Tag Archives: Citizen

via LA Times Admits Trump Right About What’s Causing California’s Massive Wildfires

by Tim Pearce

Adopting more active forest management policies such as increased thinning of trees and conducting controlled burns will help mitigate damage from future wildfires, The Las Angeles Times editorial board writes.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke began advocating similar policy prescriptions earlier in the year after President Donald Trump blamed California’s “bad environmental laws” for creating a wildfire-prone environment.

California forests have grown dryer and less healthy from overcrowded trees, infestations of bark beetles and the effects of climate change, the Las Angeles Times writes. California’s restrictions on active forest management have contributed to the poor and worsening conditions of the forests, allowing them to grow uninhibited while suppressing fires that would normally naturally control the forests’ growth.

“Fire is not necessarily bad for forests. California used to burn with regularity, and low-intensity fires are vital in some ecosystems to clear excess brush and small trees from the landscape,” the editorial board writes. “But there’s been a change in fire behavior over the last century, as the state and federal government began dousing the blazes. Decades of fire suppression have allowed forests to grow dense with trees.”

“Combined with drought, insect infestations and the stress of a warming climate, those management practices have led to more intense and destructive fires that are more dangerous to people living near the forests and more damaging to air quality,” the op-ed continues.

California’s environmental laws entered the national spotlight in early August when Trump blamed them for the severity of the wildfires that were ravaging the state.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was soon at the front of the administration’s push for California to begin adopting more active land management policies. Zinke traveled to California to see the damage from the fires and meet with local officials and firefighters Aug. 13.

Zinke ramped up calls for greater forest thinning while also dismissing the idea that climate change is playing a significant factor in the wildfires’ intensity.

“I’ve heard the climate change argument back and forth,” Zinke told Sacramento-based KCRA. “This has nothing to do with climate change. This has to do with active forest management.”

California Gov. Jerry Brown partnered with state lawmakers to introduce changes to the state’s policies. The bill would grant $1 billion toward forest thinning and ease regulations on cutting trees on private property, according to the Las Angeles Times.

Kind of reminds me of something I hear many many years ago.

Setting: Courtroom with the Forest Service Manager (FSM) on the stand.

Lawyer: “Sir you are in charge of all the national forests in the United States. Correct?”

FSM:  “Yes Sir.”

Lawyer: “For purpose of demonstration, we will equate one wooden matchstick for one million trees.  Please hold out your hands, as he placed a couple of boxes of match sticks in the FSM’s hands.  This should equal the amount of trees that were around when you department was formed.  Now, over the years, your department has sold off lumber rights to harvest for private and public industry.”  The Lawyer takes a few off the FSM’s hands.  “With a few outcries of deforestation, your department gets an expert guidebook to run your forests.”  The Lawyer adds a few matchsticks back. “Now with trees doing what trees do in the forest and new science backing your guidebooks,” adding a few more matchsticks to the pile, “Your department was slowly breaking even keeping the forests healthy and productive, correct?”

FSM: “Yes.”

Lawyer: “Now we have the interference from people running around with unproven scientific facts and Lumber companies and corporations trying to tell you how to do your job, making your department spend all your allocated money in the court system which is not allowing you to do your job to keep the forests healthy and productive.”  All this time the Lawyer has been adding to the pile in the FSM’s hand.

FSM: Looking down at his hands and seeing that he is holding about four boxes of match sticks in his hands. “That’s about right.”

Lawyer: “Now to be fair, I am going to remove the percentage that you were allowed to sell off.”  He reached up and removed one matchstick from the FSM’s hands and holds it up for the court to see.  Turns to the FSM and looks him in the eye, “What do you think Mother Nature’s solution to your problem would be?” 

The Forest Service Manager’s eyes got very big as he saw the Lawyer’s thumbnail scratch the head of the lone matchstick in his hand.

I believe in conservation but to go too far left or right really upsets the balance.  Mother Nature has been doing this for millions of years and we can see what she has done with mistakes over that time period.  The bigest problem we have today is too many theorys that are broadcasted by the media, our leaders and schools and not enough facts.

Climate change in nature is an ongoing thing.  If humans are speeding it up or slowing it down is the question we need to answer.  I turn on the news and someone is spouting something about it but it is all theory with little or no facts behind it.  They trot out some unknown science person that says in the last twenty, thirty, or fifty years there has been this amount of change  but when asked, they have no clue what climate did in a certain area one hundred, one thousand, one million, or one trillion years ago.

The Truth of it is, that while it is sad for the lives lost and the damage done to the forests, we need to return to the middle of the road to continue to survive.

Advertisement

Chess or Checkers?

Media, Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

For years the political establishment was like playing the game of chess and they were quite good at it.  They had the money from the Political Action Committees, Wall Street, and the propaganda mill donated by the Media.  Their electorate was contained and bowed to their will at call.  Their strategies were really good and for every move, there was a counter move.  The Elite could skirt the Rules at any time or completely disregard the Laws at will.  The laws that they generated was never top of the line, they wanted an out at every corner.  If you are elected to Congress, you are on the fast track to be part of the rich and powerful elite.

When it came time for re-election, you could almost have a free pass in the primary but if someone came out of left field to challenge your position, you would have a laugh.  For an outsider or a complete unknown to step into the ring, the odds were stacked against him or her.  It is amazing how easy it is to speak up and toss your hat into the political ring but once you are there you have to get the backing from some money source and galvanise the electorate.  The Founders of our country wanted the elected leaders to be people who did well enough in their occupation or companies to want to set it aside for a term and step up help run a country, then return to their life knowing that they helped the country with their service.  But over time, the only ones being elected where people who knew how to gather money and prestige without actually doing nothing or being at the top of their profession.

Now, along comes a person that is a successful business person which helped him accrue some great wealth and after looking around, throws his hat into the ring.  This person is not some nobody.  The people have heard about him.  He is out-spoken.  He doesn’t fall into the category of  the established political realm or a Media darling.  He speaks to the common people like he is at a family dinner table and what he says hits home.  He does not use the Media to filter his message, he speaks over them.  He is playing checkers with the common folks.

The political elite on both sides have been playing their game for ages and now this person has come along and worse than the running of the bulls, he is upsetting their apple cart.  He forces everyone to follow the laws of the land that the elite have spent little time reading over before passing.  He finds the loopholes that will make them scream.  They have had years and many options to fix these laws and didn’t.

Now you look at all the campaign promises that was made, you will find that he has bucked the establishment at ever turn.  He is following the laws enacted by the establishment and the previous administrations.  He has asked and at times, demanded that both parties involved, step up and fix the problems that they both have made.  They both have denied him.  When will they see the error of their ways?  Both sides of the Establishment think that their spines have been reinforced with iron, that it is their way of doing things, and they can outlast him.  They do not think that the laws that they made need to be changed.  They wrote them to keep the money pouring into their pockets.  They wrote them to keep their supporters in the electorate  docile and wanting the free things that others have worked for.

The common electorate on both the republican and democratic sides, as well as all the other fringe parties are starting to sit up and take notice.  Those that vote really do have the right and duty to take the blinders off.  The electorate does have the ability to soften iron or break it.  They may not leave the center base of their parties but in the General Election, a person does not have to vote the party line.  Hopefully they will vote for real leaders, not like the scum that conned their way to leadership.

 

Illegal Immigrants Left For Dead By Smugglers

Immigration, Media, Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In this day and age of the media and the far left telling of all of the so-called atrocities that are happening by our government and the men and women that work there on behalf of the United States people on the southern border.  We never hear of how these people are actually better after medical care and being given food and water.  We are not hearing about corrupt leaders of the countries that these people are coming from.  We are not hearing about the heroes in these countries that are trying to stand up to the corrupt leaders of these countries.  The Media is not giving them a voice.  If they did, more world-wide political pressure could be gained for change.

The United States has in the past stepped in and helped make these changes and was held up as a standard for the rights and welfare of all.  This was done openly and covertly at times.  Due to the changes of politics and Media in our own country it is frowned upon today.  Because of the actions of the past, good and bad, to many in the region the United States is still a beacon for Freedom and Justice but we are  not allowed to do it today.  Rather than the US helping those citizens in these corrupt countries change for the better, the citizens of those coutries seeing no hope or assistance for change are trying to leave there, for here.

They are leaving any way they can.  They are paying for safe passage for their lives.  They may be abused, sold into slavery, sexually assaulted, or one maybe two may be killed so that  the rest of the group may continue.  These smugglers already have their money so they have no problem letting them die rather than them being caught.  In the US, they may get jail time but in other places they may get summary executed and a trial, if any, after words.  So they will leave these people to die in the desert which brings us to the excerpt below.  Even though our media portrays the Border Patrol in such poor light they are sometimes the angel of mercy for those that left seeking a dream only to left to die.

via Border Patrol Rescues 57 Illegal Immigrants Left For Dead By Smugglers | The Daily Caller

Border Patrol rescued a group of 57 Central American migrants abandoned by cartel smugglers in Arizona Friday.

The group of migrant men, women and children — including one underage pregnant girl and 36 minors — were left for dead in 108-degree heat and had to be rescued by the Tucson Sector Border Patrol, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Among the 36 minors who were as young as one year old, 17 were unaccompanied by an adult. The stranded illegal immigrants came from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

Several of the migrants were given fluids to treat dehydration, and the pregnant female was given intravenous fluids by Border Patrol EMT’s and transported to a hospital for further treatment. The rest of the group was transported to Ajo station for processing.

“Regardless of the unscrupulous and ill regard for human life attitude by smugglers, Border Patrol Agents work tirelessly to ensure not only the safety and security of our nation but also the safety of those who they come in contact with,” Customs and Border Patrol said in a statement on their website.

Of this group, the 17 unaccompanied minor will probably end up with social services until their families can be located then the immigration courts will take over and the rest may be deported because they did not cross the border at a port of entry.

The Media and the political establishment keep saying that we are a nation of laws but we keep seeing that many are exempt from following or suffering the consequences of these laws.  That is like saying that if I come to your home and the front door and the back door is locked but the side window is open it is illegal for me to enter and make myself at home.  But if I do this, the Media and the Left say it ok for me to stay and make a life with you with no repercussions.

What a state we live in.

We are Losing Vital Information

Politics, Real Life, Social, , , , , , , ,

via Ag education desperately needed in schools

Our nation’s educators push math, science, reading and social studies with an emphasis on standardized testing, but are students ready for the real world? Practical lessons grounded in agriculture could help prepare them for adulthood.

More than that, agriculture should be, and can easily be, incorporated into core subjects like math, science, reading and social studies.

First, why not? With a projected 57,000+ jobs available in agriculture and food science each year, these employment opportunities often go unfilled.

Second, your child eats three meals a day, right? When they go to the grocery store, don’t we want our youth informed as they make purchasing decisions? Don’t we want them armed with the facts, so they don’t have to feel guilt and confusion due to the misconceptions and biased opinions perpetuated by activists, food bloggers and the media?

In my travels I have met lots of people who are very smart.  They know their high-tech speciality beyond reproach.  they may even know or can handle some of the everyday skills like balancing a checkbook, popping something in the microwave, may even have an inkling of how to change a flat tire, or at least knowing where all the equipment is to change that tire.  You have to be careful because some of the new cars don’t even have a spare tire anymore.

My last year of high school, either due to scheduling or the teacher was worried  about me being in a science lab, I was not able to take chemistry.  ( I don’t know why. )  So I would not have too much Study Hall, I was sent to a “Terminal Math” class tought by our superintendent.  This was a review of all the basic math you learn in twelve years of school. You know, the stuff you will use everyday.  When we went over how to figure compound interest we were asked to ask our smart classmates in chemistry how to figure compound intrest for a loan they had real dumb looks.  Most of the people in the Terminal Math went on to become pretty good business leaders in the community and such.

When you meet people and start talking you find that in some cases that these people have never been beyond a six or ten blocks of  where they have lived their entire life or have never been outside the city limits of their town.  Their food comes from the store on the corner.  They have no idea that the fresh vegetables was harvested, depending on the season, in a foreign country then transported to the store near them.  Their breakfast cereal started in a field in Kansas, manufactured in Illinois, and on to the store near them.  Have no idea what GMO means.  That their pet food may have been manufactured in a country that has very little regulations like we have in the US by the FDA.

In order to provide a better general education we need a more rounded education of the basics.

A Delaying tactic for Term Limits

Media, Politics, Social, US, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If people think that Congress is talking about it then they don’t have to force the issue.  WRONG!

via Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Pushes for Term Limits

An old approach to draining the Washington swamp has become new again as members of Congress push for congressional term limits.

Term limits were one of the items proposed in the 1994 Contract with America, developed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Although the issue was widely debated at the time, and term limits were imposed on some local and state elected positions, the bid to create term limits at the federal level never succeeded. Although some states sought to limit congressional terms, The Washington Post noted that a court rejected those efforts. Instead, imposing congressional term limits requires a constitutional amendment, which would require two-thirds passage in the bitterly divided houses of Congress and then ratification by 36 states.

Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said he told Trump that there is a connection between length of service and corruption, according to the Washington Examiner. 

“I made clear to the president that, as a former FBI special agent who oversaw the FBI’s Political Corruption Unit for the entire nation, I witnessed firsthand an undeniable correlation between the length of time in office and the instances of corruption,” Fitzpatrick said. “The lines that were very bright for elected officials on day one in office were not so bright in year seven or eight, and even less so in years 15 or 20.”

It is clear that if we wait for Congress to get around to doing this themselves, the proverbial hot place will freeze over first.  Those that are currently riding the establishment of power in Congress will always come up with the one vote not to allow something to curtail their power or cut off the millions they receive in office for doing something the highest bidder will pay for.  That folks,  will not be what you voted for them to do.

If you do any research, you will see that what they have made over their years in elected public service far exceeds what they are actually paid for.  With this, there are a few that say they are not making enough.  Is that after they just bought their second or third beach house?

A constitutional amendment for congressional term limits could never achieve the blessing of Congress; it could be initiated only by the states.  Dwight D. Eisenhower

To get anything done in this way will require that every state place it on the ballot and force a Constitutional Convention.  This would be a very steep hill to walk and a hard fight against the established political power and the media giants to return us to the original democratic republic we are supposed to be.    What former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was trying to say is that it is up to the people who cast the ballots to collect the signatures and force the issue.  It is not enough to just stand and be counted.  It is up to all of us to get the conversation started and ram it past the elected establishment, the media, the judges, and the naysayers.

In states that have passed term limits, there have been large changes in the diversity of those elected to office and a greater discussion of what really to be done within the state.

Tsk, Tsk, Mr. Comey

Media, Politics, US, , , , , , , , ,

So you got fired. Then you wrote a book.  Now you are running around all the Media networks trying to say how true the book is and such.  The first couple of days, you were the talk of the Media town.  The job you held was to be unpolitical and as center of the road as you can get.  We have equal justice for all.  Right?  The ones that worked under you were to follow your lead(s).   You Failed the American People.

Even the Media elite are starting to wonder if anything you say is true. Those of us that are not part of the DC Swamp or extreme sides of the Left or the Right are even sure you know what a Truth is anymore.  Your so called book only covers one area of your life and that you may have been fired with cause.  One would have assume that at one time you may have been a good at your job, but with all the media coverage starting from many years ago, the common folk have figured out which side of your bread is buttered.  It is not the side that works for them.

The only reason I may watch the morning news is to watch the different weather person try to outguess Mother Nature. They have the only job that does not require the truth all the time because Mother Nature can really throw a curve ball sometimes.  The kicker is that they still get paid for lying.  The rest of the news is so slanted that they tell the slant so good that it is hard to know if it is the truth or just their side of the truth.

Now, to get back to Mr. Comey’s book. Will I read it?  The answer will be: “No”.  Why?  Why should I read a book by someone that failed to do his job.  Under his watch, a high level person(s) or someone that think they are above the law, broke the law.  Even gave public news conference in which they admitted that they did something wrong and was never charged with the crime or taken in front of the Judicial bench to answer for their wrongdoing.  Whereas, if I or any one of us common people had done the same thing, we would be sitting in jail still waiting for the investigation to end.

Why do we have laws and nobody will follow them?

The Truth – How do we find you?

Media, Politics, Real Life, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You read or see a report in the newspaper, on TV, or hear it on the radio. Do you accept it as true or do you dismiss it as propaganda?  In the last few years you cannot accept anything at face value anymore.  You will actually find more truth at the local coffee shop or gossip mill than you will find in print or on the boob tube.  Gone are the days when you could pick up the paper or tune into the news on the television and be confident that what you read or heard was the truth or really, really close to the real truth you would ever get to outside a courtroom or a church confessional.

We used to rely on the Media to gather all the facts and then present them to us as un-biased as they could. Now, they would rather speculate some out of this world story that fits their agenda.  Remember when they would do all sorts of things to get ALL the facts before trying to tell us what has happened?  Some of those reporters really went too far at times but the Truth or as close to the Truth came out.

Do you remember growing up and first learning about the Truth? As we got older the Truth started to have varying degrees of Truth to fit the needs of the one telling it.  As it stands now, you cannot trust what the media is telling us and you most definitely cannot believe what our elected officials keep spouting.

We need to take every story told to us and do our own research to try to find the real TRUTH. Unfortunately, most people today cannot handle the Truth.

Same Old Rut

Media, Politics, US, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What is this country coming to? Before the election we had mainstream news reports flying all over telling us that Hillary Clinton, in her position of Security of State, had a private email server and some classified documents somehow got routed to it.  The FBI was not allowed to check it out but somehow everything that was in this server got hacked and released to the public by possibly Russian hackers.  We had people showing us the law that says it is illegal to send classified stuff to or from a private server.  We had hearings in Congress about this and the FBI could not find anything was wrong.  The Press had a field day saying or printing things from known “sources”.  These same “sources” hinted to the Press that there where agents, possibly foreign or domestic, trying to get information on Trump at the time.  I remember seeing or hearing something like this but unable to find any proof at this time, but I digress.

Now we have Congress having more hearings about the possible wire-tap on Mr. Trump before the election and the same Director of the FBI cannot find any truth to this? We have been hearing from “Sources” within the CIA and NSA that officially nothing of the sort was happening but the same “Sources” from both said it did happen.  It is kind of funny because the CIA, from what I have always heard, are supposed to do all their work outside the borders of the United States.

As a private citizen, it is getting to the point where it is time to just shut off any national news coverage and when the next elections come around, vote for anyone not holding office. That is an option.  Congress was scared right after the elections but they are falling right back into that old groove. The Judicial branch is legislating from the bench again and not even trying to hide it.  You thought the results from the last election was bad.  The next one might be over the top.

Why?

The American citizen is getting tired of all that is happening in Washington. We have permanently elected officials that will not change.  They are not there to represent the people that elected them but are only there to fill their own pockets.  We have political groups that have no idea what they are doing.  We have department Directors that are even now checking which way the political wind is blowing before doing anything.  The propaganda machine is getting ready for another round.  The question is: Will the American Citizen continue to sit and wait?

Is the News really News

Media, , , , , , ,

As we read the news, the question is, is this True?  It seems that we never get the whole story or get to actually see the facts.  We are supposed to make a life decision after only seeing or hearing one part of the puzzle.

There are those that will take that one piece of the puzzle and fabricate a story that is bent to their views, their way of life, and their way of thinking. There are those that see profit from doing this.  There are those that see fame from doing this, and all of them come from both sides of the political pendulum.

As a reader or viewer of the news we get we have to look at several different sources to even try to get a part of the whole picture but when both sides are against the middle it seems that the only good thing to do is turn it off or throw it away and just continue to live in our own little world. What we need to do is start calling all these media sites out.  Rather than respond to hate or anger that they are trying to instill in you, ask for the source, or request to see the proof.

It is surprising how many people think an editorial or an opinion piece is real news. It is just a person’s opinion about a situation.  The author may have some facts to start their opinion but the article is just an opinion and are not required to name those fact’s sources.  You may disagree with the article but you don’t have to riot in the streets.  If you wish to protest, why don’t you do it for a purpose?  Don’t go off halfcocked with only a piece of the puzzle.

Maybe it has been so long not seeing an actual news item on the national media that we have grown accustom to only getting the opinion of someone in the media, that if we actually get real news, we will kick it to the gutter.