Monthly Archives: July 2021

Bleak Future

22 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by in Future

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            Fifty-one years ago I was studying the projections of life on this planet. The two major areas used for the basis of projections for the future were global warming and the population growth. All other projected problems were caused by those two subjects.

            Today it is called climate change to make people consider the increase in temperature involves more than just a warming thermometer. It involves more violent storms, changes in rainfall patterns, ecology changes, melting glaciers, dramatic rise in the ocean level, and other changes. Little data in which to devise computer programs was available. Since then, we have data from historic records, living and fossilized tree rings, and millions of years old sediments. All the now data just fine-tunes what I studied. Florida and most coastal cities will be under water in a century or two.

            When we studied population growth the world had about three billion people. The projection at the time was seven billion by 2000, nine by 2050, and twelve by 2100. Current projections are unchanged. At the time Mao had a one-child rule. Today China announced a three child policy. China may have about 1.5 billion of ageing people. Ageing is the problem everywhere. As living conditions, medicine, and food improve people live longer and increase the population. To produce more items to sell to the increased population, younger people are needed. Economies are based on people continuing to buy stuff making it imperative to get people to produce more kids. Those kids will make more but buy more causing more workers to be needed to sell to the aging population.

            More population and fewer resources on less land is our future.

Benghazi Redux

22 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by in Benghazi

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            January 6 was televised through hundreds of rioters cameras which most put on social media. The GOP has quashed any bi-partisan commission inquiry into what happened and who organized and instigated it. Why? What are they hiding? Were some of them involved in helping in getting permission for special tours of non-tourist areas?

            The GOP and the conspiracy wack-os keep bringing up their lies about what happened in Benghazi. The idea was to blame Hillary Clinton. They wanted to blame her for not saving the Ambassador and his pair of protectors. All the inquiries concluded what was initially known within a week. A cowboy ambassador set up a meeting with one of the Libyan warlords. The Embassy security chief told him it wasn’t a secret meeting. Our Air Force General told him he could not put a jet into Libya in less than six hours after being requested. That didn’t count the time going through channels. The Ambassador only wanted a driver. The security chief wanted a squad with armored vehicles. Two security men were the most the Ambassador would allow.

            The Ambassador had had lots of near misses in his past and may have thought he was invincible as in the past. No one above him was asked permission for him to go. He and he alone created the disaster.

            Why do brain washed idiots keep trying to blame somebody else? What is McConnell trying to hide about the 6th?

Psychological Evaluation

20 Tuesday Jul 2021

Posted by in President Trump

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            An erudite person said as scary as Trump’s try to overthrow the election and Democracy was what if a competent Trump-like person got elected? So many Presidents and Prime Ministers around today’s world have changed their country’s laws and constitutions to allow them to stay in power and to restrict voting by people who would not have voted to re-elect.

            Xi, Putin, and others have revised their laws so they can remain in power. Even Israel’s Netanyahu thought he could stay in his corrupt position and like Trump hopes to con people into getting back in power, both need to be in power to avoid criminal charges.

            Several hundred psychologists signed a letter to congress’ leaders – both Trump sycophants — questioning Trump’s mental condition in December after the election. They were across the political spectrum so their concern wasn’t political. The January 6 insurrection and continuing The Big Lie of winning so as to keep the adulations of his followers indicates his mental instability. Many books written by his former aides and associates confirm the psychologists’ evaluations.

            In less than erudite terms, he is completely nuts and has been a rich pampered narcissist all his life. He’s acting like the unstable person hundreds of experts said. Just as dictators of the past and today, he is addicted to power and adulation of sycophants and weak minded people. A Democracy requires the truth and voting participation by all Americans.

Leadership versus Authoritarianism

20 Tuesday Jul 2021

Posted by in Dictators

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What is leadership in today’s political environment and what is authoritarianism? Leadership can be doing what the group wants done or guiding the group to another or greater idea than the original idea. An authoritarian is someone who has total control over the group and all ideas are the leader’s. The group has no involvement in decision making.
                Today we have political leaders with messianic powers over their people. The people are told what to think, say, and do. Disagreeing may mean jail or death. Sometimes their agenda is wrapped in religion as in Turkey with Erdoğan. Others like China’s Xi Jinping have wrapped their agenda within their idea of the Chinese brand of Communism. Both are authoritarians who have a semblance of being elected.
            Putin eliminates any opposition candidate with prison or murder so he can continue in power. In Iran opposing people are jailed and their party banned from the ballot. Other countries do the same but we aren’t aware because their country isn’t in the news. Many of the old Soviet Bloc countries are in that category.
            For a leader to continue in authoritative power they must have control of all or at least a sizeable group of people. These people must believe what that person says no matter how outrageous and obviously false the statements are. This Hitler-like control of sycophants destroys all semblance of democracy while making an easily identified portion of another group evil and destructive.
            Such people have enormous egos and need the adoration of their followers to override constitutions, laws, and morals of their country. Absolute loyalty, in spite of facts, is dangerous to all.

Fifteen Dollars an Hour

09 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by in Minimum Wage

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            Minimum wage is a complicated issue because of differing economic areas. The cost of living in an urban area is far more expensive than in a rural area and those differ greatly from different states and regions.

            Using Illinois as an example of $15.00 per hour, within the Routes 47 and I-80, rents can easily take up half of a take home check. Add higher vehicle costs including maintenance, fuel, and insurance from living within the box. The cost of food, clothing, and other normal expenses cut into the few remaining dollars. People in one of our political parties think the person earning 15 dollars should be saving for their retirement. They also say the medical expenses are paid by the employer. This is the USA, not Europe.

            Now let’s go 200 miles south and 15 dollars can be stretched to a not comfortable but possible life as long as medical help isn’t needed. However, full time jobs are not as easy to find.

            Four hundred miles farther south and their state legislative bodies think $7.50 is enough. In some of the rural areas it probably is.

            The cost of living varies so greatly across America a Federal minimum wage of 15 dollar is unreasonable. Some state’ legislatures are dominated by their party’s tenets to the detriment of a large number of their residents. Millions of poor will never have a comfortable life because certain people never have to worry about getting enough to eat.

The Show Is Just Starting

09 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by in President Trump

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            The Trump supporters say the criminal investigation into the Trump organization’s tax evasion and fraud is because of politics. They are partially correct because they couldn’t continue their investigation while he was still President.

            While Donald Trump was President he could keep the tax records concealed since the IRS was controlled by his people. Barr was Attorney General and most of all; Trump could pardon himself, his family, and his employees of any federal crime. The state investigation would have died since the power of the White House and his appointed judges would have stopped it.

            The investigation paused for most of Trump’s term, but it started long before he was nominated. Was that the reason he ran? These charges are just looking at the tip of the iceberg on taxes. They are only one branch of investigations going on by states and the federal government for numerous crimes committed by the Trump organization, his family, and Donald Trump himself.

            Will the sycophants and gullible people continue to support someone who is an adulterer, liar, conman, and the object of so many investigations by people of both parties? Will being in his political circle be a liability?

Imagine What If

09 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by in What If

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            A thoughtful person can really blow their minds by thinking what would have happened if something else had happened. We all know General Mead defeated Lee by defending Cemetery Ridge. What if he had let Lee have the Ridge without his artillery, extra ammunition, food, and water? It would have been a huge prison camp because his supply train was miles away.

            What if Mayor Daly’s car had been t-boned as it came out of his parking lot killing him before the 1960 Presidential election? Would Nixon have won then before he became paranoid?

            What if English private Henry Kent decided to shoot Adolph Hitler during WWI instead of letting him go? Would another person have been able to cause Germany to rearm and start WWII?

            What if Roger Ailes had not been able to convince a few rich right wing Republicans they needed to create a huge rift in America and in particular within the GOP. The idea was to cut out moderates like Bush I. Would someone else have gotten Fox News and it offshoots started? Would Trump have ever been considered a candidate?

            Imagine how America would have not changed if two Supreme Court Justices had voted to count the hanging chads on the ballots giving Florida and the Electoral College to Gore?  Gore would have continued to try to kill Ben Laden and would not have gone into Iraq again.

            How many times in your own life could you have come to a fork in the road and could have taken the other road changing your life?

Buck Up

03 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by in Coronavirus

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            I got the shot twice, one in each arm! Supposedly there is a smaller chance of a reaction if the shot goes into each arm. Few people get any reaction to the Pfizer vaccine. I may have gotten a rash in an area a bathing suit covers. I don’t know if I was overly tired the day after because I did a lot of digging which I am not accustomed to doing.

            People get a reaction to many vaccinations, foods, and environments. People take a vaccine with a tiny potential chance of a slight reaction to avoid the probability of a big reaction to the disease. Most people run their lives that way. They buy insurance for their home, car, and for their families, even life insurance. Getting a Covid shot is offering some insurance against getting sick. Getting the second shot and maybe a booster is full insurance.

            Nation after nation thought it had herd immunity revising its rules only to find the new variants are worse. Since the seniors are mostly vaccinated, the mutations are going after young adults and kids.

            People who are not yet vaccinated risk their life, those around them, and people they never met. The virus may decide to mutate in their body into something the vaccines won’t give them or the vaccinated protection.

            People talk about patriotism but aren’t brave enough to get two shots? Don’t wrap yourself in the flag when you can’t take two painless shots.

Got Water

03 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by in Climate Change, Water

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            In the movie “Sahara,” Humphrey Bogart was trying to get the Germans to surrender by pretending to wash his head while water was poured over him. The Germans hadn’t had water for days and surrendered rather than die of thirst.

            Why is that scene relevant? Think of today’s droughts in the Southwest. For decades people have been moving to the Southwest, first for retirement and then for work. In many cities in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, and Nevada, homeowners are paid to tear up grass and go with desert plants and no grass. This is done to save precious water.

            Lake Mead is at its lowest level ever and this is summer when the snow should still be melting. This year was even less than the past few years. The drawdown has been more than the snow pack for decades with climate change causing extreme constant drought.

            We have known for years that much of our fruit and vegetables come from the area irrigated by the Colorado River coming from Lake Mead. Irrigation water is already being reduced to save it for people. Which brings us back to Humphrey Bogart getting the Germans to come to him… The upper Midwest has lots of lakes and rivers to support people moving from the Southwest. T. Boone Pickens has bought the Aquifers under many Colorado Valleys because “one day water will be more important than oil.”. That day may be here!

Q Anon Facts

03 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by in Conspiracies, Q Anon

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            Here are the facts about Q Anon. The NSA has tracked down who started the anarchist website. They are James and Ronald Watkins. It would be difficult to find two more despicable people. They make their money by creating and selling Asian pornography. Many years ago I saw a documentary on porn and Asian porn was the most violent involving torture, rape, and murder.

            The father-son team was extremely good at creating hate speech on the internet before they invented Q Anon. Their adherents are angry gullible people who ignore facts and what they can see and hear from responsible people who aren’t in the Q Anon silo. Once these people see the truth they have said it must be like brainwashing. The Watkins has been successful in their efforts to not only start the brainwashing but to get other like-minded people to continue it. How the Watkins could create so many unbelievable conspiracies that weak-minded people could base their views on is unfathomable. One example is the elites are running a child abduction, torture, and blood drinking group. Oh, yes, they do Asian porn.

            Hopefully time will overcome the brainwashing and the adherents will see truth. Another factor is Microsoft says about half the conspiracy sites are Russian and Putin loves to divide America.