Yesterday, President Biden appealed the to U.S Supreme Court to allow the U.S. Border patrol to remove razor wire, placed by the State of Texas, along the banks of the Rio Grande River.

Razor wire is a military tool intended to entangle, cut and injure anyone who touches it. It is not the same as barbed wire and is not used to contain livestock because it can cause serious injury.

We have a serious problem with uncontrolled immigration at the southern boarder and I am sympathetic with the border states. who are forced to accept large numbers of immigrants. I have some ideas how to address this problem. However I cannot abide cruelty and razor wire is cruelty.

I hope our Supreme Court can see this. I’m surprised lower courts have apparently allowed it.

The last weeks put me over the top ….. I’m updating this website for 2024.  Political theater and the politics of outrage.  Both Gavin Newsom and Ron De Santis, showboats both, have shown they are not qualified for the presidency.

When Newsom first spoke out about De Santis’ thought police (banning school books, can’t use certain words) I applauded, but Newsom has gone too far.  While I support a woman’s right to choose, I want to respect those with other strong views and I sure don’t want my State to become the abortion destination for the whole country.  Besides the thought police, De Santis has jumped on the cruelty bandwagon on the immigration issue.  Since Florida has no boarder with Mexico he had to “borrow” some immigrants from Texas for his Martha’s Vineyard stunt.

I am about solving problems, not about performance-circus politics and certainly not about cruelty.  We have a big problem at the Mexican boarder but these immigrants are mostly good people looking for a better life, there are just far too many.  It is a refugee type problem, like we associate with war in the Middle East, which we have not seen previously in the Western hemisphere.  Certainly our immigration laws need to change to reflect the 21st century.  I am not unsympathetic to our boarder States burdened with millions of refugees.

For a starter, persons seeking refuge should apply for amnesty at US Embassies and Consulates in their home country or nearby countries.  There should be no guarantee they they can enter the United States except under the most extreme circumstances.

US business and industry should step up to help improve economic conditions in various Latin American countries.  Venezuela in particular has a wealth of oil and gas reserves to support energy independence in the Western hemisphere.

And for God’s sake let’s all admit that it is the market for illegal drugs in the United States that is fueling corruption and violence in Central America.

Russia says there is no need to use Nuclear weapons in Ukraine because there is no threat to the existence of Russia!  Oh hooray, but there was no need to use ANY weapons in Ukraine because there was never any threat to Russia.  The war was unprovoked seemingly because of the paranoid fantasy of one man, Putin.

I applaud Biden for saying, and not backing down, that this man should not remain in power.

The needless suffering of Ukrainians is heavily on my mind.  There are also thousands of Russian families that will be without sons and fathers.  What a fucking waste!

Ukraine poses absolutely no threat to Russia.  I think it is about resources and for Mr. Putin a desire to return to the lost days of the Soviet Union.

I’m proud of the unceasing efforts of the Biden Administration to head off a war in Europe through diplomacy and media pressure.

If the Russians do invade Ukraine, there will be world wide impacts particularly fuel prices which are already too high.  We need to increase energy production in the United States and other nations.  Heavens knows some South American counties need more jobs and income.  In the U.S. we need to first cause our energy companies to utilize existing leases on Public Lands.

I would support formation of a nationally owned energy company, to sell only within the United States, to help reduce and stabilize fuel prices.  This county and the whole world needs to move to clean, renewable energy sources as quickly as possible, but we must maintain energy independence and stable prices as we do so.

Some women have chosen to terminate a pregnancy for hundreds and probably thousands of years.  Whether Prohibition or Nation Building in foreign policy, some groups in our country have always had this tendency to want to impose their moral values on others.  We would be well to consider what happened regarding abortion in Ireland, a strongly Catholic country.  After 15-20 years of a total abortion ban, that country realized it was not realistic, not where women really live, and overturned it by national referendum.  I have no doubt some women will continue to seek abortion regardless the opinion of the Supreme Court.

The Texas law would allow any person to bring a civil lawsuit against any person who performed or assisted in providing an abortion.  A showing of personal harm is fundamental to bringing a lawsuit and how unrelated persons could be harmed by a woman’s choice or by anyone who assisted her is beyond me.  This is the most clearly unconstitutional aspect of the Texas law.  It also ignores the precedent of the viability test of current law.

I think the Justice Department along with women’s rights groups should ask the Supreme Court to reconsider this decision.

Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, history has shown the damage to nations and human civilization brought by charismatic con men.  Donald Trump is such a man.  I do not know why so many seem to believe his lies and irrationality.  Perhaps people of marginal view points have always been part of our society,  the internet has given them voice while Donald Trump has fueled the conspiracy theories.

The Republican Party has lost itself, now actively working to make it harder for people to vote.  Voting is the foundation of democracy.  I’ll repeat that the State of Colorado has had 100% mail balloting for seven years with only single digit problems.  The Republican Party has lost itself, against more voting because it may not go their way.  Mitch McConnell is the ultimate partisan, not a leader but the Senate’s biggest wimp.

All political parties, certainly the two major ones, should support more people voting and making it easier to vote where possible.  Voting is the foundation of our democracy.  Over 150 million people voted in the 2020 election, the largest number in the country’s history and far beyond any other recent election.  It was a fair and honest election.  There has been no evidence of any widespread fraud.

Never the less, 253 new laws are in motion by Republican majority state legislatures across the country that would restrict and make voting more difficult.  It seems a majority of Republican voters believe Donald Trump’s big lie that the election was stolen.

I don’t know if the U.S. Congress can establish minimum voting rights through a renewed Voting Rights Act.  I would certainly like to see gerrymandering corrected through independent non-partisan commissions.  I would like to see an end to dark money in elections and possibly a limit on the size of individual contributions.

I keep coming back to the fact that Colorado has used 100% mail in voting for the last seven years and cases of illegal voting have been in the single digits.  It seems to me there is a model there that all States should consider.

You Will Have To Face God, the words of the Iraqi families to Donald Trump after he pardoned the Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 14.  The one who used a sniper rifle had been sentenced to life in prison.  Likewise pardon for political cronies who lied to the Mueller investigation.

When I started this web-site a dear friend recommended I focus on policy issues and not criticize Donald Trump ….. don’t feed the troll.  I tried to follow that advice but could not look beyond the cruelty.  Now it comes again, continued disregard of the pandemic,  refusing to sign the Covid relief package and probably shutting down the government by Monday.  The cruelty is beyond my comprehension and I can only imagine more insanity in the next few weeks.

You Will Have To Face God

Out of the darkness, my spirit rises with renewed hope for our nation.  Provided below is the link to President Elect and First Lady Jill Biden’s Thanksgiving letter.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/26/opinions/joe-jill-biden-most-important-thanksgiving-tradition/index.html

Also very glad to see consideration of bringing back some very good public servants who were fired.

Congratulations on your election as the 46th president of the United States.  For me at least, our national nightmare is ending.

The country remains deeply divided and you will need to make extraordinary efforts to bridge that divide.  You will need to engage and allow access and extra transparency to those who voted for Donald Trump.  You will need to inform, lead and encourage a national discussion about issues like climate change, energy and immigration.

Every president for the last 50 or more years has used more executive orders.  It is not a good way to govern.  Your most important job is to make our democratic system of government work as well as it can.  Sometimes you need to start with the deepest concerns from the opposite side of the aisle.

We need a secure boarder with Mexico and we should not admit large numbers of refugees from Central America by reason of asylum.  But we certainly need to end the cruelty and bunker mentality.  We need to do all we can through foreign policy to address economic conditions in these people’s home countries.  We need to recognize the contribution, especially to agriculture of guest workers and new immigrants to our country.

We need to produce somewhat more oil, gas and coal than the country consumes in order to maintain energy independence and keep consumer prices under control.  We need to do this as we simultaneously move our nation and world to clean and renewable energy sources.  Renewable energy is already an industry, we need to expand that industry as a huge generator of both energy and employment.  There will always be an oil industry.  Fracking is mostly good.  We don’t need to dominate the world oil market, we need to lead the world toward clean energy.

The Hyde amendment is the law of the land and it should apply as well to foreign aid.  However, gag rules are a first amendment issue, and conversation between a woman and her doctor cannot be prohibited.  Funding for cancer screening and contraception should not be prohibited because the same organization my provide abortion at a woman’s own expense.  Abortion is a woman’s choice and her responsibility.  The government does not pay for it.

De-funding the police is non-starter, but we certainly need to train police officers to de-escalate situations in which there is no immediate threat to themselves or the public.  Vandalism and looting cannot be tolerated.  Local control in times of civil unrest is essential.  Black lives matter because all lives matter.

Every young person who graduates high school in this country should attain at least an apprentice level in some trade, regardless of future career, each should have the experience and confidence of work with their own two hands.

I thought to remove most of my policy specific thoughts from this posting because President Elect Biden, through his statements and cabinet selections has shown a much broader perspective about America’s role in the world.  On rereading I’m leaving it as is, because I view policy one issue at a time and believe that is where we find the compassion and compromises to help unify the country.

On watching President Trump’s baseless attacks on the election these past two weeks, I conclude we did barely preserve our Democracy.