WHAT HAPPENS NOW. THE GREAT UNANSWERED QUESTION

Austerity promoted by modern conservative leaders is destroying this country. Their kind of austerity is a misinterpretation of what the goal of conservatism should actually be. Conservatism should deal with controlling spending and not try to stop all spending. In the tipsy trivia political world of today the conservatives and liberals have migrated into on or the other political party rather that form wings of the party. The conservatives are amassed in the Republican party and the liberals are amassed in the Democratic party. Thus, the modern Republican Party appears to have taken an extreme position, which happens because they lack the moderating liberal points of view from within that party. The position they have taken would have been the expected position of what in the past would have been an extreme point of view for an entire party. What is happening is that the party is not trying to make government better, as political parties did in the past, but are working to completely destroy it, which is obviously an unacceptable extreme . . . one half of the body politic trying to destroy their reason for existence. It makes no sense. What is most disconcerting about the movement is that it seems to be worldwide. Several governments in the Europe Union have recently elected extreme rightwing government leaders. Austria seems on the verge of following suite. This seems dangerous to me; however, I have to admit that I am puzzled where this is going to lead. It seems counter to the usual conservative fear of loss of national sovereignty. In the past in individual countries it has led to dictators of one kind or another, which has led to tyrannies of one political party or, in the case of communism, it led to tyranny of the majority. The tyranny of royalty was the most common form of tyranny and replacing it with democracy was the result. Perhaps it will be multinational corporations left to take the reins of leadership. Of course, tyranny is tyranny. Of course, this movement to the right is receiving a disproportionate amount of support because individuality is something we all want and are willing to fight to get; it seems to be in our genes. Also, experience in the material world has taught us that we should ask for more than we actually want. I am a great believer in the idea that conservatism is driven by greed, which is an individual thing, in contrast with liberalism, which is driven by empathy. Obviously, empathy is a judgement of a group. We cannot survive without greed. The result in a free society, which is the hall mark of democracy is that we routinely fight for more than our share. This means democracy has an innate built in conflict; we ask for and expect to receive more than our Fair share. We as a society have reached that point. The question is it this happening at the country level or is it happening at the world level and if it is what is the final result. Where is our society going? We as a species have been around for about 100,000 years. Have we reach or are we approaching some sort of utopia? I find interesting is that many including some of the best minds down through the ages have tried but no one has ever been able to describe or even come close to describing what that might be. My point is that it seems as if are we are about to find out the hard way? The next one hundred years is bound to be interesting. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

USS LOWRY ON THE YALU RIVER

Like most ex-service men, I have little stories I can tell about serving aboard the USS Lowry in Korea during the Korean war. We call them “war stories” although they generally do not deal with shoot-em-up battles there were tense times. Fortunately, most of them ended well. One of my favorite such stories has to do with being in a very dangerous place during a very dangerous time when I am absolutely sure every crew member knew they were in danger but 99% of the crew did not realize how close they came to disaster. I have no idea of how many knew where we were sailing on the Yalu River, why we were there, and what real dangers they face. The date was May, 1952. At the time ship’s rumor had it that we were on an assignment to pick up information from a spy although our ship’s commanding officer later wrote we were there to deliver guns and ammunition to a contingent of Marine Raiders operating behind Communist lines. I saw nothing of that sort being transferred to the boat and only one of the men in the boat appeared to be an American and he was not in uniform of any kind. It was a moonless night with all light turned off and the ship’s portholes and hatches closed. The crew was at condition “E”, which meant they were standing at ease but remained at their battle stations. My duty station was in the electronics shop or ET Shack standing by with other electronic technicians petty officers to repair damaged radio or radar equipment if there was any. This compartment was next door to the Combat Information Center or CIC, the hub of communications. The CIC where the radio and radar is housed, which means we knew most of what was going on all the time. In addition, the ET shack had a common door with the navigation center or what we called the map or chart room. As is so often the case of our time in Korea, it was a long boring time with one lonely ship silently sailing for hours in complete darkness dark. Most of us, even in the CIC, did not know for sure where we were actually going or why we were going there. Boredom and curiosity led me to open the door to the map room where I found the navigation Officer working intensely over the map table. I did not realize at the time he was navigating without verified chart or maps. I later learned he was referring to a Royal Navy Chart, circa 1854. He left and returned several times, ostensibly to go to the ship’s bridge. From the radar images and from the charts it appeared to my untrained eye that we were sailing directly into the mouth of the Yalu River, which at the time and under those circumstances was unbelievable. We were at war, with North Korea, which was supported by Red China. The river flows between these two countries; not a healthy place. Actually, we were at a stalemate in the war. We were worried about MIG attacks but were told we were safe from air attacks because Navy planes from three of our aircraft carriers controlling the skies. Both sides in the war, or United Nation’s police action as it was called at the time, were maneuvering for advantage in truce negotiations that were expected to start soon. Ship’s scuttlebutt was that we were on our way to meet the equivalent of a small rowboat with an oar used to propel the boat. We referred to them as wiggle boats. Again out of boredom, I went out on deck to see what I could see, which was nothing. Eventually, I could faintly hear an American voice yelling for the deck hands on the stern to show a light, meaning a handheld flashlight covered with a red cloth, and to throw him a rope. The exchange became sharp when there was no light and the sailors on the stern of the ship yelled that the guy in the boat should throw them a rope. He quickly showed his Americanism by saying he did not have one and that he the thought a “big f---ing boat would have an f---ing rope. The rhetoric accelerated to panic when unexpectedly a powerful airplane searchlight on the ship’s bridge was turned on illuminating the entire rear half of the ship and a good share of the river. Just as quickly, the light was turned off. The small boat was tied up to the stern and three or four guys, all dressed in loosely fitting Korean clothing, climbed aboard. Only one looked to be an American. He was a tall thin man with curly blond hair and the least likely looking person to be a spy behind enemy lines. The American was taken to the wardroom. I was told that a the others were given free access to the ships store, which they literally stuffed their pockets with candy, cigarettes, etc. Still bored as the events on the fantail slowly unraveled, I returned to the ET shack. For something to do, I stepped into the chart room and turned on the fathometer for not real reason. It indicated in digital readout that we were in 40 some feet of water, which I thought nothing about because I knew the ship had a 15-foot draft. To my surprise, the navigation officer looked at the readout and yelled and explicative as he ran from the chart room and headed up the ladder to the bridge. I was confused by his excitement. Later, I found out he knew the river was shallow and the depth of the river tide was about 30 feet. He also knew the tide was going out; we would soon be stuck in the mud on the Yalu River, which would have been a rather precarious situation—a mighty United States warship helplessly stuck in the mud on the Yalu river. Immediately, the ship starting to turn. Luckily, the wiggle boat had tied up to the stern or it would have been left on the river. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

BEN BERNANKE MUDDLE

I just finished the strangest book I have ever read cover to cover. It was titled, The Courage to Act: A memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath by Ben Bernanke. 2015. The author was the head of the Federal Reserve System following Allan Greenspan, which led up to and followed the greatest economic crisis the world has ever experienced. The reason it was such a strange book is that sentence after sentence said exactly the opposite of what author’s message was. Bernanke claimed to have had the courage to act however that is what he did not do. Bernanke carefully explained he is an was raised as Ashkenazi Jew and is a devote Republican dedicated to being fiscally responsible. Seldom do we read books where the author dedicates so much space to documenting his religious heritage. He is obviously proud of the fact that Ashkenazi Jews are known to have IQ’s an average 12 points above the rest of us. In addition, he went to some of the best schools in the nation and studied economics. It was a little surprising he did not make more of his affiliation with the Republican Party and philosophical affiliation with that party’s platform of being fiscally responsible. However, this aspect was understandable because of his having been appointed by a Republican president and the need in the foreseeable future to be re-appointed by a Democratic President and confirmed by a Partisan congress. This deniable political affiliation while at the same time embracing it, is in keeping with the tenor of rest of the book. The doctrine of the Republican party, stated in as many ways as one can imagine, is less government, small government, no government, government is the problems, etc. As Bernanke carefully explains, he did a great job as a Republican heading a government agency dedicated to controlling the economy; an agency that he as an economist believes should not exist in a capitalist system. In addition, clearly the agency did a great job under Greenspan because it failed to provide the oversight needed, which resulted in the crisis. He repeatedly said in the books that the economic crisis came about because of the lack of supervision of banks and lending institutions, which makes my point; he is trying to take credit for correcting the great wrong that resulted from the Republican philosophy that created the economic crisis. Do you ever wonder why people are confused by what happens in Washington? URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

GREAT HILLARY CLINTON MYSTERY

The greatest mystery of our time concerns Hillary Clinton. As close as I can tell, she has been the target of unprecedented attacks since she became a public figure. Nothing in her history would suggest why this would be the case. Yes, she was the wife of a president but even then the media has treated differently from any other first lady. It seems that out of nowhere, Richard Mellon Scaife was an American billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He died in 2014 but it seems his lasting legacy in the media is a deep persistent but unexplained hate for Hillary Clinton. As strange as it was, he did a sudden and total reversal in April 2008, and endorsed her. Mrs. Clinton wrote in her memoir that he helped bankroll “the vast right-wing conspiracy” that was bent on destroying the Clinton presidency. There is no question that this is true. However, his hate went much deeper than that; it was pointed and personal for Hillary. The hate generated by this man seems to have skyrocketed and expanded to the point of being ridiculous. I just read, again for the thousandth time about her guilt in Benghazi. The same article brought up the Whitewater scandal. Of course, Vince Foster’s murder was mentioned. The main subject of the article subject was that she recently transmitted secret State Department memos on her public e-mail account. Every one of these things has been investigated and reinvestigated and no wrongdoing was found on her part or on her husband's account . . . none, zero. We all now the sexual improprieties taken by Bill Clinton, which have somehow has become her crime. Keep in mind that the famous blue dress mysteriously appeared in court after a number of years. It had been carefully preserved. Think about that; why would a young underpaid government intern preserve such an expensive dress unless some sort of anti-Clinton conspiracy was involved. She is not guilty of any of these things, yet they will not go away. Why? There is something notable about the comments of Republican political operatives bashing Hillary Clinton; they use the same words and phrases and often use them in the same order. When investigating a crime, police will immediately separate conspirators so they cannot exchange lies. When the same words are used in the answers, it usually means two things; one the answers are not truthful and that secondly, the answers were planned and rehearsed. Now these same comments are being mouthed by ordinary common working class people. These are the people she is supporting in government although part of the big lie is that she is representing big banks and monied interests, which happens to be who the Republican are supporting. What is missing is who is planning these answers and why are they being planned. As I said, Richard Mellon Scaife may have started it, but who is perpetuating it. I can understand that Republicans are fearful she will be elected President, but that is only something that came into play the last few years. The hate Hillary campaign has been going on for 25 or 30 years. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

CAMPAIGN OF HATE ELECTS TRUMP

There can be little question about it; the Donald J. Trump phenomenon that the Republican hate so much is a product of their own Parties doing. I have heard nothing but hate politicians and hate the government coming out of their mouths for years. According to them being a politician is to join a dishonest profession. What has happened is that Republicans and some Democrats have caused chaos and shame, in our electoral system. Now they have to pay the price. The people who vote will elect Trump President just as they chose him in every election he has entered so far. The people clearly have a choice on the far left as well as a choice on the far right, so it isn’t their pure political philosophy that will bring them to the polls. They will vote for someone who says he hates government and politicians. The result of all their preaching hate is a greatly diminished number of people who are concerned about the quality of government and about voting. Young people do not become involved in politics as politicians. When we should have legions of potential candidates for President of the United States, we have only a few and some of those are of questionable character. Some are not running for the job, they are running for the notoriety; Ben Carlson or Carley Fiorina for examples. Does anyone really think the people will elect a politician such as Saunders, Cruz, Rubio, or Clinton? Does anyone really think Trump is running as a politician? Think of how much money he can save as President by bribing himself. How many times have we been told politicians, including being told by Trump, are only in Washington to accept bribes? Some are but there are also many good ones but their numbers are diminishing. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

UNITED STATES IS PARALLING GERMANY

I hesitated in publishing this article because comparing something we do not agree with the worst thing we can think of seems like an old trope. The obvious problem is that when the comparison is valid, the logic loses its punch. Still, I felt I must try. It is time to panic and not wait until 2017 after it is too late. I watched an old movie last night, Judgement at Nuremberg (1961). The synopsis of the trial said it was a trial about 4 Nazi judges who used their offices to conduct Nazi sterilization and cleansing policies; however, it was something much greater than that. Anyone with even the slightest interest in history knows the story and has seen the pictures and felt the horror of it. Although this move was supposedly about 4 judges who used their offices to conduct Nazi sterilization and cleansing policies; however, it went much deeper than that. It was about the guilt of the German people, “the man on the street,” which is the same question that the world has been asking millions of time. The truth is that we know the answer but refuse to accept it as if the question has never been asked. The Military Tribunal found the German judges guilty and sentenced them to prison for life, but in a beautifully written way, the script writers made it clear who were actually responsible for the excesses committed by the Hitler regime; it was the German people. The script writer posed the question concerning how an educated population people, just like you and me, could allow this to happen. We all know the political unrest between the left wing and right wing political forces at work during this period of post-war stress. It is my contention that they are exactly the same forces at work in the modern world; thus, I treat these political feelings as being something deeply innate in our being. I believe our political alignment is instinctually related to who we are. It is evolutionary psychology; thus, political operatives using clever argument are able to manipulate these feelings but only to a point unless we allow them to corrupt our human decency. As with the Germans on trial, they did not have good judgement in protecting their country. They were guilty of violating their human values. This election cycle in the United States scares me because I see a clear parallel. Hitler did this by telling the German people something they were instinctually prone to believe. He told them they were different in a special way, just as members of your family are special, and members of your city, state, and country are special. The color of our skin, our way of doing business, our religion, our love for other people as long as they are one of us. We learn this in church; you can go to heaven if you believe to our church but everyone else will go to hell. He would make Germany great again by building walls in the form of geography barriers, which is instinctual; it is theirs and not one else’s country. It is instinctual; we see this in all animals, but in dogs especially because we are close to them. We know that they will fiercely protect their territory, which is why many of us have them in our houses. Hitler would restore Germany to greatness by stopping the mixing of non-Germans with Germans and protect it by buying a big dog, one that can outfight every other dog, which is necessary even if we don’t have the room and cannot afford it. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN IS IN HIGH GEAR

Finally, the presidential campaigning is taking shape. Every one of the Republican candidates have the same tired old unrealistic campaign rhetoric, after all, they are conservatives and have not changeD for 250 years. Cut taxes which will solve everything. Cut taxes but make America great again by deporting 11,000,000 workers. Build a $12,000,000,000 wall to keep our country safe . . . it has to be high enough so planes cannot fly over it if someone ever invents planes. Block all trade agreements but lower the cost of living. Create jobs by keeping the money in the hands of job creators, who create jobs in China. Save money by letting the Nations’ infrastructure deteriorate. Cut taxes but build a huge, huge military; after all, we are already ten times stronger than eight of the most powerful countries put together. Cut taxes but destroy ISIS. Restore respect for America by making all nations fear us and killing those who don’t. Send huge sums of foreign aid money to Israel and protect them from aggression so they can dominate the Middle East. Protect individual rights by telling women they have no right to choose or by telling same-sex couples they cannot marry. Make everyone follow religious beliefs as long as they are Christian beliefs. Did mention, we have to ban burkas!!! Of course, police do not have to follow the law. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

WHITE SUPREMACIST GO MAINLINE

For liberals such as I am, it is difficult to understand how anyone can vote for a Republican. At one time in our history it was an honorable thing to be a Republican; now, it is not. In fact, what the name Republican has come to mean is something that seems impossible to rationalize. Of course I know all the bunk the Republicans of old preach about smaller government, austere budgets, and individual rights. However, I am also aware of how they are less than forthright about what they believe to attract one issue voters to their party such as is the case with antiabortion, same sex marriage, and all the keep rhetoric about “keeping our country safe”. These are the kinds of thing put them on the road to where they are now. For examples, their love of God spews out of their mouths every stump speech along with a call to build our military. Really it is a call to rebuild our military, as a way of accusing Democrats for making our country only 10 times stronger than any other country on earth, which is reminiscent of the old cold war rhetoric when they wanted a kill ratio of one hundred to one; just to make sure. It goes on and on; however, the truth is that all they really want is to hold the nation in their hands much as a slave owner held slaves. That is what voter suppression is all about. That is what the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision is all about. These things are not wild exaggerations. Just think of what they mean when they say they want to take “their” country back or that although President Obama was born in the United States he is not a citizen of the United States. Slaves were not citizens by birth. How can a black man be president? The only conclusion possible is that the core of the modern Republican Party are blatant racists; what they mean is that they want to take back “their” country. What they mean America is no longer a nation ruled by white people of European ancestry, which is how they see themselves. Of course, America is a nation of all the people. I never see this thought openly expressed in the media or even expressed in private conversations. It is just not appropriate to be a raciest but clearly that is what they are. Of course, those who will object to this line of thinking have the classic wiggle room; they can say some maybe racist but they themselves are not racists. I am here to say if they call themselves Christians but are not, they depend on the same wiggle room as well. I read posts on Facebook made by people who are clearly Christians pretending to be Republicans or are clearly Republicans pretending to be Christians but are neither. If you do not believe this, then read their posts. Christians are based on the love of their fellow man without conditions. Show me a Republican who does not put conditions on the U.S. citizenship; a black man who wants to be president, a gay man who want to marry another man, or a woman who wants an abortion. Or as Donald Trump point out Muslims do not have the “right of citizenship” any more than Obama has the right to be president, what Trump wants is to “GET WHITE AMERICA BACK”. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

MARRIAGE BONDS

A story on Facebook went something like this; after a young man decided he would get married his father asked him to go for a walk. As they walked along the father turned to his son and said, “Say you are sorry.” The son refused, “Why should I say I am sorry when I have done nothing wrong he asked. After a few more steps the father repeated his request. Again, the son refused to say he was sorry for no reason. The walk continued in silence. Eventually, the son turned to his father and said, OK, OK, I am sorry. The father responded, “Good. Now you are ready to be married.” I wonder how many people really understand what the father’s message. As we go through life many things happen to each of us; some good, some bad. Sometimes we are responsible for the trouble in someone else’s life other times we are not. Of course, we should be sorry if we caused the unhappiness; however, there are times when others are responsible or the unhappiness is just simply the circumstance of daily living that causes another person to have trouble in their life. The source of the anxiety is not the issue. The person’s feelings are what matters. If you are close to a person you may even not know what it is that caused them angst but you know they are unhappy. If you really unconditionally care for that person you want him or her to know someone cares for them no matter what. If the person you love has a bad day for any reason, just having someone say, “I am sorry”, and mean it, can be a very soothing thing. It means I really care about your happiness. If you are capable of caring for a person in that way, you are ready for marriage. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

VICTIM OF CRIME IN BELIZE

As a naturalized citizen of Belize, I found a posting on Facebook concerning the rate of murders in Belize particularly disturbing for a number of reasons. The people who suffer from this kind of misdirected journalism are hard-working folks who own resorts but also all of the thousands of people who work in the tourism industry. There is little or no disputing the facts, which are easily verifiable facts. In addition. the journalistic tendency for exaggeration and sensationalizing these facts is something we have learned to live with. What disturbs me is the misdirecting of responsibility for some but not all of the criminal acts. The fact that all of the crimes are done by criminals also makes it a difficult topic to discuss. By that I mean, Belize does not have some unfair or exotic criminal code that labels accidents as crimes. In this era of political correctness in dealing with date rape, enticement, and myriad other forms of temptations, it is import to point that out. There is no question what the reporter is talking about are criminal acts. Many factors contribute to the problem of crime in Belize. Belize is not a rich country. We see tourist arrive with money they have saved for a very long time for vacation and spend it all in two weeks like it had no values. Belizeans see this and think they are all Americans very rich. As is true with all people, if you have two it will not hurt you to share one. I see this reflected in many ways for example the fees native people charged tourists for services. In addition, I have had grade school teachers tell students it is not stealing if you take something from an American but it is a crime to take from a fellow Belizean. Another factor is that a great many Belizean youths immigrate to the United States as late teenagers and young adults. This is such a pronounced phenomenon that the population distribution curve in Belize is a bicameral curve with the young at one peak and the older people in the other. The young people migrate to the large cities, for example Los Angles, Chicago, and New York. Keep in mind the Belize population is a predominately black and Hispanic; therefore, the young people once in the United States, they end up in those areas of the large cities, which happens to be where gang activity is at its worst. In addition to being overwhelmed by the vastness of activities and number and varieties of gangs involved they become involved in gang related behavior. Consequently, they are arrested, tired, and deported back to Belize, where they bring what they learned from street gangs back to Belize. In other words, the United States acts as a huge sieve but also a school room for our young people; it keeps the good ones, and there are many good ones, but ships back the bad ones. The numbers involved are not huge but because Belize is a small country this has an disproportionate impact on Belizean culture. In addition, I would like to make the point that many tourist come to Belize looking for the kind of excitement they cannot experience in the United States. They seek and find drug ridden bars and corners of society that would never visit in the US. White college age girls, who have never been out of their suburban neighborhoods, arrive with a friend and seeking exotic sexual experience with black men wearing dreadlocks in the allies of Belize. I stopped a young white girl jumping line at the airports. Through her sobbing she said she hated Belize and had to leave. She and a young friend was beaten up and raped at gun point in a hotel Belize city. She named the hotel, it was a house of prostitution in one of the worst areas in the city. Her friend was in the hospital, who she was abandoning, but she just had to get out of this hatful country. The people featured in the post, thus ties them and their guest to the criminal activity to the alleys in Belize City. Thus, the author of this post makes the hardworking resort owners on a beautiful River the victim of crime. Their resort is as far away from crime and skullduggery is you can possibly get anywhere in the world. However, this post has made them the victims of “all the crime in Belize”. The post did the same thing as the young line jumper in the airport made me, my country, and my friends who owns the beautiful resort on the Macal River, the victim of her lust for exotic adventure. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

CANDIDATES BELIEVE THEIR OWN LIES

I watched the debate last night. What I found interesting was these people are starting to believe their lies. I am refereeing to the idea that government surveillance of private phone calls is a criminal act amid their outcry that the government must protect our homeland security. Forget that this smacks of the “Fatherland and the Führer, Heil Hitler.” I give them credit for recognizing and attempting to correct the logic in their reasoning. Every one of them parroted the same thing; they claim we have to restore our military greatness. Of course, the prime objective was to demean all of President Obama’s hard work in restoring peace in the world and replacing fear of us with respect for us. Not one of them mentioned that we now have by far the most powerful military in the world, a war machine second to none. Some even mentioned Ronald Reagan, who the people elected on this same premise. We all remember that he took millions of taxpayer dollars to move the USS Missouri out of mothballs, restore its huge guns, and build a well-trained crew. They did not mention the famous picture of our President in a baseball cap standing at the helm with his bemused smile. Nor did they mention that airplanes have made battleships obsolete. The bottom line is that it is obvious that they are lying, and they believe their lie. The second thing it that they know collecting phone numbers, call durations and frequency data is critical to protecting our country from individual acts of terror from domestic as well as foreign. They also know that private phone companies have and hold this data and that the government is asking them to retain that data and to keep it in a searchable format. Also, they know that the government has done an excellent job of protecting people, but as the myth of our having a weak military, they sincerely believe. Where the lie begins is when they cleverly distort this intent to personify the government and imply that the government will listen to your private conversations, which is something people universally abhor. They know no one does this, but because they can do this, they imply the government does this and further insinuate your neighbor is listening. Thus, they are playing on the fear people have that they are unprotected, and the government is spying on them neither of which is true. Last night, they convinced me that they believe their own ‘dog chaining tail’ lies. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

DANGEROUS VOTING PUPPETS

Sometimes, all we can do is to shake our heads in amazement when the silliest of arguments carry the day. Does any rational person sincerely believe the government is building internment camps in remote locations? Does anyone think Obama is coming to take your guns? Some poor folks seem to believe that trickle down economics works to their advantage. How many times have we heard these things said with the greatest sincerity? One of the loudest and most frequent statements is that some works hate labor unions because the people have convinced themselves that they are harmful to parents, children, teachers, and workers. How do I know these arguments carry the day? Republicans use these arguments and voters respond positively by voting for them. Think about something as obvious wrong as people saying “people” have bankrupted social security. People put money into the system and when then retire they take money out of the system. They want to destroy both Social Security and Obamacare. The Social Security program has virtually eliminated old age poverty and for the first time, Obamacare has made health insurance affordable. It makes no sense to most of us, but they seem not to want social organization, which is what government is. To want to destroy government is the silliest argument of all of their inane arguments. The important question is; what do they, as political party members, really want? The result if they resemble a circle of puppets pulling each the other’s strings. However, I fear there is great danger in this because unquestionably, the puppet masters are nefarious operators like Dick Cheney, the Koch Brothers, and Sheldon Adelson, using “silly” voters to fulfill for their personal agendas. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

WHY TRUMP MAKES SENSE

The thought did not originate with me, but I heard someone say the explanation for the Republican mess is simple; they are harvesting the anger and hate they have sowed. Carl Rove’s dirty campaign techniques he used in his entire career but especially in the Bush campaign, disgusted me. I see the results of his techniques when I look at Hillary Clinton’s campaign. This morning there was a ridiculous as it was disgusting post on Facebook by Joe-Karen Salisbury refereeing to her husband's philandering and her black hairy back. It is worth noting the post received some likes. We all remember Richard Mellon Scaife’s senseless but also constant dogging of the Clintons. Scaife was a billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He was not running for office in opposition to Clinton. In one sense, Scaife’s tirade was worse that Rove because it had no purpose other than to destroy a Democratic politician without cause. He served as the stimulus for many others to follow his lead as so accurately details by Tim Murphy in his recent and classic Mother Jones Article; The Definitive Guide to Every Hillary Clinton Conspiracy Theory (So Far). The subtitle was, “From killing cats to faking concussions, all the dastardly deeds attributed to the former secretary of state and first lady.” What Scaife did was comparable to Trump’s senseless attack on immigrants, refugees, or Muslims. He has no objective other than to stir up hate. Of course, his objective might be that he is building a coalition of hate mongers, which reflect in his winning poll numbers. Of course, we have to include the pervasive and hateful attacks against not only our government but also all government, which is unimaginable nonsense. In fact, the drumbeats of the attacks have become so load in the media and against “all” politicians, they are drowning out a government of any kind. The post I referred to above is a clear example of what I mean by nonsense. I do not know them but judging from their other posts on Facebook, Joe-Karen Salisbury appears to be religious people, Christians, based on reading their other posts. Is this what Christians teach in their churches? Apparently, the same people who like their post are Donald Trump voters. Nothing else makes sense. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

WHO TO BLAME FOR MICHIGAN

The Fox News coverage of the closing, so schools in Detroit and the visit of President Obama to Michigan is a classic right-wing distortion of the facts. They even go so far as to claim that Governor Snyder is fighting to have lawmakers keep open the schools. Headlines proclaim that teachers are walking out to protest to President Obama their poor working conditions, under funding of educations, etc. Their intent is clear, they are attempting to shift the blame from their State Government to the Federal Government, and to President Obama for the mess in which Michigan finds itself. The point of this post is to shift the blame to the real culprits, who are you, the teachers who will not unionize, the mothers who feed their babies poison water, and the poor, black people, without jobs. My objective in the post is to point out that the State government is their responsibility. It is that way because the voted for Republicans, such as Rick Snyder, who campaigned on cutting taxes, which you like. Good God, look at what he and his legislature did. They took away your elected representative and replaced them with bank “managers” who raped the assets of the cities. You all know this. You all know they did this by using school buildings without maintaining them and supplying water without purification. They put poison water in your pipes to save $19 million so they could cut taxes and increase profits for businesses. Let me rephrase that, you put poison water in “your” pipes and raped “your” schools. The Republicans you elected to govern are the one who champions deregulation under the guise of your personal independence, which you must like because you voted for that, but that also means that businesses, including loan companies and banks, can cheat taxpayers with impunity; authorities cannot catch them if there is no oversight. Yes, I am talking about you: the underpaid, the poor families, the black people, and those with several children and no jobs. It is not someone else’s responsibility it yours. They tell you cannot vote, and you don’t march in the street but instead just shoulders as is you do not know what is happening. Who should object and why should they object if you don’t? You seem to think this is good because, after all, it makes you independent and cuts your taxes. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

BRAIN CHANGE

The response in the media to the recent nuclear disarmament treaty and release of prisoners completely mystifies me. There seems a disassociation exists between what the TV, talk radio, and print media broadcasts and what the American people think. As I have mentioned numerous times, the economic elite controls the media more and more, so they are broadcasting what that small element in society feels and thinks. We all understand why that is and often refer to power the radical Supreme Court gives to the top 0.1% through such things as their Citizens United decision. I am not refereeing to this. Aside from all of that including the references to a black President and political party fighting and its associated rhetoric, what I have in mind is what seems to be the change in American thinking. Americans seem to have changed in the way the think about world affairs, war, and religion and what most of us consider usual human relations at both individual levels and group levels. Perhaps, it all relates to the technical world we live in and not some fundamental change in our mental ability. Of course, the best possibility or explanation may be that the impact of the technical world on the chemistry of the brains is changing the way we think as oppose to what we think. The attitude about the treaty and its consequences in the world is a case in point. How can anyone actually believe the treaty is a bad thing? We all understand that the various countries may change their relationships and attitudes toward one another, or that Iran may cheat on the terms of the treaty, but that does not make the treaty bad to the point that we should not have tried to negotiate a treaty in the first place. Unfortunately, Israel’s position in all of this is awkward at best. They are saying they do not want this treaty, but when asked, they also say they would negotiate a treaty that is essentially the same as the one we have. They somehow seem disconnected with reality. Look at Tom Cotton, the letter-writing senator from Arkansas. He is vehemently against the treaty; he and others want to go to war to make Iran stop building atomic bombs. Am I missing something? The GOP knows the treaty in detail even though they say the Democrats somehow did not give them time to read it. They declare they want peace in the world but do not ant to ratify the treaty. Is there something missing in what they said or is it that I just do not understand the language. My point is that we do not seem to be able to communicate. I think I heard all the word and thought I understand each and every one of them, but something is missing. How can I talk to people if I don’t understand them, and they don’t understand me? The media says the nuclear arms limitation treaty with Iran leads to peace, but the treaty is a bad thing; therefore, peace must be a bad thing. As the teenagers say, don’t think about it just “don’t worry, be happy” or was that what the ghost of Bob Marley said about the Iran treaty on the radio just now or maybe he wasn’t talking about the treaty. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO TRUMP

A reasoned analysis of political activity and behavior has been one of my major interests throughout my lifetime. Clearly, this is a legacy of my mother. My father treated politics with emotion while my mother used a reasoned approach to politics. That is not to say she did not allow emotion to enter her thinking because she believes in certain things with passion. Largely, she seemed driven by empathy but had the ability or intellect that allowed reason to judge her responses to that empathy. Even though I was a child, I realized that she seemed to be on a roller coaster during the Second World War. Now, all those years later I seem to be on a similar roller coaster over the political situation in the United States. I go from wanting to do real harm to Republicans to tolerating some of their positions just as it was between killing Japanese and Germans and treating them humanely. How does on kill someone else humanely? I have identified certain Republicans and being dangerous to the politics of our Nations. For me, these people fall into categories. For example, there are dishonest political operatives such as Carl Rove, who I feel the political world would be much better without in contrast to Grover Norquist, who is probably more dangers to liberal causes, but there is a certain amount of honesty, perhaps sincerity is a better word, to his proclamations. Among the current Presidential candidates, I see the same divide. There are Ohio Governor Kasich and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who, in my mind, are the honest negotiator for the job of president. These men stand in contrast to people like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, who are no more than evangelicals who have their collection plates in mind. Fiorina and Carson are just there for the headlines. I consider Donald Trump as being dangerous for America. He wants to change America politics in a basic, disruptive, and unreasonable way, which is in contrast to Bernie Saunders and Rand Paul, who want to change American politics in different but reasonable ways. Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio are the usual “every day” politicians. Each has their good points and bad but acceptable points. I consider all of this in the manner I think my mother would; however when I think of Donald Trump as president, I revert to the ways of my father; all I can do is curse. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

SAVE AMERICA FROM FAILED GOP LEADERS

Is the GOP going to crash and burn? They certainly are in a self-induced downward spiral and crashing and burning is expected. Although they have managed to collect and elected a bunch of radical nuts as candidates, ranging from intellectual misfits, such as Louie Gohmert, to racists such as Thom Tillis, and war hawks such a Lindsey Graham and super radical Tom Cotton. Also, they have the religious extremists who say the hell with the Constitution; they want biblical law. The gun nuts join them as well. These people individual who fold into the masses; they are not the leaders. For leaders, we can start with Paul Ryan, who is an Ayn Rand disciple intent on destroying democracy, as we know it. These folks are shades of the past. They build their politics on hate for Communists as shown to be the driver of Cruz and Rubio, who like Ayn Rand consider themselves refugees of communist governments. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader, joins the failed leadership. He allows fossil fuels to drive him, which are votes and to hell with the world climate. Who among the Republican Party leadership is for the good of the people? How can anyone of them face the American people and expect them to believe a plutocracy is a good thing? That is what they do. For example, if all the money is at the top, it will be in the hand so the job creators when clearly all of the money is at the top, and there are no jobs. They believe they have convinced the workers that it is a good thing when there are no unions even when wages stay at poverty levels. Is that brand of Republicanism going to crash and burn? I hope so! We need conservatives but not a bunch of idiots lead by Rand and McConnell. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

BIG MEDIA LIE IN MALHEUR NATIONAL REFUGE

The way the media handles various stories disturbs many of us. However, when we attack the media for exaggerating stories some of the most reputable talking heads on TV attack us for media bashing. Nevertheless, I feel I have to point out the recent seizure of the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building is the product of media hype, so much so it is ludicrous. A misfit idiot and his equally qualified buddy with a rifle or two breaks into an isolated federal; building is suddenly armed insurrection against the Untied States Government. They are using the media to call for armed men to turn out in force and the Media is more than willing to let them do it. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

CAN GOP RECOVER FROM TRUMP

The Republican Party is finally realizing that they are in a crisis. When I speak about the Republican Party, I am not speaking about the Tea Party, Fox News Anchors, the Koch Brothers, or Reince Priebus, that sad excuse for a Party Chairmen. I am talking about Bob Dole, Michael Steele, and a large number of other small government, conservative, and isolationists at the same time they support the military industrial complex. Although I abhor their philosophy and intuitively think it is wrong headed, we need them as a counter party. They represent a faction of America that is essentially of the opposite or liberal philosophy. Something has happened over the past 10 or so years in that have changed the entire Republican political landscape in out country. It is important to note the Democratic Party has not followed suite and come radical; Democrats are still Democrats. For a long time it seemed like the Republican Party leaders were going along with the shift to the radical elements, but the point in this blog post is to point out that a small faction of the party leaders have realizing this is destroying their Party. Part of the problem was the old Reagan axiom, do not speak ill of a fellow Republicans.” Political scientists have long recognized that strong loyalty is one of the innate trends in conservatives. They are especially loyal to family, city, state, and Nation but also to political party. For a number of years Republicans would not speak ill of such radicals as Mitch McConnell, who wants to keep the President from doing his job. They applauded Paul Ryan who wants to destroy “all” government intervention into our lives such as health care, public schools, and social security. Tie this to the one line spewing of hate by ignoramus Louie Gohmert, or Castro hating Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, and it sounds downright evil Things changed when Donald Trump entered the picture as a Republican. Against a background of cutting taxes and preventing government from working, as is the aim of small government conservatism, one isolated called to ban burkas or build a fenced between the US and Mexico doesn’t sound that bad. They can prevent building of a Mosque in New York City, or refuse to give humanitarian aide to refugees doesn’t sound that bad. However, when Trump collates all the individual hate rhetoric into one campaign, it no longer sounds like loyal to America, but it sounds un-American. What Trump has done is to take the radical positions of each of these individual Republicans, packaged them into one stump speech, and made the collection the Party ideals. The collation of all of the hate groups has resulted in startling poll result, which says Republicans are supporting these ideas. The old Republican Party has few members; it is essentially dead. Trump is the new Republican Party. The remaining core of “old” true loyal American Republican Party is horrified. My message is simple. It may be too late. You may not be able to recover from Trump. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

GOP CANDIDATES SHAME AMERICA

We had a collective disaster on stage in the form of 13 GOP presidential candidates. How could this ever happen in our great nation? Here is the lexicon of reasons: a corrupt Supreme Court; Citizens United decision; voter suppression, Citizens United decision, tax cuts, Citizens United decision, guns for everyone, Citizens United decision, Sheldon Adelson and Koch Brothers, Citizens United decision, Mitch McConnell, Citizens United decision suppression of women’s rights. Did I mention the you did not vote or voted for less government and not for good government; there is a difference. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated