Carl Davidson – 7/19/15

This page was last updated on July 20, 2015.

THE MILL OWNERS HAD A CHOICE ...; Carl Davidson; Facebook; July 19, 2015.

Carl Davidson (KD): “THE MILL OWNERS HAD A CHOICE. And they made a bad one, liquidate the mill to speculate in oil futures.  The other option was to modernize, and retain about 1/3 of the work force.  But those remaining in ALIQUIPPA are still struggling...”  KD’s comment links to a BCT story entitled “Aliquippa’s planned neighborhoods still define the city.”  A prolific commenter (900+ comments) on the BCT website, as of this posting KD chose not to post his comment there.

KD’s assertion is false and he knows it.  Though the wording varies, since at least 2008 KD has been peddling the falsehood that “MILL OWNERS” chose to “liquidate the mill to speculate in oil futures.”  How do I know KD knows the truth?  First, KD has 50+ years of experience writing pieces like this and the facts are very easy to verify.  Second, there’s “the smoking gun.”  Though I’m certain KD has known the story is false all along, he has definitely known since at least 3/24/14 because he read my analysis of his 12/27/13 version of the story and commented.  What bothered KD about that analysis?  Though he didn’t argue the facts, KD didn’t like that I noted even though he claims his hometown is Aliquippa, he has never lived there.  Below is KD’s only comment in full (3/24/14 @ 12:52pm) as of this posting.

“My mailing address is Aliquippa, PA 15001.  I pay my water bill to the Aliquippa Municipal Water works.  As long as I’ve lived here, ‘going into town’, whether from Hopewell or Raccoon, has always meant Aliquippa.  My mother lived on Franklin Ave, and is buried, along with her father and grandfather, in Woodlawn Cemetery.  I think that gives me the right to claim Aliquippa as my home town, as others do who live in the surrounding townships, that have no ‘downtown.’”

You’ll note KD didn’t attempt to defend his comments or attack my facts regarding the Aliquippa Works.  I guess KD figured whining about the hometown comment would distract readers from the real story.

So, why would someone with KD’s decades of experience try to get away with telling a whopper that’s so easy to fact check?  It’s easy.  The fabrication tells a story KD’s followers and would-be followers need and/or want to believe and he knows these people will do no fact-checking.  As of this posting, none of KD’s Facebook followers have posted a comment questioning this telling of his story.  The same is true for KD’s May 18th telling.  Further, who knows how many of KD’s followers pass along this story, aware or unaware it’s a lie?  It would be bad enough if this were an exception.  Sadly, though, telling falsehoods is SOP for KD.  For example, though KD conceded a recent post of his was incorrect, it’s been a week and he still has not posted a correction.

In addition to the 7/19/15 and 5/18/15 versions noted above, there are versions of 12/27/13 and 11/3/08 (part of 5/18/15 analysis).  There is a version from November 2013 (part of 12/27/13 analysis), but I can’t cite the source website because I forgot to save the link at the time and so far my searches for it have been fruitless.  These are only the versions I know about; I’m sure there are many more I haven’t seen.

To get the true story, please read my analysis of KD’s May 18, 2015 telling of this fairy tale.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity. <g> 

© 2004-2015 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.