Monthly Archives: June 2022

When the War Is Over

08 Wednesday Jun 2022

Posted by in Ukraine

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            As of this date the Russian Chiefs-Of-Staff have stated they are winning the battle to take their only goal. Depending on the translation they either said they will control the eastern part of Ukraine or control the Donbas region which isn’t much more than the areas they had by supporting a rebellion area.

            This is a face saving stance which the Ukrainians President and many of the common people say is unacceptable. Putin should not get a single foot of their country and they will fight to force them out. That decision is up to the Ukrainians.

            The rest of the world and Europe in particular will need to make a decision. After the war is over when will the sanctions be dropped? The Russians have literally destroyed many towns and cities. The infrastructure has also been destroyed. The cost to rebuild will be trillions of dollars and take years. Since this war was entirely caused by Putin and his military, they should pay for the rebuild.

            How about this idea? Sanctions having to do with exporting oil and gas should be eased so the oil and gas can be sold. Instead of the Russians getting all the payments, they get only 15 percent and the other 85 percent will go to the fund to pay for those repairs. This will continue until Ukraine is back to pre-war condition. Otherwise the rest of the wealthy state will have to pay and Russia gets off without paying for what was destroyed during the war.

The Enemy Among Us

08 Wednesday Jun 2022

Posted by in Republican Party

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            I have been a Republican leaning Independent voter for four decades until Trump took over the party and supported militant radicals. Almost all the moderates in both parties are gone. The people who were considered fringe elements of both parties five or six decades ago might be considered a moderate today. Ronald Reagan and his advisors would be considered liberals today. Even Senator Barry Goldwater would be a moderate today.

            Several GOP governors who have supported legislatures are racing each other to the bottom. They are pushing gun ownership, low taxes resulting in few social services and infrastructure maintenance, minimal regulation, gender identification, investigations and many other far right ideologue ideas. What is interesting is these same governors are telling schools and businesses what they must say or do to comply with their demands.

            The new Trump ideologues cater to the militias, gun lobbyists, and a few religious leaders. The Republicans of old used to criticize Democrats for being easy on crime and loose morals. Today the GOP is lead by a person who flaunts his lack of morals and criminal activities. How did the Grand Ole Party get so far from the center of America? They are causing their base to go farther to the far radical right by destroying the government they have sworn to “protect and defend against all foreign and domestic enemies.”

            As Pogo supposedly once said in a comic strip decades ago, “We have found the enemy and they are us.”

Catch 22

08 Wednesday Jun 2022

Posted by in Immigration, Population

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            Somewhere around 1970, one of my college classes made me aware of the population boom and its projections for the future. At that time the world had about three and a half billion people and now we are closing in on nine billion. The average age of that population is rapidly increasing putting pressure on Social Services, Social Security, Medicare, and the labor market.

            We currently have over 340 million with 60 million over 65 years of age. 74 million are under 18 years old. Adding both together means at least 134 million are not of working age leaving 200 million possible. We know 10s of millions of those remaining are unable to work for one reason or another. 20 of those millions have disabilities making them unable to do any work.

            As our population has grown, we demand more goods and services. Much of the services must be performed in America but our goods have been off shored to keep costs low. Geo-political conditions and transportation problems tell us that those foreign plants can’t always supply items on time. The government and companies are going to re-shore thousands of those plants needing people to work at them. America is close to 100 percent employment. Even if a few million decided to un-retire we won’t have enough people to do all the work.

            Many jobs do not have people wanting to do them because they are strenuous and low paying. As much as most Americans dislike seeing people walking across the Southern border, we need them doing those jobs. Those people not from crime ridden and terrorism countries will be retiring back in their home country.

            We need a way for most of those people to come in and work in the vegetable field, landscaping, medical facilities, and many other places dependent on lightly trained people.

Plausible Deniability

03 Friday Jun 2022

Posted by in President

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            One of the most interesting revelations coming from books by people who worked for Trump or were in his inner circle is he didn’t give orders to do those outrageous and totally illegal ideas he ranted. He might have an idea of what he wanted done so he would yell, scream, and stomp around the Oval Office in front of people who could get that job done. They would then carry out his “directions” without getting direct orders and thus giving him deniability.

            Remember Trump’s call to the Georgia Secretary of State suggesting he find enough votes to make him the winner. He came up with an idea to put 250,000 regular army troops on the southern border. He didn’t directly tell the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to do it but had some of his sycophants push the idea which Esper rejected. He was later fired.

            Plausible deniability isn’t new for a President and Reagan is a great example of getting caught by “didn’t know”. Nixon tried but was too involved to use it. Trump’s plan was to never directly tell someone what to do. He just suggests it to a sycophant who commands it in his name. Putin keeps saying he had nothing to do with the deaths of his political opponents. The King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia deny they had any knowledge of the murder and dismemberment of the New York Times reporter.

            It is two words for the three monkeys who saw no evil, spoke no evil, and heard no evil. A fourth monkey would have said it invented no evil.

The World is a Mess – Again

03 Friday Jun 2022

Posted by in President Biden

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            President Biden is the first President in many decades to be faced with so many foreign and domestic problems. On the foreign side we have Putin’s ego and dreams of rebuilding the Russian Empire. Xi’s promises to bring Taiwan back under the Chinese control and expand their military power into the South China Sea. Kim Jung Un has been trying to get attention by exploding nukes and firing many missiles. The Middle East is always a lit fuse with countries being our friend when they need help and unfriendly when it serves them. Add to those Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Venezuela. The crime and instability in the Central American countries are causing millions to need to leave home and try to immigrate to the United States.

            Thanks to Trump, Biden is dealing with the most fractured society since 1860. Americans have been conned into believing all the country’s problems are the responsibility of the other side. The left is told their problems are from the economic factors which are against them. The right is told their problems are the result of big government, race, immigrants, inflation, “Big Lie”, and taxes. The right is so strong in gun rights and conspiracy inspired fears that militias are gaining members. Mass shootings are caused by those fears.

            Economic issues are clouded by supply disruptions, Ukraine War, shortages, inflation, and a myriad of other issues which the pandemic is still affecting people.

            Add climate change impacting weather causing drought, fires, storms, hurricanes, heat and rising oceans, and a large portion of people who don’t see it and the causes. While trying to cut carbon emissions, America is going to be the world’s biggest supplier of LNG.

            These are just a few of the problems Biden faces every day but the world is depending on American leadership to put things to right again.

Teach the Truth

03 Friday Jun 2022

Posted by in Education, School

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            The February issue of the “Scientific American” had an item about an interesting question concerning how to teach the truth when a student’s parents live in an alternate reality. Many parents don’t believe man landed on the moon so their kids don’t either. How did they teach than in science and history classes? Tens of thousands still believe in the grassy knoll conspiracy because their parents did. Imagine trying to teach about the Holocaust and the crimes committed by the Nazis when a student’s parents are Neo-Nazis.

            Even if parents and kids are at odds on many topics, parent’s beliefs filter into their kids’ thoughts concerning subjects taught in school. That is how prejudices from one generation to another are kept going. Studies have shown this is true unless governments force the truth to be taught in schools in spite of what parents believe. Germany is an example of a government trying to stop the generational lies and influences of Nazism. They have strict laws on the subject.

            Racism, religion, and political extremism are passed down from one generation to the next further dividing our country. Now we have people who come up with fake problems like critical theory to divide us. People are told their children are being taught this idea in their grade and high schools when it is an option only in the three graduate schools. Parents want to hide the truth so as to continue the alternate reality many live in today.