GOOGLE recently changed the format I must use to post my memos and I had until the end of this month to do so. I tried to continue using the old method but something was wrong so I had to get my fabulous computer guru to help correct what I was doing. He solved the problem. Now I have to remember what he told me. Life in the fast lane ain't what it used to be.just ask Biden.
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Canada is contiguous to America, they have forests but nowhere near the fires. However, California the experimental state, one has to assume, has similar climate change. What explanation do Trump Haters give as to why California burns,Canada does not?
Welcome to the (Unnecessary) Mega Fire Generation!
By Del Albright, Fire Chief (retired)
25-30 years ago, a 10,000 – 15,000-acre fire was a huge conflagration. Now we are experiencing 100,000 - 400,000-acre fires regularly.
I would like to offer an explanation based on over 30 years of government service including 26 years with the fire service, as well as beginning my fire career with a Master’s Degree based on Prescribed Burning.
NO! It is not just global warming (climate change).
NO! It is not understaffed or ill-trained firefighters.
NO! It is not Mamma Nature getting even with our urban sprawl.
NO! It is not careless campers or hunters.
NO! It is not kids with matches.
YES! It is a combination of many things but more importantly, it is the LACK of forest/brushland/grassland management caused by wacko, radical enviro groups imposing excessive regulations, and restrictions on our ability to keep the west safe from wildfire.
Here are the key takeaways from this article:
· The lack of controlled burning/prescribed fire is directly responsible for the huge build-ups of flammable fuels.
· The end of maintaining fire breaks (roads) in forested areas leaves firefighters with inadequate access.
· The end of logging and good timber management as we used to know it is directly responsible for forests that are now tinderboxes.
Let us take a deeper look at these reasons.
CONTROLLED BURNS:
Going back to Native Americans in America, controlled burning (later called Prescribed Fire) have saved the west from huge conflagrations. By burning large brush fields and using fire to thin understory brush in the forest, we kept the big boomers at bay. We had programs designed to reduce “chaparral” in the west, thus limiting the ability for fires to get ragingly out of control.
In the early days of settling the west, ranchers regularly burned brush fields to make way for grazing and wildlife habitat.
This entire program of controlled or prescribed fire is a near thing of the past.
ROADS/FIRE BREAKS:
When I started with the fire service in the 1970’s we had regularly scheduled building, repairing, cleaning, and maintaining fire breaks around rural housing areas and developments. We kept fire roads cleared and usable for large fire equipment. We had access to remote areas which allowed us to attack fires when they were small. Roads provided a place to start a safe backfire. Oh, backfires! Another art nearly lost today due to liability and excessive oversight by the media and radical enviro groups who have political power.
LOGGING/TIMBER MANAGEMENT:
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you probably remember sawmills. They are all gone for the most part because the radical environmental rules have made logging a financial nightmare. You wonder why wood is so expensive these days? We cannot log; that’s why. Yes, there are still a few holdouts logging here and there. But the feds are hampered by so many regulations and restrictions that our timber stands either get bug infested or succumb to wildfires.
We used to thin forest stands regularly – fire crews, inmate crews, machines that munch up underbrush, and yes, even pesticides to keep the forests healthy. Now, you can pick about any state in the west with timber and you see more bug-killed trees than live ones!
In our western grasslands, the lack of proactive landscape management in desert states has resulted in vast acreages dominated by a cheatgrass-fire cycle that is ruining wildlife habitat and causing bigger and more damaging conflagrations. This invasive species needs to be managed or these western deserts will never be the same – nor will our wildlife species.
In timber areas, for the most part, we no longer control pests and bugs; we no longer do any substantial thinning of the underbrush; logging is kaput, and forest management is a façade. It is not the fault of our public land managers; it is the imposition of radical regulation. It is politics.
SUMMARY:
Public land management is no longer based on science but rather politics. The same goes for wildlife management. Radical enviro groups lobby politicians (and raise untold dollars in support) to STOP all the things that will make our forests, brushlands, and deserts safe and healthy. It is ironic (and pathetic) because for all their efforts to “save the world” they are destroying our world, piece by piece.
To see fires in California reach half a million acres is beyond belief!
What can we do? We must STOP the silliness and over-regulation and allow sound public land management, never forgetting that public lands are FOR the public. Help good politicians get elected and stay in office. Recall bad politicians. Do everything in your power to negate, refute, or STOP the radical movement that has stagnated management of our resources.
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It must kill Bret to praise Trump so he gives him a sort of backhand compliment
As Trump said, we decided to come in the backdoor. What Trump and his team concluded is:
a) Lead from strength.
b) Appeal to the logic of more enlightened Arab ruler-ship
c) Speak to the youth who want betterment
d) Understand human nature, which even GW understood. Man wants to be free and to prosper.
e) Truth trumps insincerity.
I don't know who it was but I believe I read an article where the author suggested Trump was the equivalent of America's Churchill. I said to myself that is quite a stretch but he was not comparing eloquence but vision and persistence. Churchill was castigated, sharply criticized but changed the world order by virtue of his indomitable spirit and English Bull Doggedness.
In that respect the author sees Trump through a similar prism.
You be the judge.
Meanwhile, call me a racist but I equate the Palestinians to a large segment of our black population in that far too many have followed lousy leadership that has enriched itself at their expense.
Consequently, progressives, liberals, Democrats, call them what you will, have catered to continued shake down demands which ignore the tremendous progress America has made and will continue to make as we strive to implement our constitutional dictates and live up to the language and spirit of our beautiful laws.
Obviously, if one buys into the Obama/ BLM mantra that America is evil then this justifies, to some degree, the outrage of the thugs who roam our streets.
Personally, I refuse to be intimidated by their desire to destroy this nation but am frustrated because there is so little I can do being just one old voice. However, as long as I have that voice, I will express myself and reject the message of the street . Wherever tyranny has been allowed to prosper it always eventually fails but only after great tragedy, misery and death Today it is Syria, tomorrow it could be Turkey/Iran and/or China, etc. Socialism is a false dream. Ignorance and lack of personal responsibility must always be rejected as human goals and standards.
The aggrieved members of the black community and their radical sympathizers have received disproportionate attention because they have been able to use our freedoms to state their case, bring attention to their justified plight. They have bullied and intimidated their way because of cowardly officials and white guilt. However, the path they have chosen to take now must be stopped because their hue and cry has been corrupted by those who seek evil. The hustlers, anarchists and thugs, have strayed from the message of MLK.
The time has come to take back America.
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A Rare Middle East Triumph
And — yes — a triumph for Trump, too.
By Bret Stephens
For years, the Trump administration’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East have been the object of relentless derision in elite foreign-policy circles, some of it justified. Yet with Friday’s announcement that Bahrain would join the United Arab Emirates as the second Arab state in 30 days to normalize ties with Israel, the administration has done more for regional peace than most of its predecessors, including an Obama administration that tried hard and failed badly.
There are lessons in this, at least for anyone prepared to consider just how wrong a half-century’s worth of conventional wisdom has been.
At the heart of that conventional wisdom is the view, succinctly put by U.N. Secretary General António Guterres in February, that “resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains key to sustainable peace in the Middle East.” Untie that Gordian knot, so the thinking goes, and the region’s many problems become easier to solve, whether it’s other regional conflicts or the anti-Americanism that feeds international terrorism.
That thinking was always dubious — what, for instance, did the Iran-Iraq War, in which a million people or more died, have to do with Israelis and Palestinians? — though it had the convenience of giving Arab regimes a good way of deflecting blame for their own bad governance. But since the (misnamed) Arab Spring began nearly a decade ago, the view has become absurd.
The rise and fall of ISIS, civil war in Syria and anarchy in Libya, Turkey’s aggression against Kurds, proxy battles and hunger in Yemen, political turmoil and repression in Egypt and Iran, the bankruptcy of the Lebanese state, the plight of Middle Eastern refugees — if any of these catastrophes have something in common, it’s that they have next to nothing to do with the Jewish state or its policies. One may still hope for a Palestinian state, but it won’t save the region from itself.
What would? The best option is an alliance of moderates and modernizers — anyone in power (or seeking power) who wants to move his country in the direction of greater religious and social tolerance, broader (that is, beyond energy) economic development, less preoccupation with ancient disputes, more interest in future opportunities. Such an alliance is the only hope for a region being sucked into the maw of religious fanaticism, economic stagnation, environmental degradation and perpetual misruNow this alliance may finally be coming into being. Unlike Israel’s peace with Egypt and Jordan — both based on strategic necessity and geographic proximity — the peace with the Emirates and Bahrain has no obvious rationale, even if a shared fear of Iran played a role.
The larger factor is shared aspiration. Israel is the most advanced country in the region because for seven decades it invested in human, not mineral, potential, and because it didn’t let its wounds (whether with respect to Germany in the 1950s or Egypt in the 1970s) get the better of its judgment.
The choice for the Arab world is stark. It can follow a similar path as Israel; be swallowed by Iran, China, Russia, Turkey or some other outsider; or otherwise continue as before until, Libya-like, it implodes.
As consequential as the peace deals themselves is the Arab League’s refusal to condemn them, eliciting a furious Palestinian reaction. That’s not surprising: It means the Palestinian grip over the league’s diplomatic agenda may finally be loosening.
Perhaps it also means that the grievance-driven politics that have dominated the Palestinian issue for decades are finally over, too. If so, it’s bad news for those Palestinian leaders and activists who think that, with unflagging obstinacy, they can somehow restore the status quo ante 1948, when Israel didn’t exist.
What’s bad news for some Palestinian leaders may be good news for ordinary Palestinians. Peace between Israelis and Arabs will not come from the inside out — that is, from a deal between Jerusalem and Ramallah that wins over the rest of the Arab world. Decades of diplomatic failure, culminating in John Kerry’s failed mediation efforts in 2014, should put an end to that fantasy.
Yet it isn’t crazy to think that peace might come from the outside in: from an Arab world that encircles Israel with recognition and partnership rather than enmity, and which thereby shores up Israel’s security while moderating Palestinian behavior. If that’s right — and if states like Oman, Morocco, Kuwait, Sudan and especially Saudi Arabia follow suit — then this summer’s peace deals might finally create the conditions of viable Palestinian statehood.
A final point about these deals: This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not under the leadership of Israel’s supposedly bellicose Benjamin Netanyahu; certainly not through the diplomatic offices of the usually crazy/amateurish/perverse Trump administration. Luck and timing played a part, as they always do.
But it behooves those of us who are so frequently hostile to Netanyahu and Trump to maintain the capacity to be pleasantly surprised — that is, to be honest. What’s happened between Israel and two former enemies is an honest triumph in a region, and a year, that’s known precious few.
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Will this show come to America?
This Happened in
51 Out of 52 Countries
I just read an interesting new study by Hirschmann Capital...
Which shows that since the year 1800, a total of 52 countries have allowed their debt-to-GDP ratio to surpass 130%.
In other words... these countries racked up 30% more total debt than the total value of the goods and services produced in the country for an entire year. Very dangerous territory.
Well guess what...
An incredible 51 out of the 52 times, these governments have defaulted on their debt, either through restructuring, devaluation, high inflation, or outright default.
Why am I bringing all of this up today?
Because the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Hirschmann's report, now expects the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio to hit a record 141%, by the end of this year.
So what does this mean... and what should you do?
Well, billionaire investment legend Paul Tudor Jones has made his opinion clear. He recently went public about making a huge bet AGAINST the U.S. dollar, and said:
We are witnessing the Great Monetary Inflation – an unprecedented expansion of every form of money unlike anything the developed world has ever seen.
And the Founder of Stansberry Research – Porter Stansberry – agrees... he says:
Today, every savvy wealthy person I know is desperately seeking a way out of our corrupt and bankrupt global financial system and the U.S. dollar.
That's why Porter Stansberry says every American must now learn exactly how to get out of cash and paper money.
Porter can show you exactly how he and other wealthy Americans are doing it. It's critical for your financial survival.
The good news is... Porter has put together an incredible analysis, which explains everything you need to know... including the 3 critical steps you should take immediately.
Get the facts for yourself — learn what's happening and what you must do.
I guarantee watching Porter's video will be worth your time, and could be a game-changer for you and your family over the next few years.
You can view it for free on our website right here...
Sincerely,
Mike Palmer
Managing Partner, Stansberry Research
Delivering World-Class Financial Research Since 1999
P.S. If you're wondering about the only country that did not default after hitting the 130% debt-to-GDP ratio... it's Japan. But many experts say a debt default in Japan is inevitable. Learn more about what is REALLY happening in our economy and our financial system today... watch Porter's analysis, which includes his 3 steps you should take now, by clicking here...
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Trump has a strategy. It is often one of in your face realism and direct, no-nonsense,confrontation. Will Merkel blink?
Pipeline Politics Tests Merkel’s Mettle
Alexei Navalny succeeds where Trump fell short, in undermining the case for Nord Stream 2.
By Josef Joffrey
German-American friendship has always stopped where Russian gas began to flow. Even 40 years ago, with the Cold War in full swing and the U.S. protecting West Germany with some 220,000 GIs, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt went mano a mano with Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan over a barter deal for trillions of cubic feet of Soviet gas.
Back then, the U.S. caved, but now Chancellor Angela Merkel is up against Donald Trump, who with his usual finesse has ordered her to “stop buying gas from Putin.” At stake is a new pipeline, Nord Stream 2, that will pump gas directly from Russia into Germany, outflanking NATO allies Poland and the three Baltic states as well as Ukraine. They are not amused by what they see as Russo-German collusion.
Unlike Mr. Carter and Reagan, Mr. Trump has unleashed deadly sanctions that could shred an investment of some €10 billion. With only 100 more miles left to go across the Baltic Sea, Nord Stream 2 may not deliver a single molecule of gas. It could rot away as an 800-mile-long monument to folly.
Unfazed by Mr. Trump’s tone, Ms. Merkel has insisted: “We want the project to continue.” But suddenly, Russo-German amity, a pillar of Berlin’s diplomacy, is turning wobbly. Why is continuity cracking? Credit a single man, Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s worst domestic foe, who has barely survived an attempt on his life. The Kremlin denies culpability. But Novichok, a nerve agent, can’t be bought at the drugstore; it was developed by a secret Soviet lab and has been used to poison a long chain of dissidents.
A little attempted murder can go a long way in shaking eternal verities, such as Bismarck’s injunction “never to cut the link to St. Petersburg.” Suddenly, Ms. Merkel’s spokesman wouldn’t “exclude consequences.” But the German government is playing for time to gauge the shifting winds. On to the next shocker.
In her Christian Democratic Union, the candidates to succeed Ms. Merkel as chancellor next year show no such reticence. One high-ranking contender, Friedrich Merz, demands an “immediate construction stop for two years.” Another, Norbert Röttgen, thunders: “The Europeans must stop the project.” In the opposition, the Greens want to bury the project, a “mistake” from Day One. Ms. Merkel’s foreign minister, a Social Democrat, “hopes” Russia “won’t force us to change our policy on Nord Stream 2.” In his coma, Mr. Navalny did better than President Trump.
But “hope” is the key word. Severing the gas link implies a rupture with Germany’s hallowed Russia policy. Since the dawn of Ostpolitik in the late 1960s, Bonn and later Berlin has resisted confrontation in favor of conciliation: Germany as intermediary between East and West. It was a no-brainer. Ensconced under America’s security umbrella (or blanket), it could play with the Kremlin without having to fear it. In the Trump-and-Putin era this position is collapsing.
Expansionism is back on Mr. Putin’s menu—recall the Crimea grab and the incorporation of southeast Ukraine with the help of surrogates. He keeps pressuring the Baltics and Poland while probing NATO’s positions all over. He is extending his covetous hand to Belarus. On the doorsteps of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa are targets of opportunity.
Enter Mr. Trump. As Germany and Europe’s demand for security is rising, the supply is shrinking. The president isn’t simply threatening the Europeans to pay up, or America will pull out. He is actually withdrawing about 10,000 U.S. troops from Germany, the linchpin of the European order. He is putting the ax to the comfortable stage where Berlin could act as go-between and would protect Moscow from truly painful penalties.
The gas link may have made sense in the old days, when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ruled the energy market. Today, as the world is awash in oil and gas, with new fields coming onstream in the Mediterranean Sea, the strategic costs dwarf the benefits. Nord Stream 2 would pour billions into Kremlin coffers, paying for rearmament and foreign adventure. Next, the bonanza would damage Europe, the pillar of German strategy. Circumventing Poland and Ukraine, Nord Stream 2 would deprive them—both in the Kremlin’s crosshairs—of precious transit fees. The appeal to European “solidarity,” a German classic, rings hollow in the face of a deal that serves Russian and German interests only.
Yet Berlin would lose out, too. Today, no European country is more dependent on Russian gas than Germany. Last year it bought 56 billion cubic meters (2 trillion cubic feet) from Russia. Italy, the next-best customer, took only a bit more than a third of that amount. Nord Stream 2 would double the German take—hence the dependence that whispers: You’d better be nice to Moscow.
The pipeline doesn’t make economic or strategic sense. German interests cry out for diversification, not addiction. Europe as a whole would suffer if astronomical cash infusions fed Russian ambitions. As would-be leader of the European Union, Berlin should place the commonweal before Russo-German deals that leave Eastern Europeans out in the cold.
The upshot is obvious. Propitiation does not tame Russia’s new czar, who lives by Lenin’s precept kto kovo—“who dominates whom?” Had he faced a tough Western response, would Mr. Putin have surged into Crimea, southeast Ukraine and Syria? Would he have unleashed cyberattacks on the German Parliament while terminating regime critics abroad? The price was only nasty headlines.
Ms. Merkel is trapped. Experience suggests she will somehow wiggle out by playing for time, appealing to Europe for a communal response. But there is no such thing as “Europe”—only the lowest common denominator. Invoking Europe is an excuse for doing little or nothing, especially while Berlin faces billions of euros in damages to the Nord Stream 2 consortium.
If the chancellor looked beyond cash-and-gas, she would stop Nord Stream 2. Mr. Putin would at last take notice. So would Mr. Trump and China’s Xi Jinping, who don’t see the EU as a worthy competitor.
Mr. Joffe serves on the editorial council of the German weekly Die Zeit. He is also a fellow of Stanford’s Hoover Institution.
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What I find incongruous is Biden, after 47 years in office, attacks Trump, after being in office for 4 years, for Democrat failures to solve problems Biden says exist with Democrat bloc voters. I realize the silly season is upon us as politicians reach new heights in their effort to be elected through distortion but coming from a basement position even Biden has reached a new low in BS.
Finally, what is subtlety happening is a realignment of who is likely to vote for each party? Over time, corporate American executives and The Chamber of Commerce members are shifting to the Democrats and deplorables and the forgotten man are aligning with Republicans.. Blacks and Hispanics, along with other people’s who have experienced the ravages of dictatorships and socialism, are increasingly more sympathetic to the Republican message.
Re-alignments take place, over time, because of failures that eventually compel change. This is why Trump won and should win again. Inertia is often man's greatest enemy because time allows wrong to take roots.
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