“Nanny State”

I am told if Biden or any Democrat gets to be President, the United States will become a “Nanny State.” What is a “Nanny State”? Is it a country that wants its citizens to breathe clear air and drink clean water? Is it one that wants its people to have good health and healthy, safe food? Maybe it’s one where millions of people aren’t begging for food on streets or dying on hospital steps? Is it one that gives people a little money when they are unemployed? Some people think it is Social Security and Medicare.

I think a “Nanny State” should do all of the above plus ensure our culture and its people should survive by doing its best to cut carbon emissions. It should try to preserve our remaining natural areas and wildlife. It should cut the number of guns especially assault weapons and high capacity magazines as almost every other country has done. A “Nanny State” would not allow companies and billionaires to own its elected official’s votes. It would ensure every voter could Vote and be counted. It would make sure our infrastructure was modern.

Perhaps a “Nanny State” is one based on the Preamble to the Constitution. How can anyone except a multi-billionaire or a person living in their own world not agree? Like it or not, everyone benefits from a “Nanny State.”

Horrors Await Outside

Kids are braver today than they were when I was a kid. The TV is full of ads constantly asking people who were abused by priests and Boy Scout Leaders to be their clients. The news is filled with stories of kids being killed sitting in their child seats, sitting on their porch, and playing in their yard. That doesn’t mean it is safer in the house because kids are shot through windows.

When kids go outside they are told to wear a mask and everybody knows; except for the Lone Ranger, only bad people wear masks. Of course if they don’t wear a mask they can get sick and die. As they grow up they are told to stay away from strangers and to run to a policeman if they are bothered, scared, or lost. Now the news is full of police killing people so stay away from anyone but family. Of course, they often see news items about family members killing each other including parents killing their children.

Nope, the good ole days are gone. When I got grocery bags of treats at Halloween, it was by going all over town. It took two or three days, not two hours. I don’t remember anybody giving fruit or anything remotely healthy.

No wonder kids today are stuck on electronic games, phones, and social media. It is a horror movie set outside their door.

Presidential Qualifications

I think Jackie Kennedy’s last letter she wrote before leaving the White House was to Nikita Khrushchev. Jack Kennedy and Khrushchev had been negotiating nuclear warhead limits as to numbers and sizes.

This is part of that letter which is as important today as it was in 1963. “War might be started not so much by big men who have self control and restraint, but by little men who are sometimes moved by fear and pride.”

The world has many small men with nuclear weapons. Let us hope the people we put in the oval office aren’t the small men she feared. Remember those words when you vote for President!

Twenty-Fifth Amendment

Why is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushing a change in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment when Trump will probably lose the popular and electoral vote by a large percentage? When does a President become dangerous to the survivability and welfare of the country? In an episode of “Madame Secretary” it was a brain tumor. The President wanted to go to a nuclear war with Iran.

We all know Donald Trump hasn’t been completely sane for many years with his narcissism, sexual abuse, and lack of morals. The voters either didn’t see those mental defects or didn’t believe them important enough to consider when they voted. However, his obvious paranoia was increased by the steroids he has been taking to combat the Coronavirus. They make one hyper-active and increase one’s natural tendencies. While on the steroid and until it is out of his system, Vice-President Pence should be President.

Both Trump and Biden are of an age several mental conditions could affect a President’s actions. We now know Reagan should not have been re-elected. Other Presidents have acted in a questionable manner at times but they were in office before we knew about mental illness. Wilson’s stroke would have qualified had the amendment been in effect then.

Neither loyalty to the President or partisanship should be involved in making the decision to replace a President. Only their oath to protect the country should be of consideration. The President of the United States is literally the most powerful person in the world and mental or personal conditions can destroy the planet in an hour! Remember, we were afraid Nixon would start a war rather than resign.

Still Some Time to Save Us

I was reading an article on the European Union’s concern about meeting their goal of reusing or recycling 50% of plastic packaging by 2025 and 55% by 2030. Europeans don’t bury or dump into the ocean their plastics like we do. They burn theirs so they don’t have Alps of dumps. Burning plastics produces global warming gases which they are trying to reduce. Europe has been good at recycling their waste for decades.

As our population grows, we build mountains or find holes to dump our garbage. Most of it could be recycled or composted instead of dumped on higher and higher piles. Joliet, Illinois has low piles next to I-80. Morris, Illinois’ piles are higher but well off the main roads and more hidden. Both started off in holes or they would be much taller. Even if they hadn’t started off in holes, they wouldn’t be mountainous like those close to I-55 near Pontiac, Illinois. Pontiac’s mountains are easily the highest points in many, many miles.

Our country has real growth problems: population, global warming, fires, drought, hurricanes, air and water pollution, nuclear waste storage, garbage dumps, and a myriad of other issues. Our next President must address these issues that the current President has dismissed as unimportant. Biden says his administration will be governed by science. If he really does make science a basis for his administration, our life will change and ultimately for the better. We have been digging the hole deeper every year to avoid irritating monied interests. Let us hope President Joe Biden will save us while there is still time.

Lost Trust in America

This country was founded on deceit and corruption but that is nothing new to people who actually read history. I doubt any country is as pure as the citizens would like. I bet a majority of every state question the morals and illegal activities of their officials and government.

Before Katrina New Orleans police was corrupt from rookie to chief. It was well documented but who was going to say anything when the whole city government was on the take too. Is it any better now? I doubt it.

Texas has a reputation of being owned by Big Oil and Big Business. The right and left attorneys in the State Attorney General’s office just sent a letter about their Republican boss’s activities. A.G. Ken Paxton has spent his entire five years in office under a criminal indictment for securities fraud. For all those years his personal attorneys have stalled the courts from having a trial. Yes, not only was he elected the first time but he was elected again. Texans don’t seem to care how crooked their officials are.

We have problems with criminal activity just as all other states and countries. Influence is sold. A high school coach became a multi-millionaire after a few years in Congress. Even after our former Republican U.S. Congressman announced he was quitting, donations continued to flow into his campaign chest. Was that out of the kindness of their hearts? Ha-ha.

Law enforcement has some bad and very bad apples, but the vast majority are very honest and caring people who hate being tarnished by those few crooked and racist cops.

No system, group, or political party is pure but we keep voting for the same good or bad ones because they buy our loyalty and vote.

A New Normal

People are often hearing the words “A New Normal” and think it was invented for Covid 19. It wasn’t. It means the children of today will believe/think that it is normal to wear masks and stay at home. The original had to do with the deteriorating ecology and loss of habit for animals and global warming. A great example is light pollution. I used to see the Milky Way at night. Now, on a good night, I can see less than a hundred stars. Kids today think that is a normal number.

My parents lived through World Wars, Korean, Viet Nam, and the Cold War. I grew up with the constant threat of a nuclear war and Bush wars in the Middle East and elsewhere. Afghanistan was just another Viet Nam. The United States has been at war somewhere almost every day of my life. One becomes inured to possibilities of a war, even a nuclear war.

When I was younger, we wrote letters and phoned people to communicate with each other. Privacy was paramount, even when everybody knew everybody else. Today, people text, use
E-mail, or Zoom instead of actually communicating by a friendly voice. Privacy is out of the question.

The Grassy Knoll was the only conspiracy I knew about until the Internet became the eight-lane highway to spread those crazy ideas from nutty Americans and Russians. Children are influenced by their parents believing in those nutty ideas. That is how today’s base will grow up as their normal.

Wear A Mask

I remember a few decades ago when people who had AIDS were arrested, tried and convicted of infecting others when they knew they were infected. This was before medicine was found to prolong life and it became less lethal.

Why not use the same reasoning to Covid 19 because it is lethal much more quickly. It also has an after effect for many people leaving them much less healthy than before. Is not wearing a mask the same as spreading AIDS?

People used to say they are homosexuals (other words were more often used) and it doesn’t matter. Their beliefs changed when AIDS went heterosexual and their chances went up and people got nervous. Why don’t people feel they need to wear a mask for protecting themselves and others? It’s more than inconsiderate because not doing so can kill people. Flare-ups have an economic impact when fighting it requires businesses to close.

I am convinced wearing a mask is patriotic and not wearing one is at the least unpatriotic and dangerous. Wearing a mask may be uncomfortable but may be the cause of you or someone else inhaling fluids from Covid 19. Maybe locking up those who don’t wear a mask will change minds.

Critical Questions

Here are very critical questions concerning the lifetime body guards given to the President of the United States and others. Seems to me Jackie Kennedy dropped hers when Onassis put her under his security umbrella. Since that protection was extended past their term in office, former Presidents have led exemplarily lives. The question needs to be answered as to how far it should go. Assume a past President is arrested for drunken driving, rape, fraud, or a myriad of other reasons, does the security detail sit in the cell too? If found guilty does the detail go to prison or are they the jailers in some cushy home or white collar prison? What if the former President decides to move to another country, especially one without an extradition agreement with the United States?

These are critical questions that need to be answered before Donald Trump leaves office in 2021 or 2025.

Kicking and Screaming

President Donald J. Trump has repeated his mantra of not leaving the oval office because his narcissistic imagination can’t allow him to think his deceived voters could desert him. The farther he falls in polls, the harder he pushes the voting will be a fraud. (He should know the word since several states are waiting for him on January 21, 2021.)

I can image him kicking and screaming as the Secret Service drags him out of the White House, down the drive, and tosses him out the gate! Reminds me of the baby balloon people use in Europe when he visits.

Since he will be out of power, will Rupert Murdock give him a daily show to continue their dividing of the country or will Murdock drop him for another up and comer he can manipulate?

I look forward to the kicking and screaming scene. Will his bodyguards be the tossers or the catchers?