Rockefeller and other
foundations; John D., Jr., created Rockefeller Center at his own expense, and
with his wife helped launch the Museum of Modern Art; and David’s brother
Nelson, as Governor, built the magnificent Empire State Plaza in Albany, and in
his will left his interest in Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate, to the National
Trust for Historic Preservation, so that it is now open to the public.
(For Rockefeller Center, see post #87, From Ghosts to Grandeur: Fifth Avenue;
for the Empire State Plaza, see post #18, Upstate vs. Downstate: The Great
Dichotomy.) All in all, this city, state, and nation owe them a lot.
.
.
3 comments:
.
Anonymous January 27, 2014 at 5:15 AM
Sorry to say, but you're too naive. This family has oppressed everything in
sight for decades, centuries in fact. You think if they gave some dozens of
millions to 'charitable causes', that evens the score? They are the Illuminati!
They literally 'manufacture' money for Christ's sake! And the list of 'Richest
People In The World' isn't even true at all. It's a giant lie. This Circle is
tremendously influential and cover up their tracks effortlessly.
Anonymous January 27, 2014 at 5:15 AM
Sorry to say, but you're too naive. This family has oppressed everything in
sight for decades, centuries in fact. You think if they gave some dozens of
millions to 'charitable causes', that evens the score? They are the Illuminati!
They literally 'manufacture' money for Christ's sake! And the list of 'Richest
People In The World' isn't even true at all. It's a giant lie. This Circle is
tremendously influential and cover up their tracks effortlessly.
.
Clifford Browder January 28, 2014 at 1:56 PM
I understand where you're coming from, Anonymous, and I welcome your
comment, but I hold to my approval of the clan's later doings, which benefit
the public. If you look closely at the most enlightened benefactors, you'll
always find plenty of warts. I give the Rockefellers some slack, that's all.
Well, at least we agree about trees. And you're from my home town, Evanston.
Did you go to ETHS? [my high school]. I attended a gathering of graduates last fall right here in
New York.
Clifford Browder January 28, 2014 at 1:56 PM
I understand where you're coming from, Anonymous, and I welcome your
comment, but I hold to my approval of the clan's later doings, which benefit
the public. If you look closely at the most enlightened benefactors, you'll
always find plenty of warts. I give the Rockefellers some slack, that's all.
Well, at least we agree about trees. And you're from my home town, Evanston.
Did you go to ETHS? [my high school]. I attended a gathering of graduates last fall right here in
New York.
.
.
.
Anonymous December 18, 2014 at 1:03 PM
bro you are CLUELESS. we know this EVIL demonic clan supported hitler
during the war indirectly supplying him oil, we know that they funded the US
neo-con movement birthed from socialism, supported the federal reserve, they
funded bolshevik communism, their oil company(ies) have funded missionaries to
latin america to remove natives from land they wanted ("thy will be
done"), they've supported tyrants and genocide the world over for power
and profit, along with many other american and international elitists, working
with and through CIA and other fascist entities/secret societies. at least do
some research what the Promethean torch at 1 rockefeller plaza actually means,
along with the art surrounding it. someone who has a clue:
Anonymous December 18, 2014 at 1:03 PM
bro you are CLUELESS. we know this EVIL demonic clan supported hitler
during the war indirectly supplying him oil, we know that they funded the US
neo-con movement birthed from socialism, supported the federal reserve, they
funded bolshevik communism, their oil company(ies) have funded missionaries to
latin america to remove natives from land they wanted ("thy will be
done"), they've supported tyrants and genocide the world over for power
and profit, along with many other american and international elitists, working
with and through CIA and other fascist entities/secret societies. at least do
some research what the Promethean torch at 1 rockefeller plaza actually means,
along with the art surrounding it. someone who has a clue:
.
. http://modernhistoryproject.org/mhp?Article=NoneDare&C=6.0
.
. deuces
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BROWDERBOOKS: No Place for Normal: New York / Stories from the Most Exciting City in the World, my selection of posts from this blog, has received these awards: the Tenth Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Regional Non-Fiction; first place in the Travel category of the 2015-2016 Reader Views Literary Awards; and Honorable Mention in the Culture category of the Eric Hoffer Book Awards for 2016. For the Reader Views review by Sheri Hoyte, go here. As always, the book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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The Pleasuring of Men (Gival Press, 2011), the first novel in the Metropolis series, tells the story of a young male prostitute in the late 1860s in New York who falls in love with his most difficult client It is likewise available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
