Author Archives: Commentary about the Blue Marble

Is History Repeating Itself

06 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in Defense, Resetting History

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What are the limits of behavior for an American President? Many think the President has supreme power and authority through the concept of executive privilege. They believe the constitution creating three separate but equal branches of government is wrong! The constitution says the President is allowed to appoint his choice to be on the Supreme Court and all lifetime federal court judges. After 232 years of Senate approvals of those judges the confirmations have become rubber-stamps. The Senate rules have been changed from an in-depth review process to cursory. Most have been confirmed without the Senators voting for the appointee never having time to meet or read their biography. At least two Justices believe in executive privilege.

The House of Representatives has the constitutional duty to raise revenue and decide how to spend it. The Senate approves their mutual decisions. The current leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnel, will not allow any bill to come to the floor Trump will not approve giving him complete control of all laws to be passed. No majority leader has ever been so controlled by the President. He is stopping over a hundred bills, many on infrastructure.

At a Federal Court hearing, Trump’s personal Attorney William Consovoy said the President has “temporary Presidential immunity” from any actions done before or during their time as President. Consovoy further stated if Trump had shot someone on Fifth Avenue, Trump could not be tried or even investigated while in office.

Trump’s advisors have been telling him he is as powerful as the dictators he has made his “friend”. He thinks he is on a power level of Putin, Erdogan, Kim, and Xi. This is exactly how Hitler came to power.  Is History repeating itself?

Democrat Conundrum

06 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in Democrats

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The Democrats running for the Presidential nomination have repeatedly said they want their financial support to be from the people and not the big corporations and wealthy people. They want millions of people giving $200 dollars instead of a super pac controlling millions from a few. This election will cost each nominee well over a billion dollars. That is a $200 contribution from over 500,000 people. It’s possible over two billion will be needed and that means a million contributors. The first might be possible but the second is doubtful.

I understand their reason for populist funding and it would be nice if all campaigning was small donations but that isn’t going to happen until the Supreme Court remedies their decision. Big donors want payback for their money. Sometimes it is an Ambassadorship to some innocuous country, a cabinet position, or an advisor in the White House, Sometimes it is no more than well televised meetings to give advice. Often that support requires reversing environmental rules, leasing in restricted areas, or making a favored person a Federal Judge or Supreme Court Justice.

Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes than Donald Trump but I doubt if all her little contributors added up to 500,000 people much less donating the billions her campaign spent. As long as the Citizens United decision stands, huge amounts of money will need to be raised and favors granted.  It is called the selling of the presidency!

Humanity is in Real Trouble

06 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in Climate Change, Global Warming

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Is the temperature on the earth rising – undeniably! Is the level of carbon dioxide rising – Absolutely! Are the oceans rising – Easily seen! Are the glaciers and the ice cap melting – obviously! Are eco-systems rapidly changing – look out the window! Is the weather patterns getting more violent – watch the weather channel! Are we responsible – unequivocally!

Some time ago a reader said CO2 wasn’t responsible because it wasn’t a big enough percentage of the air. That percentage is a delicate balance giving us the stability we have. A hair less and the glaciers come back or a hair more and we are in trouble. Some people say this is just a cycle and to some extent they are right. By looking at 600,000 years of air bubbles in glaciers, millions of years of sediment, and sedimentary rocks, we have a very good record of air composition. Before, the CO2 changes were slow and took thousands of years to change the climate. That is scientific record!

Today’s changes are not over thousands of years but just a few years because our rapidly increasing population, world-wide increase in fossil fuels, and nature’s inability to counteract the increasing amount of CO2 and tundra methane releases. We must help or risk extinction.

Since it is an absolute certainty we are causing the rise, how do we stop it before it is too late? We must stop cutting down trees. Instead, we need to plant billions of new ones. We must drastically reduce putting more CO2 in the air. We must find ways to put more CO2 into the ground or incorporate into something we make that will last centuries or longer. The oceans have always captured much of the excess where it is encapsulated and slowly falls to the depths. The oceans are not able to handle this much excess so we much reduce it ourselves or humanity is in real trouble.

Trump-Pence Will Stay

05 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by in Impeachment, President Trump

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Yes, the Republicans are scared of Trump saying bad things about them and so the yellow streaks up their backs will prevent them voting against him. But, and it’s a huge but, Ambassador Soundland threw lots of people under the bus along with Trump, One of those was the Vice-President.

If Trump was removed from office, could Vice-President Pence succeed him since he is a co-conspirator? If he couldn’t, third-in-line Nancy Pelosi would become President. Even Romney, who would love to push Trump off the top of Trump Hotel, would not vote to remove Trump if Pence would have to go too. So Trump will stay until January 2021 when he can see an endlessly huge crowd cheering the new President!

Hoaxes and More Hoaxes

21 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in Global Warming

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I have been waiting for the most obvious reason for global warming to put forth which is all the fires in Siberia, Brazil and California and of course some volcanoes spewing heat.

Yes, it is stupid but it is not as stupid as some of the other reasons put forward by companies and people who want gullible people to ignore facts. One reader said the Earth is getting closer to the sun.  Astrophysicists think it might be less than a hundred miles each year. Actually the sun is still expanding. Our orbit is elliptical with aphelion and perihelion having a difference of 3.1 million miles so a hundred miles is microscopic.

Another falsehood is the sun is getting hotter. It will in a few billion years as its hydrogen fuel is burned up. Oddly that argument is usually accompanied by the statement we aren’t getting hotter.

One of my favorites is the moving of a few temperature recording instruments from a few cities to more rural areas. What is funny is they represent less than .001 percent of all the NOAA and other departments and reporting organizations. In reality moving them is a mistake because it upsets the continuity of those instruments’ reporting history.  Decades ago the official location moved from Midway Airport to O’Hare upsetting local temperatures records because the lake temporizing is less.

Social media spreads half-truths to total outrageous lies which gullible people believe. If people did simple fact checking they would know it’s untrue. Much is put out by fossil fuel company’s surrogates, political hacks, and Russian bots trying to further divide America. Gullibility has become an American trait.

Criminal or Just Immoral

21 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in President Trump

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Are we becoming inured to Presidential overreach and the selective reading of the Constitution? When Clinton and Obama were in the Oval Office, the Republicans constantly railed against them for Presidential over-reach in trying to help people and the environment. Today’s over-reach is immoral and unconstitutional.

We have three separate but equal branches of government. Congress’s fisical responsibility is to raise revenue and to decide how to spend it. Once the President signed the bill it becomes law. A President can move money around with an approval of Congress’ leadership. This President has repeatedly moved money around without any approval. That’s unconstitutional and impeachable.

Giving preference to a county, organization or person who is staying in a hotel or resort owned by a President is clear violation of the emoluments law. Trump has done this repeatedly and boasted about it. He quadrupled the membership price at his new legal residence in Florida when he was elected. Taxpayers have to pay for his rooms and space for government bodyguards now and as long as he lives at his resort!

His constant lying, immoral behavior, and boasting about doing things he didn’t do sets a new low for an office we used to tell our children to aspire to. Schools suspend students for this behavior. As reprehensible as it is, it isn’t a crime. Removing a President from office for these mental aberrations is for voters.

The onus on removing Trump from office will fall on senators, some of whom voted Clinton guilty for lying about having relations with Monica Lewinsky. Let’s see if their moral values, oath of office, and patriotism are as strong now as they claimed during the Clinton trial!

Our Elections Aren’t Pure

21 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in Russia

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Every American intelligence agency has said Russia was involved in trying to get Donald Trump elected. We may never know how much Trump’s campaign was involved innocently or guided by Russian agents and their social media bots. We know Mariia Valeryevna Butina was involved in gaining support for him and splitting America apart. It was her job as a Russian spy. We know that the Attorney General Barr revised the Mueller Report about the campaign involvement. Mueller has said “The President’s written answers were not completely truthful.”

The British public is just finding the Russians were very involved in the referendum deciding whether the United Kingdom would stay or leave the European Union. The vote was less than 4% difference. The social media was heavily for the split and much of it was bots from Russia’s bot farms. A bot farm is where lots of people sit in front of computers coming up with stories for or against a candidate or issue.

They tried to keep their stooge in power in Ukraine but he lost and ran to Russia. They have influenced elections in several East European countries by convincing people the Syrian refugees were killers and rapists who would take over their countries and impose Sharia law. (They have caused many Americans to believe Detroit is using Sharia law.) Sound familar?

No, our elections aren’t pure because voters don’t give enough time searching for the truth by fact checking the stories they read on the social media. Far too many Americans believed the most outrageous stories from Russian Bots. Remember the great pizza restaurant child sex ring run by the Clintons? Thousands of people believed that one.

America, the Gullible

21 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in Fake News

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Donald Lattin thinks I watch too much MSNBC and CNN to gain information and viewpoints. I have never watched either station although I saw a shared feed from Bagdad during Desert Storm bombing from CNN. We all saw that since he was the only reporter sending out live feed.

As I have said before, those people, especially the President, watching Fox are unable to separate the actual news from the Murdoch/Ailes scripted propaganda. My friends who watch Fox really believe the script until they are given the truth. However, they still continue to watch because they have been repeatedly told the reporters only give fake news. So by implication Fox’s real news is fake and the scripted talking heads are truthful? Too often they have been caught using Russian bot info on social media as their source!

Those people watching Fox must believe wrestling is also real. An even worse place to get “News” is the internet and social media which, too often, have Russian’s and China’s bot farms as the source. All of our intelligence agencies have aid this but people continue to believe. Perhaps one day, a song will be written named “American, the Gullible.”

There’s Just Me

18 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by in President Trump

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One of my favorite sayings is “Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive.” With the White House being run by no one in particular, no wonder its policies are so confused and erratic.

The President’s narcissistic ego and lack of ability to concentrate on more than one thing at a time makes him susceptible to being influenced by many people at the same time. He spends a great deal of his time watching Fox’s talking heads and too often doing what they tell him to do.

In addition to Rubert Murdoch’s and Roger Ailes’ agendas given to him on Fox and in meetings, their agendas are pushed by Trump’s many official and unofficial advisors. He is often persuaded by one advisor’s idea one day which he announces to the press and then hears a conflicting viewpoint from another person causing him to announce a conflicting policy the next day.

His number one consideration is loyalty and not knowledge in making his appointments. His chief advisor on international affairs appears to be his son-in-law. Kushner has no special knowledge of geopolitics. Trump knew few of his appointments except the very rich ones like his Wall Street Treasury Secretary. A lot of the craziness concerning the Ukraine comes from unofficial advisor and conspiracy pusher, Rudy Giuliani, who has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the corrupt Ukrainian politicians. He has been trying to get the corruption investigator into America without success to buttress his server and Biden conspiracies. Both have been found to be untrue by American and Ukrainian agencies.

Trump has said “I have no team, the team is just me!!” I think he is truthful for once — There is no team! Doesn’t he know there is no “I” in Trump?

It’s Not the Economy Stupid

14 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in Deficits, National Debt

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I agree with some of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s ideas but like everyone else in office or running for office she is carefully avoiding the huge deficit and gigantic debt. All Warren and the other Democrats can think about is new programs and the taxes which might pay for them.

The first bill we need to pay is the deficit. President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich paid down all the 30 year bonds, the 20 year bonds, and were working on the 10 year bonds. The national banks around the world persuaded them to cease. Our bonds were their reserves.

The Bush tax cuts turned the pay down around and started rebuilding the debt. The Great Recession kept Obama from cutting the deficit. He was able to only reduce spending with sequestration. Trump’s tax cuts on top of Bush’s means we must borrow 40 cents for every dollar we spend. Our national debt exceeds by more than 15% our gross national product. If it can’t be turned around we will be a Greece or Italy.

John Kennedy’s words may never be more important than now. They apply to those in power and those who want to be. “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” I must include raising taxes to President Reagan’s level and eliminating loopholes for a fair tax. We are about to drown in red ink so reducing the deficit and lowering the debt must be done in 2020. We do that by dumping Trump, who likes bankruptcy, and putting in a conservative or moderate Democrat.