Author Archives: Commentary about the Blue Marble

Is History Missing?

09 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by in Resetting History

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                I just read an article in the Chicago Tribune about the right wing authoritarian groups in Europe which are much like the Fascists of the 1930’s and 1940s. Some are outright Neo-Nazis. Many of the moderates and left leaning leaders and groups wonder if those people have forgotten or somehow missed their school history classes because Europe pushes that period hard so it will never happen again – they hope.

                Europe’s grade and high school history courses go into greater depth but the perspectives were often influenced by whether the school was in Eastern or Western Europe. The schools
controlled by the Soviet Union put a heroic Right Wing stance on history. Italy is still under the influences of Benito Mussolini and his followers which emphasis how great his policies were. Sound familiar?

             When I was taking high school history in the early 1960s it was mainly Early American up to the signing the Constitution without any of the political disputes involved in the result. Everything was great people, great actions, and great results. Everything was through rose-colored glasses. My nine college history courses after high school still didn’t get down into the causes of wars, policies, and leaderships.

               Today we have millions of people who can’t see history is repeating itself. Many countries are democracies in name only. These “democracies” are led by authoritarians or what are really dictators like Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jashodaben Modi of India. We must be aware of our leader’s personality to put our country and its people first and not themselves. We have two people vying to be President in November. One cares about the people and the other cares only about the perception of how great he is. The choice should be easy in America.

Birds of a Feather

03 Monday Jun 2024

Posted by in Personalities

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        I have a bird bath, a suet block feeder, a hummingbird feeder, and I throw seeds out on the driveway for birds, squirrels, and rabbits. I put peanuts on the window ledge for the squirrels so my dog Tina can bark at them. I put orange marmalade on a little dish attached to the hummingbird feeder. A few minutes of work each day provides hours of fun.

            One thing I have noticed is that some species dominate different spots. Robins scare away all other birds so they can drink and bathe by themselves. One Robin runs the other Robins away. Doves are larger but, true to their name, the robins dominate them.

            The suet block is controlled by the Downy woodpeckers. They are new this year to the suet block basket. They have been physical in their conquest. Several other species eat the suet when the Downy woodpeckers are not there but leave as soon as they return.

            The seeds on the driveway are fairly neutral ground because the birds and squirrels like different seeds so competition isn’t required. Oh, the rabbits are out of bed before the rest arrive and leave when the others come.

            I often thought about naming some of them after political figures. The Robins would be the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump, the dominant one constantly squawks at the others. The squirrels eat together but on the ledge, most run off when Tina barks at them. One has figured out Tina cannot do any harm through the window. That squirrel would be President Joe Biden because it ignores Tina’s whining and barking. The rest of the species of birds and creatures, rabbits, and 13 strip ground squirrels, are voters and Independent Party members. It is fun to compare personalities isn’t it?

I Am Scared for America

02 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by in United Right

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        I often have a very difficult choice in who to vote for as President. I analyze their records and what they say during the campaign. Often they change from their past to get elected and don’t go back to their previous beliefs and goals. An example is John Mc Cain. I didn’t always like his stance on bills but I understood his views. I signed his nominating petition for his first run for President but not his second or voted for him because he changed his entire agenda. He switched from a moderate to far right to get elected.

            Today, the Republican Party has become enthralled by a narcissistic, ego maniac who cares for nobody but himself. His worshipers are regularly tossed under the bus if they are not completely in his fold. Any real or imagined disloyalty and he not only drops them but tries to destroy them. Remember former President Donald Trump sitting in front of the lectern with his arms crossed while one member of his cabinet after another told how great he is. Oh, yes that was what he said they were supposed to say before he sat down. “They will now tell you how great I am.”

            He just said the Constitution (XXII Amendment) allows him to do two more terms and maybe three like Roosevelt. His music is often the Oath Keepers theme song. He often says America’s problems are caused by the rest of the world. He has told some groups that Americans feel and act like 1937 Germany and only he can bring us all together. He keeps referring to the Oath Keepers and other far-right wing groups as his army.

            Trump’s first term was him, him, him, and destroying the American Left by putting three lying far right Justices in the Supreme Court and naming more than a hundred lower judges to keep him out of jail. If the people are so stupid as to vote for him, they can tell their children how they destroyed Democracy.

Biden’s Dilemma

27 Monday May 2024

Posted by in Gasoline, President Biden

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        The price of gasoline is critical to inflation, interest rates, economic and the upcoming election in November. The price of gasoline determines world politics and wars. What would you do if you were President?

            The price of gasoline is dependent on the price of oil which is dependent on the amount of oil for sale. The amount of oil produced by OPEC is supposedly tightly controlled by voluntary agreements among its members. Another “restriction” is the sanctions imposed by the United Nations and members of NATO.

            Oil is currently selling for less than $80 per barrel. Iran is allowed to sell one million barrels a day to comply with the UN sanctions but it sells over three million to China and India. By law, we can sanction the small refineries in China but they wouldn’t care since they have little or no trades with outsiders. The only way cut them back to one million would be to board the mega-tankers and confiscate the oil by taking them to another port. After two or three tankers are held the others would be unlikely to carry above sanctioned amount. The loss of two million barrels would raise prices twenty to thirty dollars or more. It could also cause a higher level of violence by Iran and push their nuclear path to a bomb.

            Russia’s sanction is to not sell oil above sixty dollars but they go around this by moving oil on a Russian-flagged tanker and in the middle of the Black Sea transferring oil to other countries’ flagged tankers. The oil is then sold at market price. Stopping this would mean encountering Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and a shooting war with NATO. Price of oil would skyrocket.

            So what would you do and when?

Stupid Tourists

24 Friday May 2024

Posted by in Tourists

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        My Webster’s Dictionary defines STUPID as “Lacking normal intelligence, foolish and silly.” I can’t think of a better word for taking a vacation or business trip in a dangerous area. Americans are in jail in Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, and a dozen other countries for being an American. Some are in jail for stupidly violating drug (and other) laws.

            Currently five people are on bail for having a few bullets in their suitcases. Why would someone be so stupid as to have bullets in their suitcase after the repeated reports of the Turks and the Caicos arresting people for the crime?

            People are in prison in Iraq for hiking near the border and perhaps crossing the border by accident. Hikers from other countries would probably not be in jail.

            Several Americans are kidnapped or killed every year for going to an area known to be dangerous. Parts of South America, Mexico, Europe, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific Ocean Islands are places where many people are killed or kidnapped.

            When these stupid people are jailed or kidnapped they want our government to free them. When they are killed their families complain to our government. Forrest Gump’s mother said “Stupid is as stupid does” and hundreds of Americans prove her statement to be true. These people should combine a couple of axioms’ and “think twice before acting once”. Why criticize a president for someone who acted stupid and went where they shouldn’t have or did something stupid and got caught?!

Cynical About Politics

15 Wednesday May 2024

Posted by in Politics

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        At the end of a segment about Bill Maher, CBS’s 60 Minutes played the end of one of Mr. Maher’s shows. I don’t get his show because it is on HBO. The replay was “You say you are cynical about politics, don’t flatter yourself. Cynical comes from when you know too much. You, on the other hand, haven’t bothered to learn anything.” How true. That is the basis for “siloing.”

            People today tend to allow themselves to have only one viewpoint because they get all their knowledge from one source or one group of sources centered on that point. That behavior allows people to be gullible to the one-sided speeches and broadcasts designed to enforce an opinion however ill-conceived and false. Carried to extreme is how the Oath Keepers and other militias are founded and grow. They believe in their ideals and reject any ideas or knowledge disagreeing with their philosophy.

            Social media and many of the TV channels are just hucksters pushing ideas they may or may not agree with but it is what their scripts and contracts require. That is what being in a silo means – one train of thought with no possibility of a siding to get somewhere else.

            As Bill Maher said, most people only see one side of an issue and jump to a misguided conclusion. The Hamas/Israel war is one. People are rightly concerned about the people of Gaza being starved and their homes and businesses being destroyed by bombs we gave Israel. What they don’t say and the media don’t often tell is about all the protesting against its administration and Benjamin Netanyahu. He only stays in office because of the war and the far right ultra-conservatives who put him in office instead of jail. As long as the war goes on he is safe.

Another Earth Day

07 Tuesday May 2024

Posted by in Earth Day

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        I was in college working on my Master’s Degree in Geography during the first Earth Day. My courses encompassed much of the idea for the awareness of what was happening to destroy life on Earth. My studies were really in infancy

            I do remember one scientist saying we need not worry about running out of fish to eat because the oceans were full of fish. Of course the world population was only three billion and it is now over eight billion. Many of those species are now endangered. One huge change is our appliances, toys, and other items have become disposable so we have mountains of trash. In order to manufacture those disposable products we have dug holes that can be seen from the space station and burned fossil fuels.

            A river in Detroit was so polluted it often caught fire. It and many other rivers in America are now recreational because we no longer dump raw sewage and industrial waste into them. Now we dump invisible plastic particles and drugs into them. One reason crop yields have increased is the greater amounts of fertilizers which wash off into ditches, creeks, rivers, and finally into the oceans causing millions of acres of dead zones. Let us not forget the millions of acres of plastic islands in the world’s oceans.

            We have made many advances. The air was so bad south of Lake Michigan we rolled up the windows in our 1972 Cutlass and held our breath when driving across the area. Today the air is finally clear and clean. Lake Erie has little algae sludge anymore Acid rain is almost gone allowing Northeastern forests to revive.

            With all the advances, millions of Americans can’t see the future of life as we know it is at risk. Unless we make major changes in reducing carbon dioxide and methane gas, our days are numbered!

25 Thursday Apr 2024

Posted by in America's Downfall, Drugs, Illegal Drugs

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America Is Going To Pot

        When you saw this subject heading did you think it was really going to be about something other than marijuana? I don’t remember the first time I heard about Mary Jane but it was probably on television in the mid 1960s when I was in high school. I doubt if any of the approximately 500 students had either. Well maybe three or four. We were a rural culture and not an urban or what would be considered a good area for any type of drug abuse – alcohol abuse, yes.

            I don’t remember anyone talking about drug use in the community college on a high school campus in the next county. That was fall 1965 through spring 1967. The major topic of conversation was the Batman series and romance. The Viet Nam War was still a minor topic among most guys until late 1966.

            My first experience with “druggies” was at Murray State University with Viet Nam returnees and those protesting the war. My third roommate was a vet who may have done drugs at home on weekends but probably not on campus. They did congregate in an old class building’s basement where drugs were allegedly used. Not being involved or using the drug, I didn’t know who did or didn’t use it and how often. A good friend did but I couldn’t tell. I didn’t have time or money for drugs.

            The marijuana strength then was a small percentage of what is being sold legally today. We now know the Federal studies of its damage to our bodies must be the same strength as when I was in college by law. Independent studies show brain, nerve, and lung damage with heavy use. More and more traffic and work accidents are being attributed to its use. Perhaps the title is correct.

Guns, Guns, and More Guns

23 Tuesday Apr 2024

Posted by in Gun Control, Gun Violence

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        The gun culture is winning out over commonsense. We are allowing teenagers, preteens, and even younger children to play with and carry guns outside the home. No wonder why we have bicycle and drive-by shootings where bullets are sprayed at groups of other children. More than once a week police shoot a kid with a gun.

            In the 1950’s the weapons were zip guns. They were homemade single shot devices using a rubber band. Now teenagers are carrying large caliber pistols with extended magazines or even an automatic with conversion parts bought off the internet.

            Why are parents allowing their children to become so involved with guns? Illinois may be the first state to put parents in jail for their child killing other students. Perhaps the police and courts should go farther and penalize parents just for allowing the children to be around guns. Parents of dead kids march after shootings to soothe their feelings about not protecting their own kids,. Why didn’t they keep their kids out of gangs and associating with gang members? If necessary move to a safer area.

            Yes, the police may be more strict and rough in some ethnic or race communities than safer areas, but it is from past experiences. Every day they put on body armor to try to go home at shift’s end. There are always bad seeds in the force and the community. It is the responsibility of the rest of us to eliminate them from being a problem. The problem is too many gangs and lenient courts, laws, and stupid parents.

America: An Island?

21 Sunday Apr 2024

Posted by in America

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        Millions of Americans and some in Congress think the United States should become an island and let the rest of the world go to where-ever. The Japanese Prime Minister just gave Congress a lesson on why we must stand up to aggression and lead the Allies against North Korea, China and Russia. We know a few other countries “rattle their cages” which require us to “bang the bars” occasionally.

            The questions those people who want us to be an island are unable to see what history has taught us. Remember, World War II and how Germany and Japan had plans to occupy the United States. We would not have defeated Germany without Britain and Russia. Without having to fight Germany we could have beaten or flattened Japan within three years without the bomb. To do so we would have needed Australia and some other land for bases only. We need Allies in one way or another to keep our enemies at bay. After 9-11, we used the NATO committee and Russia to invade Afghanistan.

            Why do we care if our former Allies are forced to comply with the New World Leaders who are still our enemies? We need those former Allies to sell us their resources and manufactured items we need for our economic well-being. Cutting off scrap metal and oil from Japan may have caused their military to invade other countries and attack the U.S. Their military worked to make a huge ocean and land an economic zone. China is using billions of dollars to try to create one in the same places.

            History shows it is disastrous to be an island and once an island; it is difficult to break back out.