Tag Archives: History

What If Gore Had Won?

11 Thursday Dec 2025

Posted by in Al Gore, Climate Change, Politics

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        Perhaps the Supreme Court’s decision to not allow the chads votes in Florida to be counted is quite possibly the most decisive and far-reaching vote they ever made. Other decisions can be changed and re-changed but that moment in History will never come again.

            Vice President Al Gore was a leader in the fight to reduce the causes of Climate Change here and around the world. Bush II’s people were repeatedly warned about Bin Laden and the Al-Queda but ignored them when they might have prevented the 9-11 attacks. Clinton and Gore had worked with Speaker Gingrich to cut over 350,000 government jobs over eight years and paid off almost all of the bonds. Gore had worked with Gingrich and the House and Senate budget committees to fix the Social Security System for at least 75 years. Gingrich lost support of his caucus after the Lewinsky scandal hit the fan. Gore was highly respected around the world including China and Russia.

            Granted we have had four Presidents since Gore lost the Electoral College – not the popular vote – with each doing their own thing. The most far-reaching laws Bush II and Trump did was to cut taxes and ramp up the National Debt to a disastrous amount.

            We currently have a President and a group of people telling Americans Climate Change is not real. They say it is just a liberal scheme to spend money ignoring the events they can see. Had Gore been elected we would be in the fore-front of trying to keep the CO2 emissions down and reducing the effects we are now seeing and how much worse they will get.

            It is disturbing to think how life would be different here and around the world.

A Day to Remember

06 Saturday Dec 2025

Posted by in Japan, Japan, Germany

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        Today is December 7, 2025. We call it a day of Remembrance because that day in 1941 is when the Japanese pulled us into the war by bombing Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The reasons they did are both simple and complex. They are both economic and political.

            As in Europe the roots of World War II started in the early 1930s. With Japan it was the invasion of Manchuria on September 18, 1931 using a fabricated excuse as the reason. The full scale invasion on China started July 7, 1941. FDR thought he could get Japan to stop and pull out by cutting off our exports of oil and steel. It did not work because of the complex reasons.

            The major party in Japan was an ultra-nationalist group who thought Japan should be the dominant power in Asia and the Western Pacific. Their term for the Control of China, Philippines, South East Asia and all the islands was The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere which would allow them to steal all the resources and enslave their peoples. The leader of the party finally got complete control of Japan’s Army and Government on October 18, 1941 through coercion and assassination of political opponents. The party saw Japan’s powerful army and navy as more than a match for an isolationist and weak United States. They thought if they declared war, devastated Pearl Harbor and captured Wake Island. FDR would sue for peace. Through a screw-up war was not declared until hours after the attack.

            Adding to the complexity was Japan, Germany and Italy signing the Triparte Pact. It was supposed to be a Mutual Defense Agreement. Germany thought it would keep the United States out of the war but Japan’s attack on us caused Hitler to declare war on the U.S. causing WWII. If Hitler had kept silent we would not have gone into the European War.

History Repeating … Again

24 Monday Nov 2025

Posted by in Adolph Hitler, Putin, Ukraine

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Few people know the importance of March 7, 1936. That was when Adolph Hitler ordered his army to invade the demilitarized area of the Rhineland. The area was a manufacturing area with large coal reserves allowing heavy equipment like tanks, ships and planes to be built. The army chiefs were afraid to do so with their tiny army because they would be crushed by the neighboring countries. Nothing happened telling Hitler he was free to do as he wanted so he started building up his military.

His next target was to the South of Germany. Being Austrian he invaded Austria on March 12, 1938 declaring it a Province of Germany. There was no response from the rest of the World and his agents had worked with the Austrian leaders to allow a peaceful takeover.

Next he wanted Czechoslovakia. The Czechs didn’t want to give him a part of their country. Hitler’s threats to invade created a fear of another war so an agreement was reached on September 30, 1938 between Germany. England. France and Italy giving him the part of Czechoslovakia he wanted. The Munich agreement negotiations did not involve any Czechs. March 12 he got thirty-eight percent of the country including its defensive positions. Later, on March 15, 1939 he invaded and took the rest with little resistance. He declared it a Special Province of Germany.

After signing the Munich Agreement Neville Chamberlain, England’s Prime Minister, declared “Peace In Our Time”. All the appeasing made Hitler think he could take the Eastern half of Poland (Stalin and Hitler had agreed to divide Poland) without any military response from the rest of Europe. He was wrong and war was declared by the allies on September 3, 1939.

Does Putin’s playbook sound just like Hitler’s. He has already incorporated parts or all of other countries so is Ukraine a fighting Czechoslovakia or will it be invading NATO and the Baltic countries causing the next war? He has plans for many countries?

Hip Boots

14 Monday Jul 2025

Posted by in Washington DC Swamp

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        There is an old saying my generation uses when the flip side of an issue occurs and the people who were against the first side are quiet after the flip. It is “The shoe is on the other foot now”. I remember the prime movers of Watergate were Democrats but many Republicans joined to oust President Nixon. That bi-partisanship was notable. I remember the Republican created scandals involving the Clinton’s and their finances. Another is the Billy Carter Beer endorsement. Recently it is the money the Obama’s has made selling their biographies after they left Washington. Of course, we can’t forget Hunter Biden doing the same thing the Bush boys did with their Daddy’s job. The other party usually made a scandal out of the situation real or created.

            Today’s antics, graft, and corruption in the Oval Office and in much of the administration is like hip boots to the bath slippers of past Presidents. We just heard the convicted and imprisoned leader of the gangster disciples was freed from Federal Prison after his sister donated $1,500,000 to Trump’s campaign fund. It is over $600 million now and he wants it to reach one billion. This isn’t the first time he has pardoned a felon for money. One felon pardoning another!

            The corruption in Trump’s business dealings is evident because they are usually announced by the White House Media People. The ear of the President can be bought by buying a million or two of his stable coin and attending the dinner for the big donators in the White House. The biggest buyers get face time.

            When will the cowered Republicans finally act? The scandals already require hip boots.
When will the Republicans need chest waders to wade in the Trump swamp? The order of this presidency has encircled the world. They know he can be bought and are doing it with a plane, loans, partnerships, or land. How far is President Trump willing to go?

Things Change

30 Monday Jun 2025

Posted by in Cultural Change, Racism

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Things are constantly changing for good or bad. Life used to be fairly simple compared to how we see them now. I was born and grew up in Southern Illinois in a town with only a 3,000 population. It wasn’t until high school I knew we had an extended family of ethnic Germans in the county. They were in a different school district for grade school. We had no non-white people living in the county and the only religious strife was Baptists sects against each other and both against the Pentecostal and Catholics. No fighting but lots of meaningless debating. It was a rare county to some extent because we had no non-white people in it. My family wasn’t racist because of my mother.

            At the time most of the names I knew were English so when I went to college I encountered other colors and saw nothing to be concerned about. They were just people like me. My first knowledge of racism in the Southern states was a girl who had moved up for junior college from a Jim Crow state. She had a huge inferiority complex and was uncomfortable around the rest of us and talking with us scared her. I hope she overcame it.

            My source of the wider world was the television and its programs. I had seldom watched the news so a university with Viet Nam protests and veterans, racial strife with Martin Luther King’s murder, studying population, food, and climate change was an eye opener. I started watching the national and international news and now I am a news junkie.

            Age old American Companies are now owned by foreign companies with CEOs who have distinct accents from the rest of the world. The internet companies have ethnic Asian Founders and CEOs. Oh, I have several Asian friends and my niece and nephew married into that ethnic German culture. Times have changed for the better for me but I still live in the good old days.

The bad is evident and I think the invention pushed by Al Gore is the basis for much of today’s problems. The newspapers and television were worried about not telling the truth about something and getting sued. Today we have media on the TV and internet that are so completely as to be propaganda status.

            Civility in politics has gone for the most part. Name calling and demeaning an opponent’s race and sex is now common. Having an immoral and despicable personality means nothing for millions of people. Lying has become an art form for some politicians. Religious people who run from any person wanting their vote now say they are not the second coming. What has happened to morals being their basis for supporting a person?

            Climate change has finally become evident with record high temperatures, and five hundred and thousand year storms are occurring every year. Home often are still in repair when another swamps it. Where I live in Northern Illinois a winter night reaching zero is extremely rare. Just a few decades ago that was a high temperature for days. Insects that burrowed down froze and died, but today the ground barely freezes.

Importance of Allies

20 Tuesday May 2025

Posted by in Allies

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        President Donald J. Trump doesn’t realize the importance of having friendly allies who want to work with the United States to keep mutual enemies at bay. He believes our military to be invincible because of the one-sided history taught in our schools.

            Allied Forces in Western Europe were mostly well led and supplied. The rifles were superior to the bolt action rifles of the German infantryman. However their machine pistols and machine guns were superior to BARS and Thompsons. The Sherman tank was designed to be built faster than the enemy could destroy them. Allied aircraft were superior to the German propeller aircraft. Their jets were game changers and if they had them two years earlier and in sufficient numbers it would have been suicide to fly across the channel. Without air dominance D-Day would not have happened.

            The real reason we were able to land on the Normandy Beaches wasn’t because of items above but because the Russian Stormavik planes, the T-34 tanks, and several million soldiers who kept fighting even when the losses didn’t matter to their leaders. When the D-Day soldiers came ashore two of the divisions they fought against were Ukrainians who had joined to fight the Russians. They were sent west because the German General Staff didn’t trust them and they were kept in secret about what the Germans were doing in the Ukraine. Most of the German army was needed to hold the Russians back from Germany. We didn’t like Stalin but we were allies.

            Without the Russians whittling down and keeping the Germans busy in Eastern Europe Hitler’s Reich might still be in power.

Illegal Order

20 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by in Illegal Order, Presidential Power

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        In today’s political climate the first order we think about is President Donald Trump’s order to send the gang members to an El Salvador Prison. A judge said to stop but the flights continued in spite of the court order. That is a minor but first stop in defiance of the laws of our country.

            The illegal order I am worried about isn’t a civil or criminal order that concerns me, it’s the ones he gives to his hand-picked leaders of our country’s military. Yesterday he hinted he could take Canada or Greenland when he wanted. As a student of history, in particular World War II, I remember Adolf Hitler hand-picked the leaders of his general staff. The previous ones had advised against an aggressive military strategy where Germany would start the conflict.

            The German people and military had been told over and over that the Arian Race was the best and Germany was the greatest nation. It was Germany’s destiny to fulfill that destiny. During his last inaugural speech Trump talked about manifest destiny and the artificial border with Canada. He has said Greenland is closer to the United States than to its home country Denmark.

            The question is would our General Staff who swore an oath to our country say no? Would Trump replace them with Generals who would comply with his order to invade both places? We know his ego does not allow for dissension of his wishes and dreams. He has just said he is the leader of the world’s most powerful country and economy and he should be able to do what is best for America and the world. If the Congress and Courts can’t control him, will the Military?           

Taxes Opens Doors

05 Wednesday Mar 2025

Posted by in Morality

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        As I was driving past a sandwich shop in a semi-rural community in Northern Illinois I noticed several signs on a building about playing the slots inside. A thought flashed through my mind of trip we took through Nevada five decades ago. We stopped off in a big casino, at that time, and played the nickel slots for a couple of dollars and continued on to Pasadena. It was before interstates in the area so we took regular highways with some signs for places of legal prostitution.

            Now as I drove around Illinois and other states I see casinos and signs for slot machines, and betting places. Bets can be placed without leaving home. Many states, including Illinois, allow for sales of narcotics like Marijuana to anyone old enough to comply with that state’s laws. It is heavily taxed just as gambling so communities and states can have money without the usual taxes.

            A few years later we took a trip east and I played Blackjack until I lost the budgeted fifty dollars. My wife finally lost twenty playing the slots. It was fun and we got free drinks. Oddly there was a lot of water and mixers but not much alcohol.

            As I drove past the sandwich shop, I saw the indoor shooting range sign. It then occurred to me – the next time I go past a prostitution sign could fit in just as Vegas in the seventies. Is that the road many states are on to get more tax money? How many tax dollars would it bring in to balance a budget? The Religious Right was against legal gambling but some of their big name leaders visited with expensive call girls and so forget the moral issue.

WIMP

01 Saturday Mar 2025

Posted by in President Trump, Wimp

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        If you are into Physics then you know WIMP is short for Weak Interactive Massive Particle. It is part of the basic structure of everything. Few Americans have ever heard of WIMPs. Another meaning for WIMP is Weak In Moral Patriotism. We currently have a major political party which is a great example of being a WIMP in more ways than one.

            The WIMPy Republican members of Congress, both Representatives and Senators, have given up their constitutional role in government to allow the President and an unofficial group to take control of the Federal Government’s operation which Congress has funded.

            Why have they relinquished control? The main reason is their fear of losing their next primary election because of President Trump’s threats and Elon Musk’s money, along with his threat to use 100 million dollars against them. This is public extortion but don’t expect the Justice Department to act since Trump has complete control of the country’s Federal Justice Departments. Of course, the President can always pardon Musk for anything he or his group does.

            Congress’ problem is once they wimped out they don’t know how to get back moral patriotism they have expounded upon for the last few decades. Many know they have signed on to the egomaniac that thirsts for power and are cowed by his threats. Others not only want to stay in their office but want to increase their power. The newbies are just going along with what their leadership is telling them to do.            
A point of 1930’s German History is the Großdeutscher Reichstag thought they could control Hitler after they allowed him to be Chancellor, then President, and then Führer which was too late. It only took about 100 days. History has a habit of repeating itself, doesn’t it?

History Lesson

15 Sunday Dec 2024

Posted by in History Forgotten

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        As a student of History, let me give the reader a bit of history to compare with another time. When Adolph Hitler became leader of Germany he put people into positions of authority solely on their sworn loyalty to him. Several were sexual perverts and criminals. He picked out an ethnic group and called them subhuman and a religious group calling them the reason Germany was suffering.

            Hitler curried favor and a sense of loyalty from the major industrialists by talking about his plans to build a new Germany. He told them of his plans to build new highways and rebuild the military. They would employ millions of good German workers while making millions for them. They built the Autobahn so troops and supplies could be moved back and forth quickly and built new factories and foundries to make equipment.

            His appointment of Joseph Goebbels to make sure the people heard and read only what they should know, no matter how much of it was fabricated. By using the Federal Police powers, the Media either followed the directed line or were met with jail, concentration camp, or murdered. Remember the motto, “If you say it often enough people will believe it.”  Of course, if a German didn’t believe it, jail awaited or worse.

            Hitler’s power over the Generals required personal loyalty or shunted aside into retirement. Soon all new recruits had to swear allegiance to him and not to Germany. The promises of a new and more powerful Germany kept them loyal even as he interfered with planning often causing disasters.             Hitler and Germany can be replaced by Putin and Russia. Can the reader see another leader who demands loyalty from appointees with poor character to positions of power? Several are crooks and sexual perverts. Few if any have any experience or skill in management. Who could it be? Will the people see what is coming or wait as happened in Germany and Russia?