Author Archives: Commentary about the Blue Marble

My Electability Pick

19 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by in Jo Biden

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Former Vice-President and Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden must pick a person to be his Vice-President, Partner, and capable of taking his seat in the Oval Office. Those three factors are critical to his choice but a fourth factor is electability or who is going to cause more people to vote for the ticket than to vote for Trump or to not vote at all.

Bush I’s pick of Dan Quayle was to appease the far right and John McCain’s pick of a woman lost him our vote after we signed his petition. Neither would have been a good President. Bush’s choice was for the base and McCain’s was to get women vote.

Biden has vowed to pick a woman so who to pick is the question. He is being pressured to pick black women who are either unqualified, inexperienced, or don’t share his moderate views. The electability factor is critical. Senator Kamala Harris isn’t going to add California to Biden’s count because it is already there. He needs to hold states Hillary Clinton won and pick off ones Trump barely won. Much of Trump’s independent vote was against Clinton so he needs to bring those back.

I think he should pick moderate Amy Klobuchar who is a well liked Senator from Minnesota. Clinton beat Trump 45,000 so Minnesota should be secure and her Senate seat should be replaced by another Democrat. She would concentrate on the battle ground states Trump barely won. Wisconsin and Michigan could be turned with her concentrating on them and Biden getting Pennsylvania. Winning those three’s 44 electoral votes without losing any of Clinton’s states (227 votes) puts Biden in the White House.

Biden will most likely win the popular vote by several million votes just as Hillary did. As long as we have an antiquated, undemocratic system for selecting our President, only 531 votes count.

Tell It Like It Is

13 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in Slavery

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If we are going to do away with anything related to slavery and the Confederacy, then these items should be in the forefront. We should do away with anything having to do with any slave owner. Get rid of Washington D.C. (built by slaves), Washington State, and all Washington counties, towns, and streets. Almost all the founding fathers either had slaves or were involved in the slave trade in one way or another. Cotton and tobacco were the reason for slavery, so they represent slavery and should be done away with.

Of course there is a document which is the crux of the problem since all thirteen colonies signed it and made anyone who wasn’t a European to be worth three-fifths of a white person. One of the secrets of the Second Amendment was the plantation owners wanted to be able to have guns to use during any slave revolt. In our laws of then and today, signing the Constitution would be aiding and abetting slavery.

Slavery was just one factor in the Civil War. Slavery had gotten too expensive, cotton and tobacco had destroyed soil fertility, and the South was in hock to the Northern Banks. Few people fighting for the Confederacy were involved in slavery. Many had never even seen a slave? I have ancestors from Southern Illinois who fought on both sides at Lookout Mountain. They had trouble affording shoes much less a slave. So why did they fight? It is for the same reason many of the radical right groups exist today. They didn’t like the Federal Government telling them what they can and can’t do.

Get real folks; if you want to do something, explain what and why of slavery. Explain the real conditions and not those shown in the movies.

What Will He Do?

13 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in President Trump

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When Richard Nixon was in deep trouble, his staff and Security Advisor took unprecedented steps to make sure he didn’t start a war to divert attention from his troubles. As paranoid as Nixon was, I doubt if he would have hit the nuclear button. He did continue to go after his enemies list until his minions had been eliminated from power.

Donald Trump is even more paranoid and must win a second term to feed his inflated ego and hold off all the federal, state, and civil investigations. His enemies list is anyone or any group that does not kiss his derriere publicly and constantly. He goes after anyone who he thinks is any kind of a threat with lies and unproven stories.

With his poll numbers dropping and the battle ground states he had won before turning away from him, what will he do to try to turn his campaign around? It has to be big to hold the Republicans in the Senate, House and supporters who are starting to weaken in support. The Ukraine says neither Joe Biden nor his son Hunter did anything wrong so that hope has faded. The economy will still be in recession with double digit unemployment. The poorly handled Covid 19 contagion will have killed close to 170,000 citizens. Several investigations into his financial dealings will become public in late summer and early fall. His generals are criticizing him publicly.

What will Trump do to turn it around?

Who to Pick

13 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in Secretary of State

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At the top of my list of favorite television series is “Madam Secretary.” As a news junkie, I am amazed about the time relevant issues she faces in every episode. If I was in Biden’s shoes and looking to appoint a Secretary of State, I would look for someone who puts the country first, but understands America’s place as a leader of the free world.

Every day the Secretary is faced with many huge situations and issues which would overwhelm most people. The State Department has tens of thousands of employees who spend their time on trying to save people from diseases, starvation, and thirst to averting small and large wars. We have people in almost all countries so our government can maintain relations with friendly and not friendly ones. We work with North Korea and Iran, even where we don’t have an embassy through third party countries.

Since the current administration has alienated almost every country, Biden will need to find someone extremely knowledgeable and global in their thinking to repair old treaties and create new ones. Few of our former close friends are still close to us. The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister has pulled away from his close relationship with Trump and has not, like most of Europe; they can no longer depend on America. Europe is moving closer to their age old enemy Russia and developing economic relations with China.

President Biden will need to develop a staff before the election so they can start contacting over 200 countries on November 5. This will give those countries hope America will be back with them. Most of the World wants us to lead, not spread disunity and anarchy around the World. I would pick Susan Rice.

Generals

13 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in Civil War, States Rights

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As a student of military history, I can tell you our Civil War is unique in one regard. The history was and is recorded by Southern-leaning writers. I think the North just wanted to get it over with and re-unite the nation. In spite of starting out with the best generals, the South had no chance of winning as long as the North didn’t quit.

The Confederate Generals who were exceptional leaders in my opinion were Lee, Longstreet, Johnston, Jackson and a few on the brigade level. These men fought for their state’s right to leave the Union as prescribed by laws. Few states engender the loyalty that many did a hundred and sixty years ago. My ancestors from Southern Illinois had no slaves and probably hadn’t seen one. Few Confederate soldiers owned a slave or could afford one. They fought for the same reason many far right groups exist today — states rights and disdain for the Federal Government.

I realize the Federal Government wanted to appeal to Southerners. Many who had fought in the civil War were still alive and they wanted their sons and grandsons to volunteer and obey the draft during World War I. They named bases for Confederate generals. Why they would name one after Braxton Bragg, who was an incompetent, I don’t know. Hood was a brash Texan who squandered his men. He squandered more with each of his body parts he lost. The Southern Generals were almost always fighting with less troops, equipment, and supplies. That may be why Americans like the underdog.

Great Northern Generals were Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Buford, and Thomas. Both sides had colonels distinguishing themselves. The Civil War was bloody and often fought hand-to-hand requiring much bravery; both sides should be honored for it.

Why

Featured

Posted by in Protests

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Why are people upset with Joliet’s Mayor for pushing someone who was yelling at him? The man must have been within arm’s length or pushing couldn’t have happened. The man had a right to protest but not in the Mayor’s or anyone else’s space.

Why do people want to destroy our history? We have done thousands of despicable things. We shouldn’t be trying to cover them up but should show the truth. We killed millions of Indians by giving them blankets infected with small pox and allowed white people to take houses and businesses of the ethnic Japanese we put in concentration camps in 1942. We need our sins known so we hope not to repeat them.

Why do we criticize our local, state, and federal government and then demand services when we need them? Southern states complain about the federal government, but when they get hit by a storm they are pleading for aid. People complain about having to pay taxes but they tried to get every dollar they could over the last few months.

Why do people so readily believe the stupidity, lies, and misinformation they see on the internet? Much of the wacky stuff is so obviously wrong – fact checking isn’t necessary. Our gullibility makes it easy for Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and domestic groups to divide us.

Why do people vote for radicals when their ideas either have no chance getting passed or will be changed back when moderate, sensible people return to office. Trump has changed or overridden laws, procedures, and regulations put in force over the last six presidents. The next President will put most if not all the changes in the Oval Office trash can. Good riddance to most of them.

Democracy Day

09 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by in D-Day, World War II

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As a student of military history and in particular World War II, I can say the Russians would probably have defeated the German military by themselves. The Allied’s extremely damaging bombing campaign reduced Hitler’s manufacturing capacity. Even with the bombing the Nazis continued to increase production until late 1944.

Was D-Day necessary if Russia would have defeated Hitler? Our invasion of Europe wasn’t just to defeat the Nazis but to save Europe from being under the domination of Stalin. Image what political ramifications and situations would not only have existed in the late 1940s but today. Think of a Soviet Union stretching from the Pacific to the English Channel and beyond. They might have crossed the Bosporus and taken Turkey, Iran, and the Middle East.

No, every soldier’s death was much more valuable (poor word) than beating Hitler. Each death helped to shape the future of the world. Never have so few people died to save hundreds of millions of people then and future generations of Europe and elsewhere.

Those people who fought and died thought it was to just beat the Nazis. Few knew how critical it was to be in on the division of Europe. Without them there would have been no Berlin Wall, no Iron Curtain and the fall of the Soviet Union. All of Europe might have been annexed. No United Nations or NATO, just the Soviet Union.

D-Day should be called Liberty or Democracy Day.

Why Are We So Gullible?

09 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by in Hoaxes

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Many decades ago my wife and I took a trip up into Michigan and Wisconsin. As I was driving past a sign she hadn’t noticed, I asked if she knew what a tourist trap is. She said no, so I turned around and parked at “The Miracle Spot.” It was an old ramshackle cabin. There were four or five cars already there. We paid our two dollars each and joined the tour group.

The building was set up as a collection of optical illusions. Balls would roll up a ramp; a man six inches shorter than me looked to be taller than me, and other illusions. It, of course, was great fun for me watching and listening to the other people in the tour. I was surprised how many bought the story, but I think it had to do with a meteorite or some such thing upsetting the laws of physics. I do remember it was a great story once you stepped across the line from reality into fantasy.

Buying the story requires a certain amount of gullibility and a belief that science is a total fraud. I don’t know if the owners are still duping people. I image it must be easier now that we have the internet’s “facts” to believe in and conned by.

Today some spots have cost millions and charge lots of money. I think the biggest “Miracle Spot” today is near Williamstown, Kentucky. The “Ark Encounter” is based on an impossible biblical story about the Earth being covered with almost 30,000 feet of water. Where did the water come from and drain to? It was an old story about Babylon being flooded often and the people surviving on square boats. Biblical archeologists found tablets in Babylon relating the flooding and boats.

Look at the Forest

08 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by in Disaster

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We are so wrapped up in the trees that we can’t see the forest. It is an old saying that is especially true today. We are heavily involved with what are actually minor problems like the Covid 19 virus, protests, insurrections, and wars, and other issues of a short term. As the preachers from my youth used to say “All things shall pass.” All these things are minor in the history of the world.

What we need to remember is these are all passing and relatively minor events. One critical and long term issue is global warming causing climate change. Scientists have been forecasting a minimum scenario which has already been shown to be far too conservative. Realistically human culture and societies will change forever if we can continue to exist.

One possible climate change savior is something which could wipe us out. A huge plume of ash from a volcano of such size will lay waste to any region or continent on which it erupts. It could cause another ice age of a magnitude greater than the last one.

The most likely a super volcano is called the Yellowstone Caldera or Yellowstone National Park. It is overdue to erupt by a couple of hundred thousand years, No super volcano has erupted since primates started to mutate into human-like creatures. Yellowstone’s floor has been rising and tilting faster than in previous decades. It will erupt someday covering a large portion of the United States and Canada. The gases will rise up into the upper Troposphere and higher shielding the Earth from the sun’s rays, cooling the Earth’s surface for decades.

Other real catastrophes are a major earthquake in California or Missouri, a major tsumami on the Pacific coast, or other events making our current problems tiny in comparison. See, things can be a lot worse!

Virtual or Real Conventions

08 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by in Politics, President Trump

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I can’t understand why Trump and the National Republican Committee want to have a real person to person convention. Biden and the Democratic National Committee will be doing a virtual meeting. The reason for the DNC’s virtual convention is jamming thousands of people together in an arena will spread Covid 19 to most of them. Why would people intentionally go to a place where you can catch a deadly disease?

Let’s face it, one leader doesn’t care if he kills off his supporters for his own vanity. A DNC convention would be full of a rainbow of colors, genders, and ethnic delegates. It would be very dangerous for them since their age, health, and race makes them prime targets for the virus. The RNC conventioneers would have a less change of contracting the virus because they are mostly old, rich, healthy, white people.

If Trump gets his acceptance speech in front of a few hundred of bussed in supporters, you know they aren’t going to get closer to him than fifty or a hundred feet and where he will be surrounded by sneeze shields. The current plan is for him to be in Nashville and everybody else infecting each other in Charlotte. Now that IS social distancing.