It Makes Me Crazy! I Love Politics.

From The Oregonian 5/29/2017 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Courage and sacrifice  When I was young I left the ivory tower of Weatherford Hall on the Oregon State University campus for the valley of death — the A Shau Valley in Vietnam. Fortunately, I survived 11 brutal, bloody assaults up Hill 937, Hamburger Hill. I will never forget the courage and sacrifice of the men whom I served with in Vietnam. The infantry platoon slowly wound its way through the jungle of the A Shau Valley to the base of Dong Ap Bia Mountain, whose summit was shrouded in mist. The point man led the column with his best buddy behind him. I was next in line, when my rucksack snagged on a “wait-a-minute” vine hanging from a tree. While untangling my rucksack, another soldier passed by me. After a while, I saw the man ahead of me disappear around a bend. Just as I reached the bend, I felt the concussion of exploding rocket-propelled grenades and heard automatic weapons fire. Bullets and shrapnel whistled past m

So, let's go to the other end of politics, government regulation. Volkswagen has been hit with major fines  for deliberately circumventing emissions testing on their diesel engines. That also constitutes a direct lie to all their customers in order to deceive them into buying their product. Today they added GM to the mix on their Duramax diesel trucks for doing the same. The list also now includes Peugeot, Fiat/Chrysler, Renault, and Mercedes Benz parent compny Daimler. It appears they all cheated. They all cheated in much the same way, So, how does that happen when they are all supposedly independent companies? They all will pay massive fines. They also will probably continue in business into the future. No one goes to jail. Will they cheat again? The time has come to understand that the vast majority of economic crimes result in jail time. Theft, and embezzlement results in individuals being sent to jail. Fraud results in people being sent to jail. Massive systemi

America's mythology lies among its spaces. Sometimes it's the open sagebrush of the Great Basin of the west. Other times it's the lush and forested Shenandoah Valley, part of the great inland valley that stretches from Canada to Georgia. Our shared heritage is of individual achievement and expansion across the land. From the founding of the colonies, through the industrial revolution and the great magnates of wealth, Americans celebrate that individual achievement. America also tends to ignore the sting of death, theft and hatred of "others" that helped make that wealth and progress possible. The myth of the individual in an open land is powerful. What powered that myh, however, was also the dedication to seek justice. To form a nation where the people decide what constitutes fairness and justice, and protects people from individuals who seek to impose their rule upon others. It's obvious that things often go two steps forward, then a step back,

Say "Hi!" to a Plutonium Pellet. You've probably heard the term "half life" before. It usually is attached to radioactive materials to tell you how long is takes to decrease it's radioactive emission to half of the starting value. It actually applies to anything that is decreased by half. Radioactive Plutonium-244 has a half life of 80.8 million years. Uranium-238 has a half life of 4.8 billion years. A Trump news story on the New York Times or Washington Post has a half life of maybe an hour theses days. They're not leaks. They're a flood. And that picture of the plutonium pellet? I've seen that same color of glowing orange a lot in the last year. We should probably just start referring to Trump as President Plutonium. Radioactive. Everything he touches suddenly turns lethal on him. Flynn, Comey, Spicer, Bannon, Priebus, not to mention Coast Guard cadets at graduation. No place is safe from him. Wants to Take Over the Tonight S

Carrie's Wall from Homeland Lot's of people watch Homeland. CIA agents battling for truth, and sometimes against each other, trying to keep our nation safe. One of the most fascinating and eye catching symbols was the wall of clues that Carrie kept to try and sort things out. So how big a wall would we need to track what's going on with Trump? Yesterday always seems like a week or two ago these days. Information flows like it's shooting out of a fire hose. One recent change is that Trump Tweets have stopped, for now. It won't last. Spilling intelligence secrets directly to the Russian Ambassador and Foreign Minister used to be the kind of story that would last a week or more. Not a chance. The New York Times story on Comey's memo turned the tables in a heartbeat. The Republican stonewall in Congress has developed a few cracks now. Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said that things are moving towards an independent investigation. Sen John McCain said

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan People think I'm being disingenuous when I say I feel sorry for Paul Ryan. Not true. How would you like to be Speaker of the House these days? Being Speaker is the pinnacle of a legislative career. You have incredible authority. You can hand out committee assignments and chairmanships. You decide whether bills get a hearing and vote, and a lot of what they contain. You assign office space or take it away and move someone to the basement. It's just that all you really do is herd cats. Ryan can't get a major bill passed, that will make it through the Senate. The Tea Party Caucus is the Doctor No from the old James Bond film. Doctor No was a Chinese/German criminal scientist with metal hands. Somehow, that fits perfectly with the Tea Party Caucus who with their iron grip on legislation pretty much dictates what they want. Of course what they want has no chance of ever getting put into effect. Just look at the Affordable Healthcar

Things change fast these days. Remember how the US led the world out of World War II? The Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe, and Asia. The United States became fabulously wealthy and citizens benefitted across the board. But that is the old news. The world will soon belong to China. While lil' President Donnie fires, fumes and flummoxes everyone within range, the Chinese are stepping into the vacuum Trump has created. US Firms Want In on China's Global "One Belt, One Road" Spending  is what it says in the New York Times. China is funding massive infrastructure partnerships all across the globe, using Chinese capital and Chinese firms to do the work. The United States was primed to do the same kind of thing, only it was targeted to increase US markets and US firms, not the Chinese. It was called "The Trans Pacific Partnership". It put the US out in front, and promised new markets and favored US trade over the Chinese. It also promoted wages and safety

I watched quite a bit of Fox News last night to check in after the Trump meltdown debacle shown last night on NBC News. Not much happened according to them. More "fake news", and "...you know how NBC is...". There was also the story on reopening the Clinton Email investigation and indicting Hillary, as the next steps that Trump and Congress need to do. Nothing else you should be aware of. Trump is our man and we're sticking with him. Everybody else but Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars and the White House is lying about everything. Do not believe your own ears. This is exactly where dictatorships arise from. The people voted for a man who actively presented himself as a strongman who would take charge. He proffered his admiration of Putin and other strongmen. He reinforces at every turn his inability to tolerate dissent. He assassinates the character of people he thinks stand in his way. Jake Tapper just called the Republicans in Congress out for their sile

Luckily, we now have filmed evidence of Trump and the White House staff preparing for the Comey firing. Really, it's pretty much a Three Stooges operation at the White House: "Rosenstein made me do it, because Comey was atrocious to Hillary." "Sessions told me that Comey had to go." "Rosenstein drafted a memo, but it was the Presidents final decision" and finally, "I decided to fire him a long time ago. No matter what anyone said.  He got two scoops of ice cream and the orders are two scoops for the President elected only as the result of massive voter fraud, and only one scoop for everyone else, and especially Comey" Our country is the laughingstock of the world.

Vladimir Putin is having a hall of fame year. No one else was able to take a bunch of Red Bull fueled hackers and nudge the world into panic. The French shut him down there last Sunday, but the dividends he's receiving from the United States will fill his coffers for decades to come. Putin not only controls Russia, and keeps the former Soviet client states on a short leash, he now effectively controls Syria with the bonus that no one else in their right mind wants to have anything to do there. The US is now in full crisis mode after the Comey firing.  You can be sure that Comey will be back testifying before Congress. The message today from the Republicans is "Hey, it's no big deal. Nobody liked Comey. You should thank us. It's all about the election. Just because you won doesn't change the fact you lost." I can see in my mind Vlad having a cigar and a good laugh with his senior minions. All this turmoil and it cost them less than a single new tank

Well, it gets much grimmer by the day. James Comey was nobody's favorite. He pissed off all sides, which was the one thing that kind of held things together. Democrats were afraid of who Trump would put in if they went after Comey. Republicans were afraid of losing their party and power by pushing him out while an investigation was going on. The one thing that American is now united on is that Donald J Trump is the most incompetent idiot the world has ever seen. We are on a path to either the destruction of our Democratic processes, or the salvation of them. It's way too soon to see if this will play out as it did with Nixon, but make no mistake: The White House is willing to do whatever it takes to consolidate the power and ability of Trump to function on whatever whim takes him. One thing is clear from history. The unchecked aggregation of political power by a single individual results in destruction that shakes the world. The world has been full of dictators and t