OT: because our athletic dept. sucks...so an OT question. If you could have a one hour conversation with anyone from history, who would it be and why?

[xTHExNERFxHAMMERx]

And not a relative. I mean someone from history.

Klemens von Metternich.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

 

[xTHExNERFxHAMMERx]

I just don't see much of any Tesla connection to JP Morgan. Tesla was funded much of the time by Westinghouse, also one of the richest men in the world. If Tesla had been better able to capitalize on his great ideas, it is Westinghouse who would be made rich.

JP Morgan's personal wealth was enormous, and during his life he used substantial portions of his wealth in philanthrophic endeavors. He donated to charities, churches, hospitals, and schools. the Episcopal Church in America and its hospitals was a huge beneficiary. He also accumulated a huge collection of art. When he died in 1913, most of his collection went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But Westinghouse was Tesla's big financial backer, not Morgan.

If you want to blame someone for thwarting Tesla's achievements, you should blame Thomas Edison who waged a war against Tesla, interfering with financing and claiming Tesla's inventions unsafe. Edison was the big proponent of direct current while Tesla was basically the inventor of alternating current. Edison electrocuted an elephant with alternating current at the World's Fair, just to try and scare everyone of Tesla's alternating current. The whole reason we had the electric chair was an Edison idea to scare people about the danger of alternating current. He was behind NY adopting the electric chair as a means of execution instead of hanging. Of course Tesla's ideas won out eventually, as alternating current is simply better for transmission over long distances than direct current. But that victory came too late to put much money in Tesla's or Westinghouse's pocketbook.

Don't forget that Morgan was instrumental in saving the economy after the 1907 panic. Some might say he almost single-handedly warded off a depression then.

From Wikipedia:

"The panic might have deepened if not for the intervention of financier J. P. Morgan, who pledged large sums of his own money, and convinced other New York bankers to do the same, to shore up the banking system. This highlighted the impotence of the nation's Independent Treasury system, which managed the nation's money supply yet was unable to inject liquidity back into the market. By November, the financial contagion had largely ended, only to be replaced by a further crisis. This was due to the heavy borrowing of a large brokerage firm that used the stock of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TC&I) as collateral. Collapse of TC&I's stock price was averted by an emergency takeover by Morgan's U.S. Steel Corporation—a move approved by anti-monopolist president Theodore Roosevelt. The following year, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, a leading Republican, established and chaired a commission to investigate the crisis and propose future solutions, leading to the creation of the Federal Reserve System."

 

[cockroche]

Chances are he couldn't tell you. If you're going to create the perfect patsy, he would be at the top of the list. Simple minded and easily influenced.

That is an unusual thing to assume.

Assuming that we can have conversations with dead people is pretty damn unusual. If that were possible it's not much of a stretch to expect the conversations to be truthful.

 

[vacock#]

Lee Harvey Oswald. Might finally get the answer to one of, if not the, most debated questions in modern American history. Who was behind the assassination of JFK?

Ask Dorthy Kilgallen. There’s a book out that says that the mob killed her because she was investigating the death of the Kennedy’s.

Dorothy Kilgallen - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

Assuming that we can have conversations with dead people is pretty damn unusual. If that were possible it's not much of a stretch to expect the conversations to be truthful.

Sure, Lee Harvey Oswald could be truthful, I'm not questioning that aspect, but as I said it's doubtful he could tell you much of anything.
He was a perfect patsy, an asset to be used, given minimal information and then eliminated when his usefulness is no longer needed.

 

[rogue cock]

Thomas Paine. Have read all his treatises several times. Interesting mind, free thinker and would love to hear his opinion on America today. Second would be Ben Franklin for the same reasons.