Nonsense

Yesterday’s news reported demonstrations in South Korea against the installation of an anti-missile defense system to protect the Koreans from nuclear warheads out of the North. How does it make sense to protest someone keeping you form harm? I don’t understand it. It looks like the same kind of irrational behavior exhibited by a spouse who calls the police to enforce a restraining order on an abusive husband and then attacks the officers for arresting the abusive violator of the order. Where is the logic in that?

I see it as a product of Northern propaganda and agitation by agents of the communist regime. “I don’t want you to keep me alive. Let him kill me!” Duh! People, this is not the product of thought, but emotional manipulation of the gullible. Where do these gullible people come from? Is there a drug that is added to the water supply?

I have even seen it in American political protests. “Let the terrorists come into the country. You”re just a religious bigot if you stop them.” That’s what the protesters of the reasonable ban on travel from unsecured nations in current turmoil over Radical Islamic Terrorism. Note I don’t say all Muslims ought to be banned. It was an extremely unfortunate choice of words by Candidate Trump to propose banning all Muslims. It has only given the treasonous anti-Trump crowd a weapon to use to stop reasonable measures to protect our security.

Does anyone think past his own personal prejudice? I don’t like the loud mouthed bully in the White House any more than they do. But I won’t put my name on a lawsuit to stop measures that are intended to keep out the agitators, recruiters and terrorists. Why would anyone, after careful thought, do so?

Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

World War Three

Any student of the history of the Twentieth Century will see a frightening parallel to the lead up to the two World Wars in the conditions of world politics today. A polarized world with entangling alliances, rampant tensions between the sides, a general lack of respect for the strength of democratically ruled nations, and overbearing ambition in the minds of dictators were all qualities of the early nineteen hundreds. Today it is almost the same except there is a plurality of sides in the conflict of the day, Western democracies; Russian sphere; Chinese sphere; the Islamic State, Al Qida, Taliban; and the hapless states caught in between these sides makes up today’s roster of factions.

In 1914, it was a Serbian terrorist that led the alliances into the “Great War to End all Wars.” Today it could be the egoistic dictator of some backward state like North Korea or the minor terrorist splinters of the radicals that drags us all into a conflagration that would once again leave the world in ashes. My hat is off to Rex Tillerson for mitigating the tweets of his president and avoiding the lighting of the fuse to this bomb we call a world. After seventy-two years, it looks as though Pax Americana is about to end.

Are you prepared for the deprivation and hardship of the kind of war that defined the last century? With so many of the nations out there owning and deploying nuclear and chemical weapons, the coming war will be far more devastating to the civilians of the battlefield lands than even the Second World War. Prepare for the loss of a quarter to a third of the Earth’s human population. Acts of terror will be considered valid tactics by more than one faction, just as they were considered valid by the Nazis and Imperial Japan.

What will come out the other side of such a war? I can’t begin to predict, only hope. Survivalists have one thing right, we need to prepare for the worst case scenario.

Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

Glimmers of Hope in the Political Arena

President Trump isn’t the only one who keeps changing his mind on positions. It seems President Putin of Russia has the same quality. This can be a good thing when the two are at crossed sabers. The ability to make a compromise is of utmost importance to the political process. When we try to do things too rapidly or leave no room for compromise in our positions, the entire process becomes detrimental to ourselves and our friends. The art of politics, like the art of diplomacy, is the art of compromise. This is an art lost to the American political scene.

The problem that we have is the grudges held by the two major parties against one another for slights they don’t even remember. When the two can let go of their grievances and compromise, we will have a functioning government again. So long as they’re bickering over remembered insults, we will always have deadlock. But there have been signs of hope. Some of the Congressmen and Senators, returning from town-hall meetings where they were confronted by angry voters chanting, “Do your job,” have begun to reach across the isle to the members of the other party. They must realize that the ones who hired them can also fire them.

If this trend continues, we may just have a government that does the job described in the Constitution for it. How long has it been since there was real bipartisan cooperation and compromise in Washington? I ask because I can’t remember. Except for the vote right after 9/11 that gave the president power to wage war on terrorists and the USAPATRIOT act, I can’t recall active cooperation since President Kennedy was in office. I was in kindergarten when he died. That is a long time to go without functional government.

I urge you to continue to press your elected officials to do their jobs. So long as they realize that it’s the voters, and not the donors, for whom they work, they may just try to be civil toward one another across party lines. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to have, a government of grown-ups who do what they were hired to do?

In another vein, Putin must be enraged at his intelligence officers. They spent all that time and money trying to influence the United States election in 2017 so Trump would be the president only to find out that Trump is not the pliant putty they thought they could mold to their purposes. I am actually excited by the fact that the Russian plot backfired.

I think we owe all the animus with Putin to the nasty way W treated him when he was in office. This is another example of unintended consequences coming back to bite you. Theodore Roosevelt said that the key to diplomacy is, “Walk softly, and carry a big stick.” Every president after him did one or the other, but not both. Now it looks like Tillerson can do the soft walking while Trump wields the stick. It may just work too.

Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

Trump, China, North Korea and Syria

There are so many political happenings today that it’s difficult to chose where to start first. I guess it’s best to look at some background. The president and his Chinese counterpart are supposed to be talking about what to do with Kim in Pyongyang. China wants the U. S. presence in the region to be decreased, but the antics of Kim Jong Il make it necessary for the U. S. to increase its military presence. The situation is one of Beginnings making in the first place, thinking a strong North Korean leader would create a good buffer between the U. S. Army in South Korea and the Western border on Manchuria, the Northwestern most province of China. Of course, if China hadn’t intervened in the Korean war in 1950, there would be no U. S. Army presence in Korea at all.

Now Trump is examining all options in how to take care of the problem of Kim playing with nukes on missiles that can reach Japan and possibly even California. Add to that the cruise missile attack last night on the Syrian airbase from which Assad launched his nerve gas attack on civilian non-combatants. Let me assure you, if Trump tells Chi he’s going to do something about North Korea on his own if China won’t help, Chi will believe it’s not a bluff.

Chi tells his people that Trump is an unpredictable madman. The action last night goes a long way to reinforce that impression in the Chinese mind. Of course the people of China don’t get the full story. And atrocities don’t effect the Chinese the way it offends Americans. The history of China is rife with atrocity.

The problem with Assad is that his frustration over the fragility of his grip on power has eroded his respect for the people he claims to rule. Those who are rebelling against Assad are objecting to the minority that Assad belongs to running the whole country without concern for their needs. They would have accepted Assad’s continued leadership if he only gave them a voice in the government. But Assad feared that would water down his absolute authority.

Now we have Russian, Iranian and other fringe Shiites backing Assad. But Assad is the only leader in the region who protects the Christians under him. In rebel held areas Christians have been purged through intimidation, violent expulsion and murder. While all this was going on, even though the media reported it, the United States Department of State did nothing to succor the Christians. In fact, Christians were routinely denied refugee status by State while Muslims were allowed in.

So I have mixed feelings about Assad. The man is criminal, committing crimes against humanity with more regularity than he changes his socks. Yet no one else is willing to defend the Church in the Middle East. What to do? Thanks to the rhetorical statements Trump made in his campain, he will be blocked by all those judges appointed by Obama when the Democrats removed the 60-vote requirement for clocher in the debate over appointments other than the Supreme Court.

One hundred years ago today (April 7, 1917) the United States Congress voted to declare war on the Central Powers (Germany, Austria and Turkey) in World War One. The entire continent of Europe had been tied up in alliances between kingdoms and countries for “mutual defense.” A Serbian separatist assassinated the heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, and also the Austro-Humgarian Empire, Archduke Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, Bosnia in August 1914, and dragged the entire continent into a protracted and bloody brawl that lasted more than four years. President Wilson vowed to keep us out. His campain slogan in 1916 was, “He kept us out of war.” But American commercial interests in France and the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of the Allied Nations, led the German Navy to sink American ships carrying food and weapons to Europe. Enough open submarine warfare led to a bellicose attitude in the American people and Congress went along for the ride.

Today we have a reason to remember the U. S. entry into the bloodbath that was the First World War. The world is once again polarized between power blocks. But now there are three, not two. The Chinese want to control the Far East without American meddling. Europe and the other democracies allied with it want to live their own way, buy and sell, and talk down on less developed countries. Russia wants to regain the “glories” of the Soviet days, but Putin rules as a Czar. Then there are the wild cards that will drag us all into conflict, Islamic State, North Korea, Taliban, Iran, etc. I wouldn’t try to do Trump’s job if I would get all his money to do it.

Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday.

Hypocrisy in Action, Your Politicians

Listening to this morning’s news, I was disgusted by the mutual hypocrisy of the politicians in Washington this week. The great rule change in the Senate that is about to happen (if it hasn’t yet) is the fault of the animosity of the two parties tward each other, and the shenanigans each party pulled to get one over on the other. The two parties have been at each other’s throat for decades. it’s as bad as some of the centuries-old tribal wars we see on the evening news. When are the American voters going to get sick of it?

A little bit of historey: In the 1960s the democrats got their political activist judges appointed under Lyndon B. Johnson. Starting in the 1970s, these judges helped to circumvent the Congress by legislating from the bench without regard for the will of the American people. Roe v Wade was the first big case that changed the Constitution by judicial fiat, not by Constitutional ammendment as the framers intended. In that case a constitutional “right to privacy” was invented that is not found in any of the articles or amendments. The tactic worked so well that the most liberal branch of the Democratic Party regularly pushed their judges into the queue to be appointed by Democratic presidents. The Congress would not act on the hyper-liberal agenda as the proponents wanted.

In the 1990s, the Republicans began to push back. The battle for control of the judiciary became the main thing that drove the appointment process, and jurisprudence became an afterthought. Today the courts are so politicised you can’t get a decision that isn’t based on party politics. That is why President Trump can’t do anything to keep out terrorists and recruiters for terrorists without some judge issuing an injunction halting it. I expect to see a few dozen nasty terror attacks on U. S. soil by foreign actors soon. In this battle, all other considerations are ignored to further the party cause.

Neal Gorsuch is considered a “strict constructionist” on constitutional issues. That means if the issue was not in the Constitution in any article or amendment, he doesn’t make up a new constitutional right to cover it. The Democrats can’t tell us they object to that. So they trump up the excuse that they don’t like his rulings in favor of corporate interests over private citizens. News flash: Democratic appointed judges are just as likely to support corporate over private interests. It was a precident set in the 1940s, and both party’s judges have expanded it over the years.

As far as I can tell there are only two things wrong with American politics in the Twenty-first Century: Democrats and Republicans.

Ol’ fuzzy started an account on Pay Pal to receive gratuities. I call it Ol’ Fuzzy’s Tip Jar. If you like my writing, you can drop me a buck into the tip jar.

Hate, Narcissism and Nihilism in Congress, and Other Issues

This morning the news is filled with predictions that the Senate rules on filibuster during the confirmation debate for Supreme Court justice nominees. This was already done by Democrats when the Republicans filibustered to block the appointment of the very activist judges that are blocking every security measure attempted by President Trump based on campaign rhetoric. The acknowledged reason for the Democratic opposition to Gorsuch is the refusal of Republicans to give the Obama nominee a hearing last year. In other words, “You hurt me, I hurt you back.”

Egos were bruised. The Democrats felt they were entitled to make the Supreme Court into their brand of an activist progressive force in this country that would be able to circumvent any Republican moves in Congress. The Republicans rightly read the tea leaves on that danger, but their ham-handed move to block the nomination was just another nail in the coffin of American statesmanship. it’s all about power, ego, hate and revenge. This is becoming worse than the tribal wars fought in faraway places over a stolen cow two thousand years ago.

Unless the American electorate changes its collective mind on the two party system, we are definitely bound for civil war. The petty battles over abused egos in these two parties has inhibited their ability to govern. Let’s wise up.

In other news: Attorney General Sessions is giving police a free pass on systematic unconstitutional practices in the name of building relationships. What comes next, a suspension of the Bill of Rights? No intelligent observer would truthfully deny the fact that some police forces have become so entrenched in unconstitutional practices that they can’t police themselves. AG Sessions now says that’s alright with him. Look for more unarmed citizens to be shot or beaten to death while handcuffed.

Funding Through Gratuities

Ol’ Fuzzy is in a quandary. I am absolutely destitute, but I don’t want to beg. The strain on my sister’s retirement account incurred by paying my rent and power bill is driving us apart. And I still don’t have internet in my apartment after six months. There is simply no job in Macon County, North Carolina that I can do and is willing to hire me. All I have is my blogs, but I don’t qualify for ads until September. What to do?

I considered all the funding options I can find and nothing else seems to work except ask for gratuities to keep the blogs going. My needs are small. So I am researching a way to allow you, my readers, to send me a gratuity when you read my blogs to help me keep them going. I will call it, “Ol’ Fuzzy’s Tip Jar.”

Please don’t remain silent on this issue. Ol’ Fuzzy needs feedback, opinions and suggestions. Leave comments for me on my blogs as well as on Facebook.

My three blogs are:

Ol’ Fuzzy’s Cave, for spiritual articles (olfuzzyscave.blogspot.com);

Ol’ Fuzzy’s Soapbox, for political commentary from a neutral point of view (olfuzzyssoapbox.blogspot.com); and

Ol’ Fuzzy’s Hearth, for random musings and observations about life and science, etc. (olfuzzyshearth.blogspot.com).

Thank you for reading my blogs.