Author Archives: Commentary about the Blue Marble

Listening Tours

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Politics, Uncategorized

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How many times have you heard someone who is going to run for office say they would do a listening tour? I have heard people running for judge, states attorney, state and federal representative and senator say those or similar words. They say they will do it so they can understand voter concerns. They say they want to represent what your concerns are. Two or three polls tell them what we think so they can say that is what they want too. Don’t you want people who tell you what they think so you can decide which you will vote for? We should vote for the one whose views we agree with the most.

Hillary Clinton did a listening, but her positions were the same after as before the tour. Trump has been for everything he was against and against everything he was for. For instance he donated millions to Democrats and not Republicans, Planned Parenthood, and other liberal causes. His tour was to watch Fox Networks and Breitbart news. Going after their followers became his policies and promises.

With stupidity being rampant with people who believe what they read on social media and what the Russians fed people, Trump won with policies the great majority disagreed with.

Why do we vote for people who are seeking our vote so they can make money or put through their own agenda. I had rather vote for someone’s own principles than vote for someone who formed their viewpoints to suit enough voters to be elected.

Iran is not Iraq

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Defense, International

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A few of the Democrats and most of the Republicans in Congress want to go to war with any country they can con us into believing is a threat. They look at tiny Grenada, Panama, and even the two Iraq invasions as models of what our military can do. They forget Korea and Viet Nam and that we are still in Afghanistan and Korea.

They think that Iran is Iraq and can’t be that different because some of them use the two countries interchangeably. They are both in the Middle East and Muslim so they can’t be too tough to overcome.

The warmongers should look at the facts. Iraq has 25 million people on 168,000 square miles. Iran has over 68 million people and over 636,000 square miles. Iraq’s Army was Shia fighting for a Sunni Government they hated. Iran’s population is 90% Shia with a hardcore force that is extremely dedicated to the leadership. Iran has high tech weapons that can sink the Navy’s carriers and down our planes. Russia has sent their best anti-aircraft defenses to make any attack by Israel or U.S. painful.

Iran sacrificed hundreds of kids by having them walk into Iraq minefields. Militia units followed and were mowed down. Iraqis killed so many they ran out of artillery shells and bullets. They ran before the first line of elite troops got into Iraqi positions.

Iran is a strong Theocracy and will send its people after Americans everywhere. The attacks on the home land by Al Qaeda will pale as to those Iran’s leaders could mount.

The Iraq-Iran War lasted eight years and was over when Iran said it was over. They are prepared to fight and die for decades. Are we?

Changes Don’t Help Us

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Budget, Politics

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Yes, things do need to change but it can’t be done piecemeal. Social Security needs to be fixed along the lines of the Gingrich-Clinton proposal. An effort made by the far right wingers to kill Social Security and keep wages so low people have to depend on welfare to survive is unbelievable. They think those people should be putting money aside for retirement–low wages and saving for retirement is incompatible.

Allowing billionaires to buy the Presidency and Congress has to change. We elect people to go to Washington D.C. to do what is best for all of us, not just those who represent a few thousand far right or left wingers. The lefties want to help people that may not need so much aid and the righties want to help the rich by screwing the other 99%.

Remember the boom years of the 80’s and 90’s? Taxes were about 50% more and the economy was good to great. National banks around the world were afraid we would pay off the last of our Treasury Bonds (30 year was gone; 20 year would have been gone by 2003.) Taxes were reduced as soon as Bush got in and the red ink has been rocketing for 15 years.

Less tax means no money for fixing infrastructure. The economy isn’t trickling down because the top 1% has shut the valve tight. The middle class is just a sliver of its former size. The GOP is trying to convince us we are doing better, but we aren’t.

Who Should Vote?

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Civics, Voting

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Last year the University of Pennsylvania did an unsurprising survey of 1,013 Americans. Only a quarter knew the three branches of government! Even worse is almost three hundred couldn’t name any. Your first thought should be if the United States is supposed to be the first democracy (maybe of the millennia) then we are definitely letting our ancestors and the founding fathers down.

I don’t know what percentage of the greatest generation voted but all I knew never missed a chance. When we have a high turnout vote, it isn’t even half of us. Sometimes it’s in the teens!

Why is the key? When AARP members went to school, we had a civics class and had to pass a test on the Constitution. I still remember the basics but I do not know many of today’s cabinet. There are twice as many today than we had in the 1960s. Somewhere afterwards schools stopped teaching civics. Is that the reason for later generation’s ignorance? Is that why voting and knowledge has dropped.

Good news for Illinois. The schools are mandated to teach civics (Morris will teach a full semester.) to the class of 2020. The question is will it be the idealized version that never existed or the real government. Will it involve dark Monday, lobbyists, campaigns, national parties, organizations, political foundations and all the other real parts of the three branches?

Is it better to teach the truth and hope they will vote to improve the situation or let them remain ignorant of real life? Should people vote if they are clueless and ignorant as many voters are or know the reality of the system and not vote?

Diversity

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Gender, Racism, Women

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I remember when diversity meant a different color, or race. Now it means a different gender. Companies are trying to go along with this latest fashion by bringing women into upper management and boardrooms. I worked with women for many years and each had an ideocracy just like all the men I worked with. Some men and women I worked with were trying to do a job over their capability but I found that more women were working below their capability. If they were in my command structure they were promoted and paid equally to a man doing the same job.

I disagree with promoting a person no matter their race or gender if they are not capable of doing the job. Not everyone has the mindset to be in a supervisory role. Many companies are promoting women to upper management who had little or no experience in lower management. They are being put on corporate boards just because its fashionable.

Promoting people for any reason other than their capability is wrong for the organization and for the person. General Motors CEO has over thirty years in the company and is highly respected. Several others like the former Yahoo CEO did not have the ability. They were put into the office because they were women. Many men have failed as CEO, some disasterly. Doing a good job has nothing to do with gender, race, or religion. The main factor is training and experience. Just because a person can run one business doesn’t mean they can run another, no matter their gender or race.

Clancy Drained the Swamp

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Government, Politics, President Trump, Uncategorized

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In Tom Clancy’s Book, Executive Orders, he imagined what would happen if the President, Cabinet, Supreme Court, Joint Chiefs, and all the members of Congress were killed. Clancy forgot to kill off the lobbyists who are the real power. They spread millions of dollars and write many of the laws Congress votes on. The Supreme Court’s decision on Citizen’s United allows millions in “Dark Money” (unregistered and hidden) to find its way into pockets, campaign chests, and political organizations.

Clancy did not write how such an event would affect the billionaires who currently control our three branches of government. In the book, Clancy proposed the people who would run for Senator might hate it so much one or two terms would be all they could stand. Of course, each Governor would appoint the Representatives for that state so they would be political. Think of it, no existing empires to control new people so it would have to start all over again.

Trump’s swamp is real but the first thing he did was to deepen it by doing away with the ethics rules. Lobbyists and lawyers who fronted for special interests were chosen for cabinet posts and under secretaries.

Before the reader thinks the swamp is only in the Administration, think about how a retired high school coach and Speaker of the House can still be wealthy after paying three million to a blackmailer. When they retire, high paying jobs in banks, consulting corporations, and others awaits them assuming they voted right. Those in the Administration get offers in the same places.

The Bad Ole Days

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Climate Change, Coal Mining, Environment

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I remember driving I-80 across the southern end of Lake Michigan’s industrial corridor without car air conditioning. We rolled up the windows, closed the vents, and took as few breaths as possible. The 1970s air was so bad we couldn’t believe people lived in the area. Coal plants and steel plants darkened the sky and fouled the air with particles that coated everything.

The EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt used to be Oklahoma’s Attorney General and sued the EPA several times for the fossil fuel companies that put lots of money into his campaign chest and speeches. Now he is running his most hated agency and has the power to cut the regulations for his fossil fuel friends want. Under the guise of creating jobs, Pruitt is, has and will cut regulations on coal fired plants, steel mills, and oil refineries. The cuts will maybe save a few jobs in those industries while polluting the air and water the regulations had cleaned.

Coal fired plants scheduled to close because of the cost of emission controls may now stay open. The Navajo five-unit generation plant will now stay open making the air over the Grand Canyon Park stay hazy.

A few years ago we talked with the Rangers of the Cumberland Gap National History Park about the wooded “mountains” in and around the park. They said the tops would be cut off, dumped into the valleys, damming them up until they break, and flood the downstream homes with mud and acid…all of this for a few feet of coal about 50 feet below the top. Pruitt is turning the clock back on mountain topping, too.

Political Train Tracks

29 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Politics

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Before putting money into campaign chests became paramount, both parties used to work together for the good of the country. Occasionally a party might go off the tracks with a radical idea so far off the rail the other side couldn’t support it, but they usually found common ground for the country’s good.

Both ideologies used to find a place where moderates from both parties could see a place where the rails merged into one law. It meant that moderates could merge their ideals into one forming something both could live with. That is how Congress used to work before we voted out the moderates and voted in radicals who want to destroy governments and safety nets. When that happened the super rich of both sides (thanks to the Citizens United Decision) pumped money into the election process demanding the receipients do as their masters demand. Today we have many tracks but seldom do any of them merge on the horizon.

The parties used to have socials and games on weekends in Washington because governing meant 4 1/2 day work week. As the need to raise money became the greater need over legislating they have cut the number of work weeks and days to three. Some of the leadership may stay until Friday because their position and funding is secure. We now know they all leave the building to go to the phone banks each party has set up for pleading for more money.

Too often the rails do not seem to merge on the horizon but stay separated as we disappear into the setting sun.

No Good Choices

29 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in National Debt, Politics

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Image yourself as President in 2020 and the National Debt is over $26,000,000,000,000 and growing at over a $1,000,000,000,000 a year pace. What would you do? These are some of your choices.

Raise Taxes — Unless we are in a deep recession all taxes could be raised in yearly stages to pre-Bush tax cuts when the economy boomed. Only 14% of the companies benefiting from the recent tax cuts have passed any of the money through to their employees by either raises or one year bonuses. The others increased management salaries and benefits, bought back stocks, and increased dividends.

Cut Social Programs — Revise and/or reduce Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other safety net programs. A national health care program like Medicare from birth would be impossible.

Cut Military Expenses — Depending on world political stability, cuts here may be difficult. Several billion can always be cut without damaging the country’s security. Unfortunately, the V.A. costs will have risen significantly eating up the billions saved elsewhere.

Interest on the National Debt will grow as the Debt increases and the percentage rate increases due to the Federal Reserve’s need. Just like Greece, Italy, and others, we will be borrowing just to pay the interest.

The Republican’s have always been for tax cuts, no deficits, reducing debt, and cutting social programs. The Democrats have traditionally raised taxes to support new social programs.

The status quo will only increase the debt making debt the greatest National Security Issue. What would you do?

Too Long A Memory?

29 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Morality, U.S. History

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I sometimes I think I am in an alternate reality. I remember when Presidents were gentlemen, respectful, and not narcissistic. I remember when the Republicans would go pale with the prospect of voting for a budget with a deficit much less one with a trillion a year. I remember when President Nixon and his party pushed through the Environment Protection Agency to clean up our air, water, and land. I remember when Presidents came on TV and took the blame for mistakes. I remember when both parties worked and played together.

I remember when scientists and science weren’t belittled as fake. I remember when schools were properly funded and teachers were respected, if not feared, by their students. I remember when a man shook hands on a deal and it was a bond of honor. I remember when the top manager made two or three bucks more than the average worker. I remember when kids demonstrated against the use of guns in Viet Nam. I remember when the first date was a handshake or a kiss on the cheek. I remember when songs were about love and not killing cops. I remember when a kid could earn enough working summers, vacations, and student jobs to pay for college. I remember when people talked to each other. I remember when almost all kids had two parents. I remember when parents were smart enough to get their kids vaccinated.

The older a person gets, the farther the current normal gets from their normal. Today’s kids will think lying, threatening harm, bullying, school and mall shootings, and anti-fact are normal. Unfortunately, their normal and my normal have the same racist overtones.